MMISoftware has just completed another update of theSnowSite.com. The update did not change the ‘look and feel’ of the website, but was an update of the ‘back-end’ database.

theSnowSite.com contains data on some 1400+ ski and boarding areas around the world and it had become apparent that some of the geocoding/geotagging data was off, and a large number of resorts did not have any data. The data was originally entered by using the resort details to search against geocode data available on the web. However, it appears that the data on the web may not have been that accurate, or that the code produced by MMISoftware was not up to the job. Who knows?

The update has been performed using specialised software written by MMISoftware. The software was based around the code to produce PhotoInfoEditor and basically allowed the resort details to be viewed and data mapped directly to a Google map.

Over the last few months all entries in theSnowSite database have been checked for accuracy of the data – this was a long and slow task.

So, why was the geotagging data so important? Well, without the data the resorts would not be plotted correctly on the main map of the website, plus, mapping over to Google (for location and directions) and mapping to Google Earth (via kml files) would not work. As a result of the data check a number of resorts have been assigned geotags, which didn’t previously have tags, and a significant number of improvements were made to the accuracy data.

The site has now been updated… so go over to theSnowSite and check out your favourite ski/boarding areas and see if it is mapped right, and if it is not then please send an email to geotags@thesnowsite.com stating which resort is wrong, and where it really is, and I am sure they will get on the case!

Great news for users of PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor, Google has update the satellite imagery data for Google Earth and Google maps.

PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor are programs from MMISoftware that can be used for geocoding (geotagging) photos. PhotoInfoEditor uses markers placed on a Google map to get the location data, whereas PhotoGPSEditor uses a Google map to calculate the ‘time-offset’ between the camera and the GPS data to automatically tag photos.

So, what does this mean for users of PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor? Well, the improved satellite images means it is easier to locate the place to put the ‘pin in the map’, it also means that when geocoded photos are later overlaid on to a Google map that you get a better ‘final product’.

This is also good news for theSnowSite.com, which uses Google maps (and therefore Google satellite images) for showing the location of ski areas.

It should be noted that it only certain areas of the planet that have received an update. For a full list / overview have a look at gearthblog.

PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor are freeware programs from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoInfoEditor Donation | PhotoGPSEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores.

Both programs are available for download:

A quick post – there has been another update of the theSnowSite posted by MMISoftware. Changes? Well, there is now integration with Google Earth so that kml (Google Earth) files are available for ski and boarding resorts, plus there is a link to Google Maps for getting directions and doing local searches etc.

Another update of theSnowSite. This one was minor…

The update addressed a number of problems, the main one being that a last minute change to the code on the main page caused a failure of the content to display correctly in Internet Explorer (never use ‘description’ as an id value on an AJAX site!). This was difficult to track down as I first thought it was caused by some stray code that was getting added to the page such as:

function SymError()
{
  return true;
}
window.onerror = SymError;

and

window.onerror = SymError;
var SymRealWinOpen = window.open;

function SymWinOpen(url, name, attributes)
{
    return (new Object());
}

window.open = SymWinOpen;

and

var SymRealOnLoad;
var SymRealOnUnload;

function SymOnUnload()
{
    window.open = SymWinOpen;
    if(SymRealOnUnload != null)
    SymRealOnUnload();
}

function SymOnLoad()
{
    if(SymRealOnLoad != null)
    SymRealOnLoad();
    window.open = SymRealWinOpen;
    SymRealOnUnload = window.onunload;
    window.onunload = SymOnUnload;
}

SymRealOnLoad = window.onload;
window.onload = SymOnLoad;

It was somewhat confusing as to where this code was coming from, anyway, a quick search of the net with http://www.google.com/search?q=symerror showed that the problem was with Norton Internet Security from Symantec and is part of their so called ‘ad/pop-up blocker’ solution. What a joke, what a terrible way to deal with a problem (Safari on the Mac handles things much better, as does Firefox (windows and Mac))!

Anyway, after disabling the Norton Internet Security software the problem still existed… therefore there was another problem, and after some work it turned out to be the use of ‘description’ as an id for a div tag. Only in Internet Explorer that could be a problem..

Also, a number of changes were made to the database so that certain entries now display correctly.

And finally, some changes have been made to the way the main page loads, namely it now identifies the country of origin of the user and then starts the map at that country.

I am a regular reader of Digg (if you don’t know what Digg is go and have a look – in brief, it is a ‘news’ site at which users get to vote on a story or website, the more votes it gets the higher it gets listed – Digg is a great way to track ‘hot news’). Anyway, one thing that is obvious from the Digg site is that if one of your blog posts becomes ‘hot’ it can kill your server.

I can’t say I am worried about my blog at MMISoftware ever become ‘hot’, or even the one at theSnowSite.com, I just can’t see it happening. First, someone would have to Digg a story on the site, then other users of Digg would have to vote on it etc.

Anyway, just in case (and out of morbid curiosity – ‘ego surfing’?) I searched Digg (Didd Search) to see if anything at MMISoftware or theSnowSite.com had ever been Dugg. It hadn’t. I then noticed that there was an RSS feed button on the search page. Clicking the feed button now means that I have an RSS feed that will alert me if every a story at MMISoftware or theSnowSite.com gets Dugg – cool!

Update (03 Mar 2007 17:12:58) – just found the following article online that describes the same approach “How to Get Alerted When Somebody Has Dugg your Article” (except they posted last year) – another example of ‘Morphic Resonance‘? (Well, not really, I am 3 months behind the curve!)

The theSnowSite.com (a project being worked on by MMISoftware) is back up and running.

The theSnowSite.com was down for about a week whilst it underwent a major overhaul and update.

The ‘front-end’ looks different and is now more like a ‘traditional’ website, rather than a series of ‘floating windows’ (tests showed that users were not comfortable with that look and feel – plus there were some technical issues and problems with the approach, in particular it was not search engine friendly and pages were not being indexed or crawled). The site is still AJAX driven and uses live feeds (webservices) to provide weather data etc. The site also now has additional ‘news’ data provided from the a number of ski/boarding areas (there is still a lot of work to do on this).

There has also been significant changes made to the ‘back-end’, i.e. the database – which are not obvious to the user, but are there, and have improved site performance. Geocoding (also called geotags) has been improved with a number of earlier ‘location’ errors tracked down and dealt with (we have also added ‘geocoding’ data to the resort webpages – although this is not yet fully implemented), so mapped data is now more accurate (there are still a few ski/boarding areas to do/double check).

So, check the site out… theSnowSite.com