maps.huge.info

We've moved the new version out of beta mode into live, so now when you view the standard zip code map, it will use the new and improved image graphics.

Here's a list of zip codes that have been added since 10/2006:

We've released a new version of our USPS Zip Code tiles this week, they are the same data as the old version (01/2008) but are more detailed, better formed, faster and prettier.

The old version used a method that required each tile to be projected into the "World Mercator" projection on the fly, this caused some stretching of the image and some smearing at higher latitudes. It also caused more drag on performance as the processor needed to change the image fit the tile. In addition, there was one image group for every two zoom levels, which would lead to pixelation.

The new version has one image group for every zoom level from 5 to 14, zooms above 14 interpolate the image from zoom 14, so there is some pixelation at very high zooms. The new version also uses an improved method of load balancing, and as stated, is pre-projected into "World Mercator" for both faster processing and better image quality.

The new load balancing method uses the modulus 3 of the "x" tile to compute which tile server to use, the old method simply had different zoom levels on each server. The old method was more efficient for server disk space but resulted in slower performance, especially in IE. With the new method, all three servers are sending tiles to each client, which is much more efficient for server processing power and bandwidth. The resulting increase in server disk space turned out to be irrelevant.

The new version can be found as a link on the old version's page for now. http://www.usnaviguide.com/zip.htm

We are proud to announce the birth of our first child, Catherine, born on August 5th at 3:35am. She's healthy, perfect and beautiful.

Due to our reduced cost in producing the USPS Zip Code Polygon database, we are happy to announce a price reduction from $5000 to $2000 for the entire USA zip code polygon database. We've also changed the license policy on updates to no longer honor the discount when purchasing an update. Previous customers will still be entitled to the $1250 update price, all new customers from this date forward will pay the full price for updates.

The "Creating Custom Maps" presentation at the Googleplex workshop on the 27th of February is now online at YouTube

John Coryat created an example of a Google-like mashup using the OpenLayers system that uses a custom tile layer and WGS84 coordinates to mimic the behavior of a Google Maps API page.

OpenLayers is a relatively new API that uses open source Javascript libraries to display objects in a browser, similar to the Google or Yahoo systems but without the limitations imposed by those providers regarding terms of use. OpenLayers does not provide maps themselves or geocoders like the other providers but they do provide a robust library of functions that are well behaved.

See the example at:

http://www.usnaviguide.com/openlayers/examples/usnaviguide.htm

John Coryat presented a workshop at the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA on the 27th of February called "Creating Custom Maps." This workshop covers the basics on how to go from an image or data to creating a custom image overlay in a Google Maps API based application.

Please see the presentation in the form of PDF at:

http://www.usnaviguide.com/ws-2008-02/presentation.pdf

USNaviguide has just released a new Javascript class that works like GGroundOverlay in the Google Maps API except it doesn't attempt to stretch the overlaid image into the Mercator projection. This results in faster response and more predicable results.

Here's a demo of this class in action:

http://www.usnaviguide.com/projectedoverlay.htm

USNaviguide has just released a new Perl module (USNaviguide_Google_Tiles.pm) that calculates just about everything you'd want to know about tiles including:

Tile name for a coordinate (lat,lng)
Tile name for a pixel location (x,y)
Tiles for a bounding box of coordinates and zoom
Bounding box for a tile in coordinates
Bounding box for a tile in pixel locations
Coordinates to pixel
Pixel to coordinates
and a bunch of other stuff...

GPL

http://www.usnaviguide.com/google-tiles.htm