Tech post #10: SHDH
SuperHappyDevHouse15, shdh15, in Monte Sereno (formerly written: Los Gatos, so wrong! So wrong!). I spent a large part of the time at Super Happy Dev House talking to my mom via chat. Because she is my main “user” and knows the data really well, so I had to get all of the specs from her. Funny, for a programmer, but usually it’s the truth- most of your time is spent trying to lock down the details so you can actually do the work.
I got kind of far. Well it looks pathetic, but this is it: Cemetery Overlay. I read the entire GMAPS API in a coffee-addled state, and got some structural advice from my friend Catherine. I’m going to have to break it down into several pieces:
- Get a map or diagram over the satellite map of the lots. This is a degree closer than satellites currently do
- Get the exact lat & longitude of each lot – or do it relatively- find out the measurements of a lot and calculate based on the known lat/longitude
- Setup an overlay with GMAPS iwth images of the tombstones, and the lot squares
- Create a data feed from the MYSQL database of the “public view” and “admin view”
- Model the database
- Write the client interactivity this is Ajax, I think, that Google is using, but almost everything seems to be within the API so I don’t have to go offroad at all. I’ll do these info windows on the public data and probably do a PHP thing for the admin window.
I was kind of stuck at getting the right image. Basically googlemaps doesn’t get close enough to be useful. So standing on a crane and taking the photo, or trying to fake it out somehow, or just using a diagram… I got PDFs (hand-drawn diagrams) that roughly match up with the satellite photos. You can see the one on the link. If you have any idea about how to work this middle ground, please comment!
On the People @ SHDH
Met some cool people, the mom who makes it happen- f*** the organizers of shdh (sorry guys) this woman is the majordomo. She makes the meatball pasta, she lets these strangers invade her home, she sits down and talks to me about China and clogs, she has the coffee urn and tray of cups! Sigh. Tom, your mom rocks!
You Are The Only Woman There, Anna
I sat in the “chill room”. Each time someone came in, they’d say, “Oh, this is the chill room.” We had a fire, nice sofas, and lots of room on the power strip. Can I just say that I was warned no women were there, but can I tell you? No women were there. It was like 1 woman to maybe 25 guys. I think that’s a sign of how few women are in engineering groups. I had also been warned about people making a lot of assumptions about what I knew- without even knowing me. I got a snide little joke at my expense that I shot down, but that was it. Note, I also didn’t really talk to that many people. I think because I was so caffeinated I had a (probably very annoying) running monologue with my friend.
Update: Proof that I was there.
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on Monday, February 5th, 2007 at 1:41 am and is filed under feminism, technology.
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