throwless-0.4-SNAPSHOT

After lots of inactivity I finally got a first working version of new throwless site up and ready for testing.
http://homemap.com.au/throwless-0.4-SNAPSHOT/

Main features are:

You can upload pictures of the item

Each item has location that is displayed on map

Searching results are updated when you drag map around

If testing will go fine, I will soon upload this version to www.throwles.com.

Zeitgeist

Let’s assume all the conspiracies are real. Let’s assume it’s all true and there are people behind the scenes that pull the strings. Let’s assume one day someone will get 100% control of every human in the world. You know, something similar to Matrix style.

What will happen after?

Syntetic life

“We have a software for designing species on the computer – We don’t know what they look like, we know their genetic code.”

“We just try millions of combinations of chromosomes and wait which ones work”

Pretty scarry, huh?

What can come up out of this?

Zoom level: Finding the right one

In previous post I came up with formula on how to calculate zoom level using “range” information in KML. To get the formula I compared zoom levels in maps.google.com with views from google earth.
I opened google map page, resized my windows so the map size was 500×500 and set zoom level to maximum – 18. Then I opened google earth, made sure map size is 500×500 and navigated to same view as I had on web page. Eye altitude in google earth was 214m.
That means if map size is 500×500, and range value returned from google geocoder is 214m I should set the zoom level to 18. Easy.

I did the numbers for various zoom levels and map sizes and in the end I somehow conjured the formula:

zoom = 18-log2(3.3*range/sqrt(x*x+y*y))

Problem No2:
I do all above calculations on the server and send results to the browser. For my application I also need to know coordinates of visible area on a map. Somehow – based on center of the map, zoom level, and map size, I should be able to find right coordinates.

Instead I found easier way that makes even my hard sweated formula useless.
Instead of getting data in KML format: http://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=Poprad,Slovakia&output=kml
I am getting them in JS format:
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=Poprad,Slovakia&output=js

Result that comes back is a html page with some javascript that (besides lots of other crap) bear this bit:

viewport: {center: {lat:49.057037000000001, lng:20.304269999999999}, span: {lat:0.099098000000000006, lng:0.169104}

so now I have area for my location and I can query my DB for points in that area. I can also send span to the browser and use GMap.getBoundsZoomLevel(bounds) method to get the right zoom. Easy.

Seeing is believing – click on the link to check out the demo: http://homemap.com.au/throwless-0.3/search.html

GMap geocoding – zoom level and accuracy

Problem:
Google maps geocoder can return coordinates, accuracy and range for given location. However, how to display location on the map, you need to center the map and set the zoom level. My problem was to find right zoom level for given location.
I found one blog post that describes the solution but I wasn’t very happy with it.

After some investigations, measurements and calculations I came up with this formula:


zoom = 18-log2(3.3*range/sqrt(x*x+y*y))

where

log2 - base 2 logarithm
range - is returned by google geocoding service
x, y - measurements of the map in pixels


I haven’t tested it yet, so if you find it working or not, please let me know.

Update 4. 3. 2008: I tested it and it works perfectly!

Throwless API

Rewriting Throwless.com – first thing first… hmm actually which thing should be first?
One site I did I started with back-end, another one with front-end.

This time I will start with API. I hope to implement back-end of the API by the end of this week. Next week I can start working on the user interface.

I am back

Hola hou everybody, I am back in Sydney!

I had a nice time in a Europe and I got married. Right now I am working on my resume and looking for a job, but you can expect soon some new developments on the site.

My plan is to quickly change implementation to Java (I tried Ruby on Rails but it didn’t convince me), introduce pictures, comments and maps. And then start working on promoting the site.

In Slovakia you can get reasonable money for recycling different sorts of metal, copper, aluminium. It looks like price is based on current rates on London Metal Exchange. I’ve seen quite a few washing machines, and dryers thrown on the streets. They are full of metal, aluminium and copper. Do you know where in Australia you can get money for it?

Concerns from Freecycle

I noticed there were some concerns about ThrowLess circulating in the east Sydney freecycle mail group. I have emailed the reply to the mail list. I am also posting it here in case it does not reach freecycle users.

 

Hello everyone,

 

My name is Anatoli and I am one of the creators of www.throwless.com.

I am writing to answer people questions and concerns about ThrowLess and explain why freecycle posts appear on the web site. Sorry I have not done it before.

 

The biggest concern that people have expressed was about an email address appearing along side an offer. It is not exactly true. On throwless.com an email address of a person who offered things is only visible to that person. If you actually browse the web site you will notice that none of the email addresses are visible.

 

People probably got confused because they have received an email generated by the site when someone expressed an interest in the item they offered. This kind of emails contains a randomly generated link that is only sent to the ‘offerer’ of the item. If an ‘offerer’ follows the link he/she can see the offer and is able to modify it (mark it as taken or change its description for example).

 

Someone has already pointed the original post I wrote a while ago were I described how the emails from freecycle end up on ThrowLess: http://throwless.wordpress.com/2007/06/06/items-from-freecycle/

Let me now explain the general idea behind ThrowLess.

 

The idea is very similar to freecycle – help people to help each other and the environment; make more efficient use of available resources. ThrowLess attempts to “provide a great tool for people and everyone will benefit: the givers, the takers and the environment.”

I don’t have to tell you why it is important and beneficial for everyone as you are already members of freecycle J. Freecycle is an awesome community and well done to everyone who is a part of it. In a way ThrowLess compliments freecycle as the mission is the same.

 

However freecycle has some shortcomings that ThrowLess is trying to solve. The main shortcoming comes from the fact that freecycle relies only on one communication medium – emails. It is difficult to keep up with all emails that are being sent to a freecycling mailing list unless you look at every single one as it comes. It is almost impossible to search through offers. If you managed to find an item that you are interested in among the day old emails you still need to check if it has already been taken. Generally it is awkward, from my own experience – it was difficult to stay a pro-active user because of those shortcomings. The more people freecycle group has – the more difficult it becomes for a single user. I ended up just receiving emails and almost never looking through them.

USA has already tried to solve these limitations with http://www.freecyclefinder.org/finder but unfortunately with very little success. Their service does not support Australia, it does not distinguish between offered and already taken items and even wanted items are included in the result of a search. Basically they have just implemented search functionality through all mail messages in US freecycle groups.

So we have implemented ThrowLess web site to eliminate problems of freecycle. It was done as a kind of a hobby in our own time.

 

The extra things(comparing with freecycle) that ThrowLess provides are:

* Search functionality. Anyone can search for some keyword and limit the search to some particular area.

* It tracks ‘taken’ items so that they are not included in the search results. No ‘wanted’ items are included either.

* It broadens a pool of potential takers because everyone can view the items. The fact that I leave in eastern suburbs does not mean that I am willing to give my item only to someone from eastern suburb. Anyone who is willing to pick it up is welcome. With the emails based system it is impossible to create a group for the whole Sydney because a big number of members will mean a lot of email traffic which will be difficult to digest.

* ThrowLess is not complete – it will hopefully be further enhanced to better suite the needs of people. The ability to attach pictures to an offer is the top priority now.

 

We want to provide easier ways to recycle. Maybe by making it a little bit easier we will increase the number of people that are pro-actively involved and ultimately help the environment.

 

If you think we are doing something wrong, please let us know. If you think we are doing something right, please let us know too!!!

 

Thanks.

Anatoli.

It’s all about…

location! location! location! … Oops, this is not real estate site…
I mean – It’s all about users, users and users. Internet sites these days get its value from the users and their contributions. We understand that and that’s why we have our community section, based on wiki pages.
For those who doesn’t know what Wiki is, there are several defintions that can be found on web:

• A website or similar online resource which allows users to add and edit content collectively.
• A collection of websites of hypertext, each of them can be visited and edited by anyone. “Wiki wiki” means “rapidly” in the Hawaiian language.
• online collaboration model and tool that allows any user to edit some content of webpages through a simple browser.
• A wiki is a web application that allows users to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also allows anyone to edit the content. Wiki also refers to the collaborative software used to create such a website.

I would compare it to a big noticeboard where anyone can post their notes. So please, check it out and contribute with your note and join our community. Be a part of us.

ThrowLess and City Councils

I got a great idea from my sister. She said that we need to let city councils know about ThrowLess because it might save them money. Every now and again (usually twice a year), councils run a cleanup day. On this day everyone who has large items to throw away take them outside of a house for council workers to remove and throw away. But quite often other people pick those old couches, tables, fridges and other things because they can find a use for them. I know Dusan got some of his furniture this way and I got something too.

Throwless perfectly covers such kind of scenario; in fact people don’t need to wait for clean up days. And the chances that someone who needs an item will find it on the website are greater than if the item stays on the street. Potentially council needs to run less clean ups and each clean up will produce less rubbish.

I have emailed Waverley council. Let’s see what they will say.