Screencast 26: Simple MBTiles Server in Node
More Build Stuff - Grunt
Behold! The 3rd post on automated build/dev processes for the web.
This time we’re looking at Grunt. We’re looking at Grunt because I blew up by Guard setup on Windows (who knew gem update could be a bad idea) and used the opportunity to give Grunt another look. I poured myself a beer, swaggered over to my standing desk, and didn’t move until I figured it out. I’m really glad I did - Grunt is my new best friend.
Finding the Nearest House Number in Postgres
I have been advocating we stop maintaining geocoding attributes on our streets file for years. We have an address point file with the points on the freaking buildings. Bibiana McHugh of Portland TriMet gave a great keynote at FOSS4G-NA in Minnesota and made the same point.
One contrary viewpoint I’ve run across has come from Police, as their officers often don’t communicate a house number, they communicate a block number. As in “I’m on the 500 block of Independence and there are zombies here OVER!”. I always thought this was a red herring (in 2013 we have the technology to know where officers and cars are, like, all the time), but after Bibiana’s talk I thought trying to figure out the closest point address to a block number would be an interesting exercise. Turns out it is neither very interesting nor much of an exercise.
Screencast #25: Rapid Fire (Standing Desk Build, Chromebook, ColorHUG)
Priceless
iD is freaking awesome
I have written all manor of data maintenance apps over the years. One of the first apps I worked on professionally was a cadastral data maintenance monstrosity written in AML (shudders). I have created enough of these types of apps to know that I absolutely hate making these types of apps.
It isn’t just that they’re hard to code. And by hard to code, I mean really hard. They’re like ferreting a snowflake across the Sahara while trying to figure out what The Fountain was about hard. It’s more this: it’s almost impossible to create a data maintenance app that people want to use. Data maintenance isn’t fun. By the time people open your app they are already pissed off. To create a data maintenance app that people actually want to use is something I had written off years ago1.
Which is why what MapBox has accomplished with iD is so damn amazing. It makes you want to use it. It’s that good.
Screencast 24: Build Something
More on Build Processes for the Web
My last screencast was about iteration and build processes for web development. Here’s a bit more on the build process.
The big 4 for web performance are (in this order):
- gzip text before it leaves your server. All of that CSS, JavaScript, JSON, SVG, etc. should be squished before it travels across the wire.
- Smart caching. The fastest resource request is the one that never happens.
- Image optimization. Images are still the biggest pipe suck for the majority of sites.
- Concatenate and compress. Fewer HTTP requests and smaller files sizes are better.
Screencast 23: Web Workflow - Iteration and Build
Skookum Digital Works Talk
Here’s a talk I did at Skookum Digital Works on the Quality of Life Dashboard, our software stack and philosophy, and the challenges of being a “government tool”. Idiot that I am, I had no idea these Free Friday Tech T