tap water please

This is amazing! radarmatic: Radarmatic is a weather radar...

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:23:46 +0100

This is amazing!

Radarmatic is a weather radar visualizer. It uses HTML5 and its own API to draw radar images with live data from the National Weather Service.

The white dots on the map represent 155 radar sites across the US. As you drag it around, the radar closest to the center of the map will light up with its most recent data. The colored areas show where precipitation is occurring at varying levels of intensity. Pushing play will animate the last few hours.

The imagery is not pre-generated, but rather drawn in-browser with Javascript. For this reason it can be processor intensive, especially while animating. Safari and Chrome are recommended over Firefox.

I’ve always wanted to do something with radar data. The NWS creates an incredible wealth of information available every day about the physical world around us, but it’s locked away in an obscure binary file format developed long before the web. In order to visualize the data the way I wanted to, much bigger and in crazier colors than I’d ever seen used for weather radar before, I needed to translate it to a format I already understood.

After many hours of research and fumbling around with a hex editor, I wrote a program in C called radar2json to convert the binary product files from the NWS into JSON (and which I’ve open sourced under the MIT license). I built a web service around it that anyone can use.

From a user interface standpoint, I set out to make something that puts as much focus as possible on the imagery itself and drastically reduces the friction of moving through it. Every other interface to radar data I’ve seen so far is scientifically oriented and does a poor job of being tactile and interactive, which I think is important for making a rich impression of what’s happening in our physical environment.

Give it a try and let me know what you think. And keep your eye on the Carolinas in the next 24 hours!

This is our new house. It looks nice outside but it has been...

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:28:54 +0100

This is our new house. It looks nice outside but it has been empty for three years…

It was pretty squalid in there.

But the clean up operation has started and it’s gonna be sweet.

Just off to take that rubbish out the front to the dump.

walkonandwait: All To All. Broken Social Scene do it right. I...

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:22:54 +0100

walkonandwait:

All To All.

Broken Social Scene do it right.

I love this song.

I love this video.

I love.

Check out the REMIXES too.

Badass. “Shoot film not people” - Love it

BOLLYWOOD AWESOMENESS The greatest action sequence in the...

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:15:50 +0100

BOLLYWOOD AWESOMENESS

The greatest action sequence in the history of modern cinema.

via Devour

This is so so good

Haha these bears are awesome. via English Russia » Bears...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:59:09 +0100

Haha these bears are awesome.

via English Russia » Bears In Fog

Check out these badass stamps we got in the post today. That...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:05:01 +0100

Check out these badass stamps we got in the post today.

That KiwiStamp sausage is well good!

Head over to The Wilderness Downtown right now. It’s an awesome...

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:45:07 +0100

Head over to The Wilderness Downtown right now.

It’s an awesome interactive HTML5 video by Arcade Fire!

So good.

The course for the bike race. 15minutes. As many laps as you...

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:53:54 +0100

The course for the bike race. 15minutes. As many laps as you can.

Check out some of those corners.

There’s a wall of hay bales on the first one…

Pretty scary.

Human Hay Bale. This is so good, though I don’t see why he had...

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:57:07 +0100

Human Hay Bale.

This is so good, though I don’t see why he had to be naked.

(via Devour)

Some seriously impressive entries over at An Event Apart’s 10K...

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:44:00 +0100

Some seriously impressive entries over at An Event Apart’s 10K competition.

Check out this game — Matchuppps.

View the source too! Wowza!

bmdesign: Kodak’s First Digital Camera, 1975 “Instead of...

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:09:34 +0100

bmdesign:

Kodak’s First Digital Camera, 1975

“Instead of saving the data on a card it used a standard cassette. It took 23 seconds to record the digitized image to the cassette.”

The Science of Creativity - Kodak

We were just having a discussion about the merits of Root Beer...

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:13:00 +0100

We were just having a discussion about the merits of Root Beer and it turned in to the beginnings of an official scale for plant extract based beverages.

Feel free to improve the list (link to PSD).

Do Lectures wallpapers - just busted these bad boys out.

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:33:04 +0100

Do Lectures wallpapers - just busted these bad boys out.

howies have named a pair of jeans after me! Get a pair. They...

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:10:45 +0100

howies have named a pair of jeans after me! Get a pair. They will change you life. But sadly, not your name.

Extract from “Burning”, the live movie about...

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:32:00 +0100

Extract from “Burning”, the live movie about Mogwai. Directed by Vincent Moon and Nat Le Scouarnec.

Released 24 August 2010. TODAY!

Mogwai flippin’ rule!

Andy Smith has a new website. Wicked.

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:21:00 +0100

Andy Smith has a new website.

Wicked.

I tut’d when I heard they were doing another one. But if...

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 23:24:11 +0100

I tut’d when I heard they were doing another one.

But if still makes me laugh.

Jackass 3D

I LOVE JEDI BEAR!

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 23:05:05 +0100

I LOVE JEDI BEAR!

Frank Chimero on design

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 11:09:55 +0100

Frank Chimero on design:

Everybody should read this.

So much great stuff here: Timbas Smits - Type & Logo Dept.

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:40:14 +0100

So much great stuff here:

Timbas Smits - Type & Logo Dept.