Professional Geographer http://drjill.net more than mere place names Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:00:53 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 Get Your Kicks from these Route 66 Maps! http://drjill.net/2011/09/get-your-kicks-from-these-route-66-maps/ http://drjill.net/2011/09/get-your-kicks-from-these-route-66-maps/#comments Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:00:53 +0000 drjill http://drjill.net/?p=1014 Mapdiva congratulates Tom Snyder, author of “Route 66: Traveler’s Guide and Roadside Companion,” on his recently published book edition. This fully revised and updated book includes dozens of elegant and easy-to-read new maps produced with the Ortelius software. It was a labor of love as Tom spent months meticulously creating over 92 maps, as well as completely updating and expanding the bestselling guide itself, for the fourth edition.

More than twenty years after the original publication of Route 66, this completely updated and expanded guide will make the trip along the Mother Road easier and even more exciting. Responding to requests from readers and travelers, Tom offers up-to-date routings, elegant and easy-to-read new maps, and revised information on roadside attractions. Filled with love, high jinks, and mystery, the stories Snyder narrates truly capture the flavor of the Main Street of America. Cattle rustlers, gangsters, hitchhikers, and ghosts all make appearances in these nostalgic glimpses of history-in-the-making along America’s most famous highway.

Prizewinning author Tom Snyder was an early advocate of a Route 66 revival and his 1990 Route 66 Traveler’s Guide & Roadside Companion for St. Martin’s Press was the first guidebook to the old road written in more than forty years, as well as the first to map the route since its decertification in 1985. He lives on the West Coast, dividing his time among British Columbia, Washington, and California.

Route 66: Traveler’s Guide and Roadside Companion

Congratulations Tom, on your continued success!

]]> http://drjill.net/2011/09/get-your-kicks-from-these-route-66-maps/feed/ 0 How Many Continents? http://drjill.net/2011/09/how-many-continents/ http://drjill.net/2011/09/how-many-continents/#comments Sun, 25 Sep 2011 16:29:03 +0000 drjill http://drjill.net/?p=1024 How many continents are there? If you grew up in the English-Speaking world you might think that the answer is obvious. But not everyone counts continents the same way. This snappy video tests your notion of just what is a continent…

]]> http://drjill.net/2011/09/how-many-continents/feed/ 0 Love Longitude? ‘Maphead’ Locates Geography Buffs http://drjill.net/2011/09/love-longitude-maphead-locates-geography-buffs/ http://drjill.net/2011/09/love-longitude-maphead-locates-geography-buffs/#comments Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:56:41 +0000 drjill http://drjill.net/?p=1007 Do you ever read an atlas for pleasure? If you go to a new city, can you imagine not knowing which way is north? Is it hard for you to imagine life without a map? Then you might be a maphead.

“There’s just something hypnotic about maps.” If you missed it on NPR last night, check out Fresh Air’s Dave Davies interview with trivia buff Ken Jennings about his recently published book “Maphead.” Listen to the full interview – it’s a gem for all of us. I’ve already got folks asking if I’ve read it yet – it is a must on my reading list ;) ! Maphead, a charming, funny, and of course, informational book about the world of maps and the people who love them.

Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks
by Ken Jennings

]]> http://drjill.net/2011/09/love-longitude-maphead-locates-geography-buffs/feed/ 0 Mapdiva’s Website Facelift http://drjill.net/2011/08/mapdivas-website-facelift/ http://drjill.net/2011/08/mapdivas-website-facelift/#comments Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:48:52 +0000 drjill http://drjill.net/?p=999 Hi there! It seems like it’s been a while since my last post on DrJill.net. I guess it means I’ve been doing my Mapdiva duties well, and it’s been keeping me busy lately! I’m very pleased to announce that our website facelift is complete. Here’s the backstory – you can check it out over at mapdiva.com.

When we started Mapdiva we had one product, Ortelius, and the website flowed nicely. Since then we’ve added our Artboard drawing software, tons of tutorials, galleries, and more for both apps. It was time to clean things up! We brought on Boice Tomlin of RunSkip, LLC and Lee Busick of Busick Design to lend a hand. The challenge was to work within our existing WordPress system to leverage our existing efforts and tools. Lee came up with a great design concept using our product icon color scheme for website navigation. We added download and purchase links on every page (can you believe I’d previously neglected that?!). We completely updated the layout and graphics, making it easier to navigate and nicer to look at. Boice added a lot of trickery on the backend to make all of the navigation and sidebars work within our new navigation structure. It was a fair bit off effort, and I think they pulled it off rather nicely.

It’s been great fun to grow, learn, and evolve with Mapdiva. My next tasks? I’m now creating lots of new vector and cartography tutorials we think users will love. Drop me a line and let me know what you think of the new site! :)

]]> http://drjill.net/2011/08/mapdivas-website-facelift/feed/ 0 Social Geography Of Hair? http://drjill.net/2011/07/social-geography-of-hair/ http://drjill.net/2011/07/social-geography-of-hair/#comments Sun, 24 Jul 2011 23:24:06 +0000 drjill http://drjill.net/?p=978 Something new perhaps for you hairy geographers…

Social Geography Of Hair Opens for Downstreet Art / iBerkshires.com – The Berkshires online guide to events, news and Berkshire County community information..

]]> http://drjill.net/2011/07/social-geography-of-hair/feed/ 0 Wonderful Porcelain City Plates http://drjill.net/2011/06/wonderful-porcelain-city-plates/ http://drjill.net/2011/06/wonderful-porcelain-city-plates/#comments Thu, 23 Jun 2011 20:01:28 +0000 drjill http://drjill.net/?p=968 Wow, these plates are pretty! The notNeutral porcelain city plates measure twelve inches across, with each city’s downtown core printed on a black background. Each plate is individually boxed and comes with a key to the buildings and spaces included on the plate.

Key buildings are represented with red icons, while rivers and public spaces are shown in vivid blue and green. The plates’ designs portray a bold, graphic representation of distinctly fascinating cities.

]]> http://drjill.net/2011/06/wonderful-porcelain-city-plates/feed/ 0 Artboard Giveaway! | Mapdiva, LLC | Mac OS X Software http://drjill.net/2011/06/artboard-giveaway-mapdiva-llc-mac-os-x-software/ http://drjill.net/2011/06/artboard-giveaway-mapdiva-llc-mac-os-x-software/#comments Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:31:43 +0000 drjill http://drjill.net/?p=965 Artboard Giveaway! | Mapdiva, LLC | Mac OS X Software.

Mapdiva is gearing up for their first Artboard update and are giving away 2 FREE Copies of ARTBOARD for MAC OSX to celebrate! Comment on Twitter or Facebook and SHARE to enter. They will announce the random winners 24 June 2011.

]]> http://drjill.net/2011/06/artboard-giveaway-mapdiva-llc-mac-os-x-software/feed/ 0 Geospatial Revolution: Episode 4 http://drjill.net/2011/05/geospatial-revolution-episode-4/ http://drjill.net/2011/05/geospatial-revolution-episode-4/#comments Fri, 06 May 2011 16:09:45 +0000 drjill http://drjill.net/?p=963 Learn more about the Geospatial Revolution Project from Penn State Public Broadcasting.

]]> http://drjill.net/2011/05/geospatial-revolution-episode-4/feed/ 0 Geospatial Revolution: Episode 3 http://drjill.net/2011/05/geospatial-revolution-episode-3/ http://drjill.net/2011/05/geospatial-revolution-episode-3/#comments Fri, 06 May 2011 16:08:31 +0000 drjill http://drjill.net/?p=961 Learn more about the Geospatial Revolution Project from Penn State Public Broadcasting.

]]> http://drjill.net/2011/05/geospatial-revolution-episode-3/feed/ 0 Geospatial Revolution: Episode 2 http://drjill.net/2011/05/geospatial-revolution-episode-2/ http://drjill.net/2011/05/geospatial-revolution-episode-2/#comments Fri, 06 May 2011 16:05:41 +0000 drjill http://drjill.net/?p=959 Learn more about the Geospatial Revolution Project from Penn State Public Broadcasting.

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