If you’ve been considering buying a MapTechnica Tile Set (c’mon, you know I’m talking about you), you now have a risk-free way to try a sample tile set to see if it will work for your map project.

I created a special tile set that contains the Rhode Island tile set and supporting data, along with sample files that help you get going quickly. For more details, visit the Free 5-Digit ZIP Code Sample Set Information page over at MapTechnica.

Lots going on over at my side-project, MapTechnica, lately. In addition to the US 5-Digit Zip Code Maps and US County Boundary Maps, I’ve just turned on City maps.

Looking back, I should have started with these given how cool they turned out to be.  In truth, though, I didn’t realize the data and shapefiles for the cities were in the vast Tiger/Line database since the US Census Bureau calls them “places,” not “cities.” Oh, well.

Serendipitously, the city boundaries work amazingly well with the city labels and information already embedded in the Google Map layer, so the effect is a truly additive mapping product without the need for map markers.

I’m still working on productizing the tile set and database, but that should be up in the next few days.  In the mean time, head over to the free US Cities Boundary Map Tool and play around.  As always, I’d love any feedback you might have.

I’m opening phase 2 of a friends and family beta on the latest Stringer Site, Ribbz.com, which lets you manage private wish lists for things like Christmas, Hanukah, birthdays, etc.

I know wish-listing is a cultural thing particular to certain families, but it works like a charm for families like mine who are spread to the far ends of the earth.

It’s a bit late for this holiday season, but I’m looking forward to having this in place for 2008. If you or anyone you know might be interested in checking it out, feel free to visit the site.

http://ribbnz.com

Cheers,
Steve

For those reading this blog through a feed reader, I invite you to come by and see our new digs. The StringFoo site just got a remodel of sorts. As the saying goes, the cobbler’s kids have no shoes. Such is the case with StringFoo. The demands of client work (also known as the primal need for income) have always meant that a much-needed update to StringFoo always took a back seat. Well, I finally got sick of looking at the boring, gray beast and decided to redesign the site.

In the process, I took the opportunity to create a Word Press theme from scratch. This task was surprisingly easy in many ways. Changing the basic look and even altering the structure of existing pages was a straight forward and well-documented task.

However, I found adding entirely new pages and functionality to be a bit of a sticky wicket, so my goals to add a tag cloud page will have to be postponed until I can spend some more time on my decidedly pro bono project.

I’m also having a few headaches with the two Spry widgets on the page. The main menu makes the AdSense iframe disappear, and the Accordion widget is a herky jerky mess.

What do you think? What do you like, what do you hate? I’d love your feedback.

Ack! I made a wonderful discovery today. In my recent bout with Catastrophic Data Loss (consult your doctor for possible side effects), it appears that another casualty is the comments table. And here I thought that it was just quiet. Alas, no, all the comments ever made by anyone on any topic on this blog have gone *poof*. <sniff> Bye, bye comments. We hardly knew ye.

My apologies to those kind enough to comment on my aimless ramblings. I only hope that you will do so again on future stories.