Positive Puffbox PR

Martin Stabe has written a piece in the Press Gazette about our Puffbox Google Map Mashup. This is the journalists’ industry newspaper so it hits our target market perfectly. Someone once said there is no bad PR. It’s as well this is good PR!

Sky News use Puffbox map in weather warnings

Sky News have reported on the heavy rain across Britain and used our map mashup to show some of the worst hit areas. This particular application shows the polygon feature – they have highlighted an area south of Rotherham which could be affected if the Ulley Dam bursts.

This is a great example of a breaking news story shown to good effect on the Puffbox map application.

Google Map Mashup Demo

We’ve now put a demo of our mashup on the Puffbox website. It shows most of the functionality of the map including interactive sidebar and the backend includes the polygon creator I mentioned in my last post. More details are available on the Puffbox website.

Increased Functionality for Google Map Mashup

I’ve been working away at the Google Map mashup tool that I developed for Puffbox and have added some functionality to it. Editors were already able to add / edit / delete points on a map with custom markers and custom information windows as well as run multiple maps. Now I have added polygon functionality. This means that an editor can draw custom polygonal shapes and place them on the map (useful for highlighting certain areas). A map can have multiple polygons in a range of colours, with or without solid borders. Editors can switch the polygons on and off for the end user, change colours and even add or delete vertices on the polygons (i.e. give the shape more corners or take them away). All this is done by simply clicking on the map to create corners or clicking a corner marker to delete it. It works on Firefox, IE and Safari and can get an interactive map with points and areas highlighted up and running in a matter of minutes.

Puffbox map reaps results – murder suspect arrested

The Puffbox map application that Sky News is using as part of its Crime Uncovered Week has helped bring about the arrest of a murder suspect at large. So far our first project has been picked up by a large satellite television network, been the subject of several journalism blogs and made the streets safer by taking a suspected murderer off them. Who said you have to start small?

I have a basic example of our Google map on my website. Google are really going for it with their maps – the latest thing is to have street level 360 degree photos built in to the map. They’ve only covered 5 US cities so far but the results are fantastic.

Skymapping goes live

Today our Google map application went live with the start of the Sky News Crime Uncovered week. They’ve used it to show Britain’s most wanted criminals. The really clever stuff is going on behind the scenes where journalists with no specific technical expertise can add items to the map using a WYSIWYG content management system that I wrote with a little help from my brother over at Puffbox.

The Puffbox word is spreading….

We haven’t even had our first product go live and already we have a couple of mentions in the blogosphere! Journalism.co.uk have picked up the story here, as has Craig McGinty in his blog here. There’s an exciting week ahead for Puffbox.

Puffbox.com – Brothers in Arms

After a few years of my brother badgering me I finally gave in and decided to do some work for him in his new venture (soon to be our new venture – possibly). The web consultancy he has set up is called Puffbox and I guess I am head programmer at the minute. We seem to have got off the mark with a fairly major client and a rather clever little back end for a map application.

It will hopefully be launching next week – there are more details on the Puffbox website and my brother’s blog. I always knew it would be useful to have a brother in the media / politics.

Which watch?

I just finished a wee section on my website which shows which watch is on duty for the current 2-2-4 duty system used by the NIFRS (Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service). It works for every year from 2004 to 2020. Feel free to check it out at http://www.garethdickson.net/javascript-ajax/.

For those of you who are web-development-minded, I have used PHP, Javascript and AJAX to update it. Haven’t been able to test it on every type of browser but the code I used for the AJAX claims to be browser-proof. We shall see…

Ever Googled yourself?

So I’ve been keeping an eye on where my website (www.garethdickson.net) and this blog come in the Google rankings when you do a search for my name. It turns out that my name is getting a bit more popular than I would have hoped. Apparently there’s a me from Scotland who is a bit of a musician. Plays the acoustic guitar amongst other things and seems to be pretty good. I also play but haven’t been in a band since university.

More worryingly there is another me in BELFAST!!!! He seems to enjoy going to the local gay bar and watching camp TV. Draw your own conclusions. Anyway, he’s not me (just in case my girlfriend is reading this) so don’t worry – I don’t have a hidden lifestyle anyone should know about…