Uncategorized – Studio Blue Planet

Serving your own PDOK maps

I am fascinated by navigation and maps. When I visit a new location one of the first things I do is getting a topographical map of the region. Sometimes I use historical maps, like the Werbata map (dating from 1911, see also Wikipedia) for my trips to Curacao. Since 2007 I log my activities (like running, hiking, cycling, swimming, surveying) using GPS (TomTom watch) and I like to plot these on a map online. Since surroundings change, I like not only to have the most current maps, but also historical maps. As a Dutchy a found the Kabouterbond maps worthwhile. Since 2012 the PDOK Basisregistratie Topografie (BRT) maps which can be downloaded for free in raster or vector format. PDOK is a cooperation between het Kadaster and the Dutch government.

So I end up with a collection of digital maps which I like to use with OziExplorer (for route planning e.g.) and online on my own websites. This post describes the way I proceeded to serve my maps for online usage.

PDOK based vector map from my server, described in this post

White balance underwater

A well known phenomenon to divers is the fact that water absorbs light, the red component in the light the most. This makes water appear blue or greenish. The deeper we get, the stronger the effect: it gets darker and it gets more blue. Diver eyes cope with it, cameras do not, as can be seen from the left picture. Therefore we need correcting the whitebalance, so we end up with something presentable.