Computational Environment on Mac OS

 Posted on June 9, 2024  |  2 minutes  |  272 words  |  Shipeng Sun

Set up Python on Mac OS Mamba forge package The best solution so far is to use MiniForge release. The Mamba Forge combination is the most efficient one. Download and run the Shell (.sh) installation file in Mac terminal. Use mamba init zsh to initialize Python for the terminal. zsh is the default shell for Mac OS. If a different shell is used, just change the parameter in mamba init. [Read More]
conda  python 

node.js management

 Posted on June 8, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  474 words  |  Shipeng Sun

Managing node.js Today most JavaScript libraries are developed, tested, and deployed or distributed via node.js framework. Many libraries stopped providing the regular js file for web developments. Instead, they are using modules, similar to Python. For legacy systems, a separate JS file is still needed and it is necessary to use node.js and npm to get the js file. This might be the only way to get the lasted version for some JS libraries. [Read More]
nodejs  conda  mamba 

Items in Action

 Posted on November 29, 2022  |  1 minutes  |  208 words  |  Shipeng Sun

This is an ongoing list of items in actions, aka list of TODO items. So often, some good directions that deserve serious investigations and explorations have to be put off. This blog is trying to make a record of these resources. Open Geospatial Data White House Transparency and Open Government Open data: an international comparison of strategies Harvard CGA China Data Links USGS Data Quality Assurance Best Practice and Examples [Read More]
web resources  initiatives  future directions 

AWS S3 CLI

 Posted on October 27, 2022  |  1 minutes  |  145 words  |  Shipeng Sun

AWS s3 (Simple Storage Service) is one of the simplest Amazon Web Service. It works just like a network drive. Amazon has granted many public institutions free S3 buckets. Smithsonian Institute (SI) is one of them. With its open access initiative, SI also shared a large amount of data on s3. Smithsonian Open Access on github AWS registry for Smithsonian The data largely contain metadata at SI, 3D models, and pictures. [Read More]
AWS  large dataset 

Read New on new Reader

 Posted on July 17, 2022  |  1 minutes  |  164 words  |  Shipeng Sun

Acquired a new ebook reader Rakuten Kobo Elipsa. The device has a good size at 10 inch. It also supports Dropbox for loading books and OverDrive for borrowing from public libraries. A few useful settings: DoubleCommander: A open-source alternative to TotalCommander. A more powerful and more convenient file explorer. Briss: A open source PDF cropper. It is running on Java. Windows removes Java by default, but many programs, like ArcGIS Pro, installed their own Java Running Environment (JRE). [Read More]
ereader  fonts  computer settings  ebook 

PostgreSQL/PostGIS without instllation

 Posted on July 1, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  274 words  |  Shipeng Sun

Using EnterpriseDB installer to install PostgreSQL and using Stackbuilder to install PostGIS is very easy. However, running PostgreSQL/PostGIS as a service, which is the default result of such installations, has some overhead because it is running in the background no matter it is actually used or not. Note that PostgreSQL has a small footprint when in “idle”. Nevertheless, it could be useful to run PostgreSQL/PostGIS as needed using binaries. [Read More]
PostgreSQL  PostGIS  geospatial database 

Regularly Report Computer IP with DHCP

 Posted on May 26, 2022  |  2 minutes  |  361 words  |  Shipeng Sun

As many are working from home during/after the pandemic, it is super convenient and even necessary to remotely connected to office computers or home computers. However, wirelessly connected devices or ISP-connected devices may have their IP updated from time to time. This blog describes a short Python program that can automatically and periodically report a computer’s IP address. The information is saved into a text file, which can be saved in Dropbox or other cloud drives. [Read More]
code  python  DHCP  IP  Repeated tasks 

Vector Tiles for Leaflet

 Posted on May 17, 2022  |  3 minutes  |  482 words  |  Shipeng Sun

Install GDAL Tools The GDAL tools are installed from https://www.gisinternals.com/. Install the core with Python applications, which contain some useful raster tools like gdal2tile.py. Alternatively, it can be installed using OSGeo4W. However, OSGeo4W can interfere with PostgreSQL/PostGIS on GDAL for the setting. Therefore, it is not recommended to use OSGeo4W for GDAL. As QGIS is part of OSGeo, it comes with GDAL pre-installed. So, it is also good to use the GDAL within QGIS. [Read More]
leaflet  vector tiles  large dataset  geospatial data