Tuesday, 7 April 2015

Google mapping


This map contains directions to the house that I grew up in, in the lovely town of Castlemaine. I've included directions by car, as well as a link to the Victorian Heritage database where there is a description of the house. It's a reasonably important place; built right around the beginning of the Gold Rush in Victoria, it was the old police station in Castlemaine as well as the last place that Robert O'Hara Bourke lived before he went off on his expedition (which didn't turn out well at all). The woman that my mum sold the place to painted the house blue, so if you go to the street view, it looks totally different today.

Originally I tried to embed the map using the google+ share button on the left hand side of the map, but I kept on coming up with a ginormous map when I tried posting it. So then I used the button on the bottom right of the page, which gave you sizing options, but that wouldn't keep the directions on the map. In the end, I used the first URL again and changed the sizing myself in the code, and I think that it has turned out fairly well!

This week I have also been working through the activities on Codeacademy, which I have actually really enjoyed! I think that a big help is being able to see the updates that you are making to the code in real time, so you don't have to refresh the page or submit your work to see where the mistakes are. Also, the badges that you are awarded as you progress really help, it gives you something to work towards and also break up the sections a bit more. I've posted a badge onto my twitter page, like a big proud dork.


4 comments:

  1. I'll have to get onto the Codeacademy business - you and Luke seem to love it! And I certainly could benefit from some thorough coding education...although we both used the same method of adjusting the size of our maps in the HTML - what pros!

    ...I still can't believe that woman painted the house blue. Sigh.

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    1. kate, I had the same reaction when I saw the word 'blue' !

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  2. Yeah you're right , breaking up the learning process in sections is good. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and makes me want to go on and discover what's next !

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  3. In addition to what you said about seeing the updates in real time - I think seeing the results is one of the things that make HTML coding enjoyable. We're entering all of these letters and symbols in particular places and the payout is rewarding. It would be a nice feeling to look at a finished website and think "I made this by hitting a bunch of keys on my keyboard (albeit following a very strict formula)". It's like learning a new language when you finally put together these new sounds and words and form an intelligible sentence.

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