why would a diving board want to go to a train station?

google maps api is pretty cool. i read their documentation, signed up for a key, and started integrating it into the r32 registry to dynamically generate a map of each registered r32 in the country.

only took maybe 30 minutes to code. i already had a sql table of zipcodes-to-lat/long values from the dealer ratings site, so it was just a simple sql query to pull each registered car's color, city, state, zip, lat, long, and the owner's name. then it just prints some javascript for each sql record and plots it on the map. clicking on each point brings up the person's name and car color, with a link to their individual registry page.

i think it actually took longer to play around in gimp and scale down and colorize the points used for each color r32.

the api is nice and simple, although it would be nice to have something centralized from google to convert zip codes or cities to lat and long values (or just be able to feed the javascript functions the city/zipcode).

also, i can't seem to resize the popup box that shows each person's info after clicking on a point; it's quite big for the small amount of data i'm showing.

and what web project wouldn't be complete without something not working in internet explorer. after loading the page it would popup a dialog saying "operation canceled" or some bullshit and would just redirect to a generic ie error page. a quick google search advised putting all of the javascript into a function and then calling it in the document's onLoad(). stupid, but it works.

why do people write programs that completely go against standards and tradition and common sense?

jcs@hypotenuse:~> streamripper -h
Connecting...
Couldn't connect to -h
Exit 1

oh, maybe it's one of those stupid gnu programs...

jcs@hypotenuse:~> streamripper --help
Connecting...
Couldn't connect to --help
Exit 1

ok, maybe it will spit out usage with no args...

jcs@hypotenuse:~> streamripper
Usage: streamripper URL [OPTIONS]
Options:
-d <dir>       - The destination directory
-s             - Don't create a directory for each stream
-r <base port> - Create a relay server on base port, defaults to port 8000
-z             - Don't scan for free ports if base port is not avail
-p <url>       - Use HTTP proxy server at <url>
-o             - Write over tracks from incomplete
-c             - Don't auto-reconnect
-v             - Print version info and quite
-l <seconds>   - number of seconds to run, otherwise runs forever
-q             - add sequence number to output file
-i             - dont add ID3V1 Tags to output file
Exit 2

oh, ok, i want the -q option.

jcs@hypotenuse:> streamripper -q http://64.236.34.67:8000/stream/1018
Connecting...
Couldn't connect to -q
Exit 1

wait, what? read the usage again... oh, the url goes first and the args go after it?! WHY? and why is the option to add sequence numbers named '-q'?