My MapMaking Hell (And they're not even points I care about) - DiMe Piece #3

These are reflections that I made on the last day of Weekend Writing Camp (formerly and more appropriately known as the "Weekend Boot Camp") on Sunday, September 28th. I just never posted them because I thought I wanted them to look differently when I actually did. Oh well, here they are:

_____________________________________________________________

Thinking about catching up on your Digital Methods assignments shouldn't:
a) give you stress pains, or,
b) Make you debate which machine you should use as if you're picking shoes for an outfit. (Thereby, distracting you from choosing an actual outfit you'll actually need to leave the house for work on time.)
it seems, however, that the machine does matter in my case and I don't know why. A little insight as to what I'm working with:

Machine 1: Gateway Netbook running Windows 8
Machine 2: Samsung Galaxy Tab S tablet running Android 4.4.2

Friday: Though I'm light years behind my classmates on doing the assignments, I persevered anyway and attempted to make a Google Map using the ProgrammingHistorian tutorial on Google Maps Engine Lite and a link to CSV data on Albuquerque's Public Art locations. I did this on Machine 1 and the Opera browser.

• The link for the public art data is a direct download link for a CSV file that I opened with no problems.
• Using the link in the tutorial doesn't produce a tour that looks anything like the version they have. Following the tutorial's directions is impossible, because no tour has popped up through which I can accurately follow directions.
• The site map instantly starts me somewhere in California. Inputting "Albuquerque, NM" has to be done each time to put the map over Albuquerque, and from there, I can do nothing else. Hovering over the streamlined buttons doesn't produce anything helpful.
• I give up on the tutorial and use Google to find another which has directions that mention nothing about a tour, but still has options and buttons that I don't see in my browser.
• I learn that my classmates had no problems with producing the map, and I begin to feel like God hates me.
• They're stuck on something harder which I already know will probably kick my tail later down the road.
• Out of curiosity, I open Firefox and I'm able to see the buttons in the new tutorial. The glimmer of hope I gained was snuffed out when I uploaded the CSV file and nothing happened except it told me that I was missing other files.
• Stumbling around the buttons on the site, not only can I not find helpful buttons to make the data show up, but I can't even delete the failed project I started to begin again.
• A kind classmate informs me that he could do nothing with the CSV file either and instead used the KMZ file that he downloaded from the city's GIS site. I start to feel a little better but still frustrated. The kind professor also tells me that CSV values are hard to work with.
• Class time ends and it's all I can do to avoid running away screaming.

Sunday: For the sake of my shoulders and time constraints, I decide not to swap out Machine 1 for a third machine, which is bigger, heavier, and runs an older, but still reliable version of Windows. Since I spent my Saturday of writing camp work reading for another class, I've decided to spend a good deal of facing the demon of getting this damned map to work.

• Machine 1, in typical fashion, has difficulty connecting to the internet. This adds to my frustration because Machine 2 always seems to connect to the internet easily.
• Out of curiosity, I decide to see whether I will have issues making this map on an Android tablet. Even though it's a Google OS, I still believe it's a valid concern; the web doesn't see mobile devices the way it does devices running traditional desktop operating systems. I'm also getting used to using an Android device in the way that I use Windows; accessing files is a bit more frustrating.
• Remembering the kind classmate's advice, I download the public art KMZ file from the city's GIS Date website with the Chrome browser. Opening it shows me the information in Google Earth (pretty cool)
• Surfing directly to the Maps Engine website doesn't produce a webpage, although I can surf to other places with no problem. (odd.)
• Going back to the ProgrammingHistorian's link to Maps Engine Lite, the site comes up with a different layout that gives the options of creating or opening a map and pop-ups to direct you on where to upload data.
• I upload the KMZ file I downloaded, only to discover that this site actually wants CSV files! * I download the CSV file onto Machine 2 and try again. The upload is successful, but it wants me to choose columns to determine the placemarkers (not sure why the artist's name would affect this). I check the boxes for all of the available information and move on. The next screen wants me to pick something else, but all of the options are gray; I can neither pick anything or move on. I hit the back button so many times that I'm at Step 1 in uploading the information all over again. I stop to write this information for my blog.

After leaving one category open for the placemarkers and using the leftover category for "the other thing," I was finally able to produce my map. Would I have had these issues if I used Chrome to begin with? Why should that even matter? Onto the next frustrating thing...