Day: June 26, 2026💾

📽️ Videos

How to Zoom to a KMZ Layer Using maplibre-gl-kmz-layer

It took me a while to figure out to zoom to a KMZ Layer using maplibre-gl-kmz-layer using MapLibre GL and the Gemini AI wasn’t exactly helpful. It’s quite simple if you use the getData() function your KMZ Layer, then pass the features object along to turf.bbox() to get the bounding box.

map.fitBounds(turf.bbox(kmzLayer.getData().features));

Here is a complete code example, that can be copied and pasted in your browser. You may have to change the KMZ file path, as my server does not allow hot linking, but other then that it will run locally.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
	
    <link rel='stylesheet' href='https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/dist/maplibre-gl.css' />
    <script src='https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/dist/maplibre-gl.js'></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/northprint/maplibre-gl-kmz-layer@main/dist/maplibre-gl-kmz-layer.js"></script>
    
    <!-- required for finding the bbox of the underlying KMZ layer -->
    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@turf/turf@7/turf.min.js"></script>
    
    <style>
        body { margin: 0; padding: 0; }
        html, body, #map { height: 100%; }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="map"></div>

<script>
	
// initial map set up with openfreemap
const map = new maplibregl.Map({
    container: 'map',
    zoom: 10,
    center: [ -74.62274, 43.68907],
    pitch: 0,
    bearing: 0,
    maxPitch: 95
});

map.setStyle('https://tiles.openfreemap.org/styles/bright');

// once the map is then fully load the KMZ layer
// so that it appears above all other layers

map.on('load', async () => {	  
	let kmzLayer = new MaplibreGLKMZLayer.KMZLayer({
	  id: 'kmz-layer',
	  url: 'https://andyarthur.org/data/kml_20266.kmz'
	});

  await kmzLayer.addTo(map);

  // to zoom to the KMZ layer, you need to get the underlying feature data
  // use the turf library to get the bounding box (bbox) and pass this along to
  // map.fitBounds

	map.fitBounds(turf.bbox(kmzLayer.getData().features));
});

</script>
</body>
</html>

SVGZ Graphic: More Births or Deaths - 2025 Census Population Estimates
SVGZ Graphic: Burg vs Burgh

Condon Hollow Trail – Halcott Mountain Lean To

The Condon Hollow Trail follows an old mountain pass that runs between South Vly Mountain and Sleeping Lion in the Hallcott Mountain Wild Forest. The lean-to is located 2.0 miles west of of the Condon Hollow Parking Area, or 1/2 mile east of the Turk Hollow Road. The col between the mountains is 2,860 elevation, an ascent of 800 feet from Condon Hollow Parking Area. The lean-to is at 2,380 feet, which roughly 300 ascent from the end of Turk Hollow Road or 400 feet below the col. Tailhead parking at: 42.21852779311055,-74.42673587591332

More information on this forest can be found on DEC website: https://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/28314.html

 Condon Hollow Trail - Halcott Mountain Lean To

Thematic Map: Voting Machines in Use in New York State

Caveat Emptor Banking

I was reading about the scam fin-tech company, Yotta Bank, a financial services company masquerading as a bank. Unlike banks and credit unions, there is no government-backed insurance or supervision of bank assets in financial services companies compared to banks – even when they claim such backing. It is really essential to confirm a bank is a bank by searching the FDIC BankFind Suite, especially when putting money in a high-interest internet-only savings account – which makes sense as most retail banks and credit unions offer very low rates due to the high cost of offering in-person service. Credit unions offer similiar banking opportunities to banks, you can verify they are insured like an FDIC Bank through the NCUA Credit Union Locator service. People expect the government to protect them, but the government doesn’t always do that, so check yourself.

For going on 20-years now, I have had an high-interest savings account. It has changed hands several times since I opened it, but before opening it, I confirmed with the FDIC BankFind Suite that it’s an FDIC insurance was legimate and that it was a legitimate bank, even though it is associated with a large banking insitution. It has rolled over into a couple of different banks since then, and just recently I found out the bank name had changed again, and I promptly went to FDIC BankFind Suite to make sure my savings was still in a legitimate bank. While I doubt it would be legal for a FDIC insured banking institution to transfer funds from an FDIC account to a non-FDIC account, it is always good to regularly confirm such details, especially when the bank you are dealing with does not have a physical branch locally.