An Internet-based map store put out a press release offering custom drive time maps. The selling point: they save gas. There's no real explanation of how they'd be used for that purpose and I can't think of any.

Update 3:26 pm: Based on the comments below I realize I didn't define drive time maps. That was an error. Here's the definition, a fine one, from the vendor of the maps in question: "Highlights drive time range limits." Such maps define the boundary of how far a driver can go from a specified point in a specified time. The vendor suggests 5, 15, 30, 45 and hour ranges, but will accept any value you choose.

What do you think of when you see this headline for press release?

"Prompt appointed to launch Skyhook Wireless in Europe"

I understood it to mean that a company called Prompt would launch Skyhook's technology in Europe, not as the release intended perform the marketing launch in the new geography. Oops!

- press release

PINPOINT ACCURACY: CNN was reporting on the huge tornado that ripped through Windsor, Colo., days ago when a reporter demonstrated how Google Earth makes it possible to zoom right in on the area that took the hit.

The eye in the sky showed the United States, then focused more and more tightly until there on the camera was an aerial view of the firehouse in Windsor, our Windsor. Wrong Windsor, but still very cool.

- Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, California (near Windsor, California)

The parking mess started when residents of Essex County complained to the local council about a dangerous corner. The council determined one way to enhance safety was to limit parking in the area. So, contractors were dispatched to paint the road to show the "no parking" condition. But, they read the map wrong and put the lines on the wrong side of road. They were however clever enough to paint around the cars already parked there.

The explanation?

And when one man confronted the contractors painting the lines, he found them reading the map upside down.

- Guardian

Switched implies a sex offender mapping website was to blame for arson nearby. A message telling the offender to get was found on a trailer full of carpet cleaning materials. The source of the story is a very short story from the AP - it doesn't suggest how the arsonists found the location.

Update: The folks at Connected Tennessee corrected me about the first/second issue. From their note:

Your blog indicates that we misstated the presence of the Internet Speed Map as the first map of its kind, citing a later comment made in the release about out Broadband Inventory Map. That is a completely different type of map. Here is the segment of the release I am referring to:

“Connected Tennessee has also released maps that provide a very detailed picture of where broadband does and does not exist across Tennessee. The first Broadband Inventory Map was released on July 27, 2007. Tennessee is only the second state to benefit from such detailed and accurate maps of broadband availability.”

The Broadband Inventory Map is the second of its kind, following the efforts made by the state of Kentucky under the Connect Kentucky initiative. That is a completely different map, which is made clear in the press release.

I apologize for the error.

---original post----

First off the oddity: The headline reads:

"State first to offer broadband speed maps"

In the article, there's this sentence:

"Tennessee is only the second state to benefit from such detailed and accurate maps of broadband availability."

Apparently, per the press release (pdf), the state is the first with a county by county version of such a map.

That aside, there are two points I want to make about the map - well maps - since the organization offers up all sorts - including broadband density and detailed county maps mostly in PDF and JPG. First, such mapping efforts help reveal tech injustice if that's the correct term, and can help push economic development. Second, there's user generated content: those in the state can run a test on the site's server to have their speed added to the database.