I was trying to find a map to see all the S.A.M (Self-service Automated Machines) locations in Singapore but for some reason all the information from Singpost could only be found in the form of a flattened PDF which was generated from a XLS file and a very limited map searching function. I could not simply "see" all the locations of the S.A.M at once.
GRRRR! Why only allow one to see a few spots in one area at a time?
And whose idea was it to distribute it as a flattened PDF?
So I attempted to spend one pomodoro rectifying this by making the quickest possible map of all the locations.
Copied the ridiculous PDF table over to Google Docs using Adobe Acrobat Pro's "copy as table" function (if you do not specifically select "copy as table", it will copy it over as data on a single field, causing pain and agony to anyone hoping to use the information in a useful manner.) After more than one pomodoro of hair-pulling, I cleaned up the data and used a "batch geocode" script to get the lat/lon of each point. Dropped it into cartodb and DONE! A map showing ALL the S.A.M locations in Singapore at once. Couldn't even be bothered to change the map from its default mapbox styling. Never been easier. Anyone could make a map like this.
So, now we know... there is even a S.A.M in Sentosa?
See also:
- S.A.M Locations spreadsheet on Google Docs (cleaned up version)
- S.A.M Locations JSON for the above data
- Cartodb
- Mapbox
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