Brat Map Problem

[Shiawassee]

Today, when I bring up the Brat Map, Mozilla Firefox warns me that a script is causing it (Firefox) to run slowly and will probably cause Firefox to stop running.
Sure enough, it soon stops.
This problem did NOT occur yesterday before the announcement of all the different pin colors. Perhaps that addition is the problem?
Dale, CD wannabe appreciating all the hard work the head nerd and the nerdlet have done here...

[AK-Brando]

I have no problem with it. I am using Firefox as well. What version do you have? I have version 1.07 running on XP Pro. Good luck.

[Shiawassee]

Thanks Brian, should have said.....running Firefox 1.07 on XP Home.

on edit: Just realized problem is on my generic no-name desktop and not on my Dell Latitude laptop...
Dale

[Da Nag]

The error you saw doesn't surprise me...here's the deal, I'll try to keep the nerd-speak to a minimum.

Google maps uses something called overlays for the push-pins - a unique script needs to run for every push-pin on the map. The scripts runs on the client, not on the server - so, the faster your computer, and the more memory you have, the faster the map will load.

Firefox is telling you the truth - loading the map takes a lot of resources. If you are low on available memory or your CPU is heavily loaded, loading the map can take a looooong time, and Firefox gives you the option of bailing.

It became clear rather quickly that having many push-pins slows the loading of the map considerably - once it loads, everything is fine. To demonstrate this, if you click one of the push-pins in the legend with relatively few boats (i.e. anything other than 22 or 25), the map loads very fast.

The "sweet spot" with our current code seems to be around 50 push-pins or less - this loads the map very fast, even on relatively slow computers. There are two ways to address this:

- Limit the push-pins on the initial map

- Optimize the code that loads the map

I'm looking into both, but you can only optimize code so much. From what I've seen, even the most optimized Google map sites limit overlays to 200 - a small fraction of our membership. More likely than not, the permanent solution will be to have some sort of front-end to the map that limits the push-pins. This could be a form that allows you to query just the attributes you are interested in (boat model, state, user, etc.), or something like a labled push-pin per state, indicating the number of boats it has. You could then click the push-pin to zoom in and display more boats.

Short term, I'm looking into having a "Please wait while map loads..." message popup initially, just so folks know something is going on.

So for now...just be patient while the map loads. I'll get the kinks worked out.

[Shiawassee]

Thanks, Bill.
Dale

[Pat Anderson]

A "please wait" message won't help a lot of us - Firefox tells us REAL QUICK that our computer is about to go non-responsive as a result of the script that is running...and it does. Patience is a virtue but not a remedy for a non-responsive computer! Looks like it has to be one of the other techniques for us, I will stay tuned until there is a post to try again, because this IS pretty cool! As always, thanks for all your work on this site!

[rogerbum]

I'm running Firefox on a mac and I too get the messages that the computer will run slow etc. However, I click through a couple of these and the script runs just fine (as does the rest of the computer...). So my sense is that Firefox's algorithm for predicting that your computer will run out of memory is just not that good/accurate. Try just clicking through the messages and see if things don't work just fine.

Bill
I used the activity monitor in the OS to get a sense of what is happening. In the current state, the script adds about 20Mb to the RAM Firefox is using and never even comes close to pegging the CPU usage on any of my computers. Hence, as mentioned above, I think it's just Firefox being overly "protective" in when its algorithm throws a message. As an aside, the script runs much more slowly under Safari (which is a bigger memory pig than Firefox) and just displays is list of the boats under IE on a mac. I haven't tested it on the PC/Windows side as I assume you do that or would quickly hear from others about issues there.

[Da Nag]

Thanks for the feedback, guys - there's definitley some optimization I can do on our end, you shouldn't have to be waiting so long for the map to load, or putting up with the Firefox messages.

Here's an example of something I'd like to emulate - as you can see, it has almost twice as many markers as we currently do, yet loads far faster, and gives a progress indicator as things load.

[TyBoo]

I know you don't like MS, Bill, but here's what I found. I am running Windows XP Professional on a 2.83g Pentium D with 1 gig of RAM and connecting to the net with 3mb cable. So the system I'm on can't be blamed much. The default IE security settings block two Google cookies when the C-Brat site initially loads, and the map takes close to a minute to load. If the security settings are relaxed to allow the cookies, it goes faster but is still a pain. Basically, a bunch of frap. Folks running IE might do better if they set it to load the cookies.

Now then, the emulation goal you linked to as a sample is far frappin' out!

[Captains Cat]

OK Bill, great features. Here's a new challenge: Let's put a GPS transponder on HALCYON so we can keep track of where El and Bill are, we could see them moving, in real time, all over the map!

Charlie

[Da Nag]

[Captains Cat]

Bill, it was sort of in jest, but having been a ham (the radio kind that is) for almost 50 years, I've worked with something called APRS. This system will put a moving ham radio station on a map and keep track of exactly where it is. Pretty neat, useful, etc. It's the stuff that the black box law enforcement trackers are made out of.

Good work on the map, it's neat and will let us all know where the concentractions of Brats are. That way, we can either congegrate there or avoid them , whatever our choice is. Now, all we gotta do is get folks to put their zip codes into the system.

Have you thought of a pin for "wannabees". That would let us lucky owners find them and encourage them to mortgage their futures.

Charlie

[Rabidfish]

I was going to refrain from this thread, but I too want to say thanks for the map. EXCELLENT WORK!

Ditto the idea for wannabees!
What a great way to help others join in the fun!
I hope that doesn't bog the system down too much....

How about a place for them(or us) to sign up to be contacted for the next event?

[New Hampshire Guy]

Non-Nerd Input.

Just an idea, but would it be possible to have several maps? One for each sized boat? Or just East coast, mid-states, West coast?
Since the problem is the Number of pins, is there a logical way to divide and conquer?
I'd hate to have anybody try to redesign the software just so us lazy brats can have a big picture, which we will seldom use. I would be happy with multiple maps if it is easier for THE NERDS.
Uh, is everybody with me on this one??????????
Just an idea...
Fair winds,
John
Y-Landing

PS if this idea was

[New Hampshire Guy]

PS if this idea was already discussed, excuse my lack of tech-speak