[HN Gopher] Your Name in Landsat
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Your Name in Landsat
        
       Author : warrenm
       Score  : 155 points
       Date   : 2024-09-03 14:43 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov)
 (TXT) w3m dump (landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov)
        
       | diggan wrote:
       | Maybe it's just me, but I'm having trouble seeing the "N"s in the
       | images:
       | 
       | https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/apps/YourNameInLandsat-main/pu...
       | 
       | https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/apps/YourNameInLandsat-main/pu...
       | 
       | https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/apps/YourNameInLandsat-main/pu...
       | 
       | That last one, yeah maybe, but gets kind of lost in the noise.
       | The two first I have no idea how it's supposed to be an N.
       | 
       | Cool little experiment none the less :)
        
         | xattt wrote:
         | Cursive lower-case n.
        
           | diggan wrote:
           | Oh, thanks. That's what I get for skipping cursive classes in
           | school.
        
             | CoastalCoder wrote:
             | You could try to take the class again.
             | 
             | Any guess what the class would be called? :)
        
               | diggan wrote:
               | Those were classes we had in primary school in Sweden
               | more than 20 years ago, in "Lagstadiet" (Lower stage -
               | mandatory school in English?), when we were like from 7
               | to 9 years old or something.
               | 
               | Unlikely to even attempt to go back there :)
        
               | CoastalCoder wrote:
               | I completely respect your refusal to acknowledge my
               | terrible pun :)
               | 
               | I remember having to learn cursive on 2nd grade in the
               | US, so I would have been about 8 at the time. Seems like
               | a pretty obsolescent skill these days.
        
               | xattt wrote:
               | !
               | 
               | Having cursive under your belt helps you learn the rules,
               | so you can break them later on as you develop a personal
               | style.
               | 
               | I've worked in roles where I had a lot of hand writing to
               | do. If I used printing, it would take about three times
               | as long than if I used my shorthand.
               | 
               | Even taking notes in lectures, I could create notes by
               | hand much faster than I could transcribe with a keyboard.
        
               | kccqzy wrote:
               | For some reason it never occurred to me that cursive is
               | related to shorthand. I did self study cursive a little
               | bit when in high school, but I simply recognized it as a
               | way to write things that are more beautiful even though
               | to modern eyes it might be more difficult to read. I did
               | remember annoying a few teachers in high school when my
               | work looked like the handwriting in
               | https://mastodon.social/@waldoj/113082201727675702 and
               | the teachers spent extra time understanding my writing.
               | 
               | It never occurred to me that there is a shorthand to
               | increase my own efficiency.
        
               | mananaysiempre wrote:
               | Side note: in the word "shorthand" itself, the "hand" is
               | "handwriting; style of penmanship"
               | (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hand#English meaning 10),
               | cf. "round hand" etc.
        
               | toast0 wrote:
               | > I did self study cursive a little bit when in high
               | school, but I simply recognized it as a way to write
               | things that are more beautiful even though to modern eyes
               | it might be more difficult to read.
               | 
               | That sounds more like calligraphy, IMHO. Many of the
               | letter forms for some styles of cursive are similar to
               | what happens if you write in block letters without
               | lifting your pen. Depending on the particular style,
               | there's some exceptions and embelleshments, but if you're
               | taking a lot of notes in a hurry with a pen in block
               | letters it kind of devolves into cursive naturally.
               | 
               | Shorthand is generally phonetic, so that's a different
               | skill, IMHO.
        
               | kccqzy wrote:
               | Yea I recognized that writing cursive is faster because I
               | don't need to lift the pen that often. But the question
               | is whether that makes the reader do more work. A few
               | teachers in high school preferred that I stop because it
               | was more troublesome for them to read.
               | 
               | In any case I find any kind of handwriting to be slower
               | than typing, and I am not even a good typist.
        
               | reaperducer wrote:
               | _I simply recognized it as a way to write things that are
               | more beautiful_
               | 
               | The whole point of cursive is to make writing easier and
               | faster than printing.
               | 
               | Once you know it, and aren't struggling against it, it
               | becomes very fluid and your hand muscles hurt less than
               | if you print.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | Pretty much the only use of cursive today is for
               | signatures. To me, the only rule you need to remember is
               | that the signature you use for legal documents should not
               | be the same as what you use for autographs. Are there any
               | others that make sense for today's limited real world use
               | of cursive?
        
               | reaperducer wrote:
               | _Seems like a pretty obsolescent skill these days._
               | 
               | I had a younger coworker tell me that he can't read any
               | cursive. I asked him how he finds Walgreens, or which
               | license plates are from California.
               | 
               | People act like it's Klingon. If second-graders can
               | figure it out, an adult can make an effort.
        
               | buildsjets wrote:
               | That is a cursive-like font which is designed for easy
               | readability. A formal handwritten document like the
               | Declaration of Independence is slow and difficult to
               | read. And an informal documents like San Pepys diaries
               | are nigh indecipherable to modern eyes.
               | 
               | https://www.magd.cam.ac.uk/pepys/virtual-
               | exhibitions/diary#:....
        
               | bahmboo wrote:
               | Recursive
        
               | tejtm wrote:
               | history
        
       | hagendaasalpine wrote:
       | snippet to view all the letters at once                 <!DOCTYPE
       | html>       <html lang="en">       <head>           <meta
       | charset="UTF-8">           <meta name="viewport"
       | content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
       | <title>Landsat Alphabet Viewer</title>           <style>
       | body { font-family: Arial, sans-serif; text-align: center; }
       | #imageContainer { display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; justify-
       | content: center; }               img { width: 100px; height:
       | 100px; margin: 5px; object-fit: cover; }           </style>
       | </head>       <body>           <h1>Landsat Alphabet Viewer</h1>
       | <div id="imageContainer"></div>           <script>
       | const letters = {                   'A': 3, 'B': 1, 'C': 2, 'D':
       | 1, 'E': 3, 'F': 1, 'G': 0, 'H': 1,                   'I': 4, 'J':
       | 2, 'K': 1, 'L': 3, 'M': 2, 'N': 2, 'O': 1, 'P': 1,
       | 'Q': 1, 'R': 3, 'S': 2, 'T': 1, 'U': 2, 'V': 3, 'W': 1, 'X': 2,
       | 'Y': 2, 'Z': 1               };               const container =
       | document.getElementById('imageContainer');               const
       | baseUrl = 'https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/apps/YourNameInLandsat-
       | main/public/images/';                      for (const [letter,
       | maxNum] of Object.entries(letters)) {                   for (let
       | i = 0; i <= maxNum; i++) {                       const img =
       | document.createElement('img');                       img.src =
       | `${baseUrl}${letter.toLowerCase()}_${i}.jpg`;
       | img.alt = `${letter}_${i}`;                       img.title =
       | `${letter}_${i}`;
       | container.appendChild(img);                   }               }
       | </script>       </body>       </html>
        
         | sharpshadow wrote:
         | Your comment activates Reader Mode on Safari mobile
         | automatically.
        
           | guessmyname wrote:
           | It does? Mine seems to load this page just like any other
           | comment section. I'm using iOS 16.7.10, so perhaps Reader
           | Mode activates automatically on higher versions. I'm curious
           | to test this a bit more but, sadly, my phone is out of
           | warranty for non-security updates so I'll have believe that
           | what you say is true without testing anything.
        
           | dima55 wrote:
           | File a bug report?
        
       | kschaul wrote:
       | How did they locate these particular images? I would love to read
       | something on that, or similar projects looking across satellite
       | imagery for specific patterns.
        
         | indeed30 wrote:
         | Easiest way is going to be to downsample the images and then
         | apply a pre-trained classifier that can ignore the fact these
         | are sat images. You could probably turn them into 28x28
         | greyscale and then use a model trained on handwritten
         | characters, like EMNIST.
         | 
         | Whatever approach you take, you'll probably be selecting the
         | final set by hand, so it's just about building the candidate
         | set in an efficient manner. Low absolute accuracy isn't really
         | an issue as long as you end up with a managable set to review.
        
           | AnotherGoodName wrote:
           | There simply doesn't seem to be that many different images so
           | I can imagine an even easier way than an image classifier.
           | 
           | As you work through your day as a satellite image person (I
           | don't know the job title, sorry) and see a shape that looks
           | like a letter screenshot and save it. You'll have an alphabet
           | in a very short amount of time.
           | 
           | Given the repeats of letters I'm seeing I think that's all
           | they've done here.
        
       | Brajeshwar wrote:
       | I was showing this to my daughter a few days back - naming her,
       | her dolls, and what not. Between Landsat and Sentinel satellites,
       | there are over 77TB of free satellite data available for public
       | use every month. Lot can be done while a lot of these data are
       | wasted and not-so-usable. And we have fun things like lettering
       | words with earth's landscape. Have fun.
        
       | clan wrote:
       | Love this! But seems to be hugged to death.
       | 
       | The images load extremely slowly. This can be confusing as you do
       | not see any spinner or indication that they are loading. But they
       | do come if you are patient.
       | 
       | As you have some letters in the cache they render instantly so to
       | the users it looks totally broken. Unless your linger on the page
       | and the letters snaps in 20 seconds later (one by one).
       | 
       | An empty place holder (so you can see the space) until the letter
       | loads would be nice. Maybe even a "Loading" placeholder text for
       | each letter. An animated (fake) spinner would be a nice visual
       | cue. Then swap the image when it is loaded.
        
       | AnotherGoodName wrote:
       | It defaults to "landsat" on loading for those scratching their
       | heads like I was (lanisal? What is lanisal!?)
        
       | hammock wrote:
       | Reminiscent of the famous Butterfly Alphabet photographic
       | artwork: https://mymodernmet.com/kjell-bloch-sandved-butterfly-
       | alphab...
        
       | yardstick wrote:
       | Would be cool to be able to cycle through images for a specific
       | letter in a word. So you can refine the look.
        
       | excalibur wrote:
       | This does have a profanity filter, but it's a bit rusty. Minutes
       | of quality entertainment for 14-year-old boys of all ages.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2024-09-06 23:00 UTC)