There is something joyfully silly about Filetypes / Airports that I love. You’ll probably visit this map for only a few minutes and then never return - but you’ll definitely remember it fondly for a long time.
The premise of Filetypes / Airports is very simple: it’s an interactive map that shows the locations of airports around the world whose airport codes also happen to be file extension types. For example, the airport code for Sherman Army Airfield is FLV, which is also the extension for Flash Video filetypes. So, Sherman Army Airfield appears on the map.
The wonderful sense of fun on Filetypes / Airports is enhanced by the nostalgic Windows 95 aesthetic used throughout the site. The retro computer style is a perfect match for the map’s iconography. The gray backgrounds and limited color palette of Windows 95 are also mimicked in the map's styled tiles, adding to the charm.
Map enthusiasts might enjoy zooming in on Iraq, where you can find Mosul International Airport. Fittingly, this airport’s code is OSM - a nod to OpenStreetMap. Considering that Switcheristic Telecommunications (the map's creators) acknowledged OpenStreetMap on the map itself, you’d think they would have had the decency not to remove the OpenStreetMap copyright attribution from the map.
Does the base map use OpenStreetMap data? I can't tell. It's limited to low zoom so could be rendered using only Natural Earth data.
ReplyDeleteClicking on Mosul International Airport, I definitely feel like the "OSM" file type should have some conversions available though!
Perhaps I was a little too quick to assume that it was OSM data 😳
ReplyDeleteHi - thanks for calling out the OSM attribution issue. We did use OSM through Mapbox. Our mistake for hiding the copyright attribution - we were trying to put the filetype info panel on the same spot. It was not our intent to not attribute OSM and Mapbox. We have restored the OSM attribution line on the current iteration of our map.
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