httpareacodes; HTTP Status Code Tube Map; It’s Raining [HTTP Status Code] Dogs & Cats

Today’s Drop is a tad bit less heady than yesterday’s tome as we divert our attention to some fun and games (and maps!) with HTTP status codes.

A long-ago Drop featured clever things folks have done with 404 pages, but there are many more things one can do with the remaining sets of codes.

TL;DR

This is an AI-generated summary of today’s Drop.

• The blog post begins by discussing a project by Doug Sillars, who realized that HTTP status codes could be mapped to telephone area codes in the U.S./North America. He created a fun cartographic project out of this idea, which can be found here. The post also provides a guide on how to create your own cartographic diversion using an annually updated Esri dataset and a bit of R code.
• The second part of the post talks about an “HTTP Status Code Tube Map” that the author had saved. The original URL for this resource was defunct, but the author managed to resurrect it via the Wayback Machine. The map, which has been given a new home and a facelift by Talend, can be found here. The author notes that the map is more “cute” than practical, but appreciates the fun the original developers had in creating it.
• The final part of the post mentions collections of cat and dog pictures associated with HTTP status codes. The author provides links to these collections for dogs and cats, the latter of which has been turned into an API that serves up information pages or images based on the provided status code.

httpareacodes

One day, fellow Mainer Doug Sillars realized that HTTP status codes can be “mapped” to telephone area codes (specifically in the U.S./North America). He took that realization and made fun cartographic project out of it (GH.

Doug did a great job isolating the area codes then buffering the area to show the whole locale.

We can play along at home thanks to an annually updated Esri “USA Telephone Area Code Boundaries” dataset. Unfortunately, it’s in an icky, proprietary format, but it’s just a matter of good ol’ unzipping so we can get to something we can use outisde that ecosystem.

I took the file, filtered the codes to those from the Wikipedia entry (above), simplified the polygons a bit (to save bandwidth) and tossed up a GeoJSON file you can play with to create your own cartographic diversion.

Below, is a bit of R code to get you going. Folks who prefer Observable can fork this starter notebook.

library(sf)
library(ggplot2)
library(hrbrthemes)

x <- st_read("https://rud.is/data/us-ac-only.geojson")

x |>
  ggplot() +
  geom_sf(
    aes(
      fill = AREA_CODE
    ),
    color = "white",
    linewidth = 0.125,
    show.legend = FALSE
  ) +
  geom_sf_text(
    aes(
      label = AREA_CODE,
      size = Shape_Area
    ),
    family = font_gs,
    color = "white",
    show.legend = FALSE,
    lineheight = 0.875
  ) +
  coord_sf(crs = 5070) +
  labs(
    x = NULL, y = NULL,
    title = "The United States Of HTTP Codes"
  ) +
  theme_ipsum_gs()

HTTP Status Code Tube Map

I knew I had an “HTTP Status Code Tube Map” in my saved-through-the-years resources link store and did find it! However, my initial reaction was abject dismay as the original URL was now defunct (it was a resource from circa 2015 and these things happen).

I did manage to resurrect it via the Wayback Machine, but it was a bit janky.

After tracing the acquisition path of the original domain (restlet.com) I was super pleased to discover that Talend appreciated the work so much that they gave it a spiffy new home and a bit of a facelift (it’s a tad different than the static, old one in the section header).

It’s more “cute” than practical, but I do love me some tube maps, and the original devs obviously had some great fun making the map.

The interactive SVG is made from some data in webpacked JavaScript. So if you’re interested in riffing from it, you should be able to find the right component JavaScript file in Developer Tools, extract the coordinates and metadata, and have some fun of your own.

It’s Raining [HTTP Status Code] Dogs & Cats

This last one is super quick, as I think y’all may know about these already.

More than a few folks have curated and associated specific cat and dog pictures to HTTP status codes. Here’s one for dogs, which was inspired by one for cats.

The latter was turned into an API that serves up information pages or just images based on the provided status code (like you see in the section header).

FIN

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