Here's a simple, cut-out-and-keep recipe for making a very geeked out update on a cartographical classic. First, take a classic and iconic map which appeals to both the map geek in you as well as the Tube geek in you. Harry Beck's 1931 reworking of the map of the London Underground system will do nicely.

Next, take a classic, 1980's movie which appeals to both the scifi fan and the computer nerd in you and classifies as a guilty pleasure as an added bonus. Disney's 1981 Tron fits the bill here.

Add the ingredients, mix well and serve. The end results might just look like Kevin Flynn's version of the London Underground network on The Grid.

To paraphrase Kevin Flynn (the Tron character not the artist) ... "Who's that guy?", "That's Tron. He fights for the Tube Users".

Photo Credits: thehutch on Flickr and Kevin Flynn on Deviant Art.

In March 2010, Chris Osborne and myself transplanted the post-Where 2.0 WhereCamp from Silicon Valley and brought it to London. Judging by the feedback and comments we got during and after the event, it was a geotastic success and showed that Europe had an appetite for a 2 day, free, unconference on all matters geo. After a brief northbound sojourn as WhereCamp UK in November 2010, we're happy to announce that WhereCamp EU is back for 2011 and with a distinctly European flavour.

Whilst the venue is yet to be confirmed, WhereCamp EU will be taking place on the 27th and 28th of May in Berlin.

We'll keep you posted with more details on the WhereCamp EU blog , on Lanyrd and on our Twitter feed.

"Ich Bin Geograph" (as Google translate tells me).

As a precursor to last week's mashup* Digital Trends event, I chatted to Paul Squires of Imperica about my location trends in more detail than the mashup* format would have allowed for. The write-up from that interview is now up on Imperica's web site and, thanks to them adopting a Creative Commons  license, I'm able to reproduce it here.

After yesterday's admittedly bleak look at how not to use a map, I thought it worthwhile to look at a far more upbeat use of a map. This particular gem has been doing the rounds for a long long time, but I've no idea where it originated from (if you know, then please let me know in the comments).

As a map it's a fairly simple affair, inspired by Andrew Lloyd Webber's and Tim Rice's 1978 musical Evita, showing which countries should and which countries shouldn't cry for you.

So now you know.

From the department of cartographical curiosities comes this wonder; a map of the world but with the countries changed so that their population size corresponds to the size of each country. It's a map of the world; but not as we know it and has cropped up in several places online, including Frank Jacob's excellent Strange Maps blog.

In this new world order, the United Kingdom now sits, landlocked, in the middle of Africa, where the Republic of Niger is usually found and Germany has migrated in a South Easterly direction and now sits where you'd expect to find Saudi Arabia. The map also notes the interesting coincidences that the United States, Yemen, Brazil and Ireland don't actually move and correspond precisely to their place in the population ranking.

Photo Credits: JPALMZ (original source unknown).

There are some places you really don't want to check into using one of the many location based social networks. There's a variety of suggestions of this nature on the web including funeral homes, an ex-partner's house, jail or the same bar (every night). It now seems you can add military bases (when you're in a war zone) to the list.

A recent report highlighted concerns that the US Air Force has over troops using location based apps, with the Air Force posting a warning on an internal web site on the matter.

"All Airmen must understand the implications of using location-based services," said a message on the internal Air Force network. The features, such as Facebook's 'Check-in,' Foursquare, Gowalla, and Loopt "allow individuals with a smartphone to easily tell their friends their location," it said. "Careless use of these services by Airmen can have devastating operations security and privacy implications," said the message, which was posted on November 5, according to spokesman Major Chad Steffey.

The age old adage about Military Intelligence being an oxymoron springs to mind.

At the weekend myself and the rest of the Ovi Places team found ourselves re-geolocated from the Nokia office in Invalidenstraße in the Mitte district of Berlin to a new office in Schönhauser Allee in the Prenzlauer Berg district. While the office coffee hasn't improved, the view from my desk certainly has.

From left to right the view takes in the Fernsehturm, (East) Berlin's TV tower, Schönhauser Allee, looking towards Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz U-Bahn station on the U2 line and the dome of the Berlin Cathedral, better known as the Berliner Dom. I could get used to this view.