Joyful Habits

If there is one habit that brings me the most joy, especially in the face of (and possibly in spite of) longings for insecurities or even scary tendencies about peer pressure, it is the desired QGIS project, where I have covered numerous regions, with the most recent extensions occurring into Arkansas, Louisiana, and even Texas. And plus, QGIS is also known as a qualifying application in the “Digital Public Good” system.

Failures of Time Management

As novaTopFlex, my most substantial failure in my time management systems is most certainly my desire to listen to The Lunduke Journal, operated exclusively by Bryan Lunduke. However, I am also increasingly interested in all of the shows produced by Lunduke, and I am actively planning around a possible meeting with the journalist in the coming weeks.

The Principled Stance in Identity

If I ever decide to eliminate my strong connection to Bryan Lunduke and his words of wisdom, I actually also maintain interests that remain compatible with the Three Identities of my personal identity: novaTop, geoTop, and futoTop. I continue to gain interests in the topics associated with each of these identities, often to organize the respective topic clusters into their respective categories.

Alternatives to Time Waste

For better time management outlooks, I will begin to keep track of the times and timing issues that I have taken risks against in prior offenses. Time management structures are often hierarchical, and must be aligned based on our valuable preferences and our external influences. Our modern societies may not be structured in our favor, by the way. Even though I have gradually identified opportunities to escape from the mainstream, I continue to remain addicted to some of the issues of proprietary software modes, particularly when I access data from OpenStreetMap contributors.

As novaTopFlex, the ideal preferences to replace the encroachment of The Lunduke Journal and of the words of Bryan Lunduke are as follows:

• Utilize Internet Relay Chat (IRC) when concerned.
  • Participate in the fullest available resources from discussions about the Linux community and Permacomputing principles, among potentially related topics.
  • Mark as “away” when (and only when) physically away from keyboard.
  • Create a single, unified account with NickServ to ensure a proper account login for select channels (and to streamline the overall experience).
• Practice for Computer Science and Cyber-Security opportunities with access to offline documentation, especially with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth disabled.
• When available and time is remaining, utilize hardware and software resources to the greatest extent to practice for proper programming, beyond the core principles of the documentation.

As geoTopFlex, there is no inherent problem with the unrelated content of The Lunduke Journal. There is no obvious reason to associate geospatial content delivery with the technological news networks in any way. However, plans to replace the encroaching beliefs from Bryan Lunduke that are available to me are as follows:

• Utilize IRC and otherwise online resources when having trouble with using QGiS or other GIS software properly.
  • This may also include plugins, such as QGIS Cloud, that may have trouble with versions of Python newer than the 3.10 series.
• Ensure that the mapping and other geospatial projects have a clear focus, whether to provide centroids to avoid revealing personal information, provide a multipolygonal expression of the world map (or national or sub-national maps), or to provide generalized cultural or geographical data.

As futoTopFlex (sometimes futaTop), again, there is no inherent problem with Lunduke. Though this is the mathematics identity, and Lunduke may provide mathematical proofs for a few of the answers to solving tech myths or similarly tangentially-related topics, plans for the resolution to the encroachment may include video topics such as:

• NumPy
• SciPy
• SymPy
• Pandas
• MatPlotLib

All five of the topics listed above are modules from Python that are commonly associated with related to mathematics in the language.

Two plus One: Exploring the ‘topFlex Identities

May 31, 2025, and beyond

novaTopFlex is an identity, a community, and an ethical channel on YouTube, all focusing predominantly on advocacy for open contributions and the elimination of closed contributions. Although the topics of interest may vary substantially through the three identities, the ideologies remain fairly similar.

novaTopFlex

novaTopFlex is the technological identity, acting as the main identity for the novaTop personality.

novaTopFlex Examples

Examples of content containing features of the novaTop identity may include:

• Documentation-based topics (from system documentation sets, including, but not limited to:)
  • Ada
  • Apache HTTP Server
  • Bash
  • Blender
  • Bootstrap
  • C
  • CSS
  • CUDA
  • Crystal
  • Clojure
  • GLib
  • GLibC
  • GNU make
  • D
  • Django
  • Docker
  • Elvish
  • Fish
  • FFmpeg
  • FLTK
  • Kotlin
  • Kubernetes
  • J
  • Jekyll
  • Jinja
  • Joomla
  • Julia
  • Java
  • JavaScript
  • Lua
  • LaTeX
  • Linux Man Pages
  • Nginx
  • Sphinx
  • Tcl
  • Tk
  • Debian Policy
  • Debian History
  • Rust
  • Ruby
  • Go
  • Odin
  • Drupal Console (decommissioned due to drush)
  • WP-CLI
  • WordPress
  • Zsh
  • PEPs
  • RFCs
  • Racket
  • R
  • Perl
  • Python
  • PHP
  • MySQL
  • MariaDB
  • PostgreSQL
  • gi-docgen
  • Haskell
  • Haml
  • HTML
  • HTTP
  • Qt
  • UnderscoreJS
  • MomentJS
  • Node.js
• Content-based topics
  • Videos based on system manual “man” pages
  • Videos requiring access to software not preinstalled on an Ubuntu system
  • Videos showcasing output from commands and pagers such as “less”
  • The output of a single command
• Context-based topics
  • The output of multiple commands
  • The output of a chain of commands
  • Successful how-to guides for videos (rare but feasible, particularly for smaller projects and videos)

geoTopFlex

geoTopFlex is the broad and obvious geographical identity, and acts as a side-identity and geospatial channel to standard novaTop content. Often independent of the primary identity, sometimes novaTop content must be contained within geoTop context for reliability.

geoTopFlex Examples

Examples of content containing features of the geoTop identity may include:

• The “Advocacy for OpenStreetMap Contribution” playlist, originally from novaTopFlex prior to the identity split
• Active live streams for polygons from OpenStreetMap data for the “novaTop QGIS Project”
• Videos of ideal “control cities” for US and state highways across the nation
• Additional videos containing data from OpenStreetMap contributors

futoTopFlex

futoTopFlex is the secret mathematics identity, and acts as a back-identity to the standard novaTop and geoTop personalities. Unless combined with novaTop aspects on video, the futoTop personality will be respected as such. Otherwise, this is the futaTop personality to avoid confusion. Normally, content combinations will not occur; however, within a novaTopFlex or geoTopFlex video, combinations may be required to occur for an extended understanding of the context.

futoTopFlex Examples

Examples of content containing features of the futoTop identity may include:

• C and C++ Mathematics Libraries
• The J Programming Language, which is mostly comprised of mathematics commands
• Mathematics features in additional languages
• System libraries requiring mathematics
• Content from OpenStreetMap containing polygons
  • Delaunay Triangulation
  • Voronoi Polygons
  • Calculating centroids

Advocacy for OpenStreetMap Contribution ← New Orleans and the Gulf Coast

Following a successful mapping expeience along the Alabama-Mississippi state line, primarily within Alabama but angling toward the Mississippi side of the line while approaching the Gulf of <insert name here; redacted due to political tensions>, I have continued my journey into the State of Louisiana, particularly in the following parishes:

• Plaquemines Parish
• Orleans Parish
• St. Tammany Parish

Within the Gulf Coast region in general, I am also asking for your contributions from the following counties in Alabama and Mississippi:

• Jackson County, Mississippi
• George County, Mississippi
• Mobile County, Alabama
• Washington County, Alabama
• Choctaw County, Alabama

With your support and contributions to the OpenStreetMap database, the map can–and will–become more advanced–and detailed–even reflecting the fact that county lines are often crossed unnoticed. For instance, when one is leaving Mobile County and entering rural Washington County to the north (both Alabama), the mapping data may not remain continuous: There is virtually no green in rural Washington County, even though the more rural parts of the northern edge of Mobile County contain substantial greenery.

For more information about a community that has not yet been covered via the novaTop QGIS Project, please expect to gain such information within the next three to six months, if not sooner.

Discovering Western Alabama with Geospatial Analysis Data

Using tiles with map data from OpenStreetMap contributors, novaTopFlex (as geoTopFlex) has been able to identify rural settlement patterns in the western stretches of the State of Alabama. With QGIS to create polygons of land area dependent on the context of a certain setting, numerous regions had been interpreted as quite rural, particularly based on their road networks and highway color codes. The state-maintained road network density in these parts of Alabama (and into neighboring Mississippi for that matter) is quite low, with few if any settlements existing in specific locations more distant from these primary routes. And even unincorporated communities, while representing a greater percentage per capita than the national average, may not necessarily correlate with significantly lower densities, either.

So far, novaTopFlex has covered much of the region south to (and including) parts of Demopolis and is aspiring to cover the U.S. 84 corridor and more southerly counties along the Mississippi state line. Also, U.S. 45 crosses a diagonal portion of the state line in order to approach Mobile and the Gulf Coast within the State of Alabama. For more information about the urbanized areas along the Gulf Coast, please stay tuned to the novaTopFlex publication!

Beyond the South: Polygon Contribution to Pennsylvania and New York via OpenStreetMap

novaTopFlex is actively identifying different settings within Pennsylvania, New York, and other states to determine the most relevant mapping project updates for different locations. As always, distinguishing between the cities, the suburbs, the towns, and the rural areas is critical to ensuring a fair experience when additional users contribute to OpenStreetMap. I am now focusing on the creation of polygons predominantly located along the Pennsylvania and New York lakefront (on Lake Erie).

Advocacy for OpenStreetMap Contribution in North Carolina

I am currently active on a geospatial application called QGIS, which supports official tiles from OpenStreetMap that I gain access to while I am online. I have not downloaded the tiles from OSM, nor would I consider such a download feasible, because of the frequent updates to the map, as well as large swathes of outdated information on the map. New constructions, demolitions, and additional changes to the map in various regions are often not displayed on OpenStreetMap until a few years later, and manual contributors have unfortunately created adversarial layers that may or may not perpetuate at different zoom levels. However, to alleviate the concerns stemming from an outdated open map, I am actively creating a polygon layer to divide different contributors into zones, often influenced by urban, suburban, and rural characteristics within their respective zones.

For the State of North Carolina specifically, I am currently in an advocacy process for OpenStreetMap contributors in the Outer Banks (OBX) region, actively seeking new contributors to update the map and possibly create additional GIS layers showcasing relevant crises such as sea level rise in particular. So far, the map has been successful at covering the region in its entirety, and I wish to showcase the project on QGIS Cloud if available.

QGIS Project Update → March 27, 2025 (T-65)

The novaTopFlex QGIS project has now covered approximately three-fourths of Illinois, most of Indiana (except select northern areas), part of southern Michigan, all of Ohio, all of West Virginia, the western part of Pennsylvania, the western part of Maryland, the western part of Virginia, most of Kentucky (except an area at the western end), a corridor in East Tennessee, and a continuation of this corridor into Georgia and Alabama, as shown below:

April 5, 2025 (T-56) → Update(s)

The novaTopFlex QGIS project has continued gaining interest in largely rural areas, but also in a few minor urban cores and suburban systems, particularly in the State of Alabama. The extreme northeast of the State of Mississippi, largely east of the Corinth area, is also covered.

April 22, 2025 → Update(s)

The novaTopFlex QGIS project has covered a vast expanse of Middle Tennessee, though not completing the entire Grand Division within the state. Two (2) new states have been covered within the project (North Carolina and South Carolina), and coverage within the State of Georgia has been highly extended across the northern extremes of North Georgia, often defined by locations immediately south of the thirty-fifth (35th) parallel north of the equator (35°N). Areas covered in both Carolinas extend east to just west of the Landrum (SC)-Tryon (NC) area or, more broadly, to between Asheville to the north, Greenville to the southwest, and Spartanburg to the southeast. The new coverage area has been focused around numerous US Numbered Highways in the region, specifically those routes numbered 19, 23, 64, 74, 76, 129, 176, 178, 276, and 441. Within East Tennessee, the QGIS project has now covered segments of US 411 within the region. US 70N and US 70S are now nearly “clinched” in the project.

QGIS Project Update → March 6, 2025

QGIS Project Origins

The novaTop QGIS Project is an ongoing project (since July 2024) of creating polygons for advocacy for OpenStreetMap and other contributions. This map may also be used to associate with new individuals through both novaTopFlex and geoTopFlex personalities.

Current Status

Currently, novaTopFlex is interested in Springfield, Illinois, quickly approaching the inner city from the suburban areas. After the “hole” in Springfield is completed, I will continue for locales north of US 136 in the State of Illinois, largely east of the Illinois River. Eventually, interest is anticipated to change to Pennsylvania and New York, from west to east in both states.

Understanding Geospatial Divisions in the novaTop Project → February 17, 2025

The novaTop QGIS Project continues to create incentives for new OpenStreetMap contributors while also providing recommendations for geospatially-based areal divisions between different locations, based on guessing of divisions between the greatest and least levels of interest in the novaTop identity.

For novaTopFlex, the novaTop QGIS Project will be utilized for analytics and for polls on applicable services throughout the Fediverse, including here on WordPress. When the novaTop QGIS Project can be uploaded to QGIS Cloud again, please welcome any changes to the polygons created, and please ensure that the following estimates remain:

• Minimum 2,000 per polygon.
• Must contain interest in the novaTop identity somewhere within the polygon.
• Cannot cover the entire land area of included counties (applicable only to eastern U.S.)

QGIS Project Update → February 15, 2025

novaTopFlex continues to advocate for the extended utility of OpenStreetMap, an open-mapping service that pairs well with various setups based on Linux. So far, all portions of Indiana have been covered, except for locales along the northern and the western borders of the state.

QGIS Project Update — January 18, 2025

The novaTop QGIS project to advocate for OpenStreetMap contribution and incentivize newfound interests is currently focusing on the media markets of Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, quickly transitioning toward more westerly regions of Indiana and, subsequently, Illinois, as well. So far, most of Indiana east of Interstate 69 and south of US 224 has been covered with the advocacy polygons that are expected to be published online soon.

For more information from the various projects by novaTopFlex, please follow novaTopFlex on WordPress and throughout the Fediverse.

• QGIS Project Update Information
• Advocacy for OpenStreetMap Contribution
  • Available on YouTube
• Free-and-Open-Source (FOSS) Software Interests
• Linux Commands and Coding Projects

novaTopFlex

@novatopflex.wordpress.com@novatopflex.wordpress.com

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Expressing the 'Top-Flex Identity!

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