Web Map Service with PyCairo and Pyramid

From time to time I have the chance to work with PyCairo, the Python bindings to the cairo graphic library. I appreciate this library because it allows to draw graphics primitives so super fast and thus it is very suitable to use it in web projects.
After my trials with GRASS GIS as WMS backend I thought I could create a raster web map service with improved performance by using PyCairo instead of GRASS GIS as renderer.

Zoom in - it is a super fast WMS!

Imitating MapBox' Cloudless Atlas

Inspired by several posts which explain MapBox' marvellous Cloudless Atlas, I wanted to imitate a cloudless atlas by myself. Limited in time and computer power I had to do it much simpler of course. But using first class spatial Python libraries I could achieve quite nice results with a simple Python script.

The result: a cloudless Landsat 8 scene

Building ZOO with Java on Ubuntu 12.04

I tried to build the ZOO WPS platform with Java support on Ubuntu 12.04 and it turned out to be not so easy. This is how I managed it with OpenJDK 7 (packages openjdk-7-jdk and openjdk-7-jre):

./configure LDFLAGS=-L/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre/lib/amd64/server --with-java=/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64

For unknown reasons the configuration writes wrong JAVALDFLAGS to the Makefile, thus the Makefile needs to be altered as follows. Replace the line where the JAVALDFLAGS are defined:

JAVALDFLAGS=-L/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre/lib/amd64/client/ -ljvm -lpthread

with

JAVALDFLAGS=-L/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre/lib/amd64/server/ -ljvm -lpthread

then follow the normal instructions with

make