Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source Software - call for nominations

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation has opened nominations for the 2006 Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source Software. The Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source Software (GFOSS) will be given to individuals who have demonstrated leadership in the GFOSS community. Recipients of the award will have contributed significantly through their activities to advance open source ideals in the geospatial realm. Recall, Sol Katz was an early pioneer of GFOSS and left behind a large body of work in the form of applications, format specifications, and utilities while at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. This early GFOSS archive provided both source code and applications freely available to the community. Sol was also a frequent contributor to many geospatial list servers, providing much guidance to the geospatial community at large. Sol unfortunately passed away in 1999 from Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, but his legacy lives on in the open source world. Those interested in making a donation to the American Cancer Society, as per Sol's family's request, can do so at https://www.cancer.org/asp/donate/don_multi_donate.asp?navToScreen=don_1. Nominations for the Sol Katz Award should be sent to SolKatzAward@conference.osgeo.org with a description of the reasons for this nomination.  Nominations will be accepted until midnight UTC on August 31st (http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=9&day=01&year=2006&hour=0&min=0&sec=0).

Congrats to Autodesk Evangelist Lynn Allen on her wedding!

Let me be one of the first to congratulate Autodesk evangelist Lynn Allen on getting hitched this week in the Cayman Islands... I know there's a crapload of CAD managers out there who are broken hearted! Cheers Lynn.. nice pics! Kudos to Lynn for keeping up with the blog http://lynn.blogs.com/... what a keener!

Late night reading and 10 things about Glenn you may or may not know

In keeping up with the frequently posted top 10 lists, I thought I'd share with some of you 10 things that you might not know about me. The wife and kids are all gone for the night, I'm just defragging my hard-disk and removing loads of crapware, spyware, spamware, and whathaveyou ware from the PC and the notebook. Thus, here's a bit of a filler that you might find interesting or you may not give a crap about... regardless, enjoy!

Ten things about Glenn that you likely didn't know: (no particular order)

1. I do infact have a degree in Geography and the focus of my education was on GIS and urban geography

2. I was likely destined for a career in remote sensing until the funding for a very cool internship I was scheduled for fell through in 1991

3. I've never been much of a programmer, however, I was at one time "fluent" as a GIS Analyst with a number of platforms including PC ArcInfo (remember that product), AutoCAD MAP, MapInfo (4 I think), Genamap (if you have to ask then forget it... it's a long story), PAMAP (this was one a staple in the forest industry up here), QuikMap, and a few others.

4. I was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia (although you'd never guess that if you heard me speak)

5. I'm 42 (ya I know, I look like I'm 32 and act like I'm 22!) and I have WAY too many "Geo" t-shirts

6. I've circumnavigated the Queen Charlottes (if you're thinking "big deal" then you've never been there - it's spectacular)

7. I have no spleen (I lost it in an ATV crash on x-mas eve, 1985 in Northern New Zealand - I was water skiing 2 weeks later!)

8. I multi-task obsessively and rarely ever take the time to run spell-check on anything... can you tell?

9. I have 3 kids (ages 11, 9 and 4) 2 of them are born on St. Patrick's Day

10. I love to travel and I can knock off 4 or 5 18 hour days in a row at a conference, with social events every night too (must be the Canadian in me!)

11. the coolest place I've ever been is Fiji & S Island of New Zealand (a tie) and the place I'd like most to visit is Dubai & New York (a tie!)

I could go on but I don't want to bore you too much (feel free to ask me a question if you want)... oh, defrag is done... PS: have you backed up your work recently? If not, DO IT before it's too late!

One more thing... I love micro-brews too!

O'Reilly Etech, Where 2.0 and others scheduled for 2007

A few dates for you to bookmark for next year thanks to an update from the crew at O'Reilly .  The next ETech takes place on March 26-29, 2007 in San Diego, California. Proposals are due no later than October 9, 2006.
O'Reilly European Open Source Convention, September 18-21, 2006 in Brussels, Belgium
ETel, the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, February 28-March 1, 2007 in Burlingame, California
MySQL Users Conference, April 23-26, 2007 in Santa Clara, California -RailsConf, May 17-20, 2007 in Portland, Oregon
Where 2.0 Conference, June 19-20, 2007 in San Jose, California
O'Reilly Open Source Convention, July 23-27, 2007 in Portland, Oregon  - see more info at  http://conferences.oreilly.com

Google Code Jam 2006 registration is now open

Google has once again launched another Code Jam contest and registration is now open -- Registration for Google Code Jam closes September 5, and the qualifying round begins on the same day. Last year, more than 14,500 competitors from 32 countries took part in the Google Code Jam, and Marek Cygan of Poland took home the grand prize. The Google Code Jam is powered by online programming firm, TopCoder. The top 100 contestants win an all expenses paid trip to New York City to compete in the finals at Google's New York Engineering Office. To learn more about Google Code Jam 2006 see www.google.com/codejam2006.

off-topic A tip on evangelizing your blog

I like sharing.. you should know that about me by now [hopefully].. .so, here's something I'd like to share, particularly if you're a blogger or thinking about blogging. Guy Kawasaki [one of my favorite bloggers and a source of inspiration and motivation] offers up this tip sheet on how to evangelize your blog. Since I think of myself as an evangelist for GIS & geospatial technologies, and I'm also a blogger [you must know that if you're reading this thread!] I can also take advantage of some of Guy's advice here as well.. enjoy - I know I did! See http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/04/the_120_day_won.html

Palm extends GPS to Treo Smartphones with Navigator Smartphone

Here's how the application works... The Bluetooth technology-enabled receiver identifies the car's position using satellites. By communicating with the GPS receiver via Bluetooth, the Treo smartphone obtains real-time location information and displays 3-D maps on the Treo smartphone's high-resolution screen. After a destination has been programmed, TomTom NAVIGATOR gives voice-guided, turn-by-turn instructions in one of more than 30 available voices. It will also automatically recalculate a route after a wrong turn, avoid roadblocks or circumvent traffic congestion. At $299 (estimated U.S. street price), Palm's GPS Navigator Smartphone Edition includes a Bluetooth enabled SiRFstarIII GPS receiver, TomTom NAVIGATOR 6 software featuring the latest Tele Atlas(R) maps, a 1GB memory card with preloaded maps of the continental United States and Canada, a vehicle device cradle with windshield mount and a charging system. Available at http://www.palm.com/store

talking street guides and walking tours

An interesting use of spatial data is becoming even more common with the launch of street walking tours of Seattle, Boston, and Chicago... the tours are delivered to users via their cell phone.Some details... The tours entitled The Boston Audissey: Hidden Sites of Beantown, The Chicago Audissey: An Insider’s Tour with Kevin Coval and The Seattle Audissey: An Insider’s Tour with DJ Michele invite visitors and residents to experience a totally alternative and user-friendly way to explore their favorite cities.  The three tours, produced by Audissey Guides and powered by Talking Street, are available beginning August 15, 2006. For years now we've seen these tours offered at museums and amusement parks, however, porting the tour to the mainstream via cell phones could make this a lucrative market and also drive the demand for spatial data... nice! The price of each tour is $5.95. You can purchase passes at www.talkingstreet.com, or get more information, and download a map or iPod/MP3 version of the tour at www.talkingstreet.com and www.AudisseyGuides.com.

American Surveyor Magazine features The World - a look at RTK GPS technology

American Surveyor Magazine features "The World" a multi-billion dollar land reclamation project... have you seen TAS lately?? If not I encourage you to check out some articles.. even better, register for a free subscription to the magazine (qualified professionals only though). About The World... When completed, this massive island-creation project underway in the Persian Gulf will have added 1,500 kilometers of shoreline to Dubai's existing 70 kilometers. The article delves into some of the challenges and surveying obstacles that face the developer who's using RTK GPS technology to create the landscape... it's a very cool read! American Surveyor Magazine has some great material and typically combines the best of both worlds, technology articles from professional land surveyors for land surveyors, as well as editorial and historical content that will appeal to anyone interested in American history. See the article "Creating Islands" in this month's feature article at http://www.theamericansurveyor.com

A few of my favorite things from last week's ESRI UC

Did you manage to walk around the massive map gallery last week in San Diego at the ESRI UC? If so, did you pick a favorite from the thousands of maps that were on display? Here's a few things that were on my list of favorites which include favorite map, favorite both/exhibitor promotion, favorite pool, favorite plotter etc... What was your favorite map?? See below for a few faves!

 

 

Title - Memphis Blues: The fusion of music, science and art!

 

 

Favorite Pool - the Marriott of course! I was at Solamar bit this blows their pool away!\

 

 

Favorite display - The STM BC Experience was amazing... I have to get down to Victoria to see the big display!

 

Favorite booth gimmick - Thales and the find your match promo - nice "booth babes" too!

 

 

Favorite late-night eating - Gaslamp Pizza by the slice - I've been eating there for years!

 

 

Favorite speaker - Every year I try to Catch Clint Brown at least once -- twice this year!

 

 

Favorite plotter - This Oce unit rocks... where was this technology when I needed it - all for about $15k too!

US Census Press Releases

 A first test post to the blog using Windows live writer (beta) - the US Census bureau has released some new data and population estimates - an updated look at how the nation’s population has changed, and the first for many communities since Census 2000 For more see http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/users_guide...

Link to US Census Press Releases

A typepad moblogging solution from sixapart

Always on the look for blogging and moblogging tools and resources for our readers, here's one that will interest you smart folks who use a symbian S60 device. Mobile is a free application for S60 smartphone that enables users to post photos and entries to their TypePad blogs and photo albums. See http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/3537/108/ for more on this cool app!

Placebase Pushpin LE API and the dataplace offering up some fine functionality

Have you checked out the dataplace recently... this resource offers some amazing mapping functionality plus a wealth of data. For example, see the demographic profile of Fort Collins at http://www.dataplace.org/area_overview/Fort_Collins,_CO - users can also easily compare search results with other regions, view charts of maps of the results... this is awesome! The mapping is provided by Placebase who also have an enhanced Pushpin LE API available, providing google-like mapping capabilities but loads more - See http://www.dataplace.org/ and  www.placebase.com

Do you know who handles your domain name registration? Beware

Do you know who manages your domain name registration? You best be careful or you could get screwed around big time! Some advice.. recently I had a really bad experience with a company that handles some of my domain name registrations (luckily its only my personal and secondary stuff.. not all the important ones!!) I renewed 3 domain names and paid the annual fee via credit card, no problemo. Then, low-and-behold, about 2 weeks later the updates hadn't taken effect. Naturally I'm getting weirded out thinking that I may lose the rights to the domains. So I start contacting the company via the contact form, tech support etc... I do this over and over again and get nothing back, no feedback, nada. So now I'm getting really weirded out and move a couple of the more important domains over to godaddy... luckily the move takes effect. So, I continue to try to get in touch with them to no avail. Naturally, I decide to do the smart thing and I totally flip out on their tech support via email.... really, it was a masterpiece! Their reaction... they yank the freaking plug on all my domains.. yes that's right.. now none of them are accessible, and get this, they have locked them up so that I can't transfer any of them... NICE! NEedless to say that I'm pretty much prepared to rip someone's head off. I'm still battling with them and hearing nothing, thankfully I have a friend who does webhosting for me and also handles domain reg. so he's slowly having luck getting the names moved but its a real pain. So, let this be a lesson.. use only reputable firms (tucows, godaddy etc...) and NEVER ever use jumpdomain.com - lesson learned! Obviously I'd love to go legal on these guys but it really isn't a feesible option

Dell recalls notebook batteries

Puchase a Dell notebook lately? The company has issues a recall on the following: The batteries in question, made by Sony Corp., are in notebooks shipped between April 1, 2004, and July 18 of this year. The recalled batteries were sold with the following Dell notebook computers: Dell Latitude(TM) D410, D500, D505, D510, D520, D600, D610, D620, D800, D810; Inspiron(TM) 6000, 8500, 8600, 9100, 9200, 9300, 500m, 510m, 600m, 6400, E1505, 700m, 710m, 9400, E1705; and Dell Precision(TM) M20, M60, M70 and M90 mobile workstations; and XPS(TM), XPS Gen2, XPS M170 and XPS M1710. (Source: CBC) - now I wonder if the recall will enable me to trade in my piece of crap "premium, long life" battery that I upgraded to which provides me with a whopping 3 hours of life! - for more see www.dellbatteryprogram.com or call toll-free at 1-866-342-0011.

another not-so-familiar face absent from ESRI UC

Not a surprise to me at all, I didn't see Geocomm, gisdatadepot, geocommunity, thinkburst, Geocomm International, or whatever the hell you want to call them - at the ESRI UC this year. Not sure what they would sell or promote anyway since free GIS data is pretty much available everywhere on the web WITH metadata too! The company actually used to be an ESRI reseller, however, I suspect that since they were into ESRI for so much cash for past ArcView sales (as well as countless other creditors who've never been paid) they likely used up the old welcome invites...

Intergraph 2007 in Nashville next May

A little bit of irony here since "ripping" on Intergraph earlier.. I just received this tidbit from them. Apparently Intergraph 2006 was a "resounding success", playing host to more than 2,100 attendees from over 64 countries. From INGR... "We hope you will join us as we top the charts at Intergraph 2007. Announcing Intergraph 2007 in Nashville, Music City Tennessee. Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, May 21-24, 2007".

Oh where oh where has Intergraph (GIS) gone

Ever wonder about Intergraph and what they are up to? I have to tell you, I wonder the same thing... essentially these guys have dropped of the Geospatial radar screen and have disappeared... here's the most latest tidbit I just received from the OGC... "Preetha Pulusani announced her retirement from the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) Board of Directors. She recently resigned as president of the Security, Government & Infrastructure (SG&I) division at Intergraph Corporation to pursue career interests outside the geospatial industry. She is now CEO and President of InterThink Solutions, Inc."... As far as GIS and geospatial goes Intergraph is now out of sight and out of mind. Early in the year pretty much all of my contacts at INGR left their positions, the company restructured, geospatial World (the company's geospatial user conference) was trashed and people continue to leave the fold. I've actually attended most of their user conferences over the past 7 years but this was the first year that I was politely told to take a hike when I contacted them with my annual blurbage about attending and covering the show... simply put, I get the feeling that Intergraph no longer cares about GIS. If they do they certainly aren't telling anyone that they do... strange stuff man! Good luck to Preetha - any GeoMedia users left out there???

Otterbox wants to protect your laptop if you have to start checking it!

One Colorado-based company is trying to tap into the travel market by offering solutions that may be useful if the increased security at airports continues to escalate. Reps from Otterbox note that Airline passengers have been requested to place carry-on items in clear plastic bags and soon may be required to check valuables such as laptops, PDAs, cell phones, iPods and personal items like shampoos, cosmetics and liquid bottles. Imagine having to check your laptop?? The solution they offer... The OtterBox Rugged Laptop Carrying Case, a recently introduced case for protecting expensive laptops, offers protection even in checked luggage. With a waterproof, crushproof, dustproof, drop-resistant design, this case provides the ultimate safeguard for laptop travel. In addition, a lock capability allows travelers to rest easy knowing their laptop, Tablet PC, slate, Ultra Mobile PC or Convertible Tablet PC is securely stowed. See details at: http://www.otterbox.com/products/pc_cases/laptop_case/.  On a recent trip on Alaska Air one of my suitcases was pretty much crushed, likely due to a fall of 20+ feet by my best guess.. Gee... there was even some hay stuck to my bag... go figure that one! Luckily my laptop wasn't in it... imagine having to check your laptop and having those airport luggage guys toss it around... scary stuff!