SpaceNavigator 3D supported by Google Earth 4.2.0196 public beta - then Google Earth beta pulled

We heard this week that 3Dconnexion announced its SpaceNavigator 3D mouse is now supported by the new Google Earth 4.2.0196 public beta. Google Earth users can now enjoy the popular new “sky mode” with the 3D mouse by flying to far-away galaxies, zooming in to see imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope and soaring past constellations.

Then we heard ... Google has decided to remove the Google Earth 4.2.0196 update temporarily. They will temporarily go back to the previous Google Earth 4.2.0180 version. Stay tuned for more on this and the updated support from 3Dconnexion. See www.3dconnexion.com

Google Maps adds coverage to 54 countries - Asia gets 3x more data

Reports from the Google Maps team confirm that the online map service has just added additional data covering 54 countries including a 3-fold increase in coverage for Asia and Mexico city now covered. The list of newly acquired data include: Afghanistan, Aruba, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belize, Bermuda, Brunei Darussalam, Bhutan, Bolivia, Cambodia, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Mexico, Myanmar (Burma), Mongolia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Timor-Leste, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen. According to Dave Barth, Google Product Manager... "this is just the beginning..." - see the lat/long blog for details - http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2007/09/more-of-world-for-you-to-explore.html

Yahoo! real estate foreclosures map

Are you in the market to pick up a foreclosure? If so then this resource from Yahoo! will be of interest. Simply enter a zip code and browse the foreclosures in the area - I did noticed some old data in the DB so I'm not sure why these remain in the listings. The results are presented on a nice Yahoo! map where you then simply click on the icon to retrieve additional information on the listings. See http://realestate.yahoo.com/Foreclosures

No more cell phones for California teen drivers

No more cell phones for California teens while driving. What a great effort being put forward in California. I'm not sure why it only applies to teen drivers but its a great start. The new law comes into effect next year. I have to wonder when the ban on applying make-up will come into effect... just the other day I was driving beside a young woman who was doing about 70 mph on I-25 and applying makeup... scary stuff! What's interesting about the cell phone issue is why aren't more people using hands-free? Given the large price people pay for cell phone plans perhaps shipping devices with a Bluetooth earpiece would encourage more use. Many devices come with hands-free attachments (cables), however, very few people actually make the effort to use these supported peripherals. What's your take... should more States adopt no-cell phone use laws for drivers?

Adobe MAX 2007 developer conference in Chicago and Flash Lite

Save the date - The Adobe MAX 2007 North America developer conference will be held in Chicago from September 29th to October 3rd. This year there will also be a 3 hours Boot Camp entirely dedicated to Mobile and Devices with presentations, showcases and discussions about Flash Lite and anything related to Flash... nice!

 

From Adobe... "MAX 2007 is an experience unlike any other, an opportunity to connect with thousands of Adobe users, experts, and staff for education, inspiration, and community. Join us to discover new skills, explore emerging technologies, build valuable relationships, and together challenge the limits of creative possibility." See  http://adobemax2007.com/

my first Yahoo! mapmixer - fort collins + Census Bureau Tiger data

I had to test the Mapmixer for myself now that I located some cool data from the US CEnsus bureau. Using data from http://tiger.census.gov I created a simple map that uses 1998 TIGER/Line^® data and 1990 Decennial Census data. I mixed it using the mapmixer app and voila.. ok this is cool! Try messing with the layer opacity tool to see the 2 different map layers that I combined. Sweet! Try for yourself at http://maps.yahoo.com/mapmixer

Yahoo! goes mixing maps with mapmixer

This is a cool app and very premlim but this Mapmixer project out of yahoo! research labs is quite cool. I'm not sure of the usefulness yet but I guess its cool! See http://mapmixer.com & http://maps.yahoo.com/mapmixer Apparently this is an internal pet project that lets users create a mashup by adding any GIF or JPG map to a Yahoo! map session as an overlay. Users can also embed the map as an iframe into their webpage (see below) . Any idea where to find some georeferenced GIFs? Thanks to slashgeo for this tip!

Google Financing Moon 2.0 - Google lunar x prize

Man, when will this slow down.. on the heels of Google earth launching the space/stars view a couple of weeks ago, reports have it that the company is now bankrolling a contest that could give a boost to the commercial space flight industry. From the report... Google partnered with the X Prize Foundation for the moon challenge, which is open to companies around the world. The Santa Monica-based nonprofit prize institute is best known for hosting the Ansari X Prize contest, which led to the first manned private spaceflight in 2004.

The Google Lunar X PRIZE is an unprecedented international competition that will challenge and inspire engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. The X PRIZE Foundation, best known for the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private suborbital spaceflight, is an educational nonprofit prize organization whose goal is to bring about radical breakthroughs to solve some of the greatest challenges facing the world today.

From the AP... The Google Lunar X Prize joins another prize already dangling in front of potential competitors: $50 million that hotel magnate Robert Bigelow is offering the first private American team to rocket a manned craft into orbit by 2010. The race to the moon won't be easy or cheap. But whoever fills the requirements in the Google contest by the end of 2012 gets $20 million. See http://www.xprize.org - see also the announcement HERE

Social Music with Social FM

Do you like music? Do you like to listen to music at work? Ok, its off topic but this new service is very cool! Enter Social FM. Here's the skinny from the company... The all-new Social.FM Web enables social discovery of music from friends and people with similar preferences on the Social.FM network. Anyone can search and discover music, music videos, biographies, album information, reviews, pictures, and chat and interact with Social.FM DJs worldwide. With over one million channels of user-programmed music and over 3.5 million unique user-contributed tracks, Social.FM embodies the ultimate social music mantra of “music of the people, by the people and for the people.” Social.FM Web is developed on Adobe’s Rich Internet Application (RIA) framework, requiring no software downloads or installation and featuring cross-platform support for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS/X and Linux.

 

Under the very cool is the coming soon... Social FM Mobile.. sweet! See http://search.social.fm there's loads of great classics here like Journey, REO Speedwagon, Stones, yadayada and the sound quality is freaking awesome! The search UI is a bit confusing but you can fumble around and locate great tracks and videos.

I want a printer friendly map from Google, Yahoo! Live Local Ask Maps!

I'm just printing out some driving directions from Google Maps and Ask maps and it has me wondering.. whay can't we get a really nice, effective printer friendly output from any of these mapping services? The maps and directions are great, however, every time I print one of these maps the map background is always some very light or pale yellow or tan color and basically serves only one purpose... it uses up my valuable printer cartridges! Hey map service... I don't need a background color on maps that I print out! It looks great and is effective online but its totally useless to include on the output. Wouldn't a couple of print options be nice.. a basic for quick output to take with you on your drive (ie. no background shading etc..., and an enhanced option with all the colors, shading etc.. so you could hang it on your wall!) my 2 cents! On a side note.. I noticed a banner ad from Ask Maps running on DIGG today. The banner promotes drag and drop mapping and directions... where is the drag and drop and what is this referring to???



FYI, I used several services to see if I got different estimates on a planned trip. Here's what I found (note: all routed me the same way)

Ask Maps http://maps.ask.com/
9 miles Time: 15 minutes

Google Maps http://www.google.com/maps/
10.1 mi – about 16 mins up to 20 mins in traffic

Yahoo! http://maps.yahoo.com
9.2 miles Time : 16 mins (approx)
I like the way Yahoo returned the business name, phone number when I entered the address of a business

Live search - http://maps.live.com/
9.7 miles Time: 12 minutes

Adams County Colorado using ike GPS and ArcPad technology from North South GIS

Another HOT topic at yesterday's GIS in the Rockies was GPS tagging of photos for your GIS project. Adams County Colorado is using a very cool mobile field data collection solution thanks to the help of NorthSouth GIS, a local GIS consulting firm. Adams County is Colorado's 5th largest county and home to more than 400,000 people. However, the county is for the most part rural so data capture can be a huge undertaking. The county had a need to capture a vast amount of data by sending field crews to record coordinates along with digital photography. They wanted highly accurate data and needed to build a database that could be shared over the the county by staff. Using the Ike GPS laser data capture device from NSG the county has been able to captured GPS tagged photography, attach event data to these data, QC in the office, upload to their server, and distribute the information via an enterprise system.

The county has managed to implement a very efficient system and has streamlined their workflows, however, what wowed attendees at the session was the Ike device. Developer by a company called surveylab, ike is billed as the World's only fully integrated data capture device... I have to agree.. this device is indeed WOW technology! The ike GPS / laser scanner provides users wit: a compass, range finder, GPS, digital camera, ArcPad support.. and much more!

Some more details on ike:
- offers traditional GPS use and data capture
- GPS laser enables data collection from a safe distance
- collect data from up to 1000 m distance
- weighs 1200 g
- desktop synch
- runs on Windows Mobile
- comes with ArcPad application builder (optional) and the ike SDK
- 3.5" screen (320x240)
- rugged
- supports 1GB SD card and 64 MB RAM

For more on this see http://www.co.adams.co.us/ or http://www.northsouthgis.com/ and http://www.survey-lab.com/

August Geoworld tackling yesterday's news

I just picked up a copy of GeoWorld while at the GIS in the Rockies event.. someone actually asked me... "do people still read this"? It's a cool mag, however, its like a time warp! I noticed the "August 2007" edition features 34 pages I think (I picked up someone's business card on thick card stock yesterday and it felt thicker than the magazine!). The magazine features an image on the cover that shows the City of Nanaimo - GIS pioneers? Not sure about that although Jason Birch has generated much interest in the city's efforts via his work with Mapguide Open Source and Google Earth.. too bad the city can't take advantage of some great Geo technologies to actually clean up the city... ever been to downtown Nanaimo...ohmygodwhatadump! Other goodies in the magazine include the ruling in the MAPPS case, the USGS releasing GeoPDF maps, and an update on the Rolla Mapping Center. All great stories but definitely yesterday's news. I have to wonder if this edition is Matt Ball's final act as the Editor of the Magazine now that he and Jeff Thurston have started a new gig. Stay tuned on that one I guess...

GIS In The Rockies - Ohio Greenway Project using Geocortex IMF

More random notes from GIS In The Rockies... I have to admit, before yesterday I wasn't terribly familiar with the Trust for Public Lands (TPL). That changed after taking in a short session TPL operates out of more than 50 offices nationwide and helps agencies create a vision for conservation. To date the organization has taken on more than 3200 projects, helped conserve more than 2.2 million acres of land, and helped to generate more than $24 billion in state and local conservation funding. Presenters Breece Robertson and Tom Dudley from TPL Santa Fe, NM presented a session that described the Ohio Greenway Gateway project - a web-based GIS supporting a conservation project that spans 20 counties in northern Ohio. Supporting the project is a web resource that was developed using the Geocortex solution from Latitude Geographics. The application enables stake holders to view land parcels and detailed information, color ortho imagery, and even print using custom print templates (8.5x11 or large plotter sizes). The system has become a useful, simple to use application that facilitates cross-jurisdictional use providing access to a rich database. TPL elected to use the Latitude Geographics IMF framework because it was powerful, simple to use, provided drag and drop tools, and most important, delivered out of the box functionality. For more details see

http://www.tpl.org/

http://www.latitudegeo.com/

http://www.geocortex.com/imf/index.html

GIS in the Rockies - NOAA and traditional GIS & GI Science tips

Some notes from GIS in the Rockies. I managed to get to this event (now celebrating 20 years) for one day. GIS in the Rockies brings together the Colorado GIS community (and many others) and offers attendees a chance to get a glimpse of the latest apps, services, and geo technologies being used by GIS professionals in Colorado. I decided to attend on Wednesday at it seemed that this first day offered the best sessions out of the two days - time would only allow me to spend one day here. At 8:30 the sessions started and ran back-to-back-to-back pretty much all day long. At first glance it seemed that people were a little confused because sessions ended on the hour or half-hour only to have the next session start immediately -- 5 minutes or so between sessions would have been quite helpful! Some of the highlights that I took away from the day:

 

A session by presenter William Linzey from NOAA touched on traditional GIS & GI Science and building an accurate GIS. It was sort of a primer on the technology but nonetheless quite interesting. The tips regarding data accuracy were very helpful and still hold true to this day... let's not forget about data accuracy and assumptions about accuracy - in this day of mashups and the GeoWeb 2.0 this concept is being left on the back burner! In particular I enjoyed the assumptions about accuracy that many people make. These include:

- trusting the source

- the accuracy has been taken care of

my software will ensure accuracy

- what we have is good enough

- accurate data is costly

- metadata.. what metadata?

Another set of very useful tips that we've heard before but should think about with every project were offered up:

- why is my project being undertaken (local, regional, or national in scope?)

- who's my audience

- do I need static or temporal data?

- what resources are at my disposal... human, technological?

- what funding constraints will I encounter?

- what's the project area?

- what data repositories can I take advantage of?

Once again.. much of these are a reminder of things that we should always consider when conducting GI Science. Linzey also touched on the topic of spatial reference systems and the importance of understanding the control and referencing required by your GIS applications. For more on this be sure to bookmark the National Geodetic Survey website - http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/

 

More notes from GIS in the Rockies to come... A few images from the event can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/gisuser/sets/72157601978982154/

Forum Nokia Tech Days - Florida, California

Interested in mobile application development (maybe LBS) for the World's most popular mobile platform? Forum Nokia has just announced 2 dates for developer-focused seminars taking place this fall. Join Forum Nokia in Miami for an intensive, two-day developer conference focusing on emerging technologies and new channel opportunities. Whether you are a web developer or open source developer you will find technical and business information you need to leverage the power of Nokia platforms and technologies. The conference will feature widgets and browser run-time technologies, Linux and Maemo open source platforms, S60, Java, Flash and Symbian technology experts and partners. Nokia business development staff will also be on hand to share ways of tapping new, lucrative channels.
 
Date and Locations:
October 10 and 11, Grand Bay Hotel Miami, Miami, Florida

November 13 - 14th,  The Cabana Hotel Crowne Plaza, Palo Alto, CA

 

Features: What's New, Tips, How-To, Ideas, Experts and more - see http://www.symbianone.com/special/Nokia-TechDays2007

Event Reminder - Victoria ESRI Regional User Conference

A heads-up for those interested in ESRI products on Vancouver Island, B.C. Victoria ESRI Regional User Conference on October 1- 2, 2007. The conference will be held at the Victoria Conference Centre 720 Douglas Street, Victoria, BC. See www.esricanada.com/events/eruc2007 for more information.

GPicSync - automatically embed location information in your photos.

Some more help for those wanting to geocode their photos - something that isn't always as simple as you would like!
This is an interesting application from Google - GPicSync automatically inserts location in your photos metadata so they can also be used with any 'geocode aware' application like Picasa/Google Earth, Flickr, loc.alize.us, etc.

Features:

automatically geocode your photos (in the EXIF header)
use a GPS tracklog in the GPX format or NMEA format (multiple selection possible)
Support elevation data if present in the tracklog
create a Google Earth KML file to directly visualize the geocoded photos and track in Google Earth
create a Google Maps file to publish your pictures and track on the web
Automatically associate audio or video files in Google Earth and Google Maps
create a Google Earth KMZ file (containing your geolocalized pictures and tracklog).
add additional geonames and 'geotagged' metadata (for automatic tagging in Flickr for example) and create an automatic IPTC caption
manually write latitude/longitude in a picture EXIF or a selection of photos
handy tools integrated (Time correction tool, EXIF reader, GPX inspector, rename pictures with date/location,)
supports Jpeg pictures and main RAW files format
See http://code.google.com/p/gpicsync/

Webinar reminder - Automated LIDAR analysis with Definiens and Woolpert

Interested in working with LIDAR? If so then this webinar scheduled for tomorrow will be of interest. I'd be all over this, however, I'll be at GIS in the rockies.. bummer!  Automated LIDAR analysis with Definiens and Woolpert” featuring Layton Hobbs, Group Manager, Woolpert and Gregor Willhauck, Product Marketing Manager, Definiens. This session will demonstrate the application of object-oriented image analysis to automate feature extraction from airborne multispectral and LIDAR data. Cases will be presented from state and local government applications for monitoring agricultural status accurately, fast and cost-efficiently. This session is of interest to anyone associated with feature and object extraction from remote sensing imagery for geospatial information services, particularly those interested in seeing results from LIDAR data. See http://www.definiens.com/online-event_27_29.html

Reminder - ESRI Homeland Security GIS Summit

Event reminder - The summit will be a forum for managers and leaders in local, regional, state, and federal government; utilities; and the private sector who support their organizations' homeland security and critical infrastructure requirements.
November 5-7, 2007, Adam's Mark Hotel, Denver, Colorado - see also http://www.esri.com/events/homeland/index.html

City of Scappoose Oregon GIS, Mapping RFP

The City of Scappoose is requesting Proposals (Proposals) from qualified consulting firms to assist in mapping City facilities. Tasks under this contract will include developing a geographic information system (GIS) that is compatible with the Columbia County base map; determining the optimal data conversion methodologies; converting existing data from AutoCAD and paper files; producing preformatted wall maps; and establishing an expandable architecture to allow for ongoing GIS improvement.  Interested consultants should submit a Proposal which includes pertinent experience in working with communities to produce maps and to develop a GIS. Proposals must be received no later than 3:00 p.m. on October 10, 2007. http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/12659/

The Best NFL football cities to tailgate Map - creating a national tailgating index of NFL cities

Are you ready for some football? Here's a cool story to coincide with tonights double-header kick off of Monday Night football.
A great map and a cool story here as hightechtailgating creates a national tailgating index including a map and ranking of some 31 US cities. The winner... Baltimore Maryland ranked according to tailgating friendliness. This includes considering such criteria as mobile programming, environment, parking etc...



From the site... After analyzing a host of criteria, including stadium parking lots, overall tailgating environment, tailgating-fan enthusiasm and the sales of tailgating accessories like in-car live TV systems and mobile programming, an alliance of tailgating experts has released for the first time the America's Best Football Tailgating Cities Index, a ranking of the “tailgating-friendliness” of the 31 U.S. cities with an NFL team plus NFL-hopeful Los Angeles. And the winners are...

1. Baltimore
2. Denver
3. Houston
4. San Diego
5. Cincinnati

http://www.hightechtailgating.com - Where's your favorite place to tailgate??

Qualcomm vs Nokia battle finally hits the courts

This one's been brewing (sorry about the qualcomm pun!) for some time now. Just today the 2 mobile technology giants have gone to court to see who'll win this battle - recall Qualcomm filed its complaint on June 9, 2006 alleging infringement by Nokia of six Qualcomm patents. Some background info on the suit... Qualcomm declared the three remaining patents at issue to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) as essential to GSM standards.  In doing so, it made a binding commitment to license those patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.  Despite its obligations Qualcomm is now seeking an exclusionary order, for these declared essential patents, from the ITC. See more in the news filed at http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1152552

Event of interest - Microsoft Virtual Earth Road Show

The Microsoft Virtual Earth team is heading out on the road with a technology event of interest. Luckily we have one taking place here just down the road in Denver so I'll be able to take that one in. The following dates are scheduled so far:

October 3, 2007 - Denver, CO

October 5, 2007 - Sacramento, CA

October 23, 2007 - Reston, VA

Of interest will be topics presented by the Vexcel crew on creating 3D models and this one sounds interesting: You will also learn how Virtual Earth can extend your investments in ESRI tools and allows for greater insight into business data.

 

Highlights of the event include the following sessions:

 Keynote - Increasing Agency Capabilities: Enabling data access, visualization, analysis and insight with Microsoft Virtual Earth

 Customer Technology Showcase
  Extending the Virtual Earth Platform through Geospatial Expertise
 Adding Mapping Capabilities to your Applications with Virtual Earth – Part I
 Adding Mapping Capabilities to your Applications with Virtual Earth – Part II
 

To register (limited seating) and for more info see http://blogs.msdn.com/publicsector/archive/2007/09/06/virtual-earth-road-show.aspx

Ball and Thurston roil out V1 Media

Congrats go out to Matt Ball and Jeff Thurston who've combined their efforts and have launched a new Geospatial Media venture. No doubt you'll find more about this on Matt's new "Spatial Sustain" blog - see http://vector1media.com/spatialsustain/?p=14. Also see Jeff's Vector One blog at http://vector1media.com/vectorone/?p=92 - the company's tagline appears to have a strong focus on sustainability which gives us an idea of what the area of focus will be. Good luck guys

GIS in the Rockies weather update

Just a heads-up, if you plan on attending GIS in the Rockies in Denver this week think about packing a jacket or sweater (just in case) - Winter... err, Fall abruptly arrived yesterday as we awoke to temperatures in the 40's here. I don't think we ever managed to climb above the high 60s yesterday afternoon so pack a jacket! Quite a change from last week's 90's... have a good time in Denver!

H1B visa expiration tip - don't get caught out of status

A topic of interest to me is the US visa process and in particular the H1B visa. As many people in our industry either hire H1Bs or work on an H1B here's a tip for you if your H1B visa will be expiring. Be sure to try and hop on either a TN or a tourist visa BEFORE your H1B expires... failing to do so may/will result in getting barred for a 10 year period from entering the US... ouch! One example I heard about recently discussed a person whose his H-1 expired. He then remained in the U.S. without working, believing that he "just became a Canadian tourist."  During this time, he wrote papers and polished his career, all the while staying in the U.S. He even got a new TN a little over a year later, going to a Mexico-U.S. border post. Now this person is barred from the US for 10 years. The reason - he was out of status an in the country illegally. This gentleman could have simply filed a tourist visa application on form I-139 to stay in status before his H-1 expired. That would have decontaminated him.  He could have been purified for any future visas. (Source: Joe Grasmick's Border Report newsletter)