The S60 WordPress Blogging Client for N95 users

Coming next week... Wavelog has been developed and tested on Nokia N95 mobile phones posting to the WordPress publishing system, both hosted on the wordpress.com and the current stable release available from wordpress.org and hosted with different hosting providers.

About the App... It allows posting of the content as text, image, audio or video, to a Web log (blog) directly from the mobile phone using any type of available network (mobile phone or Wi-Fi network). The application allows saving the work for later posting in the case there is no available network or to allow selection of a network with larger up-link bandwidth (faster posting) or lower cost (for example a free Wi-Fi HotSpot compared to a mobile phone network). Wavelog does not restrict users to a specific blog hosting provider, social network or an intermediate content aggregation. It permits a complete freedom for choosing blog hosting provider or even installing own blog publishing system on the Internet, extranet, intranet, or a local area network. It is designed for performance, scalability and reliability, so it is coded in C++ programming language as a native Symbian OS application. Wavelog does not use any form of usage tracking for targeted advertisement or direct marketing purposes. See http://www.telewaving.com/wp/

The Geo Jobs Blog.. Jobs, Professional Development, tips and ??

In case you can't or don't pop in for a looksee at the GISuser career board (although I can't believe you wouldn't... ;0) I've starting a sister blog here that focuses on Geo technology careers and related topics (ie. education, prof. development, career tips and leads and of course, job postings). Check out the GeoJobs Blog for some great career leads and some useful tips... feel free to ping me if you think you have something relevant to share with us. See http://geojobs.blogspot.com/

Win a copy of Getting to know ArcGIS Desktop

A little Spring cleaning as I'm tidying up the bookshelf today and realize I have 2 copies of Getting to Know ArcGIS desktop (second edition for ARcGIS 9) - so, I'm giving a copy away to one person who registers for the 2X a week GISuser Today newsletter.

This is a simple, fun contest - simply register to receive GISuser Today and that's all - I'l announce the winner on Monday, January 14, 2008.. Good Luck

Not interested in ArcGIS? No problem, if you don't want the ArcGIS desktop book then I also have a copy of Research and Thery in Advancing Spatial Data Infrastructure Concepts if you'd rather have that one!

Already registered for the newsletter? Hey that's cool.. sign up for the GISuser Facebook Group and you'll also be entered to win!

Geoblogger tip - spring widget

If you blog or simply have an RSS feed you'd like to share with others then you might be interested in this nifty app that's available for users of the cool feedburner service.. buried deep in the setting is an option to setup a SpringWidget. Use this app to create a nice widget feed that others can embed on their website or blog.. quite handy!

Get this widget!

New weather channel mapplet and google gadgets, layer for Google Earth / Maps

I'm a google gadget freak... I admit it. My iGoogle homepage is so jam packed with cool stuff, so much so its getting hard to locate the gadgets I need! This week another very cool Map driven mapplet and gadget were made available from the Weather Channel - now weather on demand is even more accessible to me. The widgets can be added to your custom home page, however, I don't see a mapplet available yet even though news just out today indicates it is available - oh, hold on, try searching for "weather channel" (XML file here) rather than simply "weather" - that's odd! (weatherbonk, accuweather and others have these available) To add weather channel gadgets to your google home simply login, add stuff, and search for weather.. quite simple.
And finally, weather channel is also available for Google earth as a layer or rich information... see news - The Weather Channel Interactive Introduces New Weather Mapplet for Google Maps; Selected to Provide Weather Data Layer for Google Earth - details as follows - The weather data layer on Google Maps and Earth features current conditions powered by HiRAD (High Resolution Aggregated Data), which is an exclusive patented technology developed by The Weather Channel that delivers a more local snapshot of current weather conditions for the contiguous United States. HiRAD combines traditional weather observations with data obtained by Doppler radar, satellite, lightning strike detection, computer models, and climate profiles to provide unique conditions for 1.9 million locations.

Event of Interest - OpenWeb Developer Summit

Here's some news of the First OpenWeb Developer Summit for Web Developers Leveraging Google APIs. In the 2-day Summit in New York (April 21-22, 2008), delegates will hear from leading developers and industry experts about the impact Google's multifaceted initiatives are having on the world of Internet technologies today and on what the future is likely to bring from Google tomorrow. Topics covered will include:

• Google Gears / Offline Access
• Google Data APIs / Mashups
• Mapping Meaning / Semantic Web
• Enterprise Search APIs
• Algorithms: Theory & Practice
• Getting Started with Google Gadgets
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Google's AJAX APIs
• Geo Search / Google Maps API
• Google Mapplets
• Leveraging GData
• Google Web Toolkit
• Google Calendar & Spreadsheets
• Using the Android SDK
• OpenSocial API
• Web Security & Google APIs

GITA Geospatial infrastructure conference goes green

New this year, eleven of the sessions will focus on green GIS, and GITA has made a commitment to “go green” in its conference operations by printing conference materials on recycled paper and encouraging attendees to use recycle bins at the event. And a note from yours truly.. turn out those unused lights, turn off the computer at night, and unplug those phone chargers when not being used!

read more | digg story

The Latest Google Sky update

The Google team has unveiled an update to Google sky with loads of goodies... notably (to me any way) the sky as seen by astronomers in the 17th century including overlays of Constellation maps from the David Rumsey collection and the U.S. Naval Library. And the big news in this update has got to be the availability of Sky, Moon and Mars imagery in the Google Maps API. This allows any developer to build interesting applications and websites using Sky imagery, and extend the Sky experience to any place on the web. Some early examples of these applications include the Cosmic Visibility page and even an iPod touch hack. WOW!

Home workers might consider SPOT messenger for 911 calling!

Interesting use of the SPOT location alert service from a home business perspective... ideal for any of you home contractors working from a remote area! Details as follows via foxbusiness news... Mike Brady, an outdoorsman working alone maintaining a seasonal lodge over winter, was rescued after using his SPOT(tm) Satellite Messenger to alert 9-1-1 of his predicament and location in a remote section of Alaska. Mr. Brady collapsed in minus 30 degree temperatures while working in a remote outpost in the Wrangell St. Elias National Park, one of the largest and most isolated parks in the state. This is the first documented rescue initiated by SPOT, coming only two months after the product's initial release. See more here.

Speaking of 911, in a related news item here in NOCO, I noticed a recent article where a resident in a neighborhood next to mine was having issues as to where his 911 calls were being routed. Turns out that we are in an unincorporated part of For Collins and right in the middle of 3 municipalities (Ft Collins, Windsor, and Loveland) all of which have their own fire departments. Apparently the routing of 911 calls is handled by your phone carrier and nowadays people here have local calling service, Qwest, Comcast, and then factor in Skype, Vonage and other VoIP providers... do you know where your 911 call is being routed???

Nominate Your Favorite Platial and Frappr Maps in the Social Map Showdown

Nominate Your Favorite Platial and Frappr Maps in the Social Map Showdown by January 15, 2008! Got a cool Platial or Frappr map? If so consider nominating your map for the 2007 Map Awards! You can nominate your own map or any of your favorite Frappr or Platial maps. All entries must be in by January 15, 2008. Map of the Year and Mapper of the Year Award Winners will be invited to Where 2.0 May 12-14, 2008 in Burlingame, California. All winning maps will be featured to 15 million other social mappers online! See http://platial.com/mapawards

Don't have a favorite Frappr? You can always nominate mine (http://www.frappr.com/gisuser)

Indeed the oil industry is one GIS user segment with huge growth

I noticed Joe F. mentioned the following in a recent posting... "Is geospatial work associated with the oil patch seen as a potential career for GIS students?" Well, indeed, this is a no-brainer really isn't it?? I for one can provide a small example simply by looking at a company I used to work for in Canada. AXYS used to have a couple of small offices and then rolled out a GIS division in their Calgary office in about 1998 or 99. Over the years the GIS division has swelled to dozens of folks and was even scooped up by Jacques Whitford to form Jacques Whitford AXYS Ltd - you'd have to contact them for exact numbers. This is but one small example of the oil and gas industry fueling the growing GIS marketplace and no doubt there's many more... this was happening long before oil approached $100 per barrel and will continue on once it blows past that figure. FYI, for a read on the oil supply being at its peak or not see here

270ToWin - every possible combination to win 270 Electoral Votes

Thanks to Lisa and the awesome newsletter, The Sensor, for a cool tip on some fantastic election mapping... 270toWin - why 270toWin??? Well, it takes 270 Electoral Votes to win the Presidential Election. This way cool site demonstrates every possible combination available for your candidate to win the election. See http://www.270towin.com/

WOW - SanDisk Announces the 12-Gigabyte microSDHC Card

Man, I thought I was able to wow people with my 8GB card!!! Enter the 12GB MicroSD... sweet! 12-Gigabyte microSDHC Card - the World’s Largest Capacity Card for Mobile Phones. A 12GB microSDHC is ideal for storing large quantities of music, photos and video. For example, it will be able to store a combination of 1,500 songs2, 3,600 photos3 and 24.5 hours of video4.
See http://www.sandisk.com

Wellar to Continue promoting Geography Awareness Week (GAW)

From our northern friends, an update from CAG has informed us that Dr Barry Wellar will continue on once again this year to promote Geography Awareness Week (GAW). This from CAG... The Canadian Association of Geographers is pleased to announce that Dr. Barry Wellar has agreed to continue on as the Program Director for Geography Awareness Week (GAW). Thanks to the energy and enthusiasm that he brings to GAW, a great amount of attention has been directed to both Canadian geography and to the CAG. Good luck to Barry once again, no doubt we'll hear from later in the year as GAW 08 approaches. For details on activities in 200 see:
http://www.cag-acg.ca/en/geography_week_2007.html

Cool Geo Shwag... a reminder!

I was reminded this morning from some readers about the cool shwag that's out there... several people commented on the Autodesk Red Deer jacket (see below) I was wearing in today's GISuser newsletter. Indeed some of that shwag is still around and getting attention (although that jacket had many Canadians wondering if I was from Red Deer Alberta!). Shwag is still alive and well and if you make it cool enough you'll get visibility for years to come! I have bags that I tote around all over the Globe, stickers on my Notebook that draw many looks, cool Lizards that I often snap photos of, and shirts galore, some very cool like the nifty Safe Software golf shirt that also get some decent attention... make sure you dream up some cool shwag in this year's marketing budget.. oh, and feel free to send some my way, I'm always glad to wear a "geo" hat, shirt or ??? in a photo that ends up on the desktop of thousands of people!

Remember the ADSK software, codenamed Red Deer? What year was that??

A cool Solution for Mobilizing your web content - Mowser

Ideally suited for wordpress users (dang I wished I used this sometimes.. they get all the cool stuff!) Mowser, tipped off from Russel Beattie, is a nifty solution that helps web publishers extend their content to mobile devices - you don't have to have WordPress to take advantage of this. The app has some cool built in mapping tools to redirect your users to a mobile friendly domain name like m.yourdomain.com etc... Pretty darned cool if you ask me! As an example see http://mowser.com/web/gisuser.com or a better example, see this blog on your mobile at http://mowser.com/web/gisuser.blogspot.com - see also http://www.mowser.com/

A complete GIS tutorial For Marketing - ESRI Press

The GIS tutorial for Marketing might be better named The GIS Bible for Marketing... those interested in the application of GIS and geospatial technologies and analysis for business purposes will have no need to look any further than this resource from ESRI Press. Weighing in at 400+ pages (about 12 pounds!) it's definitely a complete how-to for those interested in performing geographic analysis like site selection, direct mail marketing, and planning and implementing marketing, sales, and promotional strategies. The book falls under the category of exercise books, walking users step by step through real life business geographic scenarios, complete with ArcGIS and ArcGIS Explorer instructions, pointers to data, and more. Most data used come from the Community Tapestry lifestyle data that comes bundled with ESRI's business analyst products. Companion CDs with the book provide all the exercises, templates, and data. A second CD contains a fully functional ArcGIS 9 (arcView 9.2) 30 day eval. I could easily go on and on about this one so if Geospatial marketing and applications of GIS for business planning is on your list of things to do then check it out at Amazon or ESRI Press.

GIS Tutorial for Marketing (GIS Tutorial) by Fred L Miller (Spiral-bound - Jun 1, 2007) - Illustrated - Buy new: $79.95 $50.37


Amazon.com / See ESRI Press

Reminder - Mobile Rules Competition - Create A Unique Technology Innovation And Win a Contract

A reminder to any of you mobile developers or would-be developers... The goal of the competition is to further drive the aspects of miniaturization, green technologies, and performance in Mobile technologies - deadline for entries is 25th January 2008 - Three finalists will be selected from each of the four streams. The 12 finalists will be invited to participate in an innovation exhibition at Nokia headquarters in Finland in April 2007 where they will demonstrate their innovations and discuss them with Nokia decision makers.

The competition can be entered at http://www.mobilerules.org/technology/ .

BlueTooth at 10 yrs old and going strong!

Happy birthday Bluetooth! While the idea of Bluetooth technology was born over a decade ago, the first products didn't appear commercially until the year 2000. In that short time -- a span of eight years -- 1.5 billion Bluetooth enabled devices have been shipped, and the organization behind the technology, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, has grown from a handful of companies to 10,000 members. FYI... Bluetooth wireless technology is the global short-range wireless standard for personal connectivity of a broad range of electronic devices. See more here about BlueTooth technology

Nokia N95 8GB NAM (Red) introduced in the USA via CES

Loads of news out of CES this week, including this launch... I've had mine a couple of months but today the N95 8GB NAM was officially introduced to the US consumer... Further cementing its position as the global leader in converged devices, Nokia today introduced the Nokia N95 8GB, optimized for the Americas market. The Nokia N95 8GB builds upon the legacy of the successful Nokia N95 by adding an even larger display and built-in 8GB of internal memory while supporting high-speed HSDPA networks on the 850MHz and 1900MHz bands that are prevalent across the Americas. Additionally, Nokia introduced a stunning limited-edition bright red version of the multiple award-winning Nokia N95 for the US which includes the full suite of highly acclaimed features that consumers across the globe are craving. Only 5,000 units of this special red Nokia N95 will be available during first quarter of 2008. This new limited edition red version of the Nokia N95, along with the current black and bronze versions, has an estimated retail price of USD 599. See more at www.nseries.com/N958GB

N95 8GB features integrated GPS, sweet MP3 player, video player, 5 Megapixel camera, loads of memory, Nokia content download services, and will support the N-Gage service when rolled out.

Garmin's new Colorado series first to run Whereigo

Garmin targets Colorado with new device and loads of data... The Colorado 400t gives hikers state-of-the-art 3D elevation perspective and preloaded U.S. topographic maps. The Colorado 400i offers anglers shoreline details, depth contours and boat ramps for U.S. inland lakes and navigable rivers. The Colorado 400c is your coastal companion, providing chart coverage for the coastal U.S. and Bahamas. The Colorado 300 features a worldwide basemap with shaded relief. The Colorado 300 has a suggested retail price of $499. The Colorado 400t, Colorado 400i and Colorado 400c have a suggested retail price of $599. For more about the Colorado see www.garmin.com and www.garmin.blogs.com. And there's more... Colorado users will be the first to experience Wherigo™, the newest GPS-based activity from Groundspeak, the people who made geocaching a worldwide phenomenon. Wherigo (pronounced "where I go") is a toolset for creating and playing location-based multimedia experiences in the real world. Garmin's new outdoor GPS unit is the first commercially available GPS unit with the Wherigo Player built in to the device. http://www.wherigo.com/

A look at cell phone driving laws in the USA and around the Globe

Did you know that the NHTSA estimates 10 percent of drivers on U.S. roads are using some type of mobile phone, either hand-held or hands-free.

The following list details countries with cell phone driving laws that restrict or prohibit handheld cell phones in cars:

USA
- 5 states (California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Washington), the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands have enacted jurisdiction-wide cell phone laws prohibiting driving while talking on handheld cell phones. Many other states ban cell phone use in specific situations.
- 17 states and the District of Columbia have special cell phone driving laws for novice drivers

Australia
Austria
Britain
Brazil
Chile
Denmark
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Philippines
Romania
Singapore
Slovenia
S. Africa
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Turkey

Source: http://www.ghsa.org - Do you talk or text and drive? Ok, I have but don't do it very often at all. I also have hands free headsets as well as a bluetooth headset as well.. texting while I drive... NEVER!

Image Credit: TheOnion