Win a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet for developing a widget

Here's a tip on how you can win one of 3 cool, Nokia Linux Internet Tablets (N810) from Widsets... details... The developer resource at Widsets has extended their latest competition until Jan. 31, 2008... that means you still have 2 weeks to enter your widget and win! Up for grabs... 3 Nokia N810 Internet Tablets! See more here or jump to Widsets Devsite

What Do Geographers Do? An Occupational Profile on Geographers

A common question.. no doubt you get loads of people asking exactly what it is that you do I'm sure! This comes from the Occupational profiles listed in Alberta Canada... "Geographers study the interactions between the distinctive, dynamic features and characteristics of the biosphere and of the human organization of activity within it. They may specialize in particular phenomena or regions at various scales of analysis... Geographers use laboratory, statistical, interview and field techniques to collect data. They often use computerized data analysis, geographical information systems, qualitative survey material or remotely-sensed imagery. For example, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Image Analysis Systems (IAS) technologies are used for planning and resource management." So if your a geographer there you go... apparently thats what you do in a nutshell! I've always gotten a kick out of the NAFTA TN schedule of acceptable occupations that lists the following as meeting their criteria... Geographer/Urban Planner... odd! What do you tell people you do? Are you a geographer or a GIS professional? I quite often say I'm a geographer, however, that's because I have a degree in Geography.

Off topic - music to the wine lover's ears!

A bit off-topic but interesting nonetheless out of Stanford... from Stanford Business School Research: Does a Wine's Pricetag Affect Its Taste? In what will be music to the ears of marketers, the old adage that you get what you pay for really is true when it comes to that most ephemeral of products: bottled wine. According to researchers at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the California Institute of Technology, if a person is told he or she is tasting two different wines — and that one costs $5 and the other $45 when they are, in fact, the same wine — the part of the brain that experiences pleasure will become more active when the drinker thinks he or she is enjoying the more expensive vintage. Access this feature and other related research stories online


I'm not drinking any f#%#$^#$ Merlot!!

Virtual Earth mashup from SpatialPoint helps locate coverage of Super Bowl

Here's another innovative and fun mashup - this one using Microsoft's technology... Followthegame.com enables users to enter an address or zip code of your location and you'll be presented with a list of local media that are providing coverage of the big game on Super Sunday... how cool!! Now I know I can simply tune into AM 950 the FAN or AM 1310.. cool! Man this would be handy for College football coverage! I can't think of how many times in the past I've been flipping around the dial looking for coverage of a specific game, particularly right here where on any given Saturday there could be 5 games being transmitted! See Followthegame.com

Not too much buzz made yet about the latest $billion Geo Technology deal

I would have thought a $1+ billion sale might have created a little more buzz, although it is getting to be commonplace these days in the world of geo technologies! I haven't really heard much about this announcement but last week word was out from MDA (BC, Canada) that the company has executed definitive agreements for the sale of its Information Systems and Geospatial Services operations to Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK) for $1.325 billion in cash. Some details... After closing of this transaction MDA will have about 1,100 employees, in Canada, the U.S., and Europe. MDA plans to use most of the proceeds from this transaction to invest in acquisitions that are aligned with its strategic plan for Information Products in the U.S., Europe, and Canada. For more see http://www.mdacorporation.com / http://www.atk.com
FYI - MDA (MacDonal DetwillerAssociates) is a very recognizable name to those of us from British Columbia and has long been recognized as a leading Geospatial Solutions provider in Canada to customers around the globe.

Google.org rolls out $25 million in new grants and investments

Google.org today rolled out five core initiatives that will be the focus of its philanthropic efforts over the next five to ten years. Today's announcement includes more than $25 million in new grants and investments to initial partners. Google.org joins a community of like minded groups working to make the planet and population healthier and more equitable. Google.org's five initiatives and initial partners include:

Predict and Prevent
Inform and Empower to Improve Public Services
Fuel the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
Develop Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal
Accelerate the Commercialization of Plug-In Vehicles (RechargeIT)

About Google.org - Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, uses the power of information and technology to help people improve their lives. We develop and invest in tools and partnerships that can help bring shared knowledge to bear on the world's most pressing challenges in the areas of climate change, economic development and global health. For more information, visit http://www.google.org.

Zillow provides 7000+ Neighborhood boundaries via SHP format - CC license

This just in from the Zillow blog regarding free, SHP files downloads now available... The boundary lines for over 7,000 neighborhoods around the United States covering roughly 150 cities. These neighborhood shapes are now available, zipped up in the Arc Shapefile format, for anyone to download. According to Zillow's lab, the company wants to share more than 7000 neighborhood boundaries with the community... these via SHP file format. This from zillow... " The Zillow data team has created a database of nearly 7,000 neighborhood boundaries in the largest cities in the U.S. And we'd like to share them with you! We're sharing these neighborhoods under a Creative Commons license to allow people to use and contribute to our growing database." The fine print... You are free to use the files in this database in applications as long as you attribute Zillow when you use it. You may also make your own changes to the database files and distribute them, as long as you provide them under the same kind of license and give Zillow attribution. You can grab the boundaries here

Sun Microsystems to buy MySQL

Sun seems to be broadening their commitment to Open Source... to the tune of $1 billion for MySQL AB. FYI, to date more than 100 million copies of MySQL's high-performance open source database software have been downloaded and distributed and an additional 50,000 copies are downloaded daily. See www.mysql.com

Helio launched Mysto with WHERE and TellMe

The cool guys from Helio have launched a new GPS-aware device today - the Mysto. With Helio you don't have a contract with the likes of AT&T, T-mobile etc... rather, you go through them. They also are promoting heavily teh fact that the device comes with 2 GPS services provided by WHERE and TellME... "With the introduction of WHERE and Tellme, Mysto expands on Helio’s line-up of GPS-enabled services that already include geo-tagged images and videos uploaded to Flickr and YouTube™, Buddy Beacon™, Google Maps™ for mobile and Garmin Mobile" - see more here or check out helio.com

ESRI Business Partners available for a 2-3 yr contract?

Just some initial fishing but if your with a company or know of one that's interested in bidding on a large, International Enterprise GIS project implementation for a large company send me a quick note with contact info (email). I'll be in touch once the project details come out. Here's what we have so far: International company (mining, mineral exploration), ESRI project, large-scale enterprise GIS implementation, 2-3 year contract etc... stay tuned! ESRI Business Partners preferred. Send to glenn at gisuser dot com

Android, and the prepaid Mobile Model

Will a new business model evolve?? An interesting update on Google Android from PrePaid Earth (Australia). Through Project Android, Google and 30 other technology companies will offer the first complete, open, and free mobile platform aimed at accelerating innovation in mobile. It is aimed at offering consumers a richer, less expensive, and better mobile experience, and will change prepaid mobile billing and the way it operates. The prepaid mobile billing mechanism currently accounts for the charging and revenue collection of no less than 45% of all mobile phone calls around the world. In Q4 2008, citizens of the earth will be able to access $50 USD mobile handsets through this open source development which will result in a greater uptake of mobile hardware devices. The increase in mobile handsets will lead to a larger mobile and Internet audience on planet earth which in turn will allow Google to enhance its reputation and revenues as the biggest advertising and content distribution platform in the world. Google will deliver paid advertising to mobile devices globally. Google will in turn provide Android users with subsidized prepaid recharge credits. see more

Mapping Locates Foster Parents

An interesting story about the use of GIS for a typical human/cultural geography problem... placing foster kids with parents. Govtech provides this great read... "MST has a built-in interface with Microsoft's Excel database software, "So if we have addresses [in Excel] for all the children abused and neglected, we can migrate all of those names and map them almost instantly in Streets and Trips... The system also generates maps indicating the distances between removals and placements of foster kids throughout the state. To do this, it relies on an in-house GIS along with other technologies." See Mapping Software Helps Washington State Find Foster Parents

Garmin opens wallet to promote GPS to all

I noticed that one blog is commenting on the "buzz" starting about Garmin getting in on Super Bowl ads... no surprise that they will spend 7 figures once again (recall last year's ad with the Dinosaur aka. Mapasaurus)... however, I hardly think that the industry is buzzing about the fact that GPS devices or PNDs will be promoted on the February "Hollywood Bowl" once again (are you sitting around the office talking about this ??? likely not). Indeed Garmin has a Massive budget it would appear, obviously business has been good, REAL good... recall just a couple of weeks ago a full page ad in USA Today.
Of interest though is the fact that Garmin is essentially promoting the technology (GPS) and PNDs to Joe average and others like Trimble etc... are also reaping the benefits of Garmin's generous spending on consumer focused ads. Garmin foots the bill, informs people about cool GPS gadgets, and the consumer heads off to Best Buy, Amazon.com etc.. and then starts shopping for a good deal... all the players are winners... thanks Garmin!

Event of interest - O'Reilly Graphing Social Patterns (GSP), West

Heads up on another O'reilly media event of interest to those looking to location-enable a social networking app or two... GSP is the premier conference for developers and marketers building and distributing apps for MySpace, Facebook, Google Open Social and other social networking platforms. Happening March 3-4, 2008 in San Diego, California, this event is for both business executives and technical developers who want to learn more about the evolving environment, and how to reach online communities using new and established social networking platforms and applications. See http://en.oreilly.com/gspwest2008/public/content/home

So much public record information available - is it too much?

Amazing the number of agencies around that will sell you a mashup report of public information about pretty much anyone you like! Cas in point... Intelius www.intelius.com where you can easily grab a plethora of info including property records, background info, criminal records, phone numbers, SSN records and more... ouch! Of note, if your changing jobs or maybe looking at taking a risky move and joining a startup you might consider running a background check on your soon to be employer or business partner! This could reveal that your "angel" or next "gecko" may have had a couple of bankruptcies in the past or ??? useful stuff... I guess!

Eco-friendly Nokia and sensors research project

I ran into an interesting video clip from CES that shows some of the research Nokia is conducting under the topic of sensors and and environmentally aware technologies, like solar powered sensors etc.. interesting stuff! So what is the sensors project? According to their R&D resource, the project is all about a sensor(s) that enables you to stay connected via a separate sensing device (like a special watch)

Autodesk... communication to you via blogs

Have you noticed the number of "official" Autodesk blogs out there lately (35+)? These are blogs run by ADSK employees and partners and fully supported by Autodesk... there's a ton of em! Under the heading of "geobloggers" there's a number of geospatial blogs in the group, most noteworthy the Dirt by Pete Kelsey, Geoff Zeiss between the Poles, and Beyond the Paper... however, there's a number that you may not have heard of yet. These include 2D to 3D (civil focus), Geospatial made in France, Points of interest (LBS), TopoBase Insiders (for topobase users) and many others. Most of the blogs are run by Autodesk product managers, evangelists, and Marketing professionals. Seems that the internal blogging team is now a preferred way of communicating from the company given that the number of blogs continues to grow and the number of official PRs out of the company has dwindled over the past year or so. See blogs.autodesk.com

Save the date - ArcGIS Server Code Challenge - Feb 29

Developers are reminded that the due date for applications being submitted in the ArcGIS Server Code challenge must be in by Feb 29... yes, there's an extra day in Feb this year! From ESRI... Developers, including ESRI business partners, are invited to take part in the second-annual ArcGIS Server Code Challenge. Submit your original, ArcGIS Server 9.2 code sample before 5:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, February 29, 2008 for consideration. Good luck! Up for grabs this year is a $15k first prize! See also the ESRI blog - http://blogs.esri.com/info/blogs/codechallenge/

iPhone Treasure Hunt at MacWorld

More social gaming... too bad iPhone doesn't have GPS!! Details... Macworld Expo attendees and other iPhone owners in San Francisco January 15-17, 2008, can "pling for treasure" with iPling -- the fun, free, easy-to-use mobile social expansion service for the iPhone. The company has announced a Treasure Hunt in which many valuable prizes will be awarded to its beta users over three days. Prizes include iPod Touch and Shuffle models, as well as gift certificates to popular online retailers such as the Apple Store, Amazon.com, StubHub, Fandango, and iTunes. New prizes will be released throughout the day for each of the three days of the Treasure Hunt. To receive details on starting times and prizes, contestants need to navigate to http://www.ipling.com/ on their iPhone's Safari browser and key in TREASURE as a General Tag on their iPling Settings page.

It still amazes me that iPhone didn't come with GPS...

Kick back and listen to the music - social music for free!

Off topic.. want to drive the person next to your cubicle a little crazy?? Go hit www.social.fm and start a search for your favorite tune.. it's freaking awesome! The cool part about social.fm is you can become a DJ, search for a favorite DJ, or simply search by artist. You won't locate every song available but chances are the popular song you seek - and the not-so-popular (like cool 80's music from Harlequin, Toronto, the HEadpins and other oldie but goodies) will turn up. Listening is totally free, simply keep in the background or download the PC client. Finally, you can also take it on the road with you! The mobile client is a flat $20 (although I still have the free Beta).. it' a bargain. If you use or think about using a Nokia N95 like me you can combine this with the free Nokia Internet Radio service to have a massive, low cost mobile music solution, anytime, anywhere! See www.social.fm

A new term - LIP - the Location Independent Professional!

So many new and cool terminology out there these days... how about this one that I just got turned onto from the WHERE blog - LIP - "We few, we proud, we LIPs can be anywhere the Internets will reach, and now, anywhere the cell phone signals will travel." For more on LIP see, what else... the LIP blog! http://locationindependent.com/blog/

WHERE application is now live on MetroPCS

The WHERE application is now live on MetroPCS although no formal news of this has been released yet. With the Buddy Beacon news from the uLocate team, I decided to check their site for more info. When I went to www.where.com, I noticed more news. They have launched their WHERE application on MetroPCS. Dan Gilmartin confirmed the launch and said that they have more carrier launches in the works as well as some exciting news on Buddy Beacon. See http://www.where.com

Samsung goes BIG with BlueZone at the Sydney Festival

Samsung has created what they call the biggest hotspot in the World inside and around the Samsung Mobile Festival Garden in Sydney’s Hyde Park. The hotspot is being billed as the Samsung BlueZone. Some 20 Bluetooth access points have been networked across the area so that any patron entering the zone is invited to download videos and animations of the artists plus MP3 ringtones.