All entries by this author





Google adds Biking Directions

Mar 11th, 2010 | By Frank

Apparently lots of people have been asking Google for biking directions and now they get their wish!  The directions get added right along with the driving and walking directions we’ve all come to know and love.  They’ve even added the ability to avoid hills (good luck with that in West Virginia)!   Like the walking [...]



Rock And Roll Metro Map

Mar 10th, 2010 | By Frank

This is a pretty cool example of a map that shows aspatial information – the Rock and Roll Metro Map.  It looks like a metro map, showing the connections between various rock artists.  You’ve gotta love the combination of two of my favorite things – maps and music.
You can quibble with a few of [...]



Moved 10 Feet to the Left

Mar 9th, 2010 | By Frank

Wired news is reporting that modern GPS sensors have be able to determine the Chilean city of Concepcion has been moved 10 feet to the west from the recent earthquake.  Apparently this area is prime area for seismic activity due to its location over a subduction zone.  The hope by researchers is to quickly get more GPS stations on the [...]



Human Movement Can Be Predicted by Cell Phones

Feb 24th, 2010 | By Frank

This shouldn’t come as any huge shock to anyone familiar with LBS, but researchers have shown that 93% of human movement can be predicted by cell phone.  In an article published in Science, the researchers suggest that most human movement is fairly limited in area.  They actually say most customers stay in a 6 mile radius most [...]



Best US Government Blogs

Feb 23rd, 2010 | By Frank

Ran across this interesting post: the best government blogs and why they’re the best.  With the exception of NASA, none of these have a direct geospatial tie.  In fact, all but one of them are CIO’s of their respective organizations.  It sorta makes sense it would start there, but I’d like to challenge anybody in local, state, [...]



ArcGIS 9.4 Canceled! Ok, not exactly.

Jan 12th, 2010 | By Frank

That was just a plug for me getting the most alarming header title for 2010.  ArcGIS 9.4 isn’t exactly canceled, it just been upgraded to 10!  The next release of Arc will be Arc 10.  You can read the details on this page, and check out what Jack has to say about it in this [...]



Twenty-two maps that will change how you see the world

Jan 5th, 2010 | By Frank

On my twitter feed this morning, @geoparadigm tweeted this great link on tree hugger about Twenty-Two Maps That Will Change How You See The World.  The maps are pretty impressive, although I’m not sure it will change how many of us in the geospatial community sees the world.  Being tree hugger and all, most of [...]



Can US Senators Draw Their Own State?

Nov 18th, 2009 | By Frank

National Geographic has a really cool geography awareness week challenge for US Senators – can you draw your home state and give three points of interest within it?  Thus far, only a few Senators have replied with their drawings.  It should be no surprise that Al Franken is one of them, since he can draw all 50 [...]



Ice Age Took 6 Months to Form?

Nov 17th, 2009 | By Frank

Who would have thought a Dennis Quaid movie could be right? (well, except for Enemy Mine, which I maintain is simply to awesome to not come true some day)  Geology researchers are now saying that the last ice age could have happened in an extremely short period of time, not the previously thought decade or [...]



Broadband Stimulus Money Going, Going, Almost Gone!

Nov 13th, 2009 | By Frank

Ars Technica is reporting that the Obama administration has decided to ramp up the broadband stimulus money outlays into one more round instead of the planned two.  The monies appear to be a different pool than what is funding the broadband mapping work, but the article is a tad unclear on that point.  All in [...]