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Author Archives: Frank

The Biggest Game Worlds

Years and years ago, Jesse, Sue, and I had a discussion about the size of game worlds.  The image represents a pretty impressive rundown of the sizes of various current games.  I was impressed at some of the sizes and had no idea some were that large!

Jesse update: There was a question of the source of Frank’s image…some of the folks talking about it are over at Reddit and over on CrunchGear. On a tangent, the question of virtual geographies continues to pop-up in various pop culture locations. Some of my favorites are the sci-fi geographies they often highlight over at io9.

First US Offshore Windfarm

Anyone who talks to me about energy will quickly learn I’m a HUGE fan of offshore wind energy.  So this news item in the New York Times caught my eye pretty quick – regulators have approved the US’s first offshore windfarm.  As the opponents point out in the article, this is just one of several hurdles that have to be overcome before it becomes reality, but it’s a pretty big one.  Several other countries have experimented with this stuff with pretty good successes, so I have a lot of high hopes for US versions.

On a side note, has anyone ever wondered why windmills have three arms?  Turns out there’s a good engineering reason behind it all.  Slate has a good article talking about the engineering benefits of various designs.  The basic punchline is that three blades have the optimal energy output, environmental impact, and manufacturing costs we seek in a good windmill.  If manufacturing costs decrease with better processes, two blade systems might make more sense.

Internet Operating System?

A couple of days ago, Tim O’Reilly published an interesting piece entitled “The State of the Internet Operating System” I’m not going to say a whole lot about it, other than to say it touched on a lot of areas.  He talked about mobile, location based services, platform integration, abstractions, and a bunch of other stuff.  It’s an interesting read and I find myself mulling it over more than most other things I read in the tech world.  Give it a read.  I think it has a lot of applicability in the light of some of the transitions we’re seeing in the geospatial world.

Gulf Stream not Slowing Down

Apparently Dennis Quaid was wrong… the gulf stream is not slowing down as some climate change models (and over the top eco-adventure movies) predict.  Apparently the belief this might happen is a victim of the age old measurement error.  Initial measurements suggested the slow down.  It turns out over a longer period of time, there is no slow down, just an awful lot of variability from year to year.  Scientists are continuing to monitor the flow in attempt to collect more data to confirm these latest findings.  On top of that, they hope to figure out what causes the variability, which in and of itself is rather puzzling.

As an aside, what I find fascinating is the sheer magnitude of these sorts of issues.  We’re talking attempts to understand and predict phenomena on a global scale and time scales approaching geologic time.  That’s a seriously challenging task and more power to all the scientists out there trying to tackle it head on!

Want Google’s Gigabit Network in Your Town?

Looks like you’ll have to get in line with the other 1,100 or so towns that have applied.  Apparently there is a LOT of demand for 1gb fibre network.  The map at the link shows the spatial distribution of the towns that applied.  It shouldn’t be any huge surprise that the coasts seem to have the most interest.  Either way, Google will pick a couple of winning towns by the end of the year.  I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care if it hits my town, but the odds don’t look particularly great for anyplace.  For me, it shows how much desire we have in the US for faster and cheaper connections speeds m0re than anything else.

Via Engadget

Daylight Savings Time Uses More Energy

If you ask me, this should go into the “duh” file, but I’m glad someone did the numbers to prove it – Daylight Savings Time uses more energy.  Indiana recently changed their laws to require all the counties in the state to adopt DST.  In the past, 15 counties had opted out of the practice.  This change allowed researchers to setup a nice ‘controlled’ human experiment to see if DST actually saves energy.  Turns out, it’s a big fat waste of time.  As an active hater of DST (I don’t like it when everything is suddenly different one day to the next), I hope others verify these results so we can take’em to our legislatures in every state.  Yeah, DST made sense when Franklin first proposed it, but the modern world has pretty much killed it’s usefulness.

Google adds Biking Directions

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 and driving directions, the biking directions report total miles and estimated time.  I’m not a biker, although I’ve considered trying to bike part-way to work this summer.  It’s nice to know how many miles it will take and how long I should budget in the morning to do so.  It also seems to do a pretty good job of planning the route to avoid major roads with no real bike support.  I did my house to work and a large section of it is basically a county highway with little to no shoulder.  It routed me through a residential area for part of it so I avoid the traffic.

Rock And Roll Metro Map

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 their linkages, but it’s a pretty cool idea for a map!

via http://www.albertoantoniazzi.com/ and flickr

Moved 10 Feet to the Left

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 ground in that area so more precise movements can be detected.