Via the Esri Developer Network Facebook page is a hip preview video for the upcoming ArcGIS Explorer 1500, complete with catchy music (Sorry the video isn’t set up to embed, so just click the image below to go to the video) -
Category Archives: general
Facebook Discovers Places Exist
Alright, I admit I stretched a bit for that headline. However, the important bit is that Facebook has now added Places to it’s features. Places allow you to tag where you’re at when you post status updates. On the benign side of the coin (that’s the Harvey Dent one for you DC nerds reading), this will allow a richer connection between people’s status and their location. You’ll be able to start getting a good feel for what places drive your friend’s positive or negative status. There’s an associated iPhone update their iPhone app that automatically tags your location, should you opt into using Places. Otherwise, you can ‘tag’ your location manually if your phone does not support LBS. On the malignant side of the coin (Two Face side), this raises a whole host of privacy concerns. Cyberstalking isn’t anything new, but the ‘scale’ of the problem given the popularity of Facebook just got a whole lot worse, I think. On top of that, make sure you’re not updating Facebook status during ‘work’ time when you’re actually at the local watering hole. Your boss might be able to find that information out and use it against you. We already have plenty of reports of companies using Facebook updates and information against employees. Take the warnings of Google’s boss Eric Schmidt – be careful what you put on the Internet! You don’t want to have to change your name every couple dozen years to cover up past online sins.
Highway Engineers
In between class sessions on my first day as an Assistant Professor at Coastal Carolina, I ran across this great comic from xkcd…and had to post it because I think the same thing every time I see painted traffic instruction on a road here in the US.

Baby Name Map
Apartment Therapy has an entertaining post about a baby name map which is a mash up of the most popular baby names around the world. There are also baby name sites, like Baby Name Guide, that have categories dedicated to geography names or geo-names. Public Profiler has a cool tool to look up surnames by map and statistics.
A VerySpatial Podcast – Episode 265
A VerySpatial Podcast
Shownotes – Episode 265
August 15, 2010
Main Topic: Our conversation with Brian Wienke of Accela
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A VerySpatial Podcast – Episode 264
A VerySpatial Podcast
Shownotes – Episode 264
August 8, 2010
Main Topic: Our conversation with Sheila Wilson and David Dibiase on the GISCI
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Disney
At the request of a friend, I went looking for anything relating to Walt Disney and geospatial technologies. I found a cool internship at Disney for a civil engineering intern which asks for GIS skills. Apparently there are ways that affectionately called geo-nerds have fun at Disney World resorts that other people don’t such as finding all the marks placed by Disney surveyors in Disneyland and Walt Disney World compiled in one spot by Patty Winters. ESRI has case studies of the history of Anaheim, CA, City of Celebration FL, Disney, and GIS. Rand published a fascinating case study of Walt Disney World Resort and Environmental Management. I also found out the Walt Disney Resorts hold several GIS training conferences a year on varying topics including the American Water Association Conference on GIS & Water Resources. Which until I had read the case studies which talk about Walt Disney properties as being the size of Pittsburgh, might have seemed gratuitous, now it only makes sense.
A VerySpatial Podcast – Episode 263
A VerySpatial Podcast
Shownotes – Episode 263
August 1, 2010
Main Topic: Our conversation with Patrick McDevitt of TomTom
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Google Earth goes steampunk
I admit it, I love steampunk mods. If I had lots of spare time, and a little cash, I’d love to try my hand at creating a few cool gadgets myself. But in the meantime, I will have to be content to admire the handiwork of others, like the project John Knight is showing off at Maker Faire Detroit. Dubbed the “Electromagnetic Geospatial Globe and Remote View with Obligatory Goggles”, it’s Google Earth meets steampunk, with Google Earth running on a tablet, and controlled by the cool brass globe outfitted with RFID tags. Better than me trying to describe it, check out this video:
Via Gizmodo
Microsoft Research’s Street Slide
If you haven’t seen the demo of Microsoft Research’s Street Slide, it’s a pretty cool addition to Bing Streetside that is not available yet, but will be presented at SIGGRAPH 2010. While Google Streetview and Bing Streetside allow you to see photo representations of an area as you navigate through it, you’re basically limited to the perspective from your position on the centerline of the roadway as you look left or right. What Street Silde allows you to do is zoom out and take a side scrolling type of look at the whole side of the street moving side to side and panning over the streetscape. It looks like you can also get a panoramic view as well. If you want to see Street Slide in action, check out this video:
Via Engadget and MIT Technology Review





