Hardware





Broadband Data Collection Bill Passed

Oct 2nd, 2008 | By

Ars Technica is reporting that Congress has finally passed the broadband data collection bill. As any good geographer will tell you, normally the first step in figuring out where you want to go is knowing where you’re at. That’s more or less the spirit of this bill. The fact of the matter is that we [...]



Spidey-tracer legal?

Aug 19th, 2008 | By

A while back we talked about how the LAPD was working on an attachable GPS unit for tracking suspects. CNN has a story on the use of GPS for tracking suspects using GPS in a real world situation, but with a twist (and a video). The report wonders whether the use of trackers without a [...]



Happy System Administrator Appreciation Day!

Jul 25th, 2008 | By

Anyone who’s worked in GIS with more than two people can tell you that one person is critical to keeping all this stuff working…. the system administrator. Today happens to be the 9th annual System Administrator Appreciation Day! The sys admin is normally the person you call when things go all kablewie, so you’re normally [...]



A New GPS System…. On the Moon?

Jul 21st, 2008 | By

Engadget is reporting an interesting new system that’s being created. Researchers over at Ohio State University (a hop, skip, and 4 hour drive from here) are attempting to make a GPS like system for navigation on the moon. The system is supposed to be ready by 2020, and the linked article from Engadget’s site says [...]



More location iStuff

Jul 18th, 2008 | By

So Sue has the iPhone 3G and I was FINALLY able to upgrade the iPod Touch to the 2.0 firmware. I am quite happy with the number of times that the devices have asked to use the location settings. The camera and maps are the two Apple apps that use the location info and I [...]



Largest Self-Portrait in the World!

May 26th, 2008 | By

Created with DHL shipping company and the help of GPS! It spans nearly every continent and shows a pretty elaborate path. While this might seem flippant, I think it shows an important intersection of technology and art. Anyone familiar with ancient maps can see the obvious art there, but I can’t say I’ve ever thought [...]



iPod Touch as a gateway device

Apr 10th, 2008 | By

I have had my iPod Touch since, what, October or so? Since then I have used as it came out of the box, paid to have the 1.3 w/software firmware update and I already plan to give Apple the cash the day that I can get the 2.0 firmware so that I can install all [...]



Sensisphere – curved touch surface

Apr 6th, 2008 | By

Two University of Augsberg students, Benjamin Mayer and Martin Spengler, have developed a hemispherical touch display surface they call Sensisphere. Think Microsoft Surface, TouchTable, and other gesture-based displays, only curved. As the guys from Gizmodo point out, it really looks great when used for digital globe applications like Google Earth. Check out the video below: [...]



We Got Too Much Stuff!

Mar 12th, 2008 | By

The IDC has just released a report (PDF) that says the amount of digital data we’ve collected exceeds the amount of space we have to hold it all. Right now, we collect nearly 45GB per person. That’s an amazing amount of data. The expectation is that by 2011, we’ll only be able to store half [...]



Time again for CeBIT

Mar 4th, 2008 | By

Ah, to not be in Germany and be a tech starved grad student. CeBIT generally has way cooler stuff than CES, but unless something really catches my eye, I will probably hold off and do a CeBIT round up this weekend as opposed to the daily lists I did for CES back January. Either way [...]