Author: James

Chad pointed me to the Worldwind-dev Email list (I had unsubscribed because not much was happening) thread where it appears that ESRI is interested in collaborating with Worldwind. Patrick Hogan put it very well:

Whoever accomplished this would certainly be deserving of world class notoriety. “This” would be getting the ESRI tools successfully implemented. I believe this is possible through ESRI output to formats that World Wind could pick up. The tighter the integration the better. But it does have ESRI support.

Now there are no details whatsoever as to what this “integration” might be as no one has even though about how it should work. It is easy to put the cart in front of the horse here because generally ESRI culture subscribes to “not invented here”. It will be interesting to see what happens here, but it might take a long time if it happens at all.

I’ve been beta testing A2E publisher for the past week and I have to say I’m in love with it. The ability to take ANY ArcMap view or layout and publish it to Google Maps, Virtual Earth (3D Included), OpenLayers and of course KML. Just publish and A2E creates a webpage to send to users. They can choose if they want Google Maps, Google Earth, Virtual Earth or even Open Layers.

One of the problems with just sending KML is not everyone can use or has Google Earth as an option. While it is true you can use Google Maps to view KML, it still needs some work. A2E Publisher allows you options (you don’t have to offer all the choices if you don’t wish) so that you can be pretty sure people can view the maps. I think I’ll find myself using PDF and ArcGIS Publisher much less when this gets out of beta, that is for sure. Check Brian Flood’s blog for some screenshots and more information about A2E Publisher.

OK, I’ve lived in Southern California and Arizona all my life so I’m like a fish out of water right now. Global warming has caused ice to form on the streets of Tempe, AZ (I have that right I think, I saw The Day After Tomorrow). I almost fell over trying to get to someplace to each lunch. Its 2:30pm and there is still ice on the sidewalks (though it is melting fast). I know someone is going to die when their head cracks open after they fall (or pull their groin).

photo: Carlos Chavez/The Arizona Republic

A couple of people have asked and I’ve finally been able to do it. You can now subscribe to a daily email of all Planet Geospatial posts. Everything that is in the RSS feed for that day will be included. Just follow the link on the right side of Planet Geospatial or click the link below.

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It seems that the Wikipedia nuts police have begun to attack World Wind now.

A Wikipedia editor recently changed the NASA World Wind page, removing all references to it being ‘free’, so what exactly is ‘free’ in Open Source land?

Just more proof that Wikipedia has failed. The simple fact that someone citing a source has more pull than experts just baffles me. Reminds me of an issue last summer when a lead engineer for Mac OS 9 was edited out because he didn’t cite his sources.

I say, it’s not true. So, I clicked on the little edit button, and deleted it. Done! Truth has prevailed; now 10th graders have a reliable source they can crib stuff from when they do their reports.

Then, someone put it back. “reverted an unsourced claim” is the reason; apparently I, a mere Mac OS 9.1 Technical Lead, don’t count as a “source” for something. Rumor site; yes. Someone who was actually at Apple doing stuff; no.

Won’t someone rescue Wikipedia from the police Snidely Whiplash?

Chad and I have been wondering the same thing. How will this new deal with GlobeXplorer impact NASA World Wind (and other applications).

Now, I am just wondering if this is going to have any affect on World Wind users viewing VE imagery. Will Digital Globe honor the deals that Microsoft has made or will the same line that Google pulls be suddenly used by Microsoft?

Microsoft have been very open with people using their imagery, compared to Google and their deal with DigitalGlobe. One has to wonder though will this deal change things and how will DigitalGlobe impact Microsoft.

Looks like Don pulled his post on ArcGIS for Autocad. If the ESRI salesman doesn’t get to announce something they get a little pissed about it.

I see that Don Kuehne has an interesting announcement on his blog. ESRI has announced ArcGIS for Autocad.

ArcGIS for AutoCAD is a no-cost ESRI application that works on top of AutoCAD 2007 and gives me the ability to add one or more ESRI map service view(s) to my AutoCAD drafting environment. With this new ESRI technology I have direct access to every GIS data format without conversion and without translation inside AutoCAD. I as an AutoCAD user see what the GIS professional sees; finished high quality cartographic representations of complex GIS data structures thay may be stored in a wide variety raster, network, image and vector formats.

I guess this is ArcCAD reborn huh (well ArcCAD on steroids)? I’ll be honest, I’ve never liked the ArcSDE CAD Client. I hope this will make it much easier to leverage ArcSDE with AutoCAD.

It will be free and available “later this year”.

I will admit the implementation that Apple and Google came up with for the iPhone and Google Maps is quite impressive, but my wife’s Blackberry has had Google Maps access for just about a year now (the scroll wheel actually works pretty well if you ask me). Heck no need to wait until June to try it out either on your own mobile phone.

I love the Apple Kool-aid as much as the next guy, but many bloggers seem to have a very short memory here or at least just weren’t paying attention before Apple came along.

**Update: **Looks like Sean is underwhelmed also. My thoughts exactly, Cingular? What a joke.

It looks like Microsoft and GlobeXplorer have reached and agreement to supply new imagery to Virtual Earth.

As part of the deal, more than 400,000 square miles of U.S. aerial imagery will be enhanced with high-resolution coverage. Microsoft and GlobeXplorer plan to integrate the new imagery into Virtual Earth over the next several months.

Finally I will be able to see Tempe, AZ in color imagery! I didn’t see any mention of world imagery so I’m not sure if that is included. I’m sure we’ll hear more over the next few days.