Author: James

I see Sean updated his Planet Geospatial Scrubber Greasemonkey script. This is a great resource for those who don’t like some feeds showing up in Planet Geospatial You might not be interested in Google Earth, so you could block all Ogle Earth and Google Earth Blog posts from showing up. Just download Greasemonkey and then edit the PlanetGS Scrubber to include these URLs. Then they will never bother you again. Sean has excellent instructions inside the script (right click and download the script to your computer, then edit it in your favorite text editor).

No sooner than I post that ArcIMS 9.2 Service Pack 1 is out, the rest shows up on the ESRI Support site. Remember you need to download the separate ArcIMS and ArcSDE service packs even if you download the ArcGIS service pack. ESRI posted last week what was fixed in Service Pack 1, but some are feeling a little left out.

I never got to post it, but NASA Worldwind 1.4RC was released on December 23rd. I think Chad has been bugging me to post about it for a couple of days, but I’ve been kind of oblivious to his proding. 😉

Since we all love to know what is new, here is the “What’s New” list:

• Plugin: Movie Recorder (added avi xport)
• Plugin: Place Finder Loader (Supports more geocoders)
• Plugin: Satellite Tracker
• Plugin: Virtal Earth, downloads Microsoft local live data (must be loaded from the plugins menu, then activated by clicking the toolbar icon)
• Plugin: Improved WMS browser with GetCapabilities support
• Data: New NRL data
• Data: WFS placenames and boundaries
• Core: New accurate sunshading
• Core: Support for 3D models
• Core: Atmosphere (Improved with atmospheric scattering)
• Core: Added widget support
• Widget: New scalebar
• Widget: Time controller
• Widget: 3D compass widget
• Installer: Removed background
• Installer: Mars, Moon, SDSS icons removed
• Installer: .Net 2.0 check
• Installer: Added command line tags NODOTNET, /NODX, /NOMDX) to skip detection of .NET, DirectX 9.0c, and Managed DirectX, to skip checks respectively.

The bug list for RC2 is here.

There has been a ton of discussion about scripting in GIS in this thread. No matter what GIS platform you use, at some point you are writing a script to accomplish some sort of geoprocessing task. For me it was all AML until Python showed up. I never got into the VBScript/JScript stuff as AML did all I needed. For some though it isn’t just the ability to script in their favorite language, but what kind of scripting help the application has. IntelliSense, integrated debugging, syntax highlighting are all big ones in almost everyones book, but does having them integrated into your desktop GIS matter at all?

Merry Christmas Everyone!

My son is very excited and can’t wait. We’ve been tracking Santa all morning. One of my young nephews asked why Santa’s workshop isn’t at the North Pole. I was surprised by the question and asked how he knew that. He said his Dad had been showing him the GE Santa KML stuff and Santa’s workshop is in Canada. I was thinking about explaining that users have great difficulty navigating at the poles and that Google had to move it so that people could see it. That seemed a little too much for him so I fell back on there are no islands at the north pole. Unlike the South Pole, the North Pole is just water. So Santa lives on an island as close to the North Pole as possible. He seemed to buy that….

Connor and I are tracking Santa on the internet and all I had growing up was visits to Santa’s Village. Oh well, Merry Christmas!

Looks like Blogger is out of beta. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn’t SPAM Planet Geospatial.

Finally I can say I’m done working for the year! In the spirit of the season enjoy one my favorite Christmas classics:

http://www.youtube.com/v/KGnYw-OuCnI

I’ve been tagged by a couple of people so I guess I’d better join the party. Here are five things you probably didn’t know about me unless you are related to me.

1. The main reason I picked Arizona State University for my degree in Geography was the golf course.
2. I am claustrophobic to the point I cannot sit in a booth at a restaurant or I’ll have trouble breathing. If you meet me while eating, you can be sure I’m sitting at a table. 😉
3. I was an extra in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit.
4. The only state I’ve never been to is North Dakota.
5. My bachelor party was held the night before my wedding (due to scheduling conflicts on my part). I was dunk as a skunk and called my wife at 3am the morning to tell he how drunk I was. I was hung over and was unable to drink the champagne toast (my brother smartly put ginger ale in the glass).

OK, I’m going to tag Steve, Sean, GeoMullah and Chad.

Arizona is now the fastest growing state. Let me just tell everyone thinking of moving here that the State is full. There is no more room anymore and we are beginning to stack people in the Grand Canyon. A friend in Nevada says that they are crying in the streets over losing this title. Please, help Nevada get back on top as the fastest growing state.

*Note: I love Iowa!