Category: Thoughts

We GIS Pros are making little girls cry with our efforts to get GIS tools to the common man.

Virginia sits at the computer and heads straight to the North Pole. OK, that looks plausible. Official NASA watermark on the image. There’s his workshop, a runway and his reindeer and sleigh waiting. But what’s that on the path? Virginia zooms in. There he is! It’s Santa! But he looks somewhat cartoonish. Something’s wrong. Virginia plays with Google Earth’s slant tool and the game is up.

Santa is thinner than Cameron Diaz!

Rusty Planet reports that ESRI Tech Support is saying that Service Pack 1 for ArcGIS 9.2 will be delayed until after Christmas.

The Tech Support operator did say that ESRI plans on releasing the Service Pack next week (week of December 25th).

THERE IS NO SERVICE PACK HERE, NOW GO AWAY!

Something I just learned about yesterday, but I’m sure some of the SDSFIE users might already know about. It looks like there is finally a great resource for implementing SDSFIE, a portal page. I hadn’t seen a link to it before and found it via Google (but today it appears to be on the front page of Upper 90 Systems). I like the web based SDSFIE browser that will come in handy when traveling and I don’t have access to my laptop. The forums are pretty sparse, but I’m sure that is because no one really knows about this resource. Even on the CADD/GIS Technology Center web page there is no mention.

From the AGIC-L email list:

The City of Scottsdale is seeking GIS users from the Arizona community who are developing Web applications in MapGuide and who may have begun to use the new MapGuide 2007 environment.

We at the City of Scottsdale have just begun this exciting endeavor and were wondering if there are users interested in participating in knowledge sharing about the process of development in the new environment.

During this process we have collected a lot of documentation that the Open Source provides and believe we could act collectively with other Arizona MapGuide users to better provide services to our customers. We are just finalizing the installation of the MapGuide Extended services to our Web servers and will begin development soon so any collective
endeavors would help further the understanding of this software.

Please contact me if you would like to participate and I will forward you information to our developers at the City of Scottsdale who are handling this migration.

Thanks,

Mele

Mele Koneya
GIS Analyst II
City of Scottsdale GIS

I left out Mele’s email/phone number, but I can put anyone into contact with him or the City of Scottsdale. I keep seeing more and more requests like this every day. Something about open source breeds community doesn’t it?

I feel like I have to forget everything I know about using GIS when I’m in Manifold. I’ll be honest, I can’t figure anything out without the help. Everything I know seems to be done differently. Based on a couple of folks suggestion, I’m going to be going over the GISAdvisor videos to see if that can help.

I will say the videos I’ve looked at are very well produced so I can see how Manifold users view them as a great resource. Maybe this will help me get back on track.

DISCLOSURE – This copy of Manifold was provided to me by Manifold for evaluation.

I’ve been holding back on this post trying to figure out what has changed since I last thought I understood ArcGIS 9.2 licensing. David Maguire goes into a pretty detailed post about ArcGIS Server 9.2’s Business Model.

Basically what we’ve though about the cost of licensing the ADF on another server is less than I thought it would be. Bascially:

As in the case of SDE, when the Web ADF and the SOM/SOC are on the same machine only a single license is required, but if the Web ADF is on its own machine (for scalability purposes) then this machine will also need a license. We will allow a single socket license (50% of the two socket license) to be used for additional Web Tier deployments.

What this means if you wish to deploy the WebADF on another server, you’ll only have to pony up 50% of the price of the license. I’m not sure how this works to be honest. Lets say you have a license for ArcGIS Server Advance Enterprise, in theory you’d have to pay half the cost of that license to put the ADF on another server. But what if the application you wish to put on that other server is no more complicated than an ArcIMS site. Can you only license ArcIMS functionality for that additional site (saving thousands) or do you have to license the full blown AGS Advanced Enterprise.

Steve posts some thoughts on his blog as well and comes to the conclusion that the cost even at 50% is probably too high. I’d have to probably agree with him unless you are really getting the functionality out of the site. Don’t forget though:

Existing ESRI users will be able to continue using their existing software on their existing licensed configuration for no additional cost. Customers on maintenance will receive an appropriate edition of ArcGIS Server 9.2 which they can run on the existing licensed hardware configuration for no additional software or maintenance fees.

This whole change in licensing has really worried me since I first heard about it. BUT between the whitepaper last week and now David’s post, I’m feeling pretty good about my understanding. As a consultant and developer, that is really all I need to move forward (well a scope of work would be nice too). David’s blog post is exactly the kind of communication we’ve been asking for from ESRI.

Yep, I’ve decided that hosting my own blog isn’t for me anymore and I’ve already moved to WordPress.com for my “host”. The URL has changed and all the permalinks are exactly the same. Now I don’t have to worry about updates or why my host changed something that broke WordPress. It is somehow relaxing knowing that my hacks won’t bring down the whole system. Everything seems to be working fine so far which is a complete relief.

When Robert Scoble announced he was moving to WordPress.com, I’ll admit I laughed at him. I didn’t understand how anyone would want to give up that kind of control. Now I’ve seen the light and am sleeping much better at night! 🙂

One more update to report (I did notice that there was more textures in Rome). Minneapolis, MN, St. Paul, MN, Tacoma, WA, Irving, TX, Sacramento, CA and some more outlying areas of Los Angeles (Irvine and Newport Beach, CA among others) have been given the 3D texture treatment. Since it is the season, here are a couple of the large shopping malls in the O.C.

Fashion Island – Newport Beach, CA

South Coast Plaza – Costa Mesa, CA

Blimp Hangars at USMC Tustin (closed)

The Big A (hey it was called that when I grew up in Orange County)

They haven’t made it down to my hometown or my high school yet.

Art is asking for feedback on his personal blog about what you think of the new ArcGIS Server Development Blog. Personally I love it, but I’ve still not had a chance to get too deep into the new Web ADF just yet. ESRI should take note because this type of interaction with developers at ESRI is critical to implementers on the outside.

Any other team blogs ESRI should start?

Seems like the Microsoft Virtual Earth team is really pumping out the updates this month. This week we have some 3D updates. I noticed this morning when I started up VE3D I got the two following message boxes:

Looks like Microsoft is detecting your hardware and giving you the option of a less graphic intense choices in case you are still on that old Intel P-III.

When the VE3D first appeared, I was complaining about how the model of the Colosseum was great, but it was on a very low resolution aerial. Well no longer:

The Virtual Earth Blog says that there is now over 20TB of imagery for almost all of Italy. The VE Team is right, Mt. Vesuvius is just stunning.

The other famous volcano, Etna is also in high-res:

Lake Como is of course beautiful, but the terrain model could use some updating.

The Italian Alps are covered, and you get just enough into Switzerland to capture the Matterhorn. I’m no expert, but I assume the terrain model is still not good enough.

Italy is such a beautiful country and having the whole peninsula and islands in high-res makes it look even better.