Spatially Adjusted

Category: Thoughts

  • Life After WGS84

    Link – WGS84 and the Web

    With the influx of new programmers dabbling in GIS applications, we are beginning to see people start looking at geodetic datums. For those who aren’t familiar with datums, this old ArcUser article has a good overview. Because GPS uses WGS84, it has become the standard around the world, but as teutonic tectonic plates shift, the datum will become obsolete over time. Allan Doyle sums it up well:

    Perhaps we should think about the implications a little more. If we use “raw”, i.e. “current” WGS84, we’re really ignoring the drift and other issues. If we use any of the derived, named datums, pegged to an epoch, we lose universality.

    Sean Gillies chimes in with his own proposal which is a great way to get around the problem given how computer systems are so connected these days. I like simple solutions to problems.

    Wgs84

  • A couple short takes on a rainy Monday morning in Arizona

    Yea it rains here in the desert southwest even in the fall. Anyway I’m enjoying the cool 80 degree weather and trying to get a couple lose ends tied up on some jobs. A couple of quick links to two interesting posts, first Jeff Thurston continues his Comparing Spatial Information Software series and Dave Bouwman responds to a comment on my blog about his post on the Long Tail of GIS. Both good reading on a “cold” rainy day.

    Tempelake

  • More on Commercial Software in ESRI’s ArcScripts

    As with most blogging tools have spam catching built into them to stop comment spam and this one is no exception. I try and look though the “junk comments” every once and a while just to make sure that nothing got labeled as junk by mistake. Well last night I found one by Ianko who makes the very popular ET GeoWizards tools for ArcGIS. I’m not sure why his IP is labeled SPAM, but SpamLookup thinks it is. Anyway, here is his comment on my post Stop Putting Commercial Software in ESRI ArcScripts

    James,

    Since you mention ET GeoWizards I think that I have to post a comment on this.

    It is true that ET GeoWizards is a commercial product (I would rather qualify it as semi-commercial), but I think that it has got more free functionality than 50% of the rest of the submissions to ArcScripts that deal with data processing put together. You can check this here if you want: http://www.ian-ko.com/ET_GeoWizards/gw_NoRestrictions.htm

    Do you think that it will be better if the ArcGIS users do not know about those free functions that they need in their everyday work?

    What about questions on ESRI forums like: “How do I remove the excess vertices from my polylines” and answers like “Get an ArcEditor license and use Generalize!” when the users can just use the free function of ET GeoWizards and their ArcView license.

    What do you think the ArcGIS users will gain if ET GeoWizards is removed from the ArcScripts site?

    If you give me valid reasons, I’ll remove the ET GeoWizards entry from ArcScripts.

    Cheers

    Ianko

    I will agree that ET Geowizards is a great tool that helps users accomplish tasks that ArcView normally can’t do on its own, but as you say it is a commercial product. I guess one persons demo is another persons “semi-commercial”. I will give you that Ianko’s product isn’t as bad as most commercial scripts in ArcScripts, but the fact that there is registration required to get all the functionality of ET Geowizards shows me that is is a demo for their full product (without a timeout period) and as the upload screen for ArcScripts plainly says.

    I would say that if the ArcScripts version of ET Geowizards only had the free tools and had an “ad” only in the about screen, it would be fine for ArcScripts, but in its current form it is a demo and in turn using ESRI’s bandwidth to sell your product. Because you sell ET Geowizards, it shouldn’t be in ArcScripts.

    The big problem with these smaller GIS developer companies is that they have no easy way for their product to get noticed by the masses of GIS professionals. ESRI should create a section where these companies can upload their tools. There is a huge difference between XTools and XTools Pro. The spirit of ArcScripts has been violated by commercial software and many GIS pros have told me that they don’t upload their scripts and extensions to ArcScripts because it is such a mess with commercial software.

  • ESRI Podcasts

    Link – ESRI Podcasts

    I just got a note from an ESRI employee that there is now an ESRI Podcast page. They all appear to have come out of the 2005 User Conference and the 2005 Homeland Security GIS Summit. I’d like to see an RSS feed with enclosures to allow people to add this to their RSS readers, but it is a step in the right direction. Don’t forget to also check out the videos that the EDN team is starting to post as well.

  • Virtual Earth Mobile

    Link – Virtual Earth Mobile

    Looking for a client application that runs on your Windows Mobile PDA that interacts with Virtual Earth? Well it looks like one is now available on Via Virtual Earth’s site gallery.

    Features include browsing VE road and aerial maps, address and place finding, yellow page searching, GPS support, thumbstick navigation, and integration with Pocket Outlook for finding contacts! Best of all, VEMobile features a cache of previously viewed maps, greatly improving performance and providing an offline experience.

    Also included is the Visual Studio project files so you can probably hack your own version quite easily. I’ve sworn off Pocket PCs, but I’ll be firing up my old Dell Axim tonight and see how this works.

    Vemobile

  • Jeff Thurston’s Spatial Software Comparison

    Links:

    Jeff uses four elements of functionality in his comparisons; GIS, CAD, database and visualisation. It is a novel approach because at least in my GIS world, these are the for major tenets. Jeff did a pretty good overview of major software and he’s planning on continuing the comparison so you’ll want to check back on his blog.

    4 elements functionality

  • Jeff Thurston continues his look at Spatial Information Software – Visualisation for Geographic Information Users

    Link – Comparing Spatial Information Software 3

    I’m glad Jeff took a look at Autodesk Map 3D. I’ve seen it in action and for those who need more of a CAD focus than ESRI can provide, it works really well. Actually it got me thinking of another Autodesk product that doesn’t get much play these days, Autodesk MapGuide. In the early days of web mapping, the web client interfaces were so horrible (I may tell you one day about our first MapObjects IMS application with all those nested tables), but Autodesk make a smart choice to release a browser plugin. These days the plugin is holding back Mapguide, but it was really a godsend to web mapping. I haven’t worked on a Mapguide site in many years, but our county assessor has their parcel maps online using it. Check it out if you want to see another “web mapping” application (if you don’t use Internet Explorer you’ll want to go to the download page and make sure you have the Java edition.

  • Google Earth Mac OS Alternatives

    Link – Google Earth for Mac, alternatives

    It seems a lot of Mac owners, like me, are anticipating the arrival of the Google Earth client for Mac. Alas, it is nowhere in sight. But do not despair. Actually, there are alternatives available, here’s three I can think of. “Virtual PC for Mac”, “Remote Desktop Client for Mac” and “Google Maps”.

    My choice has been Virtual PC, but it really lags compared to my PC. Hopefully when Intel based Powerbooks are available, I’ll be able to triple boot Mac OS X, Windows XP and Red Hat on the same laptop. One thing for all us Mac users to remember, Google is more “Windows centric” than even Microsoft is. Not exactly a “Web 2.0” company if you ask me.

  • Hobu.biz 2.0?

    Link – Geospatial news from Ames, Iowa

    Well honestly I don’t know how many versions of Hobu.biz there have been (I’m sure more than 2), but the style of the times is to put 2.0 after everything new. Howard’s blog has had more than a makeover and it looks really professional. Could he be getting ready for the next podcast interview?

    Those RSS feeds are pretty slick on the side. And it has given me an idea to finally roll out something I’ve been playing with. Check back this weekend and maybe if my kitchen remodel is done I’ll post about it.

  • The Battle to be Google Maps’s Data Provider

    Link – Google Maps and Their Data Providers

    NAVTEQ spends a lot of money to get the most accurate data on the streets and roads, and they make most of their money selling routing (directions) through in-car navigation systems. I bet NAVTEQ wish they had a dollar for every time a prospective customer came to them expecting Google Maps-style driving directions to be free. Oh wait, they do. Every set of driving directions you get from Google Maps (or Yahoo! Maps, or MapQuest) represents real money in the pocket of NAVTEQ-they charge per route. Google, Yahoo!, MapQuest, and others are all eating those charges when they offer the service to you for free, planning to make it back on advertising and related travel services.

    It is pretty easy to see who is being squeezed here. The data providers hold all the cards, but competition is driving the market and no one wants to be left holding the bag. One almost has to wonder though wen these data providers might strike back at Google/MapQuest/Yahoo! and start charging them more. For now they seem willing to undercut each other and maybe that business model will work. Still I have to wonder if NAVTEQ, TeleAtlas and other might look toward the fight that the RIAA is having with Apple and start wondering if they should start controlling more of the delivery of their datasets.