Sophia Parafina — Open Source Mapping in Windows

The real game changer is the release of TileMill for Windows.

She’s right, lots of great new options for Windows users.  As Brian Timoney says:

https://twitter.com/briantimoney/status/165495371508875265

Those are universal skills no matter if you are on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux.  Cross-platform apps give you the ability to use your skills everywhere, rather than scripting VBA Microsoft Access databases”.

February 3, 2012 Thoughts






Sophia Parafina — Open Source Mapping in Windows

The real game changer is the release of TileMill for Windows.

She’s right, lots of great new options for Windows users.  As Brian Timoney says:

https://twitter.com/briantimoney/status/165495371508875265

Those are universal skills no matter if you are on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux.  Cross-platform apps give you the ability to use your skills everywhere, rather than scripting VBA Microsoft Access databases”.

February 3, 2012 Thoughts






France Says Google Maps is Guilty of Being a Free Resource

You got to love France.

A French commercial court has found Google guilty of abusing the dominant position of its Google Maps application and ordered it to pay a fine and damages to a French mapping company.

In a ruling Tuesday, the Paris court upheld an unfair competition complaint lodged by Bottin Cartographes against Google France and its parent company Google Inc. for providing free web mapping services to some businesses.

The court ordered Google to pay 500,000 euros ($660,000) in damages and interest to the plaintiff and a 15,000 euro fine.

Bottin Cartographes’ webpage is sparse on what actually they do that people want.  Rule number one of failing, sue the rich competitor when your own stuff  falls flat.  Clearly Europe has it’s eye on Google and I suspect we’ll see many more of these judgements”.  And god forbid, don’t let Bottin find out about OpenStreetMap.  They dump just about anything on the market for free.

French GuyFrench Guy

The French Judge in the case was quick to pass” on the ruling.

February 2, 2012 Thoughts






TileMill — Now Available on Windows

TileMill has been out for about a year, but Windows users have had to run it on a Virtual Machine. Until now!

We’re excited to bring you TileMill 0.9.0. The latest release of our map design studio adds native Windows support, a new plugin system, and key core improvements. Whether you’ve been meaning to try TileMill or are a longtime user, expect a more powerful, accessible map design experience starting today.

There is a whole lot more than just a Windows release, plugins, tons of performance issues and some slick new UI features. As always, it is available at tilemill.com

TileMillTileMill

And even more cool stuff from Development Seed, MapBox for iPad 1.8 is out.

January 31, 2012 Thoughts






TileMill — Now Available on Windows

TileMill has been out for about a year, but Windows users have had to run it on a Virtual Machine. Until now!

We’re excited to bring you TileMill 0.9.0. The latest release of our map design studio adds native Windows support, a new plugin system, and key core improvements. Whether you’ve been meaning to try TileMill or are a longtime user, expect a more powerful, accessible map design experience starting today.

There is a whole lot more than just a Windows release, plugins, tons of performance issues and some slick new UI features. As always, it is available at tilemill.com

TileMillTileMill

And even more cool stuff from Development Seed, MapBox for iPad 1.8 is out.

January 31, 2012 Thoughts






FOSS4G North American 2012

Not much notice, but there will be a FOSS4G in North America this year.

On the heels of last year’s successful and well-attended international FOSS4G event in Colorado, many of us in the community of free and open source geospatial software developers, users, and advocates in North America recognized the need for a regular gathering in North America. So this year we have come together to plan the first ever FOSS4G North America conference, an event to take place April 10?12, 2012 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. FOSS4G-NA will bring together many public and private-sector stakeholders at the forefront of some of the world’s most innovative free and open source software to discuss and work on building tools to help solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.

I can’t decide if I’m closer to China or Washington DC. Remember nobody gets kicked off the plane for playing OSGeo with Friends.

Alec Baldwin PilontAlec Baldwin Pilont

January 24, 2012 Thoughts