ESRI Prototype Lab releases GeoChat 2

Looks like Richie has been hard at work on the next release of GeoChat. You might remember it from about 6 months ago. I’ll give it a shot this week but until then these are some of the new features:

What’s new with GeoChat 2 for users?

  1. New user interface (see screenshots),
  2. Office-style alerts when new geochat messages arrive,
  3. Support for adding/removing/grouping jabber users,

What’s new in GeoChat 2 for developers?

  1. Full source code is included,
  2. Object model diagram provided for core chat assembly (ESRI.ArcGIS.Chat.dll)
  3. Migrated to .NET 2.0,
  4. Includes sample executable called ChatSample”,
  5. Added new message type called CustomMessage”. This allows developer to send any .NET serializable object.

geochat.jpggeochat.jpg

September 6, 2006 Thoughts






ESRI ships ArcGIS 9.2 Release Candidate

ESRI ArcGISESRI ArcGIS

Yep those who are part of the ArcGIS 9.2 beta received their latest DVDs last week (or this week). The Release Candidate includes everything except ArcIMS and ArcGIS Server for Java (I’m sure there are more parts missing, but none that I noted). We must be very close as ArcGIS 9.2 products not shown in this list will ship as part of the final release”. So this is it. ArcIMS 9.2 will have to wait for the final release which can’t be very far away.

ArcGIS Explorer isn’t part of this release candidate as far as I can tell, but it seems to be on a different schedule anyway.

Update - Looks like UPS brought the ArcGIS Server/ArcIMS for Java 9.2 Beta 2. Yep, the Java folks are so far behind. Hope it doesn’t hold up the 9.2 release.

September 5, 2006 Thoughts






4 Day Weekend

I’m off for a nice 4 day weekend over the Labor Day holiday weekend. Have a great holiday everyone and I’ll be back on Tuesday.

September 1, 2006 Thoughts






ESRIs Hurricane Disaster Viewer stuck in the past

I’ve got family in Charleston, SC so I figured I’d fire up the ESRI Hurricane Disaster Viewer and see what is going on. I’m shocked (well I guess I kinda expected this) that ESRI hasn’t updated this viewer with the new ArcWeb 2006 stuff. It is still stuck behind that retro HTML viewer. I’ve looked at [ArcWeb Explorer](http://www.arcwebservices.com/awx/index.jsp?c=-79.2922003043303

32.2118748144926&sf=2460777&ds=ArcWeb:GlobeXplorer.Deluxe_Tiles.World

ArcWeb:TA.Streets_VectorsForHybrid.US&glt=rasterTileGroupLayer

vectorGroupLayer) and I don’t see any Hurricane Widget”.

esri-hurricane-viewer.jpgesri-hurricane-viewer.jpg

August 31, 2006 Thoughts






Arc2Earth now supports map tiles from Virtual Earth, Yahoo and Ask

Yep you read that right. The latest Arc2Earth version has a new toolbar called Map Tile Layer which allows you to download into ArcMap Microsoft Virtual Earth, Yahoo Maps and Ask Map tiles. So you can now choose Aerial/Hybrid/Streets for each of these services (NASA World Wind and Terraserver will be added at a later date). I’ve been testing it over the past couple days I’m I’m impressed. You can even cache the tiles locally and use them when you are off the grid”. I’m looking forward for Google support so when I export my KMLs I can make sure they line up with the Google aerials in Google Earth. I’ve posted some screen shots of the ESRI campus in Redlands below from inside ArcMap.

a2e-ve-streets.jpga2e-ve-streets.jpg

Microsoft Virtual Earth Streets layer

a2e-ve-aerial.jpga2e-ve-aerial.jpg

Microsoft Virtual Earth Aerial layer

a2e-ve-hybrid.jpga2e-ve-hybrid.jpg

Microsoft Virtual Earth Hybrid layer

August 31, 2006 Thoughts






The DRGs Are Free

Talk about everyone stepping up!

At 6:49 pm the $1600 ransom was met! The Maps have been liberated! All 56,000 of them are squeezing their way through my slow broadband connection right now to the safety and comfort of the Internet Archive. Thanks to the amazing and generous people at the Internet Archive, they will soon be available for download for free forever!

I’m happy to see that Jared was able to get enough people to pay the ransom. Now the community has a great resource for DRGs, free of any political or capitalistic shackles.

August 29, 2006 Thoughts