Get to know ArcPad AXF
ArcPad
The excellent ArcPad Team Blog has info on the new storage format for ArcPad 7.1.
Prior to ArcPad 7.1, shapefiles were ArcPad’s most common spatial file format for features. Shapefiles are great for many applications, but shapefiles lack the capabilities to support more sophisticated relational database requirments that exist in the ArcGIS Geodatabase. So ArcPad 7.1 introduced the AXF format, which we like to refer to as a “lightweight geodatabase”.
As a user of ArcPad at my old job, I really hated storing information in the shapefile format. Actually I hate shapefiles, period. Any format that requires you to maintain at least 3 separate files to ensure they work is a bad idea in my book. I liked that the ArcPad team build upon the Microsoft’s SQL Server Compact Edition platform.
Time to bury the shapefile format!
Kill Shape
Yahoo!’s Geo Technologies Group Blog
The Yahoo/Microsoft/Google quagmire hasn’t stopped Google from separating out their geospatial blog from their search blog. The Y! Geo blog has started up today and possibly points to Yahoo! pushing more of the geospatial technology out. In addition they’ve announced their Yahoo! Internet Location is now called Yahoo! GeoPlanet.
The Y! Geo blog seems to be written in marketing speak, but hopefully that will change as time goes on.
Jerry Yang
Jerry Yang is ecstatic at the idea of GeoYahoo!
Yahoo!’s Geo Technologies Group Blog
The Yahoo/Microsoft/Google quagmire hasn’t stopped Google from separating out their geospatial blog from their search blog. The Y! Geo blog has started up today and possibly points to Yahoo! pushing more of the geospatial technology out. In addition they’ve announced their Yahoo! Internet Location is now called Yahoo! GeoPlanet.
The Y! Geo blog seems to be written in marketing speak, but hopefully that will change as time goes on.
Jerry Yang
Jerry Yang is ecstatic at the idea of GeoYahoo!
GeoWeb and Autodesk
OK, well the title might be sexier than the content, but I thought I’d finally get around to linking to Sean Gorman’s blog post about a conversation we had about the GeoWeb. I was just listening to his interview on the VerySpatial podcast and it really is amazing how far we’ve come in a year. To say I had little faith in these projects/companies (WeoGeo, [FortiusOne, Pleiades, OpenStreetMap among others), is an understatement, but they are really proving that if you give people a platform to collaborate and share data, they’ll do really amazing things. I’m so excited to see where we end up in the next year. Good thing for the disclaimer at the bottom of my blog sidebar!
And the Autodesk reference? This afternoon Shaan Hurley from Autodesk stopped by the RSP Architects studio space in Tempe. Shaan and I have emailed each other for the past few years and it was great to finally meet him in person and show him around the studio space. It was a shame we weren’t able to spend more time, but since he makes it down to Arizona often, I’m sure I’ll be seeing him again really soon.
GeoWeb and Autodesk
OK, well the title might be sexier than the content, but I thought I’d finally get around to linking to Sean Gorman’s blog post about a conversation we had about the GeoWeb. I was just listening to his interview on the VerySpatial podcast and it really is amazing how far we’ve come in a year. To say I had little faith in these projects/companies (WeoGeo, [FortiusOne, Pleiades, OpenStreetMap among others), is an understatement, but they are really proving that if you give people a platform to collaborate and share data, they’ll do really amazing things. I’m so excited to see where we end up in the next year. Good thing for the disclaimer at the bottom of my blog sidebar!
And the Autodesk reference? This afternoon Shaan Hurley from Autodesk stopped by the RSP Architects studio space in Tempe. Shaan and I have emailed each other for the past few years and it was great to finally meet him in person and show him around the studio space. It was a shame we weren’t able to spend more time, but since he makes it down to Arizona often, I’m sure I’ll be seeing him again really soon.
That looks like a GIS map
I was talking about web cartography with a client today and he was saying how he can tell any map made with GIS in a couple seconds. While he did admit that he has been fooled quite a bit, he was still disappointed that there really hasn’t been mainstream improvements to quality of maps. I think he’s a little blinded by the average ArcMap document produced as most of them look alike because many GIS professionals seem to just be happy with the default symbology (or just don’t know how to take advantage of Cartographic Representations). Now this is somewhat unfair to ESRI as most desktop GIS clients seem to fall into these faults.
OK, but why is this a problem? Tonight, while watching ASU fall apart against Fresno State in College Baseball, a couple of us came up with some ideas:
- We all graduated 1995 and earlier and we all had many cartography classes in college. Do today’s GIS students not get traditional cartographic education?
- The ease of desktop GIS clients has made “hacking” cartography elements unnecessary. The default symbology is good enough and there is no need to spend time tweaking lines, points, or polygons.
- Users of the maps (be it clients, project managers, creators) don’t value cartography. The savings of quickly producing a map outweighs excellent cartography.
- The phrase, “Good enough for government work” is used way too frequently in GIS shops.
What do you think? We all see amazing cartography and some of it is very easy to produce. Why can’t we be blowing people’s minds anymore? There are tons of great books out there to help.
Bad Maps
Just being better than a Disney map shouldn’t be enough