mapping for a changing california
Welcome to the Kellylab blog! We post fun facts and things that catch our eye. Occasionally I wax lyrically about a topic of interest.
Apparently there are bunch of other entities called MapRoom out there, some of them closely related to our own project, so we need your help to think of a new name! Here are some ideas: MapDrawer, MapHouse, MapHaüs, Mapository, The Giifer, MapBase...
Just read this cool article in the NYTimes about science cafes, where scientists talk about their work over beer with, well, anyone. The trend started in Europe, apparently, but there are no events like this in New York, Denver, and San Francisco. I think this sounds like a great way to expose and integrate science in society, although I'd like to see how well it works in real life. Anyone know of a local one here in Berkeley? Anyone want to check out the SF one with me on March 15th (ants!)?
Remember a little while ago when Mapserver and AutoDesk's MapGuide congealed into the Mapserver Foundation? Well now there's an even bigger umbrella group called the Open Source Geospatial Foundation, including not only Mapserver and MapGuide, but GRASS, GDAL, and OSSIM. Other big open source projects like PostGIS and QGIS don't seem to have joined yet, but maybe later. Hopefully this will bring about better consistency and interoperability across the world of open source GIS software. You can read about this at Directions Magazine
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WAAS, that set of wonderful satellites that greatly improves our GPS accuracy, will be experiencing some changes. For the next two months (until the beginning of April 2006), the company that owns one of the WAAS satellites will be moving it westward. From the article:
WANDERING WAAS: SATELLITE TO RELOCATE One of the geostationary satellites carrying the FAA's Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) signal won't be so stationary during the next 60 days. Satellite owner Inmarsat will be repositioning and re-aiming a satellite, shifting coverage to the west. The move will have no effect on the vast majority of GPS users. That's because most pilots use just the basic GPS signal, provided by the U.S. military. "But there may be times during the next two months when WAAS won't be available for precision vertical guidance," said Randy Kenagy, AOPA director of advanced technology. "That means you should check notams to make sure that LPV (lateral precision with vertical guidance) approach will be available when you want it." See AOPA Online.
Basically, this means that the vertical accuracy may not be stellar for the next two months. After that, my guess is we'll have better WAAS coverage here in the Wild Wild West (but that's just my speculation).
The Japanese successfully launched a new satellite a few weeks ago. Named ALOS (Advanced Land Observing Satellite), it carries 3 instruments (from their email).
PRISM (Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping): High-resolution (monochrome) images, collects elevation data AVNIR-2 (Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer type-2): Multi-band (color) images, capable of pointing PALSAR (Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar): Cloud-free, Day-and-Night radar sensor
Sounds cool. If you're interested, check it out
.Does anyone know anything about the US Chamber of Commerce's recent announcement of L2C GPS capabilities on the way? I've been searching for some extra info for a bit, and it seems that there's at least one satellite up there broadcasting on this band. Are there actually more? What's the time table? To summarize, L2C is to be the civilian version of the military's L2 frequency, which is transmitted at higher power, meaning better reception under cover, through walls, in cities, valleys, etc. There's a pretty decent summary here
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Good article in NY times about the controversy of mapping/Google Earth and politics behind it. This is a case study in Russia: "Misleading maps reflect the Kremlin's tightening grip on Russian oil, one of the world's critical supplies" On December 1st-Business Section
Mapserver is an open source web mapping software package that I use for the VTM site and that Brent uses for the Fire Information Engine. Recently, several core Mapserver developers announced the formation of a Mapserver Foundation, an organization intended to unite Mapserver with several related open source projects under a single banner for the purpose of standardized development and release procedures, and to provide a single body to mediate funding requests and donations, among other things. Most likely modelled after the Apache Software Foundations, this is certainly a Good Thing, as all these kinds of management and governance issues were previously handled in an ad hoc manner by the developers and a handful of contributing organizations like the University of Minnesota and DM Solutions, which has lead to a lot of inconsistency and occasional gaps in documentation.
However, in addition to Mapserver, the new Mapserver Foundation will also host the newly open sourced AutoDesk MapGuide, a web mapping package from the company that makes AutoCAD. Confusingly, MapGuide will now be known as Mapserver Enterprise, and the old Mapserver will be called Mapserver Cheetah (although the naming is apparently still up in the air). Several people in the Mapserver user and developer communities are peeved because the Foundation was planned without community input. Many are also displeased by this alliance with AutoDesk, a company not generally known for its commitment to open source. Some argue that this new naming scheme will confuse potential users and dilute the Mapserver brand, eventually resulting in less use and development for the traditional Mapserver we all know and love. While I think the new naming scheme is stupid and possibly detremental, I think the Foundation will ultimately be a force for good. Anything that provides greater stability and more documentation can't hurt, right? Links for the interested: Mapserver Mapserver Foundation AutoDesk MapGuide Official announcment of the Mapserver Foundation Comments by Ed McNierney (founder of topozone.com) Comments by Gary Lang (a lead MapGuide developer) Discussion on mapserver-users (a search for 'Foundation' should bring up most of the relevant threads, assuming there aren't any Asimov nerds getting way OT)
After presenting a poster on wetlands, I feel attached to them in a weird way Yesterday opening the NY Times..there was this good article for the public on the Louisana wetlands-and the debate upon restoration and what that could bring/or not bring.... Check it out! http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/15/science/earth/15marsh.html? adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1132171367-GSNDHJi/JdGVpPMQr9/61w
Article from a while back describing an Italian programmer who found evidence of ancient ruins near his property, using Google Maps/Earth. There were TONS of results when I searched for this, but this website links to the location on Google Maps, and links to the Italian programmer's personal map of the area. Then a follow-up: Google Map Archaeology Gets a Website
A mildly-interesting BBC News article on proposed uses for the up-and-coming Galileo satellite system developed by the European Union and the European Space Agency. The system should be fully-operational by 2008, hopefully operating with "complementarity" with the existing GPS and GLONASS systems, and promises sub-meter real-time accuracy (Note: I'm not sure how, but it's certainly do-able).
The BBC article highlights an application for shared electric cars that could be located online, picked up and dropped off anywhere. I just got here so I don't know whether this has already been discussed for programs like the Bay Area's City Car Share program, but it seems like a natural direction (even without sub-meter GPS).
James Fee (of www.spatiallyadjusted.com) has compiled a list of over 60 blogs, all of which are GIS related. Sort of the 'crème de la crop' if you ask me. You can subscribe to any of them with the click of a button. You can even subscribe to his own feed and receive just the headliners from all of the above. For more info., check out planet.spatiallyadjusted.com. cheers
There's an article in the NYTimes today about the profusion of sites employing the Google Maps API. They also include a link to Google Maps Mania, a blog chronicling said profusion.
Hi all. This is the first post on the Kelly Lab Blog. You all know what a blog is, right? Short for 'web log,' sort of the bastard child of diaries, forums, bathroom walls, and newsletters. Our blog is for posting news and links about GIS, remote sensing, ecology, web mapping, or anything you think the rest of the lab might be interested in. You can post by going to kellylab.berkeley.edu/blog/post. For those of you that don't know any HTML, you can link text like this: <a href="http://www.berkeley.edu">linked text</a> which creates linked text or you can select the text and use the handy dandy link button above the text area. Anyway, if anyone has any feature requests or wants to to use a different theme (or develop and theme, or modify a theme), please let me know.