No seriously... best all around television sci-fi in the last 15 years hands down. I would lean toward Firefly... but obviously it lacked staying power.
Obligatory Joe Dirt Quote-- "You guys got somethin' to say to me? Why don't you say it in the microphone. I got a backup mike right here. Check one two, testing, testing. Yup, they both working and guess what? they don't like no feed back, what's up?"
For the sake of argument you might also consider the Thales Mobile Mapper which lists for $1750.00 with the post processing option. It is an excellent stand alone collection device with the simplicity of an embeded OS.
Ka-Map is an interface api based on Mapserver which allows you to create and navigate tiled maps ala Google Maps. Check out a demo site here
It is a fairly young project, just waiting for a few more talented programmers to help push it along. I would love to see a open source alternative to Google Maps and Yahoo Maps providing base maps to these services.
Consider working for the Federal Gov't. Certain IT job classifications make 30% more than the standard GSA schedule. Add to that cost of living adjustments up to 25% tax free (Alaska). I (slimy contractor) am seeing IT folks up here with no college degree (and no certifications to speak of) being hired on as GS-9s and making $68,000/yr... and this is the bottom of the pay scale.
The Government IT world is becoming rather self-serving and protectionist. But once you get in you seem to be set for life.
Most states have FOIA laws that require agencies to charge one price for their data. This price should be based on the cost of the media the data is delivered on. Agencies are usually not allowed to diferentiate between private and commercial use, nor are they allowed to charge for labor unless you ask for the data in a custom form.
Many of the municipalities that provide data for several hundred dollars only do so because they haven't been sued yet... and most commercial database companies have better things to do than sue munis over a few hundred dollars.
FYI- URISA http://www.urisa.org/ (Urban Regional Information Systems Association) offers a great class on public information and how much organizations can charge.
I think the various Sat Techs at places like Space Imaging, Digital Globe and Spot Image would take issue with that.
Sattelite imaging is not an automated activity by any means. There is a great deal of planning and processing that goes on to make those images useable.
Lets remember that Google Maps licenses its data from Navtech and Tele Atlas. The cost of a license to make maps is probably much less expensive than a license allowing third parties to distribute as well.
There is a newly released interface to the mapserver application called Ka-Map that adopts a tiled map approach, similar to Google Maps. Pretty speedy considering maptools.org doesn't have anything close to Googles resources.
I am hoping that the choice of Joss to direct the film means that Hollywood studios have learned from their recent female-superhero flops (Electra, Catwoman, etc...) where more emphasis is placed on tight leather outfits and wire-rig stunts than character development, acting and plot.
One thing Joss was always good at was writing and directing female characters who had depth.
Considering the increasing number of Window Mobile and Symbian smartphones on the market, it would seem like a smart move would be to release versions of iTunes for these platforms... rather than depend on the whims of a specific hardware vendor (motorola).
From an intitial glance it looks like they pre-generated tiles for the 15 different scale settings. Then it just becomes a matter of feeding out the ~49 tiles that fall withing the lat/long fed to them by the java applet running on the client. All the labels are pre-set except the bubble/drop-shadow... which is being generated by the local client.
So the google server feeds back the image grid, and any marker/bubble data with their cooresponding lat/longs and the local machine creates all the eye candy.... very slick.
I am also hoping for a more in depth analysis so us folks creating interfaces for Mapserverhttp://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/ can borrow some ideas!
I will certainly miss Enterprise... It was always a fun glimpse into star trek history.
That being said, with the new Battle Star Galactica series out I guess I won't miss it as much. BSG is head and sholders above Enterprise in terms of writing, acting and effects.
It seems like the last few Star Trek series (DS9, Voyager, Enterprise) have been constantly pushing to be more "gritty" and "real" than the previous series, BSG trumps them all in this respect.
Around 6 million sites appear to be running the phpBB software, according to a search of Google for the phrase "Powered by phpBB"--an acknowledgment appended to the bottom of any site that uses the software.
If I rember correctly every page on a phpBB site contains this phrase. I would guess that these numbers are grosely inflated.
No. Most people (buying a home computer) buy winTel out of ignorance, fear, or lemming mentality, not because they've determined that it is the best tool for the job. (Yes, there are plenty of "smart" people that buy winTel because they like it - don't get your panties in a twist)
Right, but those computer shopers weren't really buying a computer to do a certain job. They were buying a computer because they thought they needed a computer.
What I was saying is that "main stream" iPod owners bought a tool (iPod) do do a job (listen to music) and they are now discovering that another job(managing music collections) is easier with a new tool (Mac).
True, the slashdot crowd often have the imagination and technical skill required to create a solution using the tools they choose, or have on hand.
My point was that this drive to roll your own solution and the skill to implement that solution is not in the "main stream". Buying the tool that will allow one to accomplish a task with the least ammount of effort, time, or bother is.
That is why you will never be in the "main stream". Most people choose the tools that allow them to do the task they want... be that graphics design, web surfing, or listining to music.
I fear the Slashdot crowd is more inclined to choose tasks based on the tools they want to use, the oposite of the "main stream".
I can see photographers shooting sporting events with a 12" Powerbook in a backpack receiving images to its 80GB drive and automatically uploading them to SI
Yeah, and I can also see a geek with a zaurus grabing the photos as they float around the stadium, and posting them on his/her sports blog before SI can go to press.
Actually, most municipal entities are now looking for imagery in the 6 inch to 1 foot resolution range.
1 Meter is nice if you are only interested in streets and buildings. When you want to get down to mapping things like fire hydrants and storm drains you really need the high resolution stuff... and your not going to get it from a satellite. Aerial imagery firms are still making a great living flying 6 inch imagery (not to mention LIDAR).
This could have some far reaching implications. Just about all GIS data products are derived from, or referenced to, some form of imagery these days. If the gov decided to get picky a good portion of the free GIS data available on-line could disappear.
On the other hand it could be a great help to GIS managers who are maintaining dynamic data. With current rules managers have to consider how many iterations of a data set to archive, and how long it must be kept around.
If someone FOIAs a dataset from a paticular date, does an agency have to provide it as it existed... or as it exists now? If it is the former there are thousands of iterations to keep track of.
Mapserver can serve WMS/WFS and can be compiled to support ArcSDE, if you have the SDK available. It is an excellent project with a great support community.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh I know you ain't hatin' on BSG!
No seriously... best all around television sci-fi in the last 15 years hands down. I would lean toward Firefly... but obviously it lacked staying power.
Obligatory Joe Dirt Quote--
"You guys got somethin' to say to me? Why don't you say it in the microphone. I got a backup mike right here. Check one two, testing, testing. Yup, they both working and guess what? they don't like no feed back, what's up?"
Having spent considerable time in the area indicated in your "map" I cannot confirm the existence of the white dotted line or the enormous lettering.
Obviously Google is a willing conspirator!
-Go Vandals!
For the sake of argument you might also consider the Thales Mobile Mapper which lists for $1750.00 with the post processing option. It is an excellent stand alone collection device with the simplicity of an embeded OS.
Your best bet for a workable cross platform solution that can handle a variety of data types is probably qgis.
For simplicity sake you might look into prebuilt basemaps like these I am pretty sure qgis supports the bsb format.
QGis will allow you to import GPX files from a consumer GPS unit.
Ka-Map is an interface api based on Mapserver which allows you to create and navigate tiled maps ala Google Maps. Check out a demo site here
It is a fairly young project, just waiting for a few more talented programmers to help push it along. I would love to see a open source alternative to Google Maps and Yahoo Maps providing base maps to these services.
Consider working for the Federal Gov't. Certain IT job classifications make 30% more than the standard GSA schedule. Add to that cost of living adjustments up to 25% tax free (Alaska). I (slimy contractor) am seeing IT folks up here with no college degree (and no certifications to speak of) being hired on as GS-9s and making $68,000/yr... and this is the bottom of the pay scale.
The Government IT world is becoming rather self-serving and protectionist. But once you get in you seem to be set for life.
Most states have FOIA laws that require agencies to charge one price for their data. This price should be based on the cost of the media the data is delivered on. Agencies are usually not allowed to diferentiate between private and commercial use, nor are they allowed to charge for labor unless you ask for the data in a custom form.
Many of the municipalities that provide data for several hundred dollars only do so because they haven't been sued yet... and most commercial database companies have better things to do than sue munis over a few hundred dollars.
FYI- URISA http://www.urisa.org/ (Urban Regional Information Systems Association) offers a great class on public information and how much organizations can charge.
I think the various Sat Techs at places like Space Imaging, Digital Globe and Spot Image would take issue with that.
Sattelite imaging is not an automated activity by any means. There is a great deal of planning and processing that goes on to make those images useable.
Lets remember that Google Maps licenses its data from Navtech and Tele Atlas. The cost of a license to make maps is probably much less expensive than a license allowing third parties to distribute as well.
There is a newly released interface to the mapserver application called Ka-Map that adopts a tiled map approach, similar to Google Maps. Pretty speedy considering maptools.org doesn't have anything close to Googles resources.
I am hoping that the choice of Joss to direct the film means that Hollywood studios have learned from their recent female-superhero flops (Electra, Catwoman, etc...) where more emphasis is placed on tight leather outfits and wire-rig stunts than character development, acting and plot.
One thing Joss was always good at was writing and directing female characters who had depth.
Considering the increasing number of Window Mobile and Symbian smartphones on the market, it would seem like a smart move would be to release versions of iTunes for these platforms... rather than depend on the whims of a specific hardware vendor (motorola).
From an intitial glance it looks like they pre-generated tiles for the 15 different scale settings. Then it just becomes a matter of feeding out the ~49 tiles that fall withing the lat/long fed to them by the java applet running on the client. All the labels are pre-set except the bubble/drop-shadow... which is being generated by the local client.
So the google server feeds back the image grid, and any marker/bubble data with their cooresponding lat/longs and the local machine creates all the eye candy.... very slick.
I am also hoping for a more in depth analysis so us folks creating interfaces for Mapserverhttp://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/ can borrow some ideas!
I will certainly miss Enterprise... It was always a fun glimpse into star trek history.
That being said, with the new Battle Star Galactica series out I guess I won't miss it as much. BSG is head and sholders above Enterprise in terms of writing, acting and effects.
It seems like the last few Star Trek series (DS9, Voyager, Enterprise) have been constantly pushing to be more "gritty" and "real" than the previous series, BSG trumps them all in this respect.
If I rember correctly every page on a phpBB site contains this phrase. I would guess that these numbers are grosely inflated.
-Mike
No. Most people (buying a home computer) buy winTel out of ignorance, fear, or lemming mentality, not because they've determined that it is the best tool for the job. (Yes, there are plenty of "smart" people that buy winTel because they like it - don't get your panties in a twist)
Right, but those computer shopers weren't really buying a computer to do a certain job. They were buying a computer because they thought they needed a computer.
What I was saying is that "main stream" iPod owners bought a tool (iPod) do do a job (listen to music) and they are now discovering that another job(managing music collections) is easier with a new tool (Mac).
-btw Mac owner since LC520... System 7 Baby!
True, the slashdot crowd often have the imagination and technical skill required to create a solution using the tools they choose, or have on hand.
My point was that this drive to roll your own solution and the skill to implement that solution is not in the "main stream". Buying the tool that will allow one to accomplish a task with the least ammount of effort, time, or bother is.
That is why you will never be in the "main stream". Most people choose the tools that allow them to do the task they want... be that graphics design, web surfing, or listining to music.
I fear the Slashdot crowd is more inclined to choose tasks based on the tools they want to use, the oposite of the "main stream".
Ahh, you can always spot a fellow .mil guy by the sites they can't access :-)
I might not remember correctly, but didn't AOL buy Time Warner?
If the pattern continues their next move should be to shut off all movie and television production to concentrate on print.
Yeah, and I can also see a geek with a zaurus grabing the photos as they float around the stadium, and posting them on his/her sports blog before SI can go to press.
Actually, most municipal entities are now looking for imagery in the 6 inch to 1 foot resolution range.
1 Meter is nice if you are only interested in streets and buildings. When you want to get down to mapping things like fire hydrants and storm drains you really need the high resolution stuff... and your not going to get it from a satellite. Aerial imagery firms are still making a great living flying 6 inch imagery (not to mention LIDAR).
Too boil the oceans... obviously.
This could have some far reaching implications. Just about all GIS data products are derived from, or referenced to, some form of imagery these days. If the gov decided to get picky a good portion of the free GIS data available on-line could disappear.
On the other hand it could be a great help to GIS managers who are maintaining dynamic data. With current rules managers have to consider how many iterations of a data set to archive, and how long it must be kept around.
If someone FOIAs a dataset from a paticular date, does an agency have to provide it as it existed... or as it exists now? If it is the former there are thousands of iterations to keep track of.
Mapserver can serve WMS/WFS and can be compiled to support ArcSDE, if you have the SDK available. It is an excellent project with a great support community.