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Archive for July, 2008

• 31 Jul

  

  Posted by
  joesonic

  
  

  Category

  • GIS
  • Software

  Features planned for ArcGIS 9.4

  3

  The next release of ArcGIS (9.4) will focus on the following four key themes:

  Enterprise Readiness
  Continue to expand ArcGIS Server’s capabilities in respect to platforms, scalability, and security through focus on UNIX/Linux and Java support, dynamic map performance, and rich Internet application support (Flex) as well as enhancements to Tracking Server.

  Productivity for ArcGIS Professionals
  Simplify the user experience, streamline workflows for increased productivity, and promote collaboration with easier sharing of information. Enhancements are planned in the areas of advanced modeling, 4D analysis and visualization, map scripting, and modeling of non-spatial and temporal features among others.

  Geospatial Enabled Application Development and Rapid Deployment
  Building on the new capabilities at ArcGIS 9.3, the next release will continue to expand the functionality to easily and quickly deploy systems throughout the enterprise. In ArcGIS Explorer, a new look for the user interface, 2D and 3D integration, and mark-up/collaboration are planned. In ArcGIS Online, enhancements include universal find, geoprocessing, and catalog services. ArcGIS Mobile will include enhanced routing and navigation as well as support for professional GPS and additional platforms.

  GIS Solutions for Business Users
  ArcGIS 9.4 will extend the solution product offerings to the ArcGIS platform to build a set of tiered solutions for business and logistics. Within the Business Analyst suite, Business Analyst Online will be migrated to the Business Analyst Server platform. Also an integrated logistics solution that leverages ArcLogistics, Network Analyst, and StreetMap Mobile is planned.

  

  Additional Features

  ArcGIS 9.4 will support the ability to check out licenses and borrow licenses from a central license manager and for use in the field.

  At 9.4, ESRI will focus more on desktop to desktop (CAD and GIS) interoperability with particular emphasis on improving and simplifying how Microstation and AutoCAD data is integrated into ArcMap and migrated to the geodatabase.  This will include improvements to the way GIS data is shared with Microstation users.  Improvements to the ArcGIS for AutoCAD plug-in are also ongoing. This activity will move forward with the goal of making ArcGIS for AutoCAD an editor of the geodatabase and a rich client of ArcGIS Server.

  Search - At 9.4, ESRI is launching an ambitious effort to have search capabilities deeply integrated into all elements of ArcGIS. This will allow users to automatically create and discover various GIS resources using simple search tools.  Users will have search tools integrated in their desktop that search local files, workgroup servers, enterprise servers and the open Web.  For example, a user may need a water resources data set in England. He would simply type that in and search.  This will require that ArcGIS automatically stamp simple discoverable metadata on all objects that it touches—data, models, maps, workflows, documents, etc.

  ArcGIS 9.4 will have a strong focus on improving the desktop user experience with an editing environment that relieves users of the need to manage geodatabase details, new geoprocessing tools that perform editing functions; powerful search functionality, a new user interface that will let users simplify applications (e.g., ArcMap) for an optimal workflow, and more flexible toolbar behavior and management.

  We will be overhauling the metadata editor as part of our metadata creation, management, and data sharing improvements in ArcGIS 9.4.

  Analytical Tools. ArcGIS 9.3 supports a suite of new 3D analytical tools (i.e., proximity, intersection, etc.) exposed through the ArcObjects API.  At 9.4, ESRI plans to extend this functionality as geoprocessing tasks and end user tools, exposed directly in the user interface. Also at 9.4, ESRI will be introducing a whole series of new tools for 3D editing (moving 3D objects around), interactive texture rendering, terrain editing, and higher performance visual display.

  In ArcGIS 9.4, ESRI plans to add additional collaboration tools to allow easier sharing of notes and markups.

  [via http://events.esri.com/uc/QandA/index.cfm?fuseaction=printall&ConferenceID=85D7FF7F-1422-2413-199D382F1109DE0A]

  Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

• 30 Jul

  

  Posted by
  joesonic

  
  

  Category

  • GeoWeb
  • Mobile
  • Web

  Cadastral map for transmitters (Sendekataster)

  4

  The forum of mobile communication in Austria has launched a cadastral map for Austria which locate radio- and cellular radio transmitters in Austria. This service is supported by the Austrian federal agency of traffic, innovation and technology (Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Innovation und Technologie) and the telecommunication regulation authority with the objective to give citizen an overview about the positions and information of transmitters. A web map service inform users about this. The map was developed by WIGeoGIS and uses TeleAtlas data.

  

  Link: http://www.senderkataster.at

  Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

• 30 Jul

  

  Posted by
  joesonic

  
  

  Category

  • Google

  Google Maps with new Design

  0

  Since May Google is testing a new design for their maps service. This design was only available for a limited number of people. Now the new design is here for everyone. There was a shift from the orange design to a blue design. The search box is now emphasised and easier to use. Also AJAX elements are introduced for more inactivity to show and hide functions.

  

  Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

• 29 Jul

  

  Posted by
  joesonic

  
  

  Category

  • Site-related

  New Design

  0

  I’ve tried to redesign my blog a little bit, so that it looks similar to my homepage. The design is based on the K2 Wordpress template. I hope you like it. It has some handy features, for example to switch from three columns to two columns if the browser width is not big enough. Also the navigation bar on the top of the side is very handy.

  Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

• 29 Jul

  

  Posted by
  joesonic

  
  

  Category

  • Event
  • GeoWeb

  GeoWeb 2008 Keynote talks

  0

  You can watch the keynote talks from the Geoweb 2008 conference on Youtube. I have listed the video also here.

  Keynote Speaker, Alex Miller – GeoWeb 2008
  10:00

  Full podcast will be available for download at www.geowebconference.org.

  Alex Miller is founder and President of ESRI Canada Limited, a privately held Canadian owned company specializing in the design and implementation of geographic information systems. Mr. Miller is a graduate of the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton with a Bachelor of Science in Surveying Engineering. Mr. Miller has over 35 years experience in surveying, mapping, engineering, information systems design and management consulting. He is past Chair of the Geomatics Industry Association of Canada, Co-Chair of the GeoConnections Policy Advisory Committee, Chair of the Geomatics Canada Advisory Committee and a member of the Federal Department of Natural Resources Minister’s National Advisory Board on Earth Sciences.

  —

  Keynote Speaker, Michael Jones – GeoWeb 2008
  09:19

  Full podcast will be available for download at www.geowebconference.org.

  Michael T. Jones is Google’s Chief Technology Advocate, charged with advancing the technology to organize the world’’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. He was formerly Chief Technologist of Google Maps, Earth, and Local Search – the teams responsible for providing location intelligence and information in global context to users worldwide. Before its acquisition by Google, Michael was CTO of Keyhole Corporation, the company that developed the technology used today in Google Earth. Previously he was CEO of Intrinsic Graphics and Director of Advanced Graphics at Silicon Graphics. A computer programmer since 4th grade, he is a prolific inventor, developer of notable scientific and computer graphics software, an engineering and business executive, and an avid traveler and photographer using a home-built 4 gigapixel camera made with parts from the U2/SR71.

  —

  Invited Speaker, Michael Kay – GeoWeb 2008
  09:53

  Full podcast will be available for download at www.geowebconference.org.

  Dr. Michael Kay is best known for his work on XML. Based in the UK, he is the editor of the XSLT specification and author of the definitive book on the language, and is also active on the standards group for XQuery and XML Schema. He is also the developer of the popular open-source Saxon software which implements these specifications. He gained a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1975 for work on database technology, and has retained links with the academic world, currently holding the position of Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Reading.

  —

  Invited Speaker, Kimon Onuma – GeoWeb 2008
  09:42

  Full podcast will be available for download at www.geowebconference.org.

  Kimon G. Onuma, FAIA, is recognized as a leader in building industry technologies and has a unique perspective that spans architecture, planning, programming and software development. Onuma was one of the first to use BIM on large scale US government facilities in 1994. His US Coast Guard (USCG) work for the Sector Planning System streamlined the design process of 35 sector Command Centers to six months and integrated data from various command centers and received a 2006 CETI award in the Small Scale Implementation category. In December 2006 he proved at an international Open Geospatial Consortium event that web feature services can link BIM and GIS.

  —

  Keynote Speaker, Bill Gail – GeoWeb 2008
  09:52

  Full podcast will be available for download at www.geowebconference.org.

  Dr. William B. Gail is Director of Strategic Development within Virtual Earth at Microsoft Corporation, with responsibility for expanding the capabilities of Virtual Earth and its use throughout the community. He was previously Vice President of the Mapping and Photogrammetric Solutions division at Vexcel Corporation (acquired in 2006 by Microsoft), where he directed a global organization responsible for a range of Earth information systems and services. Dr. Gail is on the Board of Directors of Peak Weather Resources, Inc., is a member of the editorial boards for Imaging Notes magazine and the Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, and is the Director of Industry Relations for the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society. In 2007, he received awards from GITA for best conference speaker and AGU for excellence in scientific journal review.

  —

  Invited Speaker, Michael Goodchild – GeoWeb 2008
  09:52

  Full podcast will be available for download at www.geowebconference.org.

  Dr. Michael F. Goodchild is Professor of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Director of spatial@ucsb. His published books include Accuracy of Spatial Databases; Geographical Information Systems: Principles and Applications; Environmental Modeling with GIS; Scale in Remote Sensing and GIS; Interoperating Geographic Information Systems; Geographic Information Systems and Science; Uncertainty in Geographical Information; Foundations of Geographic Information Science; Spatially Integrated Social Science; GIS, Spatial Analysis, and Modeling; and Geospatial Analysis: A Comprehensive Guide to Principles, Techniques and Software Tools.

  —

  Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.
• 28 Jul

  

  Posted by
  joesonic

  
  

  Category

  • Internet

  Semantic Search with Cuil

  0

  Cuil (pronounced “cool”) is a search engine unveiled on July 28, 2008. Recently several start-ups wanted to establish on the hard search engines market, but also big companies like Microsoft and Yahoo managed it to attack Google. But the semantic search of Cuil tries to make it different. Uniquely, it organizes web pages by content and displays relatively long entries and pictures for each result. It claims to have a larger index than any other search engine, with about 120 billion web pages. Cuil is managed and developed largely by former employees of Google.

  

  Today it started their service and provided relatively good results in my opinion. The search results are not in form of a list, it is more like the layout of an online magazine. Cuil can use 33 million $ Venture-capital. Also Tom Costello is on board, who has worked in the field of search technologies for IBM and made research at the Stanford University.

  

  Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

• 26 Jul

  

  Posted by
  joesonic

  
  

  Category

  • GIS
  • Programming

  ArcGIS for AutoCAD

  0

  ArcGIS for AutoCAD is a free application that provides access to ArcGIS Server map services and allows CAD users to visualize and query GIS data without conversion in AutoCAD. As a CAD user, you can work directly with ArcGIS map services to add GIS context to your AutoCAD session.

  This introductory video demonstrates how ArcGIS for AutoCAD leverages the spatial data management and cartographic capabilities of ArcGIS Server.
  

  With ArcGIS for AutoCAD, you can (according to ESRI)
  

  • View live GIS maps, displaying GIS symbology of all underlying GIS data structures in CAD.
  • Include the results of GIS analysis in your CAD designs.
  • Include GIS basemaps in your CAD products.
  • Access feature attributes in CAD directly from the underlying GIS databases using the Identify tool.
  • Define the coordinate system within AutoCAD to automatically project maps on the fly without transforming CAD drawings or converting GIS data.

  Link: http://www.esri.com/autocadapp

• 25 Jul

  

  Posted by
  joesonic

  
  

  Category

  • GIS
  • Web

  A TouchTable Demonstration by ESRI

  0

  Recently I have found this video on YouTube, where ESRI demonstrated the use of ArcGIS Engine and ArcGIS 3D Analyst with a TouchTable. It’s not the wow effect anymore (ony basic functionality), but you can see how far they are.

  Written and submitted from CUAS, using their network.

• 24 Jul

  

  Posted by
  joesonic

  
  

  Category

  • GeoWeb

  Finding Addresses in Austria

  0

  I have tried to compare the big three search engines, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Live in their functionality and usability for finding address locations. Address Geocoding is an important field of the GeoWeb and should be not problem for these three companies, but during the test I identified enormous deficits or a complete lack of these functionality.

  Test address was: Europastrasse 4, 9500 Villach, Austria. This information should be more than enough to visualize the exact location on the map.

  Lets Start with Microsoft Live Search. In my test this service completely fails. First of all if you try to enter the address in the search box of the ordinary Web Search you get some results which may be related to the address but it was not checked that the entered string represents an address (complete lack of semantics). Therefore, I changed to maps.live.com, to see if I can locate my address here. First of all you have to change the mode from the default (businesses) to locations. Then I entered the address to search. The results displays the map near Villach but far away from the correct location. Live maps do not have address geocoding for Austria. Hence, it cannot be recommended to search for Austria addresses.

  

  The next service I tested was Yahoo Local Maps. Similar like Live Search it was not possible to visualize the address from the normal web search. In the Yahoo Local Maps mode it is possible to enter the address in the search field. The result does not perfectly fit but it is close. Additional you get a hint that the exact address cannot be found but the nearest address is visualised. In this case much better than Microsoft Live Search.

  

  At least I tested the market leader Google. And it is the test winner of my small experiment. By entering the address as search string the first result is a small map, which visualizes the exact location of the address. From this small view you can directly change to Google Maps. Of course also Google Maps locate the address without any problems through the search box.

  

  So try it for yourself and tell me your Experiences.

  Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

• 22 Jul

  

  Posted by
  joesonic

  
  

  Category

  • GeoWeb
  • Google

  Google Maps Walking Routes

  0

  Google introduced Walking routes!

  

  Try it for yourself at http://maps.google.com

  Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.