In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

The Ogle Earth blog asks if Microsoft couldn't turn Flight Simulator X into a great 3D mapping application (and eventual Google Earth competitor?). The FSPlanet screenshots are in fact impressive.

The Surveying, Mapping and GIS blog links to an Argus Leader article about Landsat 8 going to space in 2010. Very Spatial also shares a USGS update on Landsat 5 status. From the AL article: "The next satellite might eventually be dubbed Landsat 8 and is budgeted for $338 million this fiscal year. The memo from OSTP [White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy] also said the government's goal is to make Landsat a permanent program rather than a series of independent missions."

Directions Mag have a long and interesting analysis of year 2005 and the geospatial industry's financial health. From the analysis' introduction: "In retrospect, the publicly traded geospatial technology companies provided exceptional value to their shareholders in 2005. On average, the companies in the portfolio we track on a weekly basis [...] gained 29% while the NASDAQ composite index, the market on which most of these companies are traded, gained only 6%."

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) gave us a plethora of new geospatial-related gadgets listed in two Very Spatial entries and one from All Points Blog. It includes a device to record your car movements and another one providing in-vehicle real-time weather data.

The Open Geospatial Consortium sent out a press release concerning their request for public comments for the Geospatial Web Processing service specification. From the PR: "The candidate Web Processing Service interface specification provides a standardized interface that facilitates the access and publishing of geospatial processes as well as the discovery and binding to those processes by client applications. "Processes" in this context include any sort of calculation or model which operates on spatially referenced data."

Very Spatial have a short review of Making Maps (Krygier and Wood, 2005). From the review: "[...] John Krygier and Denis Wood, both well published Geographers and Cartographers [...] have presented a unique mix of visual example and explanatory text that introduces readers to the basic concepts of creating effective maps."

The crystal balls of the geospatial industry: Jeff at Vector One offers his predictions for 2006 while Directions Mag are looking ahead to 2006. Both entries are quite interesting, go read them!

briancnorton writes "Hey all. I have a number (hundreds of thousands) of GeoVRML files that can not be read by my new software. VRML files read just fine. Does anybody know a tool that allows me to strip out the geotags to make them VRMLs? TIA"

This Vector One entry presents a novelty from Nokia. From Nokia's quoted text: "Both Nokia NFC shells support NFC (Near Field Communication) technology that enables users to read small amounts of data from compatible tags, as well as to communicate with other devices, with a simple touch. NFC technology has evolved from a combination of RFID, contactless identification and interconnection technologies".

GeoCarta has a story about the use of geographic data in US politics. From the entry: "While the idea is not new on the commercial level, because these political applications access the massive databases of the two major political parties [in the US], the level of customization they allow is pretty impressive". The entry points to this article in Governement Technology.