In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode, covering the last few weeks (which have been crazy to me).

From the Esri front:

• Mandown reminds us that ArcGIS 10.1 is coming this June and the ArcGIS 10.0 SP5 is coming in July

• You can access and edit Esri maps even on the Kindle Fire

From the Microsoft front:

• Microsoft announced that Bing Maps is now using Nokia backend services for Traffic and Geocoding
• There's an official entry named Integrating Bing Maps With WPF
• And there's new Bird’s Eye Imagery & Streetside Coverage on Bing Maps

Discussed over Slashdot:

• Russian Satellite Takes Most Detailed 121-Megapixel Image of Earth Yet
• DEA Wants To Install License Plate Scanners and Retain Data for Two Years

• Senator Seeks More Info On DOJ Location Tracking Practices
• Modeling People and Places With Internet Photo Collections

• NASA's Interactive Flood Maps

• LightSquared Files For Bankruptcy

Directions Mag articles:

• Here's about what’s new in both the software and the use of GeoPDF
• Another one named Can Geofeedia Provide Location-based Citizen Input to Journalists?

In the miscellaneous category:

• An interesting Ogle Earth entry named Why do Panasonic, Leica, FujiFilm, Samsung and Nikon censor their GPS cameras?, short answer: China laws

• Learning Geography skills through a Zombie Apocalypse Narrative?, yes, nothing less
• While I found nothing surprising in there, it's still interesting to read the United Nations Five to Ten Year Vision on Geospatial Information Management (via)
• We heard this before, New Report Warns About Decline in U.S. Earth Observation Capabilities
• Meanwhile, India launched its first EO satellite, RISAT-1, with SAR capabilities

In the maps category:

• Strange Maps shares a map of Population by Latitude and Population by Longitude
• TMR shares a map of U.S. Life Expectancy by County

• It was submitted as a press release but deserves more attention, UrbMet.org, interactive web map for the urban metabolism of cities, the same tool was later featured on the O'Reilly Radar

• Here's Climascope, an interactive web map to explore climate change
• The Earth is mostly (70%) covered by water, but there isn't that much in terms of volume
• Mapperz mentions MapofLife.org, mapping geographic distributions for any terrestrial vertebrate species
• At the other end of the spectrum, FearSquare.com, crime around you (UK only)

Ah... it feels good to be current on geonews once again!

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode.

From the open source / open data front:

• This interesting entry by Paul Ramsey on the challenges of polygon intersections when the polygons are huge and involve multiple cartographic projections, a case study in PostGIS
• Via Geonames, I found out that SRTM-DEM CGIAR-CSI is now at version 4.1, but I failed to find what's changed since version 4
• Geopaparazzi 2.6.0 has been released
• APB shares a few interesting OpenStreetMap news, including raising $800k to build maps for pedestrians

From the Google front:

• Here's an entry on the jQuery UI module for the Google Maps API
• In Google Maps, links to directions have been added to the saved locations in My Places
• There's the first Map your University competition with Google Map Maker
• Here's realistic SketchUp renderings using Maxwell
• And there was new Google Earth imagery released last Friday

In the everything-else category:

• Here's a pertinent O'Reilly article on the NoSQL movement
• mattwynn shared an entry named Why ESRI (as is) can’t be part of the open government movement
• The OGC mentions the Geospatial World Forum 2012 to be held in Amsterdam in April
• Here's a link to an article on the need of location standards for business intelligence, there's an OGC GeoBI DWG too
• Directions Mag offers an article named Safe Software Execs Address the State of GIS and FME 2012 and another one named Business models for LBS shift to freemium and advertising
• Slashdot reports that LightSquared will try using lawyers to save their plan to mess with the GPS spectrum
• Via O'Reilly Where, I found this infographic on the local and location-based advertisement ecosystem
• Are you ready? China’s Geographic Information Industry Takes the Lead Globally
• Here's a 5-minutes video on Microsoft Layerscape, I wasn't impressed - should I be? Spatial Sustain has an entry about it
• APB shared an entry named Pitney Bowes Software CEO O’Hara Discusses Autodesk Relationship and Software Strategy
• Slashdot shared a story named Scientists Print Cheap RFID Tags On Paper
• And another one from the same source named Australian Police Spying On Web, Phone Usage [including location data] With No Warrants

In the maps category:

• SS mentions the NASA release of a New Global Forest Height Map
• Slashdot ran a story named FCC Maps the 3G Wasteland Of the Western US
• APB shares a crowdsourced map of Iranian nuclear sites

Nothing surprising since this outcome was expected, Slashdot runs a story named FCC Bars LightSquared From Using Airwaves.

Their summary: "A proposed wireless broadband network that would provide voice and Internet service using airwaves once reserved for satellite-telephone transmissions should be shelved because it interferes with GPS technology, the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday. The news appears to squash the near-term hopes for the network pushed by LightSquared, a Virginia company that is majority-owned by Philip Falcone, a New York hedge fund manager. LightSquared, naturally, continues to deny that the interference is real."

This seems to be the end of the LightSquared debacle which started over a year ago.

Via @azolnai I learned about the 2012 Defense Authorization act that may prevent LightSquared, or anyone else, to interfere in any way with military GPS. Related, last week, Slashdot discussed a story named LightSquared Says GPS Tests Were Rigged.

From the NewScientist article: "A clause buried deep in the 565 pages of the 2012 Defense Authorization act passed in December bars the Federal Communications Commission from approving systems that interfere in any way with military GPS. The bill also tells the FCC to supply Congress with a final copy of the report from its working group, which late last year issued a preliminary report warning that a system proposed by telecoms firm LightSquared of Reston, Virginia would cause serious interference. [...] The concern was that signals near the 4G transmitters would be so strong that that would drown out the faint satnav signals reaching the ground. A series of subsequent tests backed up those claims."

The Slashdot story summary: "Would-be cellular carrier LightSquared claims that the company's LTE network was set up to fail in GPS interference tests. 'Makers of GPS (Global Positioning System) equipment put old and incomplete GPS receivers in the test so the results would show interference, under the cover of non-disclosure agreements that prevented the public and third parties from analyzing the process,' LightSquared executives said on a conference call with reporters Wednesday morning."

While we mentioned frequently the LightSquared debacle, those interested in all the details can read All Points Blog's excellent coverage.

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode. I've been overly busy lately - like a lot of us are at that time of the year I guess - please allow the unusual delay of this entry. Have a nice holiday break!

On the Esri front:

• Via an Esri email, I learned about the National Geographic World Map to be used as a basemap with Esri products and services

On the Google front:

• Again, there's new 45° imagery available, now for Detroit, Fayetteville, Nashville, Baton Rouge and Huntsville
• The GEB has an entry on Google Earth on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus
• The GEB also shares another entry on using Google Earth in the classroom
• Finally from the GEB, here's an entry named Visualizing Google Analytics data in Google Earth
• Slashdot is discussing a story about British Telecom suing Google over Android, including several location-related patents
• Here's the official entry on last week's imagery update

In the miscellaneous category:

• APB shares their top 10 GIS stories of 2011
• SS informs us that France's Pleiades-1 high-resolution is now in orbit: "Pleiades-1 has a 70cm resolution, mulitspectral views in the visible and near-infrared bands, and a swath width of 20km"
• Read this if you want to grasp how important geospatial intelligence is to the US Department of Defense
• We often mentioned the LightSquared debacle, now they want the FCC to rule now, not a bad idea since they might run out of money in the coming months
• SS also informs us of an hyperspectral imager that can be deployed on UAVs
• We mentioned GeoSMS before, here's the OGC blog the use of GeoSMS for disaster management
• APB informs us that Facebook added Location Tagging to their Timeline Rollout
• Two weeks ago in a PR we mentioned GISLounge's GIS job skills and employment survey
• Also from a recent PR, we never mentioned before the free Dinamica EGO software, now at version 1.8, EGO standing for Environment for Geoprocessing Objects
• V1 informs us that Russia's GLONASS satellite navigation system is officially global again
• Slashdot discusses how the brain's structure changes with your spacial and navigation skills, at least for taxi drivers
• Another location-related story discussed at the same place is named Japanese Use Wild Monkeys To Track Radiation
• Finally from the same source, DigitalGlobe's satellite spotted China's first aircraft carrier
• WebMapSolutions reviews 8 mobile GIS apps for iOS and Android
• Microsoft tells us about the Updated Spatial Features in the SQL Azure Q4 2011 Service Release
• MapQuest updated their Mobile Flash Maps API to v7.0.7, but with Flash for Mobile officially abandoned by Adobe, what's the future of Flash?
• O'Reilly shares a long entry on the Public Mapping Project for gerrymandering the U.S. elections, which we mentioned before
• Hum... APB shares an entry named Confidence Key to Women Doing Well at Spatial Tasks

In the maps category:

• While I'm a bit late for Christmas gifts, VS mentions interesting typographic maps of various U.S. cities on sale, VS also links to reasonably priced 'vintage' geography gifts
• Here's OWNI's list of Best Maps of 2011, a few of them previously mentioned here
• Discussed over Slashdot, a New All-Sky Map Shows the Magnetic Fields of the Milky Way
• O'Reilly shares this British map of traffic casualties

Remember this story last February named LightSquared and FCC: How GPS Signal in the U.S. May Soon No Longer Operate Correctly? Well, Slashdot is now running a discussion named LightSquared Disrupts 75% of GPS Connections In Government Test.

Their summary: "Philip Falcone's proposed LightSquared Inc. wireless service caused interference to 75 percent of global-positioning system receivers examined in a U.S. government test, according to a draft summary of results. ... The tests worked off an 'extraordinarily conservative' threshold and didn't show the devices' performance was affected, [LightSquared exec Martin Harriman said]. 'If we're affecting the performance of the device — my goodness, we'd like to be sure that doesn't happen,' Harriman said. The laboratory testing was performed for the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Systems Engineering Forum, an executive branch body that helps advise policy makers on issues around GPS. It found that 69 of 92, or 75 percent, of receivers tested 'experienced harmful interference' at the equivalent of 100 meters (109 yards) from a LightSquared base station."

We mentioned the LightSquared debacle a few times in the past.

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode covering the last two weeks. It's a bit longer than usual.

On the open source front:

• Almost two weeks ago, the OSGeo released their 2 minutes video promoting the FOSS4G 2011 conference, Slashgeo is proud to be a media partner
• The FGT blog offers a long entry on the portable version of gvSIG, an open source GIS - portable meaning running from a USB key with a host computer with no intallation required
• Several sources mentioned that Canada's British Columbia opened their province-wide open data portal, with plenty of geospatial data in it
• While we mentioned the its preview in May, here's more documentation on the upcoming GeoRepository, an advanced authorization manager for GeoServer
• ImageI/O-Ext 1.1.1 has been released
• uDig 1.2.2 has been released too
• There's a PostGIS Drupal module in the works

On the Google front (well, new since yesterday):

• Public transport directions of London is now available in Google Maps
• Google details the new Google Maps version 5.8 for Android, adding photo uploads and My Places
• Mapperz tells us how to load OpenStreetMap data in Google Earth via FME with BBOX.ME

On the Microsoft front:

• Most visible changes for users are updates to the Bing Maps road map style, they even offer a 9-pages guide to detail what 's new
• APB reports that Microsoft will use Gigwalk to enhance Bing Maps search results
• Microsoft announced Bing Maps updates to Account Center, REST Services, and Documentation
• Another entry enumerate what's new in the Bing AJAX Map Control

In the miscellaneous category:

• O'Reilly links to a free shapefile of the TZ timezones of the world
• SS mentions the GeoTime software that "displays movement over time in an intuitive manner"
• Here's an article on the technical, scientific, historic and political background to the GPS system
• On the topic of the future of GPS, V1 shares an entry named the Significance of LightSquared Debate to Europeans and APB shares ESA's reaction to LightSquared potential interference with Galileo
• MacRumors have an entry named Apple Pays $946 in Korean Lawsuit Over Location Data Collection, New Class Action Suit Coming
• In the funny category, APB mentions (video included) ToyToyota's Backseat Driver GPS iOS game for kids that uses the real-time itinerary of the car

Discussed over Slashdot:

• 3D Hurts Your Eyes
• Chief NSA Lawyer Hints That NSA May Be Tracking US Citizens
• Google Grabbed Locations of Phones, PCs
• Undersea Cable Map Shows Where The Data Pipes Are

In the maps category:

• SS shares an entry named eLEAF Maps the World’s Water for Food Security
• Ready for the hurricane season, the UK Met Office launched their Storm Tracker (beta), with free and paid versions, and on the same topic, the GEB offers an entry on tracking hurricanes in Google Earth
• V1 mentions Africover WebMap from the UN, offering geodata for Africa
• O'Reilly have an entry on cellphone connections in the U.S.

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode, covering almost two weeks worth of geonews. I'm voluntarily leaving Esri-related geonews out for an upcoming entry specifically on their user conference.

On the open source front:

• Geomajas 1.9.0 has been released, along with 10 plugins (2 of them new) - here's what is Geomajas
• Here's instructions to load OpenStreetMap data in QGIS
• Here's a comparison of browser windows of QGIS and MapInfo 11
• We mentioned quite a few times the OpenLayers 2.10 Beginner's Guide, and here's another review of it

On the Google front:

• Google mentions Historypin now being available worldwide, in which historical photographs are overlayed on Google's StreetView or directly pinned in Google Maps
• Google shared an entry on using Street View to digitally archive Japan’s disaster zones
• Here's tutorial and documentation on the Google Places API
• Here's an entry on Google Map Maker in Pakistan
• Here's the world's longest bridge over water, now open and in Google Earth
• In the trivia category, Slashdot discussed Tilting Bike Uses Google Maps To Simulate Routes

On the Microsoft front:

• Bing Maps got a new user interface (screenshots included)

In the miscellaneous category:

• The FGT blog offers a long and informative update on LightSquared jeopardizing GPS signals in the U.S.
• The FGT blog also mentions the 'Earth Survey Plugin' showing National Geodetic Survey control points near a specific area and much more
• Two weeks ago VerySpatial shared an interesting entry named Cloud Computing Speeds Up And Simplifies the Adoption of Spatial Technology
• The Map Room recommends an old 2009 article named Global Impositioning Systems: Is GPS technology actually harming our sense of direction?
• APB mentions Locata, a company offering high-accuracy radio-location technology for where GPS isn't available
• MapTogether links to a The Economist article on gerrymandering and election boundaries in the U.S.
• Ogle Earth informs us that India eased its remote sensing data policy to allow resolutions of up to 1 meter
• Slashdot discussed the story named Geocaching Shuts Down British Town, because of a bomb scare
• The venerable ERS-2 launched in 1995 is getting retired

In the maps category:

• Ogle Earth has an entry on the recently-born South Sudan and its maps and geography
• Slashdot discussed a story named Construction of ESA Galaxy Mapping Satellite Completed
• Here's an entry on mapping the world's sea turtles

Here's the geonews in batch mode, covering the last two weeks, and thus, longer than usual. But first, a quick note to let you know that we updated our open budget after the last donation from WebMapSolutions.com.

From the open source front:

• Quantum GIS is being ported to Android tablets
• Here's SpatiaLite for Android smarphones
• The Java Topology Suite (JTS) is being ported to JavaScript as JSTS
• Paul Ramsey shared his PgCon notes #1 and notes #2, from a PostGIS developer perspective
• We mentioned a few times the 'PostGIS in Action' book, here's a new review from Geoweb Guru this time. Here's the book on Amazon: 
  PostGIS in Action
• We also previously mentioned OpenLayers 2.10, a Beginner's Guide, here's a new review from James Fee, here's the book on Amazon:
  OpenLayers 2.10 Beginner's Guide
• MapGuide Maestro 3.1 has been released, along with its SDK
• Here's about Turning GeoServer into an ImageServer
• EasySDI V2 is now available

From the Google front:

• Today Google announced Google Wallet, enhancing mobile payments with smartphones
• Google Maps 5.5 for Android has been released
• The new Google Correlate tool supports geographic data as input

From the Esri front:

• SS offers a sneak peek at ArcGIS 10.1 improvements
• Via APB, ESRI offers a Live Severe Weather Map
• SS also has an entry named Jack Dangermond Addresses the Origins and Future of GIS
• The latest Arc2Earth allows you to legally use Google Earth imagery in ArcMap
• ArcGIS API for JavaScript 2.3 is now available

In the miscellaneous category:

• APB shares an Oracle Spatial User Conference 2011 Wrap Up and two related entries named Oracle Spatial Clients Have ‘‘Big Data’’ Issues and Oracle Exadata Database Machine the Focus of Oracle Spatial User Conference
• V1 reports on the CNN and Nokia Partner to Map More News and informs us the Ovi Maps brand has died in favor of the Nokia Services name
• MapTogether mentions the Stats America data portal
• James Fee recap GIS on the BlackBerry Playbook tablet from WebMapsSolutions
• APB offers three updates on LightSquared GPS jamming
• MapQuest integrated gas prices in their main maps
• The GEB has an entry on Pix4D, turning 2D aerial photos in 3D
• Here's the track of a tornado seen by the ASTER satellite and from GeoEye

Recent geo-related stories discussed over Slashdot:

• Wikipedia Edits Around the World and Places With the Most Wikipedia Articles
• "Space Archeology" Uncovers Lost Pyramids
• 3D Aerial Photos For the Common Man
• From Austria, the World's Smallest 3D Printer
• Hack Targets NASA's Earth Observation System
• How Companies Are Using Data From Foursquare

In the maps category:

• Ok, not exactly a map, but this world countries OCDE Better Life Index is still pretty and interesting, and you can specify what matters to you and see the matching countries (via IiB)

Here's the recent geonews that haven't made it into full stories in batch mode.

Related to the Japan 2011 earthquake and tsunami:

• The NYT shared efficient slide-over satellite imagery of several sites over Japan
• In addition to what we shared last Friday, Google posted entries on post-earthquake imagery of Japan and another on assembling resources following the earthquake in Japan
• V1 links to the UN-SPIDER SpaceAid website for the Japan earthquake
• Here's the Wikipedia entry on Nuclear power by country, where we learn Japan gets 29% of its energy from that source

From the open source / open data front:

• MapServer now has a Studio version 0.5 to edit Mapfiles in a WYSIWYG editor
• OpenStreetMap offers a video on how to add a building in OpenStreetMap
• MapQuest is now supporting OpenAerialMap too
• Mapperz mentions the OpenEcoMaps initiative based on OSM data
• There's a new version of Spatial Operations & Editing Tools for uDig 1.2.1 with its tutorial
• There will be a new interactive label placement feature in QGIS 1.7, there's also a new QGIS roadgraph plugin, On the fly raster reprojection comes to QGIS and here's a tip on opening MS SQL Server 2008 spatial tables in QGIS
• By the way, we published the press release about FOSS4G's conference workshop lineup

From the ESRI front:

• For those interested, the Plenary Session Videos For The Esri Developer Summit 2011 are now available
• There's a ArcGIS 9.3.1 Service Pack 2 Quality Improvement patch
• The ArcGIS API For iOS 1.8 Public Beta is now available
• If you like testing ESRI beta software, the Esri Beta Community has been launched
• Still from geogeek, there's an ESRI whitepaper on Estimating the cost of a GIS in the Amazon Cloud
• and three entries about a new approach to metadata with ArcGIS 10
• There's a new ArcGIS Map Drupal module that just started

In the miscellaneous category:

• MapQuest announced the launch of MapQuest Map Builder Beta while a press release focused on MapQuest tools to help drivers save money
• The UN is looking for volunteers on the Crisis Map of Libya
• For those unsure if geospatial apps will ever take off on tablets (see are running poll on the right hand side), AutoCAD WS for iOS has been downloaded 1 million times
• Slashdot discussed a story named DraftSight 2D CAD For Linux Beta Available
• A topic we discussed last week, this time it's O'Reilly that offer an article named Are we too reliant on GPS?
• The FGT blog shares an informative update on LightSquared’s GPS-Jamming proposal
• The same source offers an article named wireless sensor networks can see and shape the world
• And still from O'Reilly, an entry named Why location data is a mess, and what can be done about it and another on named Location data could let retailers entice customers in new ways

In the maps category:

• GeoCurrents offers a map of the extreme disparities of state revenue, along with an entry named The CIA World Factbook Drops Dubious Revenue Data
• TMR mentions the upcoming 'Disease Maps: Epidemics on the Ground' book by Tom Koch
• SS has an entry named China Begins Campaign to Crack Down on Unlicensed Maps