In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

Or for geospatial purists, via 'satellite navigation systems' for pedestrian. In any case, Slashdot discusses a story named Microsoft Patents Bad Neighborhood Detection.

Their summary: "With the grant of their US Patent #8090532 Microsoft may be attempting to corner the market on GPS systems for use by pedestrians, or they may have opened a fertile ground for discrimination lawsuits. ... Described as a patent on pedestrian route production, the patent describes a two-way system of building navigation devices targeted at people who are not in vehicles, but still require the use of such a device to most efficiently route to their destination. ... For example, the user inputs their destination and any constraints or requirements they might have, such as a wheelchair accessible route, types of terrain they are willing to cross, the option of public transportation, and a way point such as the nearest Starbucks on the route. Any previously configured preferences are also considered, such as avoiding neighborhoods that exceed a certain threshold of violent crime statistics (hence the description of this as the 'avoid bad neighborhoods' patent), fastest route, most scenic, etc."

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode, covering the last 10 days.

From the open source front:

• With GDAL being widely used, here's a comparison of the efficiency of various compression algorithms of GDAL
• Here's an entry on the rule-based styling feature of QGIS
• Here's another review of the OpenLayers 2.10 Beginners Guide by Jody Garnett, a particularly well documented review
• Here's the interesting raw survey results on the priorities of the OSGeo, looks like people want a certification program from the OSGeo
• Here's MapGuide Application Development tips

From the Esri front:

• Here's an entry named Demystifying The Esri Landsat Image Services And ChangeMatters Viewer

From the Google front:

• O'Reilly offers an entry on Google Correlate, named Your data, Google's computing power, with an example using US state-based data
• Here's tips on building useful tours in Google Earth
• Here's their official entry on the latest imagery update for Google Earth / Maps

In the miscellaneous category:

• There's a series of entries on the new GeoCommons 2.0, with details and screenshots, some aggregated highlights,  and how GeoCommons can work with Google Fusion Tables
• TMR informs us Pentax announced a GPS unit for its Digital SLRs
• Here's an entry on the updated MapQuest Android app
• TMR informs us that Garmin added cameras to the GPSMAP 62 Series and announced new eTrex and Rino GPS units
• Here's an discussion on the evolution of monolithic vs. distributed architectures in GIS
• V1 discusses how Greece economic woes partly come from lack of maps and GIS
• V1 also offers a perspective named How Do Geographic Information, Mapping and GIS Connect with News Media Today?

In the maps category:

• TMR links to an interactive map of pedestrian deaths in the U.S. down to the local level with StreetView of where the deaths have occurred. From 2000 to 2009, 47,700 pedestrians were killed in the United States
• Here's a dramatic map of the state of fish stock in the Atlantic
• TMR links to a map of measles cases across Europe
• NASA released a new map of carbon stored in tropical forests