Anything Geospatial

GIS, Maps, Geo and Location Technology by @gletham

Archives for December 2012

Happy New Year and Best Wishes From Glenn – Here’s To 2013!

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Welcome to my final post for 2012. In many ways the year is all a blur, it’s flown by so fast and here we are again pouring over the archives and revisiting all the stories from 2012. It was this time last year that I put together a fun look at the most popular videos that we shared on GISuser during 2011 – still quite fun to look at I must say. Today I’ve shared with you a few of the articles that I’ve written that seemed popular with the readers. I’ve pulled out 10 features and listed them below covering off such topics as the Pacific garbage patch, hackday tips, HTML5, Open Government, Indoor positioning and more. I hope you enjoy revisiting these items and more and I’d like to personally thank you for continuing with your support for our efforts, for visiting the site, reading the newsletter, posting jobs, buying historical map prints, sharing on social media, and for keeping us informed with your tips and comments – most of all perhaps, thanks to all of our sponsors who continue to make this all possible! A Happy New Year wish to all and best of luck to everyone for a fantastic 2013 from the entire Spatial Media gang – Good Luck All

Source: google.ca via Glenn on Pinterest

AR, the Tardis and 52 weeks of awesome blogging

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To wind down this week I’m offering up some kudos and congrats to my friend James who’s just completed an impressive feat with his 5 things on Friday blog series. Today James has rolled out edition #52 of F.T.O.F – you might think to yourself, big deal!! Well, if you do then you’ve obviously never been blogging and never been a hard-core blogger because it really isn’t that simple! I’ve been blogging since 1998, was interrupted for about 3 years with a work project and then continued on with almost regular bloggage since 2003 and believe me it isn’t always easy to be fun, inspirational, and informative… it really does wear on you over time (I’ve seen many, many bloggers come and go over the years, most of them wearing down or burning out, some of them being very popular and high traffic bloggers but simply yanking the plug and moving along to a “better” use of their time) so again, congrats to James – keeping up with a regular format of posts in this form of series has to be rough on the mind at times but man it sure it fun!  In this final post James also shared a very cool video on AR which I’ve taken the liberty of sharing below… enjoy and see also post 52 from James (@whatleydude)

 


USGS Comments, Mission Accomplished for Landsat 5 After 29 Years

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IT seems that like the Eveready Bunny, Landsat 5 just keeps in ticking… however, according to the USGS it may be that time has run its course for Landsat 5 and retirement is now looming near. This from the USGS…  Landsat 5 will be decommissioned over the coming months, bringing to a close the longest-operating Earth observing satellite mission in history.  By any measure, the Landsat 5 mission has been an extraordinary success, providing unprecedented contributions to the global record of land change. The USGS has brought the aging satellite back from the brink of failure on several occasions, but the recent failure of a gyroscope has left no option but to end the mission – See more

The Esri Santa Dashboard Story Map Leverages Seasonal Social Media

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Tis the season and the Esri Story Map team has put together another fun, and creative story map for us – The Santa Dashboard. Using Social Media the resource maps a number of Santa related posts including hot spots around the World for Christmas lights, photos of amazing Christmas Trees (Flickr), images and videos of Santa, and much more. Pretty awesome and fun! Check it out at http://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2012/santa-dashboard/

2012 Could Be The Year of Extreme Weather/Climate Events

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2012 has been a rough year for the weather tracking and monitoring industry, so rough that the yer could be shaping up to be known by many as The yer of extreme weather events in the US.  NOAA has released preliminary information on extreme weather and climate events in the U.S. for 2012 that are known to have reached the $1 billion threshold in losses. As of December 20, NOAA estimates that the nation experienced 11 such events, to include seven severe weather/tornado events, two tropical storm/hurricane events, and the yearlong drought and associated wildfires. The eleven events include:

  • Southeast/Ohio Valley Tornadoes — March 2–3 2012
  • Texas Tornadoes — April 2–3 2012
  • Great Plains Tornadoes — April 13–14 2012
  • Midwest/Ohio Valley Severe Weather — April 28–May 1 2012
  • Southern Plains/Midwest/Northeast Severe Weather — May 25–30 2012
  • Rockies/Southwest Severe Weather — June 6–12 2012
  • Plains/East/Northeast Severe Weather (“Derecho”) — June 29–July 2 2012
  • Hurricane Isaac — August 26–31 2012
  • Western Wildfires — Summer–Fall, 2012
  • Hurricane Sandy — October 29–31 2012
  • U.S. Drought/Heatwave — throughout 2012
  • See More info – Preliminary Info on 2012 U.S. Billion-Dollar Extreme Weather/Climate Events

Source: gisuser.com via Glenn on Pinterest

Video – Z-Boat 1800 Hydrographic Survey

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The Oceanscience Z-Boat 1800 in action at the USGS Data Conference, September 2012. Portland, OR. Single beam depth sounder installed on the latest high specification remotely operated boat. Ideal for shallow water hydrographic surveys.


Collect Professional Grade GIS Data – Juniper Aspect Webinar Recap

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Want to Collect Professional Grade GIS Data without Complicated Mapping Software? Well if so, Juniper Systems answered that question recently via a live webcast. The Topic, Juniper Aspect. Ideally suited for non-GIS professionals, the intuitive user interface of Juniper Aspect is tailored to field crews and maintenance technicians enabling other professionals, and natural resource managers/analysts to quickly and easily capture and manage data in the field. Data capture is possible via the Juniper Mesa and Archer handhelds, while additional data management is then supported by Aspect in the desktop environment.

Via live webinar, Trevor Brown and Scott Hunter of Juniper Systems walked us though a live show and tell and demonstration in order to see the full capabilities of Aspect. Brown commented how the solution is ideally suitable for the non-GIS Pro and the app draws on the experience of Juniper who many know as the developer of the popular Archer and Mesa rugged devices for field data capture. Read more about Aspect and the webinar HERE

See more about Aspect at http://www.junipersys.com/aspect

Developers Now Have a Complete HTML5 According to W3C

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Yes indeed, the HTML5 specification is now complete according to the W3C.  The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) published today the complete definition of the HTML5 and Canvas 2D specifications. Though not yet W3C standards, these specifications are now feature complete, meaning businesses and developers have a stable target for implementation and planning. HTML5 is the cornerstone of the Open Web Platform, a full programming environment for cross-platform applications with access to device capabilities; video and animations; graphics; style, typography, and other tools for digital publishing; extensive network capabilities; and more.

W3C has also announced this week the first draft of HTML 5.1 and Canvas 2D, Level 2, an early view of the next round of standardization. See complete details HERE

“The broader the reach of Web technology, the more our stakeholders demand a stable standard,” said W3C CEO Jeff Jaffe. “As of today, businesses know what they can rely on for HTML5 in the coming years, and what their customers will demand…”

EDU Tales – the story of COGS

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An interesting update about COGS (College of Geographic Sciences) related research project came through our LinkedIn group today… Are you a COGS graduate ? Dr. Bob Maher has started to research ‘the story of COGS’. This is a personal project for Bob and his wife, Heather Stewart. FYI, Bob along with Bruce Peveril taught the first Advanced Diploma program in Scientific Computer Programming at COGS in Lawrencetown, N.S, Canada.

As background research, Bob and Heather have started to interview staff who remember the past years of transition. In addition, they are compiling class lists, by program and by year and will be compiled at theStoryOfCOGS.ca.

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