Absolutely Not a Good Idea

Now liquor companies are weighing in on the battle at the border, like this recent Absolute Vodka ad that ran only in Mexico. In other news, protest groups gained little ground on Monday as they attempted to get followers to boycott the delicious vodka. I mean, it's just an ad, right? Like, just old cartography and stuff. Pour me another.

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Did You Know?

What is a Cartophilatelist?

Cartophilately is the study and collection of postage stamps that show maps. Apparently maps are a very popular theme on stamps, and often have commemorative, political or historical interest.

VIA: Dr. Maps

ESRI is the Microsoft of Geospatial



Why is it that every time I think of a shortcoming of ESRI, an equivalent misstep by Microsoft comes to mind? You would think one of these companies can learn from the other. For example:

1. ArcGIS Explorer: Late to the game again with inadequate features to even come close to be a rival to Google Earth.

Microsoft Vista: Late to the game with a subpar interface that Mac and Linux have offered for years.

2. ArcGIS Explorer: What is the deal with not packaging .NET with damn install?? GIS For Everybody? hmm, how about GIS questions for every poor GIS Tech getting a bunch of calls asking about installing .NET.

Microsoft XP/Vista: One word: CODECS. Here's a Media Player. You can only play one-third of your crap on it without scouring the web for drivers.

3. ESRI UC: $1300 to get all the info you could get for free from the exhibition hall, hotel lobby or San Diego restaurants. Then after it's all over, you are treated to a $900 coupon to purchase a DVD of the conference sessions. I say pick one or the other. The geo-blogs do a magnificent job covering the UC anyways.

Microsoft World Partner Conference: $1600 to get all the info you could get for free from the exhibition hall, hotel lobby or Houston restaurants, et cetera, etc.

4. ArcGIS Service Packs: We promise 9.x SPx will be out in November, December, June. And it's 2008, so if you are good we'll throw in a free zoom in/zoom out with the mouse wheel feature.

Microsoft Vista Release: Same issues.

5. Both companies have the Federal Government by the b*lls. No middle management guy is going to risk his career on Geoserver or something open source like Open Office to run their agency. They like paying $5,000 for software licenses that they can put the blame on if something goes wrong.

Microsoft is trying to put together this deal to aquire Yahoo. I say let Yahoo do an about face and take them both under her wing.








GIS | esri | microsoft | yahoo | arcgis | geography

ArcGIS on Your Mac OS X Update

We've previously blogged about using parallels on the Mac OS X to run ArcGIS. So now that you have it all up and running, grab a cool Mac looking shortcut icon from geoLibro to get rid of the ESRI and Microsoft doldrums!


TAG | GIS,Icons,OS X

Portable Marine GPS

A GPS is a global positioning system and perfect for navigating your course whether you are in a large or small marine craft of which the Garmin GPSMap 276C Portable,
Marine GPS, Automotive GPS Plotter is a prime example. The GPSMap 276C is an automatic navigator and chart plotter it has a built in auto route baseman that is made even better with Garmin’s marine cartography.

This portable marine GPS
unit supports external NMEA water depth, water temperature and water speed sources by means of two serial interfaces. The GPSMap 276C also has a CDI or course deviation indicator which is a tool that is normally found only on aircraft navigation systems. However, this works well in a marine environment and most especially if a boat has veered off its course.

The GPSMap 276C can also be used for navigation on roads and freeways as its Auto route baseman contains all the major routes, optional extras include map source city select software, data card, friction mount and 12 volt power adaptor. A speaker allows drivers to receive directions to addresses that are voice prompted turn by turn. The software on this unit is easily updated and has a fast USB PC interface; it is powered by rechargeable lithium battery packs or by a standard 230 volt AC plug. The battery offers five to fifteen hours of use depending on the settings of the backlight.

This unit has a 3.8 inch diagonal, 480x320 pixel, and 256-color TFT screen with an LED screen that is back lit. The dimensions of the GPSMap 276C are 5.7”wide x 3.2”H x 1.9” Deep with adjustable marine mounting brackets. This comes complete with adjustable quad helix receiving antenna with remote antenna capability. The built in base map allows for automatic routing and directions that are given turn by turn. The unit also provides separate serial and USB interfaces – and for easier viewing during the night a blue chart night mode – and a large numbers option for generally easier viewing. The unit accepts
Garmin GPS data cards as well as pre-programmed data cards. The GPSMap 276C also provides built in tide tables and celestial tables for sun and moon calculations for those who are interested.

Geo Whats? Monograms for Mountains

They are not created by space-beings or plasma vortexes. And no pranksters spent the entire night mashing corn stalks to create these designs. Rather, these are 'mountain monograms' and are a land-vanity marker of sorts that are quite common across the United States.

Can you guess what famous school this "M" represents? Spoiler

Also known as "geoglyphs" - there are thousands of these gigantic emblems carved into the country side. A leading resource for these monograms, Geoglyphs.org features hundreds of these features and the stories behind them. Geoglyphs.org has aerial photography, location maps, and latitude and longitude, should you care to visit the site.

The site currently features examples from the State of Montana and lists the geoglyphs in alphabetical order. The site is incredibly powered by not only javascript maps, but also Google Maps, Google Earth KML's, and Microsoft Virtual Earth to provide not only flexible platforms, but also excellent comparisons.

Social Networking Around the World

Until we actually start speaking to each other face to face, there will be social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook to do it for us. The popularity of these social sites across the globe is displayed on this great map. The story is in French for those of you bi-lingual geographers.

Every day Google Maps Streetview feature adds more and more locations. This video takes a look at just how advanced the service is getting!

Working with a real Lincoln Navigator Video...GPS systems are getting more and more advanced everyday :)

A little video on the perils of LIDAR mapping.....