Your health depends on where you live
TED has recently released a talk by Bill Davenhall entitled "Your health depends on where you live". Presented at TEDMED, the talk provides a very simple exposition of "geo-medicine" (or more broadly epidemiology). In fact, when you watch it, it really espouses, first and foremost, the significance of geography and then the importance of GIS.
posted on: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 | path: /GIS | permanent link to this entry
Infrared Photography
There's a nice summary article covering infrared photography over at the BBC. It's part of the celebrations of 100 years of infrared photography. If you read the article you'll see that infrared has been known about for at least a further 100 years, but getting photographic film/plates that were sensitive to these wavelengths was difficult. That occurred around 1910, with commercial film from 1930.
posted on: Sat, 30 Jan 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Zoomable Map
Check out the Zoomable Map which uses a clever set of folds to give the effect of zooming in from an overview map to a streetmap. I can see this taking off for alot of city maps, so thought I would order the London one. Its not cheap but a really nice idea. I hope it takes off.
posted on: Sat, 23 Jan 2010 | path: /GIS | permanent link to this entry
Trouble and strife with OS data
I recently had a map submitted to the Journal of Maps that made good use of Mastermap data. Although not an extensive amount was used, it is primarily based upon it so I suggested he check out the JISC-OS license with particular reference to my post on what this means for PDF based maps....
posted on: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 | path: /GIS | permanent link to this entry
Australia is BIG
For antipodean colleagues, yes Australia is BIG. A map always puts it in to perspective!
posted on: Sun, 17 Jan 2010 | path: /fun | permanent link to this entry
Big boys UAVs: RQ-4 Global Hawk
A nice article over at Wired on the diversion of US military UAVs to Haiti to provide reconnaissance imagery for the relief effort....
posted on: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Gentle Introduction to GIS
GIS Lounge have a good summary of a Gentle Introduction to GIS, a PDF manual and accompanying datasets for use with QGIS....
posted on: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 | path: /GIS | permanent link to this entry
Students have 10 minute attention span
Students only have '10-minute attention span' - it's a great headline from the BBC and the first part of the copy reads: "University students have average attention spans of just 10 minutes and many miss lectures because of the need for part-time jobs, research suggests." Actually, the 10-minute attention span is a pretty well known phenomena; John Medina outlines this in Brain Rules (amongst other things) and discusses how he structures 1 hour lectures in to 15 minutes blocks to leverage attention spans. So not so much a real headline as a storm in a teacup.
posted on: Thu, 14 Jan 2010 | path: /teaching | permanent link to this entry
Very small world map
A world map with a difference - this one is only 40 microns (that's about the same as the wavelength of thermal infra-red light) in in size! This one is done using CMOS fabrication tools and put on a chip. Nice :)
posted on: Wed, 13 Jan 2010 | path: /fun | permanent link to this entry
Importance of Geography
Nice article over at The Economist espousing the importance of Geography (with a big "g") and it's centrality to everything important that is going on in the world. Of course, I would at to that that GIS underpins a very large part of the data collection, analysis and presentation of much of what goes on in geography.
posted on: Tue, 12 Jan 2010 | path: /fun | permanent link to this entry
Snow covered UK
It's already been flagged up on the BBC, but a Terra MODIS image captured a nearly cloud free, almost totally snow covered, UK yesterday. It's quite simply stunning and is available from the MODIS Rapid Response System which provides near real-time access to MODIS imagery on Aqua and Terra. This particular image is the highest resolution (250m pixels) version and is available with a worldfile meaning it can be loaded straight in to a GIS.
posted on: Fri, 08 Jan 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Surface Roughness of Topography: A Multi-Scale Analysis of Landform Elements in Midland Valley, Scotland
C.H. Grohman, M.J. Smith and C. Riccomini
Proceedings of Geomorphometry, 140-148
In this paper we briefly review a selection of measures of surface roughness, with specific application to grid based digital elevation models (DEMs). A selection were assessed for the behaviour of roughness at different spatial scales and dataset resolutions using moving-window and raster algebra steps to a test area in the Midland Valley, Scotland.
posted on: Wed, 06 Jan 2010 | path: /publications/proceedings | permanent link to this entry
Map-OSM-atic
Great automated service for creating a town plan and index over at MapOSMatic using OpenStreetMap data. The site developed out of Hackfest2009 and is based upon the entire worldwide OSM data using the default OSM stylesheet. A really useful service. If your map doesn't already exist (and there currently doesn't appear to be a search engine for existing plans) then you can define a bounding box around your town of interest and queue it for processing. The queue is currently around 200 maps which seems to take about 24 hours to process, but of course it depends upon the complexity of the jobs. Outputs are PNG, PDF and SVG.
posted on: Wed, 06 Jan 2010 | path: /GIS | permanent link to this entry
£99 Netbook
Yes it looks to be true, a netbook that costs £99. The specs are fairly minimal, but at this price who cares!! Interestingly it comes loaded with Windows CE 6.0. The specs have more in common with a mobile phone than a netbook, which is probably why CE has been used. It'll be interesting to see if anyone gets Linux working on it, particularly as the 7" screen and keyboard make it a very usable specification.
posted on: Tue, 05 Jan 2010 | path: /publications | permanent link to this entry
ResearcherID Labs
In a recent editorial at the Journal of Maps I touched upon citation listing of journals and the importance to authors in terms of citation metrics....
posted on: Mon, 04 Jan 2010 | path: /publications | permanent link to this entry
USB Modes
I'm the proud owner of a new Sandisk Sansa View, an mp4 player in the style of an Apple Nano, but without the Apple baggage that goes with it (and some might say, without the style)....
posted on: Sat, 02 Jan 2010 | path: /computing | permanent link to this entry
Plummeting winter temperatures mapped
Nice example of environmental monitoring over at NASA, this time using MODIS Land Surface Temperature to compared temperatures in Europe this winter (11-18 December) with the 2000-2008 average. The UK is a little cooler than "normal"; the real problem areas are Russia, Scandinavia and Poland, with parts up to 20C colder than previous years.
posted on: Sun, 27 Dec 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Consultation on release of OS data
As reported by FoD and Mapperz, DCLG have begun the consultation concerning the release of OS data. There is an accompanying impact assessment. Well worth leafing through both.
posted on: Wed, 23 Dec 2009 | path: /GIS | permanent link to this entry
Happy Birthday NASA Terra
NASAs Terra is now 10!! Launched to much fanfare in 1999, of interest to Earth scientists it carries MODIS (wide swath, medium resolution, super spectral) and ASTER. The latter also being super spectral, but high resolution (upto 15m) and also stereoscopic. Note the earlier post on the recently released global DEM product. An extremely successful mission and the celebration pages show some fantastic examples of environmental change.
posted on: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Patched FireFox RSS Editor
RSS Editor is a great extension for Firefox that adds functionality to allow you to edit (doh!) RSS files....
posted on: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 | path: /computing | permanent link to this entry
Open Topography Portal Expanded
As reported by lidar news, the Open Topography Portal is to be expanded following a grant from the NSF. The OTP provide a valuable service, albeit somewhat small at the moment. However growing interest in point clouds and DEMs are driving interest and so its excellent to see further investment like this.
posted on: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Low Cost LiDAR
Lidar news have a nice article on low cost 2D LiDAR. Well worth looking at the OXTS webpage and related videos. This clearly demonstrates how young the mobile LiDAR (and for that matter static LiDAR) area is so expect to see big strides to making it more cost effective.
posted on: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
ERDAS goes where ESRI fears to tread
Slashdot reported earlier this year on the FOSS4G web server benchmarking. The big news was that ESRI were taking part, but then pulled out. The hope was to get both ESRI and MapGuide in to the frame to see how they did. With the recently announced ERDAS 2010 released, Chris Tweedie over at ERDAS took it upon himself to run some benchmarks (also reported in Slashdot). The results certainly look impressive (up to twice as fast as Mapserver) which I guess is why they were happy to put the product forward. ESRIs silence is deafening....
posted on: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 | path: /GIS | permanent link to this entry
DMC 22m Multiispectral Data Available
Slashgeo report on the availability of 22m multispectral data from DMC via the UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1 satellites. Good to see this constellation is proving successful and improving; a great advert for the new British Space Agency!
posted on: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
LEOWorks
I recently came across LeoWorks an educational remote sensing package that is free for use in teaching....
posted on: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Christmas Every Year?
I'm sure this is a result of "middle age grouch" syndrome hitting me, but the whole "Christmas thing" seems to get bigger, earlier and glitzier each year. How refreshing to see this petition to number 10. Shame its lapsed as I would have voted!!!!
posted on: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 | path: /fun | permanent link to this entry
Open Source Graphics
I regularly end up doign all sorts of quick graphics edits. I have been a long time fan of Pain Shop Pro and still run v8....
posted on: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 | path: /computing | permanent link to this entry
A Practical Guide to Geostatistical Mapping
Tomislav Hengl has just published an open-access book on geostatistical mapping. The PDF is freely available with the printed version very modestly priced. The website links to datasets with the analysis performed in R, ILWIS and SAGA, whilst the book itself comes out of the courses he teaches at ITC. Well worth a look.
posted on: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 | path: /GIS | permanent link to this entry
UK Space Agency
Great news this week with the announcement that the UK is set to have a space agency and hopefully begin to capitalise on its rapidly increasing expertise in this area. Spaceman has a good blog entry on this and the BNSC's linked Space Exploration Review is well worth downloading and leafing through.
posted on: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
USB3 is here
PCPro have published some results of the first USB3 devices to hit the market. Motherboards with USB3 ports are yet to arrive so you have to make do with PCI Express cards, but they're cheap at under £30. Clearly this will be a boon to external HDDs, portable media, external monitors etc etc and data transfer rates appear to be 2-4 times faster. As previous posts show, I use a portable HDD wherever possible for storing data and running apps, so USB3 is a big deal. I'll be on the look out for a USB3 drive caddy ASAP!
posted on: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 | path: /computing | permanent link to this entry
Postcode data release proposal
The BBC reports today that the government is planning to release postcode data early next year. This is good news as postcodes underpin so much dynamic geospatial datasets. Their commercialisation has been wrong from the outset when you have public services such as the Royal Mail and OS trying to make as much money out of data ostensibly provided by local government (but with value added). It would appear that a short consultation process across all organisations due to release data will be begin. Early next year will prove an interesting time as we see what is released and then how it is made use of.
posted on: Wed, 09 Dec 2009 | path: /GIS | permanent link to this entry
Education under Labour
Mike Baker again has a nice reflective piece on the ONS report of education under Labour over the last 12 years (I can't find the right ONS report though)....
posted on: Tue, 08 Dec 2009 | path: /teaching | permanent link to this entry
For Sale board up at Ordnance Survey
I suspect this is one of many rumours doing the rounds at the moment, but what with the government announcing that (much)...
posted on: Mon, 07 Dec 2009 | path: /GIS | permanent link to this entry
Google Sketch Up extended to support point clouds
Yes, Laser Scanning Europe has developed a plugin for Google Sketchup that enables it to support point-clouds....
posted on: Sat, 05 Dec 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
GMES Sentinel Data Policy
ESA recently announced the data policy for the GMES Sentinels. And as they say:
"The Sentinels comprise five new missions being developed by ESA specifically for the operational needs of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme (GMES)."...
posted on: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Location now in Twitter API
Location has finally been incorporated in to the Twitter API. Have a look at the news item, but basically not from the main interface as yet. You need to use a third party app. Will be interesting to see the applications of this over the next few weeks.
posted on: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 | path: /GIS | permanent link to this entry
GIS Skills for a GIS career
Nice post on the essential skills for people to have in order to pursue a career in GIS. Worth seeing how this matches a GIS curriculum for any program you are looking it. It is very technology driven and perhaps emphasises the "technician" as opposed to an "analyst" but none-the-less its an interesting list. Worth a look.
posted on: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 | path: /GIS | permanent link to this entry
Government data to be freed
The Guardian covered the news piece today on the government announcement to release over 2,000 datasets for public consumption, including (some)...
posted on: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 | path: /GIS | permanent link to this entry
WorldView-2 First Images
Digital Globe's WorldView-2 successfully launched last week and acquired its first imagery on 19th October over the US....
posted on: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Degrees can cost less....
An interesting article over at the BBC about how to get a debt-free degree. Really it's about being sensible and tapping up potential sources of income during your 3 year stint. None of it is rocket science, but there are a lot of people that just don't twig. Well worth a read.
posted on: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 | path: /fun | permanent link to this entry
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