The Latest on CAD/GIS

The latest in a long series of articles (I wrote many, I confess) on the state of CAD/GIS integration and ESRI’s take on it, is online at CE News. Written by my former ESRI colleague Don Kuehne, it looks at the differences in the technology and where GIS may have the upper hand. In particular interest to me, Don writes, “Unlike CAD systems, which leave data structure to the whims of individual users or require social engineering to police layer standards, GIS facilitates the creation of data of known quality.” If pressed I supposed I’d agree that’s true; still, without metadata (seemingly a “social engineering” phenomena) GIS data are no better than CAD created data. So, we are not out of the woods yet!

Plot Your Data on Google Maps

Not sure how I missed this Google Maps hack, but itТs got be the most useful one yet. The site (by Phil) explains it this way: УmyGmaps enables you to create, save and host custom data files and display them with Google Maps.Ф HereТs what that means in practice. Once you set up an account you can enter a bunch of addresses or lat/pairs along with some text that you want to pop up when you click the feature. You save it on the myGmaps site (as XML). Now, you can basically send that file to Google maps and have it post those points and related text right in GoogleMaps. In practice, you click on a link on the Gmaps site to do the viewing. HereТs a sample I made of two locations where I lived when attending college in Chicago.

Google Maps on Your Monitor

This is not exactly related to geospatial technology, but it does show how enamored at least some folks are with Google Maps. gMerge.com offers a Python script that will sew together the tiles of a Google Map or Satellite image so one can use it for computer wallpaper or even print out posters. I guess one could even use it to um, borrow, large chucks of GoogleТs data in bitmap form. I found this via WebProNews.

Update: 6/9: The folks behind this service have been asked, informally, by Google to shut it down.

Open Source GIS Conference Full

I received word today that as of June 3 the folks behind the Open Source Geospatial ‘05 Conference could no longer accept registrations. The group has reached the capacity of the venue. ThatТs of course, good news and bad newsЕ Some more good news? IТll be there and do my best to blog here about it and provide more substantive coverage in Directions Magazine.

Acceptable User Interface

I read this statement about the usability of the Garmin StreetPilot c330: УIf you can operate an ATM machine or gas pump, you can use it.Ф Is that the best measure of consumer friendly interfaces? Would you suggest something else against which to measure? An iPOD maybe?