Special Announcement
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Thursday, January 31. 2008
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HBO's sports program hosted by Bob Costas reported that Durham Connecticut is equidistant and therefore the geographic center on the road between Foxboro Stadium, home of the New England Patriots and Giant's Stadium, home of the New York Giants. So, of course, I didn't believe them and went to some of my resources.
To start, the distance between the two stadiums as calculated for the quickest route is exactly the same at 209 miles using either Microsoft MapPoint or Google Maps. Just for reference, the straightline, "as the crow flies," distance is about 190 miles.
If you add Durham to route calculations for both methods of calculating the fastest route, the distance comes to 225 miles for both MapPoint and Google Maps...that's a good thing, of course if you believe the HBO progam. But clearly, the HBO program wasn't using a route calculation. If you use the quickest route, my calculations puts the center around Westbrook, CT along Route I95.
What do come up with?
The API offered in closed alpha in December is now open to all. Limitations:
From today, anyone who registers at the OS OpenSpace website can access up to 30,000 "tiles" or extracts of data and up to 1,000 place‑name look-ups a day. Users can add markers, lines and polygons on top of Ordnance Survey mapping, search for place names with a gazetteer and display other location data from elsewhere on the Web.
- press release
You can see maps from the 300 page book online or you can buy one for $165. Full press release is here. The description:
The atlas, with more than 700 full-color maps, is the first general population and housing statistical
atlas published by the Census Bureau since 1925.
Featuring more than 300 pages and weighing about 7 pounds, the atlas
presents data from 1790 through 2000. It is arranged by topic and grouped
into three general themes -- who we are, where we come from and what we do.
Most maps feature county-level detail for the United States and Puerto
Rico.
- ResourceShelf
Garmin has, as some expected, launched its first phone, which focuses on navigation. It's called the nuviphone. Garmin doesn't yet have any information on its website, but there's plenty of coverage elsewhere, including at Engadget and the Kansas City Star.
Also, word from Dominos you can now track your pizza order to your door - at least from 3,200 outlets. But, it's really a "what step is it at" tracking, there's no geo involved. From the PR:
Once customers place an order, they can go to www.dominos.com and click on the Pizza Tracker icon. They will see a horizontal bar that lights up red as each step in the process is completed. Customers will see confirmation of their order being received by the store; when it's being prepared; when it's been placed in the oven; when it's been boxed and placed in the Domino's HeatWave(TM) bag; and finally, when it's on its way for delivery.
Still, Dominos has applied for a patent on the technology.
Technology that tracks not where you drive, but how has shown substantial ROI for businesses GreenRoad Technologies offers software that tracks how you drive (fast, slow, sudden stops) and offers tips to driver safer. The former info is then reported to bosses, insurance companies, etc.
By installing the software, some corporate customers have managed to reduce accidents by 54 percent and lower accident costs by 65 percent. Carbon dioxide emissions have declined by 7 percent in some instances.
- C|net
"The collaborative expects to develop the ability to map the full range of plant biology research in much the same way that Google Earth and Mapquest use mapping technology. Researchers could then use the application to "zoom" in and out of various levels of plant biology, from the molecular to the ecosystem, the grant administrators said."
- Paul Davenhall in an AP story on a biology grant from NSF for a project led by the Univ of Arizona
(Page 1 of 2, totalling 7 entries)
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Comments
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