Thursday, July 31. 2008

DBAs and Librarians - More Similar Than I Realized

This comment posted by "Jill" and featured at SSWUG (SQL Server Worldwide Users Group) is worth a read.

Google Responds with Motion to Dismiss on Street View Private Street Case

A Pittsburgh couple on a private road sued the company in April stating it had no right to drive up the road and photograph the house. Google's paper asking for a dismissal were filed in July and posted on the Smoking Gun yesterday. Google's argument boils down to, "there is no privacy" and "we as a society allow people to walk up to our doors all the time."

- New York Post

Is a combined survey/GIS department in your county's future?

It may be in Hall County, Nebraska.

Hall County Surveyor Casey Sherlock proposed to combine his existing Surveyor Department with the existing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Department (which is currently under the county's information technology director) at a total cost of $200,648. The "deal?" Separately the two departments had a budge of $204,000 for the past fiscal year. The proposal also included a $20 raise for Sherlock.

- Grand Isle Indepedent

Wednesday, July 30. 2008

Pitney Bowes Ad on Location Intelligence in New York Times

In the "there's something you don't see everyday" department comes this ad which accompanied my daily e-mail from the New York Times. While in the geospatial arena we speak of location intelligence (we even host a conference by that name) I'm hard pressed to imagine New York Times readers as savvy as they are, know what it is. Perhaps that's the point?

California Giving Visibility to GIS Coordination

The office of the CIO for the State of California is coordinating a newly-formed GIS Cooridination committee. Two press announcements (1, 2)have been made so far within the recent months. The CIO has released a video (see more below)that explains some of the initiatives and we will also be reporting with a more in depth interview with some of the committee members in a forthcoming article.

Continue reading "California Giving Visibility to GIS Coordination"

Garmin Misses Expectations, Delays Nuviphone

The basics, from Bloomberg:

Profit, excluding a gain from a sale of Tele Atlas NV shares, was 94 cents a share, compared with the $1.01 average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Sales rose 23 percent to $911.7 million, Garmin said in a statement today, falling short of the $959.1 million analysts had projected.

Sales expectations were cut in half to 23% based on consumers holding back. Further, with so many PNDs already in the market, competition from TomTom, prices have dropped to encourage those without a device to buy.

Shares fell $5.91, or 13 percent, to $39.15 this morning, the largest drop in five years.

The Nuvifone will be delayed for at least 6 months until the first half of 2009; it was originally to be out this fall and account for 10% of sales. There's also speculation the proposed sale price of the Nuvifone, about $300, will drop to match the new iPhone.