Friday, March 13. 2009

Yahoo Finally Nixes "Classic" Yahoo Maps

The Classic version was left up to support those on dial-up and to smooth the transition to the "new" Yahoo Maps launched in 2005. Now, with most users on the new version, Yahoo has closed the Classic version. The best news?

"Stay tuned for updates and improvements throughout 2009." from the product manager. That's nice to hear after some "not so positive about the future" comments from execs.

- Yahoo Geo Technologies Blog via The Map Room

African Garmin Radio Ad Prompts Complaint on Use of "navigate"

The radio ad is a simple one. It states: "9 out of 10 people in Africa navigate with Garmin".

Joanne Macgregor found that misleading, believing that most folks in the country ask for directions or use other skills rather than satnav devices. She felt something on the lines of "9 of 10 who use satnavs use Garmin" would be more clear. She complained to the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa. It ASA dismissed the complaint noting that "navigate" was not misleading. But, as of the ruling Garmin had pulled the ad. It's not clear if it will run again.

- My Broadband

On Competing with Google in LBS

Mass High Tech looks at few companies who are in the LBS space and they cope, as Google enters that space with Latitude and other products.

- Sponty says it's different because it's about "whereyagonnabe" so you can hook up with people interested in playing squash or whatever. It also says it's not as creepy as Latitude.

- uLocate is "joining" Google in a sense by supporting an Android solution, The Where Wall, that collects messages about a location

- EveryScape launched just its street level images just as Google launched StreetView; that made for quite a bit of PR for startup.

Delaware's DataMil Updated

The University of Delaware UDaily has an article detailing all the updates - but I'll note just two:

Another helpful item is a GeoRSS feed that notifies users of recent changes on the DataMIL site.

Lastly, the site makes use of a Google Map interface, which allows large datasets to be available for download. The DataMIL Tiled Data Distribution page is an easy way to click and get tiles of imagery and elevation raster data sets for the entire state.

It's nice to see GeoRSS becoming a standard for use in NSDI sites like this one and Geospatial One-Stop.

Off Topic: Saturday is Concord Band Day

Many readers know I run. The other thing I do is play the clarinet. Just about four years ago I had the opportunity to join one of the top community bands in the Boston area, the Concord Band. I dragged a friend along and we've been doing our best to keep the third clarinet section playing up to speed and in tune.

Tomorrow, Saturday, is the Band's 50th Anniversary Concert. The Town has declared the day Concord Band Day and it's a big deal. We have all three of the band's conductor's involved (the "new guy" just started in the fall) and we commissioned a special piece for the occasion. "Flowing Pens from Concord" celebrates four of the great writer from the area. The composer, Roger Cichy, visited their haunts for inspiration and showed us the photos he took when he introduced the piece. For an amateur musician like me this concert is like going to Carnegie Hall, even though we'll be performing at a local high school.

My words to all the folks with horns or strings in the closet: if you enjoyed playing when you were a kid, it's as fun, if not more, when you grow up! I'm reminded of that at each rehearsal. The fellow who sits next to me is 87 years old!

- Boston Globe