Court: Reselling AutoCAD OK (if you don’t read the license?)

Ralph Grabowski has the latest in the “Vernor sells AutoCAD on e-bay” case.

EU Helps Make GPS More Accurate

The European Commission introduced EGNOS on Thursday. It’s a satellite-based navigation system that improves GPS accuracy from about 10 meters to within two meters. Most navigation devices sold in Europe are ready for EGNOS; I couldn’t find much discussion of whether US receivers are good to go with the new free service.

- Sci-Tech Today

Strange Maps Book Coming Out This Month

No doubt many readers keep tabs on the Strange Maps blog. I see from the New Yorker that the author of that blog is putting all those goodies into a book available later this month. Frank Jacobs’ “Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities,” will come out of Viking Studio and sounds like a great gift idea for any map devote. (Note to NYS Geospatial Summit folks: possible speaker???)

World Cartogram Atlas

Researchers from the University of Sheffield updated an atlas that includes 200 maps that show “which cities are the largest, how all urban areas compare, and whether many or few people live in the countryside.” The effort is part of a Leverhulme Trust project to remap the world and extend the Worldmapper project. The BBC has some animations of a few countries and some sample maps. I’m not sure why neither of the articles I read included the URL of the website (or perhaps I didn’t find it?)

- The Press Association
- BBC

Montana Neighbors Market Values No Longer Available in State GIS?

One of the cool things about Montana (there are so many…) is that there is a statewide parcel and appraisal database. (I knew about it from my NSGIC contacts and because one of my students did an assignment on it.) The state recently did reappraisals that have caused may residents’ tax bills to rise considerably. But to fight the assessment, residents need to look at the market value of neighboring properties. Per the Whitefish Pilot that capability is no longer available in the state’s app.

There’s one major hiccup, however, in the appeal process — reappraisals are based on market values of neighboring properties, but information on neighboring properties is no longer available to the public on the state’s online database, http://gis.mt.gov.