where did that come from?

Moved to Octopress

If you’re seeing this page, chances are you have followed a link to http://geobabble.wordpress.com. If so, you should update your bookmarks to http://blog.geomusings.com. I have recently moved my blog over to Octopress and no longer be actively maintaining this blog at wordpress.com.

This site will remain online as there are many older links that point back to this URL, but no new content will be posted here. All of the existing content on this site has been migrated to the new location so I strongly encourage you to update any links that may still be pointing to “geobabble.wordpress.com”. If you experience any problems with linking to the new site, please contact me using the information on my “About” page and I’ll try to help resolve the issue.

Test Pattern

Ten-Second Tidy

Things have been a bit hectic the last few weeks and that’s left little time for blogging. Quite a bit has happened so I thought I’d do a little round-up (if for no other reason than to clear my own head).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJa7P6dfmco]

In no particular order:

Steve Coast to Microsoft (I told you it had been a while) – Firstly, congratulations to Steve (#sincerity). Secondly, this clearly is the final proof that crowd-sourced data in general, and OpenStreetMaps (sic) in particular, has no real value when compared to “authoritative” data sources (#sarcasm).

Google Fusion Tables – The only real problem at this point is the size limitation but, otherwise, this will be a game-changer for storing and sharing data. In its current form, it’s already fairly easy to push your data up and expose it through Google’s APIs. It’ll be interesting to see if it gets easier. Support for spatial queries hints at some analytical capability, too. Speaking of which…

Analytics in GeoCommons – This is one to watch. They are debuting a new function each day on their blog. FortiusOne builds their platform API-first, UI-second so everything they are showing should be exposed through their APIs. This will be a huge step in moving cloud-based geospatial technology from the “bit-bucket” stage to having a more complete workflow on the cloud infrastructure.

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Twitter Shows Blitz

This past weekend, NFL Sunday to be specific, I was the victim of a TV/internet outage due to a mistake made by a technician while they did some work at the junction box shared by my next-door neighbor and I. As a result, I was unable to watch my beloved Washington NFL franchise hobble to another almost-loss so I had to find another way to keep tabs on the game. Since my internet service was also down, that left me with my BlackBerry Tour as my sole means of connectivity.

I initially started off on the ESPN site, trying to keep track of the action. Finding this unsatisfactory, I switched to MSNBC with the auto-refresh set to 30 seconds. I quickly realized that the information I was getting was woefully behind and quite inadequate. Then I had a different idea.

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Amazon and the Fountain of Youth

Yesterday, I enjoyed Seth Godin’s post titled “The End of Dumb Software.” This morning, I got an e-mail started off like this:

Dear Amazon.com Customer,
As someone who has purchased or rated books by Norman Bridwell, you might like to know that Clifford The Champion will be released on October 1, 2009. You can pre-order yours at a savings of $5.20 by following the link below.

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April Fool: Ancient GIS Discovered

Researchers working at the base of Mount Ararat in Eastern Turkey have discovered the remnants of what appears to an ancient map-based navigation system that is being called the “world’s first GIS.” The presence of the artifact, which has been dubbed “ArkMap”, at the base of mountain is seen as further evidence that Ararat was indeed the resting place of Noah’s Biblical ark.

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