UI World

New Role

2010-11-19T21:50:00.000Z

So, over the last couple of months I have moved away from Civil Engineering and now spend 100% of my time in GIS. Specifically, GIS in Government. A strange time to move on, yes! But whilst its tough out there, its the best time to change.

No interesting tech post today, I just thought I would share a couple of my recent flying experiences with you. As those that know me know, I hate flying. It's a means to an end, a necessary evil and something I have to do relatively quite a lot. I can't think of one redeeming feature of flying. The waiting, the cramped conditions (I don't have the luxury of Business class just yet!) the lack of control, the food, customs... need I go on? But most of all, I hate the actual flying. I am rational about it. I do know the statistics and I have never not flown. I just can't get out of my head the fact that if it all goes wrong at 30,000...

So, with all this in mind, my sister decided that for my birthday it would be a good idea to get me up in a glider! I know! As it happened, I quite enjoyed it apart from when I had the controls. And me a control freak? It was strange really, one thing I hate about being a passenger in any vehicle is the lack of control. But when I had control of the glider I just didn't trust myself. It was a bit like that feeling you get when you're on the top of a tall building and all you want to do is jump off.

When my instructor, who was also a sailing instructor, found out I was a sailor too, told me that flying a glider is just the same a sailing a boat, but in 3D. For me, the quite fundamental difference is that I can swim.

Anyway I did it, and when I handed back the controls to the instructor, I actually enjoyed it. As for the other experience, flying back from Knock in western Ireland, no words are needed...

Written and submitted from home

Visitor Map... broke!

2010-04-19T22:51:00.000+01:00

My Visitor Map broke :(

So I got a new one :)

But it doesn't have my historical data :(

But it looks better :)

Anyway, while I'm here, have you had a look at the OS data that they have chucked out for free? It's good to see finally a decent quality ground data for free. Also Postcode data free too!

Now, go forth and create fab stuff....

Written and submitted from home

PS Yes I did spend too long creating 3D Raster Maps... but they are brilliant!

Home Taping is doing what?

2010-03-20T00:34:00.006Z

Here is a summary of bill on it's way through parliament at the moment.

http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page21348

Now, I'm no expert in the matter, but surly disconnecting users that download files from the internet is not a good idea? I decided to write to my MP and urge you to do the same.

I am concerned that the Government is planning to rush the Digital Economy Bill into law without a full Parliamentary debate. This law, although I disagree with it's content, at least deserves proper scrutiny through full consultation and parliamentary debate. It is driven by corporate greed and penalises the wrong people. It empowers companies to target individuals suspected of breaking the law without proper process, thus denying them the basic human right of a proper trial in a court of law.

If anyone can explain to me how the law will in anyway help target the gangs who we are told finance their criminal activities through copyright infringement, then I am all ears. but to date, this has not been explained and therefore we need a proper debate, not a half hearted, half baked, corporately financed bill that is rushed through to fill some rather fat pockets of executives who are over-valuing the products they sell.

The "music industry", or more accurately, it's executives who are the main beneficiary of the law, has to face up to the fact that their control over the industry is waning and the power to create and distribute music of comparable quality is now within the ability of the average person. This effectively de-values their product, and they are scared. Scared to loose their quite massive profits, and bonuses.

Anyway, the young lad in his bedroom, who is downloading for free now, is a future customer. I reckon that Most people who down load tracks on file sharing sites also spend the most money. Try a track fist, then buy the album. That was always the way when I was a teen copying music off the radio on an old C-90. Has it changed so much? I don't know, so lets debate it!

Written and submitted from home

Flat is OK...

2010-02-17T23:23:00.001Z

This is quite brilliant:

Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos augmented-reality maps | Video on TED.com

I think the the transactions between all the different data sets is the best so far, and it's Microsoft, not Google!

I may well return to this later, but for now, just watch it and decide for yourself.

Written and submitted from Home

VIRTUAL NOTES IN A REALITY OVERLAY

2010-02-03T23:11:00.005Z

Interesting thing here. A patent for "Virtual Notes in a Reality Overlay". The ability to put time. location, data based info in an augmented reality application.

Stephan Douris is the creative director of Yahoo (http://www.linkedin.com/in/douris) and I think it shows Yahoo (fairly silent over the past few years in scheme of things) are still there with the big boys in terms of developing new stuff. The patent was originally filed some time ago, so some of the stuff in it already exists or has certainly been discussed many times in many blogs and articles. I always think to myself when I see stuff like this "why is it not out there now!"

I love AR more than chocolate, and the ability to leave notes on People and things is fantastic. My only problem with it is that we will not be all walking around with our camera phones on and oriented to our faces. We need inconspicuous specs! Implants (Terminator style vision) Until then it will always be a gimmick... won't it? The best use of AR I can see is in the satnav industry. It's made for augmented reality. The games industry is there, but surely the day when adults are running around the streets of London shooting pretend guns at aliens will not come. Maybe a "Paint ball" type environment is the way forward for that one!

At a recent conference I attended Harrogate I was getting frustrated with so called 'innovators' talking about the new stuff they had seen (John McKerrell excellent MapMe.at. was one of them) and how they 'don't see the point of it' and 'think it's a bit of a waist of time' and 'who would use it'. My frustration was short lived when Ed Parsons backed up my (very silent) protest and pointed out other technologies that had been created with little knowledge of their uses.

This is always a nice little reminder to me that even though I can't currently see beyond the satnav in the near future, and more distantly beyond speculative science fiction, that doesn't mean that someone else can't. These things should be out there, good or not, useful or useless. Let the John Mckerrell's of this world innovate and moaners moan. One will make stuff, the other will talk a lot!!

Written and Submitted from Home

One to think about

2009-10-24T23:05:00.004+01:00

Here's an interesting one from TechCrunch

I never understand why people who blog/tweet/im think that they own the words and can therefore just simply delete them and think that they then do not exist. Despite Twitter's T's and C's, stating that you own the 'tweets', the ownership of the words is irrelevant. Someone some where will read them, and that fact cannot be deleted and therefore the responsibility of the words are yours.

Treat all media the same as the spoken word.

Top tip

2009-10-04T21:17:00.009+01:00

When was the last time you sent an e-mail with an attachment and forgot to attach the attachment. Why do we do this. I've done it lots and I know I'm not alone, as I get lots of emails with missing attachments closely followed by an "ooops" email.

If your using GMail, then have you noticed the "Labs" tab in the Setting?

Click it and have a look at some of the extra options. Some of them are just daft! Like adding "beta" back on the GMail icon, or making you do a maths question before it will allow you to send a mail late at night. But one of them caught my eye.

This one looks for the words "Attachment" in the body of your email, and then warns you if you try to send a mail without one attached. Simple eh! I want that in my Microsoft office.

So that's my "Top tip". Well, not quite... my tip is go to the Labs. Lots of companies try out idea's in the labs first. Autodesk Labs and Google labs are the ones I use the most (mainly with my work) but keep your eye out for others like Microsoft Office Labs. You get to play with some really useful stuff.

Written and submitted from home

Comment: Just noticed that Microsoft have a "forgotten attachment" feature in their labs. Should have looked before posting!!

Picasa Update

2009-09-30T20:18:00.009+01:00

Well, that's the latest round of Local Government presentations completed, and a success I believe!

All this running around has given me little time for anything lately, but hopefully that's it for the year.

Just a quickie for now. If your using Picasa for managing your pictures and video's, then don't wait for the automatic update to the latest version (3.5.0). Go straight to the download page (click the link above) and get it now. What's new? Well, the headline is the face recognition. It will scan all your photo's for faces, you can then tag it with a name. Picasa will then look for similar faces and tag them too.

It does come up with some strange and often humorous results occasionally, but in the main it gets it right. It even picked up some baby pictures for my daughter who is now 10.

Regardless if you find this useful or not, it's great to watch it pick up all the faces on your computer. On mine it picked up some gargoyle's and statues also!

I was amazed how may pictures I had of people on my computer.

Written and submitted from Home

Surveying the scene

2009-07-03T22:41:00.007+01:00

This week has been incredibly busy...

First was a trip up north to plan an implementation and do some work for one of our clients with the World Cup Bid. Next a Jaunt down south for a bit of Surveying with Trimble in Farnborough. Jack has posted about that one, so I don't have to. Click here to read all about it. Then it was back to Bradford for "Back to Basics" with some CAD training for a GIS guy in one of our Utility Companies. Then back to the World cup bid for some late night (deadline pending) work transforming some ESRI Shape Contour data (2D with elevation attributes) into a GeoTIFF DTM. Next it was day 2 of the CAD training, then an early start to do some Civil 3D training for a client who designs Holiday parks. All interjected with some support for our Police with some ODBC connections. Somewhere in that lot I also managed to have various conversations and meetings about Business in general.

With all this work on, I have had no time to plan next week, Including a training session on Monday, so it looks like I will be working some of the week end too.

Anyway, why am I telling you all this? Well it's the recession. It's absolutely awful out there for some people, including friends of mine who have lost there jobs, and with no sight of any employment in their field. But as I have said before (somewhere) the recession could be the best thing that has happened to the UK in a long time. I do mean the UK and not the individuals who suffer, so don't chastise me for that statement.

People value money again. It's not something to be borrowed cheaply and spent cheaply. On the flip side, the banks are also made to respect the value of money, and are going back to the commonsensical and simplistic approach of balancing the books the way they used to (well, so they say, time will tell). The government has possibly made the best move by buying the banks. A 20p rise in the share value of RBS will net the UK £8b.

Estate agents realise that sitting on their arses and watching the till fill up is not good enough. Car dealers now have to actually try to sell their cars and be nice to their customers (well all except mine!!) and best of all, we may well see the end of the chav the same way we saw the end of the Yuppie after the last recession. Before the last recession in the 80's we saw a massive increase in the number of Yuppies. You remember Harry Endfields "Loads of Money" character. I don't know if the Yuppie was a symptom, a cause or just the result of the excess' in the middle classes, but they epitomised the time and died out when the recession hit. The Chav epitomises the excess of the oo's. They are the lower class' who could buy things cheap, due to the influx of cheap consumables from the likes of China, and could borrow money easily due to ridiculous way the banks ran themselves with people who didn't understand the market, the customer or even the products they were selling.

Then of course there is the "spend our way out of the recession" plan like the USA did in the 20's. This means that we have lots of projects on the go. We have lots of work fixing our infrastructure (the reason why I am busy). Although why our local authority saw fit to re-surface the road to my village when it was perfectly fine in the first place is beyond me! Some of the roads I drive on are not fit for a tractor.... anyway, I digress.

The point is, I feel very lucky to be in the position I am, and remind myself of that fact every day. Something we all can do, as there is always someone having a tougher time somewhere.

Written and submitted home

New User interface

2009-06-21T12:39:00.005+01:00

I have been using the latest Autodesk releases, 2010, for a few months now and in this post I am interested in the UI (user interface).

When Microsoft released Office 2007, we got a new interface. It had a Ribbon which replaced the tool bars. It had a big button like the Start menu in Windows Vista and was designed to be a "task" based interface, making it easier to find what your looking for. Except no one could find what they were looking for...

Now, Autodesk and indeed Adobe with their Photoshop product have had a Task Based interface for some time now, but still used toolbars. They have what is called "Workspaces". You selected the task you are doing in in the "Workspace" toolbar and all the buttons you need for that task appear. This system works, but was not widely adopted. Ask 100 Autodesk users "who uses workspaces?" and only about 10 would say "yes!" I don't train Photoshop, but although I suspect the figure would be higher, I doubt it would be by much more (I stand to be corrected on that one if anyone knows better). The point is that the UI needs to change. Microsoft know this, and so does Autodesk and Adobe. We have too many functions, too many buttons and therefore too long is spent learning how to use these programmes or waisting time finding functions you need. The fact that creating a function to make things easier, such as Workspaces, and for it not to be adopted because it is just another thing to learn must prove my point.

So we now have a task based UI called a Ribbon. So why does no one (i have met anyway) like it? I can't answer that for anyone but myself, but lets take Excel for example. Finding the button you want has been improved with the context sensitivity. Select an image and all the image buttons appear. But look for something like "Conditional Formatting", well, that's a different matter. In Office 2003, this would be found in the "Format" drop down. This made sense to me! In 2007 this is found in the "Home" tab. My brain says "Formatting" my software says "Common" task. It just doesn't hit the mark, or my brain needs more than 2 years to get it!!

OK, lets skip forward to the 2009 release of Autodesk's AutoCAD programme, and the ribbon appeared here too. When I asked for a show of hands at the last round of Launch seminars "Who installed 2009 software and turned off the Ribbon?" out of the 300 or so people, most did! Why? Well probably because they don't want to "learn yet another thing" and just need to get the job done, so revert back to what they know. Well we have Ribbon V2 in the 2010 product and I recon more people will adopt this time. Why, well because it just makes sense. Not only has it appeared in the vertical markets, Architecture, Civil and Map along with the Companion products such as Revit and Max, it makes using these incredibly complex programmes much faster, it also has been improved by working faster and having more adaptability with the customisable UI.

Lets take AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010, one of my specialities. As an expert in this programme, with the old versions I would need to find the function I want, and more importantly I needed to know what functions are available. Something that just took a little time. In 2010, just select the item in your drawing that you want to do something with, and all the buttons appear on the Ribbon. Brilliant! Select a surface, all the Surface tools are there. Select an Alignment, and guess what? all the buttons you need for Alignments are there. It really is that simple.

So what's different? Why is MS office not as good as AutoCAD? Well, I think that Task Based Work is just more relevant in a programme such as AutoCAD. We have work flows in Architecture, GIS and Civil Engineering. We don't in Office programmes. Or at least I don't in Office! I'm convinced the Ribbon is a step in the right direction, but it's not perfect for all programmes. Once again I revert to my posts on Surface Computing and Siftables. The need to change is important, and a step in the right direction should be applauded... with honest feedback.

Written and submitted from home

Google Latitude

2009-05-04T21:10:00.004+01:00

I am currently experimenting with Google Latitude as a personnel locator. So for now we will have 2 locator's on this site. Plazes has been moved to the bottom. The reason for this is that Google is much easier to locate me as it's done via the GPS on my phone. I can also ask it to only locate me down to city level, so my exact location is not published, something I like. The problem with Plazes is only that updating it is not very good. It will only allow me to text in my location or use the web (unless I'm on the computer as there is a gadget for locating you by your IP address). As for the Web, I haven't found m.plazes.com very reliable and "phone" friendly and so far every location that is texted and not already on their database is totally ignored, so despite my efforts and love of Plazes, it looks like I am going to have to drop it.

What google doesn't do yet, that Plazes does, is show "my world". The places where I have been. It also looks pants compared to the simplicity of the Plazes widget. Although I do like the fact that you get an icon with my profile picture on it.

I have used Google when meeting up with people and found it brilliant. When Mark was stuck in traffic, I could see his location on my phone and estimate his arrival time with out bothering him on the phone while he was driving.

As with all these things, there never seams to be a perfect answer. Each offering has benefits and drawbacks. What I want is a locator that will locate me via GPS or GPRS (Google), one that links directly to my Blog (Google and Plazes), looks good on the blog (Plazes), links to Facebook and Twitter (Plazes). But as the 1st one is the most important, no point if it can't locate me, then Google wins for the time being. Come on Plazes, I'm rooting for you!!!

Nokia's new one

2009-04-01T23:39:00.005+01:00

Hears an interesting one, courtesy of Mark, found on vnunet.com. Nokia's "Point and Find" service.

Just point your camera phone at a film poster and the service will use a database to find the film and return relevant results like reviews and trailers. Now we already have a music version of this service, but a visual equivalent is quite a big jump in technology.

My main interest here is the use of Nokia's GPS to make the results location based and therefore more relevant. No point returning results for London when you live in Scotland. As if you need another angle for the power of location based services! Without the GPS, you know the service will just return useless results.

It's only for films at the moment, but think on... I bet you can come up with 10 more things that you would like this service to be expanded into. Point your phone at a restaurant and get a menu and booking info. Point it at your car and get a list of garages near you. Point it at a person and get their contact details!!! Mad, maybe. Possible, definitely.

Written and submitted form Home

Earth Hour

2009-03-28T20:46:00.004Z

Don't forget, you lights should be off at 8:30. It's fantastic with just candles. I might do this more often

Useful, cool or just big brother?

2009-03-24T20:23:00.004Z

I have always blogged about Location based services and how powerful and useful they are in the private and public worlds. I spend a lot of time defending LBS against what I called the "Luddite Lobby". I often got quite animated about it, and things like "mobile e-mail ruined my life" made my blood boil. The debate has hotted up with Google's Street View albeit at a slight tangent.

Once again, my initial reaction was to tell them all (the Luddites) to go and live an an island with only sheep for company. I've seen Street View in the States for some time now and loved it. However, now I see it in a place where I work, and can see into the living rooms of people I know, I am more forgiving and accepting of a debate. Although my opinion hasn't changed, I have to accept that their fears are legitimate and should be taken seriously.

I still think that most of these fears are born out of films and books about governments watching our every move and repressing our "civil liberties". If only people could be more "civil" then maybe I would have listened more! They're driven by fiction, not the reality. However, the fear or worry, however you want to put it, is still real. What we need are clear defined boundaries and complete transparency when it comes to revenue, data holdings, ownership and use. We need to ensure this code is clearly identified and communicated to everyone.

Once the boundaries are there and we all know what's what, then we can all enjoy the benefits of Location Based Services without fear. This type of technology should not be repressed through something as avoidable as ignorance. When the line is crossed, we can then react appropriately.

Of course we all hold the ultimate power.....an OFF button! And until "they" implant a microchip into my body, I will exercise my rights on my terms.

Written and submitted from the mobile

TED

2009-03-15T09:59:00.006Z

Another great TED video. http://www.ted.com/talks/david_merrill_demos_siftables_the_smart_blocks.html

I love this. It very much follows on from my post about surface computing ("It drives me Mad!!") where we are trying to get away from this insular computer environment. We want our computers to be invisible, and we want to use them without detaching from the real world like we have to at the moment. Both "Siftables" and "Surface Computing" do this to some extent.

My first thought when watching this video was "so what!". Then i realised how important this was when we see the toddler using Siftables as bricks, the child creating a story and the adult using it for word games and to make music. It's not about the computer anymore. David Merrill is absolutely on the button when he talks about making computers fit our lives, our physiology and our psyche.

Computing is really on the cusp of a monumental change.....an organic change....or even, in homage to the great Darwin, an evolutionary change.

New User content

2009-02-15T09:35:00.004Z

Ah, the new Sea content is comming:

Written and submitted from Home

Twitter and Plazes

2009-02-13T23:17:00.005Z

I've been "Twittering" now for a week or so, and am liking it's simplicity. I'm finding it useful for Civil and GIS stuff as well as breaking news and the Brilliant Stephen Fry. Although some of the posts appear a little pointless, I like that too!!

I was looking for an app that would georeference my twittering. I found one for the symbian system, one for the i-phone and one for windows mobile that I couldn't get to work in the 5 nano-seconds patience allowed tonight.

Before I had a little (cyber) paddy, I thought I better just check Plazes, my favoured locator at the moment, and yep, they came up trumps again. No effort required, no software needed, no problem. Job done!

Darwin Day

2009-02-11T23:33:00.004Z

In view of Darwin's Birthday tomorrow I was looking at a fun web site:

http://www.open.ac.uk/darwin/devolve-me.php

After devolving myself, I decided that it would be better to devolve Boris instead!!

Written and submitted from Home

Google Earth V5.0

2009-02-08T22:47:00.002Z

Ah, the new GE again.

I've had some hardware issues (and still have!!) so haven't looked into this in any detail at all yet. First job when you update yours, is to check out the sea. It is brilliant, and you can dive beneath the water too! Very nice.

Everytime I look at Google Earth, it gets a little closer to the vision I presented right at the begining (see earier blogs on Google Earth).

Still had poor data though!!!

Written and submitted from Home

Twitter

2009-02-08T21:29:00.002Z

I am now Twittering! https://twitter.com/ Civil3DUK. I am not totaly sure of it's value, or even it's point yet, but will be persisting on this until I can decide either of the above.

Super Cool!

2008-09-09T22:37:00.003+01:00

I don't know, you wait for months, then 3 come along all at once.

As more and more computers can handle it, LIDAR data is becoming more main stream, but I never thought as long as by arse faced south that LIDAR could be cool!

Watch this Radiohead video (my favorite band)

Google Earth v's Virtual Earth

2008-09-08T22:31:00.005+01:00

After much pestering by my 9 year old daughter, I recently took her up Striding Edge in the Lake District (UK). Very impressed with her efforts, when we got home, I took her on a virtual tour in Google Earth. I was not impressed with the Quality of the image or the surface. SO, a quick hop onto Virtual Earth, and wow!! What a difference!

Google Earth:

Virtual Earth:

Come on Google, this is really poor. Yes I know you can't cover the whole earth in high res, but this is not just one isolated area. Most comparisons I do, VE wipes the floor with GE. (I still prefer the GE interface though!)

Written and submitted from home

Google Chome

2008-09-06T22:35:00.005+01:00

It's the G word again! Sorry, but the new web browser from Google is worth a mention. Google Chrome.

First impressions... Clean and simple (The Google trade mark). Mousers will not like the missing zoom, print and the history buttons on the main interface, although keyboard junkies won't miss them at all (Ctrl H, P and +,-). Other than that, things seam very similar to IE or FireFox. You have tabs, but these can be dragged out into a new window. You have your favorites (or bookmarks as Google like to call them), a control and customise button and that is about it!

The only thing I can't find, that I use a lot on the laptop (due to screen size) is the full screen option (F11).

SO what is brilliant? There has to be something brilliant when Google is involved surely! Well there is a Porn Browser. Yep, they call it an "incognito" window. It removes all information from the computer when it's closed. Apart from the obvious application, quite useful I suppose if your looking for birthday presents on a shared computer.

The "brilliant" has to be the way each tab and Java app uses their own memory. IE has the vary annoying habit of locking up when using multiple tabs and one page or script hangs. The only thing you can do is Shift, Ctrl + Esc and end the whole IE process. Chrome has it's own task manager and you can end the task that is causing the hang leaving all your web pages in tact (apart from the one that caused the problem of course). Fantastic! That alone has me converted from Internet Explorer.

Google also recon that it's faster, more secure etc. Claims I have heard before from other vendors but I've not looked into this yet.

Written and submitted from Home

UPDATE:

It's unbelievably fast!!!! I shut down 4 tabs, then opened them again. It was almost instant! Fab. More testing to be done I think. Ah, another point, you don't have that annoying window to select whether or not you want to open the tabs next time. You can set this in the options to open the last pages, the home page or a page with your most used web sites on, or indeed any number of pages you choose. I'm liking this so far.

UPDATE 2:

It looks like Google Toolbar can't be added! All the features I use, are not there in the standard UI.

Facebook and Plazes

2008-05-30T14:23:00.004+01:00

Those that know me, also know that I love Plazes and that recently I set up a Facebook Profile (Search for me on the link, but I am not one of these people that accept friend requests from people i don't know! so don't be offended).

Well, I'm as happy as I could be with this little gem of an app as they not only have your plazes linked to Google Earth and Google Calender, but I now have it my Outlook calender and on my Facebook page. Nice one Plazes.

I love it when people do what people want instead of the corporate stuff we usually get where a great ideas go into the mixing pot, gets kicked around by managers, accountants, shareholders and anyone else that seems to think they need their say, and it comes out a shadow of it's former self with a load of limitation that make it almost pointless. But not pointless enough not to want it, oh no, you still want it, it becomes a need, and then a frustration because it just doesn't go far enough...

Written and submitted from the office

Re New Google Earth

2008-05-23T18:52:00.002+01:00

OK, so I've done some work on GE 4.3 now, and although the sunlight feature is great, and the stability on Vista seems sorted, there are a couple of questions I have.

Why do buildings not cast shadows? Without this it is another "nice but useless" feature. OK, maybe not useless, but it certainly limits it. When I publish a building to GE it would be great if we could see how any proposals will be effected by the sun. How much of the back garden will get the sunshine for example, or will that corner of the car park need lighting at dusk? These would be really useful. On the plus side I love the way the sun light changes colour as it nears the horizon. As I say, looks fab, limited use.

The second, more fundamental question, is why have they reduced the number of points you can get out of the surface from 10000 to 5000? This is a real bugger because any surfaces I get from Google now are lower resolution and combined with the massive inaccuracies place it's use at the limit of acceptability too. With just the accuracy issue, it was passable for "flying the Kite" as an architect would say, but now I'm not sure it has that use.

Another plus is the new navigation. It's really smooth and easy to do with just a standard 3 button mouse (with a wheel). Will still use the space pilot though.

Written and submitted from Home

New Google Earth

2008-05-23T16:00:00.002+01:00

Have you downloaded the new version of Google Earth?

I did just a few days ago, and on first impression it looks more stable than the last version on Vista, so I might be back using it instead of NASA's Whirlwind with the Microsoft Virtual Earth plug in that has been prefered due to the stability problems that drove me mad.

The first thing I liked about it was the sunlight feature. Realtime sunlight, cool! Take yourself to the ground and pan so you can see the sky in the west and then watch the sun set. If you can't wait, press the play button and it will take you through 24 hours in a few seconds, The shadows are cast by the terrain and as the sun nears the horizon, the colours change. It even cast shadows on the buildings but not by the buildings sadly.

I like this a lot

Written at home and submitted automatically

Android

2008-05-21T21:15:00.004+01:00

The Google Android Challenge contenders are in and there are some really exciting things on the horizon. For those of you who don't know what Android is (and can't be bothered to search my post to find out) it's the mobile operating system by Google. The phantom "G-Phone".

Amongst my favorite are "FreeFamilyWatch" by Navee Technologies LLC. This great little app checks your location against crime stats and air quality. It also shows your speed. There is very little info, and I haven't looked into it deeply but it looks like there is a manager screen so you can keep a check on other members of the family with a quick view of there location on a map and an option to call them. Brilliant app for worried Dads like me.

Another one I like is "goCart" by Rylan Barnes and "AndroidScan" by Jeffrey Sharkey. Two separate developments that scan bar codes with the phones camera and then allows you to search for online stores and reviews. Every time I go to buy anything I do spend a lot of time in the shop searching for better online deals and reviews. This would save a lot of time and frustration as the database will always return the correct results. I note that GoCart had a wish list, this is only a small step away from a handheld, and more importantly, cheap device that you could use to scan every packet of grocery you throw away and store it ready for you to press the order button.

I love the Idea of "LifeAware" by Gregory A. Moore, Aaron L. Obrien & Jawad Akhtar. Location based social networking. Shows where your friends are and lets you know when they have arrived at a defined destination (the pub for example). Brilliant use of LBS. The key here will be little or no set up. Tell your friends where and when to meet via the app, then the phone will do the rest (hopefully... we will have to wait to see)

"Locale" by Clare Bayley, Carter Jernigan, Christina Wright & Jasper Lin looks quite cool to. It uses conditions such as Battery level, Time and location to dynamically set up your phone. So... it's midnight and your at home, the the phone goes into low battery mode and turns down the ringer volume. I hope this one links to you diary so you don't have to set your location twice.

I can't wait to use them already

Written and submitted from Home

No blogging!!

2008-03-07T19:14:00.003Z

Hello to everyone, it's been a while... a long while. Well there is a very good reason for this. Not only has work been exceptionally busy, and this is not going to slow down for the next 2 months with the new release of Autodesk software coming very fast, but I have been getting used to having a little fella around the house too. It's not been an easy ride, but we are now starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and maybe, just maybe in a few month or so, I will have some time to blog again.

Just a thought this time......

Microsoft purchasing Yahoo. What is that all about then? 2 smallish (relatively to the big Google anyway) Internet search engines combining does not make one large search engine? Do they have unique technologies, that when they combine make a compelling reason to change your proffered search? What do they get that could it be worth that amount of money? What technologies? What market share? How much development does $44.6 billion buy? Could it possibly be a tit for tat purchase in reaction to Google's move to the operating system market. Nah, no one would spend that amount of money doing that! Would they???

Google Maps

2007-11-28T09:26:00.001Z

Do you like the new Terrain Button in Google maps? See my "where is it?" link at the bottom of this page. I think it looks good, but can't see how useful this will be?

DEM data (Digital Elevation Model) is great for analysing height and aspect of the ground, but without the accuracy and functionality it just looks nice. I can't see a use for it.

Written and submitted from Home

It's here at last!!!

2007-11-18T21:40:00.000Z

What I here you ask?

LBS or Location Based Services.

The myth of the G-Phone is revealed as Google's new mobile operating system, namely "Android". The key to this software is found in the application framework, where you will find a Location Manager. This allows developers to produce applications that will take advantage of the users location.

So what does this mean to us? Well, one suggestion from Ed Parsons is maybe an app that can lock your phone if it's not where it is expected to be (Looking at your diary). I'm calling it a phone, but this is just one feature from that little plastic gizmo in your pocket! It's a navigation tool, a diary, alarm, communication device (voice/video/text/email/internet), Media device (audio/video), need I go on? Closer to a triquarter (is that spelt correctly?) than a phone I would say.

So, thinking caps on, how can a device that knows your location help you? Well.... of the top of my head, what about a "find my friends" feature, then call the one nearest you (or sorted by location/distance), or a feature that can find things you need based on your locality (Remember Google's Locality based search feature?). So, you just ask the device to take you to the nearest watch reparers for example. What about a picture taken, that knows where it was taken (we know that geo-referenced photography is available and this could be the simplest route to tha masses). I would love a function where I could view all my photos on Google Earth for example.

Anyway, give me your suggestions, I recon that this could be the start of something great.

Written and submitted from Home

The pace is picking up!

2007-10-13T16:48:00.000+01:00

Some months back I reported on the acquisition of Tele Atlas by Tom Tom and it already appears that things are moving quickly with adverts on TV showing that consumer lead cartography has already hit the market in this mainstream company.

You have probably heard about the Nokia/NAVTEQ deal, reported at $8.1 billion. This is good news for us consumers. Because there will be some very healthy rivalry between these 2 companies. Both vying for the long awaited LBS market. Although TOM TOM are not in the phone market, and Nokia are not in the Satnav market, both companies are interested in data collection and capturing the next market driver early.

3G TomTom is a natural step, and full Satnav on the Nokia Phone is already an option. Both could be connected to live updates, and traffic reports. Maybe we will start to see real time views of the streets and intelligent navigation where we will be directed by more factors than the static speed/distance database currently on offer (enhanced by a slow traffic reporting system).

Remember the patent I reported on with Google using location and time in addition to the predictive text and habit currently used. Also the 2 way data transfer they described, where the device can report back to the server and the server can send instructions to the device. Now consider Google's biggest supplier of Mapping data... NAVTEQ .

Exciting times!!!

Written and submitted from a mobile device watching Jessica's riding lesson (I am watching, honest!)

Brilliant and powerful use of GIS Data

2007-09-11T21:45:00.000+01:00

If I was to show you a spread sheet with figures explaining extent of heat loss from your poorly insulated home, you would probably quickly get bored, make your excuses and leave (no change there then!!). Even if I was to show you that other people in your neighbourhood were better insulated than you, I doubt that would inspire you any more. These figures could be as detailed as you like, it wouldn't change anything. In fact the more detailed the less interested you (or I for that matter) would be.

You might just prick your ears up if I was to show you actual money you're waisting, but I doubt that would get most of us springing into immediate action down at B & Q. However, take a look at Haringey council's web site and their brilliant Home Heat Loss Map.

It was surveyed one night in March this year by BlueSky International Ltd and is a fantastic way of showing us how we waist electricity because we all know the houses in our area, and I know that if my neighbours identical house was more insulated, more environmentally friendly and most important, subject to lower energy bill, then I would definitely do something about that. Best of all, I don't have to listen to someone like me droning on about the environment and energy saving and dolphins etc. Just a click of the mouse and all the information I need is there.

Brilliant! all I need now is my local council to do the same.

Written and submitted from home

New Hidden feature in GE

2007-09-09T10:03:00.000+01:00

Lots of people are reporting a new feature in Google Earth 4.2, a flight simulator!

It tool me a while to get it to work, but it's worth it. You first need the latest version (4.2) so go and download it now. Then press Ctrl, Alt and A to activate it. If nothing happens, try Ctrl and A. Some UK people are reporting that you need to set your language (in the control panel) to English (United States) for it to work. Once you have done it, you can get to the feature via the tools menu.

The jet is really hard to control, so I suggest you start with the prop plane. To get you started, Select an airport and go. Throttle is page up/page down and you can use your arrow keys (Backwards like real flight simulators) or your mouse. It does support joy sticks, but I don't have one so can't comment on its use.

Anyway, have a go, see how you get on. I keep crashing!!!

Written and submitted from home

Google Earth

2007-09-01T07:01:00.001+01:00

Google has updated GE to include the sky. At first look (only 5 mins before I had to leave for the Netherlands) it doesn't look as good as Celestia, but the navigation should be better, although I didn't like the fact you have to switch between earth and sky, I would have preferred to have a seamless switch. It's more consistent with the original Google earth, and of course I can use the brilliant Space Navigator not available on Celestia (must look for the driver for that)

Also, being a much larger development community, we should see lots of cool celestial applications. You need to upgrade Google Earth now.

Written and submitted onboard the Hull- Zeebrugge ferry

Technology Life Balance!

2007-08-22T21:46:00.000+01:00

It happened again. I was driving home from visiting my Mother in the Hospital and on BBC Radio 4 there was a short debate on Technology getting the way of life again.

The main focus was on the Blackberry and the fact that people can't go on holiday without taking the office with them. They get disturbed and have to work whilst they try to relax in sun with the wife and children. The debater against technology argued that this brings with it stress.

I don't know about yours, but mine has an off button. Technology once again gets blamed in the media for bad management. I'm glad that given the choice, and when it really matters I can be contacted. Come to think of it, I'm glad that when I have to do something and I'm out of the office, even on holiday, I can do it. I am also very happy to switch on the "out of office" and change my voice mail when I don't want to be contacted allowing me to relax, vet my mail and calls and only deal with the really important ones.

If anyone feels the pressure of work by having technology that allows them to be mobile, then they should look at their own management and that of the company. Things like the Blackberry can free us from the ties of the office and allows us to be mobile. People need to reconsider their priorities if this type of freedom is getting in the way of their sun, surf and sangria, or in my case, snow, ice and a nice cup of tea!!

Written and submitted from Home, a few hours before setting off to the Netherlands, where I will be receiving e-mails, and they will be receiving an out of office reply. No stress!!

Plazes

2007-07-26T10:26:00.001+01:00

I’ve just looked at my Plazes Map on the right, and since I have not been traveling a lot, it’s a bit pants!! I like it too much to loose it, so will keep it for the time being, but if it becomes pointless, it will be sad, but will just have to go.

Written and submitted from the Office

TOM TOM buys Tele Atlas

2007-07-24T20:44:00.000+01:00

Tom Tom has made an offer to purchase Tele Atlas, see the press release.

What does this mean to us the humble users? Well this could be a major step in the right direction, as Tele Atlas need lots of data to produce their products, and TOM TOM collect lots of data.

So again, what will that provide us?

Most technology consumes data. Data that is produced outside of the technological mindset. Yes there have been collaborations and yes there have been many occasions where data provided the vehicle for technology. But in the main, the data is produced and the consumers consume, and we don't get a say.

Maybe, just maybe we will start to see some fast advancements in consumer lead cartography. The biggest problem with SatNav is the recency of the data. Having worked in the GI industry I suspect one of the big hold ups is the commercial aspect of procuring such data. I don't know what the arrangement the 2 companies had before, and who lead who in the technological development, but if TOM TOM had to drag Tele Atles with them, this will make life so much easier, faster and cheaper for them. The same can be said if the relationship was reversed.

We might just start to see roads and POI's appear/disappear faster. Maybe other information may be available, such as temporary diversion (I have one at the moment on my route to work) and maybe we will even start to see preferred routes being published.

Alternatively, if the relationship was not as such, and the purchase is just to stem the economic effects from a slow down in the take up of SatNav due to it's popularity (most people who need it, already own one) then maybe we will see no change! lets hope not.

Written and submitted from home

Wikipedia

2007-07-22T15:36:00.002+01:00

Whilst driving home the other night I heard an advert for a programme on BBC Radio 4 by Clive Anderson on the subject of Wikipedia. The programme asks the question:

"Is Wikipedia a valuable source of human knowledge or a symptom of the spread of mediocrity and the devaluation of research?"

Now it's never a good idea to comment on a headline without hearing the argument first, but I'm going to break this rule because it's the question I find shocking!

I find the thought that knowledge for everyone "devalues expertise" is a ridiculous statement. Now we all know that the Internet is a fantastically powerful tool for expanding our knowledge, but we also know that there is a lot of "bar room" talk there too and we have to ensure anything we gain from it is backed up with evidence (often provided on the Internet also!). The important thing is that we don't scale intelligence based on the lowest common denominator. John is not intelligent because Jack is stupid. John has to be considered intelligent because he studies, he understands and he uses his knowledge. John is intelligent because he can apply his knowledge.

If you want to be considered an expert in anything, make sure you know more than the masses. If the masses learn, then stay ahead of the game and learn more or your "speciality" is no more.

The question "does Wikipedia devalue research" has to have the answer "no". Wikipedia, as we all know is written by everyone. It is a great source of information and is, in the main, a reliable source. But it is not the "brain bible". It does have error's and opinions. I would not bet my life on it's information and I wouldn't go to court with a defence based on wikipedia and I hope Clive, as a Barrister, will point this out.

We all know more than we did before the Internet. We can all confidently say that the Internet has in some way contributed to our knowledge and no matter how I look at it, this can not be a bad thing. I'm looking forward to the debate, aired on Tuesday 24th July at 11.30 www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 And will no doubt have some further comments then.

Written and submitted from home

It drives me mad!!!

2007-07-07T10:34:00.001+01:00

I picked up this promo of a new application of some newish technologies from the Geo community, Geowanking.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid932579976?bclid=932553050&bctid=933742930

Now, both of the main technologies featured are fairly new, certainly new in the domestic market place, although they make the point that they don't see them in our homes just yet.

Surface Computing in my mind is the next logical step. I don't want to be forever hunched over my PC holding a little plastic, 8 buttoned blob in one hand whilst selecting the other 85 or so other buttons with the other. I want a more physical experience and this looks like a step in that direction. Sure there are things we need, like better voice recognition, but we all know that is coming. We could control it with our minds, we know that possibility is there. We can still use our keyboards integrated into the screen for all those people who are just to scared to embrace new technologies. Whatever it needs, however it needs to develop, the one thing for sure is that the vintage computing methods we still employ today have to go. Its just too bad for our health.

I love the more tactile interface. The fact that I have to actually move to to make something happen is more natural, more healthy. I already want one. Really successful technologies are the ones we don't see. For example, we just don't think about the toilet anymore. It wasn't that long ago we crapped in the street! Now we press a button and it all just "goes away" without a thought to "How".

Computers just don't do that. They are in our face, noisy and ugly. There is very little integration with our lives. We have to go to a special place, turn it on, go and make the tea whilst it boots up. Then we sit there in isolation both physically and mentally whilst we read, write, play or work.

Surface computing is definitely taking us in the right direction.

Oh, I nearly forgot!! Why does it make me so mad? Some of the comments that are coming out of supposedly innovative communities are driving me mad. I heard things like "it's just an expensive re-invention of the mouse". These sort of people should go and work in a library... in a very small town... in a far away country... where no one reads books. We don't need you in our industry. In our lives for that fact. Be constructive, embrace the idea, and if you think it a load of tosh, think of something better, think of ways to improve or just don't participate.

Written and submitted from from home

Teaching the kids

2007-07-05T22:25:00.001+01:00

I reported some time ago, applications like Google Earth should be used in our schools as a teaching aid. I don't mean just in geography classes, but in History classes, Current affairs, Physics, geology, geometry, IT etc. In fact there are not many classes where it can't be used.

I've spoken to my local school, and the teacher had never even heard of it! Once enlightened he downloaded it and as far as I can tell, done nothing else. It's no surprise though. I remember when I first got the Internet. It took about half a day to set it up, then I switched it on and with sweaty palms hovering over the key board in anticipation and excitement I paused for a few minutes... thinking "right.... now what?" It took a few days, or maybe weeks of intensive thought and exploring to actually make sense of this new world. I understood what it would do for me. But how many people just are not prepared to invest this time and energy into embracing new technology (or applications of existing technology for that matter).

So why should the teacher invest? What is the incentive? Well, I could answer that, but at the end of the day, not everyone shares my enthusiasm. What teachers need to understand how GE works, what it offers and how to apply it to the curriculum. They need to know what it will do for them and the children.

I was very encoraged to see that Ed Parsons reported on the Royal Geographical Society running a course to train teachers to use Google Earth in their classes. He reported "The course was excellent and will run again in October and is highly recommended". It's great to see the Society and Google taking the initative. We need this. After some of the comments I have heard recently (future blogging) it is becomming clearer and clearer that the next generation of inovators need to be more open to new ideas than this one.

Written and Submited from Home

Plazes in google earth

2007-06-27T19:52:00.000+01:00

As you know, I am a big fan of Google Earth. I am also a Fan of Plazes. So imagine my excitement when I saw that Plazes is available on Google earth!

It's a great application, you can get it at plazes KML or download it here: www.plazes.com/kml. I can see all my contacts in GE. I can do the nerdy thing of watching people log on and off, and GE takes me there. I can also view all the different places people have visited. My favourite thing was to tour my own places. I have travelled about a bit, but most of my travelling is not logged because I don't log in and cant be bothered to text in.

A great app with potential. If we all had this (or it was linked to GPS) then I can see where my friends, family and colleagues are. Now I know a lot of people don't want to be tracked, but your choice is still there. People that complain about technology interfering in their lives seem to forget that technology doesn't do that, they do that themselves. We all have a choice, so exercise it and stop complaining. I could use the information to decide if I want to, or am able to speak to friend for example. I see that he/she is in the pub, at home, on holiday etc

This could be a communication link in the future also. We could choose to be visible, invisible, anonymous or visible only to some. All these things are available and have been for some time, it takes an app like GE to bring it all together. I come back to my first post on this subject and ask you, is it getting more like an operating system yet?

Written and submitted from home

64 Whatsits!

2007-06-23T18:25:00.001+01:00

64 Bit technology is amongst us! Is it a good thing? What does it mean to the average Joe (you and me)?

Well it's been 10 years or so since we last saw an increase in the processing power of computers, and that is an incredible amount of time in this industry. But the the big question I get asked is "do I need it?" "should I buy it now?" and "what do I get?"

Well the quick answers are "Yes, but not right now", "Yes, if you need a new computer now, but No if you replace your computer every year or so" and "speed, masses of speed".

Of course there is a long answer also. Let me start with the last question. Computers work by having lots of Off/On switches. Each switch can have a state of "On" (or a 1) or "Off" (a 0). The first computers were 4 bit technology, or they could have 4 different 0's or 1's at any one time. This is Binary and equates to 16 different combinations of 0 and 1's.
0000
0001
0010 etc.
We then had 8 bit, 16 bit and the current 32bit you are probably reading this on. The number of simultaneous tasks a computer can do is based on the number of combinations of 0 and 1 available. So 8 bit computers can do 256 things (think of the colour combinations available in the early 80's, 256). Then the 16 bit could do 65536 combinations, 32 bit could do 4,294,967,295 combinations and 64 bit can do 2 to the power of 64. I believe that is a few thousand decillion (in British), might need to look that up! Anyway, that's a very big number. So what does that mean in your life. Well your computer will fly. It can do a lot more simultaneous tasks. By a factor described above. So it won't be twice as fast, it really will fly! Of course 64bit programmes will take advantage of this, so it's more likely your computer will do more rather than be faster by this described factor and therefore, although it will be faster, not by a gazillion times!!

What you need to run a 64bit computer is a 64bit operating system, such a Vista 64bit. You then need a 64bit programme, such as AutoCAD 64bit. If you run a 32bit OS such as XP, or any of your current programmes, you will not be taking advantage of your processing power. So my advice is if you can wait, do so until we have 64bit virus protection, Internet Explorer and all the other programmes you enjoy (or hate for that matter).

So when will this happen? Well, think about mobile phones, how long did that take, and what was the driver? It was cost v's need. When the cost came down below the value of the requirement there was an explosion in adoption. With computers, the driver will be basically the same with the exception of the fact that the market is already established. People's replacements will speed up the adoption. It's happening now, and we will be all using 64bit computers in our homes within a couple of years at a guess.

Of course the main advantage is the new applications we will get. For example, google earth could not have been created until we had fast enough computers and internet speeds. What will be round the corner? Live imagry on GE? VR games that look live films? Virtual highstreets? Well maybe not yet, but they will come and it's up to us to foresee, demand and then create such a reality from the vision.

Written and submitted from the garden in between the storms!

Energy consumption (Original post 29/3/7)

2007-06-15T23:14:00.002+01:00

Why is my boiler so inefficient? I have a combi. Named as such for reasons beyond my understanding, but also useless. By the time the hot water has reached the tap I have wasted a sink full. More often then not, I have done what I need to and all I have achieved is to heat the water in the pipes!

It can't be difficult, can it?

Why doesn't my tap heat the water? Lots of small heaters only heating up the water I use. This surely must be more energy efficient.

I wonder what the problems would be? Probably a more immediate question has to be, what is the extent of the problem? How much water, electricity, money etc do we actually waste? What would be the cost of producing such a device and what would be the roi, presuming it would be viable?

So many questions, no time!

Written & submitted from the Holiday Inn, Garforth

Technology (Original post 5/5/7)

2007-06-15T23:13:00.002+01:00

Sometimes I see the vision of the Digital World being only a few years away. With the advent of apps like Google earth and satnav becoming mainstream along with hardware advances allowing LBServices to be explored more. And the CGI we see in films (remember a lot of that technology comes from the same people who produce software that designs our buildings, structures and produce GIS software and ground modelling software) coupled with speed of technological advances.

Then I see the massive gap we have in interoperability even within their own organisations. I also see the poor application of new services from the large companies, such as Orange, Vodaphone. I see the messages from these organisations who are telling us we need to "change the game". I just can't help wondering, just how close are we? Is 10 years, 30 years? Will I see it in my life time?

My current thought on this is that I won't see it. There are too many bold steps needed to be taken by too many large organisations with shareholders to answer for. Yes there is a large community of people who have nothing to loose doing some great things, and new large companies have taken the corporate world into a new era, but it's not enough. We need to do more, collaborate more, be bolder and adopt more readily. This has to happen both on an individual level and a corporate one. We have to take more risks, as a business and a consumer, and in doing so, we have to accept a level of failure. Do not confuse that with incompetance however, we never need accept that.

Written and sent from my garden. Subsequently edited from Home

Earthquake in Kent (Original post 27/3/7)

2007-06-15T23:12:00.001+01:00

Well another UK earthquake, and more very 'British' responses, my favourite of which so far is a guy from Kent who said 'It was about 8:15 when the bed shook violently. I thought my wife had cramp, then I noticed the curtains moving'

Only in Britain would your first thought be, when the bed starts shaking violently first thing in the morning, 'my wife has cramp'!!!

On another note, for all you non believers in the importance of GI, I bet you didn't start to feel anything until you saw the map of the area with the circles showing it's magnitude. It's at that point your brain associates the text (Kent, 4.6 etc) with the actual event. You subconsciously can then associate it with your own life.

Written and submitted from a mobile email device in a very sunny garden

Graphene (Original post 27/4/7)

2007-06-15T23:11:00.001+01:00

An interesting new material has been discovered by the boffins at Manachester and Chernogolovka. It's called Graphene (hence the tittle of this post!). It's a two-dimensional molecule with unusual conductivity properties. "So!" I hear you say. Well, the difference in it's properties is that they can make a transistor out of it. Normally at these sorts of scales electrons react in very strange ways, for example an elctron can travel from A to B without passing throught the space inbetween - don't ask me how, you need to ask the bofins that one - but not so with Graphene, the conductivity is more stable without this "scattering" of electrons.

I know, I still hear you saying "so!!". Well, for those of you that know of "Moores Law", the one that states "the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles every 18 months" it is reconed by some that the ability to do this with silicon will be finite, and in fact it will be not possible to increase the number by about 2020 or so.

So a replacement is the new "holy grail" of computing, and the ability to create chips on an atomic level will be a massive leap forward. Imagine the power of your pc in a chip the size of a grain of sand. Imagine all the items in the world having a chip, an IP address, accountability, locatability and ultimately intelligence. The benefits are massive, and only limited by our imaginations and the fact that my daughter wants me to get off the compter and play with her!!!!

So I had better go, and will no doubt re-visit this later,

Written and submitted from home

Google Earth (original post 29/03/07)

2007-06-15T23:10:00.001+01:00

Google again! I found a great application for your GE that highlights a great opportunity for the commercial world and shows GE as an important marketing tool. Look at http://www.gearthhacks.com/dlfile23251/Grey-Cup-2006-EarthSkin.htm.

This cool app is of a Canadian Football team (not "Soccer"). Great for fans, but this one is quite different to the usual 3D models. It links to ticket master, with a seating plan. It shows a video screen, with a live link for action and adverts, and also the advertising bollards around the pitch are live linked too. It also links to other events in the area. A massive revenue stream potential as the "readership" of GE increases. It maybe sporting events that drive GE into the home as a serious operating system. You could take this one step further with a live video of the game shown on the pitch with sponsors and advertisers links being instant and dynamic. See something you like, then go there now!

What if you could see the action on video or have the option for 3D models showing the action/action replay. Not yet, but I think maybe sooner than you think!

Whilst looking at this I came across a file (see image) created from a shape file and a database of house prices used in conjunction with the time line plug in. It's not clever, but a starting point for linking the sort of information on www.upmystreet.com putting this great web site of tabular spatial information on a spatial app, making sense of GI in a relevant format

Written and submitted from Home

The long journey home! (Original post 28/3/7)

2007-06-15T23:09:00.004+01:00

It occurred to me the other day that there are an awful lot of people making the same journey every working day. No revelation there then! However, when I got stuck in traffic because of roadworks, I had no warning of the impending frustration until I was in it. The TA from my RDS didn't switch at the right time, and when it did I got the traffic for Sheffield!!

So, I thought I would log onto the Highways Agency web site to see if this info was available there, and it wasn't, or at least I couldn't find it given the small screen on my phone, the fact that it's illegal to use your phone for it's intended purpose whilst driving let alone surfing the web and the fact that I needed the info now, not in 20 minutes when I finally navigate to the correct place.

Someone has written a cool GE overlay for Paris that shows the traffic congestion there, albeit on a 1 hour refresh rate. I don't know the quality of the information, nor its recency as I don't commute to Paris! but it did get me thinking. (Not again I hear you say!!)

My TOM TOM is brilliant, however it does miss a vital function. That is to learn a route and store preferable routes in it. I suppose the premise here is that if you know your route, why would you use TOM TOM? Well I, and many others around me, like TOM TOM to be on, even on the commute, so that if the traffic snarls up (a regular occurrence for millions of drivers) then we can quickly decide on another option. One day whilst taking my colleague to work, he showed me a "rat run" that shaved loads of time off my journey. When I tried to re-create this short cut on my own..... well, those of you that know me well will know the outcome of that!!!

I can get traffic on my TOM TOM but they want £10 per month!! I suppose this would be good value for someone like me (but less tight!!) who travels a lot, but for the majority of us, it can't be good value. We travel the same journey, every working day, and even know the short cuts and alternatives should things get sticky. For me however, on my journey to the office, the alternative has to be decided on very early, otherwise if it goes Pete Tong, I just have to wait it out. Also, my TOM TOM will always route me the worst way home because they cannot/will not configure it for peak time traffic (even though the data is there!)

Why can't traffic reports be instant? Why can't they be relevant to my journey? Why can't they be given to anyone in a car with phone?

They can!! LBS is one route, but not the only route (excuse the pun!) We can get the data from LA's, the Highways Agency, the Utilities or this mystical consortium who reportedly co-ordinates the digging up of roads. We can filter the data to you're pre-defined route, calculate you're best alternative based on you're preferred alternatives. We can deliver the information live, as it happens direct to you via e-mail, text, voice, VoIP or why not commands to you're TOM TOM? We could deliver it via XML or KML, although it's a bit early to start to talk about GE in you're car (but it will come).

It's an idea that is worth some thought, and if you have any, or know of a better way of me getting home, or a tool that is already developed to do any of the above, then please let me know.

Written and submitted from home

Nonstandard locality-based text entry patent (Original post 20/3/7)

2007-06-15T23:07:00.001+01:00

WHAT! I hear you say!!!

Well, this is very big news in the world of the computer, in particular LBS or Location Based Services. Google have filed a patent in the US [click the here to see it] called the "Nonstandard locality-based text entry patent" and if you can't be bothered to read it it is very exiting (to me anyway)

Google are releasing a cleaver search functionality that wil predict what you are going to type based not only on predictive text input, but on your location, the time of day and other things such as habits. Here is an extract:

"[0048] The data may also be changed based on the time of day or a person's location. For example, search terms relating to restaurants may be emphasized during times when a user is likely to be hungry. Also, the global positioning system may be employed so that a user's data entry is targeted to the user's location. As one example, the system may recognize when a user is away from their home, and thus traveling, and may thus update the dictionary with information more relevant to a traveler, such as restaurant and airline information. In addition, the system may add to a user's standard dictionary information about locations that are proximate to the user, such as the names of nearby towns, streets, attractions, and buildings. For example, if a user is located in Alexandria, Virginia, the system may provide dictionary data to the device for terms such as Arlington, Washington, Capitol, Reagan-National, and Dulles."

This is truly groundbraking and has come at exactly the right time, to iron out all the bugs before LBS is given to the masses. Take this one step further, and remove my input. Imagine the scanrio, I'm traveling home from work, it's getting late, so my phone suggest's it's getting late, and that I may not have time to go home and cook a meal, but don't despair, there is a take-away 1/2 a mile ahead, but not any old take-away, it's your favorite, Italian.

The Patent talks about many other technologies such as VoP (Voice over IP) and the bi-directional flow of data, sugesting that the device may send and receive commands as well as information. This doesn't seem to be pushed by all the usual bloggers, but could just be a massive leap forward in LBS. Maybe, just maybe, not only will the device suggest a particular take-away, it may just ask you if you would like directions, and start your Tom Tom. What if it would also phone the restaurante and order for you?

I could talk for ever on actual applications for this technology, but it's getting late and I have some work to do.

Written and sent from home

A debate!! (Original post 9/3/7)

2007-06-15T23:06:00.001+01:00

It would appear that Michael Wesch has sparked a debate. Have a look at the top video now. Another prospective on the web and a perfect example of what the internet stands for; Information, opinion, truth, lies, entertainment, news.....LIFE. The real world is being built in an exiting if somewhat embellished cyber space. Take from it what you want, enjoy it, but don't need it.
I recon that you will never receive the touch and feel of the real world in cyber space, but there is a place for that and some people will fall into that place, and be lost to the real world. It's like taking drugs, and should be treated as such to the extent of ensuring we have enought people in reality to manage the people (and machines) out of reality.......bugger me, it's the Matrix!!!

Written and sent from Home

Web version 2.0 (Orginal post 9/3/7)

2007-06-15T23:05:00.002+01:00

Web version 2.0, what's that all about then? Rather than trudging through all the information on Wikipedia and the like take a look at the video I have posted, courtesy of Michael Wesch from Kansas University. He posted this on YouTube and it is a brilliant 5 minute lesson in Web V2.0.

Put this way, it all makes sense and follows lots of principals in other technologies such as GIS. Tim Berners-Lee has been busy!!

By the way, this site is a mash up, based on the principals of Web V2.0. Note there is content added either by RSS (Really Simple Syndication) or via code directly imbedded into the "gadget" (the video) that I haven't written, it's taken directly from another site, and when they update, I update without having to do a thing! How cool is that??

Written and sent from Home

Google Earth (original post 20/01/07

2007-06-15T22:59:00.003+01:00

I know I keep barking on about it, but Google earth really is the future of computing. Our digital planet is being built quite nicely. With more and more WMS (Web Mapping Services) being available from some of the worlds leading organisations such as NASA and live links connecting to some exiting servers giving us information about our environment it really is moving at an alarming(ly good) rate.

The new time feature is very cool. You can now look at the earth over a period of time. NASA's "Blue Marble" imagery looks fantastic animated over a year, watching the ice caps contracting and expanding is great. Add live cloud coverage (up to 3 hour refresh rate) and live sunlight position and you really get a realistic view of the earth.

But don't think of GE as a "cool" toy, it's a fantastic teaching tool, information tool, analysis tool and operating system. Yes you did read that right "operating system"! Take the view "every thing happens somewhere" and the fact that you just want to write to someone, book your flights, meet someone, buy from someone. Now everything you do digitally has some form of geographical reference, why not use that reference.

My favorite link is the US air travel one (can't remember the author) Pick an airport and you will be returned a list of all the flights currently in the air. Select the flight and GE takes you there. A couple of clicks more and you can board the plane as either a stowaway or a skype user (where you can see if the plane has any other skypers on board to talk to. Cool!) You now have a 3D model of said plane in it's real place in the sky. Take the pilots view or have a look around. Updates are currently every 5 seconds, but you can see where this will end up can't you.Sent from a mobile email device chilin' on the sofa