Snakes on a Sonde

Joe VanAndel and Mary Haley, from NCAR, will talk about using Python in atmospheric observation and climate model visualization at next Wednesday's Pythoneers meeting.

Real-time Geography

"Real-time Geography" is a better, more accurate catch phrase than "Geo-Web". The latter has been trading on universal, yet shallow recognition of the significance of the (HTTP REST) World Wide Web despite being composed of services that are not of a web.

I accept GML, more or less. I still don't see how W*S is better for real-time geography or environmental monitoring than good old HTTP.

Update: Google is determined to keep the Geo-Web banner flying. Via All Points Blog.

In Your GIS, Recking Your Map's

If you're into technical blogs, add Bill Thorp's MapWrecker. .NET is his working environment, but he's writing about issues of browsers, standards, and protocols that cross platform boundaries.

Sorry, I couldn't find a good image macro to go with the title.

Comments

Re: In Your GIS, Recking Your Map's

Author: James Fee

You like a .NET blog? As Ralph Wiggam says, "That's unpossible"!

Re: In Your GIS, Recking Your Map's

Author: Bill Thorp

I'm famous! Huzzah! Really it just pays to live in a town with a few famous good guys.

FRBR

Help! I'm turning into a librarian.

Comments

Re: FRBR

Author: Jason Birch

you say that like it's a bad thing... :)

Re: FRBR

Author: Jason

Librarians have the same issues with their metadata standards as the geo-community has, although they do things like identity, authority, and classification a little more coherently... ok, they do it better...

Props to OSGeo

Not that anyone gives a damn about my approval, but I must give credit where it is due: this looks promising. Software quality and usability remain a bigger problem for open source GIS software adoption than lack of commercial support, but an index of providers won't hurt at all.

Comments

Re: Props to OSGeo

Author: SKG

Why did you blog stop updating in Sage recently?

Re: Props to OSGeo

Author: Sean

Are you using my current feed or one of the old feeds?

Re: Props to OSGeo

Author: SKG

If I use the find feeds feature on this page, no feeds are listed. Your feeds worked fine until about a week or so ago.

Re: Props to OSGeo

Author: Sean

Thanks for pointing it out. Should be fixed now.

Re: Props to OSGeo

Author: SKG

I still get an XML Parse Error when I check feeds with Sage.

Science Fiction in the News

Mitt Romney and I have many things in common. We were both schooled in Utah (no, I went to the "U"), together we saved the Salt Lake Winter Games, and we love science fiction. The difference is that Mitt loves crappy sci-fi.

Does taste in SF make or break a candidacy? I think it's a more valid factor than a candidate's haircut, waistline, or iPod playlist (current media staples, joined just now by desert island necessities. What's next? Which "Lost" character do you most identify with?). Charles Stross's "Glasshouse" and Jo Walton's "Farthing" would be my litmus test. Did you read them? Did you like them?

A GML Critique

Charlie Savage writes:

In my view, the fundamental premise of GML is wrong. The ability to create custom data models is an anti-feature that makes integration between different computer systems impossible because it assumes that those systems can actually understand the data.

I read, in a very recent GeoRSS mailing list thread, the assertion that GML is the lingua franca of geospatial information on the Web. It's just not true anymore, if it ever was.

Update: Bryan Lawrence has a rebuttal.

Comments

Re: A GML Critique

Author: James Fee

"GML is the lingua franca of geospatial information on the Web" Are you kidding me? Who would say such a thing?

Re: A GML Critique

Author: James Fee

Nevermind, I Googled lingua franca and GML and I get Ron Lake, no surprise there.

Re: A GML Critique

Author: Sean

James, you should put Charlie back on the Planet Geospatial roll. Maybe give him the slot of the guy who wanks endlessly about Twitter.

Re: A GML Critique

Author: Matthew Giger

Even the new WFS simple shows how non-simple this format is to read from and write to. Sadly KML is the only viable option now.

Re: A GML Critique

Author: James Fee

@Sean, yea I have no idea why Charlie isn't in there. Making the change now.

Re: A GML Critique

Author: Charlie

Sean - thanks for the link and comments. James - thanks for adding me back to planet geospatial.

Re: A GML Critique

Author: Bryan Lawrence

Thanks for the heads up, but I don't think it's that straightforward!

Blogosphere and Ivory Tower

Tom Kralidis points us to a new book, and I was struck by how few of the authors I know by name. Am I not getting out enough, or are these folks not taking their ideas to the web like they should?

Comments

Re: Blogosphere and Ivory Tower

Author: James Fee

You and me both Sean. Ivory Tower is a good post title IMO.

Re: Blogosphere and Ivory Tower

Author: Allan

hmm. Michael Gerlek - OGSeo guy. Mike Dean - top notch DAML/OWL type person, Jim Farley - long time geo guy who's been around, Tom Kralidis - knows his stuff. If the others are like these guys, it's not ivory tower. It's more likely that they travel in different circles. Don't get caught in the trap of "if I'm not reading their blogs they must not be well known". That being said, I'm leery of these kinds of books. They tend to be designed to do one thing - make money for the publisher.

Re: Blogosphere and Ivory Tower

Author: James Fee

Who is this Allan guy?

Re: Blogosphere and Ivory Tower

Author: GeoMullah

I feel like a shut-in these days. James knows why. . . It's my friggin' day job.

Re: Blogosphere and Ivory Tower

Author: Allan

Hey, and Jason Birch has just posted a pointer to a map of this thread.

Re: Blogosphere and Ivory Tower

Author: Sean

Usenet as a submerged island? That's funny.