GIS

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is an aggressively-growing category of Information Technology.  Every guy I know gets a bit of drool in the corner of his mouth when he sees a good map--there's just something about lighting up those spatial parts of the brain.  What's surprising however, is the unique uses for GIS that aren't usually considered.

WikiMapia

Tuesday 12/4/2007 7:52:51 AM (CST) - Michael Wells   

Don't you just hate it when other people build something you thought of?  WikiMapia is a wiki combined with Google Maps, allowing people to annotate a map geographically and add notes. 

I have to say, the implementation is pretty slick.  The map and navigation itself are of good quality, and intuitive.  And the annotation capability is reasonably well-done... you can do non-rectangular regions, and it's pretty smart at deciding what level of detail to show you (per your zoom level).

It's a bit sluggish, but then it's trying to do a fair bit.  One of the best things I like about it is that as you reposition and zoom, the Url changes immediately.  That's very important; if you've tried using Google Maps, you'll discover that it's very difficult to email someone a Url to what you're looking at.

I do have to say that the actual "traditional" wiki part (text and photos) is a bit light; it doesn't feel comfortable and display is only supported over top of the map, which I also find obtrusive.  It might be better if they instead allowed you to view the clicked item in the _search pane on the left side of the browser window (in MSIE and FireFox, maybe others too).  This would make it scrollable, resizeable, and allow you to continue your map exploration without closing pop-ups.

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Google Maps

Friday 5/6/2005 10:01:44 AM (CST) - Michael Wells   

Google is betaing a Map service that appears to be based on Keyhole's technology (this gathered from references in the HTML source, as well as Google's 2004 acquisition announcement). 

Keyhole has long been one of my top GIS resources with their EarthViewer app, which offered excellent hi-res full-color satellite imagery with unbeatable panning-zooming and animation capabilities.

Google has managed to take much of this to the web, without (yet) the helecopter fly-by type of navigation that made Keyhole famous. 

The coverage appears to be limited to North America at this point, although Keyhole's database covers most of this planet, and most international major cities to 2 meter resolution.  Tokyo was particularly fun to explore from space; not just the World's largest city but probably it's most colorful as well.  Keyhole even covers Mars, so it can be assumed that Google will expand their coverage

The drag-pan feature is especially user-friendly, and the clarity of the satellite imagery is fantastic (see my home), though the perspective can be a bit disorienting in cities with tall buildings.

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Dating and Mobile Technologies

Thursday 12/18/2003 2:47:39 PM (CST) - Michael Wells   

http://www.findtheone.com/

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Finland's hunting dogs get mobile phones

Thursday 12/18/2003 2:38:31 PM (CST) - Michael Wells   

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992708

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Cellphone positioning finds its place

Thursday 12/18/2003 2:37:56 PM (CST) - Michael Wells   

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994270

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