Slashgeo

The thematicmapping blog updates us on a previous article with an example of displaying vectors using the Google Maps Flash API. From their summary : "Most of the current map APIs quite cleverly use use the build-in vector support in Firefox and Internet Explorer (and others). Firefox supports Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), while Microsoft use the obsolete Vector Markup Language (VML). The Google Maps API and OpenLayers API automatically check your browser and draws the vectors with the appropriate technology.

But the SVG/VML/DOM technology has some serious performance issues - if you add many complex polygons the browser will run terribly slow. While we wait for HTML 5 (and browsers to support it), Flash APIs might be a better solution."

For more information and relative links, please visit the article link above.

The GEB links to a ScienceDirect article named "Google Earth, GIS, and the Great Divide: A new and simple method for sharing paleontological data". The article underlines the fact that neogeography tools can be appropriate to some scientists without the need of a full-fledge GIS, reminding me of last December's neogeography vs GIS debate. From the article's introduction: "GIS is an extraordinarily powerful tool for many aspects of (geo)spatial analyses (Longley et al., 2001), but while used routinely to solve complex spatial analyses problems in many disciplines, its adoption within paleontology has been lagging (Conroy, 2006). Part of the problem is that (a) GIS software is expensive (usually prohibitively so to the individual paleontological researcher) and (b) very few paleontologists are trained in its use."

Vector One has a two parts review of the book named Placing History: How Maps, Spatial Data, and GIS Are Changing Historical Scholarship, by Anne Kelly Knowles. From the first part: "Right from the start this book includes a notice that “scholars” claim to write history in a new way, in ways that might suggest the world was born today and history started last night. Not so. So - I warn you now. All the talk about revolutionary historical mapping today is more or less a continuance of the past, just in a different way. And that observation in the many essays presented in this book sheds light on why that is the case - and why this book is interesting to read. At 313 pages, Placing History takes you on a journey. This is not an A-B sort of trip. Instead, it is a trip to open your mind, to expand your boundaries and to cause you to think about geographic information systems - and geographic information science - and their relevance to historical perspective." The book on Amazon.

Chris Spagnuolo's GeoScrum blog has a very nice game for the GIS professional on it. It written completely in flash and is very fun to play. It involves being given a random location on the earth, and few seconds to click that location on the map. Give it a go and post your scores here so the rest of the GeoCommunity can make fun of your low scores :). Update: 04/10 13:59 GMT by S : This game was mentioned before on Slashgeo previously. I also copied some other previous geo-games below. And since many shared their score, here's mine: 527,701 pts, Level: 12, Trav. IQ: 127 (I admit this score was not done on my first try, but I haven't played often ;-). Update #2: Thanks to Marc K. for the submission of the same story prior the publishing of this one (yours has been pending too long in our system - thanks for your efforts).

Geospatial Solutions offer a review of Maptitude 5.0 (with screenshots). From the review's introduction: "It provides a wide array of thematic mapping, data entry, and editing functions, and sophisticated geospatial data manipulation. A Web-based version of Maptitude 5.0 is also available. The software interface has numerous wizards to guide the novice with geospatial functionality. The wizards also enable experienced users to quickly master the software interface." Maptitude was never mentioned before on Slashgeo and there's a lot of competition in GIS software packages. A quick search made me stumble on a shorter review which is of poor quality in the opinion of APB.

The Earth Is Square blog, has an article featuring the CNN video review of this product. From their summary : "Found this CNN video on the Dash Networking GPS. What made this GPS interesting for me was the traffic updating and the finding gas stations and sorting by the latest price. But the "downfall" of this GPS with the traffic conditions is that you need multiple vehicles in the area also using the Dash GPS so that you get a detailed traffic report."

This story was also covered in this article. For more information, and to see the video, head on over to the Earth Is Square blog.

Ryan writes "Just wanted to share an overview of the new LPS 9.2 release. This release is the first major LPS release since '06 and represents a significant upgrade. It rolls in the 9.1 Service Packs along with several new developments. The product is shipping now as well. Here's the link." We published a review of LPS 9.0 a year and a half ago, other related stories copied below.