Exploring the world of free tools and data for GIS, GPS, Google Earth, Google Maps, neogeography, and more.
Been a long field season this year, which has kept me away from this site. Not over yet – still have one more session left, running through the end of next week. Then I’ll be back home, and hope to get this site cranking again soon. Related posts: Stormpulse Putting Time Data Into A KML File Snow Cover Maps
So I mentioned to a friend that I had just received a review copy of the new second edition of Making Maps by John Krygier and Denis Wood, and she exclaimed, “Oh, our university GIS department loves that book!”. No surprise – since its publication in 2006, the first edition has a become a staple [ ] Related posts: Everything Sings: Maps For A Narrative Atlas More Color Design Resources More…
Note: PhotoFly is now 123D Catch; click here for the main product page. A few years ago, Microsoft make a big splash with Photosynth, a program that analyzes 2D photos of an area, computes their relative orientation, and lets you view them in a quasi-3D environment. Here’s a live Photosynth of the London Eye: PhotoSynth [ ] Related posts: Geotagging Photos With GPSed Using GPS Data To Geotag…
gvSIG is a full-featured open source GIS program, written in Java; I’d go so far as to call it one of the two leading open source GIS programs currently available (Quantum GIS is the other). Version 1.11 was released recently, with standard installers available for both Windows and Linux (and a special installer for Mac). [ ] Related posts: Putting Together A Basic Linux GIS Workstation…
Two weeks ago, I posted about a web app from Metzger and Willard that offers useful info like PLSS data and a topo quad index in a Google Earth plugin interface. Poking around their site further, turns out they have a page called Earth Survey, a set of KML network links that installs those features [ ] Related posts: Web Application For Querying NGS Survey Marker Locations And Displaying Them In…
A while back, I posted about a free web app from Metzger and Willard that shows National Geodetic Survey control points (benchmarks) near a specific area, and lets you view data for those landmarks. I’ve just noticed that they’ve created a newer web app called the Earth Survey Plugin, running in a Google Earth browser [ ] Related posts: Geodetic Tools For Google Earth Plotting Public Land Survey…
I’ve done a long series of posts on this site about various tools you can use for creating custom vector maps for Garmin GPS units, one of the most powerful features for these models (even if Garmin itself doesn’t directly support it). One especially powerful feature is the capability to create your own custom point, [ ] Related posts: Free Tools For Custom Garmin Vector Maps XI: TYP Tools A Not…
Back in February, I had a long post about the FCC’s conditional approval of LightSquared’s wireless broadband proposal. This waiver was vigorously opposed by the GPS industry because tests by Garmin showed that it would seriously disrupt GPS in areas where it was implemented. Read the post for a full rundown, but briefly LightSquared’s plan [ ] Related posts: Update On LightSquared’s…
I first heard about the crowdmapping platform Ushahidi a few years ago; it’s an open-source app/platform that can collect/collate geotagged data in real-time from mobile observers, or delayed reports over the web. The data can then be mapped, viewed on a timeline, and analyzed. One significant obstacle to using the platform was the need to [ ] Related posts: Advanced Tool For Embedding Google Maps…
The National Geodetic Survey has a set of links online conversion utilities for performing some basic geodetic conversions, including: High-accuracy state plane coordinate system (SPCS) conversions UTM/USNG/geographic coordinate conversions Magnetic declination Surface gravity prediction Azimuth/distance to a second position (or second position from azimuth/distance data) Position from a…