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Technology: GeoMaker - Geo Locations As Microformats

posted by lxnyce on Thursday July 02, @10:44AM   Printer-friendly   Email story  Permalink  Trackback URI  Slashdotthis  Diggthis  Del.icio.us
from the what-a-confusing-title dept.
Geocoding
Found on Ajaxian, go there to check out the screencast and a lot of other info : GeoMaker allows non-developers to enter some text or a URL, filter the results (using YUI datatable) to remove false positives (no system is perfect) and get the embed code for a Yahoo Map or a list of microformatted locations as copy+paste. See the screencast to get the end user experience

GPS-Based System For Driving Tax Being Field Tested in the U.S.

posted by Satri on Wednesday July 01, @12:13PM   Printer-friendly   Email story  Permalink  Trackback URI  Slashdotthis  Diggthis  Del.icio.us
from the your-location,-my-taxes dept.
Transportation
Slashdot discusses a story named GPS-Based System For Driving Tax Being Field Tested. Their summary: "Apparently, since gas consumption is going down and fuel efficient cars are becoming more popular, the government is looking into a new form of taxation to create revenue for transportation projects. This new system is a 'by-the-mile tax,' requiring GPS in cars so it can track the mileage. Once a month, the data gets uploaded to a billing center and you are conveniently charged for how much you drove. 'A federal commission, after a two-year study, concluded earlier this year that the road tax was the "best path forward" to keep revenues flowing to highway and transportation projects, and could be an important new tool to help manage traffic and relieve congestion. ... The commission pegged 2020 as the year for the federal fuel tax, currently 18.5 cents a gallon, to be phased out and replaced by a road tax. One estimate of a road tax that would cover the current federal and state fuel taxes is 1 to 2 cents per mile for cars and light trucks.'"

Browser Geolocation - FireFox 3.5

posted by lxnyce on Wednesday July 01, @05:08AM   Printer-friendly   Email story  Permalink  Trackback URI  Slashdotthis  Diggthis  Del.icio.us
from the big-brother-is-watching dept.
Location-Based Services
As a couple of blogs are reporting (Henri Bergius, Mapperz, GeoWeb Guru) there is a new major release of FireFox (version 3.5). The GIS related part of this release is the new support for browser geolocation. To quote Henri Bergius blog : "With both Firefox 3.5 and iPhone OS 3.0 out, a significant number of browsers suddenly have geolocation support. It will be interesting to see how quickly web services start to follow up, providing more meaningful content through the location context. "

United Maps Premiers Hyperlocal German Map

posted by Satri on Friday June 26, @10:52AM   Printer-friendly   Email story  Permalink  Trackback URI  Slashdotthis  Diggthis  Del.icio.us
from the map-and-real-life dept.
Maps
This submission is of commercial nature but can be interesting for the very high spatial resolution invoved. Stefan Knecht writes "a little bit of shameless self-promotion announcing United Maps that deploy algorithms to automatically match and merge line vector sets with a precision of 95% correct matches. The goal is to produce hyperlocal vector maps on large scales up to 1:2'000 and sell them in B2B markets. Technically, geometries and attributes of primary datasets from Navteq or Tele Atlas are completed and enriched with original content from secondary data sources and professional cartographic editors. Density of streets, pathes and trails is enhanced for up to 300% in rural and up to 50% in metropolitan areas and vector map products remain fully navigable. A comprehensive dataset covering Germany on a nationwide and hyperlocal scale of 1:2'000 is ready now. Besides missing streets and squares, public buildings, building footprints from cadasteral sources and exact point addresses are included. Public mass transport is integrated and thousands of touristic, cultural POIs have been added. See a full feature set here. Tell us what you think — feedback warmly welcome."

Mapping Walkability In San Francisco

posted by lxnyce on Wednesday June 24, @10:49AM   Printer-friendly   Email story  Permalink  Trackback URI  Slashdotthis  Diggthis  Del.icio.us
Maps
pmarc writes "Nathan, from FlowingData had this published nearly one year ago... Not sure if still relevant, but nice indeed.

From TFA: "Lee Byron, recent Carnegie Mellon grad and newly inducted New York Times graphics intern, maps walkability in San Francisco. He scraped Walk Score for uh, walk scores, which are scores from 0-100 based on the amenities around a location like "nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc" — how easy it is to live without a car.""

Technology: MapFish for Inspire

posted by lxnyce on Monday June 22, @09:47AM   Printer-friendly   Email story  Permalink  Trackback URI  Slashdotthis  Diggthis  Del.icio.us
Data Sharing
Cedric Moullet writes "MapFish Framework has been used by the Joint Research Center of the European Commision to create a prototype INSPIRE geoportal and allows discovery and viewing of spatial data sets. The INSPIRE geoportal provide the means to search for spatial data sets and spatial data services, and subject to access restrictions, view and download spatial data sets from the EU Member States within the framework of the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) Directive."

Industry: Free Eval of MapInfo Professional 10

posted by lxnyce on Sunday June 21, @08:27AM   Printer-friendly   Email story  Permalink  Trackback URI  Slashdotthis  Diggthis  Del.icio.us
from the the-price-is-just-right dept.
The Industry
All Points Blog brings notice that Mapinfo is doing free 30 day evals. Here is their summary : "MapInfo (aka Pitney Bowes Business Insights) has always been good about making evaluations available and the company is doing the same thing for v10. You can get a 30 day eval here. (Do read the license and privacy policy to which you must agree before requesting it.)"
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