Google’s Terms of Service seem to get stranger by the day. I noticed this post and figured it was worth sharing.
Google’s not so fine print: Google Apps TOS put Google first by ZDNet’s Donna Bogatin — Should organizations put their applications eggs in Google’s basket? The Google-centric Terms of Service give considerable pause.
Nor would you expect it to be. I finnally got a test server working after numerous failed attempts.
I inherited a old Pentium MMX 200Mhz computer from my in-laws. They were just going to send it to be recycled, but I thought “Hey that would probably make a fine Linux box and even better, I could test the Linux based web mapping apps”.
I downloaded & burned the ISO boot image onto a CD and took it upstairs to try it out. First roadblock, niether of the computers (the other is a rarely used eMachines Pentium 533Mhz) would read the CD. The olny CD drive it worked in was the newer (~2002) CD Burner in the eMachines. Which I had to reconnect b/c I had disconnected it the last I was fidling with stuff for some reason.
However, I did not want to write over the hard drive in the eMachines, I want to use the old computer. So I cross connected the drive & it worked. Until I tried to actually use the server. Then I discovered that I didn’t have the driver for the brand new ethernet card I bought for the old computer. So I put the hard drive from the old computer into the eMachines and it is up & running.
I made a test map but am still having some trouble with loading data into the PostgresSQL DB. But whatever diffuculties I am having are certianly less than I’m sure I would have had if I tried installing & setting up all the components in the HostGIS setup myself. Thanks to those guys for at least getting me this far and saving me even more frustration.
I am attempting to put together a list of the various methods by which one can distribute GIS data AND the ability to visualize it to non-GIS users. Below is my 1st pass at making such a list. My main focus is the ability to distribute private data in a controlled manner. The end user for this system is typically someone with limited computer skills and no previous GIS use. They would need to search for & identify features, turn layers on/off, and print or export maps. Some users may also want to create their own custom layer by selecting a sub-set of an existing layer and applying different symbolization to it. They do not need a fully featured GIS, nor do they want to need much if any training to use the system.
I will be using this list in a presentation & proposal to help us decide the best method for distributing our multi-county project to outside of the 4 related companies that I developed it for.
I am further expanding on this list to include pros, cons, & costs related to each method along with links to the software & examples of implementations. The expanded list can be found at www.kestrelcomputer.com/GIS-Distribution.htm. I will post the fully expanded list on Friday Aug 18.
Please let me know if you think I have left any important method, software, or technology out.
GIS Data Visualization & Distribution Methods
Physical
Data & Viewer Reside on Client Computer or Removable Storage
Web
Data & Viewer Reside on Internet or Intranet
Hybrid
Viewer Resides on Client Computer & Data Is Served From Internet/Intranet
This was the state of the art for mapping at our company before I started nearly 5 years ago. They had just bought ArcView 3.2 but did not know how to use it.
I was cleaning out some old papers and came across this map which I thought might be of particular interest to those returning from the dazziling displays of GIS magic demo-ed at the ESRI User Conference.
When I started working for Plateau Land & Wildlife in Sept 2001, I brought my GPS for a grand company total of 2 GPS units. Maps were being made in one of 3 ways:
It’s amazing to me how far we as a company have come in terms of using GIS for our work and how throughly it is integrated into our workflows. Now we are anxiously awaiting the release of ArcGIS Explorer so that even traditionally non-GIS using employees can have access to simple GIS and map making capabilities. I can’t imagine going back to the pre-GIS times at our company and being very effecient or profience at what we do.I’d love to hear of anyone else’s similar experinces.
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