Useful Links

Here are some links on Geomatics. These are mostly for tutorials, notes, and help with different aspects of RS & GIS.

Watch out, more to come!
http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.2/index.cfm?TopicName=welcome
http://iris.usc.edu/Vision-Notes/bibliography/contents.html
http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/datapool/MODIS/02_Atmosphere/index.html
http://www.pcigeomatics.com/services/support_center/faqs/focus_v10.html#tiff_arc
http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/tg/resources.jsp?rd=rs&ds=3
http://www.daac.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/catalog.pl?s
http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/IAS/handbook/handbook_htmls/chapter11/chapter11.html
http://www.storm.uni.edu/rs/2001/
http://www.cas.sc.edu/geog/rslab/751/
http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/IAS/handbook/handbook_htmls/appendices/references.html
http://geography.laurentian.ca/resources/idrisi/tutindex.htm
http://ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca/resource/tutor/fundam/index_e.php
http://www.landmap.ac.uk/ipc/ccrs/fundam_e.html
http://earth.esa.int/pub/ESA_DOC/landsat_FAQ/#_Toc69120405
http://www.resmap.com/imgsearch2.asp
http://www.cas.sc.edu/geog/rslab/Rscc/rscc-no-frames.html
http://web.pdx.edu/~emch/ip2/ip2.html
http://gis.unbc.ca/index.php
http://www.ace.net.nz/tech/TechFileFormat.html
http://www.pcigeomatics.com/
http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/facilities/gis/index.php?Page=338#soft
http://www.pcigeomatics.com/cgi-bin/pcihlp/CDSPOT
http://www.ltid.inpe.br/tutorial/e_tutor.htm
http://geog.hkbu.edu.hk/virtuallabs/rs/env_tutorial.htm
http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/education/tutorials/
http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/education/links/onlinecourse.html
http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/hipr/html/hipr_top.html
http://aria.arizona.edu/courses/tutorials/welcome.html
http://ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca/resource/tutor/fundam/chapter4/07_e.php
http://www.ltid.inpe.br/tutorial/tut_i.htm
http://www.geog.umd.edu/homepage/courses/472/
http://geo.arc.nasa.gov/sge/landsat/daccess.html
http://cbc.rs-gis.amnh.org/remote_sensing/index.html
http://geog.hkbu.edu.hk/virtuallabs/rs/rs.htm
http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Front/tofc.html
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/mbinford/RS_Web_Sites.html
http://www.utexas.edu/its/rc/tutorials/matlab/
http://chesapeake.towson.edu/data/principles.asp
http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/
http://sal.ocean.washington.edu/tutorials/erdas/index.html
http://www.geog.ubc.ca/courses/klink/tutorials/tutorials_main.html
http://www.union.edu/PUBLIC/GEODEPT/COURSES/remote_sensing/rslinks.html
http://www.photogrammetry.ethz.ch/general/persons/jana/isprs/ed_material.html
Other interesting links:
www.soople.com (effective Google searching simplified)
www.wallpaperstock.com (cool wallpapers for the PC)
www.pixelgirlpresents.com/desktops.php
www.wikipedia.org (online open source encylopedia)

Educate Yourself !

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school." -Albert Einstein
Dr B.R. Ambedakar (1891-1956), who was the Chairman of the Constituent Assembly to draft the constitution of India had once made this call ("Educate Yourself") to a particular section of our society who were considered illiterate and uneducated. I feel this slogan is still very relevant to all sections of society as even today we see a lack of proper education, patriotism, self respect and civic sense among many so-called modern and literates. I want Dr Ambedakar to comeback and pressurize the parliament to include this in our constitution as a punishable offense for everyone who do not take this call seriously. The one thing I want to encourage you to do above all else is to continue to educate yourself. If you aren't of this mindset, you will never be able to be successful in long-term. To succeed in a real sense you've got to acquire an insatiable appetite for anything and everything having to do with your work, leadership, marketing and business skills.

What's more, the educational process never stops. It doesn't end after a certain job or achievement. Successful people NEVER stop learning. They are always on a quest to grow and develop themselves. This is something that can only come from within. No one can force feed it to you, neither you can buy, borrow or steal it from others. As Jim Rohn said "Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune."

There is a persisan proverb;
He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool. Shun him.
He who knows not, and knows that he knows not is simple. Teach him.
He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is asleep. Wake him.
He who knows, and knows that he knows is wise. Follow him.

http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/295-speech-narayana-murthy-infosys-lbsim.html

ArcGIS Server & ArcSDE

ArcSDE finally rides into the sunset। Even though technically ArcSDE has been replaced at 9.2, it was still a separate product. Now at 9.3 it will become fully integrated into ArcGIS Server. ArcGIS Server Enterprise will be the “traditional” ArcSDE level where ArcGIS Server supports an unlimited number of users via either direct connect or connection to an application server. It offers DBMS support for IBM DB2, IBM Informix, all editions of Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle and PostgreSQL. It has no data or memory limits. The Workgroup level of ArcGIS Server supports a maximum of 10 direct connect users. It includes an embedded DBMS (Microsoft SQL Server Express Spatial). It has a data limit of 4 GB and a memory limit of 1 GB.

Out of the box ArcGIS application will be able to connect to Microsoft SQL Server Express Spatial, but if you want unlimited users, you’ll need to purchase ArcGIS Server Enterprise.

ArcGIS supports older versions of the Geodatabase. At 9.3, ArcGIS can connect and create geodatabases (personal, file) back to 9.0. This means you won’t need to keep older versions of the geodatabase around to share with others. You also won’t have to upgrade your geodatabases just because ArcGIS went to a new release. If you wish, you can keep your older geodatabases running at whatever release you wish.

ArcGIS Engine will allow developing with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express so you can scale down your enterprise applications to the workgroup level. You’ll no longer be limited to working with personal for file geodatabases.

ArcGIS Server Enterprise will support 64bit processors. This is only the spatial database application server and not the AGS Basic, Standard and Advanced product.

India should be a Knowledge Superpower!

"Knowledge is Power"- Francis Bacon

Leaders of one technology firm in Massachusetts anticipated that 90 percent of its skilled labor would be in Asia in 10 years. He also pointed to statistics that show the United States graduating only 4,400 mathematics and science Ph.Ds each year compared with 24,900 math and science PhDs for greater Asia.

'China and India have a population a multiple of ours. They have natural resources. There is no reason they can't emerge as the superpower. The only way we can preserve that role for ourselves is through innovation. It's erroneous that we do high-level work here and send low-level work abroad. When our market is no longer the largest market in the world, the idea that we're going to be innovating and they're going to be copying is erroneous,' Massachusetts ex-Governor Romney said.

From CIA World Factbook:
US: ~300 million
India: ~1,100 million
China: ~1,300 million
2,400/300 = 8.

Hence, China and India have a population roughly 8 times that of the US. Assuming a normal distribution of science and math talent across all populations, China and India will have a much greater talent pool than the US. This is already being born out in the comparative number of science and engineering grads these cultures produce, and as Romney mentioned, the number of PhD's granted. Statistically, for every 1 Einstein in 100 years in the US, China and India will have 8. Of course, other factors such as political oppression, intellectual openess, and educational methods (rote learning vs. synthesizing/creating) play a role here, but the sheer numbers put US behind.

Further, most East Asian cultures see science and math accomplishment as the result of skills developed through hard work, whereas the general population in the US sees such accomplishment as the result of innate talent alone, unobtainable if you're not born with it. This discourages many from even trying, whereas the opposite effect occurs in Asia.

So the discrepancy in numbers and the discrepancy in attitude combine to put the US at a serious fundamental disadvantage in the technological and economic competition.

05 June 2009: A year after this blog economic crisis happened and everyone agreed with this. Read more: http://www.zeenews.com/news536580.html

on June 12 2009: Barak Obama admits http://in.news.yahoo.com/20/20090612/1422/twl-buckle-up-indians-and-chinese-are-co.html

CAD & GIS: How much mixing & unmixing is desirable?

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. "- Peter F. Drucker

At present it is accepted that usefulness of GIS has increased and thus dependence on GIS that has gone hand in hand with the rise of information technology. That dependence and the need for research and innovations on internet GIS, 3D visualization, location-based, time-specific acquisition, management, storage, and visualization of data is likely to increase as GIS, along with cell phones, laptop computers, and global positioning systems, goes wireless. Data from maps and hard copy records have transformed into information on the web.

Organizations involved in 2D data conversion/cleaning activities are finding it extremely difficult to position themselves as per the new GIS market dynamics mainly due to their existing expertise and their level of knowledge base. There is need to develop a confidence level among the CAD/GIS co.s to face a well informed client and adopt the new technology. Quality and quantity seldom go together in a industry where ever changing client requirements and strict delivery schedules interfere with the process automation that is very common in any production environment. Business process re-engineering now demands 5D solutions that can utilize GIS data to take care of their time and cost to justify the ROI on these projects.

Message: "Time to accept the grim Reality and raise the bar. The first step is to stop advertising 'outsourced data conversion jobs' as 'GIS Projects' to improve the manpower quality and overall standard of the GIS industry in India."

GIS in Real Estate

Cadastral GIS databases are key sources of information in many areas. Using geospatial solutions, data on land parcels, buildings and apartments concerning location, shape, ownership, value, legal regimes, land use and history of changes become valuable information for numerous categories of users. That information is vital for a society that strives for:

1. Municipal management services and good governance,
2. high quality planning and rapid economic development,
3. fair taxation,

GIS based solutions for cadastral information management and exchange link technical description of parcels, physical objects and encumbrances with registered legal relationship of properties and owners.

Land registration
Land registration guarantees security of ownership and other rights on land and objects on that land. It is also key mechanism of the society in turning property’s inherent market and usability capital value into money. GIS solutions for land registration support are proven in many countries for their reliability, innovation and integration with GIS technology.

Real estate valuation
Valuation of land has traditionally been understood under cadastral records creation and management in many countries through history. It is used for taxing purposes, but also for mortgages in bank and for asset management in governments and large companies.
Use of GIS solutions in land valuation enables the value assessment function of government to be concurrent with spatial data that is relevant to the valuation model. GIS adds value to land valuation models by placing added value on property that has.

Information sharing
In the value chain of the cadastral information the highest added value comes with distributing the data efficiently and timely to the end users in the form that suits their needs. Obviously it is Internet in these days that GIS solutions use primarily for distribution of the cadastral information.

GIS: From Tool to Technology

GIS community has seen the evolution of GIS from large databases of mapping information stored on a mainframe, accessible by a few highly trained specialists, to a distributed network of specialized databases tied together and made accessible to unlimited numbers of people via the Internet.

The old GIS term no longer encompasses all of the tools and technologies used in this more modern world. In essence, "geospatial" is "geographic information systems" brought into the new millennium (Daratech Report, 2004). Geospatial technologies capture, store, manage, integrate, displays, analyze and otherwise assist in the interpretation of this data in its entire context for better decision-making. This broader definition recognizes that engineering data from CAD systems, billing information from ERP systems, facilities management and many other types of enterprise content must be brought together with the traditional spatial data from a GIS in order to efficiently make decisions.

In just the past three years the GIS market has changed radically, and a technology that was once considered too specialized to fall within the domain of the IS department has become just another enterprise technology, such as CRM or ERP.

GIS is a relatively mature technology with a knowledgeable and dedicated user community. This sector has generated an extraordinary community of talented and passionate GIS technologists, a dynamic vendor community, a variety of user groups, meaningful standards activities, and informative industry magazines and events. I believe these activities have served our community well and will continue to serve us into the future.