GeowebInfo » Resources http://geowebinfo.com thoughts on all things geo Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:49:29 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Pre-computing in the Web Mapping world http://geowebinfo.com/2012/02/07/pre-computing-in-the-web-mapping-world/ http://geowebinfo.com/2012/02/07/pre-computing-in-the-web-mapping-world/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:49:29 +0000 Sriharsha Vankadara http://geowebinfo.com/?p=320 [...]]]> DSC06971Speed has and will always be a critical factor in developing fast and responsive web applications. The cost of computing power has seen a rapid decrease over the years allowing for fast and powerful pc’s capable of handling much of the server side processing, thus allowing most web apps to load faster and respond quicker to client requests. But then came big data. In the web mapping world where huge amounts of data needs to be served to the client, maintaining a high level of performance and usability can only be possible through pre-computing on the server.

A well known example of pre-computing is Map Caching in which tiles are pre-generated and cached on the server allowing for faster map services.

Over at the ArcGIS Server blog is a nice post highlighting the importance of pre-computing in a GIS server environment and techniques such as

  • Eliminating on the fly projection
  • Pre-calculating geoprocessing results
  • Building spatial and attribute indexes
  • Converting labels and annotations

that can be employed in publishing faster GIS web services. These practices are not just limited to the ArcGIS product domain but can also be applied  in any web mapping environment.

Boosting performance through pre-computing

]]> http://geowebinfo.com/2012/02/07/pre-computing-in-the-web-mapping-world/feed/ 0 QGIS How To’s http://geowebinfo.com/2011/05/06/qgis-how-tos/ http://geowebinfo.com/2011/05/06/qgis-how-tos/#comments Fri, 06 May 2011 20:33:17 +0000 Sriharsha Vankadara http://geowebinfo.com/?p=299 [...]]]> http://www.qgis.orgUnderdark at Free and Open Source GIS Ramblings reports of a great new addition to the QGIS Wiki – a set of step by step tutorials complete with graphics and categorized into tasks dealing with vectors, rasters, map projections, spatial analyses, format conversion and map making. This is a great reference for anyone just beginning to get their feet wet as well as for existing users trying to get a glimpse of the latest features.

]]> http://geowebinfo.com/2011/05/06/qgis-how-tos/feed/ 0 Plenary Session Demos for 2010 ESRI BPC and Developer Summit http://geowebinfo.com/2010/03/27/plenary-session-demos-for-2010-esri-bpc-and-developer-summit/ http://geowebinfo.com/2010/03/27/plenary-session-demos-for-2010-esri-bpc-and-developer-summit/#comments Sat, 27 Mar 2010 20:56:26 +0000 Sriharsha Vankadara http://geowebinfo.com/?p=251 [...]]]> This week marked the end of the 2010 ESRI Worldwide Business Partner Conference (BPC) and the 2010 ESRI Developer Summit at Palm Springs, California which was host to the largest gathering of GIS developers.

The BPC set the tone for the Developer Summit by showcasing features of the upcoming release of the ArcGIS product suite – ArcGIS 10. For those of us who couldn’t get to attend and see the demos first hand, the Plenary Session videos have been made available for viewing which cover the following topics:

ArcGIS.com
Desktop Usability
Server and Web Clients
Mobile Platforms
Editing Improvements
Imagery Platform
Analysis
Business Analyst Online
ArcLogistics
ArcGIS Server on Amazon

What started off as an overview of ArcGIS 10 during the BPC was picked up at the Developer Summit with demonstrations delving more into the new features and enhancements that ArcGIS 10 is going to support. ESRI has been quick to upload the Plenary demos which cover the following topics:

Opening by Jack Dangermond, President of ESRI and Jim McKinney, ArcGIS Program Manager
DevSummit Plenary Opening
ArcGIS 2010 and Beyond
ArcGIS Online and Explorer
ArcGIS Server, Part One
ArcGIS Server, Part Two
Developer Community
Mobile GIS
ArcGIS Desktop, Part One
ArcGIS Desktop, Part Two
ArcGIS Desktop, Part Three

Jithen Singh on his blog http://geo.geek.nz has a detailed write-up summarizing the Plenary Session events of the Developer Summit.

]]> http://geowebinfo.com/2010/03/27/plenary-session-demos-for-2010-esri-bpc-and-developer-summit/feed/ 0 ESRI Blogs http://geowebinfo.com/2009/08/17/esri-blogs/ http://geowebinfo.com/2009/08/17/esri-blogs/#comments Mon, 17 Aug 2009 07:52:48 +0000 Sriharsha Vankadara http://geowebinfo.com/?p=215 [...]]]>
ESRI Logo

ESRI is at the forefront of GIS (Geographic Information System) development and technology. Be it modeling, analysis or development ESRI produces the best COTS (Commercial off-the-shelf) software for all GIS needs and having to keep up with the latest from this world leader is no simple task. With the evolution of Web 2.0 and syndication of site content via protocols such as RSS, RDF and atom it has never been so easy to stay updated on current developments.

By publishing several blogs pertaining to its products, developer tools, support, events and other relevant offerings ESRI makes it easy to receive up to date information in our news aggregators by subscribing to its feeds.

Here’s the list of blogs and podcasts with their subscription feeds http://www.esri.com/blogs/index.html

]]> http://geowebinfo.com/2009/08/17/esri-blogs/feed/ 0 Measure Distance on Google Maps http://geowebinfo.com/2009/06/14/measure-distance-on-google-maps/ http://geowebinfo.com/2009/06/14/measure-distance-on-google-maps/#comments Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:11:00 +0000 Sriharsha Vankadara http://geowebinfo.com/?p=176 [...]]]> DISTANCEFROMTO

distancefromto.net

distancefromto.net

Distancefromto is a simple and easy to use Google Maps application that measures distance between two locations on a map. Distance is measured on the fly in miles and kilometers by dynamically dragging markers to desired locations or typing in locations names for the from and to inputs. The application comes with an inbuilt geocoder, so do not limit yourself to places that are well known to the masses..

]]> http://geowebinfo.com/2009/06/14/measure-distance-on-google-maps/feed/ 0 FOSSLC http://geowebinfo.com/2009/06/11/fosslc/ http://geowebinfo.com/2009/06/11/fosslc/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:03:12 +0000 Sriharsha Vankadara http://geowebinfo.com/?p=170 [...]]]> The Free and Open Source Software Learning Center (FOSSLC), which has its roots tied to the success of OSBOOTCAMP is a non-profit organization with a vision to improve lives with open source. It provides conference information, webcasts, videos and workshops that teach skills with open source software. Besides its mission to educate people who have never heard of open source it aims to get them started with open source development, understand the business of open source and help meet people from the community.

Here are links to some really helpful resources from the website:

]]> http://geowebinfo.com/2009/06/11/fosslc/feed/ 0 GeoRSS: A Technical Overview http://geowebinfo.com/2009/03/16/georss-a-technical-overview/ http://geowebinfo.com/2009/03/16/georss-a-technical-overview/#comments Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:03:00 +0000 Sriharsha Vankadara http://geowebinfo.com/?p=61 [...]]]> GeoRSS is essentially a standard that enables RSS feeds to have location information encoded into them. Examples included news feeds, travel blogs and the well known real time earthquake feeds from USGS. Location information is of point type in most cases but can also include line, polygon and feature descriptions.

Geoweb Guru has a concise technical description of the GeoRSS standard ]]> http://geowebinfo.com/2009/03/16/georss-a-technical-overview/feed/ 0 How common is your surname? http://geowebinfo.com/2009/02/27/how-common-is-your-surname/ http://geowebinfo.com/2009/02/27/how-common-is-your-surname/#comments Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:03:00 +0000 Sriharsha Vankadara http://geowebinfo.com/?p=58 [...]]]> Curious to know how common your surname is across the US?

Head over to Dynastree, search for your last name and get a geographical distribution of persons with the same surname sorted by states.

Just in case if you’re wondering what the source could be, its the phone book…

Did you know that Anderson is the most frequent name in the US?

Here’s a map of my..uh..name (there’s just one entry in the phone book with my surname)

Create your family tree at dynastree.com
Distribution of the surname Harsha
Distribution of the surname Harsha

Where does your name come from?

]]> http://geowebinfo.com/2009/02/27/how-common-is-your-surname/feed/ 0 Learn Geography and Donate Rice http://geowebinfo.com/2009/01/13/learn-geography-and-donate-rice/ http://geowebinfo.com/2009/01/13/learn-geography-and-donate-rice/#comments Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:55:00 +0000 Sriharsha Vankadara http://geowebinfo.com/?p=55 [...]]]> FreeRice

I am glad I stumbled upon this site today. The FreeRice site provides a great opportunity to learn geography and at the same time contribute to world hunger by donating 20 grains of rice for every right answer t0 the United Nations World Food Program.

There are two ways you could learn geography on this site – Identifying Countries on a Map and World Capitals. The site also allows you test and improve your knowledge of art, english, math, chemistry and foreign languages. You can choose a level to start off with or let the game adapt to your answers.

If you need to keep track of your donations, make sure you set the option in the options page.

Now go visit FreeRice.com, start learning and relish your contribution by watching the grains pile up..

]]> http://geowebinfo.com/2009/01/13/learn-geography-and-donate-rice/feed/ 0 Google Reader sports a Square look http://geowebinfo.com/2008/12/05/google-reader-sports-a-square-look/ http://geowebinfo.com/2008/12/05/google-reader-sports-a-square-look/#comments Fri, 05 Dec 2008 09:02:00 +0000 Sriharsha Vankadara http://geowebinfo.com/?p=52 [...]]]> I am a Google lover and a big fan of Google Reader. If there is any tab in my firefox browser that is always open, its that of Google Reader not GMail.
We have seen people alter GMail’s look with the release of its themes feature a couple of weeks ago. So did Google Maps, with some major changes in its look and user interaction but Reader looked the same since its inception.
Yesterday, the Google Reader Team announced on its Official Blog a new look for Reader with some noteworthy improvements which now make it even more user-friendly and appealing.
Following are the changes reported on its blog:
  • Updated look and feel
  • Collapsible navigation
  • Friends get promoted
  • Hide unread counts
  • More feed bundles
Along with the changes, some things have been moved:
  • “Refresh” button is now in the Subscriptions options menu
  • “Show all – updated” controls also moved into the Subscriptions options menu
  • The “Add subscription” button has been moved to the top of the navigation pane
Visit the original blog post – Square is the new round for more details on the changes
]]> http://geowebinfo.com/2008/12/05/google-reader-sports-a-square-look/feed/ 0