Most of the questions I receive about map making have to do with proprietary software. That is, while some software seems “universal,” the truth is that files produced in one version are not compatible in a competing version. The success, therefore, is learning to minimize proprietary formats.
The obvious…
The simplest solution is to limit products [...]
Archive for the 'Mapping' Category
Proprietary formats and compatibility
August 31, 2008Is ESRI the only way to go for field GIS?
June 23, 2008No. However, the ESRI shape-file format with the multitude of files is the standard for most industries and academia. So when you collect your data, make sure you can output as standard shape files, composed of the minimum triad of .shp, .sbx, and .dbf files. (The .prj is valuable if you [...]
The Nomad goes on a fossil hunt!
April 30, 2008Recently, three colleges converged in western Nevada for four days of field paleontology. Over thirty students participated in a series of field tasks that represented different kinds of field scientific work. The tasks ranged from classic description to modern collection techniques. For the latter, the students mapped a trilobite-rich area using a [...]
Setting up an external Bluetooth GPS on a ToughBook
February 29, 2008As I have written in a previous blog, I am not very pleased with the integrated GPS on the new Toughbooks. However, the Bluetooth is very stable and opens up a variety of GPS options. The following goes through the steps of setting up an external GPS on a Toughbook 19 running Windows [...]
The “Mystery of the Shifting COM Port”
February 13, 2008I had an interesting case this past week that while unique, might shed light on some problems. A researcher has been using a CompactFlash GPS card in a Recon handheld computer without problems for nearly a year now. He e-mailed me that the GPS was working, but was coming in on a different [...]
Comment on ABC News: How accurate is your GPS?
January 15, 2008Recently, ABC put out a news snippet about the “child killing” inaccuracies of GPS vehicle navigation units. Glossing over the semantically misleading title, the report did a decent job of quickly summarizing the obvious—navigational software is prone to errors. It is not that the receivers are inaccurate, but rather the GIS programming behind [...]
Super-cool field mineral analyzer from inXitu–check it out at AGU in San Francisco!
December 12, 2007This week, I have been visiting the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco. This meeting, held each fall, showcases the latest in research on the Earth and space and the exhibit hall boasts lots of new technology. I had a great time speaking with folks at the NASA [...]
A marriage of convenience: GPS and cameras
December 4, 2007What is the latest trend in GPS? For my money, there will be an expansion of ‘geocoded’ cameras; cameras that record the current longitude and latitude and affix this data onto the image. While the technology has been around for some time, both on the commercial market and as open-source software, the market [...]
Great free software for calculating your GPS accuracy (DOP)!
November 23, 2007In the last blog, I gave an introduction to dilution of precision or DOP and explained when you need to know it and when you don’t. This time, I want to show you a very cool, free program to calculate your DOP values throughout the day. All you need to know is your [...]
What in blazes is ‘dilution of precision’ (DOP) and why should I care?
November 22, 2007GPS receivers are so cool because you turn them on, wait a few minutes, click a button, and bingo—there is your location. For most applications, you don’t even need to care how accurate the location is because either accuracy isn’t important to you or you are using maps where the scale is so large, [...]
