Georeferenced historic photos in Yosemite

I saw this guy present his project about revisiting sites of historic  photography in Yosemite (1980's and 1910's,1920's).  Obviously, it reminded me of our own VTM project.

Sensing the soil using GPS

There's a cool post over at Ars Technica today about using high-precision GPS to measure soil moisture. To do so, you need a survey-grade unit, but it's still really cool. And the story behind it is even better.

GPS on a Mac

I have been doing some GIS noodling on my Mac recently, since it is an Air and very nice. So, what can you do without parallels on a Mac? Lots. The new QGIS with Grass plugins is great, but if you want to just get your hiking points in and overlaid on an image, you can use GPSbabel. Also free (with suggested donations though, and it is a good thing). You can download your waypoints, tracks and routes from your Garmin (I used a GPSMap 60CSx) with GPSbabel (use the GPX format) and use the GPS plugin in QGIS to easily map them. But, going the other way? that is more difficult. I used GPSbabel with csv format (x, y, id) and uploaded an important route to my Garmin. I was feeling all adventurous until a colleague sent me this link: ben sinclair's site: how to use a garmin with your mac which sorts it all out for you.

Radar vs GPS: GPS Wins!!!

 A 16 year kid got a speeding ticket for 62 in a 45, but the GPS tracking device in his parents put in the car showed his more accurate speed, first the court ruled against him, but when the "expert" realized the GPS was accurate to 1mph of the speed, they overturned it. http://hothardware.com/News/Speeding_Radar_Gun_vs_GPS/

GPS on walkers

I saw this on Engadget today: GPS-equipped walkers. They should add some video games onto that screen too. Really.

Geocaching for Diabetes Awareness

The International Diabetes Federation is sponsoring a worldwide geocaching event to promote diabetes awareness. 20,000 'travel bugs' are moving around the world in support of the UN resolution to promote diabetes awareness, prevention, and care. IDF’s goal to reach 1 billion people with awareness messaging about diabetes care and prevention.

Waste time watching satellites orbit!

I just found this really cool Java Applet from NASA that allows you to find and view an animation of any satellite position real-time. Enjoy!

Track those satellites

The Union of Concerned Scientists has a cool database that will tell you the name, owner, country of origin, use, mass, and many more details about 828 satellites that may or may not get you in trouble. The data is downloadable in Excel and plain text formats. Even better, you can get email notifications about when the list is updated.

GIS, Public Participation, and Marine Conservation

NYtimes has a very cool article about environmental groups working with California fishermen to establish "no-trawl zones." Apparently the group Oceana sued the National Marine Fisheries Service for not setting aside adequate habitat for some bottom-dwelling species, which resulted in a court-ordered release of specific geographic fishing data. From the article,

When it was accepted as the preferred alternative, the court granted the environmental groups access to proprietary information about the trawl tracks that fishermen follow. Fishing captains are required to record their exact locations using global positioning system monitors from the moment they lower their nets until they haul them back onboard. Often covering up to 20 miles in a 6-to-10-hour tow, those tracks provided a precise picture of fishing and a key to the solution the National Research Council had recommended. Scientists at the Nature Conservancy and Environmental Defense overlaid the tracks on maps of underwater features like canyons and ridges, home to a wide variety of species vulnerable to nets.

Apparently environmental groups used this data along with data collected from interviews with the fishermen themselves, to create new conservation zones that would both preserve critical habitat without excluding fishermen from their livelihood. I think this is a neat story in a number of ways. The use of GIS for for conservation in the real world is exciting, as is the power of private organizations and private money in effecting large scale change in land management. Can anyone dig up any more papers on this? The NYTimes doesn't really cite its sources. Here's a related NPR story, and a Nature Conservancy press release. Oh, and a map!

Sony Digital Camera GPS Dongle

Sony just released a little GPS dongle with no display that you carry around while you take photos. When you sync up with their software, the software geotags your pics by associating their timestamps with the track log of the GPS unit. Kind of silly and definitely proprietary, but still kind of cool. Via Engadget.