GIS Theses/Dissertations

UTA Libraries Online: An RSS feed aggregator for GIS Theses and other recently released GIS articles.

Source: Mapz: a gis librarian (blog article)

Autodesk Partners with MapServer

Autodesk Press Release - Autodesk Contributes Web Mapping Software to Open Source Community

Further Info: Directions Mag Article - Excellent & detailed article by Adena Schutzberg, Nov 28 '05 (Must Read)

Slashdot Article

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This certainly qualifies as one of the biggest GIS stories of 2005.

Autodesk, maker of AutoCAD, has joined the MapServer community by becoming a founding member and major financial sponsor to the new MapServer Foundation. In addition, Autodesk is contributing its web mapping software to the MapServer Foundation and releasing it as open source.

This certainly is a smart move by Autodesk, if they want to get back onto the same web mapping field that ESRI is playing on. For years Autodesk has had web mapping software out there, but it has gained zero traction. I can't even recall the name of it. Is it MapGuide? Maybe that’s a sign of how popular that product is.

Autodesk isn’t the only winner in this move. MapServer too should see a good boost from this partnership and the formal creation of the MapServer Foundation.

MapServer hasn't needed a corporate giant to reach the level of success that it has achieved. This has a lot to due to with the brilliant and dedicated developers that have given so much to the effort. However credibility has been one of the biggest uphill battles for MapServer. Companies have been reluctant to accept the reality that MapServer is a viable spatial web solution, because it didn’t have a corporate base driving the development. Now that Autodesk, certainly a well established GIS application provider, has joined forces and is backing MapServer, I think it will be easier for new web mapping users and current ArcIMS users to recognize that MapServer is a real solution and give it a fair shot when considering their options.

At the 2005 MapServer conference (conf. materials) a lot of people were openly and even a little angrily wondering why Autodesk showed up and agreed to participate in a panel discussion. The speaker from Autodesk got more than his fair share of pointed questions. Now it seems pretty clear that it wasn’t merely a means of eyeing the competition but that they were considering a partnership with MapServer.

What is to be seen is if Autodesk wants to be a fair and equitable player in continuing to enhance MapServer as an open source product or somehow absorb MapServer as a corporate product and derail its development by driving out the development team through bickering over the direction and/or structure of the software. I suppose that will be a big part of the growing pains MapServer is about to undergo over the next couple of years. How will the application and community change once Autodesk crawls into its bed...

The other major uphill battle MapServer has consistently faced, beyond a credibility gap, is that there isn’t tech support for non-web mapping geeks or those willing or able to get over the technical learning curve. So the next good news that I am hoping to hear is that Autodesk will be willing to take on a technical support role for MapServer. Most GIS shops already use and trust Autodesk products. So if they provided both MapServer solutions AND some form of tech support – I think ESRI’s ArcIMS is going to get a big kick in the ass.

Autodesk has joined forces with the leading members of the open source web mapping community to jointly take the next step in open source web mapping technology. The groups working together to launch and sponsor this effort include DM Solutions Group, the University of Minnesota, and Autodesk.

The MapServer Foundation has been established to provide a business and operational framework to better support the ongoing development of open web mapping technologies including MapServer, the most widely open source web mapping platform.

Autodesk has contributed it’s next-generation web mapping platform to the foundation as an open source project. -- source --

Autodesk's web mapping software will be released as "MapServer Enterprise" under the GNU LGPL, and the current version of MapServer will be released as "MapServer Cheatah" under its current MIT-style open source license. I haven't tried MapServer Enterprise yet, but the source is already available for download.

Another exciting addition is Autodesk's MapServer Studio. A preview of the application is available for download (bottom of page, 122Mb).

Autodesk MapServer Studio is an authoring environment that handles all aspects of collecting and preparing geospatial data for distribution on the Internet. Modeled after popular web development tools, Studio provides a unified environment that enables you to rapidly create spatial applications using an intuitive and familiar interface.

MapServer Studio puts files and resources close at hand and provides the ability to preview the application you’re creating without publishing to a server. MapServer Studio enables you to work in your preferred programming environment—PHP, .NET, or JSP—while providing 100 percent consistency among the APIs. -- source --

MapServer Foundation Established

MapServer Foundation

The key players and developers in MapServer (open source web mapping application - new site - old site) have taken the movement further by establishing the MapServer Foundation. It appears that it will be modeled after the Apache Foundation, which guides and protects the Apache application and other open source projects.

The MapServer Foundation has been created to support and build the highest-quality open source geospatial software. The foundation's goal is to encourage the use and collaborative development of community-led projects.

...The foundation is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to provide a supportive framework for open, collaborative development of geospatial software."

Background and details on the foundation: Open Letter.

Driver Link: Compaq Presario 2500 Notebook

Software & Driver downloads�Compaq Presario 2500 Notebook PC

This is a link for a friend.
Driver download for Compaq Presario 2500 Notebook.

Access DB - Unreplication Utility

Trigeminal Software, Inc. (English)

A few free, and quite nifty (but aging) utilities for Microsoft Access. The 2 utilities that I really enjoy are the "Un-replicator", which removes replication from a replicated database, and the "Replication System Fields Utility", which removes system fields from tables (related to replication).

Note: The "Un-replicator" utility does not import queries, so you'll have to do that yourself after running the utility. Also, it doesn't maintain all of your relational integrity rules, but it does keep the relationships. So you will have to tweak these, which is only a slight drag.

Also, these utilities are from 2002/2003 and thus only work on Access 2000 databases. So make sure your database is saved as an Access 2000 database before running. It MAY work on 2002/2003 databases, but I haven't tested it.

I have successfully used both of the above utilities on a very complicated, replicated, Access 2000 database that was created using Access 2003.

Direct link to the Un-replication utility:
TSI Access 2000 Un-Replicator

Ajax-based domain/whois lookup

AjaxWhois.com - Ajax-based domain lookup and Whois for most TLDs

This is a very easy to use domain name and whois lookup site.

If you want to know if a domain name is available or who owns a particular name (ie. mudlabs.com), this is a site that will get the info without the roadblocks that a lot of other sites put in your way.

IT 2006 Salary Guide - Robert Half

Robert Half Technology 2006 Salary Guide

Here is a new technology salary guide for 2006 for the US and Canada.

The above link will get you to the article that has a link to the PDF.
Here is a direct link to the PDF (920kb, 28 pages).

Thanksgiving Sales List - Black Friday

Black Friday 2005 - The OFFICIAL Site for the Hottest Day of the Year

Black Friday 2005 - Complete List:
A static list, that is nicely organized (probably not as up to date as the above site, but is worth scanning).

The day after Thanksgiving is the biggest bargain hunting day of the year, with massive sales everywhere.

The sites listed above offer a detailed listing of all the major sales offered by the big retailers. If you are planning on joining the bargain hunter riots on Friday, you should check out these sites first to plan your attack.

Tip: Most major stores will match a sale price if you bought it before the sale. You might want to consider buying these products prior to the sale, then returning to the store to have them match their sale price. Perhaps that way you won't get shut out when you find out they only stocked a couple items to lure in hundreds.

Geocode Digital Camera Pics

Geocode Images and Create Google Maps or Export KML/KMZ Files to Google Earth:

RoboGEO is Windows software that georeferences digital images, allowing you to permanently embed latitude, longitude and altitude information within the image.

Jeff Hicks Article

Current Time Around the World

What time is it?

Gchart is a Google maps implementation that allows you to get the current time anywhere in the world.

There are many time zone web apps available. But this is a simple click a location, and get the time solution.

Google Maps Mania Article

Javascript libraries roundup

edevil’s weblog � Javascript libraries roundup

Links to many Javascript libraries. An extensive list with a lot of variety.

OpenOffice Training Videos - Free

NewsForge | NewsForge presents free OpenOffice.org training videos:

A new series of OpenOffice videos has been released. I recommend all of them to users at any level. They are quick, nicely done and present some great efficiency tips. I think most folks, including advanced Microsoft Office users, will learn something from these tutorials.

If you ever need to create a presentation in hurry, you will want to check out the "Make a slide presentation in a hurry" tutorial.

Topics covered:
(Visit the above Newsforge link - where each presentation has its own link)

• Installing OpenOffice.org


• Creating and formatting text documents


• Adding graphics to a text document


• Saving in various file formats


• Previewing and printing


• Making a spreadsheet


• Calculating values in a spreadsheet


• Basic drawing functions


• Manipulating images


• Make a slide presentation in a hurry


• Adding pictures to slide presentations

Slashdot article

MozBackup - Transfer Firefox to Another Computer

MozBackup - A utility for creating backups of Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, Mozilla Suite and Netscape profiles

MozBackup is a utility that will package up your current Firefox installation and allow you to import it into another computer.