General Ramblings
Archived Posts from this Category
Election Night With CNN - Now With Holograms!
Posted by Aaron VanWieren on 05 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: 2008 Election Maps, General Ramblings
In the beginning CNN had John King and his Magic Map. Now, they have trumped the magic map and taken news reporting technology to another level using holographic technology, real world “Help Me Obi-wan Kinobi You’re My Only Hope” holographic technology! Embeded video after the jump, you have to see it to believe it! Continue Reading »
Presidential Election ‘08 Online Maps: The Candidates Stances on Technology
Posted by Aaron VanWieren on 03 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: 2008 Election Maps, General Ramblings
Unlike my previous posts this one does not focus on a map or mapping technology. Instead it focuses on the candidates stances toward technology and technology legeslation. Recently Tech Republic published an article on the candidates’ stances toward internet technology and high technology job. I feel this is a pretty good read and interesting to think about. This election year has not had alot of focus on anything besides economics, so the author has discerned this from their press releases and voting histories. Continue Reading »
SNL Spoofs CNN Magic Map(Video)
Posted by Aaron VanWieren on 24 Oct 2008 | Tagged as: 2008 Election Maps, General Ramblings
Last week in my election map series, I blogged about CNN’s Magic Map and its facilitator John King. On Thursday, Saturday Night Live decided to have some fun of their own spoofing CNN’s John King and his Magic Map. Watch it here! Continue Reading »
Gas Scarcity In Atlanta
Posted by Aaron VanWieren on 06 Oct 2008 | Tagged as: General Ramblings
I never thought I would live to see the day I would be waiting for over 20 minutes to get gas. Atlanta and the southwest were hit hard by the gas shortages caused by the oil refinery shutdown caused from hurican Ike, leading to weeks of empty pumps and long lines at stations that had gas. But, that has finally loosened up a little and things here in Atlanta are starting to return to normal.
I remember the weekend that Ike hit Texas. My tank was 1/4 full and I did not think to fill up on Friday. It was a Sunday and I had heard that gas was growing scarce. I work 40 miles from my home and became a little worried about having gas the next day to get to work. I drove out to get gas and was amazed to find almost every gas station empty, pumps covered with no gas. Continue Reading »
A Trip In The Way Back Machine: GIS in 2001
Posted by Aaron VanWieren on 01 Oct 2008 | Tagged as: Cartography And GIS, General Ramblings
What did GIS on the internet look like in 2001? Thanks to Google we can now search like it was 2001 (Does not work like “Search like it was 1999″, but I digress)! Google has recently put their 2001 search index online and have linked archived pages from the Internet Archive giving a glimpse of search vis a vis 2001. Out of curiosity, I plugged in GIS related searches just to see how much things have changed in the online GIS community and its related topics…
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Where is the GIS community…. Does Anybody Care?
Posted by Aaron VanWieren on 15 Aug 2007 | Tagged as: Cartography And GIS, General Ramblings
I have been working in GIS Software Engineering and Development for a couple of years now and have often pondered the question “Where is the GIS community…. Does Anybody Care?”. Based on my experience, there is no such thing as a GIS user and/or developer community , instead there are loose connections containing blogs and sites with little discussion in the form of comments or cross blog interaction(Unless the discussion involves ESRI and/or ESRI licensing). To me, the concept of an online community composes a place where people with an interest in GIS and GIS development can go and be a part of something larger then themselves,a place of belonging, a third place, a common ground.
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