Spaced Out :: 07 2011

Tech support at Kingston seem to have successfully virtualised ArcGIS 10 SP1. This has been a (very) troublesome app for sometime and particularly all the old ugly UNIX code that sits behind toolbox. Just loading Toolbox would cause the app to stall for 1 hour whilst it streamed the underlying code across the network. This has been reduced to about 1 minute which is then cached. Hopefully this will be rolled out on a trial basis side-by-side the installed app for student testing.

Nice article on the Gatewing X100. In short:

Wing - fixed wing, 100cm
Weight - 2.0 kg (including payload)
Material - Carbon reinforced EPP structure
Propulsion - Electric, lipo battery
Altitude - 100 m to 750 m AGL
Launch - catpult
Cruise speed - 75 km/h average

Currently equipped with a 10MP camera and can stay aloft of 30 minutes to capture (alot of) stereo imagery. Subsequent processing allows production of orthophotos and DEMs.

Price: a paultry $70,000

Dolphin Browser has been released free on Android after an injection of cash in to the firm for developing the product further. Its a feature packed browser thats well worth a try…. webzine, gestures, tabs, side bar etc etc.

OS moves from CLG to BIS as part of PDC…. lots of TLAs

Amazon have announced student textbook lending in the US for the Kindle. No detailed pricing as yet, but it looks like they have persuaded textbook publishers to lend by the day (or cumulative units). This could be a book for students, publishers and those on distance learning programmes. No sign of it yet on the horizon in the UK, so it’ll be interesting to see how this develops.