Well-well… It has been a while…

I’m out of hiding from my blog to add to the number of blogs that are touting the release of Googl Earth 5.0.  

As for myself, I walked home from Redlands to the East Coast—the long way round. I took Twitter most of the way and, boy, are my thumbs tired!

I realize that I may not be able to contribute much to the geobloggosphere any more. This is spurring a review of what I talk about as not to belabor topics  in our world to death.

Stay tuned.

It was a smaller crowd than in past years at Mr. Tiki, but it was outstanding. I’d like to thank Rob Painter at Google Enterprise for helping to sponsor the event again. Every time I’m around Rob and the other geobloggers my IQ points replenish for the year.

We had Rob and the guys from Google, Brian Flood of Arc2Earth fame, Bill from GeosMusings, the Very Spatial crew, and Nick and Steve from OpenStreetMap.org. There were also some other readers there as well. A very good time.

Highlight conversation of the night though was the conversation between Steve Coast and Rob. Steve, coming from an open source business approach and Rob coming from a Google approach discussed and debated Google’s role in the business and what their actions have on, frankly, a lot of us. Rob discussed, “…what we have learned at Google is that you cannot create a requirements document for true innovation, we instead work hard to create the conditions that you hope might foster innovation and creatively, both internally to our company to push forward our vision and even more powerfully, to extend opportunity for innovation for everyone on the web…” Steve argued that there’s no communication from Google about their direction which meant that the businesses built on Google have no heads up on business changes which could affect them. i.e. The situations facing the Platials and Mapufactures of the geotubes. Eventually, both thoroughly discussed their positions and views, which Bill said, “that conversation made my entire conference.”

It was an outstanding time, good conversation about the business, and a sense amongst everyone to be enablers. Or, as Rob says, we need to be king makers rather than kings.

If you’re at the UC, go check out OpenStreetMap’s booth which is north of the NGA area; Google, on the other end of the exhibition hall floor; and Arc2Earth’s booth up the aisle from Google.

Also, check out the 3D Conference Navigator built on the new AGS Flex API.

All I have to say is that carrying my laptop, the power supply, and two copies of my final report (300 pages) in my backpack is not a good idea. Plus, in my current condition, where my ass has been welded to my seat in front of my computer for the past four months to write that report, hoofing it around the UC with 30 pounds of hardware and paper is not cool.

This year’s geoblogger meetup will be at Mister Tiki’s Mai Tai Lounge on Wednesday August 6 at 7pm. Google Earth Enterprise Is sponsoring the event.

I’m running around with my head cut off right now, but if you have any questions dm me via Twitter. (d fantomplanet)

The UC Geoblogger Meetup is waiting on something, but as soon as I get a confirmation, I’ll let  you know when and where.

It’s MIP, or final paper, season here at Redlands. I’m just taking a break to check in with the crew. I just wanted to point out the courtyard of our building on campus, Lewis Hall, has become a wildlife refuge this past spring. First there was the fox. Then the bird with the broken wing. And now the attack of the ants.

Here are some LOLZ:

How that fox got up there on the hanging slabs in the courtyard? I’ll never know. But srsly. The ants, if you piled them all up, they would be about the mass of those three in the picture.

That time of year is fast approaching as the largest gathering of GIS folks happens. That means it’s time for the ESRI Users Conference Geoblogger Meet-up. Google has graciously offered to sponsor again this year. So, I have a few questions for you.

1. 1. Is anyone going?
   2. If you are, have any suggestions for a venue in San Dog?
   3. Does Tuesday night work for you? (I know you’re all big on the Tennis Tournament.)

Let me know via the comments.

My classmates here at Redlands are big fans of the Fail! blogs. With a grading scale recently introduced to us in our cartography class we’ve been messing with the idea of a Fail! Scale.

See, the quake was the website update for Adobe Acrobat 9 Extended!

…A friend once told me, “PDF is where data goes to die.” If that holds true, then geoPDF is where maps go to die…

Word on the street is that ArcGIS 9.3 will natively export to this new Acrobat format. Schweet.

The other neat thing that I’d like to point out is the Flash embed capability for Acrobat. Could the ArcGIS Server 9.3 Flex API be embedded in the PDF for dynamic mapping?

Just forget about workflow for a moment. Is it possible?

Ok, now think of the workflow. Could it have the potential to be another SharePoint-like pain in the butt?

Adobe = Upgrade (with the potential to Fail!)
ESRI = Upgrade!
TerraGo = Fail!

There’s a blog called “MFR” from my hometown that reviews popular unpopular music. I recently made a playlist with songs that had related themes to the year I’ve spent here in Redlands. Some folks may get them, but then again, most of you won’t.