Spaced Out :: 01 2006

With vast memory sticks now available, it is easy (and common) to carry your entire “working data” with you. OK, maybe not everyone; my working directory is about 12Gb, so I tend to use a notebook hard drive connected via USB2.0 (useful because it’s bus powered as well). However what do you do about the software to actually “work” with?? Well a variety of vendors now produce software specifically designed to work off memory sticks/removable hard drives. An excellent first port of call is naturally enough http://portableapps.com/. You can find here a nice array of open source products “tweaked” for portable use. This includes the immensely useful Thunderbird, Firefox and OpenOffice amongst others. Other useful bits of software in my “armory” include Trillian Anywhere, SmartFTP and Ritlabs Voyager. There really is no excuse not to be able to be totally portable.

Well the beta version of ESRI’s ArcWeb Explorer is finally here. After a somewhat quiet development (most of the news bites have been based around the up coming ArcExplorer), the beta version has been released. This perhaps not too soon for ESRI (and lets hope ArcExplorer follows shortly), given Google’s near year lead of “internet mapping for the masses”. And the most surprising thing? Well its a web application built around Flash 8; I just wasn’t quite expecting this!! Part of the functionality includes the ability to pull in web services to add extra functionality. In this instance the “free” services includes simple searching, geocoding and route finding. It’s certainly quite stylish, as well as pretty fast (although it is only pulling in vector data). So a thumbs up for the moment but still a long way to go!

Ever needed to copy files from one USB memory stick to another? Or copy data from one type of media to another? Well normally you need a PC to act as an intermediary, interfacing between two USB devices. This is unnecessary and, responding to a market developing interesting USB hardware, Belkin have produced the USB Anywhere. This removes the need for a PC and allows the direct copying of files from one USB connected device to another. It takes a couple of AAA batteries and, for low power devices, can power them directly (e.g. USB memory sticks). You can plug media card readers or external hard drives in to the device, but they will need their own power supply. You have options to copy files in the root directory or all files. It lets you know if the copy is successful, although obviously there is no other way to check (unless you have a PC!). All in all a very handy piece of kit, especially if you are out in the field.

We have regular open days at Kingston University and one of the topics that is often at the forefront of students (and parents) minds is that of the total cost of completing a degree. In particular, from September 2006, UK universities will be able to levy tuition fees (”topup fees”). There are, of course, also living expenses to think about. In terms of a no-nonsense review of each of these areas I would highly recommend reading Mike Baker’s (BBC Education Correspondent) views on these topics:

• Who pays the fees in your family?
• What university is going to cost

Following up my last post on podcasts, a colleague forwarded me details of podcasts that ESRI make available. There are two selections; Speakers (currently most available from the ESRI 2005 show in San Diego) and Instructional. There are only a handful available at the moment, but expect a growing selection. The lists of available podcasts are also provided via RSS feeds which makes monitoring any new ones easy.