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Floatsam and Jetsam

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Here’s my random Blog post ….

I think I have 4 usable computers in my office. Two are running Ubuntu as a Desktop, one is running Ubuntu server, one is running Windows 10 (and I’m surprised that laptop still runs). My two main machines are running Ubuntu 17.04. I’ve jumped all over the place with desktops. The run has been Gnome 2, XFCE, Mate and I’ve just jumped to Gnome 3. For a few months I was on the fluxbox side of life.

Why Gnome 3?  I haven’t run “stock Ubuntu” since the Unity desktop. With the announcement that Ubuntu was back to Gnome 3 I decided maybe it was time to give it a another run. I love Mate. I love XFCE – but I needed a change. So – a change. Overall – it’s not half bad. I remember When Gnome 3 first made an appearance I hated it – I’m appreciating the keyboard centric approach now. Unity was keyboard centric – but too locked for my enjoyment. My only hate – the amount of RAM consumed. I need to up the RAM on my workstation. Not solely because of Gnome – but just because I do a lot and I think it’s time for an upgrade.

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I started running Ubuntu full-time in 2013 when I had to work in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Hurricane Irma reminded me of the craziness of working there. After being down there for 4 or 5 months I became somewhat obsessed with portability. That was my first jump into open source with QGIS and PostGIS. There were many days where the internet wasn’t available. I remember one day where two of us were carrying 2 laptops, two power strips, a 50 foot extension cord, and a printer. We made a wrong turn walking from a seaport and wandered aimlessly for about an hour looking for the car rental agency. One night I was sitting on a porch stealing internet from someone almost out of range trying to download/upload data. I became weird about leaving with my laptop for a walk on the island. If I happen to hit “free internet” I stopped and worked. Better yet if I could recharge it.

I’ve wondered for the better part of a week how I would work post hurricane with scarce electricity and almost no internet. On a good day back in 2013 the internet was scarce. I would get a call or email and ask me to download a 4gb file and you might as well have asked me to fly on those days. One of my friends called from St Thomas and he’s working his way through GIS data on a desktop. My laptops usually get about 4.5 hours off a full charge. If I’m working toss that back to three hours. The longest I’ve ever went without electricity was a week back in 2011. I borrowed a friend’s generator to get my desktop running to move data to my laptop and then head to the nearest coffee shop to work.

This week I wondered if I could get a 56K modem back “online” if I had to. Then I realized my current rental doesn’t even have intact phone lines. Hah.

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I was at FOSS4G in Boston over a month ago. It doesn’t feel like a month. Ran into one of the volunteers who is a PhD Candidate at Columbia U. One thing led to another and we start discussing his dissertation. I have threatened over the last bit to do a PostGIS class. I keep backing off because “How well do I actually know this piece of software?”. I get by. I enjoy it. I don’t know if I could teach it. So – I started randomly answering questions on data analysis.

He offered to pay me. I refused. This year I’ve been a “smart” capitalist. I would say raging but that’s not entirely true. I cut all volunteer jobs down to 1. I give consistent estimates. I don’t chase work nor am I getting into “low bid” situations where my throat is getting cut. It is what it is – I will get what you want done as quickly as possible and correct. So – the Q & A on PostGIS and data is sorta nice. I guess I can still yell “it’s still not 100% about the money” a bit as I run this business and look at ways to increase efficiency and work. I’m learning a few things as this person isn’t primarily a GIS guy – it’s a tool. I’m helping him build out his toolbox of data tricks.

Anyway….back to work…..

 

 

 

MAGS Atlanta Meeting September 20th 2017

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Wednesday, September 20, 2017

to

Victory Sandwich Bar

This month come on down for some food and a brew at Victory Sandwich in the heart of Decatur! It’s probably less than 100 steps from the Decatur MARTA Station.

September Social @ Victory

Wednesday, Sep 20, 2017, 7:00 PM

Victory Sandwich Bar
340 Church Street Decatur, GA

3 Members Attending

This month come on down for a sammie and a brew @ Victory Sandwich in the heart of Decatur! It’s probably less than 100 steps from the Decatur MARTA Station.

Check out this Meetup →

 

NetGIS Meeting September 20th 2017

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When: Wednesday September 20th; 1:00 PM – 3:45 PM

Where: Not at the Eastman Lodge
Eastman Recreation Building (Toy F. Reid Building)
400 S. Wilcox Drive, Kingsport TN 37660 – Room 219
https://goo.gl/maps/4bc6yNi8knL2

Flexible Agenda:
1:00 – 1:05 Welcome and Recognize any first time attendee

1:05 – 1:30 Joyce Pierson – Available Free Parcel Data – An innovative approach to finding
free data.

1:30 – 2:00 Randal Hale – Introduction to PDAL open source tools for LIDAR.

2:00 – 2:15 Networking Break- Time to allow members to have informal discussions with
others.

2:15 — 2:45 Link Elmore – Johnson City’s implementation of Esri’s Open Data site.

2:45 — 3:30 Michael Camponovo; AR – Augmented Reality Sandbox Demo – Live and
Hands On. More info about the sandbox is available at https://arsandbox.ucdavis.edu/

3:30 – 3:45 Wrap-up and review upcoming events

QGIS 2.99 – Data Source Manager

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Notice I didn’t say QGIS 3.0 – I’ve been playing with 2.99 and it’s not ready for prime time – so don’t start working with it then go “But Randy you wrote about it! So I downloaded it to use in production and sometimes it doesn’t work and everyday there are updates”. That’s because it’s 2.99 and Not 3.0.

Post FOSS4G I’ve had some itches to scratch. Part of that has been diving into some technical things I’ve been wanting to work with. I’ve done a slight dive into Docker. I’ve been reading up on R. I’ve been working with PDAL.

The other thing I’ve been doing is jumping back into QGIS. I’ve been distracted with a lot of other things with work like “paper work”. The good news is I won’t be going to jail for tax evasion or screwing up client’s work. The bad news is you are stuck with me a bit longer and I feel like typing.

One of the things I remember from the intro to QGIS class is “button pushing” – as in “How do I add data?”. ArcGIS Desktop has the one all-knowing button. QGIS has 12 buttons if I don’t count the Virtual Layer button. When I first started using qgis back in 1.8 it was a bit annoying. It grew on me. I will admit it’s a bit overwhelming for some people.

Layers toolbar

There is a button for vector, raster, postgis, spatialite, ArcGIS Mapserver Layers, etc.  It seems about once or twice a year a discussion would start in the QGIS community of “We need one button to add data”. Emails would be exchanged and I assume some of the developers would talk amongst themselves.

Guess what?

Data Source ManagerBehold the “One Button”. That one button now opens the Data Source Manager. The data source manager combines everything (including the browser) into one menu. When I first started using it it was a tad annoying. I like it now. Plus it’s going to be a bit easier to explain “Open the Data Source Manager” vs “Click on the arrow next to WMS and Look for Add ArcGIS Mapserver Layer.”  You can add data as you normally would or drag and drop it in using the browser.

QGIS 2.99 is still under heavy development – so I wouldn’t dive into it just yet. Just know that changes are coming – and they are pretty awesome.

 

Fulcrum Community and Hurricane Irma

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As of Saturday September 9th 2017 the graphic from the National Hurricane Center looks like:

For those of you in the path who are going to have immense fun with high winds, flooding, and possible flying houses carrying a small girl and her dog – Sign up for Fulcrum Community!

Fulcrum (http://Fulcrumapp.com) is providing Fulcrum Community Free to people dealing with Hurricane Irma. If your organization/group whoever needs a data collection app to use during this event all you need to do is download Fulcrum and request access.  It was (and still is) deployed for Hurricane Harvey in Texas.

Request Access Here: https://web.fulcrumapp.com/communities/hurricane-irma/?_ga=2.247777031.1408167726.1504721105-337609111.1500995109

Fulcrum runs on iOS and Android devices. Data (shapefile, File Based Geodatabase, PostGIS, excel, etc) can be retrieved from their cloud and used in any GIS Platform you might have (I use it with QGIS and feed the data live into there). It can also be pushed into any online accounts you might have (from Carto to ArcGIS Online).

It’s preloaded with:

  • Urban Search and rescue App
  • Disaster Shelters assessment App
  • Public Assistance Applicant Damage Report App
  • Individual Assistance for Inundation App
  • Aid Facility App
  • Hurricane Evacuee Info App
  • Wind Damage App
  • Damage Inspection App

Once again – It’s Free. Fulcrum has made employees available to help you with data collection.

Good luck to those of you dealing with the Hurricane.

Georgia URISA Luncheon – September 12 2017

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Postponed due to Irma

Date: Tuesday September 12, 2017
Time: 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Location:
Cobb County DOT
1890 County Services Parkway
Marietta, GA 30008

“911: Using GIS to Streamline Communication & Reduce Response Time”
Speaker Bio:

Nadine Bennett-Darby is the current Solutions Analyst for Cobb County Department of Transportation Operations Management System. In her current position, Nadine manages, maintains and improves the department’s Operations Management System.

Presentation Summary:

When it comes to 911 calls, every minute counts. Cobb County uses a GIS-based workflow to pass requests from the 911 operator directly into the Department of Transportation’s operations management system. This efficiency streamlines communication during flooding and severe weather events, allows the county to dispatch crews instantly for downed stop signs, and eliminates redundant data entry giving 911 operators back nearly 10,000 minutes a year.

Luncheon Overview: Luncheons are held on the 2nd Tuesday of every month unless otherwise noted. They are intended to provide a social and friendly atmosphere for learning about the successes of our members and to provide opportunities for networking. All are invited to join and students are especially encouraged! You’ll earn 0.1 conference attendance points towards your GISP Certification by attending each luncheon.

Agenda: Meetings are orchestrated according to the following agenda:

11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. – Lunch and Networking
12:00 p.m. – 12:10 p.m. – Announcements
12:10 p.m. – 1:10 p.m. – Presentation
1:10 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. – Discussion

Register: http://www.gaurisa.org

Fulcrum Live at FOSS4G 2017

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While I was at FOSS4G 2017 this happened on the Tuesday before the Conference.

Yes – A one day conference on Fulcrum.

Fulcrum is one of those software programs I enjoy. It’s not open source but it has a lot of open source DNA built into it and it just works. NRGS is a business partner with them.  Customers can run it on Android or iOS. Your data gets pushed into the cloud. It works offline. It works with bluetooth GPS units.

I missed the first half of the conference. I was teaching a class for FOSS4G on using QGIS and Fulcrum as one workflow (Planning is for dullards). Not my best class – but I think with a few more edits it will blend in well with the QGIS Class I teach occasionally. I arrived at 12 and had a chance to watch as a number of people got up to discuss how Fulcrum is used in their organizations.

People discussed using Fulcrum with utility companies, environmental companies, engineering companies…..companies even my size using Fulcrum for about everything. Two days before the conference I used it to log equipment being used by the FOSS4G Conference. One company is using it to log time sheets in the Yukon. One group is using it to clear land mines.

For me personally I’m always curious how people are using Fulcrum. I know how I use it. Am I using it as well as I can? There is no right or wrong answer. You can do whatever you need to do with it as long as it’s providing what you need.

Three things I remember walking out of this conference:

  • Fulcrum has had 75% growth every year for the last three years. Two years ago I said “Fulcrum” and people would go “Huh?”. As of late I say Fulcrum and people go “yeah I’ve tried it or <fill in the blank> is using it”.
  • Fulcrum Desktop – I can now sync my account to a local postgis/spatialite database. Which is now giving me a few more “things” I can do to play with the data.
  • It’s flexible enough to allow you to hang yourself. You can collect all types of data to the point you should ask yourself “Do I need to collect this?”. I always lean more into “No” but sometimes complicated is needed. One person in my QGIS/Fulcrum class created a form that no doubt would stretch about 3 or 4 feet long if printed. All used on an Ipad. they gave statistics at the end and it seems like one application had well over 1000 photographs attached to it for one point. I may have that wrong but I don’t think I do.

I had a chance to talk about one of groups using Fulcrum Community: a local non profit collecting stream quality data. Not as exciting as oil drilling or utility location – but it’s important.

Update!

It’s been two weeks since the conference and I’ve been meaning to hit publish and life keeps getting in the way. I’m glad it did as an interesting thing happened called Hurricane Harvey:

The map you see is being generated out of Fulcrum Community. Spatial Networks stepped up and offered this to aid the recovery effort. People are crowdsourcing about everything you can think of and more. Fulcrumis making it’s way into first responders hands and people about to do damage assessment. Got a disaster bearing down on you? Worried about Data collection. Remember the good old days of paper forms?

Anyway, I hope this conference happens again. With as much growth as Fulcrumis having I can’t imagine it won’t. Something else to mark on your calendar and attend.

OSGEO Live 11.0 Released

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I’m a little late to the game as this was released right before FOSS4G 2017. If you have a Open Source GIS itch to scratch – here is your chance without installing any software.

From: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Disc_Press_Release_79

You can test drive geoserver, qgis, gvsig grass, open layers, qgis, cesium, geomoose, geonode, mapserver etc……..

Download

Download the OSGeo-Live 11.0 image at http://live.osgeo.org/en/download.html

Release Highlights

This release has been a major reboot, with a refocus on leading applications and emphasis on quality over quantity. Less mature parts of the projects have been dropped with a targeted focus placed on upgrading and improving documentation.

Dropped
  • Windows-only applications/installers
  • Overviews of OGC Standards
  • Some applications that did not meet our review criteria
  • We now only support a 64 bit distribution (32 bit is built but not officially supported)
Added
  • Support for isohybrid ISO images with UEFI

About OSGeo-Live

OSGeo-Live is a Lubuntu based distribution of Geospatial Open Source Software, available via a Live DVD, Virtual Machine and USB. OSGeo-Live is pre-installed with robust open source geospatial software, which can be trialled without installing anything.

It includes:

  • Close to 50 quality geospatial Open Source applications installed and pre-configured
  • Free world maps and sample datasets
  • Project Overview and step-by-step Quickstart for each application
  • Lightning presentation of all applications, along with speaker’s script
  • Translations to multiple languages

Homepage: http://live.osgeo.org

Download details: http://live.osgeo.org/en/download.html

 

FOSS4G 2017

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I’ve been sitting here for 2 hours trying to decide how to tackle this conference wrap-up on FOSS4G 2017. I’ve written and deleted and re-written and deleted it yet again.

Lets try this – I hate conferences. Mostly. I don’t hate the FOSS4G ones. I love them. It may sound like I’m about to take a trip into gushing over a conference and the attendees and the people that put it on. I will just a little.

I seek out different these days for conferences. My first GIS conferences was in 1996. I flew out to Palm Springs for my First ESRI users conference. There were about 3 thousand people there. I talked to a lot of people. Goofed off. Went to technical sessions. Learned quite a bit and came back. I did two more of these in the 2000’s and to be honest I can’t remember much about them and I’ll blame that on a decade’s worth of living vs the conferences being terrible.  I’ve almost stopped going to state conferences. After 25 years I’ve almost seen it all on that level. Not that I’m some sort of “geo-genius” – to the contrary I’m not that smart. I just want different out of my conferences.

I started slowly getting involved in FOSS4G (Free and open source Software for Geospatial) back in 2013 and finally had my chance to attend an international conference – the one in Boston last week. So why even go? Randy you said you were tired of conferences. I am. I’m not tired of Community. That’s one of the things I’ve really been lacking. That’s the one thing I found in the QGIS crowd and the PostGIS crowd. Community – Plus I get to meet the people that build the software. Plus I get to carry on conversations with those people and come back and go “Oh boy – I got to meet……”

There were something like 1150+ people at this conference. 44 of the 50 States were represented. 48 countries were represented. They were able to pull in a massive pile of Sponsors. Who you ask…..IBM…..Carto….Mapzen…..Boundless……You know –  companies that work with open source software in some capacity. Even ESRI was there. What? Weird right? Trimble was there. Names you recognize from other places.

It’s the cool thing about this group of people – you can sit and talk to everyone. A one sentence Nutshell of what I did?

  • I had the chance to hassle Lene Fischer – and she hassled me back.
  • R? There were a lot of talks on R. I have go to pick up some R knowledge as that was mentioned a lot at this conference.
  • PostGIS? That’s my favorite thing these days. I sneaked up behind Regine Obe and hugged her.
  • I even had the chance to help a PHD Candidate work his way through a spatial problem. We just sort of randomly met at the conference. That actually happens a lot. You meet someone. Start a conversation. Then you start working on a problem.

Confession – I was on the Workshop Committee. I did do a workshop. Which – this sounds more impressive than it is – but I did get to teach at Harvard. Which sounds awesome and Harvard is a pretty cool place to see.

The kicker on this conference (and as I’m reading back this is getting way too long) that in order to pull it off you’ve go tot have a community of people willing to do it. Boston stepped up. They were able to land Richard Stallman to come and talk. Below – Michael Terner and Richard Stallman (I’ll let you pick who is who).

The ESRI Conference had a theme which was something along the lines of “The Science of Where” which I swore they’ve used before. If you tagged this one with a theme it should be “The Warmth of Community”. I’ll be babbling more on this conference over the next week. I’ve cleaned out my suitcase. I’ve been washing clothes – and I’ve been trying to get caught up.

My hats off to you Boston. I hope to come back at some point. Dar Es Salaam you have me wondering if I can make it over.

 

 

 

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Email: info@northrivergeographic.com
Phone: 423.653.3611

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