Welcome to another non-denominational, co-ed, family friendly, mind-bogglingly interesting and totally free VirtualGeography from VizMAP Pty Ltd.

You are receiving this either because you subscribed to VirtualGeography or you have had recent dealings with VizMAP Pty Ltd. If you do not wish to receive further installments of VirtualGeography, just click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this e-mail. 

VizMAP finished the end of the financial year on a high with more TerraTools placements in this region than any previous year, making VizMAP the most successful TerraSim reseller on the planet. This has been predominantly due to the raft of new exporters for TerraTools allowing fully correlated virtual and constructive terrain databases. See "A Recent Outing" later in the newsletter to get a feel for this.

If you didn't already know, VirtualGeography is a collection of interesting snippets from all over the shop, dealing with industry issues concerning the computer based visualisation of geography and a few other associated (or otherwise) interesting bits and pieces.  A new VirtualGeography is pushed out every now and then when we've collated enough interesting bits and pieces, which shouldn't be too big a drain on your mailbox if you're not already subscribed (of course it won't be a drain on your mailbox if you ARE subscribed, either ). The regularity of the distribution may vary depending on what else is going on at VizMAP at the time. If you know of anyone who might like to get VirtualGeography, feel free to forward this to them and ask them to subscribe. By the way, subscription and unsubscription details are at the bottom (click here). So, g'day to all you enthusiasts requiring to visualise and/or simulate both urban and rural geographic information (GIS), cartography, photogrammetry, remote sensing, digital elevation modelling (DEM) and general mapping.

By the spelling of "Visualisation" you may have already guessed that we're not US based – that's a good thing, or at least not a bad thing. This comes to you from Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia, where it's beautiful one day and perfect the next. As a postscript to that, you can have a look at the Maroochydore beach (otherwise known as the Pacific Ocean), now, 1,000m from where I sit as I write this, here.
 

The link between visualisation and surveying and mapping may seem a little esoteric if this is your first encounter with this sort of stuff, but let me tell you, the bond is significant… but enough of that: on with the show… I hope you like it. Any feedback you might have is highly appreciated. E-mail me here to make your comments. Enjoy… Graeme Brooke VizMAP Pty Ltd

P.S. You'll need an active Internet connection to view any images that are in the content. We've done it this way to keep the size of the e-mail to a minimum.

The latest release of Xtract includes over 30 improvements and bug fixes, including:

•     Support for the Windows 7 operating system
•     A more user-friendly interface
•     Processing speedups
•     Memory improvement
•     Additional documentation including step-by-step tutorials with sample data

Xtract supports the ingest of OTBSAF CTDB, OneSAF OTF, and OpenFlight databases and individual models. It produces terrain surfaces, geospatial vectors, and 3D model libraries. Users can select multiple representations for each of these categories for fast and consistent data extraction. For example, a legacy terrain surface can be simultaneously exported as gridded DEM, as a triangulated irregular network (TIN), as well as a reprojected and resampled grid, all under user control.

Xtract exports to the widest variety of third party geospatial data processing products, including Global Mapper, 3DStudio Max, Bohemia Interactive Oxygene, ESRI ArcGIS, OpenSceneGraph viewers, Google Earth, Presagis Creator, and more. In addition, Xtract supports simultaneous model extraction and enhancement, converting to 3DStudioMax, COLLADA, VBS2 P3D, OpenFlight, and tiled scenegraph (TSG) format.

FRANKFURT, Germany –In 1969, Leonard Kleinrock, one of the chief scientists of the original Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) which preceded the Internet, said: "As of now, computer networks are still in their infancy, but as they grow up and become sophisticated, we will probably see the spread of 'computer utilities' which, like present electric and telephone utilities, will service individual homes and offices across the country."

The ISC Cloud'10 Conference will include sessions about:

• Public, Private & Hybrid Cloud
• Many Case Studies from Industry & Research using vendor and end-use customer examples to examine cloud delivery models in detail: Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service
• Cloud Computing for Small & Medium-Sized Enterprises
• Cloud Computing as one possible future of High Performance Computing
• The fast-paced Hot Seat Sessions 'Hot Cloud' that have been a trademark of ISC for many years
• The 'Cloud Debate' about the Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing
• A Panel Discussion about how to start your Cloud, and finding the right Cloud strategy for your organization

Scientists announced a new hominid fossil discovery in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa. The discovery is one of the most significant palaeoanthropological discoveries in recent times, revealing at least two partial hominid skeletons in remarkable condition, dating to between 1.78 and 1.95 million years. We are especially excited because Google Earth played a role in its discovery.

We’re absolutely thrilled about this announcement, and delighted that our free mapping tools such as Google Earth and Google Maps continue to enable both individuals and distinguished scientists to explore and learn about their world. With these tools, places both foreign and familiar can be explored with the click of a mouse, allowing for new understandings of geography, topology, urbanism, development, architecture and the environment. Our efforts to organize the world’s geographic information are ongoing — but at the end of the day, seeing the way these tools are put to use is what most inspires us. 

 

VBS2	OpenFlight (16.0)
Steel Beasts Pro (New)	OpenSceneGraph (.osg) MäK VR-Vantage 1.1 (New)
OpenSceneGraph (.osg) Compressed Textures (New)	OpenSceneGraph (.ive) Compressed Textures (New)
JCATS (7.1.5)	JSAF (CTDB 8)
MÄK VR-Forces (GDB)	OneSAF 4.0 (OTF 8.0)
OneSAF 1.5, 2.0 and 3.0	OneSAF Testbed (OTF) (CTDB 7)

Click on these small resampled images to view the full screen images from the VizMAP website. Bear in mind that these are just screen dumps from a dynamic, interactive, 3D "flythrough". If you would like more information on this project, or need your own similar project performed, let VizMAP know

If you have a need to dynamically visualise your geographic data, let VizMAP know your requirements…

Australia doesn't even have a space program but a partnership between space engineers and a Sydney brewery aims to make damn sure we won't be beaten to the first space-certified beer.

"It's just a great little first for humanity and that's the driver of all this; it's not to create some huge market because realistically even though space tourism is starting in 2012 it's going to be a long time until most people can afford to go up there for a weekend," he said.

• DirectionsMag Events
• GISCafe Upcoming Events 
• Geoinformatics Calendar
• ISPRS Events Calendar
• National Centre for Simulation Calendar of Events
• Spatial Source Calendar 

• Climate is caused by the emotion of the earth around the sun.
  
• The people of Japan ride around in jig-saws.
  
• The plains of Siberia are roamed over by the lynx and the larynx.
  
• Lindberg is the capital of Germany.
  
• The chief animals of Australia are the kangaroo, larkspur, boomerang, and peccadillo.
  
• The inhabitants of ancient Egypt were called Mummies.
  
• Don Juan is a town in the West Indies.
  
• Germany is an industrial country because the poor have nothing else to do, so they make lots and lots of factories.
  
• Where is Alaska? Alaska is not in Canada.
  
• Spain's national music is the cascarets.
  
• What people live in the Po Valley? Po people.
  
• In Pittsburgh they manufacture iron and steal.
  
• In Athens there is a temple called the Pancreas.
  
• The Alimentary Canal is located in the northern part of Indiana.
  
• Georgia was founded by people who had been executed.
  
• When we cross the Hudson River we come to the United States.
  
• Where is the greater part of Europe? In New York.
  
• The principal export of Sweden is hired girls.
  
• Floods from the Mississippi may be prevented by putting big dames in the river.
  
• Denver is just below the 'o' in Colorado.
  
• They don't raise anything in Kansas but Alpaca grass, and they have to irritate that to make it grow.
  
• The benefit of latitude and longitude is that when a man is drowning he can call out what latitude and longitude he is and we can find him.
  
• Virginia is the mother of President Wilson and is also noted for her hysterical sights.
  
• The chief products of the Hawaiian Islands is rainfall.
  
• Philistines were inhabitants of the Philippine Islands.
  
• The original tribes of Central America were the Axtecs, the Celts, and the Morons.
  
• New Zealand is a democratic country. they passed a law there preventing women from sweating in the factories.
  
• Malays are brown generally and inhabit Malaria.
  
• The climate is hottest next to the Creator.
  
• The Kaffirs of Africa are a very savage race. In times of war they beat their tum-tums and can be heard for miles around.
  
• The American Indians travel in birchbark canoes on little streams of water that they make themselves.
  
• The state flower of Colorado is the concubine.
  
• The soil of Prussia was so poor that the people had to work hard just to stay on top.
  
• The Mason line is the line running north of the Equator and the Dixon line is south.
  
• In the west, farming is done mostly by irritating the land.
  
• Oceania is a continent that contains no land.
  
• There is a great deal of nothing in the center of Australia.
  
• Asked to name six animals peculiar to Arctic regions, a boy replied, "Three bears and three seals."
  
• Climate lasts all the time, but weather lasts only a few days.
  
• Latitude tells how hot you are and longitude tells how cold you are.
  
• The Menai Straits are crossed by a tubercular bridge.
  
• Sienna is famous for being burnt.
  
• The climate of Bombay is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere.
  
• The sun never sets on the British Empire because the British Empire is in the east and the sun sets in the west.
  
• The trade of Spain is small, owing to the insolence of the people.
  
• The Eskimos are God's frozen people.
  
• The sun sets in the west and hurries around to the east to be in time to rise the next morning.
  
• Name three animals peculiar to frigid regions. The lion and the giraffe and the elephant are peculiar to frigid regions, but the polar bear and the seal and the walrus live there.
  
• People go to Africa to hunt rhinostriches.
  
• Glaciers spread a murrain over the land.
  
• The highest peak in the Alps is the Blanc Mange.
  
• The Equator is a menagerie lion running around the earth and through Africa.
  
• The population of London is a bit too thick.
  
• Persian cats is the chief industry of Persia, hence the word purr.
  
• The Mediterranean and the Red Seas are connected by the Sewage Canal.
  
• New York is behind Greenwich time because America was not discovered until very much later.
  
• Henry VIII had an abyss on his knee which made walking difficult.
  
• Certain areas of Egypt are cultivated by irritation.
  
• Zanzibar is noted for its monkeys. The British Governor lives there.
  
• A watershed is a shed in the middle of the ocean where ships shelter during a storm.
  
• Imports are ports very far inland.
  
• Nearly at the bottom of Lake Michigan is Chicago.
  
• The chief occupation of Perth is Dying.
  
• The inhabitants of Moscow are Mosquitoes.
  
• The Pyramids are a range of mountains between France and Spain.
  
• A mountain range is a cooking stove used at high altitudes.
  
• An Indian Reservation consists of a mile of land for every five square Indians.
  
• The only signs of life in the Tundra are a few stunned corpses.
  
• Among the islands of the West Indies are the Pyjamas, noted for their toilet sponges.
  
• Lipton is the capital of Ceylon.
  
• The Indian squabs carry porpoises on their backs.
  
• Among the enduring remains of Egyptian civilization are pyramids and obsequies.
  
• The writing of ancient Egypt was called hydraulics.
  
• Rome had a fine defensive position, being seven miles from the mouth of the Tiger.
  
• The seaport of Athens is Pyorrhea.
  
• The Greeks wore scandals on their feet.
  
• In what general direction to the rivers of France flow? From the source to the mouth.
  
• The general direction of the Alps is straight up.
  
• Manhattan island was bought from the Indians for about $24, and now I don't suppose you could buy it for $500.
  
• The United States are mostly populated by people.
  
• The State of Virginia was named for the Virgin Mary, who afterward married Captain John Smith.
  
• What is the sound west of the State of Washington? The sound of the ocean.
  
• Canadians raise boll weevils for their wool.
  
• Where is Cincinnati? First place in the National League.