Since I have been traveling I have been looking to use virtual earth offline. I really want to be able to send request locally so I can continue to play around while I am on the road. Yeah Yeah I am in the middle of a beautiful beach in the middle of Colombia and yeah I am thinking of virtual earth. There is obviously something really wrong here, but I digress. So when I was doing my searching I found a really interesting solution by Toucan you can download it here. You can also read a great review of it from the Microsoft Public Dev Team Here.

"The Professional Edition, which is not a free download, includes additional functionality for data sharing. You can collaborate on map files through SQL Server and Groove. The Groove compatibility allows members of a team to access shared map files even when disconnected from the network. Files that are modified while you are offline are automatically uploaded to the common Groove team space once you are reconnected to the network and notification is sent to other team members. "

So you can collaborate and GEO docs and have them sync with a online source even when you off-line. This could make for some cool hand held mapping app's. To tell you the truth of the matter i am still a bit confused between the differences of Microsoft groove and sharepoint and of course live mesh oh and dont forget about astoria I mean sql server in the cloud in mean SSAS. I could use some real guidance of where they intend to take the offline online syncing and where devolopers should spend most of their time for the different types of applications they are using.

Don't forget that PDC is coming up in October and there are a ton of great sessions to look out for.

You can view and register hear.

http://microsoftpdc.com/

See you there!

Hey all. I just wanted to say that I am off traveling at the moment so I haven't been keeping this blog up as I would like. I will be starting to add more things as starting this month.

I Interviewed Microsoft Regional Director/INETA President/President and CEO of OCG Daniel Egan. Daniel leads us how he went from MVP to Microsoft regional director. How INETA has a user group in second life and other ways he is helping INETA build out a great user community. Daniel also help start the socalcodecamp and uses that to help the community get into technology as well

Since 1998, Daniel Egan has held a variety of positions in the information technology and engineering fields. At OCG he serves as president and chief operating officer (CEO). Daniel is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Microsoft ASP.NET, and a Microsoft .NET Framework Insider for the Southern California region. In addition to his development work, Daniel teaches a .NET certification course at California State University Fullerton, and also serves on the university's .NET Advisory board. He is the cofounder of the SoCalDotNet Developers Group. Daniel is a frequent speaker and conference presenter and has written several articles in addition to authoring Building Websites with VB.NET and DotNetNuke 3.0 (Packt Publishing 2005).

To find out more about Daniel, visit either of his blogs, Dot Net Doc.

Check it on techzulu Here

Friday, 06 June 2008 10:23

TechZulu's Geoffrey Emery Interviews Matt Penner at the firestarter Event. Mat talks about his work with sql spatial and what it takes to get into the GIS(Geographical Information Systems). Mat then takes us down the path of the how GIS has changed the way people think about maps in general and what we can learn from the great technological advancement.

Matt is a database engineer and the GIS Administrator for the Val Verde Unified School District in Perris, CA. He has been an avid developer since the days of Basic on an old XT and loves to be involved with technology on the cutting edge. As an officer in the Inland Empire .NET User's Group he enjoys regular discussions with fellow colleagues and presenters about development strategies and the future of technology. He has been an administrator of Microsoft SQL Server since version 6.5 and a .Net developer since 1.0. As a GIS developer for the last couple of years his "daily work" projects often include managing and manipulating spatial data.

Mat'ts Sessions

Beginning SQL Spatial Features

Introducing spatial data types, what they are, how they work in SQL Server 2008 and what you can start to do with them.

Advanced SQL Spatial Features and Real World Examples

Manipulation of spatial data using the built-in analysis functions as well as using Virtual Earth to create real world examples.

TechZulu’s Geoffrey Emery Interviews James Johnson while at the firestarter event. James is the Founder and President of the Inland Empire .NET User’s Group in Riverside California. He has been developing software since the HyperCard/Laser Disc days, still remembers sending backup tapes to get one-off CDs, loves staying ahead of the curve in new technology.  and is passionate about getting people excited in their own potential. You can keep up on James’ adventures at www.duringlunch.com. We talk to James about ado.net data services and what it means to develop using beta bits. I fun talk with a great community organizer.

James Session was on  - Consuming REST-based data with ADO.NET Data Services and introduced the ADO.NET Data Services framework and how to integrate REST-ful queries into your applications. See below or check it out on TechZulu.com

While at the fire starter event I interviewed Joey Snow for TechZulu. A Microsoft Tech Evangelist and all around awesome guy. Check it out below.

Stephen Rose has been technical consultant and has spent 12 years teaching technical tracks for private companies, technical training companies and even colleges like California State University and Columbia College as well as speaking at technical conferences all over the world including TechEd, SDWest, CIO World, and TechExpo.  During this interview we dive deep into everything it means to be A Microsoft MVP, CodeCamp, developing using .net, to reaching into the cloud for a data. A great interview with a truly connected individual.

See it on TechZulu

I was lucky enough to interview one of my very favorite people Lynn Langit at the firestarter event. Lynn is the best and one of the smartest people I know make sure you check it out.

Spatial it taking root.. Well more like people are starting to realize that spatial rocks and that all data takes on new meaning once you take in its spatial aspect. Representing your data is like seeing your 3D after viewing the world in the 2D for your entire life. Some may say that this is exaggerating but wait until your data tells a 3D story.

So Lets start to dig into spatial.

3D vs 2D

The world is three dimensional object yet most of things we use to view are in 2d. For instance a paper map or a computer screen. Luckily for us we have Virtual Earth and SQL Spatial which takes in both 3D(geography) and 2D(geometry) shapes and types and displays in them in ways that we can visualize them both.

A great visualization from Hanes that shoes the 2D vs 3D visualization

Coordinate System

The next thing that never keep in mind is the coordinate system. I never am always amazed at the amounts of different coordinate systems that are out there. I have worked with at least 5 different coordinate systems and there are some that are so complex and so ridiculous that i never seem to start laughing.

For these articles we are going to be using the "WGS84 coordinate system have to consider an ellipsoidal shape of the earth and they can be described as either Cartesian coordinates or through latitude and longitude. Latitudes can have values between +90 and -90 degrees where 0 is at the equator and longitudes can have values between +180 and -180 degrees where 0 has been defined as a place in the Royal Observatory in Greenwich / United Kingdom. As mentioned earlier Virtual Earth in 2D-mode can only work between +85 and -85 degrees because of the Mercator projection."

So now that we have our basic understanding of 2d vs 3d maps we have or coordinate system lets dig into the SQL spatial