Slashgeo

For those using Macs, Ogle Earth have a nice entry on running virtual globes using virtualization software on Macs. First, virtualization is not like emulation. From the post: "The big question: Is the 3D graphics support compatible with the Windows virtual globes that have no Mac counterpart — NASA World Wind, Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D, SkylineGlobe and ESRI ArcGIS Explorer? Alas, in a word: No. Despite trying all possible configurations for RAM and graphics memory, most of these applications either won't run at all or run unstably." He was successful at running ArcGIS Explorer and Skyline Globe with caveats. See also related stories below.

Slashgeo will soon resume its daily coverage of geospatially-related news. Expect additional stories in the coming days as a catching up effort for the last two weeks. Let's start by refreshing the poll. Last poll was about how much you like your geospatial job. 40% of the 74 responders claim they like so much their job they want to be workaholics. This is surprising good news! An additional 25% say they work on fine projects, 14% love it but it's still work. On the darker side, 5% don't like their job and another 5% are happy that it pays the rent but aren't excited. The new poll is derived from this previous story and asks you about using Linux/MacOS X operating systems for geospatial projects (see related stories below).

Here's a few recent Apple related geonews. First is the capacity for Mac owners to run Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D using the new VMWare Fusion: "Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D doesn’t yet run in a Mac OS X browser. Until recently, your only option was to install a copy of Windows on a different partition using Apple’s Bootcamp tool, and boot into it. [...] Sometime in the last few months, however, competitor VMWare came out with an update of their virtualization tool for Mac, Fusion, that does support VE3D." Additionally, The Map Room shares a complete guide to geotagging photos on the Mac. And finally, APB informs us Apple is encouraging iPhone users to help update the Skyhook wifi location database. On a side note, mentioning Apple products looks reasonable since they are increasingly popular even within geospatial professional, with now 14% of computer sold last February and almost a monopoly on portable music devices. Related previous stories added below, including an old one on running ArcGIS on MacOS X, but I admit omitting the numerous previous stories on geotagging photos.

Ogle Earth discusses the preview release of Cartographica, a GIS software for the Mac. From the entry: "I'm not a GIS pro, so getting results like that in a matter of minutes is a good sign on the ease-of-use front :-) While it's early days yet for this application, I think it's clear where its makers aim to position it: Not as an ESRI ArcGIS or Manifold competitor, but as something that is good enough for school users, GIS hobbyists and people who georeference their photos — for the last group, Cartographica has menu items like "Timecode Photos from iPhoto Library" and "Plot GPS encoded Photos"." Let's remember that the open source QGIS works on the Mac and that ArcGIS itself runs on the Mac through virtualization. See also related stories below. Update: 11/24 17:42 GMT by S : The Virtual Earth team also announced that VE 3D now runs well on a mac with virtualization.