The recent news of the earthquake in China inspired me to find websites that provide spatial information about earthquakes. Basically, I wanted to find out if there are websites out there that describe where earthquakes are occurring, and at what magnitude. Naturally, the first organization I found that provides such a service is the United States Geological Survey, which has a number of maps that provide not only the location of earthquakes, but also other important information like magnitude and coordinates. The USGS provides global maps as well as more regionalized maps that provide a more detailed look at Earthquakes …

I have a couple of things to write about this morning regarding Apple products and news...There has been a lot of talk around the internet about what is going on with the new iPhone and its battery problems. I have a few updates on that and a few comments about another iPhone 3G problem that has occurred with the new 3.0 update. Additionally, there was an interesting article this morning that mentions Apples place in China's roll out of a new internet filtering software that is designed to limit access to pornography and to sensitive political websites. I …

There have been reports circling the internet that the new iPhone 3G S is experiencing problems with the battery overheating. Wired.com is reporting that in some white iPhones 3G S's there are reports that the overheating is causing discoloration. The same article also hinted at older iPhone 3Gs experiencing similar problems after upgrading to the new 3.0 OS. The article also pointed out that the overheating was occurring while the users were playing games or running other applications. At this point it is unclear if all iPhone are affected, if certain apps are causing problems, or if the …

The release of the newest iPhone 3G S begins on Wednesday and reports are that it has already sold-out of phones to be handed out on opening day. Apple Insider and Information Week are both reporting that sources are saying that customers who ordered after Saturday the 13th should not expect to receive their iPhone on the opening release day. Both Apple Insider and Information Week are indicating that customers wishing to upgrade or to purchase the new iPhone will now likely have to wait 7-14 days to receive their new phone. This is a problem (If you will call …

I had a recent experience involving the 8GB iPhone 3G that I thought really shows why Apple is such an amazing company. Let me explain. We all know this week that Apple announced the newest version of its iPhone would be hitting stores by June 17th, which will include the newest version of the Mac OS 3.0, and a number of other new features that will greatly improve the iPhone. Well, me being an Apple advocate to my friends and family, I continually support their purchasing of any Apple products from computers, to cell phones, to programs like Cartographica …

Today is the first day of the Apple World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, which should be very exciting for any Mac user. Each year a number of new products are presented at the conference, and this year should be no different. There has already been a lot of buzz about the new iPhone software that is due out very soon, and the conference should be a place to highlight the new software's capability. According to Mitch Wagner of Information Week Apple is expected to present the newest version of the iPhone, which is expected to have a …

Today, I ran into an article in the Wall Street Journal that discusses several new websites that promote information sharing between the police and the public. These websites focus on providing up to date information about crime incidents within cities by allowing the public to view various aspects related to the occurrence of a crime. The public is able to search for crimes at specific addresses and times, and they are able to focus on certain types of crime. Personally, this article is very exciting for a number of reasons... First, any time crime mapping makes it into a national …

For the past decade the National Institute of Justice has held the Crime Mapping Research Conference which focuses on advocating for policy decisions, and solutions to problems, to be guided by GIS related research. The importance of the conference stems from the fact that crime is a phenomenon that can be understood spatially, and as technology improves, so does the quality of the research that is produced. The Tenth Crime Mapping Research Conference gives the growing community of researchers and practitioners a place to present, debate, and communicate about ongoing research. The 2009 Crime Mapping Conference is located in New …

We have all heard about the outbreak of swine flu across the globe and how it has affected a great number of people as nearly 14,000 cases have been reported so far (WHO, 2009). If you are like me, then you likely have no clue where the Swine Flu has been popping up most frequently There have been many reports coming from Mexico, the U.S. and other countries around the world, but to be honest, it is very difficult to keep up with all of the reports, and to know exactly what the outbreak looks like. Naturally, I …

The recent news that there is a risk of the GPS satellite system failing has raised serious concerns among many travelers, researchers and professionals. Chris Lefkow recently wrote an article for the Agence France-Press (AFP) that discussed the possibility of GPS satellites failing because the U.S. Air Force has not taken steps to maintain the currently used satellites. Additionally, it is not clear if the Air Force is going to be able to replace failing satellites at a fast enough rate. Lefkow reported that the U.S. plans to invest 5.8 billion dollars in the GPS system by …