Tuesday, September 17, 2002

Even though I often use maps from MapQuest and Yahoo, I still find good old paper maps from AAA very reassuring. Here's an interesting article in Wired about how MapQuest works and a cautionary note about when it doesn't. MapQuest locates addresses through a process known as geocoding, which assigns a latitude-longitude coordinate to an address so it can be displayed on a map or used in a spatial search. There are three basic methods of calculating a geocode: address interpolation, intersection matching and ZIP codes. Address interpolation will fail in certain cases, such as when an address is ambiguous or new. If that happens, the program will attempt to assign coordinates to an address based on the ZIP code. The system may choose one data set over another depending upon what action users take on the site -- whether they are zooming in on a neighborhood or looking at a broad view of a city and surrounding highways, for example. 10:52:15 PM      comment [] Pressing on with bashing the Bush administration, check out Paul Krugman's NYT piece on Army Secretary Thomas White. An article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal confirmed what some of us have long argued: market manipulation by energy companies [~] probably the same companies that wrote Mr. Cheney's energy plan, though he has defied a court order to release task force records [~] played a key role in California's electricity crisis. And new evidence indicates that Mr. Cheney's handpicked Army secretary was a corporate evildoer. Krugman goes on to describe how Mr. White, when he was an executive at Enron, booked large amounts of questionable revenue, which helped to buoy Enron's stock price long enough for insiders to cash out. It will be interesting to see how many high-level insiders are included in Enron investigations. Or will the peasants carrying pitchforks and firebrands be satisfied with the heads of just Lay and Skilling? Time will tell, but I have the feeling that a lot of people in powerful positions are quietly consulting with their attorneys. 10:45:12 PM      comment [] Dan Gillmor has some critical things to say about the Bush administration's approach to formulating science policy. This is a disheartening move, but it is not surprising. George W. Bush's contempt for science that doesn't match his own preconceptions -- or the desires of the rich and powerful people who put him in office -- is well known. After all, this president smirked away his own administration's warnings on global warming. Science and politics always interact, since science affects the way people live and people are by nature political. But in these days of an alleged science illiteracy in the populace, this sort of fiddling with science is particularly dangerous, since people are less likely to understand the larger trends. 10:30:05 PM      comment [] NASA has plans for replacing the Hubble Space Telescope. And my alma mater, Lockheed (-Martin) Missiles and Space Company, lost this gem to TRW. 10:25:25 PM      comment []

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