Don Park: "Sit down Professor, I was complaining about the pain in my butt, not the Meaning of Life." [Scripting News]
6:13:05 PM    

Nokia turns phones into credit cards. The company is teaming up with MasterCard to test technology that lets people use their cell phones to charge their accounts rather than swiping cards through a magnetic stripe reader. [CNET News.com]
6:12:35 PM    

Wireless networking sales jump. Revenue for 802.11g products provided a significant boost to the industry in the seasonally slow first quarter, according to a new report. [CNET News.com]
6:12:11 PM    

InfoWorld: Unlicensed wireless: More uses on the way. [Hack the Planet]
6:11:45 PM    

New hacking tool sees the light. A Princeton University student cracks the security of Java and .Net virtual machines using a light, some known properties of computer memory and a little luck. [CNET News.com]
6:11:17 PM    

Microsoft iLoo was no hoax - official. MS dumps digital Dunny [The Register]
6:10:40 PM    

Is this really about the same kinds of space(s) we design? 

The New World: A Look Ahead. Our old ideas about space have exploded. In their place comes a surprising range of domains that will define our future. Wired magazine guest editor Rem Koolhaas presents 30 Spaces for the 21st Century. [Wired News]

6:09:49 PM    

Frontiers: Geography of Change. At the start of the 20th century, 10 percent of the earth's population lived in cities. By the end of this decade, 50 percent will be urban dwellers. Wired magazine presents a visual guide to the geography of transformation. [Wired News]
6:09:24 PM    

Traffic news and views on your GPRS phone. Jam today -none tomorrow? [The Register]
6:08:32 PM    

Database dichotomy. Muscle alone isn't enough--buyers want database software that is smart and cheap, too. [CNET News.com]
6:08:04 PM    

E3: Let the games begin. Sony invades Nintendo's turf with the launch of a handheld player, as the video game industry jostles for position through product releases and price cuts. Plus: Xbox gets into the groove. [CNET News.com]
6:07:43 PM    

The mood among campus file-swappers. Stanford senior Sumir Meghani says the entertainment industry's caricature of music file-swappers as hopeless reprobates has triggered resentment among students. [CNET News.com]
6:07:14 PM    

IBM thinks ahead with acquisition. Big Blue looks beyond its own efforts and buys software developer Think Dynamics to try to hasten the unfolding of its on-demand computing strategy. [CNET News.com]
6:05:53 PM    

Gartner's look at Alternatives to Microsoft. Discipline required [The Register]
6:04:47 PM    

NY Times: Verizon Sets Up Phone Booths to Give Access to the Internet. Verizon said that subscribers to its high-speed Internet access service would be able to go online wirelessly at no charge when they are near a Verizon phone booth in Manhattan. [Tomalak's Realm]
6:03:36 PM    

JD Lasica is listing reviews of the new Matrix. [Scripting News]
6:03:02 PM    

'Matrix' sequel spotted on the Net. The inner circle of underground Internet file-swappers is buzzing with claims that a copy of "The Matrix Reloaded" has been released early online. [CNET News.com]
6:02:22 PM    

The Redhead: "If I thought I could get away with it, this is the questionnaire I would hand to a man on our first date." [Scripting News]
6:01:07 PM    

from, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

May 2003, vol. 93, no.5.

Technology

Visualizing Community Form:  New Digital Tools Help Communities Shape Their Own Futures by

James Sipes ASLA,

is reviewed and commented by Madis Pihlak:

Monday, 5May 2003

This article is about some very powerful and creative software programs. These Geographic Information  System (GIS) based software programs allow  the landscape architect to be involved in community visioning forums. Mastering the use of software such as Community Vis  would allow the landscape architect to control the flow of information about future community form.  The author rightly discusses how all stake holders in the community can be brought to the table to decide future community form. The landscape architect can be the community leader that we hear so much about at ASLA functions.

This is the good news. The bad news is the cost and time it takes to learn GIS based software to produce images that typically critical landscape architect can be proud of producing and showing to clients and users. Community Vis is $4,995 software program and requires ESRI Arcview 3.2 and Spatial Analyst 2.0.  If you are an ASLA member there is a 40% discount for the ESRI software. The list price of Arcview is $1995. The modules are usually in the $500 dollar range. Also there are rumors that ESRI is moving the entire software suite to the ARCGIS 8 software base which is much different from Arcview. The standard joke is that even Arcview makes Autocad look user friendly. This is not to be critical of the article's approach. I fully agree that landscape architects should buy the software, learn how to use it and use the software in community design project. It is just that after all these years I think there is an issue with landscape architects engaging with the technology. High level technology leaders have commented on the lack of landscape architecture involvement in the digital world.
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end

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