ASLAcomputingBlog : ASLAcomputingBlog

ESRI Sees Growth in GIS Web Services. An interview by SYS-CON Media with ESRI company President Jack Dangermond and Director of Web Services Mike Tait discusses the company's history, its current strategy, and how it plans to service a growing market of customers in the future. [ESRI.com: News]

9:48:26 AM

Isn't outsoucing just a measurement demonstrating improving standards of education and skills around the world? That is a good thing isn't it? The Future of Outsourcing in India. aaditeshwar writes "Economist has an article on the current and projected state of outsourcing IT and other business processes to India. The biggest problem seems to be that the talent pool of skilled workers will not able to keep up. Currently there are about 700,000 people working in IT and outsourcing, which is likely to grow up to 2.3 million by 2010, but only 1.05 million new graduates will qualify from local colleges in the next 5 years leading to a shortfall of 500,000 workers! All this despite the fact that almost 2.5 million students graduate in India each year." From the article: "In IT the growth in Indian exports is expected to come both from the software market, and from 'traditional IT outsourcing'--such as the remote management of whole systems, a market now dominated by the big global IT consultancies. This is expected to rise from 8% of Indian sales now to about 30% in 2010, while software-development's share will fall from 55% to 39%. In business-process-offshoring, the big industries will remain banking and insurance. But rapid expansion is also expected in other areas, like legal services." [Slashdot]

9:47:39 AM

Have you not yet realized that online is public? Even the boss is being watched. NSA uses ECHELON against US citizens. Washington Roundup And the Pat Act is off for now [The Register]

9:44:38 AM

And the truth is... My dead, much mourned friend: Jimmy Wales. And ninethly The man, the myth. And his problems [The Register]

9:42:51 AM

Christmas Carol gets free podcast. An entire audiobook of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is available on a free podcast from Penguin books. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

9:40:15 AM

Xbox 360 reaches out to mobiles. Gamers could soon be able to receive alerts on their mobiles when their friends are playing on Microsoft's Xbox 360. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

9:39:25 AM

Best of the Web ... 2.0-Style. Dion Hinchcliffe pegs 2005's coolest online offerings. Plus: Google releases a pair of handy Firefox extensions. From the Wired News blog Monkey Bites. [Wired News]

9:37:54 AM

Where digital and real life coincide...or where representation and real world geography coincide? Berlin May Get Its Own Domain. Two German entrepreneurs revive the drive to make Berlin the most special city on the internet. By Mark Baard. [Wired News]

9:36:27 AM

DWG and Google Earth. By now I am sure most of you have seen/tried Google Earth. If not, the idea behind Google Earth is simple: itâ��s a globe that sits inside your computer. You point and zoom to any place on the planet that you want to explore. Satellite images and local facts zoom into view. Google Earth puts a planet's worth of imagery and other geographic information right on your desktop.

If you are using Autodesk AutoCAD based software (AutoCAD, ADT, ABS) to create 3D designs digitally you can now take this to the next level and place these within Google Earth using ExtractKML from the Avatech Solutions DEV team.

How does it work? Here is a step-by-step rundown:

Simplify your model down to 3D faces by exploding and binding/inserting references.
Run the add-in.
Determine the location on the Earth to place your model (based on latitude/longitude â�� imported, if you wish, from a Google Earth placemark).
Determine the orientation direction for your model (by a second placemark or compass heading).
The add-in generates a KML file, which can be viewed inside of Google Earth.

I have been using this for a while and taking my own ADT models and placing/sharing them with other Google Earth users. If you create something unique drop me an e-mail with the KML file to import and view. :)

[Will render for food...]

9:32:53 AM

New data recovery appliance targets smaller businesses. Unitrends Software has released an appliance for the small-to-midsize business market that allows companies to restore servers from data right down to the operating system.

[Computerworld News]

9:31:10 AM

Sun releases delayed Linux code for Solaris.

(InfoWorld) - After nearly a year's delay, Sun Microsystems Inc. has released software designed to let its Solaris operating system run Linux applications without any modification. The software, formerly called Project Janus, but now rewritten and renamed BrandZ, was released to Sun's OpenSolaris community on Tuesday.

With the release of BrandZ, (http://opensolaris.org/os/community/brandz/) the project has expanded somewhat, and the technology also could be used to run operating systems such as FreeBSD or Apple Computer Inc.'s open-source Darwin project, said Nils Nieuwejaar, the Sun engineer who is technical lead on the project.

By Robert_McMillan@idg.com (Robert McMillan). [InfoWorld: Top News]

9:28:43 AM

VOIP a wake-up call for global phone competition.

(InfoWorld) - Low price is still the main driver for international VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol), according to research firm TeleGeography.

Broadband-based VOIP services to homes and businesses can include added features such as click-to-dial and a choice of area codes. Call quality on VOIP has also improved significantly, according to TeleGeography. However, the Washington, D.C., research company said new features and quality aren't the main motivations for international VOIP. Most international VOIP calls are made to countries in the developing world, using conventional phones, in order to bypass regulated termination charges for circuit-switched calls. VOIP is only used to transport calls from one traditional network to another, said Patrick Christian, an analyst at TeleGeography, a unit of PriMetrica Inc.

International VOIP traffic grew by 35 percent to 30.8 billion minutes in 2004, the latest year for which TeleGeography has issued a VOIP report. Though the growth rate has dipped from more than 100 percent per year in the early days of the technology, usage seems to be increasing: If trends continue from the first six months of 2005, the full year should see international VOIP use increase 38 percent, Christian said. The research company bases its statistics on figures from VOIP wholesalers. The figures don't include PC-to-PC traffic such as on Skype Technologies SA's peer-to-peer service, or calls over private networks.By Stephen_Lawson@idg.com (Stephen Lawson). [InfoWorld: Top News]

9:26:53 AM

Ignore the 4D processional landscapes of video games at your own risk...

Sony on track to double video game player sales. The device has won over movie fans, fortifying a solid debut though not a runaway success along the lines of Apple's iPods. [CNET News.com]

9:16:55 AM

Year in review: Apple hums along. The iPod slims down and adds video, while the Mac maker decides to move to Intel chips. [CNET News.com]

9:14:19 AM

Unconference??? The Wikipedia article about unconference gives me credit for coining the the term, but if they read my piece about it, which they link to, they'd see that I credit Lenn Pryor with coining the term. This is just plain sloppy, if you were grading an undergraduate's report and he or she made this mistake, what grade would you give? [Scripting News]

9:04:14 AM

With GPS, getting around gets easier. The locator technology, cheaper yet more sophisticated than ever, is finding its way into the palms of everyday users. [CNET News.com]

9:01:49 AM

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