Navteq was bought -was- Re: [Xastir] Feature idea for Xastir

2007-10-06 Thread Richard Polivka, N6NKO


Nokia bought Navteq for $6.8B US, either this week or last week.

Now the fun begins

73 from 807,

Richard, N6NKO
Tom Russo wrote:

On Fri, Oct 05, 2007 at 10:53:12PM -0500, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of 
the [EMAIL PROTECTED] flavor, containing:
  
 Google and Mapquest get their basemaps, if memory serves, from Navtech.  No 
 one seriously uses Tiger anymore for real applications.  After USGS 
 migrated to SDTS format Tiger was the only decent alternative, for some low 
 value of decent.  It was based on the original USGS maps, regardless of what 
 Census told you.  However, Census munges them for their purposes (census 
 work, interestingly enough) and effectively renders them less than adequate 
 for real mapping.


 In other words, These maps should come with a consumer product safety 
 warning.



And this is the last year that TIGER/Line data will be released in that format.
According to their web site, they will start releasing the Census maps in
shapefile format --- but from the looks of it, these shapefiles will NOT be
very useful for the purpose of drawing road maps.  The dbf fields they plan
to include are very clearly designed solely for census purposes, and they
will be missing a lot of the data that we rely on for rendering.

  

 Lee Bengston wrote:


On 10/5/07, Jason Winningham [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  

On Oct 5, 2007, at 8:48 AM, I wrote:



http://roadnav.sourceforge.net/


Ah, this is more like it.  At a glance: maps - so what? looks a lot
like xastir (maybe they do a bit better job rendering labels).
Keep looking: vector maps, rendered by the app, included routing,
vector maps based on TIGER data.
  

Looks good, but I couldn't get enough data downloaded/converted to
try anything interested - got tired of it continuously bombing on the
mac.  Oh well, another one bites the dust.


I wasn't able to get the roadnav deb package to install in andLinux, but I
was able to compile it from source after installing wxwidgets from the
ubuntu respository.  Not a bad program - with the Tiger maps, they are
labeling the highways better, and I like they way they display the minor
streets at high zoom levels.
However, it's the same old TigerMap problem at intermediate zoom levels -
either no street labels at all or labels in a very tiny hard to read font
depending on the exact zoom.  The same view in Google, Mapquest, etc. shows
the street names clearly.  I don't care about looking really slick like
Google does, but street labels that I can read are important.
But the above is in the context of XASTIR and seeing APRS stations in
certain views.  Using Roadnav on a trip should be fine - can zoom in or out
as needed - only need to track one vehicle.  Overall I would say it's a
pretty nice package.
Lee-K5DAT
Murphy, TX
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 -- 
 Gerry Creager -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas AM University   
 Cell: 979.229.5301 Office: 979.458.4020 FAX: 979.862.3983
 Office: 1700 Research Parkway Ste 160, TAMU, College Station, TX 77843
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Re: Navteq was bought -was- Re: [Xastir] Feature idea for Xastir

2007-10-06 Thread Gerry Creager
Also said they intended to keep Navteq as a separate operating unit. 
This is a play to get first dibs on location-based services maps.  I 
anticipate they'll still sell those to competitors, but that the price 
may go up a bit.  If they go up too much someone else will fill the void.


gerry

Richard Polivka, N6NKO wrote:


Nokia bought Navteq for $6.8B US, either this week or last week.

Now the fun begins

73 from 807,

Richard, N6NKO
Tom Russo wrote:
On Fri, Oct 05, 2007 at 10:53:12PM -0500, we recorded a 
bogon-computron collision of the [EMAIL PROTECTED] flavor, 
containing:
 
 Google and Mapquest get their basemaps, if memory serves, from 
Navtech.  No  one seriously uses Tiger anymore for real 
applications.  After USGS  migrated to SDTS format Tiger was the only 
decent alternative, for some low  value of decent.  It was based on 
the original USGS maps, regardless of what  Census told you.  
However, Census munges them for their purposes (census  work, 
interestingly enough) and effectively renders them less than adequate 
 for real mapping.


 In other words, These maps should come with a consumer product 
safety  warning.



And this is the last year that TIGER/Line data will be released in 
that format.

According to their web site, they will start releasing the Census maps in
shapefile format --- but from the looks of it, these shapefiles will 
NOT be
very useful for the purpose of drawing road maps.  The dbf fields they 
plan

to include are very clearly designed solely for census purposes, and they
will be missing a lot of the data that we rely on for rendering.

 

 Lee Bengston wrote:
   

On 10/5/07, Jason Winningham [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 

On Oct 5, 2007, at 8:48 AM, I wrote:

   

http://roadnav.sourceforge.net/


Ah, this is more like it.  At a glance: maps - so what? looks a lot
like xastir (maybe they do a bit better job rendering labels).
Keep looking: vector maps, rendered by the app, included routing,
vector maps based on TIGER data.
  

Looks good, but I couldn't get enough data downloaded/converted to
try anything interested - got tired of it continuously bombing on the
mac.  Oh well, another one bites the dust.

I wasn't able to get the roadnav deb package to install in andLinux, 
but I

was able to compile it from source after installing wxwidgets from the
ubuntu respository.  Not a bad program - with the Tiger maps, they are
labeling the highways better, and I like they way they display the 
minor

streets at high zoom levels.
However, it's the same old TigerMap problem at intermediate zoom 
levels -
either no street labels at all or labels in a very tiny hard to read 
font
depending on the exact zoom.  The same view in Google, Mapquest, 
etc. shows

the street names clearly.  I don't care about looking really slick like
Google does, but street labels that I can read are important.
But the above is in the context of XASTIR and seeing APRS stations in
certain views.  Using Roadnav on a trip should be fine - can zoom in 
or out

as needed - only need to track one vehicle.  Overall I would say it's a
pretty nice package.
Lee-K5DAT
Murphy, TX
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 --  Gerry Creager -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas AM University   
 Cell: 979.229.5301 Office: 979.458.4020 FAX: 979.862.3983

 Office: 1700 Research Parkway Ste 160, TAMU, College Station, TX 77843
 ___
 Xastir mailing list
 Xastir@xastir.org
 http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir



  


--
Gerry Creager -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas AM University
Cell: 979.229.5301 Office: 979.458.4020 FAX: 979.862.3983
Office: 1700 Research Parkway Ste 160, TAMU, College Station, TX 77843
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