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I just wrapped up the first Virtual Earth web casts as a part of our new ongoing series to keep people informed about opportunities for leveraging Virtual Earth and to keep you abreast of what’s new in the Virtual Earth product group and what’s storming in my brain that just needs to get out. In February, I focused on the Retail industry and how location plays well with many of the things you do whether it be a store locator, a line of business application, fleet management applications or business intelligence applications. The web cast recordings are now available for those who missed the web casts. You can click on the respective links below: Show Your Retail Customers the Big Picture with...
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I may have to quit my job. I want to go out on top like John Elway. Once I’ve seen everything, I don’t know what else will light a fire under me to get up in the morning. Analytical Graphics, Inc. ( AGI ) has just changed my world by demonstrating how Microsoft Virtual Earth can be used to visualize data like I’ve never seen before. Read the official press release on the AGI web site - AGI Software Incorporates Microsoft Virtual Earth Platform . AGI offers a physics-based software geometry engine that accurately displays and analyzes dynamic objects in real or simulated time. AGI integrated Virtual Earth into their software by (a) incorporating core analysis into the Virtual Earth platform and...
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In many of my discussions with customers I talk about the value Virtual Earth plays in data visualization, especially around business intelligence and visualizing that information on maps for analysis. Now, even the iPhone is making its way into enterprise applications hosted by SharePoint with IDV Solution’s new Visual Fusion Contribute application (see below). We have a whole partner ecosystem that can help our customers build out this kind of functionality, but I found quite a few instances where development shops (both partner and non) are building out web parts that feature Microsoft Virtual Earth as a canvas for painting all kinds of crazy data. This crazy data is the data that is sitting...
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Do you want to see a new version of MapPoint? If so, do you want to determine what features go in and what features get out? Do you love MapPoint and just want more, more, more? Do you post threads on Channel 9 spitting on MapPoint because you think “it sucks,” but don’t really provide details so your ranting turns out to be worth nothing but a good chuckle? Well, here’s your chance! The MapPoint Team is conducting a short survey to learn more about your organization’s use of Microsoft MapPoint to support your mapping, routing and data analysis needs. In exchange for your valuable time and feedback, we will include your name in a drawing for a chance to win one of 50 Amazon.com gift certificates...
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GeoLife was shown at TechFest in Redmond this week by Yu Zheng (Microsoft Researcher). I figured it was applicable and you might be interested. What is GeoLife? GeoLife is a GPS-data-driven social network on Microsoft Virtual Earth . It is not only a Website where individuals can manage, visualize, and understand their life experience using their own GPS trajectories; it’s also a social networking service that enables people to build connections with each other based on location histories. What’s all the hub-bub? The increasing availability of GPS-enabled devices is changing the way people interact with the Web and brings us a large number of GPS trajectories representing peoples location histories...
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Hyatt just launched their new hotel finder application with Microsoft Virtual Earth . The application is accessible from their home page by searching for Hyatt hotel locations around the world. Now, this is in NO WAY anything but a coincidence that one of the March, 2009 Virtual Earth web casts is focused on hospitality, so now is as good a time as any to drop a shameless reference to it (more on that in a future post). So, in true Hyatt form, the user interface has some great aesthetics with their interface around and atop the map. The results from the home page are returned with Hyatt logos and colored circles identifying the center point of the hotel on the map. Those colors aren’t be accident...
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It’s official – we have confirmed our Virtual Earth session for MIX 2009 and we will be there in star-studded fashion. The session is titled, “ The Next Generation of Microsoft Virtual Earth – More Experiences, More Places, and Exciting New Capabilities ” and it’s abstract is as follows, “ Come see and experience new and exciting offerings from Virtual Earth. We cannot release specific details about this session until after the MIX keynotes, so please check this abstract again after MIX keynotes for more complete details.” I love a good secret. I can’t wait and am now counting down the days. This will be my 3rd consecutive year attending MIX and I can guarantee I will top my session from...
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I reserved a part of my day to explore Windows Azure and how it can work with the Microsoft Virtual Earth Web Service . In my investigation I found out that what I was really interested in is The Azure Services Platform (to clarify any branding issues). In fact, “ Windows® Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Azure Services Platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage Web applications on the Internet through Microsoft® data centers. ” I’m game. Let’s build some Virtual Earth applications using the Azure Services Platforms. Why should you...
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Richard Brundritt and Robert McGovern from Infusion Development just got their “ Developing a Mobile Application Using Virtual Earth Web Services ” technical article published on MSDN and it’s available for your reading and plagiarizing pleasure. Excerpt: “ The constraints of mobile device applications are very different than the traditional web or desktop applications. Unlike a desktop or web application, the screen real estate is very compact and the controls are limited in functionality. These constraints force you to rethink your user experience. Simply building a form with a bunch of buttons isn’t very useful on most mobile devices. In addition, the occasionally connected nature of the device...
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A couple weeks ago I presented at the EUCI (Electrical Utility Consultants Inc.) GIS 2.0 Conference in San Antonio, TX. As a result of this conference and the work of our partners and field sales folks, we’ve seen a significant uptake in utility companies adopting Microsoft Virtual Earth for their applications. In previous posts, I’ve written about Entergy and BC Hydro which were some of the first go live using Virtual Earth in publicly facing applications. Since then, other utilities have published their applications using Virtual Earth, so I figured I’d spend some time going over them. Pepco’s Storm Center application is the latest to hit the web. The application allows users to see where outages...
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Last August, I posted an entry about MetroPCS and store locator leveraging Microsoft Virtual Earth to find locations for products and services. Well, MetroPCS has extended their use of Virtual Earth to their coverage map application so you can see where their cell coverage is for their services. When you have a Virtual Earth contract it is an enterprise wide contract, so its in your best interest to use it where you can across your company. Reduce your costs by eliminating unnecessary duplication of technologies! If you don’t think Virtual Earth will support your needs, you should read more of my posts. For now, check out this coverage map showing the different types of coverage available from...
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Eh, Subaru Canada just launched their new dealer locator and it’s pretty great don’tcha know? The new dealer locator features a Microsoft Virtual Earth map with Subaru branded icons for highlighting their dealerships. Check out the slick navigation bar, eh? Opaque grey with all the controls needed to navigate the map and change map styles – they even kept 3D! The big red pin represents the location I searched for (Vancouver, below). For each pushpin that represents a dealer, the enhanced rollover launches with contact information, a small box for driving directions and a link to the dealer page. The dealer page has detailed information about the dealer and the models available. Wolfe Subaru has...
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For those of you in the know about Australia’s out of control fires burning through the bush, you may be interested in a few resources available to you to track the situation through some of the news outlets. Authorities fear more than 200 have died in the blaze, so if you’re wondering what’s going on where, this post will be of interest. ABC News (Australia) has a FANTASTIC implementation of Microsoft Virtual Earth used to report news stories. Their interactive map application has several buttons for switching between different news story types. Click on “Latest News” for a constant stream of news feeds mapped out in Virtual Earth. Click on “Human Cost” to get a map pushpinning deaths around...
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With the release of trueSpace 7.6 for Virtual Earth , I’ve been pinged with questions about importing 3D objects in Microsoft Virtual Earth , developing 3D objects, supporting other platforms objects, etc., etc. Well, today, my good buddy Tom Grimes from Caligari posted a note on how to pull objects from the SketchUp Warehouse and import them into trueSpace. From trueSpace you can upload objects directly into a Live Search Maps Collection (and can be imported into a platform application using the VEMap.ImportShapeLayer Method ) and indexed on the site. Alternatively, you can host the models on your own servers and import OBJ files directly into the Virtual Earth 3D Control using the JavaScript...
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I just heard home sales were actually up for the month of January, 2009. Hmm. Considering bank loans are tight and everyone’s budgets are supposedly tighter how can this be? Interest rates are down, prices are down, and foreclosures are up. There’s the sweet spot. Sadly, people lose their homes to foreclosure for a number of reasons, but hey, this is a capitalist economy and where there’s a bargain you’ve got to CAPATILIZE on it. Someone gets in over their head banking on future wages and it turns out they aren’t Nostradamus. Ever heard of pre-foreclosure? Me either. That is until a couple Virtual Earth customers showed me how location and mapping is a critical component of making money in the...
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