Linguists using GIS to find remote villages

NY Times article on Linguists documenting dying languages mentions Geographic Information Systems as a way to help identify fringe villages. I'm guessing they are using aerial imagery or image interpretation to find them.

2009 ESRI User Conference & Google Voice

Tomorrow I leave New York for San Diego for the 2009 ESRI User Conference. I would be more excited to go but the weather here in NYC has been so amazing. I'll try to post updates and such from the conference and will be testing out my new Google Voice account.

I received an email from Google saying I could try out Google Voice. Google Voice is a new phone service offered by Google that consolidates your phone and messaging exchanges into one easy-to-use place.

US News shows us the 10 reasons to use Google Voice.

Lifehacker checks out Google Voice.

One number for all your calls and SMS

• Call screening - Announce and screen callers
• Listen in - Listen before taking a call
• Block calls - Keep unwanted callers at bay
• SMS - Send, receive, and store SMS
• Place calls - Call US numbers for free
• Taking calls - Answer on any of your phones
• Phone routing - Phones ring based on who calls
• Forwarding phones - Add phones and decide which ring

Voicemail as easy as email, with transcripts

• Voicemail transcripts - Read what your voicemail says
• Listen to voicemail - Check online or from your phone
• Notifications - Receive voicemails via email or SMS
• Personalize greeting - Vary greetings by caller
• Share voicemail - Forward or download voicemails

More cool things you can do with Google Voice

• Conference calling - Join people into a single call
• Call record - Record calls and store them online
• Call switch - Switch phones during a call
• Mobile site - View your inbox from your mobile
• GOOG-411 - Check directory assistance
• Manage groups - Set preferences by group

Nasa makes ASTER and GDEM data public

from Nasa:

NASA and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and industry (METI) released the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) to the worldwide public on June 29, 2009. The GDEM was created by processing and stereo-correlating the 1.3 million-scene ASTER archive of optical images, covering Earth's land surface between 83 degrees North and 83 degrees South latitudes. The GDEM is produced with 30-meter (98-feet) postings, and is formatted as 23,000 one-by-one- degree tiles. The GDEM is available for download from NASA's EOS data archive and Japan's Ground Data System.