Author Archives: leigh

Decoding Mapping URLs

By | November 30, 2010

Almost everyone on the net has had the opportunity to use one of the big four web mapping sites: Google Maps, Bing Maps, Yahoo! Maps, and OpenStreetMap.  It’s possible to host a custom map on your own site using one of these services, as long as you have some programming experience.  But it only takes […]

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OpenStreetMap + Microsoft

By | November 25, 2010

Reblogged from Slashgeo: This is certainly major news. Steve Coast, the OpenStreetMap founder, joined Microsoft’s Bing Maps team. From the announcement: “Continuously innovating and improving our map data is a top priority and a massive undertaking at Bing. That’s why we’re excited to announce a new initiative to work with the OpenStreetMap project, a community […]

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Clicking vs Typing

By | November 22, 2010

In the beginning, there was the command line – a text-only interface that controlled the computer.  Typing and squinting in front of a terminal provided a lot of power to experienced users, but inexperienced users demanded something easier to use.  Later, when memory and peripherals became cheap, the point and click interface was born, allowing […]

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When Scale Bars Lie

By | November 18, 2010

Occasionally, when knocking up a demo or a quick project in ArcGIS, you may find that your scale bar is lying to you.  In the majority of cases, most GIS users don’t even take notice of their scale bars, much less question the veracity of the distances implied.  However, if you have a projection or […]

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Happy GIS Day!

By | November 17, 2010

Did you know that November 17th is GIS Day?  Probably not.  GIS Day is an awareness campaign, sponsored by ESRI, which is designed to increase the visibility of the spatial arts.  Which is important, because I don’t think GIS has become part of the everyday lexicon yet.  Whenever people ask me what I do for […]

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In the Beginning

By | November 16, 2010

Hello, and welcome to Northwest Spatial Solutions!  We are a small independent geographic consulting company working out of the Seattle area.  Our main interests are GIS, cartography, and dataset maintenance, and our services are provided on a contract or freelance basis.  We are professional, secure, and knowledgeable. In this blog, we’ll be sharing news from […]

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