From fork-admin@xent.com Mon Sep 9 10:46:20 2002 Return-Path: Delivered-To: yyyy@localhost.example.com Received: from localhost (jalapeno [127.0.0.1]) by jmason.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E841C16F1B for ; Mon, 9 Sep 2002 10:45:52 +0100 (IST) Received: from jalapeno [127.0.0.1] by localhost with IMAP (fetchmail-5.9.0) for jm@localhost (single-drop); Mon, 09 Sep 2002 10:45:52 +0100 (IST) Received: from xent.com ([64.161.22.236]) by dogma.slashnull.org (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g893E4C29655 for ; Mon, 9 Sep 2002 04:14:04 +0100 Received: from lair.xent.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by xent.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 218112942B8; Sun, 8 Sep 2002 20:07:04 -0700 (PDT) Delivered-To: fork@example.com Received: from smtp1.superb.net (smtp1.superb.net [207.228.225.14]) by xent.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 773FB2942B7 for ; Sun, 8 Sep 2002 20:06:32 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 21992 invoked from network); 9 Sep 2002 03:09:21 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO maya.dyndns.org) (207.61.5.143) by smtp1.superb.net with SMTP; 9 Sep 2002 03:09:21 -0000 Received: by maya.dyndns.org (Postfix, from userid 501) id 1FC381CC98; Sun, 8 Sep 2002 23:09:17 -0400 (EDT) To: kragen@pobox.com (Kragen Sitaker) Cc: fork@example.com Subject: Re: earthviewer (was Re: whoa} References: <20020908232416.51F943F4E8@panacea.canonical.org> From: Gary Lawrence Murphy X-Home-Page: http://www.teledyn.com Organization: TCI Business Innovation through Open Source Computing Message-Id: Reply-To: Gary Lawrence Murphy X-Url: http://www.teledyn.com/ MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: fork-admin@xent.com Errors-To: fork-admin@xent.com X-Beenthere: fork@example.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.11 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Friends of Rohit Khare List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Date: 08 Sep 2002 23:09:17 -0400 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-10.0 required=7.0 tests=AWL,KNOWN_MAILING_LIST,NOSPAM_INC,REFERENCES, SIGNATURE_SHORT_DENSE,SPAM_PHRASE_02_03 version=2.50-cvs X-Spam-Level: >>>>> "K" == Kragen Sitaker writes: K> Planning battle tactics; for this reason, the intelligence K> press reports, spy satellites have had 1-meter resolution for K> many years. The military already have these spy satellites; they are basically Hubble pointed the other way, so I doubt they will be a big enough customer of this service to justify a next-generation wireless network rollout for the rest of us. K> Finding an individual vehicle in a city might occasionally be K> possible with 1-m images and might occasionally also be worth K> the money. My car is only just over 1.5 meters across and maybe 3 meters long, so that means roughly six pixels total surface area. You might find a 16-wheeler this way, but how often do people misplace a 16-wheeler such that it is _that_ important to get old images of the terrain? Since they can't send up aircraft to update images in realtime every time, how is this different from just releasing the map on DVDs? Why wireless? I thought of the common problem of lost prize cattle, but there again, will there really be business-case for creating a hi-res map of wyoming on the fly instead of just doing what they do now and hiring a helicopter for a few hours? K> For small areas you have legitimate access to, it's probably K> cheaper to go there with a digital camera and a GPS and take K> some snapshots from ground level. Aerial photos might be K> cheaper for large areas, areas where you're not allowed --- or, K> perhaps, physically able --- to go, and cases where you don't K> have time to send a ground guy around the whole area. I can see lower-res being useful for Geologists, but considering their points of interest change only a few times every few million years, there's not much need to be wireless based on up-to-the-minute data. I expect most geologists travel with a laptop perfectly capable of DVD playback, and I also expect the most interesting geology is in regions where the wireless ain't going to go ;) I don't mean to nit-pick, it's just that I'm curious as to (a) the need for this product that justifies the extreme cost and (b) how we'd justify the ubiquitous next-generation wireless network that this product postulates when we /still/ can't find the killer app for 3G. -- Gary Lawrence Murphy TeleDynamics Communications Inc Business Advantage through Community Software : http://www.teledyn.com "Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."(Pablo Picasso)