In News 
Satellites show L.A. area's yearly rise, fall
A team led by Gerald Bawden at the United States Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, used data from 250 Global Positioning Satellite monitoring stations to conclude that seasonal rises and falls in groundwater levels cause the ground level to rise each winter and sink each summer in Los Angeles. In some areas, the seasonal difference can be as much as 12 centimeters (just under five inches). The USGS team measured the phenomenon in a roughly oval-shaped area from downtown Los Angeles on the north, to Compton and Long Beach on the west, south to Newport Beach and then east to the Santa Ana Mountains. The researchers say the new discovery of this seasonal activity may actually complicate their main task of monitoring for earthquakes. The GPS network is designed to search for possible hints of upcoming earthquakes by detecting minuscule movements in the earth's crust. Now, with the earth's surface apparently moving for other reasons, advance warnings of some earthquakes may be more difficult to deliver. Human activity -- the pumping out of groundwater used for drinking water in Orange County and elsewhere in the Los Angeles area, and oil drilling south of the city -- may also contribute to changing the ground level, further clouding the earthquake monitoring data.
Visit:- http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/science/08/22/la.rise.fall/index.html
Top Stories
Contractor Uses Leica GPS/GIS Systems To Map Golf Course Irrigation Systems
Site Data, Inc., a Florida-based company specializing in golf course applications, has found Leica's GS50 to be a valuable tool for creating accurate "as built" maps of golf course irrigation systems. "Originally, we tried using aerial photographs combined with field notes from the installation crews, but the resulting maps were not of sufficient information depth. Hiring professional surveyors to do the job was impractical and too expensive, and the presence of surveying crews with tripods to gather data would disrupt golfing on the course. So we decided to go with a GPS-based solution, and after a careful evaluation of competitive systems we chose the Leica GS50." Pignato says that it typically takes two to three days for a data collector to walk the course and locate all the sprinkler heads, pumps, pipes, valves and other components of the irrigation system. A typical system involves some 1,200 points of data. For each item, the user records the location and attributes using codelists prepared in advance. The user can create or modify codelists in the field, a facility that comes in handy when capturing forgotten points on the fly. The raw data from the GS50 data acquisition unit is taken to the office, where it is downloaded from a PCMCIA storage card into Leica's GIS DataPRO software. The file is edited and corrected to eliminate any obvious misalignments, and the DataPRO file is exported into an AutoCAD software package for production of final drawings.
Visit:- www.leica-geosystems.com
Leading Avionics Manufacturer Partners With ORBCOMM To Revolutionize Cockpit Safety
ORBCOMM LLC, the new owner of the world's first fully operational low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite-based data communication system, has announced that leading avionics manufacturer Garmin International Inc. and ORBCOMM value-added reseller EchoFlight, Inc. will make satellite-based weather available on select Garmin avionics via the ORBCOMM system. Through Garmin's new GDL 49 Satellite Data Link Transceiver, general aviation pilots can receive up-to-the-minute weather information via EchoFlight's weather datalink service, which uses the ORBCOMM system to transmit the flight-critical data directly to the cockpit on a request/reply basis. Garmin's powerful GDL 49 receiver was developed to enhance the capabilities of its 400/500 series of products and to provide pilots with instant access to NEXRAD weather data, along with textual and graphical METAR and TAF information, anywhere in the continental United States without any altitude restrictions. In addition, pilots cannot only request the subscription-based weather data at their current location, but also at their destination or anywhere in between. Garmin expects the GDL 49 to be commercially available later this year.
Visit:- www.orbcomm.com
Laser-Scan gears up for GIS 2001
Geospatial solutions expert Laser-Scan is helping visitors to GIS 2001, one of Europe's leading GI events, to make the most of their time at the event. Following the success of GIS in Action, an interactive web guide (powered by Laser-Scan) detailing what's going on around the exhibition, Laser-Scan has now dedicated part of its company website to what's going on inside the show. As well as the latest news on what's happening on the Laser-Scan stand, visitors can find out more about the company's presentations, speakers, seminars and workshops within GIS 2001, and the AGI conference, which runs alongside the event.
Visit:- www.laser-scan.com
Asia News
25,000 Attend First Day of IT Fair
COMDEX (Computer Dealers Exposition) Korea 2001, the largest IT trade exhibition in Korea, opened on Thursday in COEX (Convention & Exhibition Center), Samseong-dong, Seoul. In spite of the slow IT business, 183 national and foreign companies including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Hanaro Telecom and Epson are participating in this year's exhibition introducing more than 2,000 cutting-edge IT hardware and software items.
This year's major products are the latest digital home electronic devices such as High Definition TVs, LCD TVs, portable DVD players and mini projectors. Also, creative futuristic products including a word processor with voice-recognition function and a mobile device that combines cellular phone and PDA attracted visitors. In addition, 24 Taiwanese IT start-up companies showed their latest technology products at the special exhibition for the first time in Korea.
Source: Digital Chosun Online Newspaper
Beijing to Host Symposium on Scientific and Technological Exchange
BEIJING, August 23 (Xinhuanet) -- The Chinese capital is planning to host a symposium on the exchange of science and technology throughout September, sources with the Beijing Association of Science and Technology said here Thursday.
The month-long symposium will hold a series of discussions on a wide range of issues, such as urban construction, Beijing's preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games, development of urban facilities and protection of cultural relics, ecological projects, transportation and nutrition in the 21st century.
Over 30 forums will be held with topics focusing on telecommunications of the Olympic Games, plant and human health, as well as exchanges of science and technology between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits.
Experts from the United States, France, Britain and other countries have applied to attend the symposium.
Source: Xinhua News Agency
Japan's KDDI to launch mobile commerce
TOKYO, Aug 22 (Reuters) - To expand revenue sources, Japan's number two telecoms firm, KDDI Corp, said on Wednesday it will launch a trial service that allows mobile phone users to shop in conventional stores using their handsets.
By adding a special credit card function to mobile phones, the service will be the first to let users shop at actual stores, not just virtual ones, the company said.
Mobile commerce is expected to expand to 2.45 trillion yen ($20.46 billion) in 2005, compared with 59 billion yen last year, according to icePay Japan, a startup Internet security firm and one of KDDI's three partners in the trial service.
Under the trial service, users will attach a match-box-sized module to their cellphones. The detachable device will be used to pay for items when the user shops at stores or pays for services, such as taxis, connected to icePay's Web site.
The other two partners are eBank Corp, Japan's third-largest specialised online bank, and Itochu Techno-Science Corp. , which manages Internet servers and data bases.
Source: finance.yahoo.com
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