Top Stories
Autodesk now shipping Autodesk Land Desktop
Autodesk, Inc. has announced the worldwide availability of Autodesk® Land Desktop 3, the core of Autodesk's land development suite, and two specialized applications that extend the capabilities of Autodesk Land Desktop, Autodesk® Civil Design 3 and Autodesk® Survey 3. Based on the AutoCAD® 2002 and Autodesk® Map 5 foundation, the three applications have new design, visualization, and Internet capabilities for analyzing, planning, and designing land development projects including road, rail, residential, hydrology, utility, and more. In addition, these releases have new collaborative features extending users' ability to work with colleagues and clients that are a part of the broader land development process, regardless of location and across company lines.
Visit :
www.autodesk.com/landdesktop
Shell International Deploys ESRI's Enterprise GIS Solution
After extensive review and evaluation, Shell International Exploration and Production (SIEP) has selected ESRI software as the standard suite of Intranet and desktop GIS products. SIEP's enterprise GIS solution comprises ESRI's full suite of software, including the ArcGIS family of desktop software (ArcView, ArcInfo, ArcEditor), ArcIMS, and ArcSDE, closely integrated with a spatially enabled object-relational database management system. The global agreement between ESRI and SIEP allows Shell Operating Units and Affiliates to deploy ESRI software throughout the business. Global support will be provided by dedicated Shell and Affiliates staff and a network of regionalized ESRI distributor technical support centers to cover the multiple time zones of Shell's global business. While the evaluation phase allowed an extended period of time to be certain of its conclusions and recommendations, the migration of the major portion of Shell's spatial data from legacy databases is expected to be complete before the end of this year in most participating operating units.
Visit :
www.esri.com
Scholastic Magazines to Launch New Geography Program
Scholastic Inc., the global children's media and publishing company, today announced that its classroom magazines will launch a comprehensive age-appropriate and fun geography education program beginning in August for grades 4 through 6. The new curriculum-based material will include a geography feature in each issue of Scholastic News for fourth graders and the publication of a special map skills book, MAPMAN's Map Skills, for grades 4-6. The map skills book is written by Jim McMahon, who is featured as MAPMAN(TM), the company's fun-loving resident cartographer and geography curriculum expert. MAPMAN's Map Skills will instruct students in the visual vocabulary of maps and the fundamental rules of geography and cartography, then take them through a series of lessons on the United States featuring a comparative study of maps documenting the changing face of the nation from its infancy to the present. The final set of lessons will teach students about the impact of history and politics on geography and cartography, helping them to understand the significance of political borders.
Visit :
www.scholastic.com/newszone
Analytical Surveys obtains new waiver agreement and amendment
Analytical Surveys, Inc., (ASI), a leading provider of geospatial data management services for the geographic information systems ("GIS") market, has announced that it has entered into a new Waiver Agreement and Amendment to its Credit Agreement (the "Agreement") with its senior lenders. The Agreement was signed on July 26, 2001 with its terms being retroactively effective as of May 31, 2001. ASI's senior lenders also have agreed to forgive a portion of ASI's loan indebtedness, with the amount of the forgiveness determined based on the amount of principal paid by ASI to the senior lenders after July 1, 2001 and on or prior to the November 1, 2001 and January 31, 2002 scheduled maturity dates. If ASI is able to take full advantage of this debt forgiveness commitment, it can obtain maximum debt forgiveness from its senior lenders in the approximate amount of $10.9 million. The scheduled maturity date for the unpaid balance of ASI's credit facilities, if reduced to $5 million or less by January 31, 2002, will be extended to October 1, 2002.
Visit :
www.anlt.com
Asia News
China to Launch Satellites for Young People
BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhuanet) -- China will launch two small satellites for young people before the end of this year, said an official from the China Children and Teenagers Fund (CCTF) here recently.
One of the two satellites will be used exclusively for communication purposes, ranging from message storage and transmission to data collection, and the other will be used for observation purposes, including earth observation and orbit testing, said the CCTF official.
The two satellites, donated to the CCTF by a space technology corporation and a research institute in Beijing, will spend at least two years in space.
Equipped with radio receivers, transmitters, computer systems and even a global positioning system (GPS), the satellites will ensure Chinese children in the surveillance of forest fires, and the meteorological status and water level of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers.
The CCTF is raising funds for 300 Children's Palaces across the country to set up earth stations to facilitate children's scientific research.
In the meantime, CCTF officials said that young people across the country are invited to name the satellites, and the final selection will be decided by vote in September. A survey shows that most Chinese youngsters hope the satellites ' names will include "Olympiad", to mark Beijing's successful bid for the 2008 Olympics.
The CCTF received a joint congratulatory message from some Chinese scientists on the upcoming satellite launching, prior to and after which, a series of activities will be held to promote science and technology among the youngsters.
Source: Xinhua News Agency
GIS seen as next big growth area in infotech
Hyderabad, July 25, 2001- Despite slowdown and the related impact on the Indian IT sector, the geographic information systems (GIS) continues to attract Indian companies as a potential growth area.
The global market for the GIS core business revenues has been estimated at $2 billion and has been witnessing an annual growth of 15 per cent. “The Indian companies generate less than $100 million of the total business worldwide,” industry sources said.
When contacted, G S Kumar, head of GIS India, a bi-monthly journal on GIS, said that apart from the global market, the Indian market itself having a promising business. The domestic market for the GIS has been estimated at Rs 2,200 crore over the next five years, he said. However, the US would continue to be the largest sourcing market for the Indian companies, he added.
“There cannot be a slowdown in the GIS segment, because this particular business involves planning and development and become a necessary devision supporting system for the entire world,” Kumar pointed out. “There are hardly 5-6 companies in India to exploit the great potential worldwide and most of them are sourcing software from US companies only,” he said.
Source: The Financial Express
