The Austere Livestock Flight

A high-profile Indian Minister, Mr. Mosmea, widely known in international diplomatic circles, is travelling to an international summit via a transit point in Europe. He is flying economy class - "Cattle Class", in case you don't remember the common term!. After a tiring 8 hour flight he disembarks in his transit airport where he bumps into Mr.Magric, Minister of a European nation, who is very well known to the former.

An excerpt from the conversation that ensues:

Mr.Magric: "Mr.Minister, why don't we have a drink together at the lounge. We can use this opportunity to see how our countries can work together".

Mr.Mosmea: "Sorry Mr.Ambassador, I'd love to but I cannot join you there. I am flying economy so I don't access to the lounge".

What is more important? Superficial austerity? Or living up to the impression that India is one of the fastest growing economy where foreign companies are welcome to do business with and make money?

[Note: This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any person living or dead or any incident, also living or dead, is purely coincidental]

Blog Update!

Dear Readers

From today onwards, this blog will be dedicated to all things "non-professional". I will be writing about life and interests here and all professional articles and news will be in my new blog "GeoUX". I hope to be regular in both these spaces.

Thank you very much for reading my blog. I hope you will drop by at GeoUX too!!!

Free & Open Source GIS (FOSS4G) Tools I Frequently Use

Below is a list of some free and open source GIS tools I regularly use:

Vector Viewing and Editing

1. OpenJUMP - for fast analysis, good cartography capabilities
2. MapWindow GIS - has some added raster operations as well
3. Quantum GIS - comprehensive and complete desktop GIS tool
4. uDig - good for re-projecting and exporting to different coordinate system

Web Map Server

1. GeoServer WMS and WFS Server
2. OSGEO MapServer

Client-side Web Mapping

1. OpenLayers Javascript API
2. OpenScales Flex API

I plan to write detailed reviews on each one of them in subsequent posts. So stay tuned!!!

Nokia E71 v300.21.012 firmware update!

Successfully updated!

Hardware/Software Combo:

Nokia E71(India) + Windows Vista Ultimate SP2 + Nokia Software Updater.

Did a restore from backup but lot of the softwares did not work. Seems to be the issue with all other firmware upgrades prior to this.

You seem to lose the Symbian apps installed in the memory card though it retains the settings. When you re-install, you get your settings back. It is easier with Java apps installed in your card - use the Nokia Midlet Restorer to restore everything without needing to re-install. So did a fresh update. It pays to have your stuff backed up on the web and PC. The Nokia Content Copier is not useful as it backs up and restores "Device Specific Files" without an option to turn it off. This overwrites some files from the new firmware thus making the system unstable.

I use the following to Backup or Sync individual items:

• Contacts and Calendar : Ovi Contacts
• Landmarks: Ovi Maps and MyWayfinder
• Bookmarks: Synch with Mozilla Firefox via Synchronization
• Messages : Backup using Nokia Communication Center

I believe that's all you need to restore! Let me know if I missed out anything vital.

So all I had to do was install the frequently used softwares which were already archived in my 8GB SD Card. Took a bit more time but got a fresh phone :-)

Google Maps launches Delhi driving directions

Google Maps has quietly launched directions in Delhi. I am not very sure the exact date it was launched but it was not there about a week back when I wanted the optimal route from my home to Chanakyapuri. So I relied on the trusty Nokia Ovi Maps then.

I haven't had a chance to check it out on the web version but the mobile version works great. I am using it on my Nokia E71 with integrated GPS and the results are pretty accurate.

Other services providing driving directions in Delhi are:

1. Nokia Ovi Maps (http://maps.ovi.com) available on Nokia phones and on the browser for free.

2. MapMyIndia - available on the browser and also on Mobile/PNDs but not fully free. They also power the Yahoo India maps.

3. Amaze GPS - amazingly capable mobile GPS application available as a free download. An ad-driven service with no subscription fee involved.

Let me know if you know of any other such services and also if the Google Maps Directions are available in other Indian cities.

Can you see 'Turbo'?

This Chevy Tavera wants you to see the 'View of Turbo'. The line in the back 'Dekh Nazara Turbo Ka' says so.

caught up in deadlines

Completely at a loss. Can't understand what to write. So many topics and so little time.

--- Sent from mobile

Firefox rocks

My son loves riding one and I love browsing on it. Both rock.. in their own way.

--- Blogged from mobile

Designing for the Mobile Web - keep it skimpy

It's very common today to have people fish out their cell phones, fire the built-in web browser and look up your company's corporate site as soon as you mention it. I do it myself. Thankfully my Nokia E51 has a full-fledged S60 browser which full support for CSS, Javascript and AJAX. Also I have an unlimited data plan so I need not worry about the many images and lots of text. Unfortunately, many of us are struck with simplified mobile browsers (including many older BlackBerry users) and data plans which charge by the kilobytes downloaded. So it is necessary for the corporate to have a version of their site specially suited for the mobile platform. I am sure your potential client would not appreciate the fact that his prized BlackBerry would break your beautifully designed and information laden site. He would also not like to see what is not relevant while paying through his nose to the mobile service provider.

What you should do? Design a site specifically for the mobile browser and let it point to www.yourcompanydomain.mobi or http://m.yourcompanydomain.com . But before you do that, identify the key content you would like to put in this site. Keeping all the content will defy the entire purpose. Simplify and keep it brief.

Keep the following in mind:

• In the home page, simplify the header theme with the company branding.
  
• Use a scaled-down version of the logo
  
• Keep the navigation on top
  
• Give a link to “Skip Navigation” or “Jump to content” at the top of the page
  
• Limit the home-page to the first-level navigation only
  
• Avoid unnecessary graphics
  
• Use CSS Style sheets to style your elements
  
• Use minimum markup
  
• Use the correct DOCTYPE (DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//WAPFORUM//DTD XHTML Mobile 1.0//EN" "http://www.wapforum.org/DTD/xhtml-mobile10.dtd )
  
• Use the proper META (meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="application/vnd.wap.xhtml+xml; charset=UTF-8")
  
• Give accesskeys for the main navigation links
  
• Do not forget to give alternate text for the images
  
• Use tables to show tabular data only. Better still avoid them at all since lot of the mobile browsers cannot understand tables and ignores them. Better not to show at all than show something broken
  
• Do not use Pixel font sizes. Use Small, Medium or Large. Different phones use different fonts and the pixel sizes vary
  
• Remove all spaces from the CSS file so that it loads faster
  
• Give a link to the full site so that people like me who has a “full browser” and an unlimited data plan can use
  
• Use XHTML, don't use WML
• Don't use frames
• Don't use pop up windows
• Use stylesheets, not inline styles
• Don't use tables for layout
• Don't use nested tables
• Specify image sizes in markup
• Detect the client device and adapt content to suit it; make the most of its capabilities
  

Some of the mobile sites worth having a look:

1. Google Mobile (http://m.google.com)

2. LinkedIn Mobile (http://m.linkedin.com)

3. Orkut Mobile (http://m.orkut.com)

4. FaceBook Mobile (http://m.facebook.com)

5. IBN Live (http://m.ibnlive.com)

6. Wikipedia (http://mobile.wikipedia.org)

7. Windows Live (http://mobile.live.com)

I would recommend anyone interested in designing for mobile sites to read the W3C Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 Guidelines

Why HTML Print Templates are dangerous and erratic

In quite a few recent projects we executed, I have observed the developers and the UX Designers spend considerable time in designing HTML Print Layouts that never behaves like it should. It should be noted that HTML Print templates are not fool-proof as the final output depends on the individual browser settings and bandwidth considerations.

Browser Limitations:

• Each browser version even from the same vendor interprets the print in it's own way. What is printed by IE6 might differ from what is printed by IE7. 
  
• The individual users Page Setup overrides any settings we might incorporate in our code. 
  
• For example, in out HTML code we can define the margins to be 0.5 inch but if the user's browser print settings are set at 0.2 inches, the HTML settings will be ignored. 
  
• In many cases, the user's disable the "Print images and background colors" option in their browser settings. In this case, no images or colors will be printed.
  
• The page is designed as "Landscape" but the user's browser print settings are set to "Portrait". The page will print as Portrait.
  
• CSS-based print is not supported by many browsers as they were not refined in CSS 2.0 specifications. CSS 3.0 specifications allow for advanced print layouts but no browser manufacturer has adopted this as yet except IE 8 Beta and Opera
  

Due to security reasons, the web application cannot change/access the individual user's browser settings.

Bandwidth Considerations:

Take the example when we need to create a map print template in A0 size for the browser. This means that the client will have to download the map image of at least 12000 px X 10000 px (40'' x 33") which might translate to 10-15 mb. In addition, it will have other graphic and text elements. In a normal 256 kbps connection, it can take upto 5-10 minutes to generate and render the preview on the client side.

Reducing the filesize will lead to dithering of the image and loss of quality.

Repercussions:

• No control over the print output
  
• Different print outputs in different browsers and different machines
  
• Performance issues due to large image size downloads
  
• Lost man-hours in trying to tweak the output for different browsers

All these will eventually lead to problems during the UAT and also in the profitability of the project.

Solution:

• Large-size prints should be in PDF or Flash Paper formats
  
• Generate PDF in server and let the user download the generated PDF for offline printing/plotting
  
• Educate the client on the limitations of the browser-based HTML Print templates and on the advantages of PDF/Flash Paper
  

Open Source GIS Technologies are as capable as COTS?

I've been championing the cause of open source GIS technologies since the last few months and find that these are as capable as the commercial off-the-shelf products and at times, more.

We've been traditionally an ESRI and MapXtreme shop and it was quite a challenge convincing others about the open source stuff until a prototype application was created with a rich user experience and that too with less than half the man-hours usually taken to customise on ArcGIS.

More on this will follow...