Avenza PDF is not the Answer

Recently, a local firm asked that I review a solution they were using for electronic distribution of printed maps. The intent of the solution was to provide folks with a map for personal use, and personal data collection, on their personal device.

Providing me with a typical County land ownership map PDF, and some basic instructions, I set about the task at hand. The instructions indicated that the associated app should be downloaded prior to attempting to download or open the PDF file provided; in true testing form, I did exactly the opposite.

Downloading the map first, I immediately attempted to open it. The default app provided on the device (Samsung S2) was insufficient to open the file and immediately crashed. It did work on the second attempt but was too sluggish to be of any use. The Adobe Reader app also allowed me to open the PDF, and it was not quite as slow, but still just as little painful to manipulate. I also tried it on my Nexus7, with similar results. The best results came when I downloaded the file to my PC and opened in Adobe Reader. Speed and performance were no issue, and I discovered that Adobe Reader now provides some basic geospatial tools; as well, of course, the ability to print all or part(s) of the map.

The intended app for this map is Avenza PDF Maps Mobile App, and after installing it, and locating the file on my device, it opened slowly on the first attempt; likely, from whatever processing/caching is going on in preparation for first viewing, since each subsequent opening was fairly quick. There were no problems opening the map though, in spite of the instructions specifying that the app should be downloaded before the PDF; perhaps, it acts differently on different devices.

Functionality and performance is good with the app and map; both work as intended, without frustration, and even when lacking a mobile network connection. The app provides all the features one would expect from a decent mobile mapping application. It has tools to find coordinates, addresses, and other place names on the map; one can also plot points into layers, plot photos, record GPS Tracks, measure distances and areas, and even open whatever view you have in Google Maps.

There are a few deficiencies though, and as a method for distributing maps for personal use, it fails. The app does not provide for the ability to switch to a satellite or terrain view, with the existing map data intact. I was very surprised that the app lacked this basic capability that every other map app contains.

The PDF can be distributed to anyone, anywhere, anytime, without any other restriction than a general agreement to not do so. The Avenza app is not required. The map can opened with Adobe Reader, manipulated, and printed at its originally specified resolution.

The map data is old. As my first Geo-Mentor told me, printed map data is outdated as soon as you print it; often times, even before you print. Using static map data as this map/app does, it might be of little use after as little as year, depending upon the area. With ever increasing need for, and reliance on the most up-to-date map data, this sort of map would be much better suited to a custom app and associated web service.

The map data and associated view are strictly for one county. This is pet peeve of mine. If a person were to suddenly find themselves in another county, they would have to either 1) switch view to Google Maps view, or 2) pull up another PDF map. Any map should provide basic information for surrounding areas to provide for a seamless frame of reference. This should include surrounding county boundaries, major roads, and cities; similar to the format that DeLorme uses in their topographic state maps, when displaying a state outside of the purchased maps boundaries.

While the map and associated app are generally good, it would be better provided via custom app and/or web service, which would address all of these problems easily. Distribution and printing could be restricted. The most recent data would always be available, and folks could switch between map, satellite, and terrain view.

Problem Steps Recorder

I made an interesting little discovery today. Within Windows 7, there is a hidden application called “Problem Steps Recorder,” which enables a local user to record issues they are experiencing in any application they are accessing.

This application provides a MHT file (within a ZIP file) that contains all of the steps and information recorded in a session, helping a user to describe a problem. Passwords or other text typed are not recorded, excepting function and shortcut keys used.

The file displays the recorded problem steps in a screen shot for every click, function, or shortcut key, and logging related to the same, all with time/date stamps. You can even review the steps in a slide show.

The application does not seem to exist anywhere that I can find. You can create a shortcut to it by right-clicking your desktop, select New, select Shortcut, and in the “Type the location…” box simply put “PSR.”

Accessing & Using the Application

1. Click Start
2. In the box that says “Search Programs and Files,” type PSR and press <ENTER>
3. The small tool bar shown above will appear
4. Prepare your desktop to be recorded
5. If you have Dual Screens, you will want to turn one of them off.
6. Right-Click Desktop
7. Select Screen Resolution
8. Change the Multiple-Displays drop down to “Show Only Desktop X”
9. X being the Desktop you want to use for display.
10. Note: some things may fly off screen while in this mode. You can use the “Identify” button to figure out which screen is which.
11. Make sure you do this on the screen you are keeping, or you may not be able to get back to this setting.
12. Click “Apply” (you want this window to stay open, so you can come back to it)
13. A message will display asking whether you want to keep or discard the changes.
14. Click “Start Record”
15. Begin doing whatever it is you want to record steps from.
16. You will notice a Red Dot every time you click something; the application is only taking a screen shot.
17. Pause the recording, if you do not want steps included
18. Add Comments, if you want to call something out
19. Click “Stop Record,” to end the recording session.
20. A window will appear, asking you to name the file.
21. Select a location and file name, which will be a .ZIP file
22. Access the ZIP, and contained within, you will find a MHT file.
23. Extract MHT
24. Double-Click the MHT to open in Internet Explorer, or use MS Word to open the file.

Leatherwood Walkabout

In search of waterfalls in the wilderness

Locating Bumpers Falls in Arkansas proved to be a bit of a task the first day out. I had looked over the maps the previous night, and had a general idea of what I was looking for; however, I neglected to take into account that I might have no signal in the area I was headed for. The Arkansas Waterfalls map I put together proved to be worthless in the first field test.

The falls (Bumpers and 3 others) are located just ½ mile off of AR-341, also known as Push Mountain Road. The trailhead to the falls is 8.9 miles north of AR-14 in the Leatherwood Wilderness Area in the Sylamore Ranger District of the Ozark National Forest. It is indeed wilderness. Make no mistake. There is very little out there, except AR-341 and a lot of forest.

About 5 miles up along AR-341, I realized that I had no mobile signal. Turning around seemed too much of a bother after all the twists and turns, so I decided to forge ahead on memory alone. It was not exactly the best idea, but it had merits at the time.

A trail at the end of a guard rail appeared soon after that, and I decided it had potential. There were even a couple of other cars parked there to aid in the illusion of accuracy. Slipping down the trail, the first thing I stumbled across was a huge beast of an Elk, which immediately thundered off into the forest before I could raise my camera enough to shoot him. I wish I would have had a sound recorder though, because it sounded like a freight train crashing through the trees, and the ground shook under my feet.

Undeterred, I continued along and descended towards a dry creek bed, tempting me further into unknown territory. I probably passed a mile or so, when it met up with an equally dry stream, which I followed along for another mile and a half before I finally decided I was not making any more significant progress than increasing my chances of getting lost, getting eaten by something larger than me, or both.

Getting lost was really minimal risk though. I had GPS signal on my phone, and was running My Tracks. I referred back to that on occasion, as wound my way back towards the car. It worked out rather well, even though I had also forgotten to turn it on until meeting the first dry creek bed.

The final scene in this comedy of errors occurred while making my final ascent to the roadway. I stumbled upon a guy out hunting, and noting his glowing orange cap and vest, immediately realized that I was not exactly dressed for such an occasion. In spite of my lack of attention to dress code, he spoke with me anyway, and informed me that I had missed the falls by a couple of miles.

I could have gone on up a ways and figured it out, I suppose. It was a beautiful afternoon, sunny and in the mid-60s, but getting late in the day. There were other things on my agenda too, with more specific locations than a mule trail at the end of a guard rail. Someone told me about a good spot near Shirley, on the Little Red, that you could put-in and paddle down into the lake. I wanted to scout that out for a future excursion, so got in the car and began the trek south.

The falls were discovered the next day, trickling in the exact location they were supposed to be.  They journey in to view them was brief and uneventful.  Lesson learned.  Disaster averted.

US National Forest Service Map of the Leatherwood Wilderness in the Ozark-St Francis National Forest

. . .

Further Reading

Leatherwood Wilderness of the Ozark-St. Francis National Forests

National Forest Service

LinkedIn Learns to Lie with Maps

I ran into an interesting blog piece today, published by LinkedIn, where they were attempting to leverage their data to define a city by the professional skill set accumulated on LinkedIn. For me this was right out of the book by Mark Monmonier, “How to Lie with Maps.”

I applaud their efforts, but there is the potential to mislead individuals looking for work in any particular city. Take Kansas City, for example. It indicates that the top skill category for the city is “Computer,” which I do not disagree with at all. The problem is that the jobs in this industry are varied, and not necessarily of the “professional” sort. Most are low-paying and obtaining them can be a highly competitive situation. The rumor mill here says that most of the computer jobs border on sweat shop labor. Things are changing, but it is still not the city to go to for a well-paying, professional position in the computer industry.

That is not even the real concern that I have with this type of automated social-network analysis. It further widens the digital divide, by failing to take into account positions in other sectors, held by individuals that have no connection to either LinkedIn, or the internet. This is probably most evident in the display for New Orleans. This map defines the top skill category as “Oil & Gas,” which I think is a little bit far from the truth, as it relates to jobs available in that city, which is extremely service-oriented.

LinkedIn needs to take a step back and re-evaluate the impact of this sort of analysis, which was apparently done by a laundry detergent product researcher. There was no indication in this article that anyone from the GIS sector was included in the approach to this study, which continues to be a disappointing norm in that field. It is kind of like photography. Give everyone a camera, and suddenly everyone is a photographer. Give everyone the tools to make a pretty map, and suddenly everyone is an expert.

KCAIUG Meeting Notes - Sept 2014

The quarterly Kansas City Arc Info Users Group (KCAIUG) meeting yesterday was hosted by Stantec in Overland Park, KS. It was encouraging and enlightening, and I took quite a few notes. There were 2 presentation parts, which were equally relevant to some clients work I am involved with.

KC Mapping presented first, with discussion towards planning and development best practices. They emphasized the need to follow appropriate planning and development methods to ensure needs are met and addressed without complication. This is more than critical in GIS applications and analysis, where there are so many moving parts and dependencies. In short, a lack of planning or adherence to any sort of development method, is like owning a home without insurance; you may get away with it for a while, but eventually it is going to cost you. They concluded that no one development is better than the other, and that a hybrid Agile/Waterfall approach always seemed to work best, with some situations requiring more emphasis than the other.

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) followed up re-emphasizing the need for appropriate planning, after a long effort of consolidating systems and processes they had in place, which overlapped with those of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Years ago, FEMA recognized the usefulness of USACE data, which they began replicating across numerous databases for their own use, in their own environment. Similar and sometimes exact copies of applications, systems, databases, and processes within the organizations, were leading to massive expenditures on storage and the personnel needed to maintain it all. The lower ranks within FEMA and USACE recognized that they were unnecessarily duplicating efforts within the USACE National Levee Database (NLD) and the FEMA Midterm Levee Inventory (MLI), and quietly initiated a bit of inter-agency collaboration to see how they might relieve some of the burden this short-sighted approach was creating.

The large-scale destruction witnessed from hurricanes in 2007, and the associated awkward responses from ranking officials within both groups, prompted Congress to mandate collaboration between the two organizations. The door was opened, and the stage set for a project that would integrate MLI with NLD. The new integrated backend and dynamic data model eliminated the error-prone and disconnected situation replication and non-cooperation had produced, enabling consolidated applications, systems, and storage, benefiting both organizations on all levels.

Currently, they are working on (and demonstrated) a web application that will be consumed by individuals in the office, in the field, and the general public. It will provide for greater efficiency of systems, higher data accuracy, further reducing workloads. The solution is being produced through a mash-up of open-source solutions, such as MapServer and OpenLayers2, combined with the recognized solutions of Java and Oracle Spatial, providing for a more flexible solution that outperforms a straight-line ESRI solution. This final part is a prevailing theme that I have recognized in most recent approaches to GIS applications; especially, web applications.

In summary… always plan and follow some sort of method, collaborate against the odds, and don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

Sears Delivery Sux

We thought that having Sears deliver our new bedding would be easier that trying to arrange than to pickup ourselves. We were very wrong. The delivery date turned out to be a fiasco, and a test of our patience and understanding of stupidity.

It all started about 1 pm in the afternoon….

1302 — Missed call from (Delivery Phone Number 1)

1358 — Message from (Delivery Phone Number 1) — The delivery driver is 2 hours ahead of schedule, and would like to deliver.

1359 — Missed call from (Delivery Phone Number 2)

1400 — Missed call from (Delivery Phone Number 2)

1406 — Message from (Delivery Phone Number 2) — The driver is 2 hours ahead of schedule, and would like to deliver.

1414 — Message from Sears Main Delivery Number — The delivery driver is 2 hours ahead of schedule and would like to deliver.

1435 — Message from (Delivery Phone Number 3) — The delivery driver is 2 hours ahead of schedule and would like to deliver.

1600 — I received all messages, when I arrived at home at the scheduled time for delivery!

1605 — I called the (Delivery Phone Number 3) number back, and the person indicated that he had wanted to deliver 2 hours early, but was unable to reach me. I explained that I was not able to access my phone, but was here at the scheduled time, awaiting delivery. He indicated that he was on his way to deliver, sounding a little put out, and that he had come by and nobody was home. I told the delivery driver that I was here at the scheduled delivery time and would be here. He said he would call me back in a few minutes with an ETA.

1610 — I called Sears back and the CSR explained that the delivery driver was now running a couple hours behind, but the delivery would still occur within the delivery window, but the delivery driver would call me in a few minutes to let me know an ETA.

1800 — I called Sears, asking if the delivery was still happening, and what was the ETA. The CSR “Cassidy” put me on hold and came back on the line to explain that they spoke with the delivery driver and they should be calling me in a few minutes with the ETA.

1900 — I called Sears, explained this story, and asked about the ETA, also explaining that I had already called 3 times now, and that nobody had bothered to call back. The CSR “RJ” put me on hold and came back on the line to explain that they spoke with the delivery driver and they should be calling me in a few minutes with the ETA.

1930 — I called Sears, explained this story and asked what was the ETA, also explaining that I had already called 4 times now, and that nobody had bothered to call back. The CSR on hold and came back on the line to explain that there was a note that said nobody was home when the attempted deliver. I told her that was not true and that I would like to speak with a manager immediately. I was placed on hold for another 5 minutes only to be told that no manager was available. I told her that I would wait on hold for a manager, and was placed on hold again for 25 minutes.

A manager (Gani) finally answered.

As I was waiting, I had called the delivery warehouse number (Warehouse Delivery Coordinator) again on another phone. The individual I spoke with earlier indicated that the driver said he had tried to deliver, but we were not home. We were home at 4 pm!!! I went through the whole story again, and he said he would see what he could do and would call me back in a few minutes.

I returned to the conversation with Gani, who indicated he was going to get in touch with delivery services and see if he could do something about this, but that I should wait on the delivery warehouse to call me back.

2030 — Spoke with (Warehouse Delivery Coordinator) and the person provided nothing but excuses. He indicated that sometimes their delivery drivers are running early, and it was my fault for not answering the phone when I supposed to. At 4 pm, my delivery was checked back in to the warehouse. I asked why it was checked in to the warehouse at 4 pm, when it was supposed to be delivered at 4 pm. He yelled that the delivery driver tried to deliver, but I was not home. ( I was home at 4 pm!!!) He said he was trying to work something out, but I was not listening. I told him he was giving me nothing but excuses for not making the delivery at the time specified. He said he would do what he could and even “deliver the damn thing” himself, if he had to.

2100 — Gani called back and asked if I heard back from (Warehouse Delivery Coordinator). I indicated that I had and that I was not happy with the situation at all. He said the best he can do is have somebody from the warehouse call me sometime in the next 24 hours.

2130 — (Warehouse Delivery Coordinator) called and said that he was at the warehouse and was going to make the delivery himself. I asked if it was a result of the Customer Service group. He said he was doing this on his own, and had not heard from Customer Service at all.

2230 — Personally delivered by (Warehouse Delivery Coordinator)

First Environmental Steps - Restoring a County GIS (Part 3)

Upon taking on the position of GIS Manager, I spent the first few days familiarizing myself with the hardware and software currently in place, and what licensing was available on the same. I also took some time to meet with all of the various Department Heads and Officials I would be working with to get a better grasp of the political structures, boundaries, and my role in all of it.

The first of those meetings was with Information Services (PCIS). As a department of the County, it was made clear that while PCIS sometimes provided assistance to the Office of the Assessor (an independent office), but were not there for support. I was a bit surprised by all of this, and their apparent desire to continue that way, but knew that was not going to work out well. There was no way anything was going to get off the ground without some collaboration with them, since they were really the only other “technical” people in the entire organization. Through various means (and likely my constant badgering), we eventually threw that time-honored and highly restrictive tradition out the window.

Another issue that came up during that first meeting outlined one of the first tasks at hand. Asking whether there was any sort of network and database models available, they first looked at me as if I had a 3rd eye, and then asked what I needed that for. After explaining that it was going to be bit difficult to maintain this structure without knowing a little bit about how things were connected around there, they proceeded to sketch it out for me verbally. Nothing was documented. The problem did not simply exist in the department that I now managed, but was endemic in the organization. I later learned that nobody bothered to document anything for one rather simple and selfish reason; job security. I resolved to change that attitude; if nowhere else, within the GIS Department, hoping others would follow the example.

Since there was so much to be documented, I was not quite sure where to start, so began with what seemed the most natural place to start, an overview of the hardware and software in use. The workstations were still on Windows XP, running ArcMap v9.1; the geo-database residing on a Windows 2003 server, running IBM DB2 v8.1 and ArcSDE v9.1. The web server was on the same version of another server, running Apache Tomcat (don’t recall the version), and ArcIMS v9.1. In contrast, ESRI has just released v9.3.1.

The web application was a custom situation ESRI had assembled for the Assessor a few years earlier. It used frames, a bit of Java and Javascript to provide real estate information for the County, through a data or map search interface. This site was dependent upon ArcSDE, as well as loads created by views to data stored in the Collector, Recorder, Planning & Zoning, and Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) system for the Assessor. It worked relatively well with minor intervention, but sorely needed a facelift; if nothing else, to get rid of those frames. Unfortunately, the documentation for that was also missing in action; but, later found.

Licensing was quite fortunate. We held 2 ArcEditor licenses, ArcGIS for Server Basic (for the ArcIMS v9.1), and ArcGIS for Server Enterprise. I was pleased to see the later two and immediately brought it to the attention of the Assessor, explaining the capability. She was happy to hear, and equally disappointed that none who had held the GIS Manager position previously, had attempted to implement the ArcGIS for Server she had been paying licensing fees for. We decided to make an effort to make that happen.

Finally, a Standard Operating Policy & Procedure document was needed immediately, to start documenting how things were supposed to work. One of the first line items in that document: ALL processes and procedures will be documented prior to, or at the time of implementation. While that was not an issue int he department I managed, it was a sore sticking point for the only other GIS staff in Planning & Zoning, who steadfastly refused to document anything. There was not much that could be done about that, since that position was officially in another office. All that I could do was continue to emphasize the value of doing so. It never stuck, throughout the life of the project, so I just did it.