PDA’s and smartphones are becoming more and more useful as a tool for real-time data collection in the field for farming operations. With features like built in GPS, digital cameras and barcode scanners it seems as though we should have a good handle on data intensive business process management like certification, regulatory compliance, quality assurance, harvest management and payroll. And, as we keep hearing, “there’s an app for that”. When we think about the number and frequency of measurement and the volume of information that has to be kept close at hand to meet sustainable certification, not to mention day-to-day quality management, operations management and compliance record-keeping, we might be excused for thinking that the effort is likely to be considerable.

So, what’s getting in the way of ensuring that all the data necessary to support activity based costing, carbon footprint calculations, continuous improvement and the other initiatives our accounting departments want to report on next, is readily available and up to date? Where are all the field readings going to come from? Who is going to track or measure everything and how much effort is going to be required to enter the data into the half dozen spreadsheets that are bouncing around the office?

Organizations that are successful at in-field operations data collection have deployed PDA and smartphone technology throughout their organization – from crew foremen and equipment operators to operations directors and technologists. But what about the language barrier, the cost, the training…? The devices and associated software are just glorified cell phones and it is difficult to conceive that there is a lack of familiarity with this technology. These devices, ATM machines, even the controls of a modern tractor are easily within reach of just about everyone who steps through the farm gate. Crew foremen and equipment operators are essential participants in the success of an operations management data capture solution – PDA’s at this level of the organizational hierarchy get much more use than at any other level when the program is working. It’s not about “coercion” either – in many organizations we have worked with we see enthusiasm and a greater sense of inclusion. Support tools and security management capabilities now provide real-time interaction to mobile devices and ensure that sensitive data is not compromised and even allow technicians to remote control the users’ device remotely – that way your operations directors will not be embarrassed unneccessarily.

An “EXCELLENT” FREE-Download for MOST~G.P.S.~Enabled Cell-Phone’s !, including MINE-(Samsung Instinct SPH-m800) & the~i-Phone !, is “CELL FLARE” at:-(http://www.cellflare.com/), with Many Different “Download-File” Format’s, eg:- i-Phone, Java, Smartphone, etc., to Download the App. to Your Mobile-v2.1~369kb, Go-To:-(http://m.cellflare.com)..
It’s a “GREAT” *REAL-TIME* L.B.S.-(Location Based Service) App., that will TRACK You, Your Friend’s, & Business, in “REAL-TIME” & Also has (Geo Fenceing)~witch let’s You know when Your FRIEND or CONTACT is Approching or Leaving Your Location within ~ 3 Kilometer’s. Great for Keeping a EYE on Your KID’S !..
CELL FLARE will Also Show Your~(Latitude, Longitude, Altitude, & SPEED)~at ALL-TIME’S !.. The App. Also Show’s ~ 4-Different MAP-MODE’S ~(Road, Satellite, Hybrid, & Terrain)..
If You “LOOSE YOUR PHONE” find-out were it is by Logging on to:- cellflare.com on Any-Computer & Track-Down it’s LOCATION within ~ 10-Feet !..
I’ve had FUN with this App., & Hope You Will Too !!.. Rick !…

Planisfério - Latitude (linhas horizontais) - longitude (linhas verticais)

Latitude e Longitude – ESTUDO-FLASH

 

Nesse tipo de mapa, chamado planisfério, há linhas horizontais e verticais: elas são imaginárias, separadas em intervalos regulares, medidas em graus e servem para localizar com exatidão um determinado ponto na superfície do planeta. Formam as chamadas coordenadas geográficas – Latitude e Longitude.

Paralelos – Latitude

• As linhas horizontais, que contornam o globo no sentido leste-oeste, são chamadas paralelos ou linhas de Latitude. Os paralelos ou linhas de Latitude, são as linhas paralelas  ( lado a lado) a linha do Equador. Qualquer linha acima da linha do Equador é Latitude Norte. Se abaixo da linha do Equador é Latitude Sul.

Meridianos – Longitude

• Sãos linhas verticais, que no globo estão no sentido norte-sul, são chamadas meridianos ou Longitude. Posicionam-se paralelas (lado a lado) ao principal meridiano, que é o de Greenwich. A direita de Greenwich são as linhas de Longitude Leste. Já as que ficam a direita de Greenwich são as de Longitude Oeste.

Coordenadas Geográficas - Paralelos e Meridianos

Portanto

1 – Qualquer ponto sobre a superfície terrestre pode ser localizado pelas Coordenadas Geográficas.

2 – Coordenadas Geográficas são: Latitude e Longitude.

3 – Latitude são linhas imaginárias que contornam o globo terrestre no sentido Leste-Oeste, paralelas a linha do Equador.

4 – A principal linha de referência para a Latitude é a Linha do Equador (0º – zero grau)

5 – Latitude acima da linha do equador: Latitude Norte.

6 – Latitude abaixo da linha do Equador: Latitude Sul.

7 – Longitude são linhas sobre o globo terrestre no sentido norte-sul, paralelas ao Meridiano de Greenwich.

8 – A principal linha de referência para a Longitude á o Meridiano de Greenwich (0º – zero grau)

9 – Longitude localizada a direita de Greenwich: Longitude leste

10 – Longitude localizada a esquerda de Greenwich: Longitude Oeste.

Atividade para verificação do entendimento do texto.
I – Assinale V ( verdadeiro ) ou F ( falso ):
1 – (   ) Os paralelos são linhas imaginárias traçadas paralelamente à Linha do Equador.
2 – (   ) A Linha do equador divide a Terra em dois hemisférios, norte e sul.
3 – (   ) Os meridianos são linhas imaginárias traçadas de um pólo ao outro.
4 – (   ) A latitude é a distância em graus de qualquer ponto da superfície terrestre à linha do equador.
5 – (   ) A longitude é a distância em graus de qualquer ponto da superfície terrestre ao Meridiano de Greenwich.
6 – (   ) Por meio das coordenadas geográficas,é possível a localização exata de qualquer ponto sobre a superfície terrestre.

OK, so I’m in Portsmouth, New England and as I was on my way to work I noticed that the weather was cloudy and overcast with gray skies. While sitting in the traffic I thought to myself, in this case, what’s the difference in Portsmouth, New England and Portsmouth, Old England? I wanted to compare snapshots and compare certain geographic data e.g. population, land area, etc. The CIA Factbook website would be a great starting place if anyone should pursue this ahead of me, I’ve already used Google Earth to nail down the differences in longitude and latitude.

sprintf(buffer,    “SELECT * FROM POIs WHERE (ABS(lat – %f) < 0.03) AND
(ABS(lng – %f) < 0.04);”, nLat,    nLon);

If you REALLY need to sort them by distance then here’s a formula that
works at any latitude

//spherical distance in meters
- (CGFloat) sphericalDistanceFromLat1:(CGFloat)lat1 Lon1:(CGFloat)lon1
toLat2:(CGFloat)lat2 Lon2:(CGFloat)lon2 {
    return acos(sin(lat1 * 0.0174533) * sin(lat2 * 0.0174533) + cos(lat1
* 0.0174533) * cos(lat2 * 0.0174533) * cos((lon2-lon1) * 0.0174533)) *
6371000;
}

le chronomètre H1 de John Harrisson © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

Je viens de transférer “Longitude : l’histoire vraie du génie solitaire qui résolut le plus grand problème scientifique de son temps”¹ de la liste “bouquin à lire un jour” à la liste “bouquins lus et vivement recommandés”.

Je ne m’étais pas précipité pour le lire car je connaissais un peu l’histoire de John Harrisson, génial horloger anglais qui construisit dès 1734 les premières horloges suffisamment précises pour permettre aux navires de déterminer leur longitude en mer.

La talent de Dava Sobel est d’avoir replacé cette réalisation technique dans le contexte scientifique et économique de l’époque. Économique d’abord car les naufrages dus à une mauvaise estimation de la longitude coutaient cher en richesses submergées et en vies noyées. C’est d’ailleurs après le naufrage en 1707 de la flotte de l’amiral Clowdisley aux iles Scilly qui causa la mort de 2000 hommes que le roi promulgua le “Longitude  Act” en 1714 : celui qui parviendrait à déterminer la longitude d’un navire à moins de 30 milles près (~56 km) après 40 jours de navigation recevrait la somme fabuleuse de £20′000 de l’époque, soit environ 10 millions d’euros actuels, plus que tous les prix Nobel réunis!

Les navigateurs arrivaient à déterminer leur latitude avec cette “précision” déjà près d’un millénaire grâce aux astrolabes, et au début du XVIIIème, ils atteingnaient une précision d’environ un mille en latitude grâce au sextant. Pourquoi diable n’arrivait-on même pas à avoir une vague idée de la longitude ? Pourquoi ce défi était-il si difficile ?

“Longitude” explique bien la différence fondamentale entre les deux dimensions de la cartographie : la latitude est une valeur absolue, la longitude est relative à un méridien de référence arbitraire, actuellement celui de Greenwich. On peut donc déterminer sa latitude en observant la hauteur de quelques étoiles au dessus de l’horizon, alors que la longitude exige de mesurer une différence entre une observation locale et la même observation faite simultanément au méridien de référence.

Fondamentalement, tout le monde était d’accord : il fallait déterminer le décalage horaire entre Greenwich et le bateau. La solution évidente de nos jours du chronomètre (ou l’horloge atomique des satellites GPS), ne l’était pas du tout à l’époque. La Terre effectuant une rotation de 360° en 24 heures ou 1440 minutes, elle tourne d’un degré en 4 minutes. Pour remporter le prix du “Longitude Act”, il fallait une horloge ne dérivant que d”une seconde sur un bateau secoué par les vagues, alors que les meilleures horloges fixes de l’époque dérivaient de plusieurs minutes par jour. Personne ne croyait qu’il soit possible de réaliser un mécanisme 100 à 1000 fois plus précis.

Puisqu’on utilisait l’observation astronomique pour remettre les pendules à l’heure, la majorité écrasante des scientifiques de l’époque estimaient que la solution était à trouver dans les cieux. D’autant  qu’un siècle plus tôt, en 1610, Gallilée découvrit les satellites de Jupiter et mit au point un système de mesure de la longitude² basé sur une table prédisant leurs (nombreuses) éclipses. Cette méthode permit à Cassini de cartographier les côtes françaises avec une précision de l’ordre de 10 km autour dans les années 1680, mais se révéla impraticable en mer. De plus, Ole Rømer s’aperçut qu’il fallait tenir compte de la vitesse de la lumière pour une mesure précise et fournit la première mesure raisonnable de la constante c.

Outre de nombreuses idées farfelues répertoriées dans le chapitre le plus amusant du livre, la méthode des “distances lunaires” avait les faveurs de bon nombre de scientifiques de l’époque, et notamment de l’astronome royal, Nevil Maskelyne que Dava Sobel dépeint comme un farouche adversaire de Harrisson.

Après une vie de travail, John Harrison et son fils William remportèrent en 1772 le prix avec l’extraordinaire montre  “de poche” H4, de 13 cm de diamètre et d’un poids de 1.5 kg qui n’a dérivé que de 5 secondes après une traversée de l’Atlantique de 2 mois, soit à peine plus d’un mille d’erreur en longitude!

Les montres de Harrisson et leurs copies réalisées par Kendall ont été utilisées pendant plus d’un siècle à bord des navires de Sa Majesté, leur fiabilité est telle que les exemplaires exposés au National Maritime Museum de Greenwich sont encore en état de marche.

Bon, je voulais écrire une critique de livre et j’ai pondu un article sur la longitude… Mais lisez ce livre, il est excellent.

Références:

1. Dava Sobel, “Longitude : l’histoire vraie du génie solitaire qui résolut le plus grand problème scientifique de son temps”, Lattès, Paris, 1995 (traduit de l’anglais par Gérald Messadié) ISBN 2709617439
2. Michel Toulmonde “Galilée et les satellites de Jupiter
   au service de la cartographie au XVIIe siècle“, Observatoire de Paris (SYRTE) et Université d’Evry 2009
3. “John Harrison and the Longitude problem“, National Maritime Museum de Greenwich
4. Jonathan Betts “John Harrison (1693–1776) and
   Lt. Cdr Rupert T. Gould R.N. (1890–1948)“, National Maritime Museum / Royal Observatory, Greenwich

AN INNER JOURNEY

If you access Google Earth you can go to 21 56′ 40″ N Latitude 105 12′ 17″ W Longitude, you may not be impressed at all, it show you a small patch of greenery made out of deciduous forest along the bed of the San Pedro river that at this point runs parallel to the Carretera Panoamericana that skirts the Hill of Coamiles which rise like a landmark, sort of like the more famous Ayers Rock in the Australian Continent, in the middle of a flat plain with an elevation about 1225 feet. At the bottom of the hill the small town of Penitas, better known between the locals as El Crucero (Crossroads) an obligated stop for truck, and car drivers where they stop for fuel, a quick but usually delicious meal, and where you shop for dry bananas, and other delicacies of the region, like coconut with it’s refreshing and cool water ideal to placate the countless of thirsty travelers in a hot day, Penitas with an average temperature of 85F, and summer temperatures that can soar to close to 100F and high humidity, you are always ready for a cold coconut!

With 50″ average annual rainfall specially in the summer season, it covers the hill and the surroundings with a display of Emerald green and the look of a sort of jungle forest, well at least during my infancy in the late fifties, and early sixties you could drive for twenty miles or more without a break in the forest, seeing a single house by the side of the road was the proverbial exemption to the rule… Today locals who have sprouted everywhere had cleared the land for small agrarian communities, and a patch of forest in the middle of cleared land for agriculture or farming it is a rarity, a thing of the past.

As a child we traveled frequently to the town of Santiago Ixcuintla my Father’s birthplace just a few more miles down the road where my Grandmother and my aunts resided for many years. The look of the hill represented several things on my mind, the near end of a tedious five hour trip, the thrill of getting a treat at Penitas, and above all to see the magical, beautiful view of a river in the middle of a jungle forest!

With the rains the river a small stream of water swelled in to the banks covering the surroundings and making the small stream in to a real river, with numerous white herons, green parrots, and all kind of exotic birds, and always the unlikely prospect of catching a sight of an alligator, during the long trip at certain time of the year you could see the forest covered with all kind of colors from the Amapa Trees, we crossed rivers, and creeks where sometimes we would stop and explore, one of my most happy memories was swimming in these rivers.

After an obligated stop at el Crucero as we drove our last miles to Santiago, and for the brief moment, in the small stretch where the road runs parallel, and about 60ft above the river before turning right, and away from the view of the river and it’s magical, natural beauty my eyes didn’t look at it, but drunk this wide river and the surrounding Tropical Paradise as far as the eye could see…

AN INNER JOURNEY

If you access Google Earth you can go to 21 56′ 40″ N Latitude 105 12′ 17″ W Longitude, you may not be impressed at all, it show you a small patch of greenery made out of deciduous forest along the bed of the San Pedro river that at this point runs parallel to the Carretera Panoamericana that skirts the Hill of Coamiles which rise like a landmark, sort of  like the more famous Ayers Rock in the Australian Continent, in the middle of a flat plain with an elevation about 1225 feet. At the bottom of the hill the small town of Penitas, better known between the locals as El Crucero (Crossroads) an obligated stop for truck, and car drivers where they stop for fuel, a quick but usually delicious meal, and where you shop for dry bananas, and other delicacies of the region, like coconut with it’s refreshing and cool water ideal to placate the countless of thirsty travelers in a hot day, Penitas with an average temperature of 85F, and summer temperatures that can soar to close to 100F and high humidity, you are always ready for a cold coconut!

 

Travelers shopping at Penitas

With 50″ average annual rainfall specially in the summer season, it covers the hill and the surroundings with a display of Emerald green and the look of a sort of jungle forest, well at least during my infancy in the late fifties, and early sixties you could drive for twenty miles or more without a break in the forest, seeing a single house by the side of the road was the proverbial exemption to the rule… Today locals who have sprouted everywhere had cleared the land for small agrarian communities, and a patch of forest in the middle of cleared land for agriculture or farming it is a rarity, a thing of the past.

As a child we traveled frequently to the town of Santiago Ixcuintla my Father’s birthplace just a few more miles down the road where my Grandmother and my aunts resided for many years. The look of the hill represented several things on my mind, the near end of a tedious five hour trip, the thrill of getting a treat at Penitas, and above all to see the magical, beautiful view of a river in the middle of a jungle forest!

 The view on top of Coamiles Hill

With the rains the river a small stream of water swelled in to the banks covering the surroundings and making the small stream in to a real river, with numerous white herons, green parrots, and all kind of exotic birds, and always the unlikely prospect of catching a sight of an alligator, during the long trip at certain time of the year you could see the forest covered with all kind of colors from the Amapa Trees, we crossed rivers, and creeks where sometimes we would stop and explore, one of my most happy memories was swimming in these rivers.

After an obligated stop at el Crucero as we drove our last miles to Santiago, and for the brief moment, in the small stretch where the road runs parallel, and about 60ft above the river before turning right, and away from the view of the river and it’s magical, natural beauty my eyes didn’t look at it, but drunk this wide river and the surrounding Tropical Paradise as far as the eye could see…

Download integral aqui

C

Plano de Consistência, (Corpo sem órgãos).

O PLANO DE CONSISTÊNCIA ou de composição (planômeno)
se opõe ao PLANO DE ORGANIZAÇÃO e de desenvolvimento.
A organização e o desenvolvimento
dizem respeito à forma e substância:

• ao mesmo tempo desenvolvimento da forma,
• e formação de substância ou de sujeito.

Mas o PLANO DE CONSISTÊNCIA ignora a substância e a forma:
as HECCEIDADES,
que se inscrevem nesse plano,
são precisamente modos de individuação
que não procedem

• pela forma
• nem pelo sujeito.

1
O PLANO CONSISTE, abstratamente mas de modo real,

• nas relações de
  • velocidade e de lentidão entre elementos não formados,
• e nas de
  • composições de afectos intensivos correspondentes

• (“LONGITUDE“
• e “LATITUDE“

do plano).
2
Num segundo sentido, a CONSISTÊNCIA reúne concretamente
os heterogêneos,
os disparates enquanto tais:
garante a consolidação dos conjuntos vagos,
isto é,
das multiplicidades do tipo RIZOMA.
Com efeito,
procedendo por consolidação,
a consistência necessariamente age no meio,
pelo meio,
e se opõe a todo plano de princípio ou de finalidade.

Espinosa, Hölderlin, Kleist, Nietzsche
são os agrimensores de um tal PLANO DE CONSISTÊNCIA,
(jamais unificações, totalizações, porém consistências ou consolidações).

Nesse PLANO DE CONSISTÊNCIA se inscrevem:

• as hecceidades,acontecimentos, transformações incorporais apreendidas por si mesmas;
• as essências nômades ou vagas, e contudo rigorosas;
• os continuums de intensidade ou variações contínuas, que extravasam as constantes e as variáveis;
• os devires, que não possuem termo nem sujeito, mas arrastam um e outro a zonas de vizinhança ou de indecidibilidade;
• os espaços lisos, que se compõem através do espaço estriado.

Diríamos, a cada vez,
um CORPO SEM ÓRGÃOS, corpos sem órgãos (platôs) intervém:

• para a individuação por hecceidade,
• para a produção de intensidades a partir de um grau zero,
• para a matéria da variação,
• para o meio do devir ou da transformação,
• para o alisamento do espaço.

PODEROSA VIDA NÃO ORGÂNICA
que escapa dos estratos,
atravessa os agenciamentos,
e traça uma linha abstrata sem contorno,
linha da arte nômade e da metalurgia itinerante.

É o PLANO DE CONSISTÊNCIA
que constitui os CORPOS SEM ÓRGÃOS,
ou são os CORPOS SEM ÓRGÃOS
que compõem o PLANO?
O CORPO SEM ÓRGÃOS e o PLANO são a mesma coisa?
De qualquer maneira,
o que compõe e o composto têm a mesma potência:
a linha não tem dimensão superior ao ponto,
a superfície não tem dimensão superior à linha,
nem o volume dimensão superior â superfície,
mas há sempre um número de dimensão fracionária,
anexato, ou que não pára de crescer ou de decrescer com as partes.

O PLANO opera a secção em MULTIPLICIDADES de dimensões variáveis.
A questão, portanto,
é o modo de conexão entre as diversas partes do PLANO:
em que medida os CORPOS SEM ÓRGÃOS se compõem juntos?
e como se prolongam os contínuos de intensidade?
em que ordem as séries de transformações se fazem?
quais são esses encadeamentos alógicos que sempre se produzem no meio, e graças aos quais o PLANO se constrói fragmento por fragmento segundo uma ordem fracionária crescente ou decrescente?

O PLANO é como uma fileira de portas.
E as regras concretas de construção do plano
só valem quando exercem um papel seletivo.
Com efeito, o PLANO, isto é, o modo de conexão,
proporciona a maneira

• de eliminar os corpos vazios e cancerosos que rivalizam com os CORPOS SEM ÓRGÃOS;
• de rejeitar as superfícies homogêneas que recobrem o ESPAÇO LISO;
• de neutralizar as linhas de morte e de destruição que desviam a LINHA DE FUGA.

Só é retido e conservado,
portanto CRIADO,
só tem consistência,
aquilo que aumenta o número de CONEXÕES a cada nível da divisão ou da composição,
por conseguinte, tanto na ordem decrescente como na crescente
(o que não se divide sem mudar de natureza,
o que não se compõe sem mudar de critério de comparação…).

Deleuze, “Mil Platôs”, Vol. 5, Editora 34 pp. 220
Último capitulo de “Mil Platôs”: Regras Concretas, subdividido em 6 pontos (3+3)
1. Estratos 2. Agenciamento (territorializante) 3. Rizoma
4. Plano de Consistência 5. Desterritorialização 6. Máquina Abstracta

My Nikon D70 has not GPS built in. It is very good to add this info as picasa and flickr will automatically show where the picture was taken.

I have found software called GPSPhotoLinker which will add this info to the picture. If you use some GPS software (I know that IGO can save the GPS route) and then you can just import it to this application. Of course it is good if your camera date/time is in sync with your GPS route.

It allows you to add latitude and longitude manually, but problem I have been facing was how to retrieve this info.  I was not able to get it from google maps. I have found this site where you can point to place on the map and it will show you LAT & LOG.

this article from the popular link [1].

basically, google maps on BlackBerry can be start with URL like this:

http://gmm/x?action=LOCN&a=@latlon:35.0000,-105,0000&title=something&description=something

this is the code snapshot:

int mh = CodeModuleManager.getModuleHandle("GoogleMaps");
if (mh == 0) {
     throw new ApplicationManagerException("GoogleMaps isn't installed");
}
URLEncodedPostData uepd = new URLEncodedPostData(null, false);
uepd.append("action","LOCN");
uepd.append("a", "@latlon:"+l.getLatitude()+","+l.getLongitude());
uepd.append("title", l.getName());
uepd.append("description", l.getDescription());
String[] args = { "http://gmm/x?"+uepd.toString() };
ApplicationDescriptor ad = CodeModuleManager.getApplicationDescriptors(mh)[0];
ApplicationDescriptor ad2 = new ApplicationDescriptor(ad, args);
ApplicationManager.getApplicationManager().runApplication(ad2, true);

here is more complete code from [2]:

import net.rim.blackberry.api.browser.URLEncodedPostData;
import net.rim.device.api.system.ApplicationDescriptor;
import net.rim.device.api.system.ApplicationManager;
import net.rim.device.api.system.ApplicationManagerException;
import net.rim.device.api.system.CodeModuleManager;
import net.rim.device.api.ui.component.Dialog;
public class Application extends net.rim.device.api.ui.UiApplication {
        public static void main(String[] args) {
                int mh = CodeModuleManager.getModuleHandle("GoogleMaps");
                if (mh == 0) {
                        Dialog.alert("GoogleMaps isn't installed");
            System.exit( 1 );
                }
//              URLEncodedPostData uepd = new URLEncodedPostData(null, false);
//              uepd.append("action","LOCN");
//              uepd.append("a", "@latlon:"+"35.0000"+","+"105,0000");
//              uepd.append("title", "something");
//              uepd.append("description", "something");
                String[] args1 = { "http://gmm/x?action=LOCN&a=@latlon:
40.03731412913736,116.34973964097298&title=something&description=something"        };
                ApplicationDescriptor ad =
CodeModuleManager.getApplicationDescriptors(mh)[0];
                ApplicationDescriptor ad2 = new ApplicationDescriptor(ad, args1);
                try {
                        ApplicationManager.getApplicationManager().runApplication(ad2,
true);
                } catch (ApplicationManagerException e) {
                        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                        Dialog.alert("Debug ..."+e.getMessage());
            System.exit( 1 );
                        //e.printStackTrace();
                }
        }
        Application() {
        }
}

some one report using address instead of coordinates [3]:

I've been able to avoid the error in 3.0.2 by removing the "@latlon:" tag, as in:

uepd.append("a", l.getLatitude()+","+l.getLongitude());

The other option is to put in the actual address, as in:

uepd.append("a", "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC");

[1] http://www.blackberryforums.com/developer-forum/143263-heres-how-start-google-maps-landmark.html
[2] http://groups.google.com/group/google-maps-api-china/browse_thread/thread/49f72c8082f3caa0
[3] http://supportforums.blackberry.com/rim/board/message?board.id=java_dev&message.id=20392

Google maps doesn’t display longitude and latitude of the location that you are currently viewing but with the help of this little javascript you may not get the exact location of the centered address.

javascript:void(prompt('',gApplication.getMap().getCenter()));

just paste the above code in your browser’s address bar and press enter. A window will pop-up with the longitude and latitude

Geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as photographs, video, websites, or RSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata. These data usually consist of latitude and longitude coordinates, though they can also include altitude, bearing, accuracy data, and place names.[1]

Geotagging standards in electronic file formats:

1. JPEG photos
2. HTML pages: ICBM method, RDF feeds, Microformat, Wikipedia, Geotagging in tag-based systems & Geoblogging

the most famous API and Application on image geotagging is exiftool. [2]

Geotagging with ExifTool[3]
The ExifTool geotagging feature adds GPS tags to images based on data from a GPS track log file. The GPS track log file is loaded, and linear interpolation is used to determine the GPS position at the time of the image, then the following tags are written to the image:

• GPSLatitude
• GPSLatitudeRef
• GPSLongitude
• GPSLongitudeRef
• GPSAltitude
• GPSAltitudeRef
• GPSDateStamp
• GPSTimeStamp

Currently supported GPS track log file formats:

• GPX
• NMEA (RMC, GGA, GLL and GSA sentences)
• KML
• Garmin XML
• Magellan eXplorist PMGNTRK

Test Website:

1. http://regex.info/exif.cgi
2. http://locr.com

Examples: [4]

• READING EXAMPLES
• WRITING EXAMPLES
• COPYING EXAMPLES
• RENAMING EXAMPLES
• GEOTAGGING EXAMPLES
• PIPING EXAMPLES

EXIF stands for “Exchangeable Image File Format”. This type of information is formatted according to the TIFF specification, and may be found in JPG, TIFF, PNG, MIFF and HDP images, as well as many TIFF-based RAW images, and even some AVI and MOV videos. [5]

Applications based on exiftool:

• http://geotag.sourceforge.net/?q=node/1
• http://www.carto.net/projects/photoTools/gpsPhoto/
• http://studio.messlinger.com/2009/03/08/exiftool-and-the-automator/
• others [6]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geotagging
[2] http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/
[3] http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/geotag.html
[3][oldlink] http://cpansearch.perl.org/src/EXIFTOOL/Image-ExifTool-7.82/html/geotag.html
[4] http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/exiftool_pod.html
[5] http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/TagNames/EXIF.html
[6] http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/#links

(For an observing report on this event, go here.)

Jupiter’s four bright moons always put on a great show – ask Galileo – changing positions slowly in the course of the night. But for viewers in North America the night of September 2-3 offered an unusual opportunity because the four bright moons all played hide-and-seek at once – something that happens  about 20 times a century and I suspect much less for any given geographic area. That said, the following video and text I believe remainr elevant andhelpful for anyone interested in watching Jupiter’s moons. The  video is an animated simulation depicting events of one night. It was created in Starry Nights Pro astronomy software and time has been speeded up so  that what you see in about four minutes is what actually takes place in about seven and a half hours.

(For a complete explanation of what’s going on in this animated simulation – and what you should see September 2-3, 2009 – you can take this shortcut  to  the sequence of events below.)

Here’s why I love watching  Jupiter’s four brightest moons:

• You can see them with any small telescope – even binoculars if you can hold them real steady.
• They do something! Most astronomical objects don’t change much over our lifetimes. Jupiter’s moons, as you can see from the video simulation, go through significant changes in a single night.
• These four bright moons played a major role in changing our view of the universe.
• They even helped us determine the speed of light a couple hundred years ago, something next to impossible to determine on Earth without modern, sophisticated instruments.
• For the telescope user they:

1. duck in and out of Jupiter’s shadow (eclipse)
2. hide behind the planet and suddenly pop out (occultation)
3. cross in front of the planet providing a challenge for telescope users to spot them  (transit)
4. and from time to time they cast their shadows on the giant planet – shadows visible in a backyard telescope as pefect round circles

• Hubble and modern spacecraft have shown us that Jupiter’s moons are full of surprises.  No two are alike and all four are different than what scientists imagined before the spacecraft got out there and gave us an up close and personal view.
• All of which is incredibly awesome when you understand that the little lights you see moving with grace, precision, and predictability are complete worlds in themselves the size of our moon or larger. (Ganymede is about 1.5x the diameter of our moon.) Newton is playing the tune, and the moons do the dance – music of the spheres indeed!

You can enjoy Jupiter’s bright moons any night the planet is visible. What’s special about the night of September 2 and 3 of 2009 is they’re going through their complete routine in one night and for a couple hours all four of them are out of sight for all practical purposes, but still providing an interesting challenge for the telescope user. What’s more, Jupiter is very close to the moon on this particular night  and very bright in the southeastern sky,  so it is easy to find. And any small telescope will reveal the moons. Seeing them with binoculars is possible, but it takes sharp eyes and a steady hand. I’ve never been able to see them with binoculars unless I can steady the binoculars on a tripod, or against the corner of a building or some other support.

The moons were discovered by Galileo 400 years ago and he didn’t waste any time writing about his findings in his “Starry Messenger.” What he had to say shook up the religious/philosophical/scientific establishment of the day. Although Copernicus had argued otherwise more than 50 years before, the common belief remained that the Earth was the center of the universe and everything revolved around the Earth. But a few nights of observing Jupiter’s moons and that whole business of us being at the center of everything went out the window. Obviously Jupiter was at the center of its own little system and these moons were revolving around it, not us.

The 13-day-old Moon and Jupiter dominate the eastern sky near the horizon for North American observers on September 2, 2009. This screen shot from Starry Nights software captures the positions, but don't get the idea that Jupiter looks that big - the size represents its brightness - and its is far brighter than any of the stars, though to the naked eye it will look like a star.

Now, with any small telescope, you can travel in the footsteps of Galileo, observe Jupiter’s moons, and make your own drawings. This month (September, 2009) is a good time to start because Jupiter appears in our eastern sky as the Sun is setting in our western sky. By about half an hour after sunset Jupiter will put in an appearance. The only thing brighter than it in the eastern evening sky this month is the moon. And on the evening of September 2 folks in North America will see a nearly full moon pretty close to Jupiter – exactly how close depends on where you are and when you look. On the East Coast at 8 pm EDT the moon will be less than 3 degrees from Jupiter in the southeast and pretty close to the horizon. About 7 hours later it will be in the southwest and the moon will still be with it, but the separation will have increased to about five degrees. (Typical binoculars have a field of view of about 7 degrees, so you should easily see both the moon and Jupiter in the same binocular field.  The question – which I honestly can’t answer – is how easy will it be to see Jupiter’s moons with our own moon shining so close to it? Will the moon drown them out? I’m pretty  confident this won’t be a problem for telescope users. It may make it  difficult for binoculars users since the moons of Jupiter are roughly as bright as the faintest stars we can see with our naked eye.)

What should you look for an when?

First, if you want to know which of Jupiter’s moons is where on any given night, use this neat little online utility provided by Sky and Telescope magazine.

Now the basics. Jupiter has 63 moons, but only four of them are easily seen in small telescopes. Here are their names – in order moving outward from the planet – and links to more details about each.

• Io
• Europa
• Ganymede
• Callisto

Sequence of events September 2-3

Here is the schedule of events in  EDT, with  24-hour format Universal Time in parenthesis. (Data is from a listing in the September Sky and Telescope.)  If clouds, sleep, or work cheat you out of a live view, you still might refer to the following list as you watch the animation.)

September 2

7:19 pm (23:19) – Callisto is occulted – goes behind the planet. (This will be in daylight for US observers, but when you start observing Jupiter later,  know that Callisto is already behind it.)

11:43 pm (3:43 Sept. 3) – Io is occulted – goes behind the planet. (This is fun to watch – how long does it take Io to vanish? )

11:58 pm  (3:58 Sept. 3) – Europa transit begins on the opposite side of the planet from where you saw Io vanish a few minutes before. Seeing the moon against the bright disc of the planet is possible in small telescopes, but varies in difficulty depending on exactly what part of the planet is behind the moon, some parts being darker in hue than others. But keep in mind, these moons are so far away that even in a large, backyard telescope they barely show a disc under ideal conditions. So what you are look for is a point of light not much different than a star.

September 3

12:43 am (4:43) – Ganymede follows Europa onto the planet’s disc. Is it easier to see than Europa? It’s significantly larger, so might be a tad easier, but again, it takes a large telescope to show the moons as even a small disc.

12:56 am (4:56) – Europa’s shadow follows it onto the face of Jupiter – but it may be easier to see as it gets nearer the center. It also may help you pick up the disc of Ganymede – the shadow of Europa during the first half of its journey is very close to the disc of Ganymede – at least as shown by the Starry Nights Pro simulation.

2:29 am (6:29) – Io pops back into view – but look where it is! It’s not close to the planet when it does this because after it was hidden by the disc (an occulation) it went into the planet’s shadow – technically, an eclipse. So what you see is it emerging from the shadow, already some distance out from the planet.

2:42 am (6:42) - Ganymede’s shadow enters the disc.  Notice how far behind Ganymede it is? Europa’s shadow was much closer to it. Why? Because Europa is much closer to the planet then Ganymede and here’s proof!

2:49 am (6:49) - Europa emerges from the disc – but if you have not been able to follow it when it was on the disc it may be difficult to pickup for few minutes because it will still be close to Jupiter and lost in its glare – at least to the smallest telescopes and binoculars. However, Europa’s shadow will still be visible on the disc for almost another hour.

3:47 am (7:47) - Europa’s shadow goes off the disc.

At this point East Coast observers are seeing a Jupiter that is very close to the southwestern horizon and the moons will be difficult to observe. For my location – at 71 degrees longitude (Westport, MA). the giant planet sets about 4:30 am.

4:20 am  (8:20) – Ganymede’s transit ends, but it’s shadow is still on the planet.

4:35 am (8:35) – At last! Here comes Callisto! For me it has been out of sight all night. It goes behind the planet before it is dark enough to see it and doesn’t come out until after Jupiter has set. However, folks farther west should certainly see this exit event.

6:21 am (10:21) – Ganymede’s shadow exits the planet’s disc. Hey – that’s all folks – for tonight. But there are many other nights when there are interesting events.

Be sure to check Sky and Telescope Javascript utility.  Any night Jupiter is well placed for observing I always check this little utility to see if there are any neat events coming up at a convenient time. Nights like September 2-3, 2009 are rare. But with four moons there are frequent times when one or the other is doing something interesting.

How to time a light beam!

Oh – and about determining the speed of light. Think about it.  I believe Galileo once took a stab at this by stationing observers facing one another from different mountain peaks. They then uncovered a lantern at a predetermined time.  No luck. Light is much too fast for this kind of experiment. Hey – light could go completely around the Earth more than seven times in a second! But here’s how Jupiter’s moon helped determine the speed of light more than 300 years ago! These kinds of discoveries always leave me in awe at how brilliant the discoverer’s were and how precisely they were able to make observations with tools that were not nearly as good as the inexpensive telescopes available to anyone today.  The  account which follows can be read in full here. It is from a posting by Michael Fowler of the University of Virginia Physics Department. One more thing to appreciate as you watch Jupiter’s moons.

The first real measurement of the speed of light came about half a century later, in 1676, by a Danish astronomer, Ole Römer, working at the Paris Observatory. He had made a systematic study of Io, one of the moons of Jupiter, which was eclipsed by Jupiter at regular intervals, as Io went around Jupiter in a circular orbit at a steady rate. Actually, Römer found, for several months the eclipses lagged more and more behind the expected time, but then they began to pick up again. In September 1676, he correctly predicted that an eclipse on November 9 would be 10 minutes behind schedule. This was indeed the case, to the surprise of his skeptical colleagues at the Royal Observatory in Paris. Two weeks later, he told them what was happening: as the Earth and Jupiter moved in their orbits, the distance between them varied. The light from Io (actually reflected sunlight, of course) took time to reach the earth, and took the longest time when the earth was furthest away. When the Earth was furthest from Jupiter, there was an extra distance for light to travel equal to the diameter of the Earth’s orbit compared with the point of closest approach. The observed eclipses were furthest behind the predicted times when the earth was furthest from Jupiter.

From his observations, Römer concluded that light took about twenty-two minutes to cross the earth’s orbit. This was something of an overestimate, and a few years later Newton wrote in the Principia (Book I, section XIV): “For it is now certain from the phenomena of Jupiter’s satellites, confirmed by the observations of different astronomers, that light is propagated in succession (note: I think this means at finite speed) and requires about seven or eight minutes to travel from the sun to the earth.” This is essentially the correct value.

Less successful was an idea they had much later that they could solve the problem of finding one’s longitude – while at sea – by observing the moons of Jupiter. This was very seriously pursued  because knowing longitude is critical to navigation and the accepted method involved using a very precise clock that kept correct time throughout a long sea voyage. It was hard enough to make a very precise clock – but one that retained its precision when subjected to the knocking about and unavoidable moisture that was part of any long voyage by sail? Nearly impossible. (See the wonderful book, “Longitude,” by Dava Sobel, for the story of how they did solve this.)  But that said, as you watch the moons of Jupiter with a small telescope, try to imagine doing this on the heaving deck of a sailing ship with a telescope that is significantly cruder than the one you buy today! Then imagine that your life may depend on the result! Makes you appreciate GPS if nothing else