Volume 26 • No 12 • 2003
ISSN 0742-468X • Since 1978
On-line Since 2000
Out of the Box
Editor's note: In “Out of the Box” we bring you news snippets that are not necessarily related specifically to GIS. These are items that come across my screen that help me understand our industry, by understanding the world around us. For the complete article just click “Details Here.” Think of it as thinking Out of the Box
In State and Local Government …
• Web cams installed for D.C. traffic. Washington, D.C., commuters wondering what traffic might be like on the Key Bridge or near Capitol Hill now can look on the Internet to see near real-time video of certain intersections before they  head out. Users click icons on an interactive map to view the [52 camera] feeds. The 240 roadside closed circuit video cameras in the metropolitan area aren't just available to residents, but also to the region's first responders and other government officials through a separate system.
Details Here
• Adrian [Michigan] city officials are in the very early stages of looking at a technological tool that could be used to improve city services. The city is considering how geographic information systems could be used in Adrian. GIS is a system of computer software, hardware, data and personnel combined to manipulate, analyze and present information that is tied to a geographic location.
Details Here
• Advanced city simulation software is helping urban planners look decades ahead and make tomorrow’s cities more livable. Those who have ever played the game “SimCity,” in which the user becomes an urban planner and has to manage the growth of a virtual metropolis, know how tempting it is to evoke Godzilla’s fury to shake things up a little when nothing much interesting is happening in town. Details Here
In Technology …
• 2004 shaping into a very Martian new year. With the arrival of Europe’s first interplanetary probe at Mars and two more U.S. spacecraft on  the way, the red planet will be under intense scrutiny for months as scientists attempt to figure out why a world flecked with evidence of an Earth-like past appears dead and dry.
Details Here.
• Memory storage: Answer in yeast and sea slugs? Shape shifting protein in two lowly organisms may explain how humans store lifetime memories
By tinkering with yeast and sea slugs, scientists have found a surprising possible explanation for the way the human brain stores long–term memories.
Details Here
• Toshiba begins shipping XDR DRAM sample chips
Devices are much faster than current memory chips and due in mass production in 2005. XDR, which was formerly known by its Yellowstone development code name, is targeted at high performance applications such
as digital consumer electronics, network systems, game consoles and graphics applications. It runs at a speed of 3.2GHz.
Details Here
In Utilities …
• North American Electric Reliability Council – NERC issues 2003 through 2012 reliability assessment. “Generating resources are expected to be adequate throughout North America in the near term,” stated Michehl R. Gent, NERC president and CEO. Transmission systems in North America are expected to perform reliably in the near term, although the report notes that in some areas these systems are reaching their reliability limits. Previously seen transmission constraints are recurring, while new constraints are appearing as electricity flow patterns change, the report states.
Get Report Here
• Pepco Holdings, the owner of Washington’s utility, said that a federal judge denied a request from the bankrupt Mirant Corporation to reject two power–purchase agreements. The agreements stemmed from Mirant’s purchase of power plants and some power–supply contracts from Pepco in June 2000 for $2.65 billion. Under the arrangement, Mirant reimburses Pepco for the cost of buying power from third-party generators. The ruling came from Judge John McBryde of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division.
Details Here.
• Portland General Electric, the Oregon utility owned by Enron Corp., will pay $8.5 million to settle charges that the company manipulated Western power markets, under an agreement approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The settlement resolves charges that traders for Portland General and its parent conspired to drive up prices and power-delivery costs with false reports during the California energy crisis of 2000 and 2001.
Details Here.
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