Volume 26 • No 06 • 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 …
• NASA awarded $3.1 million to a Kentucky program for map data. The Kentucky Landscape Census will provide public access to geospatial information and an Internet-based computer mapping system. Slated to begin this fall, the project has an overall price tag of $4.3 million and will be completed in 2006. Details Here
• Police officers get armed with maps. A newly developed computer program will provide Escambia County law enforcement and emergency response personnel vital facility information on county schools in case of a crisis. Escambia Sheriff Ron McNesby and Superintendent of Schools Jim Paul unveiled Operation SchoolSmarts on Monday. The program will give users instant access to blueprints and aerial pictures of 65 county schools. It is scheduled to be installed on each deputy's in-car computer by the beginning of the school year.
Details Here
• Change is the name of the game, according to Durangoan Nancy
Jacques, spokeswoman for a coalition of environmental groups that want to rename
Lake Powell. The almost 200-mile-long body of water was named for early
Colorado River explorer James Wesley Powell. It was created and named during the
Eisenhower administration and has been known as Lake Powell ever since.
Details Here
In Technology …
• Microsoft abandons stock options. In a head-on reply to mounting criticism of stock options, Microsoft (MSFT) said Tuesday that it will stop giving them out and will give its 50,000 employees actual shares of stock instead. The move could start a trend among other companies, but resistance in the technology sector is high. Details Here
• It used to be that only high-priced luxury cars came with satellite navigation systems to help drivers find their way around unfamiliar places. Everyone else on the road was left to fumble with old-fashioned road maps or to print out turn-by-turn directions from Web sites like MapQuest. Details Here
• Red Hat’s Mad Matt Vs. Humongous SCO Lawsuit. It's a bit like the scene in Mad Max 2--The Road Warrior, where Mel Gibson and his clan  of post–apocalyptic misfits finally get tired of being attacked and decide to turn the tables on The Humongous and his marauding leather–clad baddies.
Details Here
• Listening to Marshall Brain explain the future as he sees it, it's relatively easy to suspend disbelief and agree how plausible it is that over the next 40 years most of our jobs will be displaced by robots. Details Here
In Utilities …
• By the summer of 2004, the Albany, Ga., Water, Gas & Light Commission will be reading all of its gas, water and electric meters via mobile automated meter reading (AMR) technology, the utility announced today. Through a business arrangement facilitated by Hometown Connections, the utility will install Itron Inc.’s AMR system to download usage data to vehicle-based collection units from more than 94,000 meters.
Details Here
• FERC staff plans to begin an industrywide audit of the accounting related to formula rate open access transmission tariffs, the agency disclosed in letters recently sent to two utilities that have been selected for the audit, Georgia Power Co. and Entergy Louisiana Inc.
Details Here
• Let utility districts tax themselves to build parks. Proposition 4 on the Sept. 13 ballot to amend the Texas Constitution would give the Legislature power to allow MUDs in 10 counties -- including Travis, Williamson and Bastrop -- to issue bonds backed by property taxes for development and maintenance of parks and recreational facilities, if local voters approve.
Details Here
• Duck River Electric Membership Corporation in Shelbyville has told the Tennessee Valley Authority it might seek competitive bids for electric power in five years. Duck River joins Meriwether Lewis Electric Cooperative in Middle Tennessee and two systems in the Bowling Green, Kentucky, area in giving a five-year notice to TVA.
Details Here
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