Map of Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) VI Forecast

Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) VI, is the level of shaking that throws objects off shelves. ETH-Zurich, Switzerland, and the Southern California Earthquake Center have contributed to an online map that shows the odds of a significant earthquake on any given day in California. Real-time Forecast of Earthquake Hazard in the Next 24 Hours can’t tell you if a Big One is imminent, researchers said. But when a sizable quake does strike, it’s almost certain to trigger aftershocks.

MapMe

I am not sure there are many WiFi positioning systems running on browsers. MapMe is a signed applet that positions EPFL WiFi enabled notebook owner on the campus.

It runs on many types of hardware with the typical operating systems (WinXP, MacOSX or Linux) having Java 1.3 (or higher) enabled Web browser. It is uniquely meant to be used on the EPFL campus. MapMe uses some parts of Place Lab (mainly the native code scanning the WiFi cards) and the reuse of my own EPFL-WiFi-positioning classes. My plan is to use have the applet communicate the positioning informations to web application via LiveConnect. It could therefore be integrated into the EPFL map service. Yet another pet project…

The Path to God Allegedly Found?

Visualize Yahoo Search Results with Grokker

Similar to KartOO, Grokker allows to view Yahoo search results with its visualization technology. It is a Java applet that displays a Web search as a series of categories set in a circular map.

Positioning using Television Signals

Via SiliconValley.com, a Redwood City start-up is prototyping a system that uses TV signal to do positioning. The goal is to embed it in mobile phones. I would work more or less the same way as other radio frequency positioning:

The engineers created a radio receiver chip that could zero in on the TV signal and get the synchronization information. Using precision timing, they figure out how far a TV signal travels before it is picked up by a device equipped with Rosum chips. Next, they compare the measurements against other data that they collect with their own listening stations and then finally calculate the device’s position. The Rosum engineers call this process “multilateration,” which is akin to navigational triangulation.

Location-Based Social Networking System

Mates is a location-based social networking systemdeveloped at the University of Michigan and aimed at introducing and connecting people based on both their physical location and other properties they might have in common (classmates, neighboors, …). Positioning is done via GPS, WiFi and self positioning. I would love to see how their WiFi positioning works or how they mix these technologies. The IM application (based on GAIM) seems to rely on pre-defined locations (and not on position + map).

The most intersting aspect of this project is that they provided an open WSDL, so any type of clients could rely on the Mates relationship engine.

Cisco Wi-Fi Tracking Kit

Cisco has announced a wireless tracking appliance designed to allow organisations to monitor the location of devices – or people – within a wireless local area network. The Cisco 2700 Series Wireless Location Appliance, scheduled to ship in June 2005, uses technology acquired when Cisco bought wireless switch start-up Airespace earlier this year.

(via The Register)

Funny to see that Cisco tailored this kit uniquely towards tracking things and people in hospitals and factories.

Bonjour for Windows

Bonjour (formerly known as RendezVous) is now available for Windows. It will be interesting to see if there will be any unpredicted usage. There is an Bonjour SDK available for Windows also now.

Valencia Avanza

Expired: Madrid, Tired: Barcelona, Wired Valencia!

Swing Best Practices

Very handy, a resourceful wiki for best practices in Swing.