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The Casual Cartographer

Newsletter Archives]

April 1999

A GIS Monthly Publication by Mentor Software, Inc.

IN THIS ISSUE

casual cartographer n. a person who practices cartography by accident, without prior intent, and often without formal education in cartography or geodesy.

Web Site Profile: Electronic Resources for GeographyElectronic Resources for Geography, published by Lewis A. Armstrong, Abilene Christian University
This is one of the most comprehensive geography sites on the Internet with resources for both k-12 and University levels.   The site minimizes the use of icons and other page decor to reduce downloading time with indexes on pages to quickly move to material of interest on a page.  URLs are also shown to help students quickly prepare their bibliographic citation information.

Submit Your Site:   Get you site featured in The Casual Cartographer.  For consideration, send a 50 word submission complete with URL to ann@rockware.com

Take the Trivia Challenge! Answers at bottom of page
1. What ellipsoid was used in U.S. mapping prior to 1880?
2. Which geodesist defined the ellipsoid used in the U.S. for most of the 20th century?
3. If you pulled Gunter's chain, how long would each link be? 
4. What is a vara, and where might you find it?

Your Comments Please...
Fill out our feedback form.  Let us know what you think about The Casual Cartographer or Mentor Software's Products.  Send us your GIS Tips, or Ask Norm a question.

Did you know?  All registered users of Mentor software products are eligible for free web updates and toll-free tech support.  Go to our FTP site to download update.exe or call 1-888-ASK-NORM for help.

Trivia Answers:
1. Bessel 1841

2. Alexander Ross Clarke, a British geodesist who never walked on North American soil defined the Clarke 1866 ellipsoid, among others.
3. 7.92 inches
4. A Spanish unit of measurement (1 vara = 32.993 inches) used in Mexico and several other countries that were under Spanish influence.  Some property lines in California and Texas may still show lengths in varas.

Attention Casual Cartographer Subscribers:
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Letter from Norm
-Y0K Problem (Yes, that's year zero K)

Freebie of the Month

geoidsmall.GIF (3028 bytes)
-Geoid Height Calculator

GIS Tips
-Coordinate Systems Part III

Ask Norm?
Question 1: Errors in the Molodensky "freebie"?
Question 2: Can anyone define the "Denominator of Flattening Ratio"?

Readers Respond

GIS Resources
New! State Plane Zone Map Scanned in 15 sections.

New! USGS Digital Raster Graphics (DRG) Exchange

New! NASA's Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation & Analysis Tutorial

New! Geosurv - Full Service Land Surveyors - Lafayette, CO

New!  Map Mart is an online resource for digital map and imagery data. Users can zoom-in on a map of the United States and find their area of interest and select quadrangles to order.

New! Free AutoCAD Stuff by Dotsoft.com

New! GIS Related Mail Lists Compiled by Bill Thoen.

Products
Tralaine 4.24 - New set of options for the SEG P1 format. User specified coordinate formatting pictures in conversion templates. Current (4.x) Users, download update.exe free!  New Users, download setup.exe file to evaluate a full working version.