vol 2 num 3


from VizMAP – letting you see where you stand…

Volume 2 – Number 3 
Contents

About VizMAP

VizMAP Pty Ltd, is a leading supplier of terrain Visualisation and related services to the defence, GIS, environmental, mapping, mining and exploration industries, engineering and construction firms, developers and planners, as well as government administration departments dealing with land, transportation and the environment. 

VizMAP‘s products are designed to be run on reasonably to highly configured graphics computers (PC, Linux and Unix) for public display, group training, mission rehearsal, environmental monitoring, etc. and to enhance management decision making. 

VizMAP is headquartered on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast (Australia) with affiliation in Asia, Europe, Africa and the USA and thereby provides support and services to customers worldwide. 

If you need to visualise anything geographic, e-mail VizMAP here with the details. 

For more information about VizMAP visit the VizMAP Web site at http://www.vizmap.com.au.

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A Moment’s Notice
If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you. — Anonymous
This is funny too ;-)

VirtualGeography – the newsletter

G’Day… and Welcome to VirtualGeography
from VizMAP
Welcome to another free VirtualGeography from VizMAP Pty Ltd.

VirtualGeography is a collection of interesting snippets from all over the shop, dealing with industry issues concerning the computer based visualisation of geography and a few other associated (or otherwise) interesting bits and pieces. You are receiving this either because you subscribed to VirtualGeography or you have had recent dealings with VizMAP Pty Ltd. If you do not wish to receive further instalments of VirtualGeography, just click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this e-mail. 

A new VirtualGeography is pushed out about once per month, towards the end of the month, which shouldn’t be too big a drain on your mailbox if you’re not already subscribed (of course it won’t be a drain on your mailbox if you ARE subscribed, either This is funny ;-)). If you know of anyone who might like to get VirtualGeography, feel free to forward this to them and ask them to subscribe. By the way, subscription and unsubscription details are at the bottom (click here).

So, g’day to all you enthusiasts requiring to visualise and simulate both urban and rural geographic information (GIS), cartography, photogrammetry, remote sensing, digital elevation modelling (DEM) and general mapping.

By the spelling of "Visualisation" you may have already guessed that we’re not US based – that’s a good thing, or at least not a bad thing. This comes to you from Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia, where it’s beautiful one day and perfect the next.

The link between visualisation and mapping may seem a little esoteric if this is your first encounter with this sort of stuff, but let me tell you, the bond is significant… but enough of that: on with the show… I hope you like it. Any feedback you might have is highly appreciated. E-mail me here to make your comments.

Enjoy…

Graeme Brooke
VizMAP Pty Ltd

P.S. You’ll need an active internet connection to view any images that are in the content. We’ve done it this way to keep the size of the e-mail to a minimum.

 
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The Industry’s Two Cents Worth…

Virtual Heritage 
from About 3D Graphics
Have you ever wondered what the Colossus of Rhodes really looked like, or wished you could have strolled through the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Sadder still, did you miss your chance to visit the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan or the World Trade Center in New York, both now destroyed?

In the future, you may not have to worry about missing out on these wonderful sights. There are a number of groups utilizing virtual reality to insure that soon everyone will have a chance to visit the wonders of our world, both past and present. Working under the label of Virtual Heritage, these groups and their projects have become increasingly important in the conservation, preservation, and interpretation of our world’s cultural and natural history. Virtual reality technology is also solving one of the largest issues concerning present-day cultural heritage assets; how to allow the public access to important historical sites without the destruction that accompanies hoards of tourists 

Re-creations of culture heritage structures are done for many reasons. For instance, The Museum of the Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses in China is using a laser range finder to document the fragile terra cotta statues before they are unearthed. Since the very act of digging these artworks out of the ground causes damage no matter how carefully it is done, this method allows scientist to discover important aspects of the relics such as the original color of the statues which has now leeched into the surrounding clay. Many of these relics were also broken in ancient times and the virtual models allow scientists to ‘pick up and move’ the virtual pieces allowing reconstruction without any additional damage to the still buried statues. This also allows most of the relics to be left where they are for future generations of scientists who may have better tools. 

Read that full story here
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Hardcore Stuff (hardware bits)…

Intel’s Digital Home Vision Moves Closer To Reality With New Industry Enabling Building Blocks 
from Intel
Engineering Platforms and UPnP* Tools Aid Delivery of Digital Media Throughout the Home
INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 19, 2003 – Intel Corporation announced new industry building blocks that bring the vision of the Digital Home closer to reality. Available immediately are Digital Home reference and concept platforms, and ten powerful UPnP* tools that underscore Intel’s support of the Digital Home vision.

"We know that consumers are readily anticipating the day when PCs and consumer electronics work together easily and reliably," said Louis Burns, vice president and co-general manager, Intel Desktop Platforms Group. "People want to be able to move their digital media content effortlessly between PCs and CE devices for maximum flexibility and enjoyment. And they’re looking to Intel to make it happen. By providing the developer community with these enabling tools, developers will be able to design and build PCs that easily and seamlessly distribute digital media throughout the home."

The "Statesboro" reference platform will assist OEMs and motherboard makers to develop new PC systems this year that broadcast digital photos and music to TVs and stereos throughout the consumer’s home. Statesboro is an implementation tool designed for developers that showcases the 2003 Digital Home vision. The reference platform is a complete, validated system solution featuring key technologies in support of the Digital Home usage models, as described in the Desktop Platform Vision Guide for 2003. These technologies include: Intel® 3.06GHz Pentium® 4 Processor with Hyper-Threading Technology 1, "Springdale" chipset, Dualband 802.11 Wireless NIC, Serial ATA Hard Disk Drive, Dual Channel DDR Memory, and a DVD/CD-RW Optical Disk Drive.

The new concept platform, codenamed "Powersville", showcases additional levels of Digital Home experiences, such as wireless streaming video and personal video recording, which consumers can expect as included PC features in the 2004 time frame. Powersville is designed to provide an early demonstration of experiences and technologies in order to highlight innovation opportunities for the PC industry.

Read that full story here
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Softcore Stuff (software and data bits)…

‘Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight’ Commemorates 100 Years of Aviation History
from National Centre for Simulation
As the world prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of powered flight, Microsoft Corp. announced that "Microsoft(R) Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight" is in development and cleared for takeoff this July.

With "Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight," the next milestone in the award-winning "Flight Simulator" franchise, Microsoft celebrates 20 years of developing and perfecting computer flight simulation. "A Century of Flight" allows aviation enthusiasts to experience history at the controls of historic aircraft, such as Charles Lindbergh’s Ryan NYP "Spirit of St. Louis," the Douglas DC-3 and the world’s first successful powered aircraft, the Wright Flyer.

New engaging features such as interactive multimedia provide a wealth of historical information on the planes that shaped aviation history and the pilots who flew them. Informed and insightful articles explain all there is to know about Microsoft’s "Flight Simulator" and the 24 aircraft included in the software. "Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight" also introduces an updated, dynamic weather system, enhanced automatically generated scenery (AutoGen) and detailed visual effects, improved Air Traffic Control functions, and 3-D interactive cockpits, as well as 15 modern aircraft, including the Boeing 777, the Beechcraft Baron and the Robinson R22 helicopter.

"Launching ‘A Century of Flight’ in conjunction with a historical milestone as monumental as the invention of powered flight is an exhilarating, once-in-a-lifetime experience for all of us on the ‘Flight Simulator’ team," said Bruce Williams, product planner at Microsoft Aces Studios. "There are a lot of organizations celebrating the centennial of flight, but ‘Century of Flight’ empowers people to get into the cockpit of legendary aircraft such as the Wright Flyer and the ‘Spirit of St. Louis’ to feel what it was like to actually fly those planes."

Read that full story here
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A Recent Outing…

Sunshine Coast Marine Life Rescue Centre
from VizMAP
VizMAP recently created a Vis-Sim database for the proposed Marine Life Rescue Centre to built on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The Marine Life Rescue Centre will incorporate a Search and Recovery Division and is adjacent to one of the two Barramundi farms in the region. Each of these three facilities was included in the virtual environment created by VizMAP.

Sample still images from the completed dynamic visualisation database are displayed here. An active internet connection is required to be able to view these scenes.

Click on these small resampled images to view the full screen images on the VizMAP website. Bear in mind that these are just screen dumps from a dynamic, interactive, 3D "flythrough". 

 If you have a need to dynamically visualise your geographic data, let VizMAP know your requirements…
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OK, That’s Different…

New game ‘There’ puts you there 
from CNN
MENLO PARK, California (AP) — It was the dream of many a dead dot-com: build a virtual universe where people can socialize without the confusion of chat rooms or the awkwardness and emotional investment of physical face-to-face encounters. 
Backed by serious venture capital and sophisticated software, There Inc. is hoping to offer just that, and is betting that people will be happy to pull out their credit cards to buy virtual clothes, good looks — even a trusted canine companion. 
Without recent advances in personal computer technology, the lush graphics of There’s online universe would not be possible. In order to participate, many people would need to upgrade their home PCs. 

Facing competition

The company, in secret development for four years, faces competition meanwhile from online games. On the surface at least, a newly launched Internet version of the popular Sims franchise resembles There. 
"The difference is Sims online is essentially a game. There is not," said Tom Melcher, There’s chief executive. "There is a place. In Sims, you’re driven by game motives. You have hunger, comfort, a bladder and energy. In There, you’re driven by relationships." 
The There universe was being unveiled for initial beta testers Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It officially launches later this year. 
By downplaying competition, There hopes to attract women to its universe, which is roamed much like the legendary computer game Myst. In fact, some areas look and sound like the mythical Myst island with the constant chirping of birds and distant roar of surf. 
"If we can build a product that women love, guys will show up," Melcher said. "The reverse is not true." 

Existing, then logging off

Unlike Myst — which was eerily absent of other people — fellow humans, or online incarnations called avatars, are present to chat and play with. There’s also no sequence, or "end of game." People just exist — until they log off. 
Conversation appears as cartoon balloons that float above participants’ heads. Voice chat also is possible if the Internet connection is fast enough. 
People can buy clothes from partners like Nike, Levi Strauss & Co. and in auctions by other users with There’s very own currency. 
Some "Therebucks" will be included in the monthly fee — expected to be about $10. Users also can purchase additional "Therebucks" with a credit card or earn them by creating activities. 
The rates are expected to fluctuate as testing proceeds, though $1 now buys 1,787 Therebucks or about one-sixth of the price of a virtual dog — available in two breeds — or a buggy. 

Roaming islands, planets

With transportation such as buggy or hoverboard, players can roam various islands or even planned Planets, each with its own themes. An online newsletter will detail activities so users aren’t lost in what could become a very large electronic space. 
The notion of buying virtual props isn’t new. Sony’s online medieval role-playing game EverQuest has its own underground economy in which players buy gear with real money outside the game, on eBay for instance, rather than earn it by playing. 
There Inc. executives say their program, available online and with the purchase of some video cards, can run on most modern home computers that have a processor speed of at least 800 megahertz and a modern graphics card. 
The company is looking for mainstream customers but they’re not likely to want to take apart their PC to add a better graphics card, said Joe Laszlo, a senior analyst at Jupiter Research. 
There works on a dialup connection to the Internet, though a high-speed connection brings additional features. 
The company, which has secured $33 million in funding through venture capitalists and 84 employees, says it can break even with just 150,000 subscribers. Executives say they have enough funds to last two years. 

Read that full story here
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Whazzup Next – with 20/20 Foresight…

Stuff to look out for in March, April & May
 

Legend
Included in last issue…
Updated since last issue…
New since last issue…

This calendar of events has been collated from:

Mar, 2003
28 Feb – 1st Mar IMTA (EAME) Tenth Annual Conference and Trade Show  Budapest, Hungary
1 Mar, 2003 Avenza Systems Training  Budapest, Hungary
1 Mar, 2003 Introduction to MAPublisher workshop at IMTA Europe  Budapest, Hungary 
1-4 Mar, 2003 Extend 2003 – SRC’s Annual User and Partner Conference Broomfield, CO, USA
1-5 Mar, 2003 California/Hawaii/Nevada/Guam-ESRI Regional Users’ Group  Honolulu, Hawaii USA
1-5 Mar, 2003 Workshop on Remote Sensing: "Innovatory methodologies for satellite image Processing and analysis"  Manama, BAHRAIN
2-5 Mar, 2003 The Geospatial Information & Technology Association’s (GITA) Annual Conference San Antonio, Texas, USA
3-4 Mar, 2003 Regional Airline Training Conference and Tradeshow, RATS 2003 Orlando, FL USA
3-4 Mar, 2003 The 2nd International TD-SCDMA Summit 2003  Beijing, China
3-5 Mar, 2003 Public Wireless Hotspots  London, UK
4-6 Mar, 2003  GEO-evenement 2003 Paris, France
4-6 Mar, 2003 The International Direct Marketing Fair Earls Court 2, London UK
4-8 Mar, 2003 99th Annual AAG 2003 Meeting New Orleans, LA USA
6 Mar, 2003 Migrating Coverages to the Geodatabase  Oklahoma City, Oklahoma USA
6-7 Mar, 2003 Avenza Systems Training – MAPublisher training Sessions San Antonio, TX USA
6-7 Mar, 2003 FME Training  Houston, Texas USA
6-7 Mar, 2003 MMS China Beijing, China
6-7 Mar, 2003 Workshop on Internet Usage over 2,5G and 3G WIU253  Barcelona, Spain
10-13 Mar, 2003  Herbert Resource Information Centre (HRIC) User Group conference Ingham, Queensland, Australia
12-13 Mar, 2003  Geo-statistical Analysis of Spatial Data Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA 
12-13 Mar, 2003  Telematics Asia Pacific Seoul, Korea
12-14 Mar, 2003  CEOS/NASDA Symposium on "Space Platforms for Water and Climate" Awaji Island, JAPAN
13-14 Mar, 2003  Introduction to Disease Clustering and Spatial Epidemiology  Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA 
16-19 Mar, 2003  GeoTec Event Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
16-19 Mar, 2003  GIS-T 2003: The Evolving Frontier  Colorado Springs, CO, USA
16-19 Mar, 2003  IndusWorld 2003  Las Vegas, NV USA
16-21 Mar, 2003  IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference  New Orleans, Louisiana USA
17 Mar, 2003  Safe Software Product Parade and HelpDesk  Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada 
17-18 Mar, 2003  Tennessee Geographic Information Council Nashville, TN USA
17-19 Mar, 2003  CTIA WIRELESS 2003  New Orleans, LA USA
17-19 Mar, 2003  GIS-T Colorado Springs, CO USA
17-21 Mar, 2003  34th Annual Lunar & Planetary Science Conference Houston, TX USA
18 Mar, 2003 GEONorth 2003 Manchester, UK
18 Mar, 2003  Galileo Industry Day Brussels, Belgium
18-19 Mar, 2003 The 2nd Annual Summit Asia Pacific WiFi 2003 Hong Kong, China
18-21 Mar, 2003 Microsoft Mobility Developer Conference New Orleans, LA, USA
19-20 Mar, 2003  2nd International Symposium on Spatial Data Quality  Hong Kong, China
19-20 Mar, 2003  The Retail Sector in Russia & the CIS  Moscow, Russia
19-20 Mar, 2003 FME Training  Birmingham, UK
19-28 Mar, 2003 Bentley Microstation v8 Roadshow Worldwide
20 Mar, 2003 Radius Topology Web Forum – Laser-Scan  USA – free web forum with experts to talk to online. 10 GMT 
20-21 Mar, 2003  FME Training  Vancouver, BC 
22 Mar, 2003  ISPRS WG IV/9 ET Mapping Workshop "Advances in Planetary Mapping 2003" Houston, TX USA
22-25 Mar, 2003 ESRI Worldwide Business Partner Conference  Palm Springs, CA USA
23-27 Mar, 2003 United Nations/European Space Agency Workshop on Remote Sensing Applications and Education  Damascus, SYRIA
24-26 Mar, 2003  Munich Satellite Navigation Summit2003 Munich, Germany
24-26 Mar, 2003  Missouri GIS Conference  Columbia, Missouri, USA
24-28 Mar, 2003 SD West 2003  Santa Clara, CA
25 Mar, 2003 Migrating Coverages to the Geodatabase  Austin, Texas USA
25-28 Mar, 2003 Workshop "New Developments in Close Range Photogrammetry" Bonn, GERMANY
26 Mar, 2003 Migrating Coverages to the Geodatabase  Stamford, Connecticut USA
26 Mar, 2003 Newtech Conference Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
26-27 Mar, 2003  Jill Dando Institute National Crime Mapping Conference  London, UK
27 Mar, 2003  Migrating Coverages to the Geodatabase  Charlotte, North Carolina USA
27 Mar, 2003 Migrating Coverages to the Geodatabase  Dallas, Texas 
27 Mar, 2003  7th Annual Northeast Oregon Geographic Information System User Conference  Pendleton, OR USA
27-28 Mar, 2003 Mobile Enterprises 2003  Singapore
27-28 Mar, 2003 Reinsurance claims and collections  London, UK
28-30 Mar, 2003  NSGIC 2003 Mid-Year Conference Denver, Colorado USA
29 Mar – 2 Apr, 2003  ACSM 2003 Phoenix, Arizona, USA
30 Mar – 1 Apr, 2003  Platts Global Power Market Conference New Orleans, LA USA
30 Mar – 1 Apr, 2003  Integrating GIS & CAMA Columbus, OH USA
30 Mar – 4 Apr, 2003  2003 Spring Simulation Interoperability Workshop (SIW) Focus: Modeling and Simulation in Support of Future Combat Systems Kissimmee, FL USA
30 Mar – 4 Apr, 2003  Advanced Simulation Technologies Conference (ASTC 2003) Kissimmee, FL USA
31 Mar 2003 Migrating Coverages to the Geodatabase  Columbus, Ohio USA
31 Mar – 2 Apr 2003 Int. Conference towards an operational system for monitoring, modeling, and forecasting of phenological changes and their socio-economic impacts "Challenging Times" Wageningen,
The Netherlands
31 Mar – 1 Apr 2003 The Premier 2003 Mobile Open Services Access (OSA) Forum  Singapore
31 Mar – 4 Apr 2003 3rd Annual Polish Private Equity & Venture Capital Forum  Warsaw, Poland
31 Mar – 4 Apr 2003 Spring 2003 Location Based Services Summit  San Jose, CA USA
Apr, 2003
1-3 Apr 2003 3rd International Conference on Computer Vision Systems "ICVS’03" ISPRS Comm.III Graz, Austria
2-3 Apr 2003 BAPCO 2003, The Public Safety Communications and IT Event London, UK
2-3 Apr 2003 APAS (Association of Public Authority Surveyors ) Conference Wollongong, NSW Australia
2-4 Apr 2003 PikeNet Forum  Chicago, IL USA
5-10 Apr 2003 XI Brazilian Remote Sensing Symposium "XI SBSR" Belo Horizonte, Brazil
6-11 Apr 2003 EGS-AGU-EUG 2003 Joint Assembly Nice, France
7-10 Apr 2003 7th Annual Intermountain GIS Conference Coeur d’Alene, ID, USA
7-11 Apr 2003 2nd SCAR International Antarcic GIS Workshop  Freiburg, Germany
8-9 Apr 2003 Mobile Entertainment 2003  London, UK
8-9 Apr 2003 China Wireless Shanghai 2003  Shanghai, PRC China 
8-12 Apr 2003 International Congress "Enter the Past -The E-way into the four Dimensions of Cultural Heritage" Vienna, Austria
9-10 Apr 2003 Pharmaceutical Product Liability  London, United Kingdom 
9-11 Apr 2003 California GIS Conference Palm Springs, CA, USA
9-12 Apr 2003 IBM developerWorks 2003  New Orleans, LA USA
10-11 Apr 2003 Avenza Systems Training  Toronto, Canada
13-15 Apr 2003 Drilling & Blasting 2003 San Antonio, TX, USA
13-16 Apr 2003 National Conference on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration  Baltimore, Maryland, USA
13-17 Apr 2003 FIG Working Week and XXVI General Assembly 125th Anniversary of the International Federation of Surveyors Paris, France
14-16 Apr 2003 The GEBCO Project 1903-2003 Monaco 
15-17 Apr 2003 Powerline Communications & Technology Hong Kong, China
15-17 Apr 2003 VirtualGISCafe – World’s First Virtual GIS Exhibit  Internet (USA – 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM PST) 
21-22 Apr 2003 6th International Wireless & Beyond Japan  Tokyo, Japan
21-23 Apr 2003 GIS in Action Conference Portland, Oregon, USA
21-25 Apr 2003 SPIE’s 17th Annual International Symposium on Aerospace/Defense Sensing, Simulation, and Controls "AeroSense 2003" Orlando, Florida USA
22-25 Apr 2003 GNSS 2003 – The European Navigation Conference Graz, Austria
23 Apr 2003 GITA Webinar… Using GIS to Bolster Emergency Services and Homeland Defense Web-based
24-25 Apr 2003 Avenza Systems Training  Washington D.C, USA
24-26 Apr 2003 6th AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science "AGILE 2003: The Science behind the Infrastructure" Lyon, France
26 Apr – 1 May 2003 EURESCO Conferece "Geographical Domain and Geographical Information Systems: Modelling for Wayfinding Services" Bad Herrenalb, Germany
27-30 Apr 2003 Tobin Conference 2003 San Antonio, TX USA
28-29 Apr 2003 EF Telecoms’ Third Annual Mobile Payment Systems London, UK
28-30 Apr 2003 ISPRS Council Meeting Sydney, Australia
28-30 Apr 2003 13th Annual Nevada State GIS Conference Reno, Nevada, USA
28-30 Apr 2003 Delaware GIS 2003 Conference Newark, Delaware, USA
29-30 Apr 2003 Symbian Developers Expo  London, UK
May, 2003
4-7 May, 2003 ESRI International Health User Conference  Arlington, VA USA
5-7 May, 2003 IMAGIN 2003 Conference Kalamazoo, MI 
5-9 May, 2003 ASPRS 2003 Anchorage, AK USA
5-9 May, 2003 Water Distribution Modeling Symposium  Perugia, Italy
7-9 May, 2003 GeoAlberta 2003  Calgary, Alberta, Canada
9-14 May, 2003 Socio-Economic Research and Geographic Information Systems Spa, Belgium
11-16 May, 2003 Fifth Science and Management of Protected Areas Conference (SAMPA V)  Victoria, British Columbia, Canada 
12-16 May, 2003 GIS BRASIL 2003 – 9th GEOTECHNOLOGIES TRADESHOW São Paulo City, São Paulo State, Brazil
12-16 May, 2003 GTC West 2003  Sacramento, CA USA
15-16 May, 2003 Avenza Systems Training  Denver, CO USA
15-17 May, 2003 EASY-ECO 2 Vienna, Austria 
18-22 May, 2003 2003 Bentley International User Conference  Baltimore, MD USA
18-23 May, 2003 21st AARB and 11th REAAA (Road Engineering Association of Asia and Australasia) Joint Conference – Transport – our highway to a sustainable future Cairns, Qld, Australia
19-21 May, 2003 GeoSpatial World 2003 New Orleans, LA USA
19-21 May, 2003 MOBILE AMERICAS 2003  Miami, FL USA
19-23 May, 2003 United Nations/Romania Regional Workshop on the Use of Space Technology for Disaster Management for Europe Sinaia, ROMANIA
22-23 May, 2003 2nd Joint ISPRS WG III/6 /IEEE Workshop on Remote Sensing and Data Fusion over Urban Areas (URBAN 2003) Berlin, GERMANY
25-28 May, 2003 11th International Symposium on Deformation Measurements Santorini, GREECE
26-29 May, 2003 3rd International Conference on GIS – for Earth Science Applications  Ljubljana, Slovenia
26-28 May, 2003 8th ISU Annual International Symposium Satellite Navigation Systems: Policy, Commercial and Technical Interaction Strasbourg, France
26-29 May, 2003 SimTecT 2003 — ‘Simulation – Delivering Tomorrow Today’ Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
27-29 May, 2003 8th International Conference on Computers in Urban Planning and Urban Management  Sendai, Japan 
27-31 May, 2003 CAG 2003 ACG  Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
28-31 May, 2003 1st Taipei International Conference on Digital Earth  Taipei, TAIWAN
 
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A Parting Gesture…Don't take this too seriously...

Optimists and Pessimists
From JokeADay
An optimist sees the best in the world, while a pessimist sees only the worst. An optimist finds the positive in the negative, and a pessimist can only find the negative in the positive.
  
For example, an avid duck hunter was in the market for a new bird dog. His search ended when he found a dog that could actually walk on water to retrieve a duck. Shocked by his find, he was sure none of his friends would ever believe him.
  
He decided to try to break the news to a friend of his, a pessimist by nature, and invited him to hunt with him and his new dog.
  
As they waited by the shore, a flock of ducks flew by. they fired, and a duck fell. The dog responded and jumped into the water. The dog, however, did not sink but instead walked across the water to retrieve the bird, never getting more than his paws wet. This continued all day long; each time a duck fell, the dog walked across the surface of the water to retrieve it.
  
The pessimist watched carefully, saw everything, but did not say a single word.
  
On the drive home the hunter asked his friend, "Did you notice anything unusual about my new dog?"
  
"I sure did," responded the pessimist. "He can’t swim."
Smile... it's free.
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…that’s all, folks! (for now).