GIS/GPS Really, Truly Mainstream Now!!

Time, Nov 20 issue, Asia edition features 3 of the most portable and affordable of GPS and combination devices as "Gift of the year". The three devices are Delphi NAV200, Mio H610 digiWalker and Garmin StreetPilot c550. All three are really truly portable, actually hand-held sized. Prices range from about $300 to $750 or so. Location/navigation has become ready for mass use. These can be used for street walks as well as for driving guidance. They come with preloaded maps, cute user interfaces and has added functionality such s MP3 player, phone, PDA etc.

As these are based on quite powerful processors additional functionality become easy. Could be flight directory, weather, traffic update and so on. I can imagine a time very soon when instead of a Lonley Planet country guide, tourists carrying one such device. The device would be multimedia capable and provide all the background information these guides provide!

ADT Still Has Mileage Left

Despite newer product being introduced and being actively promoted by a company, the product due to be superceded quite often shows surprising strength. Though Autodesk is actively promoting Revit, the architectural desktop( ADT) does not show any signs of becoming obsolete yet. In fact there seems to be active 3rd party support that adds to the products vitality.

H E Goldberg talked about two such resources in the Cadalyst issue. One of the advantages of ADT pointed out by Goldberg is an open API and VisionREZ is cited as a shining example of what could be done with ADT still! VisionREZ is a customized solution of ADT for the residential market and makes many design issues much simpler than it is in the original product. AmeriCAD has other resources for customer training and provides a set of services based on ADT.

ARCHIdigm is an example of useful resources. The author cites them for very useful training material for using ADT effectively.

I have been associated with both products. Couple of years back I was part of a set up that used to produce localized versions of software from Autodesk. I never really got very familiar with usage of the product. In my current avatar, I am into Revit quite heavily. I already see some workflow compatibility issues because Revit and AutoCAD did not come out of the same roots historically. I guess that would not be much of an issue with ADT as it's built on top of AutoCAD. Need to find out more.

SCRUM Works For BBC

I have been looking for evidence to see effective these "agile" methods of software development really are. What the specific religionists say, though honest, are always biased a little in favor of the religion/process they are promoting. I do feel these methods ought to work wonders. The waterfall or any such document/process heavy schemes are not workable they way they are required to.


Here comes a case study that show how BBC has used SCRUM to their great advantage. The story was presented at JAOO. A premier European developer conference on software technology, methods and best practices. The conference presents in-depth presentations and tutorials by researchers, engineers and trend-setters in software engineering and technology.


Andrew Scotland, the presenter, is Head of Development within the BBC's New Media Division. He is a certified SCRUM master and has successfully introduced SCRUM practice into the New Media division's multidisciplinary development teams (Software Engineering, User Experience, Information Architecture, Editorial, Product Management and Project Management).


The Author tells how BBC's New Media division, characterized by a lot of uncertainty and emergent software process, decided to use Scrum to more effectively deliver software amidst all that change and uncertainty. Three years later - the difference is significant, and the journey was worthwhile.

The environment is ever-changing thus it's really good to see Scrum succeeding in a situation it is supposed to work best. I'll need to look around for more such stories.