-----Original Message----- From: Bill Thoen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, July 27, 2001 1:02 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: GIS List Subject: Re: GISList: DEM Ransom Dimitri Rotow wrote: > > > Here's another access site: > > http://edc.usgs.gov/doc/edchome/ndcdb/ndcdb.html > > > > Bill - > > No go on that one, either. Drilling into the 1:24K scale DEMs yields: > > "All USGS 1:24,000-Scale (7.5-minute) Digital Elevation Model data in the Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) format are now available at no cost via ftp downloads from the GeoComm International Corporation (http://www.gisdatadepot.com/dem/). Yep, you're right. All roads lead to GeoComm. Well, that's all right with me, as long as anyone else with the capacity to distribute it free to the public has the opportunity to get the tapes free from the USGS too.------ - Bill Thoen Bill - Thanks for the backgound as always. Wow, another Bush legacy? Sort of like germ warefare, global not-warming, and missile offensive defense? This transfer could either be great or the worst of bureaucratization of a once profitable company. (Can we ever trust their reviews of other DEM distributions?) If they are faster than our Government's traditions in distribution of image data like the USDA, BLM, USFS, NEMA, USGS, and the like - well great! I hope they support their download site with fiber-optics soon... I just bought a 20 gigabyte Firewired disk for under $350! Fast servers do not come free. Possibly a deal on a per terra-byte schedule or just send me my two disk DVD for $9.95! Its likely too earily to see just how this outfit adjusts to the big leagues. I wonder how other government bodies will respond? I wonder what its like when a county calls for all of its "seamless" maps and it does not get them? Will there be like a suport line? I'll suggest this moment is like the earily advent of differentials for GPS. GPS was a free but degraded system that could be nicely corrected by a private solutions. Omnistar and others got too good and well distributed that the DOD finally decided it would be better if they allowed WAAS thereby putting the SA switch back in their hands. You might also consider MicroSoft's efforts via http://www.terraserver.com. Between these two sites the GIS user can now do what the very few could only do with millions plus major skilled effort just a decade or two ago. FWIW MidNight Mapper aka Neil Then we could all look at the old paper DEM from USGS as poor address matching given the pending Shuttle digital radar maps... But I really dislike the _______________________________________________________________________ List hosting provided by Directions Magazine | www.directionsmag.com | To unsubscribe, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put "unsubscribe MapInfo-L" in the message body.
