The United Watersheds of America

California, along with the entire Western United States, is in the midst of a historic drought. Areas with relatively plentiful water watch helplessly as densely populated areas drain shared water sources with reckless abandon. A large population center in a dry area can consume water from surrounding watersheds because all the resources within the state may be directed wherever the people will it to go, and political power is concentrated in the populated areas. Therefore, people who live in rural areas with relatively plentiful water supplies can be overpowered by the will of thirsty city inhabitants.

A golf course in Palm Springs Desert irrigated with water from Northern California and Colorado.

Let's look at California as an example. Political power in this state in concentrated in large coastal cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles. These cities do not have enough water to sustain themselves, but because political power is concentrated in their populations, they can overpower the will of residents in neighboring watersheds to demand access to water. This is why Los Angeles enjoys a steady stream of water from Northern California's Sierra Nevada mountains. The residents of these mountains do not have the political clout to rebuke Los Angeles' demands.

But what if residents of an area did have the ability to decide how to use their own water? What if each watershed was an independent state, in charge of managing it's own water resources. Many cities would find themselves separated from their water sources by watershed boundaries. San Francisco and Los Angeles, no longer in control of water from neighboring watersheds, would only be entitled to the water which neighboring watershed states agreed to provide.

This is not a new idea. In the late 1800s, director of the USGS John Wesley Powell suggested the idea of determining the boundaries of western states based on watersheds. His idea was that each region would be responsible for their own water, and would not be forced to supply water to another region involuntarily. In this scenario, Los Angeles would be powerless to override the will of water-rich northern Sierra residents as their political institutions would be distinct instead of combined into one state.

 

 

Powell's map of States based on watersheds.

Above is a map of Powell's state boundaries based on watershed. Notice that coastal California would be politically separated from it's primary water sources, the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Colorado River. No longer would residents be able to force those living in other water sheds to give up their local water supply. Perhaps than residents of desert areas would understand just how precious clean, clear water is to the American way of life if they didn't not have unlimited access to water from other regions. When we bring the water to where we want to live, those who live where the water is are deprived of their right to enjoy their local resources. Political clout is removed from the environmental impact of resource management choices made by thirsty urban centers. The end result is that the biggest consumers of water in the west don't know where their water comes from, and this water has often traveled thousands of miles through many watersheds to reach an end user.

Look at the map above - clearly, none of Powell's recommendations were adopted. Those who live near potable water are doomed for the foreseeable future to provide water to the dry cities of the west and desert southwest. Hopefully better management techniques will be implemented before the water runs out all together.

National Broadband Map

The Federal Communication Commission's National Broadband Map is a highly useful tool to understand the current availability of high speed internet throughout the United States. This map and its related source data is made available as part of an FCC public outreach program promoting high speed internet availability.

Available data sets include:

• Maximum Advertised Speed.
• Type of Available Technology.
• Providers Available in a Given Area.
• Service Footprint per Provider.
• Broadband Availability in Relation to Demographics.

Take some time to play with these maps. They have sliders which allow you adjust the parameters of the data displayed. Here are some of the interesting maps:

Blue areas have a maximum available speed of 10 Mbps or less.

Peach areas are served exclusively by Comcast

Red areas have ZERO high speed providers.

Upon casual examination, it appears to be the case that areas with high population density are served by one or two high speed internet providers. For most people, the local cable company is the only provider available, and in many populated areas that cable company is Comcast. No matter the provider, available speeds are dreadfully slow. A large portion of those with high speed access can obtain no more than 10 Mbps downlink. Note that speed is the maximum advertised speed, meaning that actual speeds may be (and usually are) much lower.

Rural residents have things even worse. The vast majority of land area in the US has no high speed internet available. Residents in these areas are effectively cut off from the benefits of internet access. I have family in rural areas of California that are stuck with dial up internet or expensive and still slow satellite connections. 

My takeaway is that we need faster connections available to more of the country. Both quality and quantity has to be built out. It's time for another Interstate-style public works project where we lay dark fiber from coast to coast and contract with private firms to light it up. Symmetrical Gigabit speeds are a reasonable goal to start with. Let's get to it!

Strava: A Better Way to Train

Throughout history, human kind has sought to perfect skills with repeated practice. All of us have at one time or another completed a challenging task and wondered "did I do better this time?".  Athletes training on a team benefit from the real time feedback of their coach or team mates, meaning focus remains on good form and proper pacing without staring at a clock. For those of use who do not train with a coach or trainer, the question than becomes "how do I know how I am doing?"

In the good old days, a mechanical stop watch dangling around one's neck was state of the art in terms of self-evaluation, assuming that one took the time to stop and read the watch. Thankfully, today we have something so much better!

The old fashioned way to train....

Meet Strava, a social training platform that provides personalized,  real time feedback and metrics during runs and rides. The premise is simple - capture GPS data of a run or bike ride and analyze that data to answer the question "how did I do?". In fact, I have been trying to do this for years using my cumbersome GPS unit. I'd collect the data, import a GPX onto my computer, view and edit, generate speed and elevation profiles, and ultimately attempt to publish my data. Unfortunately, this process was entirely too time consuming to do regularly, meaning my data piled up in a messy virtual junk heap. Thankfully, Strava's smartphone app and web platform provide a powerful training analytics platform where difficult data capture and manipulation processes have been elegantly automated.

I signed up for a free Strava account, downloaded the application onto my android phone, and set off for a ride on my trusty Univega. I was quickly impressed by how intuitive the application was to use, and how little battery power it consumed (a big issue for GPS-dependent apps). When I finished my ride, I was delighted to see my phone displaying a map of my route along with some basic stats: avg MPH, elevation chance, and distance. My route was automatically uploaded to Strava's cloud service where I can view more detail. Additionally, the application breaks a route into segments based on segments created by other Strava users, allowing users to compete against each other on the same segment, with the fastest riders listed on that segment's leader board. Additionally, I can track my progress per segment, meaning that a huge hill doesn't  bring down my avg MPH for the whole ride.

My recently ride was automatically broken into segments by Strava.

As a casual athlete, I find this app incredible exciting. It's super easy to use, and provides analytics which are useful for both casual runners and riders as well as serious athletes. Additionally, it's fun to know how you rank against other users. Because I know others can see my performance, Strava gives me the distinct feeling that every run and every ride count. There is no time to be lazy and take it easy, because now we have a virtual crowd-sourced team to encourage us during that last mile when things seem the toughest. Thanks to Strava, my workout routine is new and exciting again, and I can't wait for my next ride.

My (as of yet very limited) activity overview. Cool!

iBeacon: A Promising Solution For Indoor Location Opens New World of Smart Shopping

iBeacon is a new indoor location system developed by Apple for iOS devices. An iBeacon is a cheap, self-contained piece of hardware which utilizes Bluetooth Low Energy to interact and exchange information with nearby devices. Each iBeacon may inform the device of it's current location, and can also exchange info with the device. 

For example, An iBeacon might be able to recognize a shopper's loyalty card number, and serve special offers based on a consumer's buying habits. Additionally, each iBeacon knows it's own location, so a mobile device can locate itself based on which iBeacons are within range. 

Value of Indoor Location to Consumers
Indoor location allows consumers to find their way around stores more easily by enabling precise indoor location fixes. Retailers can provide immense value to consumers by integration location with inventory systems, making a store's inventory searchable in real time. Additionally, by providing APIs to this location and inventory data, it would be possible to cross reference a consumer's location and shopping needs with current store inventory.

Classic use case for indoor location.

My vision of this smart shopping experience would entail an application such as Simple Note or Google Docs being able to compare my shopping list and current location to the current inventory of nearby stores and alert me when I am near a store with items I need in stock. If I enter the store, I would be able to follow turn-by-turn directions to any items I that were on my list.

To go a step further with this scenario, imagine a service which finds the cheapest price for each item on one's list by searching inventories of nearby stores, and them sorting the items into a shopping list for each store. This would empower the consumer to know which stores to go to, and which items to purchase at each.
As someone who has tends to get lost in big box stores, I would greatly appreciate the ability to digitally plan my shopping.

Apple's iBeacon collateral.

How iBeacon Works

iBeacon uses the latest bluetooth standard (Bluetooth Low Energy) to passively communicate with compatible devices, but can only interact with device if the user has installed an iBeacon enabled app.For example, if I install a store's application and go into that store, the iBeacon signals may interact with the applcation to show me special offers. 

Privacy Protected

The app may send my personal info to the beacon, but only if I have given permission to do so. In short, iBeacons protect user privacy because they require device-based permissions to show messages or collect user info. The device cannot send or receive any info on the user's behalf without an application explicitly installed and approved for that purpose.

Every iOS device can act as an iBeacon
to exchange info with passing devices.,

Apple's Advantage

By the time Apple brought this new standard to market, they had been working on incorporating iBeacon functionality into their devices for some time. The end result is that the last several generations of iOS devices support iBeacon; not only can they interact with iBeacons, but each device can by itself serve as an iBeacon for other devices. iBeacons will be available as dedicated hardware, but since every Apple device can act as an iBeacon to other iOS devices, existing Apple devices can engage in this exiting new protocol, exchanging information as the two devices pass each other. No other hardware maker can claim this advantage.

Android Compatible

So far Apple has announced the iBeacons are compatible only with certain Bluetooth Low Energy enabled iOS devices, leaving Android users wondering if iBeacon works for them. We do not yet know for sure, but it stands to reason that any Bluetooth Low Energy enabled device should be able to interact with iBeacons. Based on Apple's previous behavior, it stands to reason that non-Apple devices would work with iBeacon, but exclusive features will be available to Apple users. 

Bottom Line

Indoor location is the next frontier in the mobile location space, and Apple has a significant head start. iOS 7 contains advanced location technology to pinpoint location indoors and exchange location-relevant information. iBeacon may have limited compatibility with other devices, but only iOS device users will realize the full benefit of iBeacon at present.

Google Maps Indoor

Online Maps, such as those offered by Google, have become the cornerstone of wayfinding in today's always-connected world. I use Google Maps regularly to plan a route, find the right subway stop,  or even just check traffic. Until recently, navigation has focused on outdoor navigation only, meaning that a Google Maps user will have no trouble finding the desired building, but then must find their own way once inside. Google is working to change that with a new indoor mapping product.

Classic (confusing) map of a mall.
If I am in the green, how do I get to the red?
How do I cross the black abyss
between the red and purple stores?
Where is the exit?!?

Google Maps Indoor has recently starting mapping public indoor spaces and incorporating these maps into the Google Maps application on Android. A user can view inside an eligible building simply by zooming in on the map. The maps can be quite detailed, showing hallways, rooms, bathrooms, elevators and stairwells on each floor of a building.

Maps Inside view
of the GooglePlex

Indoor maps will be the next revolution in location technology. Map users will be able to navigate even the most confusing complexes with ease and find their exact destination within the building. As exciting as the prospect of indoor navigation is, there are some significant challenges remaining:

1) The maps must be made. Outdoor streets and spaces have been mapped and remapped over the years by a variety of organizations, resulting in a comprehensive, up-to-date mapset. Interior maps, on the other hand, exist for few buildings. Building owners must upload floorplans for their buildings in order to be included in google maps indoor. For a helpful video on how to do this, click here.

2) Lack of Indoor Location. Most mobile devices are not yet able to determine their location inside a building, meaning that the device can display an interior map of a given building, but cannot indicate where that device is on the map. NFC has provided limited solutions allowing a device to be tapped to an NFC terminal to indicate that "I am here" but this method is quite primitive and usually requires the user to actually touch their phone to a reader. Apple's iBeacon shows promise as a means to determine indoor location, but iBeacon roll-out has not yet reached critical mass of adoption.

3) No Indoor Routing Instructions. The ultimate goal with indoor mapping is enable turn-by-turn navigation inside buildings. The ability to view indoor map data is a start towards this end, but a device must also be able to determine it's indoor location to accurately navigate. In addition, each building must be associated with a routing table, which helps the map software understand how different pathways interconnect throughout the building. Without a routing table, the mapping application has no idea if Hallway A connects to Hallway B, or if the door in Hallway B opens one way or both, etc. 

Toggling between floor 1 (right) and floor 2 (left)
of the interior of the GooglePlex.

Google Maps Indoor by Thomas Vieira is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Twitter Entices Users to Share Location Data

Twitter is reportedly experimenting with a new feature which will show nearby tweets on a map. This feature, currently referred to as "Nearby," appears designed to encourage users to geo-tag their tweets by providing the user value in sharing their location information.

Currently, users may geo-tag a tweet, but this feature is not enabled by default. Twitter is attempted to make money by selling advertising, and having more location info about more users will make Twitter's advertising inventory more value.

Users get the benefit of being able to see what is going on around them. This may be immensely useful for finding out about current news and further cements Twitter's position as the go-to source for news happening right now.

Imagine seeing a plume of smoke rising from ten blocks away - the first thing most of us tweeters would do is search Twitter for likely keywords, i.e. "smoke SF Financial district." Even the most artfully crafted searches still leave the user sorting through a huge amount of content. Twitter's new "nearby" feature will allow users to see tweets based on their geo-tagged location, making it much easier to see tweets being sent from the area of interest.

Note that geo-location enabled tweets have been possible for some time now. Several years ago, I worked with a developer who was making a "heat map" of tweets containing a given keyword. Higher tweet densities were represented with brighter colors on the map. I do not know the technical solution this developer had implemented, but so far as I can tell, Twitter's new API does not add new functionality, but rather, makes existing functionality available to users posting from 3rd party clients.

I am excitedly waiting to see the community's response to this new feature. New features often lead to new and previously un-imagined features, but the privacy challenges are daunting....


Good luck, Twitter!

Winter Cruise around Angel Island

We received our first winter storm recently here in the San Francisco Bay. A cold low pressure system moved in from Alaska and brought with it freezing temps, driving winds, and several inches of rain. I found this inclement weather to be a welcomed break from the typical winter pattern cool, calm, hazy days. The worse of the rain moved past after a few days but left behind strong winds. I couldn't help but take advantage of this break from typical winter calm to go for a sail.

After grabbing some sandwiches and bundling up against the cold, I headed out of Loch Lomond Marina in San Rafael and set a source south to Angel Island. Taking advantage of the unusual wind out of the north west, we had a leisurely cruise under the Richmond San Rafael Bridge and down towards the bustle of one of the world's most iconic waterways. 

Our route on the San Francisco Bay.

Leaving Loch Lomand Marina  - Must make sure to
make the turn WIDE to stay in deep water!

Loch Lomond Marina is difficult for sailboats. The marina sits about one mile from the deep water channel on the edge of a tidal mud flat. The water depth leading up to the marina is about two feet, which is tricky because the sailboat I use requires five feet of depth to pass safety. Fortunately, there is a channel dredged across the mud flat which is deep enough to navigate in a sailboat. Unfortunately, this channel is poorly marked and very narrow, and the only sure way to know you're not in the channel is once your vessel becomes mired in mud.

As you can see in the above picture, there is a small channel out of the marina which feeds into a slightly larger channel at a ninety degree angle (the blue line is the path taken by my vessel through these channels). Both channels are marked poorly, and the areas immediately surrounding this turn are especially shallow. Too wide of a turn will run one aground, as will too narrow of a turn. I have "played in the mud" here on several occasions, and have learned to not even attempt entry at low tide. 

Unusual NW winds allowed us to sail
under the Richmond Bridge.

Successful transit of the San Rafael Bridge under sail power was possible because of the storm's unusual winds out of the north and west. The prevailing wind, out of the south and west, is readily blocked by the bridge, making it difficult to safely cross without starting the motor. The wind out of the north, however, was able to keep the sails full all the way under the bridge - a rare treat!

Clearing Raccoon Straights.

Squeezed between Angel Island and passing some container ships.

Rounding Angel Island brought us head to head with a line of oncoming container ships. Luckily I was able to hug the coast and stay out of their way (and their wakes).

The fun upwind portion of the sail.

After rounding the southern tip of Angel Island and taking in some great views of San Francisco, we headed back upwind. Sailing against the wind is much rougher and more difficult than sailing with the wind. A sailboat cannot move directly into the wind, so we had to tact back and forth across the wind many times to get back upwind to where we started.

Going upwind is a lot more work than going downwind.

Check out our recorded speed (the blue line).

We averaged 4.4 mph, which is not bad for the entry-level 27 foot sailboat we were sailing. During some of the heavier gusts, we hit close to 8 mph!

Complete route map - zoomable and scrollable!

View Larger Map

Open (Source) for Business?: My First Attempt at Deploying an Open Source Spatial Database

All modern geographers face the critical decision of  selection an appropriate GIS. There are many options from which to choose, and each offers unique benefits while invariable containing some drawbacks. Open source solutions  such as GrassGIS, Viking GIS, and my current favorite, Quantum GIS have the main advantage of being free to use, and allowing for great data portability between applications. In terms of close sourced GIS solutions, ESRI's ArcGIS rules the pack. ArcGIS is very prominently used by governments and other large organizations who want a solution that will offer reliability and that comes with support and complete documentation.

Well structured data is essential success in any GIS project.
All good databases are thoughtfully designed  in advnaced.

I cut my spatial teeth at University of California, Santa Barbara, where ESRI is the GIS of choice. Reflecting on my early GIS years, I feel somewhat shortchanged that my instructors did not expose me and my colleagues to open source GIS solutions. Once I graduated, I lost my school-provided ESRI seat license, and I needed to find a cheaper alternative to ESRI's products. And by cheaper, I mean free, because when it comes to GIS software, the options are either extremely expensive (ESRI) or free (most other GIS applications). 

After experimenting with a few options, I settled on Lisboa's Quantum GIS. Quantum GIS (qgis for short) has a clean and logical UI and is a comfortable switch for an ArcGIS user such as myself. I quickly discovered how to utilize the functionality I was looking for, and soon was using qgis to contently import, clip, rasterize, merge, and project, and export data.

Before too long, I had some large CSV datasets to work with for a consulting project. I converted the data into a shapefile, and quickly learned that shapefiles are not an effective storage format for 1.5 million data points, which unfortunately is the size of the data set with which I am working.

I wish I had more RAM. (Not actually me in this picture).

As my Dell laptop (with a humble Core i-3 chip and 4 gigs of slow RAM) tried desperately to crank away at spatial queries on this enormous shapefile, I become intimately acquainted with all varieties of program and system crashes. After a few unsuccessful days of booting and rebooting, I decided I needed to put my data in a more scalable format. 

Enter: The Spatial Database. 

Had I been using ESRI, a Geodatabase would have been just the ticket to manage such a large dataset. I fired up qgis and started looking for the "create GeoDB" function. Well, as it turns out, Geodatabases are a feature proprietary to ArcGIS, and ESRI does not embrace the sharing of functionality and open data standards which are common in the open source community. I was stunned to discover the Geodatabases as they exist in ArcGIS, are unique to ESRI products, and that a GeoDB cannot be access by any other application.

My assumption was that any database used to store spatial data was a Geodatabase. I was less than thrilled to learn that my relatively extensive experience working with Geodatabases would not apply to spatial databases in any other application... and every other spatial data application utilizes a common db protocol and ESRI alone does not embrace. Humph!

Soon I found myself in the world
of painful, general error messages. Help me, please!

How is a spatial database different from a "capital G" Geodatabase? After all, they serve largely the same function, in that they both are a fast way to store large amounts of spatial data in a hierarchical structure. ESRI's database solution is designed from the ground up to work with spatial data. It's very much a black-box solution - you give it data, and it lets you use that data in ArcGIS. A user does not have visibility into the configuration and implementation of the database - this is all handled under the hood by ArcGIS. As a user of open source GIS software, I learned that I would have to utilize the power of databases with my spatial data, I would have to roll my own database solution.

I have only a very general idea of how databases work: deploy the database, import your data, and then reference the database in an application to view and modify the data. So far, I have managed to get the database instance installed on my local machine. I selected POSTgres as my database system, and installed the POSTgis plugin to add spatial functionality to the database system. I used the included tool to store data (a single shapefile) in the database, and access that data from qgis. My understanding is that the main value of a database for spatial data comes in that data does not have to be contained within the shapefile format, but instead data of different types can be easily cross-referenced which allows for powerful analysis. Additionally, databases are much faster than shapefiles when manipulating large datasets, and are less prone to corruption during data writes.

I am still confused about the following:

• How does one relate shapefiles to each other in a spatial database?
• Can shapefiles of similar features (i.e. the same feature class) be combined upon import?
• What is the best way to import bulk geodata into a spatial database?
• How can I be sure data attributes are preserved?
• How do I move data from my database back to a shapefile for transfer to a collegue?
• Shapefiles are a great way to share data - is there a analog for sharing data from a database, or is export  to shapefile the best method?
• How can projections and coordinate reference issues best be handled?
• How do I modify data in a database (the db equivalent of editing a shapefile?)
• Do databases support topologically-aware feature editing?

As I continue to tinker and learn, I hope to answer most if not all of the above questions. In the mean time, if you have any suggestions, please do let me know!

Sailing on the San Joaquin River

With summer in full swing, there is no better time to get out for a sail! I recently went for a day cruise on the San Joaquin River in the heart of the region known locally as the delta. The winds were very light in the morning, so we had some time to float around and work on our tans, but thankfully a stiff breeze came in around 3 PM.

Overall, we covered 12 nautical miles, or about 14 miles, which is pretty good when you consider that we spent a lot of time sitting and waiting for a breeze.

Leaving Delta Sailing School's dock in Seven Mile Slough.

We got the sails up and made no progress upwind....

So we headed downwind for a nice cruise. 

Unfortunately, this meant we had to head
back upwind, requiring many tacks.

We finally got some nice log runs in before calling it a day.

Turkey Launches Satellite to Capture Earth Imagery

On 18 Dec 2012, Turkey successfully achieved orbit of their new earth observation satellite, Göktürk-2. According to an article on NASASpaceflight.com, the satellite was launched from the Jiuquan Launch Area 4 in China, and successfully achieved low earth orbit within hours.

Göktürk-2 launching aboard a two-stage Chinese rocket.

Göktürk-2 will capture both panchromatic (black and white) imagery with a resolution of 2.5 meters, and multi-spectral (color) imagery with a resolution of 10 meters. Multi-spectral imaging captures different wavelengths of light separately, allowing researchers to compare and analyze different types of light to gain detailed information about conditions across the earth's surface.  For example, multi-spectral satellites can map vegetation health by comparing how much visible light plants reflect with the amount of reflected  infrared light. Stressed vegetation reflects more visible light and absorbs more infrared light than healthy vegetation, allowing researchers to use imagery to identify areas where ailing plant health may hurt food production, or to identify the impacts of global climate change on sensitive habitats.

All of the software running on Göktürk-2 as well as 80% of the satellite's hardware was designed by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBITAK), and assembly was completed by the TÜBITAK Space Technologies Research Institute (TÜBITAK UZAY) and Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ). The satellite showcases Turkey's rising status as a technological powerhouse, and will prove to be a major strategic advantage by providing Turkey's Defense Department with remote imagery from countries around the globe.

Göktürk-2 in the lab before leaving earth.

Many countries already have satellites orbiting the globe for a variety of purposes, such as imagery collection, communications, and navigation. Over 200 publicly and privately owned satellites have been launched from the United States alone. Turkey no longer must rely solely on data provided by the international community to map and research important environmental phenomena, and can now produce such data first hand. Göktürk-2 is part of a family of satellites planned by Turkey to further facilitate data collection and augment existing intelligence resources.

Bill of Rights Does Not Apply to 66% of Americans

In their ongoing mission to defeat the terrorists, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has suspended the constitutional rights of 200 million Americans with a move that makes Senator Joseph McCarthy seem well reasoned and logical.

The Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights gives Americans protection against unreasonable search and seizure of their person and property. Just to review, here is the text of the fourth amendment as posted on the U.S. Government's document archive site (source).

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The DHS has claimed a long-standing right to search people crossing our international borders. Upon superficial consideration, this seems reasonable. But consider the smart phone, tablet, or laptop. These devices contain a person's most personal and sensitive data. If the data isn't stored on the device itself, than the device most likely will provide agents access to data stored online.

The DHS claims that these devices can be searched as part of a border crossing inspection. However, these devices contain access to an individual's most intimate and private data. By obtaining someone's device, one gains access to their email, phone records, bank accounts, photos, documents, and other private data. Therefore, searching one's laptop, tablet, or smartphone is not the same as searching their pockets and briefcase. In fact, searching an electronic device is more analogous to searching their entire home, office, and car all at once. By looking through a device, border agents can review and seize any and all of that person's private information.

An easy solution would be to only carry "dummy" devices when traveling internationally. For example, I can take a laptop with no personal data on it, and access my data online when I arrive at my destination. I can also encrypt my data, so if my computer is seized at the border, agents will only be able to see a scramble of nonsensical 1s and 0s.

Unfortuately, border searches are NOT limited to the border. The DHS claims that the internal border extends 100 miles inland, and therefore anyone within 100 miles of the border can be searched without probably cause and without a warrant. .66% of our nation's population (over 200 million people) lives within 100 miles of the border, and are therefore subject to search and seizure of their electronic devices and data at any time and place without a warrant.

Here is the ACLU's map of what it calls the "Constitution Free Zone". 

2 out of 3 Americans live in this Constitution Free Zone.
© American Civil Liberties Union

Do you live in it? Most of us do. 99% of Californians do, as do 88% of Arizonians. If you live in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey or Rhode Island, then your entire state is a DHS search and seizure zone. So, you know, good luck with that.

 Therefore, most of us no longer have the right to avoid unreasonable search and seizure. So if and when you see those flashing reds and blues in your rear view mirror, and you're in the orange section on the map above, you'd best start deleting your hard drive and smart phone memory. Unless, of course, you are ok with the government having access to your entire digital life including your banking info, email, web browsing history, and location data. I, for one, do not consent to waive my 4th amendment rights. I have nothing to hide, but as the founding fathers intended, the U.S. Government cannot require me to prove that.

Thanks to Darlene Storm, whose ComputerWorld article on this topic inspired mine. Read her article here.

Why Can't (the carriers) Just Get Along?

No matter how hard they try, it seems that large companies have a tough time working together; as a company grows and its bureaucratic develops, the company seems less and less able to deliver products in a responsive manner.

Case in point: the wireless carriers. Sprint, Verizon, At&t and T-mobile all have network-based location capabilities, but none are available to app developers via a simple-to-use API. With this API, developers find it extremely difficult to utilize network-based location on their apps. The Wholesale Application Community (WAC) was a cross-carrier partnership who's goal was to allow any app to be used on any handset on any carrier. Under this Utopian coalition, a developer would build their app to WAC standards, and then would be able to deploy the app across carriers. It turns out that the carriers each had their own idea of how this should work, and after years of infighting, the WAC dissolved with few results for years of effort.

So what's a cross-carrier app developer to do? Well, if the end goal is to inoperative carrier-grade network location services, then companies like LOC-Aid are the answer.The carriers specialize in building infrastructure that operates with 'five 9s' reliability, and therefore innovation on the carrier side is a slow, painful process. LOC-Aid (for who I do contract work, full disclosure) specializes making carrier location services available through a modern, well-built API that app developers find easy to use. The carriers handle the back haul equipment and reliability, and LOC-Aid provides an innovative, high tech front which developers can use to bring the latest location technologies to their apps without direct carrier interaction.

The failure of the WAC shows how intermediary companies such as LOC-Aid continue to provide a highly valuable service to developers and end users. Maybe some day that telcos will learn to play nicely together (not likely), and until then, let someone like LOC-Aid handle the tough carrier negotiations!

Just How Big is Los Angeles?

Los Angeles is the urban sprawl capital of California. Simply climb to the top of any of the many mountain ranges which surround the city; one can see freeways, blocks of buildings, and endless ballet of cars, usually through a thick blanket of smog. 

Los Angeles Skyline and San Gabriel Mountains
Image © Charles Abbott, 99 Photography

Ask anyone who lives in the area: no on gives a second thought to driving 45 minutes at the top of the hat, or assuming that traffic will delay one's arrival for at least another 30 minutes. These constant traffic snarls and delays are simply a part of life for the average resident of the area.

The Hollywood Sign
Attribution: User Oreos at Wikimedia Commons

So why is traffic also so bad? How did Los Angeles earn the reputation as one of the most trafficked city in the country? Well, take a look at the map below and see how much larger of a geographic area the city covers when compared with other cities. A resident of LA simply has a much larger area which they will be expected to transverse for work, school, or pleasure. And because everything is so spread out, many areas are impractical for mass transit, keeping everyone stuck in their cars.

Size of Los Angeles vs. other urban centers
Attribution: Archinect News

Exploring Sonoma Valley Wine Country - On a Segway!

When it comes to wine tasting, I am traditional. I like to spend time taking in the rich aromas, colors, and tastes of each wine. I chat with the workers at the vineyard to get a sense of the love and care put into production. When possible, I always like to see the grapes themselves out in the field. (Not that I know much about wine tasting, but I try and copy what I see other 'wine snobs' doing!) 

Thankfully, my traditional tastes only apply in the tasting room and not to the method of transport used to get there, because I arrived to each vineyard on the back of a wild electronic steed, more commonly known as a Segway!

My dad had some about-to-expire coupons he'd bought on groupon for this wine tour by a local firm called Segway of Healdsburg, so he insisted I use them. "Ok, If you insist," was my reply. The tour started off in a park and ride parking lot in Healdsburg, right off HWY 101. The Segways come to you in a van, charged up and ready to go. They guides teach you how to ride in the safety of the big empty parking lot, which was great because I had never been on a Segway before, but thankfully it was super easy. We took a quick trip up a side street to make sure our Segwaying skills were up to snuff, and then we were off!

Location of the tour's starting point in relation to the bay.

Overview of our route.

My tracks when I was practicing back
and forth in the parking lot!

And the side road we practiced on.

After getting the hand of it, we headed down a main road to Limerick Lane, a quaint country road dotted with small vineyards. Segways are legally bicycles, so we stuck to the bike lane, but boy did we get some funny stares from passing motorists!

Aerial View of Viszlay Vineyards. 

Our first stop was Viszlay Vineyards. John, the owner, conducted our tasting himself around a shady outdoor table adjacent to the fields of vines. John told us he is a recent transplant from Chicago who decided to try his hand at wine making, and boy, he is doing something right! I am not a fan of Chardonnay, but we tasted a Chardonnay so crisp and delicious that I had to purchase a bottle. It felt great to buy something in cash directly from the person who had made it - this is how agriculture should work! And of course, we got him to sign the bottle.

Aerial View of Limerick Lane Cellars, with its bottle-shaped pool!

Our second and final stop was just down the road to a place called Limerick Lane Cellars. The tasting room here was much more formal, with dark woods and ornate decorations. The tasting assistant was very helpful and knowledgeable, and he gained my respect with his honesty; his personal favorite on their tasting list was also the cheapest, so he didn't seem to be trying to upsell us. 

Limerick Lane Cellars has been around for a while; some of their vines have been producing grapes since 1910! These old vines are unique because they were keep alive during prohibition when most grape vines in the area were ripped out. Due to their age, their roots reach down to the groudwater, meaning that these vines are non-irrigated. The reliance on groundwater gives the fruit a special kind of taste which you would not get with irrigated vines! We ended up buying a bottle of Zin from vines planted in the 1930's, and I cannot wait for a special occasion to drink it.

Overall, the Segway tour was a blast! I'd highly recommend taking the tour with Segway of Healdsburg, but even if you go it alone to Sonoma Wine Country, be sure to stop by Viszlay and Limerick Lane Cellars! Click here for photos of the trip taken by our tour guide!

Here is an interactive map of our route: The pins show the starting place and the location of both vineyards. Click on them for more info!

View Larger Map

Megaregions: New Ways of Thinking About the Modern United States

It appears that States, Counties, and Cities are having a smaller and smaller influence on the development of the United States. People today commute father to work than ever before, and in most central cities hold much less relevance than they once did. Suburbs and Exurbs have spread the population across huge areas such that it is often difficult to distinguish where one city or region ends and another begins. 

Historically, the central business district of a city demanded the highest rent and therefore was home to highly productive economic activities (technology, manufacturing) and small, expensive housing units (apartments). As distance from the city center increases, housing costs typically decrease and economic activity becomes less dense and lower profit.

Housing Availability vs. Distance from city center.
Attribution: The Tyson's Corner

Once the industrial revolution and the automobile made commuting either, both residents and business fled the city for cheaper rents out in the country. The megaregion is the natural extension of this trend: proximity to a major city center is having less and less affect on locations selected for homes and businesses, and workers are increasingly expected to commute long distances or work remotely.

Instead of defining areas by city or county, it may be more accurate to group areas into larger, inter-state 'regions.' Recent research by the America 2050 initiative has concluded that eleven so-called 'megaregions' are poised to become the default unit for grouping people and places. 

According to Wikipedia: 

A megaregion is a large network of metropolitan regions that share several or all of the following:

Environmental systems and topography
Infrastructure systems
Economic linkages
Settlement and land use patterns
Culture and history

Essentially, a megaregion is anywhere with strong ties to surrounding areas. Megaregions are seperated by areas of low population density and less progressive economic activities. The map below really shows that the vast majority of land area in the United States has little to no population. Shaded megaregions account for 26% of land area in the U.S., but over 74% of the population!

Megaregions of the United States
Attribution: Maps of America 2050*

Viewing Megaregions as cohesive units can allow for more effective urban planning, as it allows entire urban ecosystems to be taken into account at once. In the day and age of megaregions, planning for a single city or country simply does not make sense anymore, as good urban planning requires every aspect of the urban ecosystem to be evaluated and accounted for.


 *Map Attribution:

Maps by America 2050, Regional Plan Association are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.america2050.org.