We have a satellite imagery group that is responsible for analyzing imagery of nuclear sites.   They were looking for ways to allow their data to be used by others who are not spatial imagery experts.   The data included raster data(Satellite imagery), vector data (Shapefiles), and photos and documents.  They were interested in using publicly available imagery data(e.g. Google earth, Bing Maps)  and integrated all this into a single application.

I did a prototype using Microsoft Silverlight and the Bing Maps Silverlight Control.   The requirements for this prototype were:

• Quickly navigate to nuclear sites
• Show pictures and documents for that nuclear site
• Overlay our internal satellite data and vector data for the site 
• Integrate a spatial search capability

The prototype was done in 3 weeks.  I had already done projects with Windows Presentation Foundation so learning Silverlight was straightforward.  The difficulty in using Silverlight is knowing what was missing.  

Six usability tests(nuclear inspector persona) were done and that feedback plus the feedback from the satellite imagery group was used to update the design. 

I had to remove the satellite imagery layers due to license restrictions, but you can view the demo without those layers.

Click here to view the demo… 

Or you can view 6 screen shots below

Navigate to a nuclear site  Choose a country.  Map zooms to country.  Choose a site.  Map zooms to site and the site icon and the layer panel appear for that site.

	Nuclear Site Details Click on a nuclear site icon and general information about that site appears.
	Integrated Photo Viewer Click on photos and they are displayed in the photo viewer..
	Satellite image layer Black and white satellite image of the IAEA headquarters is overlaid on top of Bing Earth data
	Satellite image layers 2 satellite images overlaid on top of each other.  A color satellite image over a black and white satellite image over Bing Earth data
	Integrated Spatial Search Integration with Bing Earth search web service.  If search term is found map zooms to that location

]]> http://www.scottmillersnotes.com/?feed=rss2&p=114 2 http://www.scottmillersnotes.com/?p=101 http://www.scottmillersnotes.com/?p=101#comments Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:22:04 +0000 Scott Miller http://www.scottmillersnotes.com/?p=101

Recently I purchased a Logitech Squeezebox Duet to allow me to wirelessly stream music from my Windows Home Server.  I ran into a number of problems, so I decided to document the steps I took to get this working.

Steps Overview:

1. Verify your  wireless connection can stream music(optional)
2. Upgrade your Windows Home Server hardware(optional)
3. Setup the SqueezeCenter software on your Windows Home Server

Step 1: Verify your wireless connection

The main problem was that while streaming music I would get intermittent stops in the music.  The signal strength meter on the Squeezebox remote was good but at random points the music would stop. 

It turns out that it was wireless interference.  This is no problem is you are using a laptop but streaming requires more from your wireless signal. 

To fix it I changed the Wireless Channel number on my wireless router from the default of 1 to 3. 

Step 2: Upgrade the Home Server hardware

My HP EX 470 came standard with 512MB RAM.  This is really inadequate for the SqueezeBox software.  I found some excellent instructions on how to upgrade to 2GB of RAM and also on how to upgrade the virtual memory.

Step 3: Setup the SqueezeCenter software

1. Install the Squeeze Center software on the Home Server 
   Follow these instructions on how to install the SqueezeCenter software on your Home Server.   Those instructions recommend running the SqueezeCenter under a different account than the Administrator account.  I setup a User Account called Squeeze that runs the service as well as iTunes
2. Install iTunes on your Home Server under the Squeeze user account
   The SqueezeCenter software can read your music from a disk location(the default) or use iTunes.  I prefer iTunes.  Now we want to have SqueezeCenter read the music information from iTunes
3. Load the music you want to play in iTunes
   Start with a small number of music files to test
4. Set SqueezeCenter to use iTunes 
   Run the SqueezeCenter software.  Open the Settings screen.    
   Under the Basic Settings tab clear the Music Folder and Playlist folder settings.  
    
5. Sync SqueezeCenter to your iTunes library(optional)
   If you want to immediately see the music in SqueezeCenter  go to Basic Setting tab and manually ReScan the Music Library. 
   
   You should now see your music in the SqueezeCenter music list 
6. Test your connection to the SqueezeCenter
   On your SqueezeCenter remote go to Settings—>Music Source.  You should see the name of the your home server as a new Music Source.  Select that as the source.  You should now see your music in the list.

I live in Vienna Austria and here we use a payment system called Bankomat.  Some machines were found with a cover over them that allowed criminals to get your card security details to either steal money from your account or make purchases.

The cover looked like the original and did not interfere with the purchases.  Some people did report that their cards had to be inserted farther into the machine and they were difficult to remove, but otherwise you would not notice

How did it work?  As the card was inserted it would record the magnetic strip details.   When the PIN was typed it would be recorded while at the same time allow the original keys to be pressed.  The cover was later collected and the information was used to steal money from your account.