If you are a law enforcement official, you’ll understand the power of geospatial imagery as an essential enabler of location and terrain intelligence gathering. But while traditional satellite imagery and GIS systems provide invaluable situational awareness capabilities, they don’t always provide all the answers. For one, traditional geospatial imagery is orthogonal, i.e. “a top down view”, which flattens the landscape and gives no perspective, making it tricky to gain a true representation of terrain or buildings – after all it’s hard to pre-plan a mission or understand potential risk factors about a structure or location when all you see is an anonymous tiled roof and vague perimeter.

Green building has been a hot topic for a while, but new building projects aren’t the only thing getting attention. In fact, according to the Green Building Retrofit & Renovation SmartMarket Report, only 1.5% - 2.5% of building stock in the U.S. is new each year. To add to that, green building comprises 5-9% of current building projects and that number is expected to increase to 25% -30% in the next five years. The report, found here, details data collected from market research and qualitative case studies (there are 20 highlighted in this report) showing the highly positive trend of green building projects, even in the government sector.

We’re all used to regular software patches and security updates, but oftentimes if you want to benefit from the latest and greatest product features, you usually have to fork out for the latest and greatest software release. Not so with Autodesk, if you are a customer on Autodesk Subscription. Autodesk offers early access to new Autodesk software features through its Autodesk Subscription Advantage Packs (ASAP) program. With ASAP, users can download and install the latest product features and enhancements on the 2010 and newer software versions.

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times, Stopping Crime Before it Starts (link to article?), explores the practice that sophisticated analysis of data can sometimes tell law enforcement where criminals are headed. The notion, known as ‘predictive policing’ uses computer analysis of information about previous crimes to predict when and where future crimes will occur. The LAPD has positioned itself at the center of the predictive policing universe, teaming up with UCLA, where researchers are studying the ways criminals behave in urban settings.

The Empire State Building in New York City is one of the most iconic modern buildings of our time. Built in 1930, the height of the building and speed of construction made it one of the seven wonders of the modern world. However, the engineers and architects of the 1930’s did not exactly consider such things as sustainability or carbon footprint.

During the month of August, DLT Solutions teamed up with Autodesk for a webcast to showcase Autodesk Utility Design with RUS standards build-in. The webcast titled, Design Efficiencies with Built-In RUS standards, focused on: these key areas: • Improve Staking Sheet productivity • Optimize material expenditures • Improve consistency within organization

Green buildings, green transportation, green computing, in fact all things green, is a hot trend. In the public sector, “green” isn’t just the ideal – “green” is mandated. Since the Obama administration moved into the White House, green legislation and “green IT’ directives have been fast-tracked culminating in October 2009 with Executive Order 13514 which, to quote the White House: “…expands the energy reduction and environmental requirements of Executive Order 13423 by making reductions of greenhouse gas emissions a priority of the Federal government, and by requiring agencies to develop sustainability plans focused on cost-effective projects and programs.”

Emergency preparedness is often times something most residents don’t think about until they’re face to face with a disaster. By then it could be too late. Louisiana is doing their part to stop this trend and help residents with emergency preparedness. The Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) have released the first public version of Google Earth Enterprise. This new software, called Louisiana Earth, will assist the citizens of Louisiana in emergency planning. Released as part of the state's "Get a Game Plan" campaign, Louisiana Earth uses Google Earth Enterprise to assist citizens in creating evacuation plans. LA Earth provides access to all of the states evacuation routes, sheltering points, historical hazard data and other information that is essential during an evacuation such as locations of and available occupancy of hotels, gas stations, pharmacies, grocery stores, veterinary clinics and banks.

I regularly check out my local Home Owners Association online discussion boards to get the scoop on neighborhood events and happenings. And, living close to the nation’s capital, transportation issues are often top of mind for us all. So I found myself following a popular thread about a local road construction project. Being the resourceful neighbors that we are (and just a little curious to know whether said project would help or hinder commuter traffic) the thread took on it own life as we harnessed our collective information gathering power to get the scoop. One contributor tracked down information from Virginia DOT’s web site; then another posted a Google Maps aerial image of the area; others chimed in with some local hearsay and, eureka, we concluded that our little hometown road project was in fact a step in the right direction towards easing congesting at a major commuter route interchange.

18 years ago. It was 1992. Gas prices were a mere $1.13 per gallon, our Vice President infamously misspelled everyone’s favorite Idaho export, and the Buffalo Bills lost in the Super Bowl…again. 1992 also marks the last time AutoCAD, Autodesk’s flagship 2D and 3D design software, was available on Apple computers. Fast forward to 2010. While the Bills are still losing, AutoCAD is talking steps in the right direction. Earlier this week Autodesk announced they will release a new version of its most popular computer-aided design software and engineering tool, AutoCAD, that will run natively on Mac OS X.