French breakfast at Google

French company sues Google over its Maps service

Google is looking to establish a monopoly in the mapping market.

Dear French guys, it seems you have woken up in the middle of the night and with one of hand in a chamberpot. Or you’ve just came back from long journey to Mars what would explain the disorientation and the fact you’ve overlooked the growing monopoly, which many see as having acquired too much power, too fast, without the wisdom to use that power responsibly.

In case you haven’t caught it yet: searching, mapping, e-mailing, multimedia & broadcasting, blogging & micro-bloging, documents, chats and business talks (many companies use Google Talk for communication, so Google has, and crackers may have too, fairly easy access to their business secrets), science & research (probably the highest density of PhD owners is in Google offices, but not in any university on the planet), storage of personal and sensitive information (medical records, health profiles, personality profiles, …), be or not to be (what’s not in Google it has never ever existed), <your favourite stuff goes here> All these belong to the Giant.

Vampires give interviews only in the movie. In real life, they suck the blood of the living.

Guys, give it up. Take your golden parachute. Relax. Book a flight to one of the sunny islands. Buy new shorts and live good life running a surf shop :-)

Linux.com about GeoServer

Linux.com published an interesting article – a tutorial – about famous components of Free and Open Source Software stack for Web Mapping. Justin Palk, the author, gives a very accessible introduction to building Web Mapping solution using GeoServer, PostGIS and OpenLayers. I think it’s a great writing for anyone who takes first steps in Web Mapping with FOSS4G.

Serving and styling maps with GeoServer by Justin Palk on September 24, 2008

EEA / Microsoft partnership

It is 3 months old news, but I’ve found it very recently. In the middle of May 2008, European Environment Agency announced they signed a partnership with Microsoft. The aim of this collaboration is (or was) to create ”an environmental information platform” based on Microsoft’s Virtual Earth.

In July 2008, EEA/Microsoft launched Eye on Earth platform with Water Watch component combining scientific data and Web Mapping to present water quality in European countries:

Currently, it includes information on the water quality for more than 21.000 bathing sites throughout Europe

More on http://www.eyeonearth.eu/