News & Blogs 47% of the us is uninhabited?

[shabti]

So I'm learning this new technology called GIS. If you've ever used google earth, or mapquest, or...well, lots of stuff actually, GIS is the maps-and-computer stuff that allows the weatherman to trace out storms across a big blow up map. Thing is: anyone can make these maps. and have them display any data you want. Want to make a map of indian reservations in the US? And then color those areas by population density? Boil that down to "tribes where drugs are used for religious purposes?" and then throw on a layer for every train track and highway in the US? boom. You can do just that with GIS, and more importantly, you can do it for free.

So this guy wrote a book teaching how, and I was reading his website, and ye fellowe traversers of the earth might be interested to know that according to the US census boo-row, nearly half of the US is uninhabited!

http://mapsbynik.tumblr.com/post/82791188950/nobody-lives-here-the-nearly-5-million-census

This software is FREE! it's called qGIS (or quantam GIS.) and I'm like, ADD'd out on it right now. One track mind and shit. The concepts are the hardest part to learn, (vectors? Rasters? shapefiles?) but once you learn what they are on a conceptual level, you can do all kinds of stuff. Make a map of cities that criminalize the homeless, make a map of....edible vegetation regions in uninhabited portions of the US and current weather data....yeah. All kinds of stuff, super useful.

 

[Tude]

Interesting stuff - I need to do some more reading - thanks for the info!! I am moving this though to general - news stories where it should get some more travel. I'm going to look up that software too - now THAT reallyd interests me. Thanks!!

 

[Desperado Deluxe]

Wonder if you could use it for finding places rich in minerals?