Google Earth for iPhone Released
Software Updates
Exciting Changes for gINT Software
If you haven’t read today’s gINT Software press release on their new Google Earth capabilities in gINT, do that first. Go ahead..I’ll wait.
As readers of this site know, I’m a big fan of utilizing Google Earth as a geoengineering tool, and since I’m a big fan of gINT as a geoengineering tool as well, this news for me was like a match made in heaven! The good folks over at gINT were kind enough to give me a sneak peek at the new Google Earth functionality a couple days ago. And they also discussed a shift in their approach to updates and upgrades that will be of particular interest to all gINT users. Click through for more info. (Screenshot courtesy of gINT Software)
Project Related
Geotechnical Engineering Challenges of British Columbia’s Sea-to-Sky Highway, gateway to the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been enjoying watching the 2010 Olympic Winter games over the past few days. If you have, you know that Whistler is the venue for many of the sports including alpine skiing, luge, skeleton, bobsled, ski jumping, biathlon and cross-country skiing among others. The Whistler area is located about 50-miles or so North of Vancouver. In order to get to Whistler, you need to drive along Highway 99, better known as the Sea-to-Sky Highway. This highway has a long history of geotechnical problems, including some significant structurally controlled rockslides and landslides. In the years leading up to these Olympic Games a fair amount of work was done on the highway with some significant geotechnical innovations.
Software Updates
Geo-Studio 2007 Version 7.1 Released
On April 10, GeoStudio 2007 version 7.1 was released, a significant service pack update. There are numerous bug fixes and some major improvements. Geo-Slope claims that the overall speed of the product is faster when switching between analyses and views, a welcome change. There are some nice changes to the way Sketch Text is handled, which makes it easier to handle annotation of multiple analyses. And something interesting that’s new in SLOPE/W that allows you to specify a “Spatial Mohr-Coulomb†model which allows unit weight, cohesion and friction angle to vary across the geometry as a function of x and y. I can’t think of a case where I would have used such a model, but it is very intriguing. More features listed after the break along with links.