Author: smathermather

My primary interest is in understanding ecological processes in a synoptic fashion. This has led me down a long study with Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing as they relate to ecology and biological processes.
3D, OpenDroneMap

Humanitarian UAV Experts Meeting — first blush.

UAViators, MIT Lincoln Labs, UNOCHA, and others organized and hosted the UAViators Experts Meeting on MIT’s campus this weekend. It was a remarkable event, if only for the thoughtfulness and knowledge base of the people in the room. The meeting brought together UAV operators, manufacturers, humanitarians, and a few folks at the intersection of these. For me, it was relevatory with respect to all the … Continue reading Humanitarian UAV Experts Meeting — first blush.

Unknown's avatarsmathermatherLeave a comment
Conference, FOSS4G, FOSS4G, Other

Mini-series on Korean words, part 4: Apologies

In order to function at a most basic level in a given society (which I do not yet in the South Korean context), it is good to know the basic words of courtesy — the equivalents of “Excuse me”, “Pardon me”, “Nice to meet you”, “Hello”, “Goodbye”, etc.. Today we’ll talk about how to say “I’m sorry.” Between talking across cultural / language / expectation … Continue reading Mini-series on Korean words, part 4: Apologies

Unknown's avatarsmathermatherLeave a comment
Conferences, Ecology, FOSS4G, FOSS4G2015

Uninformed botanical musings

I had the good pleasure of attending FOSS4G Seoul. One of the organizers (Heegu Park) early on told me, in response to the workshop I planned, something to the effect of “Whatever you need, Steve, ask for it. Nothing is impossible.”  The organizers truly were capable of fulfilling any request.  More on that later. Last time I was in Seoul, I took lots of pictures. … Continue reading Uninformed botanical musings

Unknown's avatarsmathermatherLeave a comment
Conference, FOSS4G, FOSS4G, National Park, Other

Mini-series on Korean words, part 3: Agglutinative language

Short linguistics aside For me, understanding a language, beyond a memorization of terms, is predicated on the idea that I understand something of the underlying logic to the language. So today, instead of a Korean word, we’ll talk about the term agglutinative. (bless you) In short, what it means is that a language uses a lot of prefixes, stem words, and suffixes, and that these components … Continue reading Mini-series on Korean words, part 3: Agglutinative language

Unknown's avatarsmathermatherLeave a comment
Conference, FOSS4G, FOSS4G, National Park, Other

Mini-series on Korean words, part 2: Land of Mountains and Sea

A good logo is hard to come by. I love the logo of Korean National Park Service. It’s simple, beautiful, has elements of complexity to it, and makes a simple statement: land of mountains and sea. The mountains and the sea are sources of life in Korea, from the resources and farming found on the edge of the mountains, the peace found hiking and visiting … Continue reading Mini-series on Korean words, part 2: Land of Mountains and Sea

Unknown's avatarsmathermatherLeave a comment
Conference, Conferences, FOSS4G, FOSS4G Korea, Other

Google Maps won’t help you much in Seoul…

That could be my whole blog post. Just a PSA. Google Maps in Seoul is like Apple Maps was when they launched — dangerously inaccurate. *I don’t know what is helpful on iOS. I traveled last year with Android only, and my searches so far on iOS are coming up short.* So what should you use? Anything OSM-based isn’t too bad. I really like OSMAnd. … Continue reading Google Maps won’t help you much in Seoul…

Unknown's avatarsmathermatherLeave a comment
Other

Mini-series on Korean words, part 1: Big Bang in Asia

I am going to do a little mini-series on Korean words starting with this post. If you are traveling to Seoul in September for FOSS4G Seoul, this may help a little. I am no Korean language expert (nor even fluent yet), so any corrections are welcome. Let’s start with the Korean word “bang”. This is the romanized version of the Korean word 방, which is composed … Continue reading Mini-series on Korean words, part 1: Big Bang in Asia

Unknown's avatarsmathermather1 Comment