The Wildlife Society of Florida

Tech Corner (by Mike Milleson and guests)

Report invasive species from your iPhone [Smartphone Apps]

IveGot1 is an iphone app developed by the University of Georgia Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health through a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service, in cooperation with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the University of Florida Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. more...

25+ Nature and Wildlife Mobile Apps [Smartphone Apps]

Here's a link to another blog with a brief run down of some nature related iphone and android apps. I hope to take a closer look at some of these in the coming weeks. Thanks Larame for bringing this to my attention.

(8/16/11)

Smartphones for field biologists? [Smartphones]

International Business Times has an article up with a rundown of three Android phones that promise varying degrees of water and shock resistance. The most promising of the bunch looks like the Motorola Defy+, at least in terms of technical specs. Personally I just treat my iPhone like a spoiled infant, and I've been pretty fortunate so far, but I know several biologists who couldn't keep a phone safe if their life depended on it (take a look a t the pie chart below to understand why)... these might be the phones for them. As for us fragile iPhone users, I'll take a look at some rugged cases in a future post.

(8/16/11)

New Trail Maps app for iPhone and iPad by National Geographic (UPDATED) [Smartphone Apps]

I haven't had a lot of time to play with it, but you iPhone users out there might want to check out "Trail Maps" for iOS. It allows you to access USGS topo maps for the whole US, and you can download maps for a specific area before a trip, if you know or suspect that you will be without data (or are on a limited data plan)...keep reading.

(8/12/11)

Adding a handy base map to ArcMap [GIS]

Add free high resolution base maps to ArcMap projects.

If you make the occasional map using ArcMap, you’ve probably dealt with the hassle of finding quality imagery to use as the base layer for the data that you’re trying to display. Here I’m going to walk you through an easy way to add free base maps straight from ESRI into your mapping projects:

$Description: C:\DOCUME~1\MMILLE~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\enhtmlclip\ScreenClip(12).png$ $Description: C:\DOCUME~1\MMILLE~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\enhtmlclip\ScreenClip(11).png$ $Description: C:\DOCUME~1\MMILLE~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\enhtmlclip\ScreenClip(10).png$

Before we begin, here’s the word from ESRI’s website:

“ArcGIS Online standard map services are available at no cost regardless of use.”

Sweet...keep reading

(8/9/11)

Welcome to the FLTWS Tech Corner

Good day fellow wildlifers,

If you’re reading this, which you are, then you’re reading the inaugural post of the FLTWS tech corner blog. Welcome to the future.

So, what the heck is “Tech Corner”?

The short answer: Tech Corner is a technology blog targeted at wildlife professionals.

The long answer requires answering a few other questions:

1) What is technology?
2) What is a blog?
3) What is a “wildlife professional”?
4) Who the heck is writing this thing?

1) What is technology?

I’m sure there’s some academic answer to this question that fascinates anthropologists, but I’m too lazy to look that up. As far as I’m concerned, technology is any tool that a nerd used before you did. Examples include computers, smartphones, and gps units. For the sake of keeping this blog relevant, we’ll be liberal with the definition and include information on all sorts of tools used in the field.

2) What is a blog?

As far as I can tell, a blog is just something published on the internet that the author refers to as a blog. Please… don’t email to tell me that it’s a “web log”.

3) What is a “wildlife professional”?

So, this is a really important detail, because I’ve always been told to make sure I know my audience. I know a lot of wildlife professionals (at least 63.5, at last count). If I were forced at gun point to summarize the typical wildlife professional, I’d probably fold under the pressure and get shot. So, I figure I’d better come up with something now, just in case that ever happens. In preparation for the improbable, I give you the typical wildlife professional, in pie chart form:

The first thing that you’ll probably notice is that with so much amazing packed into one person, there just isn’t as much room for the nerd skills required to get a handle on the technology that can be useful on and off the job. So that’s where I come in…

4) Who the heck is writing this thing?

That would be me, although, I welcome guest authors. But enough about guest authors, let me tell you about me. I’m a nerd. Those of you who know me may not be too surprised by this, but now at least it’s out in the open. I love computers (when they work), I like gadgets (when they’re useful), I really enjoy GIS, and I like databases. I also happen to be a wildlife disease biologist for USDA Wildlife Services.

So, to wrap up, we live in an increasingly nerdy world. Computers are in places you never imagined (trust me on this). You live in a world of GPS devices, Access databases, smartphones, wireless hot-spots, toughbooks, and sadly… Farmville.

If all goes well, this “blog” will be a place that wildlife professionals can visit to get caught up on the world of tech, in a manner specifically tailored to your particular blend of awesomeness (see pie chart above). I plan to provide a variety of content. I’ll highlight interesting web-sites that may be of use to wildlife professionals. I’ll produce how-to articles on topics that may make your lives easier, I’ll discuss and review various tech-y tools of the trade, and try to keep up to date on the latest tech news if it applies to wildlife or related fields. I’ll need your help to get it done however. I’ll be very happy to get feedback, suggestions for posts, corrections, ideas, guest articles… you name it. If you have something to add just contact me at the link below.

Email tech corner