Where I go the Lizards follow, or maybe it’s me who’s following the Lizards?

I recently took my family on a long awaited vacation to Maui. When we announced it to the kids back in January, our four-year-old daughter and one-year-old twins, they were ecstatic. (OK, so maybe the twins didn’t really “get it” until we got there, but my older daughter has been excited for months.)

One of the more colorful of the plastic LizardTech lizards.

As a habit, I, the always-prepared-for-anything mom, take lots of snacks and toys on the plane to keep my kids busy so they are less likely to irritate the “can’t stand kids that scream” passengers (nothing against you, I was in your shoes once myself). Among the toys I always bring along the ever-so-popular LizardTech Lizards. They are small enough to fit in my pocket and provide a big enough attraction to keep my kids busy playing with them for a while. Can’t go wrong!

Having arrived at our condo and dumped our luggage in a corner, we were ready to hit the sandy beach! As we were running along the pathway to the water, I stopped dead in my tracks as I saw something small with a tail run across my pathway. Immediately I thought: a rat! Wait — that’s too small for a rat. A mouse? Still, a mouse is a bit bigger. Plus, how dare rats and mice ruin my perfect paradise getaway by showing themselves in broad daylight.

A rat? A mouse? No, an authentic lizard!

Suddenly it dawned on me – it looked like the little plastic LizardTech Lizard I had had to snatch out of my son’s mouth on the plane. Did my husband play a joke on me and tie a string to the plastic LizardTech Lizard and run it across the sidewalk SOMEHOW? No, he was running behind me with the kids (I must get to the water first!).

That’s when a friendly Westin Hotel employee walked up to me asking if I’m OK. I must have had “that look on my face.” I told him what I saw and he laughed with delight saying “what you saw was a little lizard.”

“WHAT? A LizardTech Lizard?”, I asked.

He looked puzzled. “No, a Maui authentic lizard.”

Wow, I thought to myself. I’ve been to Hawaii four times and this is the first time I saw a lizard.

I see lizards…everywhere!

And so my quest to find more “Maui authentic” lizards began. We saw them virtually everywhere, at the park, playground, running across sidewalks, by the pool, on the trees and so on. I even took a few pictures to share. Enjoy and remember, next time you’re in Maui, you’re not alone. There’s a lizard watching you whether you like it or not!

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So, this is my story. Since I’m a LizardTech employee I am not eligible to submit this “lizard tale” for a chance to win a swanky new iPad 2 as part of our Esri contest. But you can! It’s not too late, so submit your story today!

Here are all the details: http://www.lizardtech.com/landing/esriipad/index.php

Good luck!

Justyna

LizardTech and its products have appeared several times recently in industry publications, which always makes us smile. Here’s a roundup:

• Military Geospatial Technology
  LizardTech’s senior product manager, Jon Skiffington, was interviewed about our Express Suite line of geospatial products in the July issue. In particular he talks about how the new features in Express Server 6.1 benefit our Department of Defense and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency customers. See it here:
  http://www.mgt-kmi.com/article.cfm?DocID=2527
• GISUser
  Editor Glenn Letham posted an article detailing how Chevron and Enbridge are benefiting from LizardTech products titled “On the Spot GIS: Geospatial Technologies Make Image-Based Mapping Truly Mobile.” This article was written by LizardTech’s technical writer Matt Fleagle and Kevin Corbley of the PR agency Corbley Communications. There is a link to this piece from the GISUser home page, or you can simply follow this link:
  http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/15523/28/
• Imaging Notes
  This one is not yet online, but the summer 2008 issue features an article titled “Data Integration – Software Companies Expand and Consolidate,” for which Jon Skiffington was interviewed. Jon talks about GeoExpress, Express Server and Spatial Express working seamlessly together.

Update: This is online now at:
http://imagingnotes.com/go/article_free.php?mp_id=137&PHPSESSID=9cdd09529a6b183fbd05bdeeed660fc8

• GeoConnexion International
  Alistair Maclenan, LizardTech’s representative in Europe, wrote an article with Southampton City Council about how GeoExpress came to their rescue in the U.K. Open a PDF of the article at:
  http://www.geoconnexion.com/uploads/local_government_intv7i8.pdf

I was excited to see the July/August 2008 issue of Geo:Connexion. It features a review of GeoExpress 7 by Chris Hanson from 3D Nature and AlphaPixel. This is a follow-up to a GeoExpress 6 piece he wrote last time around. Chris talked with Jon Skiffington, our senior product manager, prior to writing this piece in order to understand the latest features that come with this version.

Near the end, Chris says that “GeoExpress 7 offers some great improvements in workflow and features which will be welcomed by nearly every current GeoExpress user, and we can wholeheartedly recommend the upgrade on that basis.” He concludes with the following: “64-bit operating systems and applications are the future, and GeoExpress is on the way.”

Chris gives details in his article, which you can read online here (http://www.geoconnexion.com/search_int/articles/GeoExpress+7/0) if you have an account. Or you can just pick up the current copy of Geo:Connexion magazine on newsstands now.