LizardTech software architect and occasional Zoom blogger Mike Rosen and I put together an article for GeoWorld about LiDAR data — why LiDAR is so big (both in file size and in popularity), the havoc that its size has caused in efforts to harness its impressive imaging power, and the various ways the geospatial industry has attempted to bring this leviathan to its knees.

The thing about LiDAR. Hot off the press.

Among other things, Mike is lead developer on our LiDAR Compressor project, so his insight into the challenges that LiDAR presents the industry with is keen, and since he’s been with LizardTech since MrSID was very young, there are ways, he notes, in which this is a familiar story.

The article is called “The Inaccessible Plenty: Trying to Tame LiDAR’s Largeness.” Read it here.

And if whopping LiDAR point clouds are your cup of tea (or your cross to bear, or even a horror that you just can’t pull your eyes away from), GeoWorld’s editor, Todd Danielson, will be joining us Thursday, January 24, for a webinar with our own geo-jockey, Robert Parker*, to hear the good news and follow up in a practical way on the lessons learned in the article.

We won’t run out of virtual chairs, so sign up and then drop in to pick up some LiDAR Compressor best practices. Webinar details are here.

*Actually, Robert is our sales engineer, but his renown as a calm, reassuring webinista who can put you at ease with LizardTech’s powerful suite of geospatial software products through the simple medium of a shared desktop has led him to consider a second career as a high-tech spiritual guru.

When we release a product that we feel as good about as Express Server 8, we want to talk about it. Todd Danielson of GeoPlace.com obliged us by interviewing our director of product management, Jon Skiffington, in Denver when we launched the product, and he’s published the podcast on the GeoPlace.com website.

Among other things, Jon discusses Express Server’s new admin interface and support for Geospatial PDF as a source format.

If you are using Adblock you may not be able to see the podcast player, which is in the same column as some large advertisements. In that case you can always listen to the interview on iTunes by visiting http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/geocasts/id554619958?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4.

In the podcast player’s list the interview is titled “LizardTech Interview”.

Our director of product management, Jon Skiffington, was ready to meet the press at the recent Esri International User Conference in San Diego. Which was a good thing, because the press showed up in the form of Sanjay Gangal of GISCafé and Alexis Brumm of Point of Beginning (POB) Magazine.

First, here’s a video of Jon’s chat with Sanjay, in which he wastes no time dishing up a very accessible one-minute primer on our product line, and even talks a little about the upcoming release of a new version of our Express Server product.

Sanjay Gangal of GIS Café interviews Jon on the show floor.

And because it’s always good to get a second opinion, here’s Jon responding to questions posed by Alexis. She pitches them right over the plate (what makes the MrSID software so popular, which of our products have drawn the most interest and why, and how are software developments affecting the market?) and Jon smacks them all into the outfield. We thought he came pretty well prepared, and in fact listening to his answers made us realize afresh why it’s so cool to be able to say we’ve been a part of LizardTech’s 20-year (so far) history.

Jon talking with Alexis Brumm of Point of Beginning Magazine.

If you’re using the MrSID format you’re a part of that history, too. If you’re not, well…it’s not too late. LizardTech plans to be making a lot more history in the years to come, and you might find that our geospatial software products could make your workflow easier or save you time and money right now, today! Contact your local LizardTech representative to become a part of the epic saga.

We’re pretty pumped. Why? Well, we always are — that’s how we make such great software. But in particular, our white paper on the MrSID Generation 4 (MG4™) technology has been republished by the good folks at GeoPlace.com, so that word about the format’s new features — support for multispectral imagery, alpha band transparency, support for LiDAR point cloud data and improved mosaics — can reach an even wider audience of users.

If you haven’t seen it yet we encourage you to read it and learn about the capabilities of LizardTech’s latest version of the format that first made it possible for geospatial professionals to use high resolution imagery in their applications and that continues to evolve with advancements in geospatial imaging.

Visit GeoPlace.com, look for the section “White Papers” in the main column on the home page, and click Download now.

GISuser‘s Glenn Letham recently blogged about how he found himself unable to connect to one of our webinars via Webex’ PC client but at the last minute he noticed that the Webex invitation had also included a link to an iPhone app that he didn’t even know about. With a little quick emailing, he was able to connect after all and logged in just in time.

We didn’t know about this method either and we thought it was news worth sharing. For those of you who have an iPhone and are curious about how you might use it to attend one of our webinars, here’s the relevant excerpt from his report:

there i was, sitting in a coffee shop grabbing a cup and loading the PC client from WebEx when the app failed and wouldn’t load for me (perhaps I missed something but I looked around and couldn’t troubleshoot the problem). Luckily a link to the WebEx iPhone app was provided.

So, I simply forwarded the email with the link to my gmail account (accessible via my iPhone mail client), installed the application, and logged into my webinar… right on time. The application serves up a slide show, complete with list of attendees and ability to chat (an option to review slides would be good). The app then called me and I listened to the audio portion via phone call streamed to my headphones so i wouldn’t disturb anyone inn the coffee shop – great stuff!

Glenn’s tip is timely because we’ve got another webinar coming up on January 26 at 11 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. In WMS: Behind the Scenes, you’ll learn the technical details of how WMS works to serve map data to network users. Sound interesting? Why not register right now?

For more information about upcoming LizardTech webinars, visit http://www.lizardtech.com/events/webinars.php.