Vessel Tracking Website Beckons Armchair Seafarers

Let's face it:  I'm a transportation geek--if you haven't noticed already!  On my regular walk downtown to work, during inclement weather or when I am running late, I sometimes take the MAX light rail one stop within Portland's Fareless Square.  Earlier this week, I first noticed Tri-Met's Rail System Map, and managed to miss my stop while studying it!      

My interest does not wane at the water's edge.  I have long been fascinated with the newspaper port calendar that describes the local movements and moorings of ships, ocean-going tugs, and barges.  Local editor and writer Brian Doyle, eloquently explained our common interest in an Oregonian essay earlier this year.  But like most paper publications, port calendars now have online, real-time competitors.   Vessel-tracking websites display information transmitted by Automatic Identification System (AIS) radio transponders.  AIS is a short-range, coastal tracking system in which all passenger ships and all but the smallest cargo vessels must participate per international convention.  There are a number of websites that provide AIS-based geographical information systems (GIS),  most of which charge for their most interesting services.

"The New World of Wireless": Mobile Communication Everywhere, All the Time

What will the world be like when almost everyone -- and everything -- can interact over a wireless web? The New World of Wireless: How to Compete in the 4G Revolution by Scott Snyder helps business planners ask the right questions and choose the right answers. Snyder portrays a world in which all of us and many of our possessions join a "Digital Swarm" of people and devices that interact continuously and richly.