Over the last few weeks I've seen a couple wonky things in QGIS when I scroll in super far, and have had a few friends call me with error messages related to coordinate reference systems (learn more about CRSs here). These issues are common when different layers in your QGIS project are using different CRSs.… Continue reading On The Fly Projection
Back-to-School
As Wisconsin celebrated back-to-school this past week, I thought I'd share some of my musings on classes. One of the more useful things I learned through social dancing is that course content is only one of many reasons to take a class. Attending and participating in a dance classes is one of the best ways… Continue reading Back-to-School
Better Figures
When I'm not maintaining my own blog, I like to read other people's blogs. Today I'm sharing one of my favorites, Better Figures. The lead author, Doug McNeall, is a climate scientist in the UK. He uses his platform to give constructive feedback on graphics used in climate science. This blog isn't updated super frequently,… Continue reading Better Figures
Export Resolution in Draw.io
Last winter I briefly highlighted Draw.io, a free flow charting tool comparable to Microsoft Visio (see that intro here). I use Draw.io pretty frequently, but I still haven't written more detailed how-tos for Spatially Challenged. The interface is pretty user-friendly, so I didn't think there was much worth a step-by-step article. Today is the first… Continue reading Export Resolution in Draw.io
Vocab Words: Perpendicular, Orthogonal, and Normal
I've been digging through (and talking about) definitions of different terrain attributes this week, and one question I got a few times was, "What does orthogonal mean?" Every time I tried to define orthogonal, I used the word perpendicular, so it seemed wise to just define that one today too. Let's start with perpendicular. This… Continue reading Vocab Words: Perpendicular, Orthogonal, and Normal
Stanford Open Courses
I am sharing this resource now because I just remembered how great it was while taking about SQL with a friend, and now I honestly feel bad that I haven't shared it with readers before now. If you aren't familiar with open courses, they are free, online ways to learn new skills. They vary in… Continue reading Stanford Open Courses
Live Twitter Interviews
This summer the Bean Team is interviewing farmers about their experiences with on-farm research as a part of our Boots on the Ground project, which itself is a follow-up to a soybean benchmarking project (learn more about that project here). How can you see these interviews? If you're a Twitter user, just follow @badgerbean to… Continue reading Live Twitter Interviews
Data Source: Climate and Weather
I'm gonna jump back into an older Spatially Challenged series-- data sources. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration manages all sorts of great resources, and they like short and memorable urls (weather.gov, for instance). Today I'm talking about climate.gov, which is a great source for maps and zip code level weather data. Let's start with… Continue reading Data Source: Climate and Weather
US Satellite Images and #NoPlant19
Those of you complaining about the weather may feel validated by this headline from CNN (article here). For the over 1 in 10 Americans work in agriculture and related industries (source), this has real consequences. The increased rain this spring delayed planting, and in some places planting was prevented altogether. The Washington Post has some… Continue reading US Satellite Images and #NoPlant19
Geographically Weighted Regression in SAGA
Since I mentioned kernels last week, I figured this would be a good time to go over the geographically weighted regression (GWR) procedure in SAGA. Once again, I don't have good example data I can post online for this topic, so you'll have to forgive the lack of pictures. GWR is an interesting method with… Continue reading Geographically Weighted Regression in SAGA
