iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Back at the #esriuc2026. This is year too many to count. It is less and less about the software every year, and more about the people and projects using spatial data to change the world. This is my annual GIS battery recharge. If you’re going to be around, happy to meet up and talk shop. #gis

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Likely an impertinent question, but in those 5 minutes, did you turn on either the water or the garbage disposal? Just checking your data for bias.

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Matthew @dlthings.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

# of paragraphs for news orgs to mention there's no discernable need to deploy troops to Portland, Oregon The Guardian: 1st paragraph BBC: 4th paragraph AP: 5th paragraph Time: 6th paragraph Politico: 8th paragraph NPR: 9th paragraph CNN: 10th paragraph NBC: 12th paragraph Fox News: never mentions

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Andrea Junker @strandjunker.com · 13/09/2025

The fact that Matthew Dowd lost his job for pointing out Charlie Kirk’s hate speech, while Brian Kilmeade openly suggests we should euthanize the homeless and there is zero outrage, shows exactly what is terribly wrong with today’s political mainstream media.

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Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Noticing a theme here.

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Clearly your cat has a better grasp of what your priorities should be than you do.

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Aye, for at 0%, every hour is 5 o’clock everywhere.

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

People with random knowledge, and a willingness to share it, are what we need more of in the world. We all know things. Sharing them lifts everyone up and gives that little spark of joy at learning some odd tidbit you wouldn’t have found out except by that chance interaction.

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

These are fantastic! Deep sea muppets need a series. Feel like there should be a pirates of the Caribbean crossover with the dead sailors from the black pearl.

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

So I have to ask, what about ArcPro would make this better? Do you want the contours smoother because they look better, or because you think they are more accurate? Are contours easier to symbolize in Pro than QGIS? Sorry, asking seriously to see what the functional differences are.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 11/06/2025

W.E.B. Du Bois on Robert E. Lee: “Either he knew what slavery meant when he helped maim and murder thousands in its defense, or he did not. If he did not he was a fool. If he did, Robert Lee was a traitor and a rebel–not indeed to his country, but to humanity and humanity’s God.”

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Hi all. I’m trying to connect to a MS SQL Server DB from Postgres using a FDW, and am having trouble getting the connection string right. Has anyone done this successfully on a windows server? Any assistance or pointers would be much appreciated. #gischat #postgresql

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Turns out what I found was the flatgeobuf format. Looks like it has a translator in the OGC package, so I will have to give that a shot for converting small datasets to for use on the web. Too much new stuff to keep up with! 😊 flatgeobuf.org

flatgeobuf.org

FlatGeobuf

A performant binary encoding for geographic data based on flatbuffers

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Web geo people. I need help tracking down something. A few months back, I ran across info about a library or script that could be used to serve layers from a geo package out to the web without setting up a full product like geo server or map server. I can’t find it now. Any ideas? #gischat

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

I use a Firefox with an ad blocker and a No Script plugin. DuckDuckGo may have one. NoScript does as it says and blocks scripting running on the page. It is broken down by originating site so you allow the parts to make the site work and block the ones that serve ads, etc. Extra work, but worth it.

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

Son is off school today. He told me he wants to play a game. My recent history of watching YouTube horror movie clips is haunting me as now all I hear in my mind is a tape of the guy from the “Saw” movie franchise starting up and him saying that. 🤣🤣

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Eleven Films @elevenfilms.com · 26/11/2024

Did you know BlueSky only has 20 employees? We would like to say a huge THANK YOU to those 20 warriors (who are working 24/7 to keep up with the incredible growth) for giving us a space to share. We escaped hell to be here. Thank you, @bsky.app & Jay Graber CEO (not a billionaire)

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Aquila Flower @aquilaflower.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

The Salish Sea contains all of Puget Sound, as well as the Strait of Georgia and Strait of Juan de Fuca. If you want to learn more about the Salish Sea's geography, check out my overview here arcg.is/1D8rDX0

arcg.is

Salish Sea Atlas - Table of Contents

The Salish Sea Atlas is a free, open access, digital atlas of the Salish Sea Bioregion. Each chapter explores a different theme with text, images, interactive maps, and data download links. Learn more...

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Thank you for this information! The Salish Sea Atlas you created is a fantastic resource! I remember hearing the name Salish Sea occasionally , but am more disconnected from Pacific Northwest topics than I used to be, and never followed up. I appreciate this cultural and ecological definition.

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

This really begs the question of why our brain appears to mostly use our long-term archived memories, to torture us? Anyway, congrats on your PHD versary! I saw my wife complete her masters and the level of effort. A phd is an order of magnitude more. A great accomplishment, even ten years on!

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Humble apologies for being off topic, but I read your first couple lines and thought you were obliquely referring to your dog fishing for catfish. 🦮🐟 Reading further, that would be the surprise of a dogs life if they grabbed on that big a fish!!

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Aquila Flower @aquilaflower.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Winter is coming and the #30daymapchallenge Day 25's prompt is "Heat", so obviously I made a map of the 1991-2020 average winter minimum temperatures across the Salish Sea Bioregion 🙂 #geography #cartography #GIS #SalishSea #climate

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Pretty amazing how far the temperature moderating influence of the water stretches inland. Is the Salish Sea considered to contain all of Puget Sound, or is it just part of the bioregion?

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

He quite clearly has this all figured out. 😁

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TheGratefulDeadpool @gratefuldeadpool.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

This needs to be said, loud, and often.

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Also I realize from looking up rayrender that you may be talking about rendering light in a scene somehow and I may be talking completely out my ass. If that’s the case, I humbly apologize!!

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

By path tracing, are you looking for paths between certain points, or a path from each point to every other point? Are the paths a street network or some such? Just spitballing here, but it seems like depending on your constraints, there could be some geospatial solutions that may work.

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Conspiracy of Cartographers @conspiracyofcarto.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

My redesign of the downtown Seattle Metro Service map--as seen on the screen and in the wild.  #seattle #transit #maps #transitMaps #wayfinding

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

But is the number of people doing it statistically significant?

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

The developers of @postgresql.bsky.social and @postgis.bsky.social. Having a spatially enabled RDBMS allowed me to build the GIS in IB within the budget constraints we had at the time. #qgis and other #foss4g packages have allowed me to continue and build out. #gischat

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 19/11/2024

I open my Bluesky feed and it is full of really cool people saying really smart things and being really passionate about really interesting stuff. I like this version of social media, and the world. Thanks, folks.

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

This thread, and others in a similar vein, ie, people passionately expressing their interest and joy in something without being mocked or teased, are probably the best things I’ve seen since moving over here. Please keep it up. Threads like this are so fun and informative!! 😊

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

I, along with a colleague, have identified ourselves as the Statler and Waldorf of our department. 🤣🤣

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

The argument for books, and your arguments can and do coexist. They are not mutually exclusive.

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Pretty sure most of the usual suspects have made their way here. Search #GIS, there are a few starter packs out there that will let you add a bunch of people to get started. #gischat

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Pretty sure that would qualify as top tier content! Please do! #gischat

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

I can spend time playing with my son, or be on twitter so I get exposure to the “other viewpoint” of people who never cared about my viewpoint in the first place. I will happily enjoy the burgeoning goodness of Bluesky and keep my stress normal.

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Bleets, because according to some, we are all sheep here. 🤣

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

As long as you don’t want to talk to us about our extended warranty, it’s fine.

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

The flood of eye related puns running through my brain upon seeing these two posts was almost overwhelming, but I will spare you. I did want to say I love the shading of each eye on the grayscale drawing. It is really quite striking!

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Dr Joby Razzelliot @jobium.bsky.social · 02/11/2024

21,000 workers have died so far while working on that ridiculous Line city in Saudi Arabia. Remember that next time you see a fancy sponsored ad for it.

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 30/10/2024

A number of years ago, I may have deleted the data directory for my prod database from the server during the day. Not my finest moment. Took a quick note to IT to get it restored and working again. 😱🤷‍♂️ #gischat

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 25/10/2024

While I mostly came here for the geospatial content, #foss4g, #gischat, and mapping things, the number of other interesting rabbit-hole tracing opportunities arising from posts coming through on my “Discover” feed, is really quite lovely! I also apparently like run-on sentences. 😊

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 23/10/2024

This is interesting as it seems the utility space has had fairly heavy focus as far as presenting GIS as a tool, for many years now. Do you still see a pretty large lack of knowledge as a reason more utility agencies haven't implemented, or something else, like funding, staffing, etc? #gischat

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 23/10/2024

I'm going to get hate for this, but it is when people actively in the geospatial field, only understand GIS and data in the context of ArcGIS. ie: "My data is in ArcGIS Pro." No, your data is in a database or some other storage format that you view/edit/analyze in ArcGIS Pro! #gischat

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Russell Mercer @getspatial.bsky.social · 23/10/2024

NPR - Wait wait don't tell me www.npr.org/podcasts/344...

npr.org

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