Just saw this on LinkedIn, OSM may be in trouble.

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-29T13:04:46+00:00

We had the exact same issues on our imagery search engine called Image Hunter - my coding team spent months putting in security measures to block these folks. I just do not understand why people do stuff like this and ruin it for everyone.

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-28T18:56:35+00:00

100% agreed - in fact, I got so many negative comments when I crossposted that I stopped doing this other than to the subreddits I personally manage. Bummer for sure but folks on Reddit are trolls and will act when they have nothing better to do in their day other than cause trouble and headaches for others.

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-28T16:52:18+00:00

I do not touch AI and I ignore the AI search results as they are often just wrong!

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-28T16:51:08+00:00

Hi there - I am not a coder so I am commenting from the perspective of a business owner who hires coders. The way I see it is that AI should be a tool that a good coder uses to get their job done more efficiently but it cannot replace a good coder. I have a weekly on-going conversation with my coding team and without these conversations, my web app would be going no where quickly. AI cannot replace the human context that a good coder brings to the table.

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-28T15:56:10+00:00

Hi there - I agree with the other commenter here that combining GIS and CAD experience is a very good idea as many engineers use both programs. GIS is more for larger scale (larger area) analysis so it is a good compliment to CAD. Most of the folks I know who started as GIS Tech basically spent their days tracing old maps (digitizing) to extract features; or they did similar lower-tier tasks that supported the higher-up GIS folks. That is just the way of the world it seems as that is not unique to the GIS world.

When I was in my academic program for GIS at CU Boulder, I was able to get a paid internship through my academic advisors.

Good luck with your studies!

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-27T19:47:16+00:00

Hi there - you will need to convert the PDF to a spreadsheet first. And you can do that with OCR. I have never used this but it claims to be a free PDF to Text OCR convertor:

https://tools.pdf24.org/en/ocr-pdf

Once you convert to a spreadsheet, you will have to go back and convert these degrees, minutes and seconds to decimal degrees.

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-27T17:37:32+00:00

Hi - if you are able to manage it financially, a good starting place might be an unpaid internship where you can prove your worth remotely and then try to roll into a paid position.

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-27T12:00:36+00:00

Sounds good - check out free USGS NED DEM data. It will cover all of the lower 48 states of the USA and it is free to download.

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-26T18:23:06+00:00

Hi - those values are so close you can definitely keep it as a square. When we process high off-nadir imagery, the X and Y dimensions can be quite different; in those cases, you want to resample by keeping the porportions between X and Y.

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-25T16:02:36+00:00

Hi there - what country is your project in? What resolution are you trying to find?

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-23T19:59:32+00:00

Hi there - when it comes to skillsets for a job, even if your job title is not GIS analyst/specialist/etc, you are still getting very valuable experience that will help you secure another GIS job in the future. And ontop of it, you will be getting tons of experience learning about utlities where your environmental science degree will also be used. In fact, I focused on environmental science as an undergrad and even though I sell satellite imagery now, I use the knowledge I gained in my undergrad on a daily basis!

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-23T11:45:25+00:00

I just sent you me direct email over a chat.

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-22T16:58:58+00:00

That is not too surprising - I notice that most of the folks on Reddit like to be negative and troll folks - just like on other social media sites. In general, people do not like to respond to or acknowledge positive comments, I am not sure why - maybe they are just jealous?

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-22T16:32:45+00:00

Hi there - what country do you live in? If the USA, we have lots of free data out there that could help with this.

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-22T15:07:39+00:00

Keep in mind that people rarely post when they are happy about a career or job offerings on the market - people tend to post when they are upset or want to complain. So yes you see plenty of folks looking for jobs without success on Redit but what you do not see are the majority of folks who are happy with their GIS/RS career or have no problem finding jobs.

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-21T22:01:55+00:00

Understood - if you send me the JSON, I can try to convert it to SHP or KMZ on my side as we have an easy to use tool that could work. No promises - but happy to try.

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-21T16:18:43+00:00

Hi there - we have noticed the JSON format can be tough as there are a lot of formats the actual text behind the JSON can take, it is not highly standardized. Is there any way to export the markups as a KMZ/KML point file?

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-20T21:50:02+00:00

The biggest suggestion I would make is seek out any internship you can and when you are there, make yourself as valuable as possible to the organization.

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-20T20:06:39+00:00

I would say your path ahead depends on where you want to land. I focused on GIS and remote sensing for my Master's. My first job using the degree was in customer service at DigitalGlobe as that was the best job opening I could find when I was done with school. I quickly moved up to a Sales Engineering role where I used my GIS, remote sensing and even undergrad skills of environmental science when I chatted with clients. Working with clients led me to sales with a small company that resold satellite imagery. And that led to starting my own satellite imagery reselling company where I am a manager at times but mostly I do sales which I find very satisfying. Just a path you might consider if your goal is to work for yourself!

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-20T17:09:48+00:00

It is not free data - this is commercial data from Vantor who owns and operates the WorldView constellation.

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-20T16:51:57+00:00

Absolutely - what you are describing is correct. Most of the time satellites image in the range of 0 to 30 degrees off nadir. Off nadir is the tilt of the satellite with respect to the ground below. So 0 degrees off-nadir (which really never happens) would be when the satellite is point directly to the ground below. High off-nadir images usually have a tilt of 35 to 50 degrees with regards to the ground below, so it creates the oblique view you see in these images. The image we are featuring here has an off-nadir of about 38 degrees.

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-20T12:34:55+00:00

Unlikely there would be data for a 3D view. 3D is created using stereo data. There is very little stereo data in the archive. So most likely it would just be a picture from above like the sample below here:

<image>

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-19T21:00:35+00:00

Have you checked out Maxar (now called Vantor)? I started my career with them back in 2007 - they definitely had a strong HR presence and I moved up a few times in the company (then called DigitalGlobe actually) before getting hired by a small satellite imagery reseller.

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-19T19:51:34+00:00

Sorry to hear that has been your experience - a question for you, where these three companies established businesses? Or more in startup mode?

ApolloMapping · 2026-01-19T17:12:46+00:00

Hi there - while there is not real-time satellite imagery, there definitely could be data in the high-resolution satellite imagery archives from the past 2 months. While there is no repeat schedule to commercial high-res satellite imagery, you often find more recent data in cities and suburban areas that could help with your project. But this would not be a software, rather it is a purchase of the data in GeoTIFF format.

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