Tell me more ×
Geographic Information Systems Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for cartographers, geographers and GIS professionals. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 34 down vote favorite
17

What are the most annoying facts about our industry/market?

What makes you angry? Is there anything that you can't stand it?

share|improve this question
19  
People who think GIS is google maps. – CaptDragon Apr 13 '11 at 17:53

31 Answers

1 2
up vote -2 down vote

This answer is from someone with a technical background (engineering/software) who's new to GIS:

Why are there so many projection standards? I would have killed myself if it weren't for spatialreference.org.

share|improve this answer
3  
The huge number of projection systems are due to the complexity of the root subject, namely geodesy. The idea here is to transform an irregular 3d surface into a 2d surface using mathematical transformation equation, knowing you can not do it 100% correct. There are 3 mutually exclusive properties of such transformations, the shape, the size and the distance. You can only satisfy one of them at the expense of the other two. More over it's accuracy depends on many other factors, like the area of coverage, your area of application and others. – thelastray May 20 '12 at 10:56
show 1 more comment
1 2

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.