The Open Geospatial Consortium's Simple Features specification, which SQL Server 2008's Geometry data type is based upon, defines standards for working with spatial data using a flat-earth (projected planar) model. Ironically, these standards don't exactly cover the intricacies of using an ellipsoidal model, which is needed to "accurately" represent the world that we live in. In other words, the OGC standards define how to work with paper maps of the world, but not globes.
Fortunately, the SQL Server team recognized that that the Geometry type is inadequate for a lot of scenarios, and implemented a second data type just for representing...
Today is Dustin Campbell's last day as a resident of Ohio. As announced last month, he has left DevExpress and joined the Blue Monster where he'll surely be doing great things as a Program Manager on the Visual Studio team.
So, tomorrow morning, his family will embark on a one-way trip to Seattle and take up residence there. I cannot imagine the whirlwind of emotion that they must be experiencing at the moment! And, I can't imagine that his wife is doing all of this without ever having been to Seattle!
Over the past couple of years, Dustin has become one of my best...