GIS -- What Does It Mean?

This is a "random" post as my daughter would say.

Yesterday, while listening to news while visiting southern California, it was noted that a team from a company called "Geographical Information Systems" was sent to the Gulf of Mexico to help with the oil spill. It finally dawned on me what "GIS" stands for at the NDIC map: GIS Map Server. If you go there, the map server is in the sidebar on the left, about halfway down.

If anyone is really interested in "GIS," click here for a Wikipedia discussion.  It's sort of like GUI ("graphical user interface" -- the acronym made famous by Apple Computer, Inc., years ago when talking about "WYSIWYG" -- pronounced "wissi-wig"). It's hard to believe but there was a time with WINTEL (Microsoft Windows software / Intel chip), one did not always have such a nice interface.

Understanding the NDIC GIS Map Server, Tips:

1. Spacing units