you know there is something fundamentally wrong in this world when one of the bush daughters gets to see a radiohead show and i don't.

Trend prediction! I think that the next skill that IT recruiters are going to be looking for without knowing why is knowledge of KML. It's really just a simple XML format that lets you keep track of geographical locations. Check out that Wikipedia link — KML's not rocket science, but it seems like it's suddenly showing up all over the place.

Maybe it's just my perception of it. Irongeek put together a KML-based hack a while ago allowing a database of unsecured wifi access points to be mapped into Google Earth, but I just saw it today. But there are other, more timely signs: cheap GPS loggers like this one and this one seem to be popping up very quickly. And Mologogo appears to have only gotten KML support in January. I'd say we're hovering near buzzword-dom.

There are plenty of other ways to store geographic data, but Google Earth seems to have tipped the hobbyist balance in favor of KML. Everybody says that location-based stuff is going to hit big in the next year or so. Seems like KML is going to be the format of choice for powering it.

That is all!

Also, I swear, entertaining blogging to resume soon. I'm brainstorming, people.