I’ve started GIS I this term and today’s lab introduced me to ArcCatalog, which is an awesome way to browse, preview and manage your spatial data. 3+ years ago we just haphazardly moved stuff between directories using Windows Explorer and often got stung. It was not an elegant way to handle data.
This is the equivalent of an iTunes for GIS data, but it’s not a free app. That’s fine though since it does way more than an iApp does. You can search based on name, file type, geographic region, and more. You can also search locally or on remote locations that you can connect to over the internet. I’m quite impressed and look forward to using it on something more than a simple exercise.