I know a lot of you use some pretty solid computing tools.  I just saw that
google is releasing google earth pro free.  (differences between the
products here:
https://support.google.com/earth/answer/189188?hl=en )

Download link and key in the subtle box at the top here:
https://geoauth.google.com/gev0/free_trial.html
(the banner at the top shows how to get it free, don't fill out the form
unless you bought it in the past).

I have used google earth, kml, and other tools to make some maps showing
theoretical pollination coverage, .5,1,2 mile circles around bee yards,
etc.

Example screenshot of a so-so county beekeeping coverage map from several
years ago:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18YtzqwtLuFbl6z7gEsNJo4_jbEwm-Zzw_uG-T2QYlzE/edit?usp=sharing

It looks like some of the free tools of interest to the beekeeping
community would be better computing of areas of polygons (eg stands of
trees, field sizes, etc).  There are some other nice things it does too,
but are probably of lesser interest to you all.

Obviously the bees don't use these maps, but at least they're useful tools
when you want a ballpark idea of what's going on, what areas are probably
being missed, etc.

On the not-free front, the FLIR attachment for smart phones seems to be a
good bang for the buck historically (I imagine prices will come down
further in the future).  I saw one bee newsletter where they used FLIR
images and quick inspections to try to correlate FLIR images to brood size,
colony size, colony location in hive (split or not).
http://hivetool.net/hive_reports/20150119.pdf

 Also, you can use the FLIR stuff for diagnosing pipe leaks, insulation
problems, amusing fart videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjimTGqK0gU),
etc.  I don't have one, but I'm interested.
http://www.flir.com/corporate/display/?id=52192

Hope this tool talk isn't unwelcome.

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