bioneural.net » car

Get your GPS fix with RouteBuddy 2.2

Bruce — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:11:27 +0000

RouteBuddy is an application for Mac marketed as "iTunes for your GPS" in reflection of some interface similarities. It works with most GPS receivers to plot your live position on high-quality street maps, but can also import and export saved data to/ from some devices, applications, and online services. With full-featured and highly portable personal navigation devices increasingly affordable (e.g. TomTom, Garmin) and free tools available for direction-finding and location-sharing (e.g. Google Maps, Google Earth), you may be forgiven for wondering what gap in the market RouteBuddy aims to fill. This question set the brief for my review as I determined to assess its strengths and weakness against the tools you may use already. Disclosure: A single user license for RouteBuddy 2.1.1–2.2 with UK & Ireland maps was provided by RouteBuddy Ltd. for the purposes of this review. Tested using a 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo MacBook with 2GB RAM. Skip to: Prelude The RouteBuddy interface in brief RouteBuddy and GPS device compatibility Have software, need map Tracking Planning Navigating Importing Exporting Sharing Analyzing Plotting Managing Finding Summary and conclusion Prelude I gave up on Route 66 (now defunct route-planning software) with the arrival of Google Maps, but still largely relied on a spiral-bound paper road atlas—until I hired a car with "sat nav". After a false start with Navman, I migrated to the more Mac-friendly TomTom platform, which led me to discover the sport of geocaching. Then it was back to Navman, and then TomTom again, by which time I had caught up with photo geotagging—and that has become something of a preoccupation. Why am I boring you with ...

Last post from New Zealand

Bruce + Simone — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:46:27 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

We've left Wellington and will shortly leave New Zealand and begin our journey back to the UK via Australia. Project Koru, our "year out" from life in the UK, has essentially run its course. Watching Wellington's harbour disappear from the rear view mirror as we turned into the Ngauranga Gorge for the last time was a sad moment for both of us. Wherever we go next, we'll always be Wellingtonians, as the city at the heart of the world's edge has left a permanent impression upon us. We'll miss Wellington, we've no doubts about that. We had hoped to stay, as Wellington seemed to hold reasonable answers to a few of life's basic questions. What to do? One of the primary reasons for embarking on Project Koru was to allow Bruce to make a difficult decision concerning his career. Would general practice (GP) in New Zealand be a viable alternative to the same in the UK? Should he re-train in a non-clinical discipline such as public health, or leave medicine for IT (where everyone we know personally seems to be under high pressure). The opportunity to try out GP here helped Bruce be clear about his desire to move away from clinical work, and in this respect Project Koru was an unqualified success. Bruce decided on public health as a new career path, complementary to his experience in primary care and medical informatics. Simone was quite happy to continuing working in her chosen speciality of family planning and reproductive healthcare. Where to work? Bruce applied ...

Maintaining a base in the UK

Bruce — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 00:56:12 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

So you're going to live in another country (or go travelling) for a year. What do you do with your existing house, car, and other trappings while abroad? The answers will depend in part on whether your house is occupied (by a tenant or sitter) or stands vacant, but in both cases there are several things to keep in mind as you plan your absence. Council tax Council tax is a local authority tax on domestic property in the UK—the equivalent of regional rates in New Zealand. We phoned our local council and, to confirm we were given the correct information, visited Citizen's Advice in order to find out how much council tax we would be charged. It turns out that if your house is still your primary UK residence and essentially furnished, you will be charged the fully amount of council tax—even though you won't be making use of council services. Paradoxically, if your find a student tenant, you will be charged a reduced rate—even though your household is therefore making use of council services (waste collection, etc.). It's a different story if your house will be vacant and effectively unfurnished: A dwelling which is vacant will be exempt from council tax for up to six months. Vacant means unoccupied and substantially unfurnished... If the dwelling is still vacant after six months, it may be subject to a discount. What if you're expecting guests and your property is exempt? If they're arriving inside the first 6 months, and staying no longer than 6 ...

Singing the Internet's praises

Bruce — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 09:43:42 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Our "new" car is a used Japanese import, so we wanted to be sure of the vehicle's history before going to the expense of a pre-purchase inspection. After purchase we noted that the fitted BMW Business radio could not tune into local radio stations and nor was there an instruction manual for it in the glove compartment. The Internet came through, addressing all three concerns. Before arranging a pre-purchase AA inspection (a physical exam arranged in conjunction with the seller), we were able to check online whether the car in question was a lemon—via AA LemonCheck. Requiring the licence plate number, this vehicle history check resulted in a comprehensive report detailing the known facts about the vehicle, registration details, ownership trail, odometer readings (taken at each Warrant of Fitness), and security interest details. This gave us the VIN, providing additional details via the BMW VIN decoder. After our purchase we realised that although it had been driven in New Zealand for the past 18 months the radio was set to Japanese frequencies (70–90FM), meaning it couldn't receive Wellington's More FM (100FM). The Internet came through for us again, as via Google I found an article describing how to re-program the world tuner to NZ frequencies without needing to buy an FM band expander. For my future reference, the steps were: Turn the radio on (no. 1 below); Within 10 seconds press and hold down the 'm' button (no. 9) until the serial number appears in the display (no. 13); Use the + or - buttons ...

Driving in New Zealand

Bruce — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 03:10:11 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

A few brief notes on cars, fuel prices, parking, licensing, road code, the driving experience, and insurance. Getting a car Second hand cars are supposed to comparatively cheap in New Zealand; we're not so sure. We were exceptionally lucky in that Bruce's parents had a spare Mazda hatchback which we were able to borrow for the duration of our year in NZ. New car prices can be reviewed here. Prices for second-hand cars can be found here or here. Another option is to import a car. The cost of fuel Compared to filling the tank in the UK, petrol is cheap—although Kiwis don't seem to think so. According to PriceWatch, as of this writing 91 octane petrol costs $NZ1.57 (£0.60) per litre in Wellington. This compares well to £0.97 per litre in the UK if you don't take into account lower NZ salaries. Parking As previously noted, initially we rented a car-parking space in the CBD for $NZ276.24 per month. When we moved to our current flat we had access to a private underground park as part of our tenancy. In Wellington Residents' Parking Permits cost $NZ90 per annum, allowing you to park in coupon parking zones as well as residents parking areas within your suburb. Pay-and-display/ metered on-street parking in the CBD costs from $NZ1.50 to $NZ4.00 per hour on weekdays. Our street is one of those having coupon parking; the first 2 hours are free but for longer periods a coupon ($NZ5 per day or $NZ80 per month) must be displayed, and these are ...

Why get Smart?

Bruce — Fri, 13 Feb 2004 07:29:50 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Thinking about buying a Smart city-coupe (fortwo)? The problem with most magazine reviews is their fixation with irrelevancies (e.g. 0-60 mph performance, "only two seats", etc.). If you want a sports MPV then the Smart won't be on your shortlist: if you want a compact, economical city car it could be. Here are some "real world" considerations, positive and potentially negative... I've just part-exchanged my four-door salon for an S-Class escape pod, otherwise known as the Smart city-coupe (Silverpulse special edition): Positives Around 40 mpg (UK) real-world fuel consumption (claimed 60 mpg); Low insurance group; Low road tax; Low emissions; Plastic body panels won't rust when stone-chipped; If you get tired of the colour, you can replace some or all the body panels; High driving position; Seats have good lumbar support; It feels solid; the doors close with a satisfying clunk, control sticks are not flimsy; Passenger space is very reasonable—head room is particularly good; The boot can hold the weekly groceries for two people; You don't have to bend much to get in or out of the car; Hill-start assist means there is a 0.7 sec delay when you move your foot from the brake to the accelerator before the car starts to roll backwards; You can't stall it (there is no clutch pedal); The gear drops down automatically as you slow e.g. for traffic lights; Steering-wheel paddles mean you don't need to take your hands off the wheel e.g. to change gear when cornering; Engine noise isn't nearly as evident as you might expect (the engine is inside the car after-all); You can park in a half-space, or ...