bioneural.net » Travel

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 ...

The incredible dissolution of being

Bruce — Sat, 10 May 2008 20:25:51 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Another former communist-occupied country visited, another monument to the fallen photographed. How did communism's lofty ideal of equality become so twisted and evil, delivering oppression and brutality wherever it was (or is) practised? Having seen the poignant sculpture in Moscow commemorating Stalin's victims, and the collected skulls from the Killing Fields of Pol Pot's Cambodia, I wasn't expecting to find a similar memorial in the Czech Republic so moving. But death is only one way you can hurt people: how do you physically capture the dissolution of a man's spirit? The Memorial to the Victims of Communism is located in Prague's Lesser Town, on the lower slopes of Petrín Hill (since my image and this post are geotagged, you can retrieve the exact coordinates). This work by Olbram Zoubek, Jan Kerel, and Zdenêk Holzel was unveiled in 2002 and is succinctly described in this passage: It contains seven "phases" of a man living in a totalitarian state—from the first statue being a full man, up to the last statue where only a part of him remains. This evaporation represents the gradual physical and [psychological] destruction of a man who is ruled by any undemocratic regime. The man disappears due to censorship, secret police, no freedom of thoughts and expressions etc. Click thumbnail to enlarge imageThe incredible dissolution of being Very powerful imagery, I think reinforced by the shallow depth-of-field in this photograph which helps to blur the detail (and even the existence) of the more distant figures. It's not a great shot—taken in light ...

New Zealand progressive on fair use laws

Bruce — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:12:48 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

As reported by Ars Technica, the New Zealand House of Representatives passed a bill on 8 April 2008 reforming copyright law for the "digital age". Most netizens even outside the US will have come across the American DMCA: any mention seems tainted by the taste of bile. The DMCA criminalises circumvention of digital rights management (DRM) technologies and access controls—many folk argue at the expense of "fair use". Do the NZ reforms provide workable compromise? Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand [© iStockPhoto] Ars cite a Canadian law professor as saying: The anti-circumvention provisions are arguably the best of any country, since they are compliant with WIPO, limited in scope, and seek to preserve fair dealing rights. Having looked at the new Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Bill I find myself almost as confused as I was before; it raises at least as many questions as it answers. Time and format shifting I've always wondered exactly how recording a TV programme to VHS tape, DVD+RW, or PVR hard drives sat with current copyright laws. It must be pretty unusual to walk into a living room and not find the home owner's favourite TV series or movie archived on recordable media for repeated viewing at their leisure. Fortunately the bill specifies that anyone watching TV that isn't "live" is no longer engaged in a criminal act (recording of an on-demand broadcast isn't allowed). It does mean, however, that domestic recording libraries are still illegal: you must watch your recordings within a "reasonable" time frame and then delete them. No ...

An ABC of geotagging photos on the Mac

Bruce — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:30:54 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

This article considers geotagging photos from a Mac perspective, looking at automatic and manual methods, and explaining terms such as data loggers, track points, waypoints, and routes. It lists OS X software options for connecting to data loggers, converting track log formats, geo-locating photos, and writing that data to EXIF for both raw and JPEG images. It also covers the importance of time synchronization, what you can do with geotagged photos, workflow, choosing a data logger and controlling it from your Mac. Introduction With my blog articles geotagged and mapped, and the launch of geotagicons.com behind me, the next challenge was to consider geotagging my photos in future. Some time ago I blogged about doing this in iPhoto, and although workable for a small selection of images this manual/ best guess option doesn't scale well to 2-3 week vacations when you return with several hundred images and a poor recollection of what was taken exactly where. Before getting started on something (i.e. spending money!) I like to try and gain a reasonable overview of what I'm about to get into. What follows is a summary of my research into the terminology, technology, hardware and software that a budding Mac photo geotagger will want to get to grips with. If you also like to look before you leap then this article may be of service to you. Although written with fellow Mac users in mind, if you're afflicted with Windows much of the article is still relevant. What is geotagging? In a photographic context, geotagging ...

A web standard icon for geotagging

Bruce — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:35:39 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Geotagging (or geocoding if you prefer) is the act of associating your content (blog posts, photos, feeds, etc.) with a geographic location (e.g. via latitude and longitude co-ordinates). Thus tagged authors can "mash" their content together with the likes of Google Maps, or the Flickr Map if photography is your thing. However, co-ordinates are typically encoded within metadata (or microformat) tags making them visible to machines but hidden from people. We have de facto web standard icons to help identify feeds, OPML, and sharing—so why not for geotagged content? Update 29.02.08: Thanks to everyone who gave feedback or otherwise contributed to the process of taking this proposal forward. Comments are now closed and further feedback should now be directed to geotagicons.com, where you can now download the new community-designed geotag icon. The goods I propose a web standard Geotag Icon, to be used freely by any geotagger or geotagging service. Here is what it looks like at 128px: At 32px: And at 16px: Important: These images are not final; this is a proposal. Please do not hotlink to these images. You can download them individually by right-clicking the one you want, or as part of the draft Geotag Icon Development Kit here. Family line-up The family resemblance is obvious: Why not complete the set? Grab the Feed icon, the OPML icon, and the Open Share icon. Update 27.03.08: The Open Share Icon Project offers a free, open, community-driven alternative to the trademarked and brand-linked ShareThis.com icon. Icon specification It should be similar in style to existing de facto web standard icons (hereafter ...

Argentine Iguazu

Bruce — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 09:58:15 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

As noted, we were recently in Brazil. We also crossed into Argentina for a day, in order to view the Iguazu Falls from their side of the Rio Iguazu. The falls are probably the single most impressive natural phenomenon we've seen. I've uploaded a short video to YouTube here, showing the impressive "Devil's Throat" and views from the Upper Circuit walkway. This YouTube video requires Adobe Flash Player. As you might imagine, filming a waterfall system over 1.5 miles across and cascading 1.3–1.5 million litres of water per second is wet work. Hence the water drops on the lens! The soundtrack is Morricone's The Mission (Remix B.O.F. La Mission).

Three weeks in Brazil

Bruce — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 21:13:40 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

We spent most of November in Brazil, part of the entourage for Simone's cousin who was attending a couple of conferences there. It was an unmissible opportunity for us to see Brazil in the company of someone who spoke the language, and to meet Brazilians outside the usual touristic environment. We didn't realize just how big the country is, loosing several days from our itinerary in just getting from place to place. Lisbon Thursday 1 November A walk through the old city took us to a traditional Portuguese restaurant that did not deserve its reputation nor popularity. A dinner comprising uncooked kebab, cold fries, and a seafood stew of sorts with rice that tasted of nothing but fish was not the most auspicious start. Friday 2 November We found a nice Italian café for breakfast, then walked past the former now facade-only rail station with its double horseshoe arches, the square in front of the museum, and down Rua Augusta noting the elevator to higher levels of the city. At the large square reached through the Triumphal Arch and beside the river (Lisbon is 15km inland) we got on an open-deck bus. We drove past the art deco theatre, patterned paving, the bull ring in Moorish style, Edward VII Park, 25 April Bridge, Discoveries Monument, the Tower of Belém, and cut short the tour at Hieronymites Monastery in order to get to the airport. Tower of Belém Fortaleza Saturday 3 November The almost 7 hour flight from Lisbon to Fortaleza was not so nice with a cold. It was ...

Back in Britain

Bruce + Simone — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 18:56:56 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Our year abroad started in China and finished in Australia. In between we spent most of our time living and working in Wellington, the City at the Heart of the Edge of the World and the capital of New Zealand. Having written our last post from New Zealand we've now returned to our previous address in Chesterfield (near Sheffield, in the Midlands) where we've found that some things have changed, and some things never change. For all intents and purposes Project Koru has run its course, although we would like to think the essence of our experience will endure. A brief recap It's been an eventful year travelling to, living in, and returning from New Zealand. Here's a recap, 12 images spanning 12 months: This YouTube video requires Adobe Flash Player. Arrival It was a chilly and damp day, with that oh-so-familiar grey sky, when we arrived into Manchester Airport. We return to some beautiful scenery, and look forward to re-acquainting ourselves with old favourites such as Curbar Edge. Simone anticipates bearing witness once more to the dramatic change in seasons that she missed in NZ. Simone's mum had made arrangements with the neighbours to leave a colourful pot of pansies on the doorstep. Said neighbours left a chill-bag containing basic supplies at the back door. Our friends in Matlock got the Smart MOT'd, taxed, gassed-up and parked outside the house ready for use. Our house minder had catalogued all our post, and our intermittent house guest had done a good clean. Thanks everyone; it was ...

Aussie West Coast by camper

Bruce — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:38:05 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

After leaving the outback we flew to Perth and picked up a camper van, first heading north to Shark Bay and then south-east via an inland route to Albany, before following the coast west then north to Perth. After landing in Perth we took a taxi to the Kea depo to collect our 2-berth Ford Transit-based camper. After an introduction to the vehicle and completion of paperwork, we bought supplies from a local supermarket and hit the road proper around 2pm. This put us in the Pinnacles Desert near Cervantes just before sunset, an ideal time to catch the evening light and long shadows cast by limestone pillars up to 3m in height. Our caravan park was right beside the Cervantes beach, itself festooned with seaweed. Pinnacles Desert near Cervantes Passing through Jurien Bay and Dongara we took the Chapman River Scenic Route north of Geraldton, enjoying the wild flowers and rolling crop-covered inland hills before entering Kalbarri National Park. Within the park we viewed the coastal features of Island Rock and Natural Bridge (noting also the off-shore whale spouts) followed by the less remarkable Grandstand Gorge, Shellhouse Gorge, Eagle Gorge, Pot Alley, and Red Bluff. We spent the night in the resort town of Kalbarri. Natural Bridge in Kalbarri National Park In the morning we drove to Hawks Head and Ross Graham Lookout on the Murchison River, still within Kalbarri National Park. Leaving the park to join the North West Coastal Highway, long stretches of straight road took us to Shark Bay, where ...

A dingo stole my sock

Bruce — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 10:30:43 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Australia is well known for its "outback", the semi-arid scrubland that occupies most of the continent. At the heart of the outback is the so-called Red Centre, with the famous landmark of Uluru (Ayers Rock). Although Uluru is an impressive chunk of rock it is far from the beginning and the end of all the Red Centre has to offer, as a few days more exploring other attractions with Wayoutback proved to us. Day 1 From Alice we commenced the 450km drive to Uluru, stopping to collect firewood and at Stewarts Well (with its tame-ish dingo) and Mt Ebenezer Roadhouse, taking in the semi-arid (cf. true desert) landscape punctuated by semicircular clumps of spinifex grass (looking a bit like a fungal skin infection!) and spindly juvenile desert oaks (the mature trees look quite different). We had views of Mt Conner, a.k.a. "Fooluru" according to our guide Carolyn, before arriving at our campsite within Ayers Rock Resort to make sandwiches for lunch and top up with water to keep us hydrated for the hot walk around the base of Uluru. Before the walk we visited the Cultural Centre. Displays described the importance of Tjukurpa, the law and basis of Anangu life and belief. A number of the photographs of Aboriginal people were blacked out, being "covered to conceal the image and identity of a recently deceased person as prescribed by Anangu Law". Anangu is the collective name for the local Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people. Uluru (Ayers Rock) is 348m high, made of sandstone that has ...