Fantastic Coffee Idea

In my usual online travels using the Zite reader on the ol’ iPad I came across this bloody fantastic idea on the LifeHacker site.

Click in this link to read all about it. All I will say is, why the feck didn’t we think of this earlier?

Oh the great idea? To use one of those re-usable pepper grinders to grind fresh coffee while out camping/backpacking.

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GORE-TEX® products is sponsoring Dave MacLeod and Andy Turner’s upcoming lecture at the Royal Geographical Society in London

Dave and Andy at the base of the Longhope on Orkney, picture credit is Lukaz Warzecha

If you are free on the 8th Feb, Goretex are sponsoring Dave MacLeod and Andy Turner to give a lecture about their first free ascent of the Longhope route on St John’s Head last year (yep means nothing to me as I am not a climber).

After the lecture (which I assume will also involve a Q&A part, as there is nothing more boring than being spoken to for whole minutes on end –  trust me ask my students), there will be an audio visual delight known as a film shown. But wait not any old film but the people’s choice winner at the Kendal film thingy they hold annually at some place (probably London) Paul Diffley (Hot Aches Productions) Longhope Film. You can see the trailer of this piece of celluloid here.

So how much would you pay for this extravaganza? Well for twelve of her Majesties pound notes you can exchange them for a magic ticket that gains you entry into this celebration of daring escapades. If you so wish to do this you will be facilitated at the following LINK on the heroic Dave’s website.

Apparently there are others sponsoring the event as well, Mountain Equipment and Cotswold (never heard of them ;) )

If you do go leave a comment here letting me know what it was like. Would love to hear what you thought.

 

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Frosty Fenland Walk

Just some snaps from this mornings walk out in the frozen wilds of the Fens.
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New Years Day on the Wash

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Striders and mine New Years Day walk was along the sea defences of the Wash and prime Samphire country (when in season).

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And boy was the winds coming off the fens out to the Wash and North Sea. As the photo below (taken a few weeks earlier) shows my favourite cold weather head gear.
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As the pictures show my cold weather head gear is a polar tech buff, which I wear in what I call tea cozy mode, and a regular buff round the neck. Which as the photo shows does get pulled up to cover the face.
Even with the polar tech buff in tea cozy mode there is a gap at the top, which surprisingly helps keep the head regulated. often I find a fleece hat etc gets my head too hot, but this is just right for me. I even use the tea cozy mode while sleeping under a tarp to keep my head warm in the night.
Gloves wise I usually can get away with just liner gloves.
If you haven’t guessed when walking I get hot and this lot keeps me warm and just the right temperature without over heating.

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Happy New Year

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Boxing Day Paddle

Boxing Day is that traditional day that folks use to make their feelings of guilt go away for the previous days excess. One such way they try and purge those feelings of guilt is to go for a walk, usually at some convenient local beauty spot in our glorious British countryside.
Well our family if at home for Christmas get dragged by Mum to Snettisham beach for our Boxing Day walk. With Mums dogs, mine, step sisters dogs, and my brothers rat (it’s not big enough to qualify as a dog) there is a considerable sized pack being walked along the beach.
On the way back Mum’s dog Penny decided to have a paddle in a ditch behind the sea defence. Sadly the old girl was unable to get out, and despite the efforts of the kids, stuck. So I did the only thing that could be done, I dropped into the knee deep water and lifted the Penny out. Of course it looked like I couldn’t hold my bladder after I got out. Luckily no photos of these events or my fashionable pissed trousers look afterwards.
Below are some photos I took during the stroll along the sea front.
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Merry Christmas

Just wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.
Thanks for dropping by and reading my words over the year.
I hope you have a great day, get to eat plenty, drink plenty, have great company, and lots of presents from Santa.

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Last Minute ViewRanger Christmas Bargain

Well the tweet says it all really
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Hopefully this twitter link will save those that need it typing it in, and also work!

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Woodlands Still Being Sold Off, Heart Saddens Even More

Thanks to a tweet on twitter

I was alerted to this story “Revealed: The true scale of Britain’s woodland sell-off” in the Independent.

I can’t say that I share the disillusioned sentiment of the original tweeter. I have been disillusioned with not just this Government but also the previous Labour Dictators as well for a loooong time.

It just saddens my heart that this is going on. We need to raise the awareness of this, let the public (which includes the Daily Hate reader) that this is still going on through the backdoor.

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OS Map Data Portability Part 2

Neil from RouteBuddy very kindly wrote the following post to try and explain things from an industry point of view.
I would like to take the time to say a big thank you to Neil for taking the time to write this post. It is refreshing to see this sort of engagement, preparation to explain things to us Joe Public. Thanks once again Neil.
So now over to Neil and his words:

Historical background

I think that to critically assess the barriers behind moving maps, between different digital map software developers, we should in the first place look at the companies. The reason I say this is even though we are all in the ‘map business’ each company has a different modus operandi.
So cast your minds back to the early days of Ordnance Survey digital maps in the UK and you will come up with one name: Memory-Map, and a few years later Anquet (PC) appeared, then around 2006 along came Mapyx Quo. Now I’ve personally looked at digital maps for many years and, being a Mac user, was not only unable to use these maps, but was also horrified at the extortionately high prices they were sold for. Clearly this was a very profitable market for the first in the field, as well as the next pretender to the throne, Anquet. (Incidentally, the raw cost of the data historically has changed little to what it is now…)
In recent times if a customer bought a digital map, at a very high price, say a Memory-Map National Park map for £100 or the whole of GB 50K for £260, plus some costly 25K data, thereby occurs a lock-in. You’ve spent so much you find it hard to move and, even though you want to use other software, you feel tied; So you buy another expensive map from the same provider and shrug your shoulders.
Along comes Mapyx Quo, recognises a marketing edge, and positions themselves as a lower-priced offering of exactly the same digital map data; However to date I don’t think the market penetration has made the impact they would have hoped for, and for which we could find a reason.
Before closing I should say that the two unmentioned independent and British companies, Isys and TrackLogs, do merit greater comment when compared to their counterparts retailing on the UK market, but that’s for another time (and when we’re not so busy at RouteBuddy with our next version).
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Maps

It’s fair to say that you’d all expect the maps to be the same, no matter what, but apart from the raw data being exactly the same and maps being proprietary to software, what other differences are there? Many, but here’s a few:

- Rendering

Take a look at how the map tiles render in your existing Windows (or Anquet Mac) software, they’re slow. That’s because the tiles are being individually rendered and displayed at each view level, each and every time you zoom in or out. (This you’ll notice gives a ‘blocky’ experience, when it really should be a smooth transition between levels.) The alternative is to build each map as a package of pre-rendered map tiles, that takes longer to do and is also costly to produce, this method does however deliver the best user experience.

- Display limitations

How many maps can you view at one time? Can you layer your maps? Be able to layer so that a 25K topo, a 50K topo and a vector road map all perfectly align on your screen? Can you move between vector and raster maps?
If you can’t then the map builds have their limitations of use. which is also to be blamed on the software as well.

- Software limitations

Can you see maps side by side? Can you see maps of the whole world in your display, both topo from other countries and mixed with vector road maps for cycle route planning?
No, and the reason is that it takes more work to build maps and software to suit these extended and professional uses.
In essence, the Ordnance Survey maps we developers receive share the same raw data format, but that’s where it ends. Even if, say, we were all able to swap maps between any of the software applications the maps wouldn’t be able to work in the same way. For example RouteBuddy’s been built for pre-rendered map titles, and “loading” competitors maps would just lower the performance to their levels.

- Map age

How often would you expect the leading names in the map business to update their Ordnance Survey maps (which are released as six-monthly updates from the Ordnance Survey to developers)? Now the longer-known companies (naturally) would have a larger tranche of the UK sales to date, which is not unreasonable to predict, ergo they have the resources to deliver to you, the customer, regular map updates. So would an annual update seem reasonable to expect? You might think so.
Forgetting this months announcement of the latest 2012 maps (actually 2011 data)  coming from these names, how recently do you think say Anquet and Memory-Map last updated the maps they’ve sold to you? Three, four, five years ago? Which begets a comment “What value now the maps you bought when you saw the ‘SALE, SALE, SALE’ map offers”?

-Prices

- Getting back to prices I think that we have to look at the catch (High initial map prices = Lock in) and dilute that issue with reality.
- Given the ages above, then your maps are really now quite old, maps have changed and need updating. Is it reasonable for you to pay for these updates?
You wouldn’t buy a new car and expect to get a new similar model for free in six years time would you? Yes your current car still has wheels, an engine, and works, so it does the same job, but ho-hum not quite as well, and the same applies for your old map, you can still use it but even maps change over time. (Especially if they were already ‘old’ PC maps on their date of purchase.)

Mind-set

If we, RouteBuddy, offer to upgrade a customers map from competing software you are not only getting the latest possible map, from an independent British company, you are also able to use this map in the only modern progressive digital map software available worldwide, and thereby enjoy greater benefits. That in itself has merit and value. The fact that RouteBuddy is moving beyond its peers (with the recent release of 3.2…) and enjoys continued dynamic development, may well give you cause to reflect on your current mapping software.
RouteBuddy can’t offer a direct swap because a) the map we sell is this years map data from the Ordnance Survey and you have an old map, and for that ‘new’ map b) we have to pay the Ordnance Survey the raw data fee. (We also have to make a living!) Sure this old map you bought before from another vendor cost you an arm and a leg, but the company you transfer to cannot be expected to carry your loss, whether or not your overpaid; Just as a garage wouldn’t if you’d overpaid initially and then PX’d your old car for a new one.
My personal feeling is that if map pricing had been reasonable from the outset of digital maps, some twelve years ago, then not only would users ‘not’ have felt locked-in, but would also have been more amenable to regularly updating their purchases to keep their maps up to date. A shame that greed got in the way…
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So where do you, the customer, go from here?

- Stick with the old, buy a ‘cheap’ map upgrade and endure the agony as you see another software company’s useful and powerful product grow well past what you have to put up with for so long (PC map software that hasn’t effectively changed since c. 2005).
- Be realistic, contact the company which has the software that interests you, and ask what deal (that is reasonable to both sides) can be worked out for you to upgrade your maps – and – your software.
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I hope that helps, and is enough from me before Christmas (as we are pushing on hard with work on the upcoming RouteBuddy 3.3). I also look forward to reading Alan’s article when it appears.
Hopefully you’ll all be able to get some great walks in and, if the weather’s kind for photography, we’ll post some of ours up on Facebook from our trips in the hills etc.
Best wishes for the season to all,
~ neil
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