Published February 16th, 2010
in Geocaching and Photography.
I’ve been asked a couple times so I figured I’d explain how I geotag my photos. I tried out a ton of programs with varying degrees of success.
I settled on Geosetter since it’s pretty easy to use and works well with my setup. It also lets me be pretty lazy.
So here is my setup:
Getting your GPS to log in a usable format is the first step. I have a Garmin 60CSx and there is a setting to make it log your tracks to a GPX file that it saves on the microSD card. It can basically log forever if you have a 2Gb card even with the full North America maps loaded.
The second step is to set the time on your camera as close to the time your GPS shows as possible. The time stamp on your photos will need to be reconciled with the time stamp on your GPS track for the software to figure out where it was taken. Under 30 seconds difference you’ll probably never notice unless you’re moving really fast.
The last step is to copy the GPX from the GPS and the pictures to the computer. Then Geosetter comes into play. Load the group of photos you want then just choose the option to Synchronize with GPS data files, point it to your GPX, and it’s done.
There are lots of other ways to geotag, the easiest for a couple photos is probably to use Picasa and just drop a marker on the map. This assumes though you remember the location the photo was taken.
My method lets me geotag really accurately without much hassle. I just turn on the GPS and stick it someplace it can get a signal then I don’t have to think about it again till it’s time to turn it off or check the batteries. It usually rides in my jacket pocket or even in a dry bag tucked away inside my kayak. That’s the great thing about using the 60CSx, it can get signal pretty much anywhere unless it has something pretty substantial blocking the sky.
Published December 4th, 2009
in Work.
If all of a sudden you restart your computer and you get a yellow icon over your network connection and it says “No Internet Access”, remain calm, don’t panic, and don’t go smash your router to bits.
You probably want the fix so here it is:
Click the Start button, Right Click on Computer, then select Manage. Under Services and Applications select Services. Scroll down and find the Bonjour Service then double click it. Under Startup Type select Automatic (Delayed Start) then hit OK, close Computer Managment, and restart. If that for some reason fails to fix the problem go back through and choose Disabled instead of Automatic (Dlayed Start).
The cause:
For some reason if the Bonjour Service starts before the network adapter you end up with a default route of 0.0.0.0. This lets everything on the local network function normally. Anything that need to go to another network (e.g. the Internet) can’t get there by going through 0.0.0.0. I ran into this after installing Gizmo5, but there are quite a few programs that use Bonjour. It’s tricky to catch that an application install caused the problem since it will work just fine until the computer is restarted.
Published November 9th, 2009
in Hardware and Linux.
So I picked up a generic case for my new Droid phone and I noticed that whenever I pulled the phone out it was unlocking and I was sure I hadn’t hit the button. I was a little puzzled until I accidentally set the phone on the case and caused the phone to enter “Multimedia Station” mode.
To my knowledge the Multimedia Station and Car Dock for the Droid haven’t been released yet. I’ve heard that they’re going to cost $30 each, pretty steep. It seems that the docks are really just a charger with a ton of extra plastic to hold the phone and… drumroll please … a magnet.
I haven’t figured out the exact placement / power to reliably trigger either mode with any magnet. The red area highlighted in the photo seems to be the magic spot. However a stronger magnet more towards the left in my picture tends to put the phone in Multimedia Station, while a weaker magnet more to the right seems to lead to Car Dock. Update: It’s the polarity of the magnet that toggles between the car and multimedia modes. However for you DIYers it seems that once you figure out a good spot with a given magnet the result is easily repeatable.
My plan is a cheap car window mount, with a strategically placed magnet. I’m also thinking a nice wooden Multimedia Station on my desk would look nice.
I apologize for the atrocious picture. The Droid’s phone is not its best feature. Even less so trying to take a picture of itself in a mirror. My good camera is far away in Vegas with my wife.
Published June 1st, 2009
in Life.
I got this e-mail today:
Dear kwiry Community,
On April 13th we shared the unfortunate news about kwiry’s impending shutdown. Since then, Wabo, LLC has purchased the kwiry service and will continue to maintain and improve it.
We are happy to relay this news and hope you are as well. While the founding team/management will be moving on, we are glad the kwiry service will continue to grow.
The service is being transitioned and should be fully functional again very soon, even within a few days.
Thanks also for all your messages of support during the past few weeks,
-Ron, Steve & Nabil
I personally think it’s too late. The service was nice but it wasn’t something that couldn’t be replaced. It’s been long enough that most people who really used the service have found other alternatives. Unless they have some really killer new features coming soon I don’t see much of a future.