Tony Blews

As part of my continuing interest in canals, i’ve started pretty much finish marking every single last canal (current, derelict and in-filled) and navigable river in England.

http://www.coobeastie.co.uk/gecm/

However, if I even look like i’m considering mapping all the UK’s abandonned and derelict railway lines, please shoot me.

Every so often, just when I start thinking that it might actually be of some use, I spot some things that make me realise (again) what an utter pit of shite Facebook actually is. Here is this month’s collation of bull:

• Firstly we had some gobshite Scottish journalist stalking the Dunblane Massacre survivors (the link is to Graham Linehan’s exellent write up of the proceedings), followed by Tim Ireland’s revenge on the stupid woman.
• Next, we have a group titled “Get Jon Venables and Robert Thompson Off Facebook“. Here is a quote from the group:

“Many visitors to GJV&RTOF ask how can we be sure that they are on facebook.
That is an interesting question. Our resident geek Billy has been doing some research:
There are 11,171,540 UK users of facebook.
Whilst I couldn’t find an UK users by age breakdown, there is a USA one.
Of the USA facebook users, 4.47% are aged 25.
Given the cultural and demographic similarities between the UK and USA (and the fact we have no UK based data) the only assumption we make is that ~4.47% of UK users are 25 years old
4.47% of 11,171,540 is 499368
Therefore, there are ~499368 25year old UK facebook users.
According to the Office of National Statistics, there are approximately 650,000 25 year olds in the UK.
(499368/650000)*100 = 76.82% of UK 25year olds have a facebook account.
Therefore, if you take any given UK 25year old at random – there is a 76.82% chance he/she has a facebook account.
Therefore there is a 76.82% chance that one of them are on facebook.
76.82%*76.82% = 59.02% chance both of them are on facebook.
These numbers are approximate, but even if these stats are as much as 10% off, we’re still talking a 50:50 chance.”

So, you have no direct evidence? A career with the Daily Mail beckons…

• Then we get a truck load of Jade Goody tribute groups (which are nothing like Rolling Stones tribute bands). You were the same people who wanted her hanged, drawn and quartered when she was just a stupid racist.
• And finally, those people who say “We will not pay to use Facebook anymore. We are gone if this happens” – No you won’t be. You are sheep, and you’ve all fallen for some bullshit written by a bloke who comes up with this type of group from time to time.

Rant over. Normal service will soon be resumed.

And to make sure that I’ve insulted everyone:

“Apparently its the worst accident in the history of aviation… A private light aircraft has crashed in a cemetary in Montana. Investigators have found over a thousand bodies.”

For some time now I’ve been toying with the idea of buying a GPS logger, for no other reason than that I like gadgets. However, as I’m tight fisted, paying £50 for one from Maplin is out of the question.

So, how cheaply can I bodge one together?

Well, using a my long suffering Skypephone and a Bluenext BN-906GR (£25.44 incl VAT and P&P from BlueUnplugged.com), I think I’ve cracked it.

Software wise, I’m running TrekBuddy on the phone, which needs some fiddling with to get working. I’m using v0.9.83 (download link), and this is what I did:

Firstly, download TrekBuddy from that link above, and copy it across to your phone. You might as well do this by plugging the phone in via the USB connector and using it as a mass storage device, as you’re now going to have to create some directories.

On the phone, create the directory TrekBuddy, and in that directory create some more called:maps, resources, sounds, tracks-gpx, tracks-nmea, ui-profiles and wpts.

Now, go and get a map. I’ve been using GM2TB to get google maps. If you go for a map of the whole country then you’ll not be able to see your location very well, so I’ve just grabbed a map of the Stafford area. I’f I go somewhere else, I’ll make a map of that area first.

Anyway, get your map from GM2TB, and save the .tar file in your TrekBuddy/maps directory.

Now install the trekbuddy.jar file, and run the application. It won’t work properly.

Enter Settings, then Basic. Change the name of the default map to file:///Memory%20card/TrekBuddy/maps/stafford.tar (assuming, of course that your map file was called stafford.tar), and change the Data Dir to file:///Memory%20card/TrekBuddy/

Now save the settings, exit the application.

Pair your GPS reciever with your phone as per the makers instructions.

Now start TrekBuddy again and go through the menus to start a tracklog. All should be good.

To view you track in Google Earth, you’ll need to copy the .gpx files on to your PC (either by using the phone as a USB memory device or by Bluetooth), and convert them using something like Routeconverter.

Then hey presto, you can see where you’ve roughly been. I say roughly because despite a claimed accuracy of 2.5m, a test track of me walking home from work shows me walking down the middle of the River Sow for 100 yards.

Ban this sick filth.