Animated Google Map Overlaid With Geotagged Photos

(click to view the animated google map / photo slideshow)

Here’s how to geotag your pics and make an animated map of your own:

1. Get a GPS tracker (or other device) and learn how to use it.  I have, and like, the Columbus V-900 GPS Data Logger.  Here it is on Amazon.com and here are some review links from Google. I especially found this review, and it’s comments, helpful and interesting.
2. Take pictures with your digital camera. Make sure the clock on your camera is set accurately (as close as you can get to the exact correct time). And, make sure the camera and the format is compatible with your software (just use JPG format and you should be fine).
3. Upload your GPS log file and pictures to your computer.
4. Use the software that came with your device (or other software) to geotag your pics.  The software matches your pics to your data points using the time (that’s why you need to make sure your camera clock is set as accurately as possible).
5. Upload everything to EveryTrail.com or one of the other free sites (there are others, right?).

That’s it. Use the documentation that came with your GPS, Google, and trial-and-error to perfect your workflow. Cheers!

Problems at Zillow? Confusing UI? Yes. Deceptive? Maybe.

UPDATE: Zillow has replied, see the comments section.

Don’t get me wrong, I am (or at least was) a fan of Zillow, but my personal experience, described below, suggests that there may be problems beneath the surface (otherwise how and why would this have occurred).

I’ve asked the company to comment, but have received nothing, unless you count the two customer service emails I received (screenshots below). I ask them again at the end of this blog.

So, the problem started when…

The Australian Pink Floyd Show

Last night, here in Gothenburg, Sweden, some friends and I saw The Australian Pink Floyd Show and were totally blown away.

If you love Pink Floyd and you get a chance to see these guys, do it. They have a totally smoken’ band, complete with saxophones, slide guitar and a 3-woman vocal section. One of those women, Amy Smith, will knock you to the floor and make you cry like a baby when she does her Great Gig in the Sky solo. Just phenomenal. Don’t even get me started on the Wall songs, the Comfortably Numb, the Wish You Were Here, and on and on.

Article: Pushing Paper Out the Door

February 10, 2008
New York Times
Pushing Paper Out the Door
By HANNAH FAIRFIELD

CHRIS UHLIK’S children can be found in their home computer lab almost every morning. Nicole is writing a story about her two lizards. Tony is playing an interactive spelling game, while Andy is learning multiplication tables. Even 5-year-old Joceline is clicking away at a storybook game.

Mr. Uhlik, an engineering director at Google, and his family live a practically paper-free life. The children are home-schooled on computers. Other sources of household paper — lists, letters, calendars — have become entirely digital.

Going paperless was a conscious decision by the Uhliks. But many families may be closer to entering a paperless world than they realize. Paper-reducing technologies (ScanSnap Scanner) have crept into homes and offices, perhaps more for efficiency than for environmentalism; few people will dispute the convenience of online bill-paying and airline e-tickets.

Another Reason Why WordPress Beats TypePad

I don’t often post negative reviews, but I did last month, when I moved my blog from TypePad.com to WordPress.com.

I summarized the reasons in this post: Why I Switched From TypePad.com.

Now it’s time to update that post with the following, from TechCrunch: WordPress Boosts Free Storage to 3GB. Leaves Blogger, TypePad in the Dust.

If you haven’t done so already, it’s time to make the switch.  It’s really easy to export your blog from TypePad and import it into WordPress (click those links for instructions).

Book Review: The Bush Tragedy

Oedipus Bush? Slate’s Jacob Weisberg Puts President on Couch
2008-01-15 01:21 (New York)
Review by Charles Trueheart

Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) — Political realists may find it
reductive or even absurd to paint the failure of a U.S.
presidency as the consequence of a son’s unresolved relationship
with his father.

Yet the approach was good enough for William Shakespeare, as
Jacob Weisberg argues in “The Bush Tragedy,” an unexpectedly
compelling piece of armchair psychoanalysis.

Review of the Neuros OSD Video Recorder

This looks like a neat little device. See the New York Times review:

January 6, 2008
Novelties
What This Gadget Can Do Is Up to You
By ANNE EISENBERG

“HACKERS, welcome! Here are detailed circuit diagrams of our products — modify them as you wish.”

That’s not an announcement you’ll find on the Web sites of most consumer electronics manufacturers, who tend to keep information on the innards of their machines as private as possible.

But Neuros Technology International, creator of a new video recorder, has decided to go in a different direction. The company, based in Chicago, is providing full documentation of the hardware platform for its recorder, the Neuros OSD (for open source device), so that skilled users can customize or “hack” the device — and then pass along the improvements to others.

Why I Switched From TypePad.com

In a word, because Typepad.com sucks. It’s the AOL of the blogging world. Ok, I admit it, I still keep a few AOL email addresses among the 20 or so other ones I have, but there are reasons for that.

Anyway, here are the reasons why I finally dumped Typepad:

1) They charge you for something you can get free at other places, such as at WordPress.com.

2) Not only do they charge you, but they charge you a LOT. I mean $9 per month for a blog!? Come on! You can get a hosting account at Yahoo for about $8 per month — maybe even cheaper if you use signup on one of their promo pages, like this one: Compare Web Hosting Packages from Yahoo.

3) The Typepad design and user interface is junky.

4) The Typeface functionality is pretty crappy, too.

5) And, the Typepad customer service is a dud.

Now you know: Stay away from Typepad! Use WordPress or one of the other free services or host your own blog at Yahoo, Godaddy or one of the many other inexpensive hosting service providers out there. Just do a Yahoo or Google search. I personally prefer Yahoo, but I’m a contrarian. I’d rather use the underdog even if the leader might be a little better. Google is powerful enough!

PS: It is really easy to export your blog from TypePad and import it into WordPress (click those links for instructions).

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