Sadly, This is Serious!

December 14, 2011 By 3 Comments

Longstanding bloggers face an almost daily torrent of request to promote gear and other online resources these days. But it’s now getting worse. This came this morning!

I could earn myself a poker hoodie!!!

Hi,
I was looking at your site andyhowell.info
Just wanted to know if you allow links on your site. The link would be back to one of the top poker rooms in the world whose online presence I am currently working to enhance.
The best news is that if you’re happy to include a link on your site, then we would like to send you some high quality branded poker goodies such as hoodies and poker cards. These would be posted to you immediately after the link is posted on the condition that you agree to keep it on your site for a set time period – usually 12 months or permanently (with permanently being our preferred option)
Please let me know your thoughts on this proposal and I look forward to hearing back from you.
Many Thanks

 

Filed Under: Internet, Latest

Routebuddy 3.2 — Now a Contender for Best in Class

December 4, 2011 By 10 Comments

As promised Routebuddy — who produce the mapping software for Mac OS (and now also Windows) — have released major update before Christmas. Routebuddy 3.2. adds a number of very useful functions to the route tools which now renders my review of Routebuddy 3 as obselete!

Update 3.1 added missing height data to OS top maps with a promise tat the height feature would soon be added to all top maps worldwide. When I updated my review to deal with 3.1 I made it clear that the route tools were still too clunky and still rendered multi day route creation difficult. However, on first inspection RB 3.2 seems to have dealt with all of my problems.

Routes on Routebuddy

Routes in Routebuddy can now be ‘continued’ and split. Two routes can be joined together. It is now also easy to insert a new waypoint into a route and to change the position of a selected waypoint.

It looks as if most of the new features I was looking for are here — certainly all the features I need are now present.

I can see that there might be some features that I might like to see implemented differently but this is probably splitting hairs. Over this week I will plan a multi day walk with RB 3 and then use this as the basis for a new and comprehensive view of the software. As of now Routebuddy seems to be at least as useful as its competitors. It will take me a few days to properly get to grips with it as there are so many new features. At this point I should also point oHere is a complete list of the new features. I’ve not played with all of them but judging from their titles some of theme look to be very useful for hikers and long distance trekkers.

Here is the full list of improvements:

 

Route Editing – Ten new features


Continue Route from Start
Continue Route from End
Join Route
Split Route
Undo Route
Draw Route Direction
Create Route via Menu
Smoothed Route Segments
Route Colour to Opaque
Newly created Routes named by Type

Track Editing – Eight new features


Join Tracks
Split Track by Days
Split Track by Segments
Draw Track Direction
Duplicate Track with Right Click
Duplicate track to Place file by using Alt key
Sort Track by Start Time
Join Tracks without Timestamps by Selection Order to control Join Order

Data Management – Ten new features


Remove Items from Place via Contextual Menu
Remove Items from Library via Contextual Menu
Undo/Redo for Waypoints
Undo/Redo for Routes
Undo/Redo for Tracks
Undo/Redo for Devices
Undo/Redo for Places
Undo of Moved Items
Delete Single Item on Right-Click
Multiple Item Deletion from Browser

Data Reporting – Three new features


Altitude Display
Middle points now appear as RP with unique number reference
Newly created Features named by type

Application


Software update menu re-sited

GPS support – Twenty-nine devices added


Support has been extended for a greater range of auto-recognised GPS Devices from Garmin and TomTom:
Twenty-two extra GPS devices from Garmin
Seven extra GPS devices from TomTom

These devices will now auto-connect via USB and be recognised by RouteBuddy with a confirmation image, device details, and offer a range of options for two-way exchange of GeoData.

Improved GPS support for the following existing devices:
Garmin eTrex Legend
Garmin eTrex Vista HCx
Detection of device timeouts

Filed Under: Internet, Latest, Maps

Routebuddy 3.1.1

October 25, 2011 By 4 Comments

For those of you following the Routebuddy saga, the program has now reached version 3.1.1. This version has improves the route import facility which seemed to hang on some routes. I’ve played around with putting some longer routes in and they have all imported correctly and then handed the program back to me. The import dialogue box now seems to have disappeared, at least it has on the routes I’ve been importing.

A number of other handling features have been improved but the most obvious improvement to me is a new spot height tool. Right click on a route and the route dialogue box opens up in the lower portion of the screen. Click on elevation and you now have an elevation map. Place your pointer anywhere on the elevation map and you will be given a height read out. As you move the cursor the height location will also be shown in the OS window. Neat, useful and a feature that works properly.

Version 3.2 is next and apparently will offer a revised route planning tool, which I’m certainly waiting for with bated breath. But, improvements now seem to coming regularly.

Filed Under: Internet, Latest, Maps

Trek the Andes Blog …

October 17, 2011 By 4 Comments

Funny this blogging game. Jut when I’m thinking that it might be worth given it all up somebody comes along with a piece of flattery which lifts the spirits! This time it is Mark Smith who has written:

… I would like to say thanks for all the good reading and listening I have enjoyed for the last few years from your  blog and podcasts. I am British but have lived out in Peru for the last 7 years so you can get a bit cut off from things at times so your musings have helped me keep in touch and mean I am able to skip around the local mountains nice and lightly with things like my Duomid that I would never have heard about otherwise.

Mark has recently begun a blog on trekking in the Andes:

I am aiming for a mixture of really good walk information such as walkhighlands, but put in a more pleasing to the eye format with lots of tales of trekking, backpacking and life of the mountain people. We have so many wonderful walks here which just never get done because people do not know about them and all that gets broadcast is inca trail, plus a few others. I would like to see people trekking other routes, for them to realise that backpacking is very possible here and also give a whole selection of day walks or couple of hour walks that people can just do themselves when here.

I notice that when overseas walking is discussed on the majority of lightweight or general walking blogs, it is mainly Pyrenees,Alps, GR20 and the States and I thought there might be people out there who would love to come trekking in the Andes but had just never thought of it.

Would I give it a plug? Of course mark. Flattery will get you anywhere!
Trek the Andes is well worth a look at. Mark is a blogger who understands the importance of storytelling. He writes very well and certainly succeeds in given the reading of a flavour of what is very obviously a special kind of place.
The Andes has been on my list of places to go to for a long time. Looking at Mark’s blog I think I will have to get myself organised!

Filed Under: Internet, People, Spotlight

Routebuddy Begins to hit the Heights

October 12, 2011 By 7 Comments

Updated 25/10/11

Routebuddy, the desktop map planning programme for Mac OSX (and now also Windows) has just reached version 3.1 which brings with it a number of welcome improvements for UK-based hikers, walkers, etc.

Routebuddy’s recent move from v.2 to v.3 was by all accounts very significant and involved a complete re-write of the software. Routebuddy claim that the new modular design of the program will allow for quicker development and help future proof the programme. But Routebuddy 3 was still short of many of the features that a lot of outdoor people would consider to be standard. One of the biggest disappointments was that Routebuddy 3 didn’t deal with height data.

Routebuddy 3.1 has dealt with the height data problem, at least for those of us in the UK who are using OS maps. Height data form international maps (mostly US) will be along shortly.

The good news for Routebuddy users is that this is a fine implementation of height and use of height data. Plot a route — or click on a route — and then right click with the mouse or trackpad. Select properties. A new information panel  is displayed  which carried a wealth of information:

  • Total distance;
  • Flat distance;
  • Ascent distance;
  • Descent distance;
  • Min altitude;
  • Max altitude;
  • Total ascent;
  • Total descent.

An Elevation button pulls up an elevation schematic which displays your route rather niftily.

The new Routebuddy system now gives me more height-based data than my Anquet system did.

This is a classy implementation of height and bears well for the future. When I reviewed Routebuddy 3 a few months ago a had two gripes with the program. the first — lack of height — has now been dealt with. The second set of comments/complaints that I made were to do with route handling and I made a couple of recommendations for editing routes and for continuing existing routes that I think will revolutionise the program.

Routebuddy tell me that they are working on improvements to the route tool and I’m encouraged by the height work, both in terms of the speed with which this has been delivered and the way it has been implemented. Routebuddy has taken a bit of a thumping on the net recently and some of this criticism was justified and some may have been a little unfair. But with 3.1 Routebudy has begun to deliver quality improvements that will be welcomed by critics.

Routebuddy 3.1 is not just about OS map heights. The program has had a significant speed hike — and RB 3 was no slouch. And the importing of large and complex route datasets has been improved. Colin Ibbotson discovered that somehow RB had developed a bug (between 2 and 3) which effected large routes and Routebuddy say that they have now fixed this. Colin has some of the most complex routes imaginable and I think one of the problems he was having was that the program seemed to have ‘hung’ while it was computing data. RB 3.1 now brings up a dialogue box that shows import progress which should mean that people aren’t tempted to Force quite their program to get things going again.

I think there is still a bug with the import function. Once the progress bar has reached maximum the box doesn’t seem to want to disappear. Is the thing still importing? Well, once the route appears on the screen you can bring up all of the route details as described above (height and everything) _ but the import dialogue box is still there! However, once you get one this foible import is quick — but this does need to be fixed. I can only get rid of the dialogue box by quitting Routebuddy!

Ed — import features have now been considerably improved with 3.1.1

Apparently there was a debate within Routebuddy as to whether they should put out a quick update to include height or whether they should wait a little longer and put out a major update with a number of additional features. My advice was that if height worked they should get this update out quickly. Maybe the speed of the update has left us with the import foible but this is not really that serious.

With the 3.1 upgrade Routebuddy has shown us that it can listen to specialist users and incorporate their request reasonably quickly and to a high standard.

I’m still desperate for those route tool improvements but I think I might now chose RB 3.1 as my preferred planning tool for routes in the UK. One final thing on speed. I said that things seem to have speeded up all round and with this I seem to have lost one of my route complaints. In my review you see that I was getting very frustrated with the way in which it was too easy to end a route prematurely — something has happened with 3.1 that makes this less of a problem.

So, I’m (so far) impressed with the new update. Now, lets have an improved route tool!

Filed Under: Food, Internet, Latest, Maps

Helen and Colin’s Walking Blog — Impressive New Walking Blog

October 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

One of the good things about accidentally becoming part o the blogging world is that you get to meet some great people. Amongst the nicest people that I have met are the folks who make up the Stockport Walking Group, who I have had the pleasure of speaking two on a couple of occasions.

Helen and Colin are two of lynchpins of the group and they have now started their own walking blog which I’m sure will be of real interest to many of you. Although the blog is in its early days you can already see that this is about walking and routes rather than gear. And the routes are good ‘walker’ routes rather than multi day treks and backpacks.

Blog posts carry details of walks and the actual routes traced on OS maps which is pretty useful. Colin works in the photographic industry and the posts are illuminated with some pretty good photographs that certainly give you a feel for the walk the places that you will be tramping through.

I know that quite a few readers find some of the more technical blogs a little inaccessible and sometimes bewildering. Helen and Colin’s blog is a straightforward walking blog and there’s nothing wrong with that!

Worth having a look at and adding to your RSS feed.

Helen and Colin — Walking Blog

Filed Under: Internet, Latest, People, Spotlight

Review: Routebuddy 3 for Mac OSX

August 17, 2011 By 17 Comments

Update 2 December 2011 to cover 3.2

In 3.2 there has been a major overhaul of the way in which routes can be treated. Routes can now be continued, split and joined. 3.2 includes a large range of other improvements. A full review of 3.2 will be posted shortly and will supercede this review.

For hillwalkers, and those using topographical maps (especially in the UK) 3.2 represents a major development more significant than the numbering suggests. Between 3.0 and 3.2 we have seen the production of an almost new programme. Routebuddy 3.2 is now a major contender.

Updated 12th October 2011 to cover version 3.1

Routebuddy 3.1, now carries height data for waypoints and routes — currently for UK OS maps only but RB promise that this will be rolled out across the whole map range reasonably quickly

It’s amazing how times change. Go back not that many years and the Apple system was considered to be on its way out. One of the frustrations of this period was that many innovative programs were not available for the Mac. (Re) enter Steve Jobs and, hey presto, everything has changed. But even while Apple was on the way back up loyal users had to cope with the frustrations of a limited range of software. For outdoor people computer mapping was a particular problem. Here in the UK Memory Map and then Anquet sold well on the PC but both companies regularly stated that they had no plans to port their software to the Mac. Mac users were left to run PC emulation software on their Macs and to run these programs under Windows. Until Routebuddy that is.

Routebuddy was the first, quality, mapping software for Mac OSX. But despite having much going for it Routebuddy fell frustrating short of the mark for outdoor enthusiasts with features such as height and OS grid references missing from the program. Despite these failings I find myself using Routebuddy maps more often than any over system not least because the on screen rendering of the maps was better than that of the competition.

Many UK Routebuddy Users have waited patiently for the all-new Routebuddy 3 with the hope that these shortcomings will have been dealt with. Routebuddy 3 has now been with us for a month or so. So, how does it measure up? Does Routebuddy 3 now cut the mustard for the the outdoor adventurer?

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Internet, Latest, Maps

Gordon Green’s Blog — A True Man of the Scottish Mountains

August 16, 2011 By 1 Comment

It’s difficult to keep up with all of the new blogs these days, but here is one to watch. Gordon is based — like me — in the West Midlands. His passion is the Scottish Hills. Currently he is wrestling with the dreaded midge! early days I think, but there is some good stuff here — and some good ideas for Scottish routes.

Gordon’s Off

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Filed Under: Internet, Latest, People

Help Kickstart Hendrik’s A to Z Video Guide to Lightweight Backpacking

July 15, 2011 By 1 Comment

A couple of weeks ago I plugged Kimberlie Dame’s new project which anyone can support through the Kickstart Website. Kickstart is a new kind of community where people can get together and back a new initiative, idea, service or product — it’s a bit like Just Giving, but for business purposes.

Once you discover Kickstart you find that the projects come at you at a hell of a speed!

A new project of interest to this readership is Hendrik Morkel’s A-Z of Lightweight Backpacking project. Hendrik is aiming to raise enough funds to produce a first batch of 26 of these videos. Investors receive a whole series of goodies, including a DVD box set of the finished series.

You can learn more about Hendrik’s project on Kickstart here.

Here is a sample video:

 

 

Filed Under: Internet, People

Routebuddy 3 Arrivesmp

July 1, 2011 By 9 Comments

I’ve been away for a couple of days taking in an overnight wild camp. When I got back I find Routebuddy 3 has finally arrived. Go check it out. There is a downloadable demio for both Windows and Mac OSX.

I shall be upgrading tomorrow!

Filed Under: Internet, Maps
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