Whomwah.com

A quick post of my learnings when researching the best setup for my Garmin eTrex Vista HCx as most of what I initially found was old, PC only, or just plain wrong.

I chose this GPS device because it was reasonably cheap, expandable, and allowed me to upload maps to the device, and visa-versa. I also wanted to use the power of OpenStreetMap, rather than pay Garmin lots of money, and my research showed me this was possible.

So, rather than talk about all the things that I couldn’t find or do, I’ll just run through the good stuff. Here’s a run down of all the useful software I found.

• OSM/Computerteddy Garmin IMG tile calculator

  Create a bounding box on a map of the world, and it will return an OSM IMG to use on your device. There’s even a great bookmarklet to use on the OpenStreetMap site. This is an awesome site.

• geofabrik.de

  A great resource of maps of the world. I don’t speak German, but you can get the idea of what you’re able to download.

• http://fredericbonifas.free.fr/

  Detailed map of France. I used this on a recent cycle tour, and it was invaluable.

• TrailRunner

  TrailRunner is a route planning Mac software for all kinds of long distance sports like running, biking, hiking, inline-skating, skiing and more. It’s free, but a donation of 25 Euros will stop prompts. It’s a fantastic bit of software.

• LoadMyTracks

  This free utility works hand-in-hand with TrailRunner. It will send and receive data to and from the eTrex. It can also be used to translate data between the popular GPX and KML (Google Earth) formats.

Finally there is the OpenStreetMap Garmin page which has the useful information about getting all this data onto the device, and much more.

In honor of the first manned Moon landing, which took place on July 20, 1969, Google added some NASA imagery to the Google Maps interface to help you pay your own visit to our celestial neighbor. Try a full zoom for the comedy effect.

At last google have finally created Google Maps Uk. This is what we’ve all have been waiting for. I have briefly tested it with various peoples homes and random places and there is definately some minor tweaking to be done, but as an overview it’s amazing. I guess multimap and streetmap might as well pack there bags and go home?

Update: People have been having fun with google maps in the US since they added Keyhole satellite imagery. Here my favourite so far.

Even though I live in the UK, I have been playing with Google Maps since it’s new beta release. What a really clever bit of coding. It uses javscript and much use of the XMLHttpRequest object to access all the XML information in the background.

If the UK gets added to this mapping system, Muiltimap and Streetmap watch out!