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The Skye Guide
It's probably about time I plugged a website that I like to keep an eye on - The Skye Guide. The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice what draws my interest... no, not specifically the creative commons license ( :-) ), but it's a website that my Dad runs in his spare time.
I've only been to Skye once, and that was many years ago, but I have to agree with the comment on the Quiraing - one of the most awesome places I've ever been. Don't miss it if you're nearby. I can't remember much else about my visit - other than a very, very talented busker in one village who we listened to ad-libbing about what was going on in the town in an amazing cross between folk guitar and observational comedy.
I'd love if he could link to openstreetmap instead of the ordance survey, but the coverage of Skye is somewhat lacking at the moment!
This post was posted on 31 July 2007 and tagged Intarweb, OpenStreetMapOpenStreetMap Cycle Map
So those of you who don't attentively follow the OpenStreetMap mailing lists will have missed my announcement of a new cycle map that I've made! It uses the National Cycle Network and local cycle network information that we have gathered to show a map specifically tuned for cyclists.
As you can see, it's not entirely complete, but we're getting there. The data for Putney is unsurprisingly quite good! From the talk on the mailing lists the map has spurred a few people to go back over areas where they know where the routes are, and add the right tags to make it show up. Spotting new cycle routes has turned into a hobby of mine now - it's amazing how many of them there are if you keep your eyes peeled for the little stickers on lampposts and the slightly more obvious street signs.
Even though we need to gather loads more routes, I already think this is one of the best cycle maps I've found online - much better than ones based on tracing over google maps. It's especially disappointing how poor the data is from Sustrans and the London Cycle Campaign themselves. Sustrans maps, if you use Internet Explorer and if their webserver isn't grindingly slow, can be found online, but it's fairly poor and you can't reuse it (or link to it). The London Cycle Network is ten times worse, with their online map requiring registration and their pdf maps are completely rubbish.
So not exactly competition for the end result, but they've got a head start on the data collection (well, they choose where the routes are, so that could be counted as cheating!). If anyone fancies inviting me to come for a cycle ride and map out a cycle route in their area, then let me know and I'll come and help. Other than that, sit back, and watch the weekly progress as the OpenStreetMap pixies come and map a cycle route near you!
This post was posted on 31 July 2007 and tagged OpenStreetMapAlternatives to DRM nasties
So Nia buys some music, and gets bitten by DRM - but don't worry, those big companies are digitally protecting your rights.
I gave up on commercial music years ago, and have stuck to Creative Commons music since then. Sure, you're less likely to hear their jingles on adverts, and your friends might not have heard of them, but hey! There's tons of it out there, and most of it is dross - but that's no different from the stuff you have to pay for. My latest source of music is Jamendo, offering high quality .oggs and .mp3s for free download. I can heartily recommend tryad, especially their cracking album "Listen" (which I'm listening to at the moment - if you do nothing else, listen to "lovely" on the website). If you want something completely unusual, try "Fusion" from Cool Cavemen. Or my favourite from this week - "Drop" from Alexander Blu.
Has anyone else got any albums or songs they want to recommend in the comments?
This post was posted on 13 July 2007 and tagged Open CultureBook Review: The Granta Book of Reportage
I'd never heard of the idea of "reportage" before, and I'm still none the wiser as to who or what "Granta" is. But with an interest in journalism, and a photo of the awe-inspiring "Tank Man" on the cover, it was a fairly easy sell.
The book contains a wonderful collection of journalist's stories, rather than the reports that would find their way into a newspaper. Most of the reportage (which I like to think is pronounced as the French would - rhyming with montage, not cambridge) is regarding conflicts, and the stories of being a reporter trying to get close to the action - but not too close. One stand-out piece for me is the investigative journalism behind Operation Flavius, an IRA bomb plot foiled by the SAS controversially shooting the suspects. Compared with reading (not-so-)broad-sheet newspapers, I normally prefer to cut the waffle and read the Economist for getting the facts on what's going on. However, I would love to have a source of journalism like this book - almost by necessity it would be non-timely, but nevertheless fascintating, almost behind-the-scenes reading, where the subject merely provides the context for the experiences of the journalist.
Recommended.
The Granta Book of Reportage (Classics of Reportage) on Amazon.
This post was posted on 4 July 2007 and tagged CultureFill the Gap!
Last weekend was the "Fill the Gap" mapping party in Kew and Richmond - the gap being between all of our stuff around Putney and the stuff further south-west coming up towards Kingston. Although I had volunteered to help organise it, there wasn't much to be done after Etienne had found a venue. Having a pile of overhead imagery already printed out was worthwhile, since nobody brought their own!
Photos of Streetsigns - sitting around in the pub working on the day's mapping generally attracts curious onlookers - people can never work out what we're up to!
This was after me, Dave and Mike had finished - hence the half-empty table!
On Saturday Mike made his first real foray into the world of OpenStreetMap, and he and Dave went mapping around Mortlake whilst I did the stuff further up the hill in Sheen. With the weather turning a bit miserable I volunteered to stay in the pub and mark up all the morning stuff (and lend a hand with other people), and when everyone was done we went for some pizza down at the river (courtesy of our sponsors; tastes twice as nice!). On Sunday morning Dave and I went round collecting a handful of missed bits from my Saturday zone, before I volunteered to have a quick blast around Richmond Park on my bike, hence saving Nick Whitelegg a few miles walk. Whilst I was there, I nipped out to fill in a couple more council estates that I'd got bored of doing on a previous expedition to darkest Roehampton.
One thing that surprised me in the pub - in amongst all the people with no idea what we were doing, one person remarked "Oh, OpenStreetMap? Yeah, I've heard of you guys". Interesting, and I wonder where from.
All in all, another good mapping party, and now the third that I've been on. At this rate though, there'll be not much left to map in a couple of years - and what will we all do then?
This post was posted on 21 June 2007 and tagged OpenStreetMap, PhotographyEastern Grit
We went climbing over Easter, as I mentioned before, and spent four days climbing on gritstone in the Peak District. The climbing was really good - we had four days of good weather. I tried my hand at leading (well, I severely scraped my hand whilst leading) for one of the days, but I was feeling a bit under the weather for most of the time. We stayed at Ed's gaff, and were very kindly catered for (fry-ups every morning are not to be sneezed at). Being a bank-holiday weekend made getting out of the national park...interesting, and at 7 quid for a burger the Wimpy at the service station was a rip off. But these are all ancillaries to a great weekend, and pretty much doubling my outdoor climbing experience after two previous trips to Wales.
I took loads of photos, and put them up on flickr a couple of weeks ago - attrating a few comments and favouritings, which is nice to see. Below are some of my favourites out of my Eastern Grit set on flickr. Enjoy!
16 Days
I’m back at work now, which is unfortunate but somewhat expected. I took some time off work to extend my Easter break out to a full fortnight, and had some fun doing things I wanted to do.
I got a new phone, for one thing. My old one wouldn’t do left and right button presses, and stopped sending text messages too. When I couldn’t figure out why, and went to the Orange shop on a nice and quiet Monday morning, they just gave me a new phone instead, and lowered my bills as part of the bargain. Nice approach to problem solving.
I bought a new camera bag - a camera rucksack really. It’s really nice, and really tough too. I was getting fed up carrying all the bits and bobs split between my old camera bag and my daysack - I’ve bought a lot more stuff since I was given the bag a few years ago! I’ve already worn it whilst climbing and roughed around with it - I’ll probably review it properly at some point.
I went climbing in the Peaks with a few people - but the photos from that are nice enough to deserve their own posting (to follow).
I did lots of other things too - cycling on the Thames, going to the Tate Modern, going picnicing and drinking and openstreetmapping and all kinds of fun stuff. I need to find a seasonal job, like one of these work hard for 6 months and we’ll give you six months off type things - I’ve got too many things I want to do, and two days each weekend just isn’t enough!
This post was posted on 19 April 2007 and tagged LifeSummer Sun
Daylight Savings is a phenomenal waste of time, when you consider how much faffing with clocks goes on. I especially liked the two guys on Sunday morning interrogating a bemused donut-vendor in Fulham Broadway as to what time it was - with the nearby London Underground automated signs not helping much (that’s to say still being on GMT).
But the one thing that makes it seem worthwhile is leaving work late, and yet unexpectedly still having the chance to walk home down the riverside watching the sun set in full technicolour. Friday, which was about ten degrees colder and where the sun was almost gone before I left work, seems a world away. Roll on summer!
This post was posted on 26 March 2007 and tagged LifeBiking and mapping
I seem to blink, and another month goes by.
Last weekend I went mountain biking in Wales with Gary, which was great fun. We stayed at the Cae Gwyn Farm B&B, which was very nice, and a short downhill ride to the mountain biking centre at Coed y Brenin. First time I’ve done proper mountain biking on rocky trails - it would have been impossible without suspension, and even with, it was pretty hard going. Still, I think I’ll be doing it again some time soon. Anyone else fancy it?
I’ve also been doing more openstreetmap stuff - there was an interesting mapping party at a eco-warrior type place down in Mitcham (the Pathways of Desire party I mentioned previously), looking to open up paths and cycle tracks through some wasteground nearby. A worthwhile pursuit, and I’m looking forward to the day when OSM starts producing customised maps for cyclists and suchlike. If you haven’t looked recently, the main map has had an update - check out how Putney is doing! It’s going from strength to strength. Needless to say, I was collecting tracks when biking with Gary, and I’m trying to find time to trace them out into the system…
This post was posted on 20 March 2007 and tagged Life, OpenStreetMapMapping parties
A fortnight ago was the OpenStreetMap London mapping party. It was the first mapping party I had been to - but it was on the weekend that my snowboarding trip finished, so I wasn’t sure how much of it I was going to make. As it turned out, I got there on the Saturday in time to join everyone in the pub - and after getting up late (and hungover) the following morning, we only had enough time to fill in some blanks along either side of Oxford Street. Dave (in green, second from right) had done more during the day on Saturday.
Mapping parties are weird, because whilst we’re all being sociable and working together on a project, when we’re actually out doing stuff, it goes back to a solitary pursuit. But getting to put names to faces in the pub is always worth it!
I’m not sure if I’m going to go to the Bristol event on the weekend after next, but I’m interested in the “Pathways of Desire” party next month - it sounds a bit different from the urban mapping I normally do, without being inconveniently far away from London!
Oh, and the picture of Putney on my GPS is currently the Featured Image on the front page of the OSM wiki, as well as having been favourited by someone on flickr - both of which I’m quite proud of!
This post was posted on 13 February 2007 and tagged OpenStreetMapsubscribe via RSS