F'in handy maps.

[bugjuice]

been a fan of the good ol' Google Maps for a while now, since it knows who I am with Gmail, it knows where I live (cos I told it), so getting from A ta C is pretty easy checking, before I leave.
but, the clever buggas stuck it on me fone too.. been playing around with it, and it's not half bad, all things considered.

2 downsides so far;

• it'll suck the 'bandwidth' of your cell phone if you like playing with it (especially the sat pics), so may pay to check how much it'll cost you to play around with it. VF charge $12 for a mb if you haven't got a plan for it (which I don't), or $12 for 3mb plan, and up.. Don't know bout telescum.

• the other one, is that using triangulation from the cell towers, it'll narrow things down to about 1700m.. which is just how it works (cleverly) and isn't terribly pin point (not very cleverly). At one point this evening, I was sat in a restaurant in Mission Bay and showed me exactly where I was. Impressed, it then refreshed for some reason, and I was according to the phone, dining with the fishies about 500m off shore. fresh dinner.. If you have a GPS unit that goes with your phone, then it'll probably tell you which hand your phone is in.

Anyway, it's enough so that in theory, I can't get lost now. So I thought I'd share.. Since we sometimes get lost on bikes..

[Steam]

Wow! that is handy.
Another good mapping thing is Quikmaps, it enables you to use Google maps and draw on them. Handy for scribbling a quick overlay of information, or pointing out where you live, or where to meet. THen it saves them and you can email the link of the drawn-on map to a mate, or whatever. See: http://quikmaps.com/ext2/53831 or it even generates code for you to post it like I have below.
The fantastic thing is that it doesn't just save the little thing you have drawn on the map, you can scroll out and in and it has the whole of the country, it's open-ended.
See look, it's Google Maps below, not a static picture, and it's in a KB page. Cool!

[bugjuice]

that is cool..

[EJK]

quel!

+10 cha

[TerminalAddict]

mmm been on my iPhone for a while now

[bugjuice]

mmm been on my iPhone for a while now

flash git

[skelstar]

Quikmaps is pretty cool, but reckon the routing function on google maps is the business. Worked out that Picton-Wanaka via the West [awesome] Coast route is only about ~100km longer than the East [boring] Coast route. Mint!

[Ixion]

S.got a wee bug. If you use the directions feature, it assumes we drive on the right. So all the turns are reversed - it says turn right when it should be left and vice versa.

[sAsLEX]

S.got a wee bug. If you use the directions feature, it assumes we drive on the right. So all the turns are reversed - it says turn right when it should be left and vice versa.

ummm a left turn is still a left turn if you are on the left or right of the road!

[Ixion]

Yes, but I think it assumes that for me to be on (say) the western side of the road, I must be going the opposite way to what I am.

Imagine you are on the motorway , trundling north. On the left side of the road. now, if we were a right hand drive country, and you were on the same side of the road, you'd be heading south. And the turns would be reversed.

Either that or it's got the earth upside down.