Enough Said

In addition to not being much of a motorcycle enthusiast, I have never once felt that merely posting one photo of someone else's work is an adequate post… until now… and then some!   [ED Note: Hold onto something bolted to the floor while you watch this]

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Doing GPS: 201 - "From GPS to Google" (Part 3)

The adventure that you planned for weeks has come to fruition and you now have only memories of sights, sounds and smells to give you solace during your work-a-day existence.

But wait, you did remember to turn on your GPS and you have the whole thing down in digital format; but, how do you look at it during your coffee break? Lets plug that thing in, fire up our software and create a Google Earth file that will fly us over the whole trail.

This week we complete our understanding of "GPS Visualizer" and make a shareable KML file which fits our own personal preferences and requirements.

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Doing GPS: 105 - "'Visualizing' GPS Data"

What a bumpy ride making this screencast has been. After four tries it was still too long so I decided, yet again, to split discussing a new program - "GPS Visualizer" - into two parts.

'Visualizer' is such a broad, flexible program that putting its explanation into basic, plug-and-play language was nearly impossible. So I developed a basic 'template' of sorts which will allow you to nearly 'fall into' your first file.

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Doing GPS: 104 - "From GPS to Google Earth"

I can't tell you how many emails I've answered about this topic with: "I'm working on a screencast for this." Now is the time.

Capturing your off-road journey onto your GPS unit is only the first part of the journey. You must want to prolong the pleasure for times when you are shut up in an office breathing recirculated air. Don't you?

Sure, you can lunge for the photo album, and re-live the adventure. But what if those photos were tagged onto a map which showed the trail you actually rode, over an actual detailed image of the earth? Now that's what I call reminiscing!

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Doing GPS: 103 - "From the Moon to the Earth"

It's been quite awhile since the last episode of my screencast series "Doing Google Earth" so here is another piece of the puzzle.

I do have to apologize in advance for the length - there has been so much happen since last I "casted" that it was hard to fit it all in. But, even if you have to stop and take a potty break it may explain a lot that you were wondering about.

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Doing GPS: 102 - "Making a Map"

For over 8 months I've been working on a "Master File" for Nevada. The Western Region is nearly complete with tracks and waypoints for a lot of ATV trails to abandoned mines, canyons, mountain hideaways and great rides. I'll let you know when it's posted and ready for download. [ed note: it's already here]

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
Samuel Clemmens (Mark Twain)

It has taken so long because of the number of trails and because I've needed to correct many erroneous waypoints which were published in the book. You can't fault them too much because, as you know, GPS units are greatly affected by mountains and other obstructions.

You get back home after a ride and find that all the nifty petroglyphs you so carefully marked are scattered all over three states due to the GPS loosing its bearings down in the canyon — bummer.

Today, as I was coding the very last trail, I realized that it was the shortest of the bunch — only two points; and that it would make a great piece to use for a video tutorial.

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Doing GPS: 101 - "Getting Google Earth 5.0"

Google has finally corrected many of the bugs that were in its Google Earth 5.0 which caused most of our maps to display incorrectly. So, for those of you who have been holding off upgrading there is a new version available.

Additionally, I have heeded the pleas from many of you to produce a screencast about how to download "Earth," install it and set it up to be able to use the free maps which come with many of the "rides" I write about.

Even though I've spent nearly all day browsing the web for tutorials on screencasts, there is still a bit more to be learned I'm sure. The video quality will need to get better as we go along. Click on "play" below to begin the tutorial, and once it has begun click on the square screen icon at the bottom to enlarge the playback area. Please comment and let me know if you have any problems with the download.