This pilot application illustrates web-mapping search methods to retrieve geo-referenced records for all Ordnance Survey National Grid paper maps for Scotland at 1:2,500 and 1:1,250 scales. Although the OS maps themselves are not viewable, this project makes essential map details available remotely for the first time. These include 45,000 records for sheet maps, surveyed between 1944 and 1991, in the National Library of Scotland's collections.
I haven't had to do a crosscheck with Flash Earth for a while, so is it just me, or can no-one else see Google in the list of available views now?
Maybe the lawyers finally caught up with the fella, as his use of their data (and all the others for that matter) actually breaks their ToU (Terms of Use), and has been unauthorised since day one.
Don't know what The Fox is looking at (and presumably is not looking any more) but Google has indeed officially gone from Flash Earth at their request - seems a backward step for a company that seeks publicity, but there you go.
I truly hate the new layout, with the menus and options plastered over the view unless you opt to go full-screen, and hope they will be restored to the edges of the screen, but I suspect I may be disappointed.
On the other hand, without the option of flipping between Google and VE aerial views, there's not really much reason to go back to Flash Earth if you're in the UK or wanting hi-res ground views.
There used to be an alternative from ocarto but it now seems to work only with Google, and not the others, so you can't win.
While I have plenty of alternative map views, none of them offer the similar option of switching the same view from alternative providers, so it looks like the end of and era.
Just to let anyone that might use the option know (if not already noticed), but our Multimap map links to aerial and OS views of subject areas have now packed up altogether - presumably in response to formatting changes on high at Multimap Towers.
I can't be bothered hunting down the change again - they just changed the coding recently and I've already had to recode to suit - and will just get around to it at some time when I'm bored. The links are not essential as Live Search provides the same aerial views now anyway.
In the meantime, the Multimap views are still fine if you whizz onto the desired location manually.
If you only want the aerial view, then just use Virtual Earth instead, that's the Microsoft Live Search option. As noted, this is the same, and is the one with the Bird's Eye views.
If you want the OS mapping, then Live Search is no good - it's the American version, so you'll have to get the OS view by hand on Multimap, or use the OS Get-a-map option, smaller and less convenient, but at least our link will place on the same spot and save you the effort of having to find it.
Thank goodness Google are commercially oriented, and can't afford to foul up their map user base. Their coding may have become huge and complex, but at least their changes don't usually break anything fundamental.
Cancel the above message (I'm leaving it for reference though, rather than deleting it).
Curiosity got the better of me a few hours later, and I spent a few minutes poking around the code to see what might have changed.
I couldn't see anything significant - although their method of providing shortcut links has indeed changed, though I don't know when since I don't need or use them - and when I tried our aerial and OS map views, found that these were once again working as expected.
I suspect I may just have been unfortunate, and needed to used these just as some changes were going through - regardless, it's nice to see them working properly again, and appreciate them just a little bit more
Slightly off-topic but I feel duty bound to report the sighting of a parked up google van complete with covered up camera antenna thingwy ont' roof of same in Laburnum Road, Cumbernauld last Saturday.
There have been other reports in Glasgow in the past few weeks, and we can only wait and see how long it takes to go from street to screen now, assuming Privacy International does not succeed in having them (and maybe us) banned.
Cumbernauld? Why? Mind you it could be quite economical. Do one street and pass it off as dozens!
My best memory of the place was in the early 1960s, on the Glasgow /Falkirk bus which passed through Cumbernauld which was under construction at the time. One Sunday night , in a fog the driver turned left at what he thought was the junction and we ended up in a field. As construction raced ahead the bus drivers frequently got lost. All this was before they built the carbuncle.
When the green buses used to run between Glasgow and Edinburgh, we had the same problem, and not in the fog either. We ended up touring an industrial estate somewhere along the M8 as the totally confused bus driver tried to find a road, any road, that would get us back onto the motorway
I'd like to put a good word in for Cumbernauld. Yes, it has its downsides and carbuncles, but what town doesn't, and it did separate the people from the traffic. Just because that brought side-effects that the people, or at least the noisy, complaining types, didn't like doesn't mean the whole place deserved the subsequent beatings it has received. A case, I think, of bullying.
I even appreciated the town centre, until it started to suffer from desertion. As a "shops only" creation, it only took the departure of a few traders to turn parts of it into a desert where no-one wanted to go.
I'd suggest the Anderston Centre in Glasgow suffered from the same deficit.
Interesting to see that both places went the same way, and were "adjusted" using an extremely large hammer!
Andrew Marr presents the series Britain from Above, the first episode of which will be broadcast on Sunday, August 10, at 21:00 on BBC One.
The shorts in the trailer are indeed stunning as the intro says. I don't have any hopes of ever holding a PPL (Private Pilot's Licence), but was able to get a bit of training which included commercial flight operations, and actually seeing the 3D visualisation of of aircraft stacking in a circular holding pattern is amazing, as this is something you can visualise in your mind as a concept, imagining what your aircraft is doing relative to the ground, and those around you doing the same with only instruments and flight control to tell you where you are in space, and what your speed, direction, and altitude should be at any given moment.
I'll probably miss it now (thank goodness for the BBC's iPlayer - the only thing with an "i" at the start of its name that I don't spontaneously reach for a hammer and want to smash when I see it).
Google Earth imagery was updated on May 9, but the entry for Scotland simply reads "large percentage covered now" at the moment, with no further detail.
The new imagery is yet to be pushed to Google Map, so it is possible to compare the two products at the moment to check if an area is a new inclusion.
There are no detailed reports by users of the areas covered, and I suspect that there may not be - it is only Scotland after all
Update
I'd lost my usual "insider" link for info on Google map info earlier (damn these urges to tidy things! ), but have found it now, and this confirms there is no detailed info or listing released regarding the new areas covered in Scotland, but it does hint that there might be more info released later.
Found this while fumbling around GE - not Scotland, but not disappointing...
Activate the 360Cities layer in GE, and either look at the south coast of England, where you will see a single, round, orange 360 marker...
Or Fly to Nothe Fort and look for the orange 360 marker on the point just south of the ferry lying at the harbour - it may be buried in the midst of some other distracting markers unless you zoom in a bit closer to the ground.
Click on the marker, and just wish we had something like that up here that was in a similar condition
The date of all the images used is now shown in the left hand corner of GE status bar at the bottom of the view.
There are no "new" images in GE, and although there are updates which replace older images, you can expect to be looking at much that is back in the time 2002.
Even Google can't keep flying planes - or buying new versions of images they already have on file.
The addition of the date is handy, as you can check places you know, or know have been changed, and see just how the change has affected them.
Or if you're a tabloid newspaper, you can have headlines with the word CONSPIRACY in them, and bleat about places that are still in lo-res, and make claims that government agencies are forcing Google to suppress the images to hide bases where alien craft are being stored and tested, or ICBM silos are being concealed - not forgetting the odd bit of Atlantis.
It's worth noting that this imagery is only new to to Google Earth, and has been freely available online for years - I've been using it, and it comes from a commercial supplier of such imagery and has been on sale for years as digital or printed photographs (something the tabloids also chose to ignore, so they could write silly stories about Faslane for example, claiming that the nuclear sub base had been censored from Google's aerial views).
There's a working preview of the Microsoft Live Local system that shows street level views like Google Street View. The example shows a small area around a couple of American city centres, San Francisco and Seattle at the moment.
Unlike the Google offering, there is no set schedule or program to be followed to cover any specific area, and they will not be sending out any sort of photographic teams.
Instead, they will be looking for contributed pictures and use an existing image processing system - PhotoSynth, or possibly GeoSynth when used for this - to knit together the contributed images to provide the final view at street level.
Microsoft thinks the system is now ready, as GeoSynth, to become a virtualized, crowd-sourced, image-driven world map. The service will take the images and metadata from geotagged imagery supplied by the public to a special database and form them into Streetview-like world view application. Microsoft Virtual Earth expert Johannes Kebeck explained that the system will apparently be moderated somehow, so the "system would take the best images from a location to create a single image of a specific landmark".
(I didn't write the following bit, and I don't quite understand it, so am just including it as a quote for information. It's dated March 2009 for currency.)
GeoSynth sounds clever, and it's certainly a much more cost-effective way of sourcing the images than having a fleet of specialized cars drive across the planet. Plus, where there are sites of specific interest, such as a famous landmark, the PhotoSynth aspect should allow you to view even more detailed imagery than is possible from Google's system. GeoSynth hasn't officially been announced, but it's reportedly due to arrive "later in the year."
Update: It seems that Johannes Kebeck's words have gone slightly awry in between him saying them and them ending up in the news. Microsoft has just contacted us to clear up the situation, and according to their spokesman: "Johannes Kebeck’s comments were taken somewhat out of context. GeoSynth is a standalone version of Photosynth offered by Vexcel that is licensed to public sector companies. There are no immediate plans to integrate GeoSynth into the consumer facing version of Live Search Maps. Photosynth collections are already included in Live Search Maps in the U.S." That's cleared that up--though it seems a shame that there won't be a public-facing version of GeoSynth coming directly from Microsoft.
If MSoft Live are going to use submitted pictures then I hope they screen them well, the ones on Google are often nowhere near the correct location. Many seem to just drop them onto the town whilst on quite a small scale, others don't even get the right town/area.
It's a waste of time trying to report errors to Google - the local A&E hospital is in the wrong position on just about all online mapping systems including Google.
The errors are not down to Google, and there's no point in reporting any location errors to them, they can't do anything about them.
That's why your hospital is in the "wrong" positon on most of the online systems.
The classic was once the location of the ferry port at Portavadie - life would have been tough if you had followed the map blindly
They purchase the mapping and location data from commercial organisations, and simply re-use it. The supplier names can be seen in the copyright statements at the bottom of the screen, and can be seen to vary as you move through the maps/views.
If you want to report a error, that's where the report has to be sent.
When the source is corrected, the Google view will be corrected.
There are also deliberate errors introduced.
These are documented and used by the source to bring actions against organisations that copy or clone the information published, rather than buying it from the source that compiled it. As these errors are different in every system, they can be used to identify where the data was stolen from.
I realise that it is the source of the mapping data and tried to get them to correct it. But there are other things on Google that are difficult (or impossible) to get corrected. The temperatures on their weather summary bear little resemblance to reality, I did wonder if they were using a temperature from the summit of Aonach Mor for Fort William but seen others in different countries also complaining. Perhaps it is their source but Yahoo, BBC etc all seem to manage to find an accurate source. They have a regular error on their News pages where they attribute some news items to "BBC Bulgaria" for no apparent reason. Again tried to tell them but it is like banging your head on the proverbial brick wall.
Again, if they are buying in the news or weather feeds, there is no point in telling them, since they are only serving information they have subscribed to. They might not even be paying for some of these, and that would give some funny info sometimes, but no fee means no comeback. There will be no staff to deal with changing it (since they can't anyway), and if the world is telling them there are errors, then it would be an impractical and never ending job replying to everyone.
But, you've got me curious now.
I'd never use Google, or any other aggregator for weather or news, preferring to go to source to avoid the very problems you describe, that way I know the credentials of the national organisation providing the data, or conversely, if it's coming from a private or commercial venture. But that's just down to me and the fact that I work with data from others, and inherently don't trust it until the source is known. I can't even stop doing that even when I'm playing
Could you drop a few urls to the services you've mentioned with the odd info please - I'd like to keep an eye out now that I know about them, and look at one or two.
The weather is just a summary that you can add to your iGoogle page. I would thought that if they are buying the information then they would be even more concerned that it is wrong. There are always quite a few degrees colder.
The news service just searches for various topics and keywords then displays on a page with the source. Often the source is "BBC Bulgaria" when it has come off the main BBC site - you know that because that is where it takes you when you click on the link.
Has anyone else found old-maps.co.uk acting strangely? I can now only see the bottom half of the already small map area as the top half is obscured by the samples of other maps of the area.
Or is this related to the fact that I ugraded to IE8 today?
I was trying the Auchenreoch area if it makes anyy difference.
Has anyone else found old-maps.co.uk acting strangely? I can now only see the bottom half of the already small map area as the top half is obscured by the samples of other maps of the area.
Or is this related to the fact that I ugraded to IE8 today?
I was trying the Auchenreoch area if it makes anyy difference.
IE8 is the problem but changing onto Compatability mode takes you back to the home page unless you are already running in that mode before you click on the page link. If I want to use old-maps I do use FX but I am only raising it on behalf of visitors, the majority of whom come via IE.
I can't really comment as the features I can see at the moment don't seem to include our area of interest at the moment, so this enhancement is yet to be of value here.
The other problem is that I steadfastly refuse to download and install Silverlight (which bing mapsmaps now demands for these new features), and it will take more than this to convince me I either need or want it (since Google mapping already has most of these "new" features anyway). I've only got one site complaining that Silverlight is not installed and imploring me to add yet more bloat - and that, surprise surprise - is another Microsoft page, which I only look at rarely.
I've already had to spend ages getting rid of their .NET environment (and hundred upon hundred of Activex entries which bloated by registry) after having it forced on me for one page view, and can't even get rid of a database manager that keeps attracting security updates I don't need or want
If anyone else is running it or finds it useful, then of course, any comments would be appreciated.
Microsoft teams with Navteq to expand their Streetside coverage
by mickey on December 7, 2009
When Microsoft launched Streetside a few days ago (a direct competitor to Google’s StreetView), I wondered how they could possibly catch up with the huge amount of coverage that Google already has in place. Their answer: Navteq.
Navteq has vehicles on the road all the time, collecting road data (speed limits, bridge heights, etc). Microsoft plans to “strap a few cameras on their vehicles to record some photos”. It certainly seems like a great way to start playing catch-up. I still imagine it’ll be quite a while until they have anywhere close to as much imagery as Google, but this gives them a solid plan to start gaining some ground.
They also revealed that they’ll be doing monthly releases of new Streetside imagery, similar to their monthly aerial/satellite releases. Those releases tend to be rather impressive is their coverage, so we’ll see if their Streetside releases can match that.
Like most of these kinds of battles, the winner will be you. Both companies will work hard to add better features and greater coverage, and we get to reap the benefits. Kinda nice.
You could get the photo-archive, the map seems to show little detail unless you go to one of their more detailed services.
There are a lot of pics though, mostly of rocks
There are some gems - and I don't actually mean of the geological type - as some of the pics relate to mines and similar types of production, but I couldn't track any down to any of the quarries we have mentioned in our areas of interest.
Maybe needs a bit more digging, or better selection of search terms to find something.
The map was up again by this morning, but just seemed to show very large scale overview, so once seen, not much reason to go back - unless I'm missing something obvious that shows more detail
Access to their data seems to be the real giveaway.
If they need that level of instruction, I think it would be a good idea to check that any guests from the area had been on the toilet training course before inviting them to your home.
Can you imagine them with a GPSr?
And why do the two country rangers look like male and female version of Arnold Rimmer?
Seriously, this reminds of the day me next door neighbour proudly announced he had a computer and would be going on the internet in a few weeks - as he had signed up for a series of evening classes over a period of something like four weeks, which would teach him how to use Internet Explorer, and email.
I was... lost for words, smiled, and wished him good luck.
And the government is going to teach kids how to safely use the Internet - first lesson, don't trust any site with .gov.uk" in the URL and definitely don't trust any sites connected to the Labour Party though these can be harder to spot.
It's sounds stupid but the level of ignorance is amazing - someone was on Watchdog or You & Yours talking about getting ripped off by a company selling dodgy concert tickets online. He said he did a Google search by the name of the artist and chose the top match on the screen!
(The "how to use a mobile phone" is even better than how to use a map)
Seem we now also have to train cyclists to look where they are going... (probably shouldn't come as any surprise if you watch some of them, they shouldn't be let out in a pair of shoes, let alone in charge of a bike):
The Edinburgh tram installation seems to be a bit of a joke - looking at the state of the road surface at the track edges, regardless of the spokesperson's suggestion that the weather meant they were unable to seal the edges.
Nothing new about tram tracks though these particular ones seem to be very poorly finished off. Cyclists seem to have managed with them for many years, perhaps in a period when there were many more cyclists around.
I worked in Eindhoven for a couple of months many years ago and I am sure there were trams and railway track in the road there. There would be thousands of cyclists coming out of the factory but we seemed to cope OK.
People that really do follow SatNav instructions off cliff/hillsides, or drive huge heavy artics up muddy country tracks.
People that need video instruction on how to dial a phone
And who has bought a battery operated product from Lidl?
You will be treated to the best part of an A4 page on the dangers of batteries and explosion if they are not handled and disposed of correctly - anyone would be forgiven for thinking they had been sold a small bomb!
There's news of a new development being tacked on to Google Earth (it's not a part of GE as such) which aims to taps the huge database of ever-updated webcams streaming views from every part of the world to keep the virtual world more up-to-date.
Austin Abrams, a PhD candidate at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, has developed a method to replace the usually static "skin" of virtual buildings and other features with images from the Archive of Many Outdoor Scenes (AMOS), a collection of live feeds from nearly 1000 webcams streaming from various sites around the world.
Drawing on AMOS images, Abrams's browser-based application, called Live3D, maps 2D webcam images onto a 3D model of a location or landmark. For example, at night it clothes the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, with the same light-studded darkened surface seen by the webcam.
It's too much for my tiny little broadband connection to cope with, and I've barely been able to wait long enough for all the graphics of the building etc in 3D to be delivered, but I think it seems to work.
You can have a try if you have something faster than me, from the Live3D link in this article:
I paassed this farm a couple of weeks ago and couldn't quite work out what the sat nav sign meant but on reflection I have theorised that some systems might send idiotic drivers over a hill through somebody's garden. At least thats what I think it means.
Expect to see the media go into overdrive soon, as the technically challenged hacks get their hands on the forthcoming sunspot maximum and predict all sorts of gloom, doom, and disaster as they foretell of the failure of GPS, and another Y2K meltdown.
The rest of us will, of course, just carry on as if nothing is happening.
I offer my advice from experience of the last maximum - which was not noticed then either - between 2000 and 2003.
Oh, beware of any that name a specific day, as the maximum is something that occurs over a period of years, not on one "dangerous" day.
I was using GPS before 1998, which was the year the receivers could be finally be purchased with basemaps onboard for a reasonable, if still horrendous, price. Before that, al you got was your position, navigation between waypoints, and a breadcrumb trail if you were lucky. Adding maps meant navigation directions that could be related to real roads, unfortunately... it also led to to the birth of its bastard child from hell: SatNav.
I was very active using GPS between 2000 and 2003, (typically covering around 14,000 miles per year to places in Scotland I had never been to before) and we users were also watching the accuracy and performance of out GPS systems very closely at that time, because the US Government had just turned off the deliberate degradation of the system accuracy (which had been built in from the start to prevent terrorists and other naughty people benefiting from GPS when it was unique, rare, and expensive). This introduce a systemic, random error of up to 100 metres in the reported position from a civilian GPS receiver, and I can assure they did allow it to use that whole 100 metre allowance. The difference when they switched this off was gob-smacking, and I went from being able tu use my GPS to "confirm" I was somewhere near my own house while I was parked in the drive, to being able to compare day-to-day positions of where I stopped my car in the drive. Most of the time, it was able to fix positions to about 1 metre repeatably, and that's impressive when you've had to use smart processing to improve a potential position error of 100 metres.
Suffice to say, if the sunspot maximum was screwing things up in the period 2000 to 2003, then it's being doing it ever since 2003, as I've seen no real difference in performance since then, better OR worse.
Let's watch and see what kind of panic the media tries to provoke this time round, and how many hacks generate bonus cheques for making articles that get lots of attention, and generate needless fear.
But the following video gives away the existence of the backpack camera, as well as the trike and the car.
I'd love to embed the following, but you're just going to have to follow the link that's coming.
Blaise Aguera y Arcas recently shared some new Bing Maps features with the audience at TED, and he showed off some amazing stuff. The way that Flickr images (and even video) are incorporated into the StreetSide imagery using PhotoSynth technology was stunning, as was some other features.
This eight-minute video is absolutely worth the time to watch it.
You might want to place a soft cushion below your jaw too
I can only guess that the Thugs of Broughton are holding collections and raffles in their local pubs and clubs, and organising fund-raising events to hire a small army of hit-men to take out Blaise and his team.
If you can bear to watch The Gadget show nowadays, and not find yourself looking for a tall building or high cliff (I begin to lose the will to live as the presenters fall over one another as if they were god's gift to technology and and the world), you will have spotted something similar in the "augmented reality" features of the phones they tested tonight, which can overlay map views and the camera view, and which can follow the view as the camera is moved, thanks to accelerometers fitted within the "phone", and the application of GPS and cell sensing to determine where the owner is standing.
It doesn't take the greatest leap of the imagination to marry this with the previous item.
Flashearth isn't much use since the writer removed the Google aerial views - he was "stealing" the imagery without having asked their permission to use them with his own code, and they eventually requested he remove the Google view, which he complied with.
Now that the other maps, Bing, Google, and Google Earth have been optimised and work much faster than they used to, I don't really have any need to look at Flashearth, especially since it no longer offers the easy switching between Virtual Earth and Google aerial views.
I still suspect it has the occasional problem with the accuracy of the lat/lon returned (but don't use it enough to know for sure, so have no confidence), and has a tendency to "go Inca" and return to irritating degrees minutes and seconds, instead of useable decimal degrees.
Because the method is so simple, but the potential result so devastating, I've never openly raised the subject of GPS (or SatNav, for the mentally challenged) jamming. However, for those with an inkling of electronic or radio knowledge, then the fact that GPS devices do not operate indoors, or even under the covering of leaves ins a wood or forest, is enough of a clue as to how to kill the system.
Quoted Text
Criminal gangs have begun using GPS "jammers" imported from China to help them steal expensive cars and lorries carrying valuable loads – and there are fears that terrorists could use more powerful versions to disrupt air traffic, a conference in London will hear on Tuesday.
The "jammers" put out radio signals at the same frequency at the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, overwhelming the timing signal that in-car devices use to plot their position. That means a tracker device built into a lorry with a valuable load, or a car with an anti-theft GPS device which should report its position if stolen, cannot distinguish the correct GPS signal.
"It disappears from the radar," said Professor David Last, of the University of Wales at Bangor, who has been a police expert witness in a number of cases over the past 18 months in which GPS jammers have been seized.
Some German drivers are also believed to use such jammers to try to evade GPS-based road charging, which was introduced for trucks in 2005. There have also been robberies in Russia where such jammers have been used against both GPS systems and mobile phones on lorries to prevent the driver from contacting the authorities.
In Germany, as in the UK, it is illegal to sell or use such jammers – although it appears to be legal to import or own them.
Satnav devices rely on being able to "see" at least four of the 30 satellites orbiting about 20,200km (12,550 miles) above the earth: by correlating the very precise timing and identification signals they transmit, a ground-based device can calculate its own location to within about 1 metre. However, the jamming devices do not have to put out a strong signal to disrupt GPS reception.
"The problem is that the signal from the satellites is extremely weak – it's the equivalent of picking up the light output of a 25-watt bulb on the satellite,"
As usual, the lowest common denominator of low-life ruins things again, as criminals could use a small jammer to blank out the GPS and possibility og tracking over the area of the Thames Estuary to make drug deliveries, and jeopardise aircraft heading to major London airports.
Non-GPS navigation has been run down and even removed in some cases (clarification: benn declared obsolete, closed down, and removed from service in some cases), but there is now advice to the effect that that these systems supplement one another (in safety critical applications), rather than be seen as replacements, as each uses different technology, and each has strengths and weaknesses - some of which include resistance to terrestrial jamming.
Bing has just made a major update to its mapping imagery, with more than 6.7 million square kilometres of fresh imagery.
Our cut... not a lot:
Aerial: United Kingdom 15,221 square kilometres
and
Bird's Eye oblique: United Kingdom 13,094 square kilometres
They added a load of new imagery in the Russian Federation, Australia, Mexico and many places in the United States, also a lot of new Bird’s Eye imagery in Sweden.
Apolo, is there better imagery on D&G area, I can not access Bing, however I am frustrated with Google Earth that shows the region in very low resulution with a really extensive cloud cover
The problem is not Google, but that none of the companies that Google and Microsoft (and the others) buy the aerial imagery from have not overflown this area and have suitable hi-res imagery to sell them. At least, I am assuming this to be the case since none of the big players has this area in hi-res, and I reckon one of them would have bought the pics first, leaving the other to play catch-up.
Although it doesn't apply in D&G, I would still advise zooming into areas that appear to have cloud cover!
The reason being that the higher altitude may show clouds, but the low-level pics are are taken below cloud level, so the clouds can magically disappear if you zoom in. This is particularly true of Aberdeen and the northeast, which I moaned about for years in the past, until I chanced across a high-res view when writing about one of the old wartime airfield.
D&G will no doubt come - philosophically... somewhere has to be last
Or I prefer Pastmap - but you need to register (that's all, there's nothing else other than an username and password needed) - I tend to fire this up as it hooks into some more info that can sometimes prove useful:
The above are handy since they let you see an area on a map, with all the points recorded shown as various forms of dot - so you can quickly see if there is any point in looking in more detail, or if the area is bare.
Where you can do a simple search, or better, used the Advanced Serch that the offer, where you and input a grid ref and a search radius.
This has also been born-again in ScptlandsPlaces, where you can also do the grid ref and radius search, as well as various text options. so you can target an area:
Canmore and the map are notoriously unreliable. I have come across several shipwrecks on the tops of hills and a deer park in the middle of the Clyde estuary.
A fair number of shipwrecks are not plotted by Canmore, but come from Admiralty and other maritime sources, including amateur divers and sub-aqua clubs, and many date from the time of the wrecks themselves, so any notoriety would not be Canmore's, which merely records historic records.
The only problem I've encountered with Canmore's OWN records is that a number of their GPS fixes for (would you believe, given the original point about D&G) items on airfields, that seem to be metres adrift, which is very odd, since such fixes should be reliable nowadays.
Canmore and the map are notoriously unreliable. I have come across several shipwrecks on the tops of hills and a deer park in the middle of the Clyde estuary.
You often find that if a location is not known then they give it a two digit NGR. This happened with the Fort William Isolation / Fever Hospital. I noticed that it was shown on the other side of Loch Linnhe so started asking around and eventually got a more accurate position (and got coverage in the press!).
The only problem I've encountered with Canmore's OWN records is that a number of their GPS fixes for (would you believe, given the original point about D&G) items on airfields, that seem to be metres adrift, which is very odd, since such fixes should be reliable nowadays.
Quite a number of locations have been got from aerial photographs without anyone actually visiting the site, this is why you often find there is something there even though Canmore says otherwise - the concrete base of a building that I found at Corran has been added to the HER this week.
I have a recurring nightmare - and it revolves around the day I might buy a new GPS unit.
(I have two of the first generation Garmin units that were the first to offer mapping, the first a basemap - that means roads rather then streets- and the second streetmapping with full routing. Even for Garmin, a company based in professional ie aviation and maritime systems, it was a shock to see how relatively dumbed-down the second was.)
For simple pricing info, I use something like Amazon, though I wouldn't necessarily buy from them, just use their info to get current guidelines:
Technically, there are few UK sites to refer to (assuming you want to read more than just any of the manufacturer's own words, so again, I search the American sites that specialize in GPS handheld reviews - the obvious caution is care in comments regarding the mapping that comes in the box, which you need to check of UK/European differences.
The rest depends on your own criteria.
For example, while I'd like to go for the shiny SatNav (spit) with colour LCD and fast processing (it has to be to keep the system updated at the speed a car travels - compared to a walking only handheld, which can't), my choice still lies with a proper handheld unit. The reason is simple practicality from the battery point of view.
Proper handheld GPS are usually powered by AA batteries. I load up with rechargeable, and have a pocket full of them, so am guaranteed a day's use, and if the batteries die - just slap a freshly charged set in and carry on. While car-centric SatNav (spit) is very nice and has lots of desirable features,it will be powere by an internal, fixed, lithium rechargeable of some variety. This will not last a full day if switched on all day (to provide a track of the day's wandering), and cannot be switched over during the day, for a fresh battery. Even if it could, these would be custom lithium batteries, and would cost a small fortune, not the few pounds of a set of AA rechargeables. The other downside would be the replacement of the lithium pack - which will die one day.
I'm still biased for Garmin, but that's only because using a make like that guarantees good service (for me at least, customers service was great when needed, and they even throw trivial parts in the post for no charge), and they units I have do work from AA batteries, and from an external supply, so day's continuous use is no problem to maintain my breadcrumb trail recording the day. They also have upload and download of tracks and waypoints, and a data interface so I can use them as data sources and feed continuous position data to a PC.
Like all things, stop, sit down, think, draw up a list, look and see who makes something that matches it, then... hunt the web for the best price
Other than what you mentioned, do you have any specific or special requirements that would narrow down you choice?
Requirements are that hunting for sites of interest, coupled with OS Maps that I have accumulated over the years , to pin point the Grid reference far a particular site of interest.
I hope tp explore the Cairnryan and surroundings and pinpoint with accuracy the co-ordinates so that I can contribute to SeSco
While they are a tad more expensive than handhelds that use ordinary commercial mapping, it has been possible to get units that offer OS mapping.
Names that come to mind are s the SatMap Active 10, Garmin Colorado and Garmin Oregon GPS devices - this info is from the last time I looked, so it would be worth looking around for updated info and new models. The Garmin maps then came on SD cards, to be plugged in, but I assume they might have updated this, and included the data.
One notable point on the Garmin units was that reviewers then noted that the OS map data was full data, allowing point to point navigation on OS features. Apparently, the others were only showing the OS map as an overlay, and points on it could not be used as waypoints.
So, it's worth checking that units you look at have OS mapping options, if it's important, and you are prepared to pay the premium.
It's not something I ever felt I needed. Provided I had the lat/lon of the intended locations, and the GPS would plot a street level route, I couldn't see any point in the extra expense. One user told it was invaluable when crossing land - I reckoned he should just have opened his eyes and looked up from his GPS, and looked where he was going
Various mobile phones offer similar features, including OS mapping, but as I am not a mobile phone person, I can't offer anything useful, other than mention their existence.
Thanks again Apollo, will invesrtigate the Garmin products, as you are aware the D&G terrain is open, and as have already posted Google Earth, low res.
Memory Map do some GPS that display their OS maps under the Adventurer name. I have an earlier one which was not made by Memory Map but you could send their maps across to it, can't think of the make now but looks as if they might now just be using their own brand name on the range.
I haven't updated my Memory Maps for some years because they seem to have become more expensive than when I originally got the whole country.
I keep dreaming of something like the iPad, A4 size, weatherproof with maps preloaded and built in GPS! Perhaps one day there will something affordable but can't see it happening soon. Though with the easy availability of online maps perhaps the prices will drop to compete.
One important consideration is how easy it is to send waypoints from the PC to the unit, I can very quickly mark positions on a map and send a file to the Garmin. I have a TomTom in the car and it is a PITA to do the same, I have to go through a couple of conversions.
But you might end up paying an arm and a leg as they hold their prices to the catalogue unless you are lucky and there is clearance on - you absolutely must check the web for current prices of commercial goods like GPS or other electronics, as they can nearly always be had for less elsewhere, as prices fall (and the catalogue lags behind).
I'd have to say I bought all my GPS online, and paid a little over half of the retail or "over the counter price".
Don't shoot the messenger. I only offer an alternative to someone who is coming for an all too short holiday and may not want to wait on mailorder. Prices start at less than £20 as far as I remember.
Only alerting about Maplin pricing policy, just in case
But the last post does need to be expanded a little.
The £20 does not refer to a handheld GPS as such, but a "director" with limited functions that gives positions details, and will provide an arrow that point towards a preloaded destination.
Still, not bad for £20 - that would have been over £100 in the mid-1990s, and that £100 in 1990 £s too
Basic handheld GPS with usable functionality would be something like the Garmin eTrex, which will start around £80, is good value, and can be had in smarter version with more toys and features built in, for an increasing price, of course.
For info, the units with the extended mapping facilities, which were raised above, will take you well through the £200 barrier, and quickly reach the £300 level.
Not quite the same but don't forget the various GPS Trackers available for logging where you have been so you Geocode your photographs. You can do this with a GPS but the trackers are smaller and most have an integral rechargeable battery that charges from the PC when you download the track.
There are various programs that will Geocode photographs from the track.
Very good habit to get into so you can always find where you took a photograph.
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(thank goodness for the BBC's iPlayer - the only thing with an "i" at the start of its name that I don't spontaneously reach for a hammer and want to smash when I see it).
