2011-4-23
Related posts: 2011-4-30 KELVIN: A Guest Post 2011-4-22 Virtual Notes
Month: April 2011
2011-4-22
Dropping Arlene and Izaak at the ferry where they will travel over to Stranraer and then up to Edinburgh for two nights of fun and treats. A wee getaway. Related posts: Holidays in England 2011-4-24 Net Neutrality Hostel Hero – shout out for a great little app!
Dropping Arlene and Izaak at the ferry where they will travel over to Stranraer and then up to Edinburgh for two nights of fun and treats. A wee getaway.
If you can read this…
…you’re part of a very privileged generation. There are people who are too young to read this because they’ve not got social yet. There are some who are too old, too traditional. Is it an age group thing or a changing world thing? Related posts: iPhone vs Android: software lock-in and halo effect Google: I … Continue reading “If you can read this…”
…you’re part of a very privileged generation.
There are people who are too young to read this because they’ve not got social yet. There are some who are too old, too traditional.
Is it an age group thing or a changing world thing?
Location: it’s a feature, not a bug
Apple came under fire this week as it was revealed (by a research paper dating back to 2010) that a file is created and maintained on the iOS system which contains location data for every time you have queried location services. For me, as you can see from previous posts), it presented a way to … Continue reading “Location: it’s a feature, not a bug”
Apple came under fire this week as it was revealed (by a research paper dating back to 2010) that a file is created and maintained on the iOS system which contains location data for every time you have queried location services. For me, as you can see from previous posts), it presented a way to map my movements. No big deal as you can also see, I publish my movements live on Latitude.
At no point is it true (at the moment) that this location data is sent anywhere. It is stored on your phone so if you lose your phone to a wily thief who cares where you drink coffee more than he or she cares about your contacts database, browser history, cookies and access to your email, then you may be in trouble. But it’s not stopped quite a few journalists from making the accusation that Apple knows where you’ve been and is obviously using this to beef up iAds or something even more sinister!
It turns out that Android does the same – the difference being that they only store the last 50 entries. This is entirely sensible and highlights an error in the way Apple was handling this data. It’s not clear whether this data is transmitted to Google (and with their recent history, it would not surprise me) but we should probably wait until it’s confirmed. A sceptic might suggest that Google only stores the last 50 entries on device because it uploads them to their secret Texan datacentre constantly anyway but I’ll not accuse here.
The bottom line is that Google is handling the caching of the data correctly and Apple is not. But it makes me really want desktop and mobile apps for visualising my location data over time and having this as an opt-in service or better still ‘an app’ is obviously what I want. Latitude does a half-assed job of recording and a worse job of reporting and it’s the reports that I’m interested in. I want to see where I go. At what speeds.
So where are the apps that really do Location well?
We’re selling our house in Bangor!
It’s 0.3 miles from Ballyholme Esplanade and the beach (6 minutes by the Google Maps walk), close to schools, parks and only a mile from the town centre and the train and bus stations. Very private garden which is a bit of a sun trap and only a few hundred yards from the amenities at … Continue reading “We’re selling our house in Bangor!”
It’s 0.3 miles from Ballyholme Esplanade and the beach (6 minutes by the Google Maps walk), close to schools, parks and only a mile from the town centre and the train and bus stations. Very private garden which is a bit of a sun trap and only a few hundred yards from the amenities at Ballyholme – whether it’s the morning paper or a late night pint of milk.
We’re also only 10 minutes walk from Ballyhome Yacht Club where all sorts of watersports-related activities go on and also a short step from Ward Park, the Omniplex and Bangor Marina. Going out a bit further you’ve got the whole of North Down and the Peninsula.
2011-4-21
Proving you can have an extremely successful weight-loss regime and enjoy treats too. My lovely wife. Related posts: Net Neutrality Working on reducing numbers (specifically, waist) What do you mean you’re not at your desk 24×7????? My submission to the Haass process
Proving you can have an extremely successful weight-loss regime and enjoy treats too. My lovely wife.
So how come my Phone has been to places I have not?
Following on from my last post which described my consolidated.db location database: My guess? Wifi-positioning. When we were on the cruise last year (on the Independence of the Seas) and connected to the WiFi on board, every time we launched maps, it would show us a location somewhere near Florida/the Caribbean. I think that’s where … Continue reading “So how come my Phone has been to places I have not?”
Following on from my last post which described my consolidated.db location database:
My guess? Wifi-positioning.
When we were on the cruise last year (on the Independence of the Seas) and connected to the WiFi on board, every time we launched maps, it would show us a location somewhere near Florida/the Caribbean. I think that’s where the WiFi access point had last been surveyed by whatever lookup was being used. So while connected, we must be where the database said we were.
As access points are now more mobile (there were hundreds of them in the WWDC keynote hall last summer), WiFi positioning is likely going to be quite accurate but have a few outliers like this as you are triangulating on a WiFi access point which was surveyed (by chance) in a different place. Normally there will be enough access points to correct for this error but not on a ship in the middle of the Mediterranean.
Likewise, if your phone has connected to a very weak signal on a distant, elevated cell tower, it may use that for positioning rather than more local sources. It does happen, just infrequently.
Plus – this only records position when you ask it to record position. On my iPhone, that’s a constant thing. On others, it may only get accessed when launching maps. And, of course, you can turn Location Services off.
Where have you been?
Using iPhoneTracker, you can map your movements on your last synced devices: Hot damn, I would PAY GOOD MONEY for an app that did this nicely. And then compared with other lifestreams… Related posts: Open Data Muni WiFi: escape the Dialup Dark Ages Top 3 issues… “Music: an aperitif for the maw of Digital”
Using iPhoneTracker, you can map your movements on your last synced devices:
Hot damn, I would PAY GOOD MONEY for an app that did this nicely. And then compared with other lifestreams…
2011-4-20
Sometimes you need to have multiple screens for document work. Related posts: Mac OS X roxxorz, Linux is teh suk? Capability Assessment – Big Screen Content and Programming Provider Modern work environments Casual Games
Sometimes you need to have multiple screens for document work.
2011-4-19
Related posts: Nokia n800 – the anti-iPhone 9/100 How I Find Blogging Ideas 18/100 Just Jump Into Podcasting – Heres How XCake Belfast November
