I thought this was too funny not to share.
As many of you know, I have a thing for
search engines.
Cuil, the new search engine built by a few ex-Googlers, seems to still need some work:
Dora the NDK Explorer
It also seems to have something against Valley.
It seems that Valley doesn't make an Aquanaut
I'm sure the lack of results for the Aquanaut is due to being completely overwhelmed on their first day. I'm sure this
will be quickly fixed. Dora's Explorer may be a little harder to fix.
July 28, 2008
I updated the
Paddling.net search engine to include the forums at
UK Sea Kayak Guidebook and
West Coast Paddler. Enjoy!
June 29, 2008
There is a wealth of information in the
Paddling.net message boards. Much of it is
hidden in the archives and their search functionality is less than thorough. To better access the archived
information, I created my own
search engine. Take a look at the right hand
bar on this and every page of this blog for the search box. It is updated twice every hour and includes all posts
currently available. Enjoy!
May 15, 2008
Sanoodi is a site for sharing GPS
tracks. It's a great idea, but it seems fairly buggy. It relies on
Google Maps for everything and therefore has all the limitations of
Google Maps (lot's of time spent watching the spinning beach ball). I
also just don't understand the need for the obligatory Flickr
integration. Why can't I turn this off? Why can't I make my tracks
private? It also seems to have some IE specific functionality.
Overall, it just doesn't feel finished.
EveryTrail is a more polished
version of Sanoodi. Tracks can be made private and I don't have to
look at other people's random Flickr photos.
Both sites lack the ability to simplify GPS tracks by limiting the
number of points. Adding this as part of the upload process would
significantly improve the perceived responsiveness of the sites as the
maps would render much faster. I was also not impressed with the
search functionality of either site.
Although, I might just be overly critical since I've thought about
making a site like this myself. :-) I think I'll stick to using
GPSVisualizer.com for now.
December 27, 2007
There's always software.
I'm always curious to see where I've been, how far I went, and how
fast I was going when I caught that boat wake. It really helps to see
it mapped out. It's hard to tell the difference between the short
sprint and the strong current by just looking at GPS data. The map
makes it clear.
the map
The track is color coded based on the speed. The red X's indicate the
point of maximum speed. The scale lists the speed in knots, mph, and
the percentage of the trip done at that speed. (In the above example,
I was going between 3 and 4 kts for a majority of the trip.)
The software also generates a textual output that breaks down the trip
by distance.
distance avg kts avg mph
00.50 nm 3.38 kts 3.88 mph
01.00 nm 2.80 kts 3.22 mph
01.50 nm 3.28 kts 3.77 mph
02.00 nm 3.47 kts 3.99 mph
02.50 nm 3.09 kts 3.56 mph
03.00 nm 3.65 kts 4.19 mph
03.50 nm 3.31 kts 3.81 mph
04.00 nm 3.17 kts 3.64 mph
04.50 nm 2.94 kts 3.38 mph
05.00 nm 3.41 kts 3.92 mph
05.50 nm 2.63 kts 3.02 mph
06.00 nm 3.49 kts 4.02 mph
06.50 nm 3.26 kts 3.75 mph
07.00 nm 3.43 kts 3.94 mph
07.50 nm 3.17 kts 3.64 mph
08.00 nm 3.47 kts 3.99 mph
08.50 nm 2.94 kts 3.38 mph
09.00 nm 2.95 kts 3.39 mph
09.50 nm 3.00 kts 3.45 mph
10.00 nm 3.00 kts 3.45 mph
10.50 nm 2.87 kts 3.30 mph
------------------------------
overall 3.18 kts 3.66 mph
avg spd 2.49 kts 2.86 mph
distance 10.32 nm 11.87 sm
duration 04:09:05
On this trip, I paddled 10.32nm at an average speed of 2.49kts.
3.18kts was the average speed while actually moving. On this trip, I
stopped for about 20 minutes to visit nature and eat lunch. This
reduced my overall average speed from 3.18kts to 2.48kts.
For comparison, here is a GPSVisualizer map of this trip.
May 19, 2007
