Geotagging and Flickr

If you know me, you know I love photos and maps. I’ve found a great way to mash the two together (almost) automatically.

Here’s how it works:
Most new GPS units create a trail of tracks as you move (I have on one my handlebars ).
Once you get back (or at least take a break from) your adventure, you can download the tracks to the computer and sync them with the photos you’ve taken along the way.
The photo-sharing site Flickr can take the location information from each photo and place it on a Yahoo! map. (You have to tell it to use this information Geo Preferences).

If you’re interested in doing this yourself, GPS Passion has a guide

GPSPhotoLinker is the OS X program I use for linking .gpx tracks and photos.

RSS now available for waypoints

If you like feeds as much as I do then you’re going to enjoy these feeds. I wrote a script that I can use on my Blackberry to input waypoints on the fly so while I’m on the road you’ll be able to see what’s going on. While you can see and control all of them from my maps page, Waypoints, with RSS you can get updates in your favorite RSS reader (I prefer the new Google Reader. You can subscribe to these feeds based on the type or select All Points to see everything in one feed. I’ve also added these links to the About page.

Waypoint Feeds
All Points
Waypoints
Gas
Campsites
Restaurants
Hotels
Great Views
Post Cards

The journey continues

stat.stanford.edu

This is how I feel:

2,000 Miles Down

On my ride back from Daytona I crossed the 2,000 mile mark. These two thousand miles are all from roads in Florida including a trip to the Keys, Amelia Island, and several rides to Daytona. You could say I’m starting to get my seat groove worn in and am ready to head for the sunset (after of course a few details on the home front).

If you’re interested in seeing my gas mileage you can check out my newly added Waypoint Journal where I can add stopping points with my blackberry. These are different from the ones from the tracking device because I include the odometer reading and gas information if applicable.
Waypoints

Main Street – Bike Week Daytona

I really believe that “cruisin’ the strip’ is universal. It almost seems obligatory for every bike, and there are a couple hundred thousand of them, to drive down Main Street in the perpetual traffic jam. For nearly a mile from the Intercoastal to the ocean you might find room for two bikes, but not together. Every imaginable color, chop, shape, size, make, modification, look, loudness and style lines the street in a heterogenous undulating sea of handlebars. It’s really amazing to see so many different bikes juxtaposed. From the alligator bike with a real gator head on the front fender and a gator skin seat to the fully custom chopper with every piece made for just one bike to the track ready drag bike complete with a wheelie bar; if someone’s dreamed it up, it’s probably been down this street. People everywhere seem to love to see and be seen, and since no two motorcycles are identical the sights are plentiful.

You can control the map

Now you can control the range of points shown from my tracking device with the option of downloading the output to Google Earth. I used a form that queries my waypoint database and returns the waypoints for your range. The database will update automatically as long as my phone stays dry and turned on. I haven’t figured out how to search over dates in SQL, but that may happen soon. Right now you can only select by id (which you can find by clicking on any point icon on the map).
Check out my maps

Google Earth KML integration

I’ve got a test version of my mapping data ready for testing. You can create a KML file of waypoints from my tracking device.

It uses the same script to pull data from my waypoints database but instead of creating a map, it generates a KML file for downloading. Now you can play with my data on a more powerful mapping tool. My next step is to change the yellow pin icon.

Download All Points in a KML

One month left

I have one more trip to my car to be completely moved out of my office. With a month left I realized that I still have a lot of work to do. Cleaning out my office has been a big step. I’m almost ready to spend some serious time on the road. Now I have to go through everything I own and decide what to keep. One step at a time I guess.