Qik, Snowfall
Here, some qik snowfall, on the last day of the year
The views as I drove up to this ingress mission were beautiful. I could clearly see the Jet D’eau in Geneva and the streets of Lausanne on the other side. I could see how light was playing with clouds to provide enjoyable views. Gimel is a village/town in the Jura surrounded by forest and fields. The mission is a six kilometre run or walk. At this time of year wear snow shoes as other shoes will get wet. You start from the village centre and head north to the first check point. You follow field paths until the next checkpoint 1.2 kilometres away across mud paths. Once you get to the second check point the path is road without pavement so be careful of oncoming traffic.
The first and last checkpoints of this mission require that you upgrade the portals so make sure that you are able to. It would be a shame to go on a 6.2 kilometre walk only to find that the mission cannot be completed due to the portals being fully upgraded.
Today both a friend and I are among the top qikkers of the day. Whilst Documentally of Ourmaninside.com was in Milton Keynes getting an iphone 3g and streaming a number of videos on the experience I was filming dancers at the Geneva lake Parade. Both these events have appeal for different reasons.
We’re used to watching videos of Americans getting the iphone and doing a variety of geek events and for once we had the English experience. It’s not a very visual occurrence but at least it’s been streamed and shared. He also took the opportunity to speak about lifecast, a new way of sharing the media you generate over a day.
The Lake Parade is a very different type of event. It’s the type of event photographers and camera oeprators go to in order to get video and photographs of girls dancing to music. It’s only once a year and previous years have been better. I like the fact that I can go to the event with a phone, stream video straight to the web and all without the hassle of a camera and laptop.
I’m commenting on the latter because it’s the second time I see someone walking with a laptop in order to do some live streaming of an event whilst I’m very light. I could have shot in high definition but everyone’s doing that. What interests me is going to an event, finding some action, sharing it live as it happens and not have any real post production concerns.
In general live streaming from mobile phones is an interesting way of covering events that does not get much publicity. As a result the audiences are not as large as they could be but that will change. It’s just a matter of getting people used to the idea of webcams and live streams being more interesting than a static twenty meters from where the action is happening.
Strava now has rock climbing, hiking and many more sports. Sports tracker, movescount and other applications already allowed you to do this but it is nice to see one more network provide us with this option.
Up until now I had to make sure to go for a bike ride or three per week to keep people updated on what I did. During week days I am likely to go for bike rides. On two to three evenings per week I may go climbing and on the weekend I may go hiking or for a walk. As a result I can track the diversity of my activities.
With rock climbing I would like them to add two or three more fields. I would like them to add an option to add the grade of the climb we did. This would need to use the European and the American systems. It would help us track our progress and even track how hard we worked if we’re wearing a heart monitor as we climb. In effect it could provide us with a way of seeing who else is climbing and whether we match their skill level. In the long run this could contribute to new groups. I have created a group for Swiss Via Ferrata in anticipation of via ferrata practitioners joining the network and sharing their climbs.
Until recently I would only track cycling and running. Now that walking, hiking and climbing have been added I can track a number of new sports. It should result in people using the app more frequently. Â It could be fun to see climbing and hiking heat maps. We will see how they adapt the input section to match the sports.
Transport Tycoon, the popular game, is now available as a portable application file. This means that you can install it on a USB key and play the game from anywhere. This comes alongside the openTTD which is an open source movement to keep the game around for us to enjoy.
The aim of the game is to create a transport empire using, trains, trucks, buses, planes and boats. As you build more networks so you gain more money and your services can expand. It is a management game to help you see the hours away in your free time.
Having just noticed that the new gmail application for S60 is out I have noticed some interesting new features, the most interesting of which for some of you may be the accounts tab so that you may use more than one gmail account at once. Other features include Chats, outbox, mobile drafts, Chat, contacts and more.
One of the more interesting options now is that you can search through your e-mails straight from the application on the phone rather than using the website. As a result it’s far easier to find that particular e-mail with flight information or the route you were planning on taking.
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Wow, looks really heavy.. you going out in it? Looks like there is a strange red UFO hovering over the roof there.. 😉
For the first few seconds, then I opened the windows and everything was fine once more :-). There’s a chance I’m going out in it a little later today.
Want to get some video of a flash mob in Lausanne.