Whitespider1066

Coming Soon: USB Fuel Cell Charging For Mobiles

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 11:17:18 +0000

In my daily geeky techie readings via the great iPad app Zite, I came across this story from the Digital Trends site.
Basically this is a gadget to watch out for. Initial reading makes it very applicable for those of us that use “smartphones”.
USB Fuel Cell Charges Your Mobile Upto 14 Times

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

2012 TGO Challenge Migration Starts

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 08:51:40 +0000

A tweet from Alan Sloman reminds me that today sees the start of the annual migration of TGO Challengers heading North of the border towards the various starting points on the West coast of Scotland.

Tomorrow Glasgow Queen Street Station will start to look like the photo below as Challengers meet up and renew old friendships, and make new ones, waiting for the train to take them to their start point.

This train journey is one of the classic train journeys in the UK. Taking Challengers through some of the most spectacular countryside on their way to Oban or Mallaig (or stations in between).

Tomorrow night will be spent socialising, and enjoying the last comforts of a proper bed and a shower/bath, before heading off on Friday on their carefully planned routes across Scotland.

Yes I am a little jealous I am not going, but work now prevents me taking part. My two crossings are some of my fondest memories, and greatest achievements.

I wish all of this years Challengers a safe crossing and good weather.

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iPad ViewRanger Updates

admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 08:34:21 +0000

Today the latest ViewRanger update for the iPad/iPhone went live. It was only a couple of weeks ago that we got the update that supports the new iPad retina display.
I’m mentioning this update because ViewRanger have added the feature of if I’m emailed a GPX file I can now send it to the ViewRanger app for viewing. This makes life so much easier.

After a brief twitter exchange this morning with ViewRanger apparently DropBox support has also been added for the next release.
With these additions in my opinion the best iPad/iPhone mapping app will of gotten even better and extended the lead over the competition even more.

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An outdoors hackathon

admin — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:20:40 +0000

In the big wide world outside of the outdoors community there are things called hackathons, or for video game creation game jams.
Generally these are events put on that have coders, designers, artists etc coming together in one location and in a short time frame (usually 48 hours) come up with ideas/prototypes or even a finished app based around whatever the theme of the hackathon is.
The hosts of the hackathon provide a location, Internet access, pizza and refreshments, and places for people to crash (usually wherever anyone can find as a quite spot) although not much sleep gets had.
Why am I telling you all this?
Well today on the TGO website they are running a story about one that is being run based around the outdoors.
Nature and technology collide in a ‘hackday’ for the outdoors industry
The hackathon is being held on the 18th – 20th May at Slapton, Devon.
Personally I’d love to attend and participate, but there is a Dr Who/Star Trek sci-fi event at the East of England Showground that weekend that I have tickets for.
Hopefully this will not be the only time they hold the hackathon, and they will promote it a bit earlier than this next time. A couple of weeks advance notice isn’t really enough notice for this sort of thing. How are impoverished students meant to get bargain train fares at such short notice? Or over worked lecturers get ahead on their work load so they can attend?
Anyway I’m excited about this, and look forward to see what comes out of this hackathon.

Some Interesting Links Off Twitter

admin — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 12:01:13 +0000

Thought I’d briefly post one or two tweets that are outdoor related.

The first is a handy link for those on this years TGO Challenge who want to share their journey using the Social Hiking site.

RT @SocialHiking A guide for TGO challengers wishing to share their trip on @socialhiking: http://t.co/uALqxtb4

Next up I found an interesting link about making a DIY Gravity Water Filter on the Life Hacker site.
RT @whitespider1066 DIY Gravity Water Filter http://t.co/yrCbKoB via @zite

Finally a look at the stirling custom work that OookWorks do.
RT @OookWorks Custom OookStar with low mesh vents in bottom of door panels. http://t.co/3gMw8H1z

Cheap Gear Alert

admin — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:10:11 +0000

This Thursday Aldi have cheap walking gear on sale again.

Get there early to avoid the rush…

Forget the spork it’s all about the chork

admin — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 07:41:11 +0000

We have the spork the love child between a spoon and a fork. But forget that evolution has moved on welcome to the chork the unnatural spawn of a fork and chopsticks getting together.
Is this going to be the next big thing in outdoors eating utensils? Just when can we expect the first titanium version? Closely followed by the titanium folding version.
Oh go on, pop on over to Gizmodo to read all about the chork.
Forget the spork it’s all about the chork
Just keep your eyes on this years TGOC diaries/live blogs, expect to see this mentioned and used as this years must have challenge piece of kit.

Oookworks for the Trailstar

admin — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:33:54 +0000

If you have a Trailstar, then you really need to pop over to Oookworks. Oookworks is one of those rare UK based “cottage based” companies catering for the lightweight section of the market place.

I don’t have either of these (yet)
35g cuben fibre door screen
Oookstar
But they are definite must haves I think for any Trailstar owner.
They do other stuff as well, including modifications and repairs. So definite one to bookmark.

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A Little Walk Along Part of South Holland Main Drain

admin — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:20:26 +0000

Today Strider and I found a new spot to walk that took us along another stretch of South Holland Main Drain.

Obviously this wasn’t me. I’d never overload a BushBuddy like that.

I’m thinking of producing a little map mash up of locations in the area where fellow dog walkers can take their companions for exercise in our glorious fenland countryside. I just need to somehow get the time to do it.

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ViewRanger Respond

admin — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 10:35:17 +0000

This morning I had some feedback via Twitter to yesterday’s post from ViewRanger.
So here is their tweets to me.

I’m looking forward to seeing that update become available.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad