If you own a GPS

You will need

• A camera obviously, any digital will do. I’m currently using a Canon EOS 400D
• Said GPS unit, again any unit will do. I have done this with both the Garmin Etrex and the Garmin 60CSx
• Access to a computer and the Internet, obviously, more specifically to certain on-line tools and open-source software.

The method

1. Go for a hike somewhere in the wilderness with your GPS activated and recording a track-log
2. Take some beautiful photos.
3. Upload said photos to your flickr account.
4. Download you track-log from your GPS unit in .gpx format. You will need some kind of cable to access the data on your unit. If you don’t have one you can buy them on-line, so go ask Google. If your unit doesn’t store track-logs in this format you can use GPSBabel which is open source freeware or the on-line version at GPS Visualiser, to convert any GPS data you may have into the required format.
5. Upload this .gpx file to the GPSTagr service and follow the 3 easy steps to geotag your photos. Really the instructions are very simple, even my parents could follow them and they are serious technophobes.
6. That’s it you are done. Click on the view on flickr map link on the final page of the GPSTagr service and admire your photos positioned on the map, using data from your GPS unit.
7. You can also view your track-log in Google earth and Google maps. GPS Visualizers Google earth converter tool can be used. This form will import your GPS data file, or plain-text data (tab-delimited or CSV), and create a KML file that you can view in the Google Earth application. I use GPS Trackmaker which will open your GPX data file directly in both Google maps and Google earth.

The walk itself

• The track-log as seen on Google maps
• The track-log as viewed on Google earth (via Google earth forums, click the link to view on Google earth if you have it installed)

The photos taken on the walk

• All photos taken on the walk displayed on my flickr map
• Photos taken on a part of the walk ( Carn) displayed on flickr places
• Photos taken on a different walk, just so you get the idea!
• Photos taken on a Causeway Coastal Walk
• Photos taken on a hike in the mournes
• Photos taken on a hike around Rathlin Island May 2008

If you do not own a GPS

You will need

• A camera obviously, any digital will do.
• Access to a computer and the Internet, obviously, more specifically to certain on-line tools and open-source software.

The method

1. Go for a hike somewhere not in the wilderness and take a note of the address or postcode where you are.
2. Take some beautiful photos
3. Upload said photos to your flickr account
4. Using one of these services, Input from GPS coordinates or Input from postcode or address obtain some geo codes to add as machine tags to your flick photo.
5. Enter the resulting latitude and longitude data in the following format [geo:lat=47.620628, geo:long=-122.349329]
6. Here is an example of one of my photos with geo machine tags
   

That’s it. Have fun. I hope this was useful. If you need any more pointers or have any questions feel free to leave a comment.

UPDATE

I have noticed on the bottom of my flickr photo page where it says, subscribe to waveneyavenue’s photos, there are options for geofeed and KML (google earth file) . I assume this will happen to you too if you geotag your photos using either of these methods.

Subscribe to waveneyavenue’s photos – Latest | geoFeed | KML

The photos taken on a different walk

Another walk I have geotagged

Anyway I haven’t yet decided to remove my aligience to Apples iTunes. From what I can see they are shaping up to become another Microsoft. I mean for goodness sake they are championing DRM. Whats that all about? For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about have a read at this lot DefectiveByDesign.org

So back to songbird. Well they really go to town with the metaphor as you have probably already noticed. It is a lovely piece of software. Functionally I can’t fault it. However I find the interface a little cluttered, it is always hard to beat Apple at interface design. It seems a bit cliquey with lots of links to “in” music site and unfortunately they have gone to town with the whole merchandising thing. I suppose they have to make there living somehow.

There is going to be a large community attached to this software just as there is for firefox, so I expect it will soon hit the media as an alternative to iTunes. If Apple moved away from DRM I think I would stay put with iTunes but until then I think I’m going to keep trying out Songbird with a view to swapping permantly. It brings the whole web to life musically speaking. Automatically identifying any playable media on a web page, and providing the user the ability to download it, listen to it, archive it, file it away for safe keeping, add it to a playlist and eventually no doubt the ability to burn it. All I have actually done is imported my iTunes library and listened to a few tunes with it, that and a brief whistlestop tour through the main features. This allows me the option to come back and write an update to this post with some useful imformation for my loyal readers ;(

I think on reflection as with all things I would prefer you to try it for yourself and make your own judgements. I merely want to draw your attention to it. My opinion is not particularly relevant to most people nor my experience of the software similar to everyone elses. We all use these things differently and have different perceptions of the various aspects of using software, so I’m going to leave it here safe in the knowledge that noone has read this far and steadfast in my determination to improve my writing style, structure, research and content of my blog posts.

In laymans terms (what you mean you’re not laymen?) it basically means ‘tagging’ a photo or a blog entry or any entity really with a some meta data pertaining to its geographic location. Yes I know that wasn’t really laymans’ terms but sure you all claimed not to be laymen! Ok the simple version you can now let people know where you took your photos on Flickr by placing them on a map – waaoohh

Geotagging your Flickr photos then and now

Up until today it was possible ,with the aid of this helpful little bookmarklet (follow link and drag to your toolbar if you want to use it but read on first! you may need firefox for the bookmarklet) for example to add geotagging info to your Flickr photos and link to them on a google map.(note the google map is way better than any other for our little island, much more detail.

As of today Flickr have added this functionality to your Flickr using Yahoo maps, which makes sense seeing as Yahoo now own Flickr! The maps aren’t as detailed as googles effort but they still do the job nicely. The interface is fantastic and couldn’t be easier to use. Just go to your ‘organize’ tab where you will notice a new tab at the top called ‘Map’. Click it and off you go. you don’t need to be told how to do it, you can work it out for yourself, its all drag and drop and follow the prompts. You will probably start to notice on further inspection the mention of maps in a few other dropdown menus and tabs and places. Have Fun.

Update

Try out zooomr which also does geotagging, in fact they got there first. They seem to be affiliated with google. They offer a wide range of features for both free and pro accounts. You can actually get a free pro account for a year by posting one of your photos on your blog. Find out how here

174973500_4dcf1b9866_o Hosted on Zooomr

We now have, and I’ll be brief, vastly improved CSS support including @import and media type. We have support for AJAX!, RSS and tabbed browsing with close icons, all the main stays of the modern browsing experience. Oh and did I mention automatic updates, CAB installer or exe via active sync. We have nice bookmarks management, Good useability features like text size switching, find on page feature,variuos layouts, single column, desktop layout and panning. So now I may actually try a little harder to do truely cross device versions of my websites, heck at this rate in a few more months it may be worth it. I will certainly be more inclined to use the iPAQ to casually surf the internet.

You can download the windows installer or the mobile cab installer here.It just goes to show how far the project has come that it has its own page on Mozilla, I used to have to trawl server directories to find the nightly builds. You knwo I think this time next year it will be standard on all mobile devices…

Never really though much of personality tests, but I must applaud the superb UI of personaldna by attap who have put together some lovely web apps. I approve of their philosophy and outlook for the web. (They can all rest easier now!)

I think a short list of web 2.0 apps is in order, with or without a critique, depending on if anyone wishes to contribute. Before I start, for all the geeks out there, yes I will be mentioning all the usual stuff, but for some of you this may be new and exciting and worth a visit. Have a look anyway, see for yourself and be your own judge.

The ones I use regularly at home

• Flickr - no list would be complete without it, for all your photography sharing needs
• Gmail – the new hotmail
• Delicious – online bookmarking, tagging app
• Measuremap – fabulous tracking stats for blogs
• rollyo – custom build search engines
• netvibes – loving this combines loads of the others

The ones I use regularly at work

• Basecamp – project management
• Delicious – online bookmarks

The ones I have used but not returned to

• web2.0validator – a bit of fun
• writely – an alternative to 37signals writeboards
• odeo – all things media
• backpackit – little brother to basecamp, good for lists and organising
• shutterbook – alternative to flickr
• digg – social news aggregator
• rememberthemilk – another tada type list maker. Nelly take note!
• Rojo – online RSS reader and sharing app

The ones I will be using regularly when the necessity arises

• Anything by attap – keeping my eye on these guys, great stuff
• script.aculo.us – special effect javascript library
• linkedin – networking tool

The ones I have yet to try

• sidejobtrack
• mypimp –
• pxn8 –
• conversate –
• mailchimp –
• time-tracker –
• listal –
• youtube –
• vimeo –
• goffice –
• serversidewiki –
• meetup –
• goovite –
• joyent –
• merchboss –
• backbase –