Arcoarena

OSM and why you don’t copy Google Maps

I didn’t mention this in the previous post as I had a confidence attack.

Looking at this road in Beckermet Google maps, and the post office seem to think it’s called “Lowrey Close”. I was quite careful to check the spelling when I recorded it as I got it wrong on my first try.

I’m certain it’s actually Lowry Close,  after non other than L.S. Lowry  whose sole link to the area appears to be “regularly visiting friends in Cleator Moor”, but I suspect is the closest West Cumbria has ever got to a famous artist.

Of course, I could have got the spelling wrong and whoever supplied the data to Google may indeed be correct. But at least if that is the case someone can correct it.

Open Street Maps

So, over Christmas I got a Garmin eTrex (the basic one) second hand from someone on eBay. When I visited my parents I noticed that my Beckermet looked a little non-existent on Open Street Map. So, I though that I’d do something about it. Tracing from the Yahoo images isn’t possible because at any sort of sensible zoom level everything looks like a brown blob so the GPS was the only way to do it.

Here we have Beckermet before

and now after

I do have one confession. I appear to have missed Kirkbeck Drive, oops, I’ll have to do it next time I’m back. I’m also missing some road names, largely because they don’t have signs on them anywhere. I’ll have to look to see if they’re on out of copyright maps.

Care for a look? - Take Me There

Plans for next time include taking my bike to do some of the roads leading away from the village and some of the national cycle routes obviously.

Merry Christmas

It’s becoming more and more obvious that I probably won’t get round to sending those Christmas cards I bought so….

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone. I’ve not got out and seen people as much as I should have next year so I shall endeavour to do so more next year.

I’ve got a large pile of things I need to do before Christmas so I’ll let you know I’m still not dead after.

The Demise of Pluto

My very efficient memory just stores up nine planets…….errr…. how about; My very efficient memory just stores up nonsense?

Scared?

Everyone else seems to be. With the higher state of security about today people appear to have got a bit jittery [1], [2], [3]
The increased security it stupid because a really determined terrorist could just find a suitable ‘body cavity’ to hide anything they wanted to get onto a plane (with the possible exception of knives - ouch).

And to top it all off….this

Heat Wave

It’s quite hot here. The temperature’s been up as high as 25 degree C and it’s meant to be around 30 inland. The weekend was quite hot too. Joanne’s back from Morrocco and was complaining it was cold but with temperatures of 40 in Fez I can hardly blame her.

Anyway, what do I decide to do on one of the hottest days this year? That’s right, go for a 3 1/2 mile run. My God, that was difficult, and slow. All I can say is that I hope it gets cooler before the next time we go.

Heat Wave

It’s quite hot here. The temperature’s been up as high as 25 degree C and it’s meant to be around 30 inland. The weekend was quite hot too. Joanne’s back from Morrocco and was complaining it was cold but with temperatures of 40 in Fez I can hardly blame her.

Anyway, what do I decide to do on one of the hottest days this year? That’s right, go for a 3 1/2 mile run. My God, that was difficult, and slow. All I can say is that I hope it gets cooler before the next time we go.

Busy doing nothing

Well it’s been a while since I’ve said anything here. Perhaps because a lot of what I’ve been doing is in many ways mundane. I’ve been painting and patching up holes in the walls, this has required me handing over vast amounts of money to B&Q but in return I have got a few power tools now .

We’ve almost settled into the house but I suspect it will be a while until we feel fully settled because at the moment the bedroom is being decorated then I need to do a fair bit to the living room so we’ve got quite a long time until everything will be in it’s final place.

I’ve finally entered the digital age and bought myself a freeview box. The main difference between analogue and digital is that you can watch the same episode of Friends several times a night if you have digital.

I have obviously been splashing out recently (it was my birthday though) as I’ve bought cleats and shoes for my bike. Unlike Gary I haven’t fallen off yet but I suspect the roads of Portsmouth are slightly less treacherous than the hills of Scotland….slightly.

What else?…..erm….not much probably. Jo (Andrea’s sister) is in Morocco improving her Arabic and needless to say I’m very jealous.

Getting Warmer

Well, summer is almost here. So close are those long summer days that I’ve had to buy a pair of cycling shorts. I’ve not quite had the courage to wear them yet though.
Other good things are: ‘The Now Show’ is now available as a podcast from the BBC. I’m buying a house (might have mentioned that before), I’ve got a week’s holiday in may (yay), but I think I’m going to have to use it for DIY (boo).

Anyhow, life’s good, hope everyone else’s is.

Strange Fact of the Day

Hedy Lamarr a well known actress who appeared in over 30 films from 1930 to 1958 invented Spread Spectrum telecommunications

according to Wikipedia:

This early version of frequency hopping used a piano roll to change between 88 frequencies and was intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or jam

Not something I expected to find when researching spread spectrum clocking.