I tried to do some more mapping today, but it looks like my Nokia (6120 Classic) is kind of dead. It did the same thing it did the other day — crashed with an "out of memory" error and erased my work — so I figure I'm either going to have to work out what's causing the problem or fork out millions to upgrade my handset.

I started taking street names in the little pocket of un-mapped Algester. I noticed a few of my waypoints took, so I'll work out what I've still got, and go back another time. I'm still massively annoyed at Symbian, Nokia, and the universe in general.

I figured I'd get some mapping done today. I've finished my work for the week (thanks to the weak economy, dreadful pun fully intended,) so I was looking to get out of the house.

“I'll map Shorncliffe,” I internalised. I'd been meaning to do it for ages, but never got around to making my way out there. “I'll take my bike; it's going to be great!”

So I watched the sun rise, waited until about half past seven before leaving, figuring I'll beat any morning traffic by the time I get there. I packed my phone, my keychain GPS, two bottles of iced water, my bike lock... “What am I forgetting?” kept running through my head. I was nearly out the door when I remembered I'd forgotten to load the latest noname maps on my phone, I'd be quite literally lost without them.

I put everything down next to my PC, and fired up TangoGPS — I use it to download the maps in the format that Cache Creator uses. The CloudMade minutely tile server (where I'm still getting my nonames, because I'm not sure if the official OSM server updates as quickly yet) was running really slowly and kept timing out. I managed to download the relevant tiles, but it took about ten minutes of fiddling and refreshing to do so. I copied the maps over, and fired up Mobile Trail Explorer to test if they were working properly. I was disappointed to find they weren't.

I did this three times before giving up and downgrading to the last version I'd used successfully. It worked this time, and I made a mental note to fix it up later.

I headed out, stopped by for a sausage roll from the awesome bakery down the road, and set off along the Boondall Wetlands Bikeway.

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I'm finally getting around to uploading my backlog of GPX traces that I've been avoiding with fervence. Now that I've learned how to save trails properly, I should be able to record better tags and whatnot, but all these old trails are likely to be mistagged and possibly even overlapping each other.

They're better late, battered & soiled than never, I guess. Someone will be able to use them for reference at least.

I've also been collecting street numbers around my parents place, as I'm house sitting for the month and there's little else to do around here. I've worked out a good system of geotagging low-res photos of letterbox/house numbers. It works surprisingly well during daylight hours, but once twilight sets in my phone's rather average camera starts to blur, making it difficult to snap photos and walk at the same time.

I took a trip to my sister's place today, since she somehow managed to junk her brand new week-old Windows installation thanks to a dodgy malware removal. I decided to go on my bike so I could take some time out and get some street names. I badly misjudged how long that would take.

I ended up spending the entire day out there zipping to and fro around Narangba Valley, recording trails and taking waypoints. Things I learned today:

1. There's a really comprehensive cycle network around Narangba Valley. I'm envious, it's a very good system, if a little dangerous for reaching high speeds.


2. I really need to get my bike serviced, it's making some horrific noises.


3. My phone doesn't have enough memory to have my track/waypoint logging software, my geotagging software, and my camera application open at once. It helpfully closes things when ram gets sparse, and doesn't tell you it's going to nuke anything you haven't saved yet. Symbian S60; gotta love it.


4. I can simply select "New Track" from the "My Tracks" menu of my track logger to start a new track, rather than shutting the thing down and starting it up again — this has been the bane of my very existence for so long. It pains me that user error has resulted in so much wasted time.

There's still a massive amount of data missing from the area, but I got an awful lot today. I reckon another two or three trips ought to finish the area bounded by Burpengary Creek, Oakey Flat Road, New Settlement Road and the train line. The problem is that the satellite imagery is so bad and the area is so new that I keep finding new patches of development I have to trace manually. It's difficult on the bicycle (although worlds better than walking,) though with the exception of a few pockets I think I've got most of it at least traced.

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Started feeling pangs of guilt for not having done anything OSM for a while, so I pulled out some of my old track logs that I hadn't done anything with yet and had a go at the Caboolture area.

I somehow managed to lose a bunch of geotagged photos over the last month; but going on memory, the satellite imagery and the trails I recorded I managed to patch together a fair bit of the area. It's horribly incomplete because a lot of the street tracing hasn't been finished yet, but I've been picking away at it for some time, and after these changes have uploaded I think it'll start resembling something more like a map.

I had a go at Narangba too, tracing some nonames, and adding some details from memory. They will need to be adjusted when I can get some more accurate GPS data, but they should be reasonably close (and certainly better than nothing.)

In particular I focused on cleaining up the railway lines and adding overpasses, platforms & parking areas at stations. Again they're probably not entirely accurate, but the rails are more so than they were before thanks to a track I took weeks and weeks ago.

Now everything's uploading, and on my parents' awful 256k upstream, JOSM is estimating it'll take an hour to complete. I hope the new API fixes this, because it's one of the least fun things I can think of right now, and there's absolutely no reason it should be that slow.

I've got a bit of a thing for rail. It's easily my most favourite form of transport, so I got a little caught up tidying the suburban rail corridor north of Brisbane, and replacing the jumble of single line & messy platforms with something more representative of what's really there.

I kind of didn't mean to get so caught up, but once I started, I got all the way to Brunswick Street station before the lines started making sense.

I've been going on the Yahoo imagery which is pretty low resolution, as well as the public GPS traces which are also pretty low resolution (it's hard to get a good fix inside a train, the windows are pretty thick.) I've been updating stations with platform details, as well as updating the junctions according to both memory and common sense.

The actual rail corridor(s) between Banyo and Brunswick Street now have the right number of lines, and as best I can tell from experience also match up with the physical train routes. At the ends of the areas I've done, I've left a note on the relevant node explaining what happens to the line from there, you're welcome to continue the work along if you'd like.

There's bits I just don't know about, such as the exhibition line and the giant great mass of rails near Bowen Hills. I'm positive there's junctions I've missed, but until we can get either higher resolution satellite images or some GPS data from parking trains, I think this is probably the best we can expect.

I took the morning off (because I have that kind of responsible work ethic thing going... And I freelance,) to put my feet where my words were, and get back into some serious mapping. It was pretty good, too. I managed to cover a fair bit of the sparse spots in Corinda and Oxley.

I woke up at a little before seven, had a banana for breakfast, and read some feeds before lathering myself with sunscreen and setting out. It was about half past nine before I set off.

I got to Chelmer station and set off, and I'd hardly got down the street before I realised I'd way overestimated my ability to cover ground -- It wasn't just street names I was collecting, it was landmarks (like crossing, benches, bus stops [although I've no idea how much the new QROTI data has changed this,]) as well as buildings (like churches and halls,) and I even took a fair few street numbers to plug into the database as well. I took none of this into account, so by the time I was a quarter of the way through my scheduled journey, I was ready to pack it in.

I ended up taking a revised route that got the immediate area around Corinda done. It was a good (I mean really good) walk, and I picked up a lot of meta that had been missed in the areas that had been done before me. I'm particularly interested in getting the cycleways down, because that's been one of the most useful maps for me to date.

I just got through the door, filled up my water bottle, and finally collapsed on the couch. I haven't downloaded any of my waypoints yet, but that's the next task.

I've been meaning to go out and get some nonames data around Corinda, since it's quite nearby my place. Unfortunately it's been far too hot recently, and today it's expected to get to get up to 34 degrees. Ugh.

Other than that I've been pretty inactive here. I've done a bit between Kallangur, Narangba, Caboolture and Bribie Island, as well as bits and pieces about the place. I haven't gone on any dedicated mapping trips though, these were all incidental.

I've got my bike all set up and ready to go, so I'm thinking after I've done the areas along the train line, I can expand my range somewhat. There's a fair bit of noname data to collect south of where I am, and a fair bit to the east out near Woolloongabba (which I just marked as a suburb.) This all depends on how fit I am (not very) and how much it cools down (not much) in the future.

I got a buddy of mine to grant license to some of his GPS tracks from a recent trip to Moreton Island, so tonight I've been updating the previously barren map with some really high quality data.

I don't have any names or much metadata, but I've been able to map in a lot of tracks, as well as some beaches.

That's where the problem starts. You're permitted to drive vehicles on the beaches (with a permit,) but there's not really any way to indicate that for routing purposes. I've tried to come up with a solution, but it doesn't seem to render nicely on the minutely updated tiles, so I'm not sure if it's an ideal solution.

So far I've come up with:

natural

beach

surface

sand

area

yes

access

permissive

highway

residential

I'm at a bit of a loss as to how else to tackle this, so if you know of any existing cases, or better methods, don't hesitate to let me know.

Went out with Hugh and David tonight and we did a mad traipse around The Gap. I think the aim is to complete the entire area so we can say “it's done!” and leave it at that. It's very close to finished, thanks to the awesome work of those two.

I also did a little bit of work through Macgregor, Robertson, and Coopers Plains. I essentially took a really awkwardly long route to the train station and took landmarks and whatnot. It felt good to get out and actually do some solid work on the project again, although when I finally updated the map I was disappointed at how little difference it actually made in the area. I'm planning a few trips back to see if I can't finish it off.

I'm also writing an app that will eventually be able to automatically tidy, tad and upload my GPS traces. I know there's a few solutions that already exist, but mine's better. Originally I'd written it for a learning experience, but now I've got the learning part out of the way I'm tidying it into a fully-fledged application. I'll make sure to note here if I ever release it.

I've been doing a few different things on the OSM front recently.

Most excitingly, I got my new Freedom Keychain GPS on Monday. I've been using it about the place for the past week and it's a really awesome purchase. It's even smaller than I'd imagined, and reasonably accurate too (though it really needs a clear view of the sky.) I did up a review of it on my blog which I encourage you to read if you're in the market for a new bluetooth unit.

I also got bored one afternoon and decided to trace some Yahoo imagery around Rockhampton. There's an awful lot of really high quality data already there, but a lot of areas are missing as well, so I hope my contribution is a at least a little useful for the locals working on the project.

I also went out with David Dean again today and we got some data around Kedron. I managed to lose my glasses at the beach a few days earlier so most of what I did was limited to wandering around vaguely and bludgeoning into spiderwebs. I'm a little disappointed for cancelling an outing three days earlier with Awesm for that reason, because it would have probably been all right anyway.

I've also in within the last week or so mapped out most of the Nudgee Beach area, as well as the Kedron Brook Wetlands bikeway which runs from there to Toombul. I've been meaning to do that for quite some time and while it's feeling good I've finally done it, there's another bikeway to the north that is taunting me now. I'll have to plan a bike trip another day.

Other than that I've been doing little things; it's addictive, Open Street Mapping. I can't get enough.

Finally finished the little patch of emptiness in Nudgee. I went around today and traced the area with my laptop & GPS. Got a few bus stops and tried my hand at footpaths, cycleways, benches, parks, water bodies and water fountains. It's surprisingly easy with Potlatch — I don't have JOSM on my machine at the moment.

I started putting in the cycle way that follows the road out to Nudgee. I put in the areas I know for sure just follow the road, and Ill expand on them later. I was going to do it tonight, but my laptop totally died for some reason. It's reinstalling as we speak.

It's been a good day for Open Street Mapping.

I took some data in Kallangur and Murrumba Downs yesterday using my phone's voice recorder and my laptop in the car.

It was great, I got lots of street names as well as an entire new development that hasn't been mapped yet unfortunately my mapping software stored the logs in /tmp/ by default which was wiped next boot, so I've lost everything. Unfortunately my gps software crashed toward the end, so I think I lost about half an hour of data, and got really grumpy before packing it in for the day. TangoGPS has been freezing up quite a bit since I switched back to Ubuntu from Debian, so I'll have to work that out before I can do much more.

I've also been looking out for a new GPS unit of my very own. I found yesterday that I can use pretty much any Bluetooth GPS with my mobile phone, and got really excited. I don't have to have to cart a massive great hand held unit of my own around the place after all.

So with renewed vigour I've been looking around for Bluetooth devices. I came across the Freedom Keychain GPS 2000 and fell in love with it. It looks like it'll be a silver bullet. You can read my blog post or the Manufacturers page for more info, but I'm interested to hear from anyone from here who might be using one. What configuration do you use? What software? Is it as good as everyone says?

Other than that, I've been pretty lax on the OSM front, and haven't really had the opportunity to do anything extra. I'm not yet confident enough to run about mapping on foot, and fuel's still too expensive for me to justify mapping that way too often. I'm confident with a mobile solution I'll be a lot more likely to get out there and map on the go.

I was in the area so I took the car around the Ferny Grove/Keperra area and took some data. I had the GPS, my laptop and my phone for annotations, so I've managed to correct a fair bit of data to the south of Ferny Grove and the north of Keperra where it was skewed slightly from the satellite traces.

I've been trialling the audio annotation feature of JOSM to get street names as I'm mapping them, and I really wish I knew about it when I was tracing on Christmas Eve. I've only taken street names, bus stops, and visible points of interest today, although I'm not going to add the bus stops to the map as I'm not entirely sure how, and my audio data is slightly out of sync anyway. I figure I'll leave it to someone with more accurate data. :)

Met up with David Dean the two days ago for some mapping. It was good, and we got a fair bit of the top of Nudgee done. There's a massive area that needs some love and attention along Red Hill Road, but I'm sure one of us will get to that eventually. At the moment it's a bit busy with Christmas and family stuff.

I did get a lot of Narangba done today that's been built up since the satellite data was taken. I've only traced streets, and haven't got many names yet, but I'm uploading a massive maze of estate down behind the new shopping centre as we speak. I'm going to have to make a project of it sometime, because there's just way too much data missing in that area right now, and the satellite imagery is skewed and dodgy anyway. If anyone wants to help, jump right in.

I also stumbled upon a post from some guy who's modded his Dell Mini with a GPS receiver and I want to do the same thing. I've got a massive Inspiron so I figure it should be easier to fit, but knowing me I'd brick my laptop fooling around with it like that.

JOSM's finished uploading, so I've got a few more changes I'm going to make tonight. It'll be good to see them rendered. :)

I just realised a massively useful tool for Linux users: Utilise the Compiz zoom feature when tracing from low-resolution Yahoo maps.

I think it's super+scroll will zoom in and out of the desktop, and it makes it far easier to get a good grip on a difficult terrain. I think there's a comparable feature in Windows & Mac, so give it a try some time if you haven't already.

Edit: Also just added a number of streets in Narangba, QLD, Australia. I'm planning on visiting and GPS-ing a few of them tomorrow as the geo data seems to be a bit inaccurate.

Went and did my walk around Keperra this morning. Got everything in the area enclosed by Samford Road, Dawson Parade and the train line.

The area near the train station is a little fiddly. I think I'm going to have to map it out with a GPS because it's got a few roads missing, and I also missed some of the street names. The signage is quite strange in the area, and the roads seem to change names half way through. It's interesting.

In any case, I'm really happy with my efforts today and I'm looking forward to some more tonight.

I took some names at Keperra (not Taringa!) today. I'm going to go for a bit of a meander tomorrow and get some more, hopefully fleshing out most of the streets nearby the south of the train station.

I'm also catching up with David Dean for some reconnaissance around Nudgee tomorrow night, which should be cool. I'm going to have to look into borrowing Dad's GPS and working out how best to capture geo data under Linux before that. Any suggestions in this department are very welcome.

Added a few more street names. I've been noting them down when I'm being passengered around in the car. Populated some of Calamvale on Brisbane's south side, and added a few roads and street names near Caloundra.

Noting that the satellite imagery is really freakin' old, and there's a lot more data missing than I initially thought. I'd love to crack out the GPS and do some amateur mapping some time, and I'm planning a trek around the Boondal wetlands/nudgee bike tracks some time over the next few weeks.

Just updated Banyo somewhat. Removed the railway footbridge that's since been torn down, and went for a quasi-warwalk around the town centre to collect some street names.

Hope to update more often.

Edit:
Also noted some street names around Banyo/Virginia while driving this afternoon. Made a few minor edits around the place. Even taught my mum how to name streets, although I think we may have messed up a road somewhere near Zillmere — Potlatch can be tricky sometimes.