Occasionally in Brisbane, too often, bus drivers push the limits uncomfortably. It's often exacerbated by touchy brakes. The effect is, like I had today, a jolting ride home which I thought I might not finish in one piece. Today's rollercoaster must have been doing about 100 km/h through the busway tunnel from South Bank to Mater Hill. Not a lot of room for error there.

I wondered what speed it actually was. I already know I lose GPS signal in those tunnels. I guess if my fix could be found at the other end, I could calculate our speed in that section of tunnel.

Then I thought about using this as a sort of proof to back up a complaint. Further, I guessed, I could furnish the crazy breadcrumb trail of the entire route. Hmm.

I'm sure this couldn't be accepted as evidence on its own. Anyone can fabricate a GPX file. But would there be logs in the new ticketing system they seem to think is so smart that would corroborate my tracks? And if there were, couldn't they be running scripts of their own, anyway, to pick up this kind of mass transit recklessness?

Apparently ignorance is bliss. In that case, I'm lucky that secretive governing authorities ensure that wondering is the best I can do. I've moved on, anyway.

I've been trying to incorporate some modest mapping into my recent jogging efforts. Carrying the GPS and sometimes a notebook and pencil is pretty clumsy. The GPS on its own is OK in my hand, but it leaves me reliant on my memory for names. This is like a floppy disk that's been left in a car glovebox. I guess I look like a dweeb, too, but that's also the situation without it. I do get nice performance stats from the GPS unit.

I didn't get lost, but I did wonder about the minds of people who would name a street Wonderlost Outlook. Surely they mean Wanderlust? $SEARCH_ENGINE on that gives me nothing that looks significant. I can only surmise either drugs, stupidity, xenophobia, or a person's strangely mis-Anglicised name.

Perhaps I am being unfair and exhibiting shaded friendship.

I went to the Woodford Folk Festival on the 30th after about a twelve year abstention period. Long enough for me to forget why I didn't want to return – it's the heat, stupid. I suggest you find out more about the festival from Wikipedia, or by general googling, or image googling, or even get 1k words from flickr, but steer well clear of the painful-to-use official site (no link love, brothers).

So before leaving, I checked the map – the festival site itself is not marked (it was in fact marked since I looked by David Dean on the 29th, it seems). I remembered something about a Burning Man festival being mapped by OSM, so checked that out for ideas. Not particularly fruitful for tagging guidance, but it turned out to have been mapped in cooperation with the festival organisers (as a win-win). I liked that approach. Maybe someone keener than me might take that idea to the WFF organisers in future. Be warned that their website doesn't indicate any embracing of open digital culture (WMV downloads, right-click is disabled).

I decided to only map features which are likely to persist from year to year, which means permanent structures, larger footways (pedestrian ways, specifically), the large carpark, and the gates. Many of the larger performance venues weren't even permanent. It's just as well, because it was profoundly uncomfortable in the heat of day. Though my GPS remained on, I had very little energy for anything but finding refreshment and respite from the heat. The venues were like ovens, diminishing enjoyment almost completely. Against this adversity, for what it's worth, I was blown away (unfortunately not coolly) with performances by Doch and Taikoz. (sigh … why does every music group's website have to suck?)

So I used "access=designated" for most ways on the site. It's on private property and opens as a commercial venture during event times only. Please tell me if I should do it another way.

… See full entry

Rafter Arena - rolls off the tongue like a ballboy's underarm dispatch. Named after Bermuda's Queensland's favourite tennis son, Pat "very comfy undies" Rafter, it's the centrepiece of the new Tennis Centre. The new centre is in Tennyson (where else?) because apparently we needed a world-class tennis venue more than usable transport, health, education, and water planning. How'd that soapbox get under my feet?

I had a really quick look this afternoon on foot being towed with excited dogs, so didn't make great notes or walk in necessarily straight lines. Still, as I've learned, better to get topologically basically correct details in there than nothing, and others will come to clean up. Because this new development is basically a greenfield mapping opportunity, I've noticed a whole raft of usernames in there, many correcting the rough first sketches and extending the stubs that were there before it opened up only very recently.

I traced most of the shared footway, a few parking bays, and got the front side of the arena itself (it's closed off). I've extrapolated to give the area's extent. I expect this to be corrected by an OSM fuzzy ball freak in the near future.

Take that, Google Maps! Take that, other also-rans! Come to OSM where the data is lovingly tended.

I finished a mini-mapping project with David Dean last week. Yeronga was pretty poorly covered and now it's done (though of course it's never done, that's like saying software has no bugs or feature enhancements :~) ). It took us four visits, a few hours each time. I'm sure I could track down a tool to do a fancy animation.

One of my most favouritest parts of Yeronga is the magical lands of "O". It took us some time to find the cluster. David didn't believe it existed until the third night. Then we were truly O-struck:

• Otari Rd.


• Ormonde Rd.


• Orient Rd.


• Osric St.


• Orontes Rd.


• Orsova Rd.


• Ormuz Rd.


• Orvieto Rd.


• Orama Rd.


• Orlando Rd.


• Ormadale Rd.


• Oriel Rd.


• Orari Rd.


• Osterley Rd.


• Orestes Rd.


• Orcades Rd.


• Oriana Crescent

I wonder if I left anyone out? I was half expecting to find Osama or Obama streets. I wouldn't have been totally surprised to see Osmarender on a sign.

(Incidentally, the alliterati didn't have all the fun. There was Party Lane, a very quiet street as it happens, and the unarticled Esplanade" – most exclusive.)

O, what kinds of psychotropic substances were the folks in the street naming division taking when these were set up?

You know you have mapping addiction when …

… you make an appointment, and you're offered the choice between the city office (close by, well-mapped) and Stones Corner (inconvenient, lots of NoNames). You choose the latter.

That said, public transport let me down somewhat (hard to believe, I know), and I only named half a dozen streets or so, plus a few POIs. I'll be back for more inconvenient appointments in the new year if those don't get done.

Best street name award: Zillah Street.

OK, long time no diarise. It's complicated and no-one cares.

Naming excursions are reasonably mundane, so I think I'm just gonna title them after interesting street names I come across. Herring Street this was. Also worthy were Fairy Street and Chaucer and Keats Streets. Chaucer and Keats might have got the guernsey, but they're the only poets (where I know it), so not much of a meme in the council's street names division. A mini-meme, if you will.

Stepping back and explaining, I did some unnamed parts of Moorooka today in the blazing heat. Don't think I'll be doing it in the hot of day again. In one of my favourite books, Bliss by Peter Carey, a character called Honey Barbara got hold of a cancer map. She said you had to know someone very high up in an insurance company to get a cancer map. I wondered today if I might be making my own skin cancer map out there. Madness.

Part of my diary inertia has been because I think it's better, for readers, to talk about things you can point to on the slippy map. (This is only updated weekly around Wednesdays.) I have a few interesting excursions I've let slip for the sake of the slippy map. I think I might actually get around to diarising them retrospectively if that's not too confusing. Heck, I even made a lolcat I nearly forgot about.

And does anyone know the recommended way to tag a "local traffic only" residential street? Could you tell me and update the wiki?

I'm obviously sun-affected. Writing this has inspired me to tag the Moorooka Magic Mile. I used "alt_name". It is, according to Merkaartor, 1.6km or so, so it's well named and the used car dealers have something truthful to say to their clients.

Saw a reasonably interesting story on Collectors tonight on ABC about the historical maps collection at the State Library of Queensland, where many years ago I did a brief bit of work experience (had forgotten about it too!).

Worth sharing with the unwashed world, since it's viewable on the intertubes if you don't mind state-endorsed proprietary media formats. I tell a harsh lie: you can download an MP4 if you look hard enough. Bravo, Aunty, good show.

… turn it over, put a fork in it, it's done. No, not quite, but I have left some bits in much better shape. Not the bits I expected to do, but that's weather for you.

It's now more than two weeks since we returned from our ski trip in Canterbury, a trip where I learned to love and eke my primitive eTrex. That sounds a little wrong but it's actually all good. I collected pages and pages of scribbled notes, as many tracks as I could squeeze in, more waypoints than I saw sheep (not really), and most importantly, fantastic ideas, experiences, and techniques.

The weather meant that we visited places I didn't expect, and didn't visit places I did expect, so all my prepared printouts were rendered useless. I was forced to educatedly guess what would have had good coverage and what would have had usable aerial photography (back on the interweb). More edumacation would be a fine thing. We only skied one resort, Mount Hutt, where we'd hoped to get to three. Only three days of skiing (including an unplanned Saturday), but nice powder on those days. I didn't expect to take a cross-country train journey – in fact, the plan was hatched and decision made while the train was still at Springfield station. No-one expects the Spanish Inquisition. I may document my tractivity in more detail on the wiki some day. This diary entry mustn't digress into a travelogue.

I've really hit the edits most nights since we returned to complete what I had to. As light relief, I've finally worked through a couple of my backlog of Oz-trailian bushwalk traces, too. I've pondered bus stops and bus routes. All good stuff. I've had Potlatch running on a LiveCD on a spare laptop for a while now to do my editing. I think it's the last major tranche of work I will do with a live editing tool, unless the network round-trip can magickly speed up.

Here are my random observations. Many will be obvious to those with a blood supply to their head:

… See full entry

That's because at best resolution, you can only just make out the town.

I'll be there for a few days next week and was hoping to lay down some structure before the Slippy midweek update, so I'd have a printout to work off to get some names. (I traced one road, quite badly, north of the town, but even that might have been a hedgerow). I'll have to do some carefully recorded walks through the streets in when I'm in Methven to get some lines and names that someone else can build on. I did mark the town itself from imagery as a node – a first for me.

I'm a bit concerned about filling up my GPS's tracklog next week because I intend to try some piste mapping in the area. Might have to take a laptop. Might not be a bad idea, anyway, since NZ TV is so rubbish.

Now that I've rubbished your TV, I wonder if anyone from Christchurch or the ski areas would like to message me before Sunday? We could endeavour to catch up. I'll be in Christchurch the first weekend of August.

New topic: I have to get this off my conscience. I lived for a short period in my childhood in an apartment in Rosenweg, Hondelage, Braunschweig, Germany. That's not the confession … wait for it. A few weeks ago, I went into Potlatch and traced it and named it. At that time I didn't know to be careful that all the ways had been loaded. They probably had been. I probably left a mess for someone else to clean up. Terribly sorry. Happy to see Richard has made the "loading ways" message a lot more prominent in 0.10. A real newbie trap, that was. Sometimes I think the barrier to entry for Potlatch is too low.

… See full entry

[warning: this entry includes a hyperlink experiment and I know I can't edit]

Am still working on, but mostly just thinking about, my OSM activity processes …

Had to visit the doctor yesterday and, of course, "It's Happening" Brisvegas mostly only runs hourly bus services during the day. I would have about 30 minutes to kill if I took the latest bus service arriving before my appointment (and we wonder why the roads are full of cars). "Ah", I thought, "jump off early and see what I can map". Checked the target area, and indeed it needs some names off the main arterials. Printer still refusing to print, so I drew me a mudmap from the slippy with required names highlit. Took the GPS unit just in case.

Alighted on Annerley Road. Easy walking and marking, down to Mater Hill, arriving right on time. Shame the doctor wasn't so punctual :~P. Used my time waiting in the doctor's surgery to clarify my handwriting and ponder wildly, as you do. Figured I can actually do quite a bit of mapping from the bus, turning more dead time each day into mapping time. Can't catch everything from a moving bus, so just build up details a bit more each day. Am particularly interested in recording details about bus stops.

This morning I got most of the bus stop names and numbers, some features. I thought about a bus stop details form I might produce to make the task easier. For the interim, I've made up little shorthand squiggles for different features. Fun if not useful. Actually, it will be useful - on the way back yesterday, I noticed yet more confused foreign visitors (students?), their first time on the route, struggling with the contextless lines the timetable producers seem to expect passengers can follow. Why o why can't our public service providers use their whole arse?

I've now put most of the names into the dataset, but suspect I just missed the weekly snapshot deadline.

I've relented and used Potlatch from work (forgive me on both accounts) to add some familiar street names around Moorooka (Brisbane, (sigh) Australia).

Seems a pretty straightforward interface, though I'm confused by my changes not showing anywhere except when I select the ways and look at the properties/tags from within Potlatch. Maybe I'm not saving them?

Have been saving tracks from the months or two, but not yet sure what use I'll be able to make of them.

Though this is addictive, I plan to try harder to use an open editing platform in future.