GPS Trailblazer

Kochen mit Google / Cooking with Google

Many people move to Switzerland and live here for years without ever learning German.  The xpats make their way to their multi-national company and speak English on the campus and zip home on the easy to use trams.  Even with such a schedule one must cook food for the family since eating out is very expensive.  It seems all of the groceries sold here in Basel have ingredients and cooking instructions in three languages: German, French and Italian, but rarely anything in English (with the exception of Barney's Best peanut butter). 

Meine Kinder and ich figured out quickly that our actual cooking time would take much longer than the predicted cooking time advertised by a picture on the package.  The translation often took longer than the cooking. Honestly, I already know how to cook mashed potatoes and such, but I take advantage of every opportunity to use a real life situation to teach us new words and recognize how valuable understanding German could be while living in Switzerland.

Although I find Google Translate to be easier to use on the computer, since we are in the kitchen the mobile phone is a much better form factor for figuring out the recipe.  Inputting information on the phone can be cumbersome, but Google Android Gesture Typing combined with Androids multi-lingual support makes it really easy to type a lot quickly in German.  

 

Above you see the standard English keyboard identified by the space bar.

Pressing the World icon switches the keyboard to German, swaps the y and z letters and allows special chararcters to be selected which are specific to the lanaguage.  Here I show the S key offering the Eszett letter highlighted in blue (after a long press).  When switching I get the German dictionary so the suggested words are now in German rather than English.  Watch this Youtube video to see Gesture Typing in action.

Even with such a friendly phone I grew tired of typing so much of the German instructions into the Google Translate app.  During one of our cooking sessions I remember saying:

I wish Google Translate would just take a picture of this package and translate the words so I wouldn't have to type.  

Google answered my wish with an upgrade to the app.  Now I'm able to take pictures of the cooking instructions and Google just tells me what to do.  Here is some screenshots of cooking chicken:

I took the picture, Google sends the image to their servers for some OCR action and sends back the text possibilities.  I highlight the part of the image of interest and the translated text shows up immediately.  Here are the results:

 

In the end we could get by without translating every single word, but it is nice to have Google Translate App on my phone to make sure the chicken is cooked to perfection.  In fact I've put my Google Translate App icon where the phone icon previously rested since we are still too new here, I don't have many people to call.  I look forward to the day this photo - OCR - translation feature makes it into Google glass and I just look at the package and the translated text is already in my viewer.    

 

Google Speaks my Language!

If you haven't figured it out by now...I really love using technology.  Now that we've moved to a country that declares four official languages, none being English, you're probably figuring that I'd be using some technology to help me talk to the locals.  You'd be right!  

I dream of the day when the universal translator I saw on Star Trek would allow me to land on an undiscovered planet and just talk with the local aliens without even appearing to be bad dubbing from a Godzilla movie.  Of course I'd also like the sight translator that Captain Kirk apparently possesed which could transform an ugly green ten arm alien into the tin foil wrapped 1960s supermodel so I could have a make-out session before blasting the bad guys into oblivion.  Until such a technology exists I decided to learn German ... you know, communicate the old-school way.  

meine Klassenkameraden und Lehrerin am Academia

So I'm taking this 5 days per week intensive language course at academia to really learn German, but until I get proficient enough to read beyond a Kindergarten level I've found it challenging to read some of the documents we've received from the government for our residency, schools, etc.  Luckily there is some technology ready to help...Google Drive + Google Translate.

Scanning the Document

First I must get the paper document into digital copy.  I do this anyway because, well, paper sucks!  I have a fancy scanner that will scan both sides of multiple pages into a feeder and email them to me or upload them directly to Google Docs.  

 Let's use our Welcome to Basel invitation since it doesn't share my credit card number and they were nice enough to provide the German and English version of the document (so we can verify the translation is correct). 

Yeah, that's just the start of the document and although I know enough now to actually show up on time, I would really like to understand what the rest of it says just in case there is some sort of extreme payment like wife swapping or giving up your first born.  

Upload to Google Docs

Now that I have a scanned PDF version of the document I need to upload it to Google Drive, but with special settings to tell Google that I want the "image" turned into "text".  Perhaps that is a technical term so think of it in this way.  Taking a picture of a sign allows a human to read the image and know what the sign says, but until the words on the sign are converted to "text" a computer won't be able to read it.  The process of turning an image to text is called Optical Character Recognition (OCR).  

First, go to Google Drive and press the Upload icon.  Choose the file of the scanned document.

 

The scan may be a PDF or a standard image file (JPG,PNG,GIF,TIFF, etc).

There should be a settings dialog appear that allows you to choose those items highlighted in red:

1. Convert text from...
2. Document Language = German (or whatever language your document is written)

Start the upload and you will see the upload progress dialog.

Achtung: If the above dialog box doesn't appear then you will see the upload dialog below and your PDF likely won't be converted properly.  Choose the Settings menu on the progress dialog and select Confirm settings before each upload.  Repeat the upload.

This upload will take a little extra time because of the conversion of the image to text.  

The result will be a Google Document that contains the original scan in the first pages, but contains the German text in subsequent pages.  The text is not formatted so the document won't be pretty, but at least it is words a computer can read.    

Translating the Document

This last part is super simple.

1. Open your newly created document in Google Drive.
2. Select the Tools -> Translate Document... menu.
3. Select your Targtet Language 
4. Optionally rename the file.
5. Submit

You now have another document created which contains the original scanned image on the first page, but this time all of the words on subsequent pages are now in English.  The translation isn't perfect, but it is close enough to know how to read and perhaps even teach a word or two since the original German word is nearby.   This new document is the only document I save for my records and I discard the other two created earlier in the process.

Translating Digital Documents

The above process was for paper documents that we typically receive in the mail.  If you have a PDF that just contains German text then you can simply use Google Translate to upload and convert the document.  Choose the link towards the bottom that allows you to upload a document.  

Achtung: This upload won't convert an image into text so if you can't highlight, copy and paste the text you are trying to convert then it won't be converted. 

Conclusion

This process could definitely be easier if Google added another Tool to the Google Drive Tools menu "Convert to Text".  That dialog could also ask for the original language and the desired target language and make the conversion all in one step.  Until such a time, this process works and has helped us avoid those uncomfortable mandatory wife swapping moments when we first arrive to an event.  

Google provides some other useful tools on their mobile phone Translate apps that I will share.  We've found it particularly useful while cooking.  Until then...

Auf Wiedersehen!

A Family with Latitude

Our recent move to Basel, Switzerland has delivered on some expectations that Carol and I had about Switzerland regarding families:

• Swiss public transportation is supreme
• Personal responsibility applies to everyone including children
• Basel is great for families

One of the annoyances of parenting, especially in the United States, is the false belief that children are so fragile that we can't let them do anything or they may get hurt.  The result is a bunch of screen additcted fat children sitting on the couch with parents getting angry that the kids are tearing up the house. The children grow up without many life skills and the lack of personal responsibility since they have always relied on someone else to keep them safe and in control.

Our youngest daughter Lillie is attending 2nd grade primarschule in the public school system so we received a whole bunch of information the first day and all of it in German.  Using Google Translate to read one document I was happy to find that Basel Public School has a different philosophy about sending their children to school:

send them alone as early as is safe, preferrably by 1st grade. 

From what I could gather, they were explaining how in Kindergarten the child should be leading the way to school and the parents should allow the child to lead and determine when it is safe to cross the street, etc.  They encourage the parents to intervene just prior to a situation becoming unsafe providing valuable practice in getting around town.

Carol and I pushed the limits in Sausalito by sending our children on public transportation to go the two miles to/from school, albeit with a 5th grader leading the way. Even that was controversial for some other parents and caring adults.  We did enough practice, research and of course I put technology to work for a little peace of mind by  tracking the children using GPS and the Internet.  

In the U.S. I was able to use the Garmin GTU-10 since it was on AT&T, but here we are lucky enough to not have AT&T so the devices no longer worked. Google Latitude and Swisscom to the rescue!  Google Latitude is a free service for mobile phones to publish friend's locations on a private Google Map. We are running a combination of Android and iPhone devices to publish our locations to each other.  Here is a snapshot in time of the family distributed throughout Basel.

 

This shows Carol at work, Ellie at school, Lillie waiting at the tram stop switching lines on her way home and me at home working...and of course making sure the family operations are running smoothly. I was especially curious because this was the first tram ride Lillie was taking on her own.  Also I knew Ellie was hanging out at school during lunch to see how that would work, but the day was bitter cold so I was curious to see if she too was headed home.  

Later in the day Ellie's class was going ice skating for some physical education so I looked at the map again and she was almost home...

Ellie is almost home, but still ice skating since the rink is right in near our back yard (if an 8 story building can have a yard).  She doesn't show up in the exact location on the map, but I can get a general idea and Latitude reports the accuracy confidence so I knew she was likely at the rink and not across the road as it appears.  The GPS is powerful enough, but Google is just being considerate not to drain the battery on the phone by retrieving ultra accurate locations constantly.

You're probably thinking this all sounds a bit expensive, but Swisscom has some sweet deals for children. An Android phone costs about 80 CHF ($90 USD) and a special rate plan for children called Easy Start:

• $5 per month allows the phone to call 3 phone numbers 
• $9 per 100MB/month is plenty of data to provide the location for the entire month

Perhaps we are no different than the Helicopter Parents that I mock since these maps actually look like a helicopter is flying overhead.  This technology doesn't enable us to navigate the city easily and safely using the public transportation, that would be the people and governments of Basel and Switzerland that should receive most of the credit.  The technology does provide a little peace of mind that when something may go wrong we can recover with a little less stress.  

 

 

Reminders using Google Latitude with Calendar

I'm a big fan of keeping everything in the cloud and not on paper.  My Cloud provider of choice is Google so I stick with Android phones and Google's office applications for both personal and work...specifically Google Calendar for the purpose of this story.  GPS is my oxygen so I keep one running all the time on my Android phone and sticking with the Google theme I use Latitude to share my current location with others.  I always broadcast my current position on this blog in the upper right using their Badge feature.  Yeah, that's right...I know you are thinking you can rob my house now, but I want you to imagine the kind crazy gadgets a guy like me has set up to protect my house and family from jerks that want to take my stuff.

Anyway, I just created an appointment in my trusty Google Calendar and I added the location as I typically do because I am a location-based freak.  I mean there really is no reason to add the exact location of my appointment in the Calendar when I know the place is my local friendly bank just a few blocks away.  That's when I had an ah ha moment that I think is just the coolest idea, but one I'll never build.  

Calendar Reminders Fused with Google Latitude

My calendar typically reminds me 15 minutes before an appointment, but if I have to drive farther away then I typically set it for 30 minutes or even beyond.  Why do I have to be the one to pad the alert with the travel time when what I really want is 10 minutes to prepare for an appointment and the travel time it takes to get there.

Once an appointment is nearing it's time Google Calendar would look at my Latitude location and determine how far I am from the appointment location.  It would determine possible modes of transportation since I use public transportation, walking, biking and of course the family car.

In the case of my nearby bank appointment it would throw out any option for public transportation since it is too close, it would calculate the estimated walk, bike and drive times, pick the longest travel duration adding 10 minutes of prep time and alert me.  The first alert would be at the time it would take me to walk there at which time I could choose to accept that notification or choose a different mode of transportation.  If I chose another mode of transporation it would alert me at the right time it would take to travel there in addition to the preperation padding of course.

This alert system would need to be smart so it shouldn't alert me again if I am on the move heading towards the appointment.  Being the kind of guy that records everything I'd love it to keep track if I actually arrived at my appointment on time and keep track of how early or late I may have arrived.  Run some sort of report telling me my typical reliability of showing up to an appointment on time.

Other possible features that may make this reminder more useful:

• Remove transportation choices based on the rain, cold or night based on my typical avoidance of such things
• Encourage walking, biking or public transportation with some sort of Eco-Achievement telling me how many polar bears I will save if I take the bus or ferry
• Offer to send an email, text message or "Canned" voice call to the place that I may be late for arrival
• Of course consider traffic when choosing the reminder notification time...which is really useful because my manually set reminder only accounted for normal drive time.
• Track how long the appointment really lasted vs. how long I had scheduled.  Use that information to suggest future appointment durations (passively of course)

I did a quick search to see if anyone has made an Android App that will do this and I couldn't find anything.  Do you know of something?

Tracking Children with the Garmin Tracker

In my previous post I explained how we are now responsible for the well being of three little human beings.  Lucky for me my favorite GPS company has entered into the business of tracking precious cargo.  Garmin "recently" started to sell the Garmin GTU-10 GPS Locator so I picked one up right away and found a spot in Leo's backpack.

Overview

The GTU-10 is actually a small piece of hardware that has a few major components:

• GPS (locator)
• Mobile Data Connection (communicator)
• Battery (energy)
• CPU & Embedded Software (brains)

Many people have the misperception that the GPS can actually send information to the Internet, but the GPS is only a receiver of radio waves being sent from satellites.  The Mobile Data Connection (AT&T) is required to send the location and other information about your precious cargo.  GPS is free, but the AT&T subscription costs money (about $50 per year) with the first year included in the purchase of the GTU-10 (about $200). There are add-on features that may cost more money which I will explain later.

The GTU-10 is nothing without it's supporting software.  Together they make up a whole system:

• The GTU-10 Locator
• The Internet Connected Software used to find the children
  • The myGarmin Website
  • The Garmin Tracker iPhone/Android mobile phone/tablet application 

Naming

For the sake of making my blog easier to understand, I will name the system "Garmin Tracker™" since the mobile phone apps use that name.  There is no name for the web portion of the system and the device is the GTU-10 which is unimpressive and non-descriptive.  Branding is a huge criticism of this product, but it doesn't surprise me since Garmin's naming conventions and products have rarely been great.

Competitors named their products like the "Little Buddy" which I think is brilliant even if they have already end-of-lifed the product.  Either way, we won't dwell on the name and just call the whole system the Garmin Tracker.

Purpose

The Garmin Tracker does mostly one thing...finds where your important assets are located right now and shows them on a map. The best part of the GTU-10 is that it strives to be hassle free by allowing a parent to charge it, put it in the child's backpack and forget about it until you start to wonder where your kid is located.  The battery will last about 1 week which I consider to be hassle free and actually the most innovative aspect of the GTU-10.

The typical use of the Tracker is to make sure your kid made it to their scheduled appointment and assumed "safe".  Going to school is a good example and something that can be related to most kids...you send them out the door and hope for the best. You hope the bus picked them up, you hope they got dropped off at school and you hope they actually made it to their classroom.  The Garmin Tracker takes some of the hope out of it and actually provides some facts giving a little more confidence that your little one is at least in the right location at the right time.

Geo-fences

Geo-fences is a techi-term for an imaginary boundary which is considered to be safe within the boundary and not necessarily safe outside the boundary.  

Creating good geo-fences is the most important part of setting up your Garmin Tracker system.  Partially because it helps you understand if your child is within a known area, but mostly because accurate geo-fences are how the GTU-10's battery life can last for a whole week since the device will sleep knowing the child is in a safe zone. 

 The map shows a few of the geo-fences I've created for the children's various locations.  Common geo-fences are shared with both Mae's and Leo's devices while each can have their own. 

Battery Usage

The battery life, in addition to the small size, is the real innovation with the GTU-10 making the Garmin Tracker system useful without being yet another thing you have to charge every day.   Garmin figured out a way to use the battery by tracking location when the child is outside of a geo-fence, but going to sleep and conserving battery while located inside a geo-fence. 

Notice the settings available on the website or phone applications allow you to control the preferred battery life which balances the delay in updating to the actual location vs. how long the battery will last.  The GTU-10 will  go to sleep when it is located within a geo-fence checking to see if it's current location is outside of that geo-fence less frequently.  It will check at the frequency set in the battery setting, but once outside the geo-fence the GTU-10 will check at a higher rate which is when I find myself following along since they are outside of the "safety zone".  

In the picture above, you can see I have mine set to Moderate which claims 4 weeks of battery life inside a geo-fence and 5 days outside a geo-fence, although I have much less optimistic observations. I seem to get 5 days maximum even if the child is within a geo-fence 90% of the time.  Either way, I just charge the GTU-10 on the weekends (using a standard USB) and it falls within the "hassle free" arena.

Summary

There is actually a lot more to be discussed about the Garmin Tracker system.  I will tell you that I am not enthusiastically pleased with this system which I will bullet now and blog later:

• Can't share locations with other parents, Carol logs in as me
• Battery doesn't last near it's claim
• Delays getting the latest location can be frustrating
• Alert emails are annoying and opposite what I want
• The mobile phone app requires authentication every view!!!!!!!!

The above frustrations are very noteworthy, but even knowing these flaws testing it out on Leo I went out and bought another GTU-10 for Mae.  Maybe I'm a geek or maybe I just found something that allowed me to give these kids a little bit of freedom while preserving some peace of mind.  

I make no claims regarding children safety, but it is worth noting I likely take more risks (with everything I do) than the normal person and I tend to use statistics rather than extreme cases to guide my life decisions.  Our town of Sausalito is geographically compact enough to where children can get from place to place by walking through safe neighborhoods, but urban enough to where I can't just rely on neighbors or other residents to call me up when there is a lost kid roaming around.  I also have more patience and efficiency than most people when working through buggy systems to find the useful feature it provides.   Additionally, my job is to understand GPS systems so I have a little extra motivation to understand how the Garmin Tracker works.  Should you find yourself agreeing with this paragraph then perhaps I could recommend the Garmin Tracker + GTU-10 system to you.  

Final Thoughts

As I finish writing this article the children were faced with a new schedule change that they had never dealt with before.  We talked about the logistics this morning before they left and I was able to watch Leo and Ann (on the map) leave their after school activity, return to school to grab Mae and make it to the bus stop in time to catch their normal bus. I sat at my command center with the window open when I heard the bus that I knew they were on pull around the corner.  I watched to make sure the bus stopped so they could get off.  A few minutes later I heard their voices as I saw their dots on the map approach the house.  I yelled a greeting out the window and the first thing they yelled back  "we made the bus".  I said that I knew since I was watching and gave them their well-deserved kudos. The additional peace of mind and increased independence is well worth the $400 I spent on two GTU-10 devices.  There is a day these kids won't want to be tracked, but for now when I say peace of mind its a benefit for all of us. After all kids like to push their boundaries, but want to know that we are watching, that we care and that they are safe.

Tracking your Loved Ones

So it's been a while since I last blogged about anything.  To be perfectly honest I've had some life-changing events in the past year which I will leave the details up to the press to explain, but Carol and I are taking care of three elementary school age children now.  I suppose I could start writing about the whole experience much like Samantha Bee does on her Eating Over the Sink blog, but as with most things I will add a GPS flavor to the child raising experience.

Like every new parent we have been learning about the importance of giving children enough freedom so they can experience life while keeping them safe.  Additionally we, like most parents, desire that freedom we had before children entered our lives.  Technology can help achieve that balance of freedom for children and parents while providing comfort that everyone is where they are supposed to be.

I will be writing a series of blog posts investigating how GPS and mobile phone networks can be used in today's world to keep track of where your loved ones are located.  Some of the items I will be focused on to make such a product successful:

• Reasonable battery life
• Ease of use 
• Security & Privacy
• Cost
• Features useful for kids
• Reliability
• Collaboration with parents and caregivers
• Reliance on the child
• Notification strategy

Two products I am currently using and will be reviewing are:

• Garmin GTU 10
• Google Latitude

If you have a child tracker application you'd like me to review send me a quick note and I'll check it out.

Life is full of all kinds of unexpected changes, but with a little help from useful technology people like us can adapt and find a great balance of freedom and security. I hope you find this ongoing series useful if not entertaining.

 

 

Logitech Revue + Google TV is no Harmony!

A few months ago I wrote an article explaining how we cut the cord on cable TV and stream everything saving us high monthly subscriptions from Comcast cable.  The resulting setup was a bit overwhelming for some, but it has been making me happy since I know how it works.  

Google TV seems like it would be simpler to use than my Macbook Pro as a TV, but I still have too many remote controls required to run everything in the entertainment center.  The Logitech Revue has the promise of merging the Macbook Pro and the Remote Control into a single easy-to-use interface that will find what I want to watch and communicate with all the appliances necessary to watch the content.  

So yesterday I bought the Revue and started setting it up.  Unfortunately today I will be returning it with disappointment.  Although the Revue will control my TV and my Receiver, it will only provide controls to watch TV and will not provide controls to operate my many other devices (SONOS, PS3, etc) like my Logitech Harmony Remote currently does.  

The Harmony remote provides a feature called "Activities" which allows me to setup a series of commands that will turn on devices, change channels and put the remote into a mode where I can interact with all devices using a single Universal Remote.  

My Current Setup

Here are some examples of common Activities with my current setup:

Watch TV

1. Make sure my Monitor is powered on to display video
2. Make sure the Receiver is powered on for sound
3. Make sure my cable box or TV tuner set-top box is on
4. Make sure my Receiver is set to the correct "input" and "output" for the set-top box

Now that everything is enabled, my remote behaves appropriately for necessary commands:

• Volume control talks to the Receiver and changes the volume
• Channel changing talks to the Set Top Box (including Guides, etc)

Watch Computer TV

1. Make sure my Monitor is powered on to display video
2. Make sure the Receiver is powered on for sound
3. Make sure my Macbook Pro computer is powered on
4. Make sure my Receiver is set to the correct "input" and "output" for the computer

My remote behaves appropriately for necessary commands:

• Volume control talks to the Receiver and changes the volume
• Arrow keys help control simple user interfaces on applications
• Keyboard and/or iPad Rowmote Control controls the Macbook Pro

Watch a DVD

Similar to watching TV, but the PS3 is replaces the Set Top Box.

• Volume control talks to the Receiver and changes the volume
• Play controls will affect the DVD/Blu Ray player on the PS3

Listen to SONOS Music

1. Make sure TV is off
2. Make sure Receiver is set to SONOS

• Volume control talks to the Receiver and changes the volume
• SONOS controller or iPad controls SONOS receiver

Proposed Logitech Revue Setup

The Google TV component would replace the need for my Macbook pro Laptop with a more intentional User Interface for controlling television.  The Logitech Revue and IR Blaster would replace the Harmony Remote since the Revue can control all the appliances directly.

(click image for larger view)

This design exists only in my head and reality failed when trying to hook up.  The Revue has the capabilities and Logitech has all the content required to control all the systems above, but they didn't put the two together.

Full Disclosure: I haven't seen any literature explaining that what I wanted was possible, I just hoped Logitech wouldn't do it any other way.  

 

 

(image copied from Logitech) 

The Revue only satisfies two Activities I described in my current system:

• Watch TV
• Watch Computer TV

The other Activities are unfortunately not supported...not because it isn't possible, but because it isn't implemented with the current software user interface.

Watching DVD

Specifically for the Watching DVD Activity the Revue already talks to the Receiver and could tell it to change inputs, but there is no user interface support for that Activity.  

Listening to SONOS Music

Listening to SONOS has even greater potential because the Revue uses Android which already has a SONOS application in the marketplace for my phone that controls the SONOS.   In the future when Google TV Marketplace exists I could use the SONOS application, however, until Logitech allows me to control the Receiver to switch inputs I won't be able to control the digital music system from a single place.  

Option for Advanced Users

I realize I might be considered a more advanced user and to satisfy my needs would ruin an easy experience for a mass market, but Logitech should consider adding an advanced setup for us existing Harmony Remote users.  Ideally, I would just connect to my current Harmony account where I have already setup all of my Devices and Activities that my Harmony Remote uses.  I write enough software to understand the advantage of not trying to do too much at launch, but I also believe in Re-Use.  They have completely ignored my current Harmony settings on their website and they require me to educate this new appliance about the home entertainment system they already know about.  Ironically when setting up Google TV it asked me for my model number of the Panasonic Monitor and Pioneer Receiver and I logged into Logitech to gather the details.  Quite a shame really.

What I Really Wanted

Google is the master of Search and Logitech is the master of controlling my entertainment system.  Combining the two got me to think I could do the following:

Searching Talks to Apps and Leads into Activities

1. Search for "Lost"
2. Google displays "Lost" Series (currently supported)
3. Each Episode provides options for where to watch it (currently supported)
4. Amazon: Google Searches the web and finds it on Amazon for purchase
   1. I click to watch it on Amazon and it streams it (currently supported)
5. Cable TV: Google uses my cable TV Guide to find that it is playing soon
   1. I click on it and the Revue uses my "Watch TV" Activity to change channels, etc (currently supported)
6. Broadcast TV: Google searches my local TV Guide and offers it for over-the-air broadcast
   1. I click on it and Logitech uses my "Watch Broadcast TV" activity to setup the system
   2. Revue talks directly to my TV (that already has a tuner) and changes the channel to the correct station (Not Supported)
7. Netflix Streaming: Google asks the Neflix App for results and Neflix and offers it to stream
   1. I click on it and Neflix streams (Not Supported)
8. Netflix DVD: Google asks the Neflix App and Netflix offers it as a DVD and I currently have the DVD at home
   1. I click on it and Revue uses the "Watch DVD" Activity (Not Supported)
   2. Turns on the DVD player, sets up the Receiver for DVD, etc
   3. Pushing the Play button starts the DVD
9. Pandora Music: Google asks the Pandora App and Pandora offers a "Station" based on the Lost Soundtrack (if there is such a thing)
   1. I click on it and Revue uses the "Listen to Music" Activity (Not Supported)
   2. Revue setups up the Receiver for music
   3. Revue turns off the monitor
   4. SONOS app is told that music is available
   5. SONOS app sets SONOS to receive Input (from my receiver)
   6. I use my iPad and/or Droid phone's Harmony App and SONOS app to control my sound system

A little far fetched there towards the end, but its a wish list so I was dreaming.

Conclusion

Google TV looks promising and having it on an "Appliance" that controls other "Appliances" is the smartest way to go (not in the TV nor on a DVD player).  Unfortunately Logitech's first attempt to make it happen has fallen short.  Logitech is currently the only company that has this enormous database of appliance controls so they have a unique opportunity to dominate this sector, but its not worth adding the Revue to my cabinet yet.  

I hope the Product Managers at Logitech read this and make it happen and/or tell me I'm wrong and it is already capable, but this forum post makes me think otherwise. In the meantime I will find Harmony in my current system and remain hopeful.

Actually we don't really watch very much TV (The Daily Show and Dexter) and mostly listen to SONOS music so perhaps this was more of an exercise than a need.  I will get back to writing creative GPS apps and leave the digital entertainment battle up to the pros at Google, Logitech, Sony and Apple.

 

 

Skydiver's Beware of Forerunner 110 Elevation

My recent post recommending the Forerunner 110 for all kinds of activities stills holds strong, but this watch is not for skydivers.  The GPS provided elevation is as good as the Forerunner 405 (shown in detail in a previous post) or others, but GARMIN has added a smoothing algorithm that makes the actual elevation path inaccurate for rapid changes experienced during skydiving.  

Forerunner 110 Elevation vs. Time

 

Notice how smooth the graph looks, but I can guarantee my elevation experience was anything but smooth.  

Forerunner 405 Elevation vs. Time

 
Notice this elevation is more accurate of reality (minus the small blip where I defied gravity and climbed back up a couple hundred meters).  The Forerunner 405 simply doesn't have as agressive of a smoothing algorithm so the rapid decrease in altitude as the steep descent.  The gradual descent is my canopy ride and the flat line is on the ground.

Investigation

Only three jumps in one day.

Skydive #16 with Forerunner 110

Skydive #17 with Forerunner 110

Skydive #18 with Forerunner 110 (Completely incorrect GPS)

I can't even explain what happened with #18.  I jumped out of the plan over the runway and pretty much flew over it the whole time, but the GPS would indicate I landed in the vineyard to the south (obviously not the target of choice).

 

Which Device Then?

Yeah, still figuring that out.  You just can't beat the form factor of the Forerunner 405 or 110, but the elevation graphs are less than satisfactory for different reasons.  This same elevation FR 110 smoothing algorithm is likely to be found in the Forerunner 310XT (although I have no empirical data to back that up).   The Edge 305 produces good elevation because of it's barometer, but the form factor requires recording the entire plane ride since I have to put it in my front pocket.  Maybe it's time to pull the Forerunner 305 out of retirement?

I still think the Forerunner 405 should be discontinued because of its complexity for first-time users.  I loaned my Forerunner 405 to my friend for a base jump off an antenna and he calls me on the ground before the climb up asking "How do I start this thing anyway?".  He is definitely tech savvy, but the watch is not intuitive and he didn't take the tutorial.  The last thing he should be worrying about no doubt. 

GPS-only elevation by itself is good enough to track skydiving without a barometer as seen by accurate "absolute" measurements.  Yeah, GPS-only elevation is accurate to +/- 30 meters (100 feet), but when falling at 50 meters per second the circle of error is relatively small and skydiving has a very clear view of the sky so the accuracy is increased greatly.

Stay tuned as I do a bit more investigation and continue to learn skydiving at the same time.

GARMIN Forerunner 110 Should Be On Your Wrist

  Since I am no longer a GARMIN employee this is the first time I am allowed to do an uncensored public  
  review of a GARMIN GPS.  Lucky for them the Forerunner 110 just crushes it so no censorship needed.  Perhaps I am skewed because I wasn't involved in the beta testing for this product so I didn't get to see how well it didn't work for months up until the release or perhaps I have to love it because it is the first GARMIN GPS since 2004 in which I had to pay full MSRP.  Regardless I'll do my best to explain who should be buying this and why... 

Target Customer

GARMIN will tell you this is a "runner's only" watch and if you are a runner then you will love this watch.  I will take it beyond and say if you love to have a GPS with you at all times then you will love this watch.  I am not a runner, but I do like to trail run and I love to have a GPS with me at all times!  I use GPS for all kinds of things like tourism, boot camp, recording human-powered transportation, walking and an eclectic set of other activities.  The Forerunner 110 will work well in all situations and because it is a comfortable watch that is small it is not embarrassing to where around all the time.

The major difference between this watch and it's predecessors (Forerunner 405, 310, 305, 301, 201) is it's simplicity.  This watch is just easy to use.  As a side-effect it does not have all the wiz-bang features traditional GARMIN geeks are used to so that should translate to a good thing if you are a technophobe or are typically happy with the "default" settings that comes with your electronics (i.e. if your VCR clock is still flashing). 

In summary, this is a GPS Watch for the Masses!

Comfort and Size

The Forerunner 110 is the smallest watch we've ever seen from GARMIN.  The Forerunner 405 series was remarkably small, but the touch bezel made the face stick out un-necessarily and the GPS antenna was part of the watch band resulting in a stiff uncomfortable fit (especially for small wrists).

The Forerunner 110 is the right size for any wrist and GARMIN found a way to reduce the antenna size without hurting GPS quality.  There is even a pink women's version although I don't believe the watch has any size difference from the other colors.  

Usability

Usability is probably the biggest advantage of the Forerunner 110 for most people that have found GARMIN products to be a challenge out of the box.  The restriction of having only four standard buttons made the engineers and product designers scale back the features to match the restriction.  As a result this watch behaves just like most of the simple training watches in which people are accustomed.  

The setup of the watch is super simple because there is less customization.  I can totally imagine the meetings the GARMIN engineers and product managers had trying to figure out what people "needed".  Overall I think they nailed it and even though I am a power user I get most everything I want out of this watch for the majority of my activities.

        

The screenshots above show the only training pages available.  They are really the same page, but the main digits change from displaying Time, Time of Day and optionally Heart Rate (only if it currently detects a HR Strap).  These values are easily changed by clicking on the Page/Menu button and notice that each are visually different which is important when you only have a split second to look at the watch while in full stride.

The top measurement is always Distance and the bottom metric is always Average Page (or Speed).  These are two valuable measurements that really cater to the runner and just about anything else you are doing. Also noteworthy is the ease of access to Time of Day which has been difficult to access in most GARMIN devices.

Versatility

One could say the Forerunner 110 lacks versatility, but as discussed in the Usability section the lack of versatility is what makes this watch super simple.  I will attempt to identify what is missing so if these items matter to you then perhaps you should consider the Forerunner 310 XT. 

• No Auto-Pause (must manually press start/stop)
• No Elevation Displayed (although it is recorded)
• No Barometric Altimeter (providing less accurate elevation recordings)
• No Biking Mode (although you may view speed instead of pace)
• Average Pace/Speed is shown (not the current Pace/Speed)
• Not compatible with Foot Pod (no running cadence or treadmill distance)
• Not compatible with Bike Cadence sensor
• No Navigation or Waypoints
• No following Courses
• No Virtual Partner
• USB Uploads (not automatic wireless ANT uploads)

That is not a complete list, but it may help identify something that is close to your heart. If so then there are plenty of other alternatives that I would recommend:

• Forerunner 310 XT for Triathletes or other fitness-focused athletes
• Edge 500 for road cyclists
• Edge 705 for mountain bikers

Notice I do not recommend the Forerunner 405.  Even though it does do a lot of the items in the list that the Forerunner 110 does not, it really doesn't do them well.  Most people will find the thing they really want is to track their activities and upload it to Garmin Connect.  The touch bezel looked good on paper, but in practice it is a pain so I think the Forerunner 405 product line should be terminated.

GPS Quality

I've done limited testing, but take these two similar activities in the Marin Headlands and you'll see the 110 appears to out-perform the 405. 

 

 Here you'll see the Forerunner 110 (blue) is almost right on the trail and each direction almost falls right on top of each other.  The Forerunner 405 (red) waivers around a bit more in this section. You can view this for yourself in  Google Earth. 
 

 

This image shows the performance in a dense forest of Eucalyptus trees. Each of the devices don't look great, but the Forerunner 110 does look better.

DISCLAIMER: These runs were not performed on the same day so conditions can vary based on satellite position and weather to some extent.  Mostly it shows that the Forerunner 110 is fairly reliable and is not intended to show the Forerunner 405 is unreliable. 

Heart Rate and Other Sensors

The heart rate setup is super simple and as accurate as any other Garmin device.  On my trail run above you'll see the heart rate spiked up past my max HR, but that was due to a brand new soft-strap that I didn't properly wet before exercising.

Additionally the calorie counter is likely more accurate because it uses the first-beat algorithm based on heart rate and other metrics.  My Forerunner 405 does not use this (however Forerunner 405CX models do).  

The Forerunner 110 lacks connectivity to the foot pod so someone can't use it to track distance when running on a treadmill.  It seems this device would be useful indoors for many people and it is a shame to not give the ability to track distance without GPS.  

Good news is that I see the faint icon of the footpod on the left side of the screen (where the HR pulses).  This is used as an indicator if the watch is paired with a Footpod and ready for indoor tracking. Perhaps they've considered adding the Footpod as an accessory and may be available in future Software Upgrades.  I really don't have any inside knowledge anymore so take this paragraph as pure speculation.

The lack of a barometer means Elevation will be more jumpy and unreliable to a high degree.  GARMIN has never put a barometer in a Forerunner so this problem is throughout the entire Forerunner line and is easily corrected using GARMIN Connect's elevation corrections (aka Gravity).

Battery

The specs claim 8 hours of battery life and although I haven't exercised for 8 hours lately I did do a 4+ hour MTB the other day in Sedona and there was half of the battery remaining.  Really impressive considering the small size of the GPS watch.

Also improved is the power saver mode.  The Forerunner 405 has a power saver mode too, but the 110 makes it more obvious when your watch is in and out of power saver.  The GPS will give you a 30 second warning letting you know it is about to cease tracking satellites (only if your timer is currently stopped).  This power saver means your watch can be a watch for several weeks if you don't use the GPS so you don't have to charge it all of the time.

Connect-ivity

Do you understand the dash?  A hint to use GARMIN Connect to track your Activities.  The Communicator Browser Plugin makes it super simple to upload via the USB and the device will charge when Connected to your computer.  

Sure, it is nice having ANT-based wireless uploads automatically transfer once you walk into the room where the computer is running with the necessary ANT Stick, but that process is far from simple to hook up.  Most consumers understand USB technology so having a USB mass storage was a smart thing to do.  

 

Nerd Alert: Only read the following paragraph if you laugh out-loud while sucking in air...

The Activity files are stored in the Activities folder of the mass-storage mounted Garmin directory.  Notice these files are now .FIT format which is yet another Garmin proprietary format and binary so debugging this file is not as easy as the predecessor TCX XML files.  I'll go on record that I always support using open standards and greatly prefer using text-based data files for readability, but the .FIT format is really important to making Garmin data flexible and small in size.  

As a result the Forerunner 110 uploads are very fast when compared to the Edge 705 for example.

Software Update

I clicked on the Software link from the Forerunner 110 page which resulted in a Page Not Found error.  I subsequently went to register my watch at myGarmin and the Dashboard successfully found a software update transferred by the Communicator Plugin.  

Where to Buy

This is also a cool thing that GARMIN has finally caught onto.  They are limiting the sales to only some retailers allowing small bike and running shops to sell the device without the cut-throat prices provided by Internet retailers.  This will be very important to get small retailers behind the GARMIN products because they will be able to make some money.  I bought mine at REI since there were no discounts anywhere else and REI has their dividend (not to mention they are awesome). 

You can buy just the watch and use your existing GARMIN HR strap (not the Forerunner 301 strap), but I would recommend buying the soft strap for comfort.  I wanted the watch with a red stripe, but that comes with its own HR so I had to buy the watch with a Gray stripe.  The pink watch also comes with a HR strap.  I find this kind of bundling confusing and restrictive so I really wish color was independent of bundling accessories.

Amazon has it for the same price so if I've convinced you and you simply can't wait then buy it there.  

In a Nutshell

This GPS is for the masses and will make almost anyone doing outdoor activities happy.  It is completely portable and easy to use so if you've been waiting to get into GPS tracking now is a great time to start.  

DISCLAIMER:  I have sold all my GRMN stock so there is no monetary incentive for me to tell you to buy a watch.  Many people ask me which GPS to buy and this happens to be an area of expertise for me so I wanted to share publicly.  Of course Garmin Connect recommendations perhaps are skewed by my ego for the time being.

JIRA Studio's Elastic Bamboo Customization Made Easy

I'll be writing up in subsequent posts about how much I love using JIRA Studio, but for now I want to share an improvement I have made to the maintenance of Elastic Bamboo from which any JIRA Studio user can benefit. Elastic Bamboo is the terminology for JIRA Studio's Bamboo delegation of building to an Amazon Elastic Cloud Computing (EC2) providing developers to choose the appropriate sized servers for their builds.  

I haven't been using Amazon EC2 for very long, but it doesn't take long to realize that EBS root-device-types are sooooo much better than instance-store.  Backups are super easy, creating new AMIs from custom configurations and you don't lose everything if the instance shuts down.  Apparently EBS is only a few months old so it is understandable that not everyone has converted yet.

Bamboo is creating instance-store EC2 instances for the Elastic Bamboo resources by default. Every now and again my Elastic Bamboo server disappears and I am left with having to re-create and re-configure my custom Bamboo machines (I need an updated Maven and security credentials to reach my private Nexus server).  Instance-store devices are not persistent so I lose everything and have to re-configure.  

I looked around the web and found a load of blogs talking about the converting instance-store to EBS images.  I am really surprised Amazon doesn't provide an easy conversion, but they don't (that I am aware of).  So I spent some time converting the default instance-store AMI (ami-5926cb30 us-east) provided by JIRA Studio into an EBS root-device type.  The result is persistent configurations allowing me to manage my Elastic Bamboo without ever opening up the Amazon AWS Management Console.

How I Did It

First I converted the instance-store ami into an EBS AMI and made it public (after this preferred script failed to make the conversion).  This works exactly as the default from Bamboo's perspective.  I made the image publicly available in US-East (ami-133bd27a).

 

 I happen to need Maven 2.2.1 which doesn't come installed on the default image so I installed maven 2.2.1 into the /opt directory where the other mavens live and created another public AMI available in US-East (ami-7f3ad316).

Maven 2.2.1 provides enhanced security which I use to access my protected Nexus Maven Repository Manager.  These configurations require me to copy the settings.xml and settings-security.xml into the .m2 directory of the Elastic Bamboo instance.  So I created yet another AMI after running a successful build which is now setup for my build environment. 

 
 

 Since this configuration has my security credentials I obviously don't share it publicly, but a private AMI still works with the Bamboo configurations.  

Now when Bamboo needs another instance it will create my own custom instance identified by the AMI number.   

Conclusion

The casual user will not need to use these AMIs and can stick with JIRA Studio's default AMI, but anyone requiring customization of their build server should start with one of the EBS Public AMIs I described above, customize as necessary and create their own AMIs.  The biggest advantage is the ease of using the AWS Management Console to simply right-click and create an AMI from an existing instance (only for EBS instances).

I've been programming for a while now, but my head hasn't been in the "Clouds" very long.  There are still a few idiosyncrasies about cloud computing to work through, but I am enjoying my new world of "Right-Click" -> create a computer rather than the traditional way I previously bought and configured servers.  I will be sharing more about my experience in the clouds as I continue to graduate my development practices from the Aughts to theTwenty-Tens.