Small Details

 I found a stamp that the designer and engraver had altered slightly to add his own personal touch, a six point star of David symbol hidden in the detail of the stamp. It reminded me of the time when I was working to produce maps way back last century. On this occasion I added an extra town name to the general layout of the map. It was in small print and had to get passed several checks without being spotted as a fake town. This map was part of a booklet and on final production there it was, Brownlowville a new place you could not visit in Gippsland. I thought I had a copy of the sheet at least but could not find it. I have attached some of my other earlier work as a student and also from the MMBW days. These show some of the printing steps where you may be able to slip in something extra but highly unauthorised. There was another guy on the team who was forever putting "pubic space" on the water plans rather than "public space".

a colour proof to check alignment of plates

Moonee Ponds catchment

star circled

BeechWorth 1992

 I was rummaging in the map drawers and found the Rogaining map from the first and only time I have ever been in a World Championship.  Will vander Lugt and I stayed on the course for the entire 24 hours which is also the only time I ever did that.  We thought we would make an effort for the inaugural event. I do remember sleeping for a half hour. We each took one side of a picnic table that we came across. It was a perfect nap until some drizzle got in our faces but it was enough to get us going.  Our route choice is marked at the top of the map. We were accurate but not fast. Four controls before dark, four more during the night and five the next day for a total distance of 54.6km and 450 points.  Previously I spent time testing scanners for digital copying but the merged map below came from three phone photos.

Paper Trail

 We have been catching up on some paperwork.  Everyone urges you to go digital for statements but we keep them on paper.  We have found a trick that the Comm Bank is pulling lately, which is to replace the annual fee with a monthly one.  We have purposely left an old credit card in case it might be needed. The fees changed from $50 a year to $8 per month so we are closing this one off. Not so easy!  We owed $16, so transferred that but was pending for a day.  Then the account online statement went $0.00 after the transfer. Hooray.  I am the Primary for this so pressed the close button but it comes back as -$0.24c So I transfer 24 cents, wait another day for the pending transaction, then press the close button again.  No can close, as the account is now +$0.24c.  This may be an interest component on the $16 ??  The official statement is generated tomorrow so if they don't take it, I will give it to them.  On another note, literally, the VNPA sent a glowing thank you note after I sent them 30 maps last month.  Hooray, most of the time I get asked for money.

VNPA Map Nerds

 Mick Taylor asked me once, what can you do with old maps? I have the answer now, which is to donate them to the Victorian National Parks Association.  I have been a paid up member since way back last century. I can also remember turning up to some of their organised weekend overnight walks.  A meeting place had been organised for a Friday night camp and we were the only ones camped there. In the morning a guy walks up saying the main group got bogged 2km back, so they just camped there instead. They had a furniture van for transport with wooden stools spread along the sides.

33 maps cost me $20 to send

Cairns Esplanade

 We have tried most of the hotels along the esplanade here and this one is the Hilton Doubletree.  It is leisurely day today trying to dodge the rain. The table across was just one row too close to the front.  They got wet.  This was breakfast at the Villa Romana. We have been here before and the omelette in the pan is the best. Last night we ate at Splash restaurant. No prizes for guessing this is seafood and lots of it. I had kingfish fillet, very tasty.  An interesting aspect is the maps that are everywhere in there, even on the tabletops. 

Nautical charts but what are all the numbers?

Here it comes

Pan tastic

Nice Library

Amazon returns

 We used to have an Amazon locker down near the Library which I have used before however maybe because of the new Library it was taken away.  That means in order to send back my dud wand scanner I have had to drive almost into Geelong to find their pickup service.  I have not given up on the wand idea as I have the software that can do the job, all I need is a cheap scanner with no software to get me the images, as now the documents need to be severely folded to get overlap on each image. I have now used six images to reproduce a complete topo map as below.

There must be a magnifier tool for blogs somewhere around as Windows will let you zoom right into the detail of these types of files.  Again the joining of the six pieces is seamless. 

Digital Maps

I have been working on how to get an accurate digital copy of a large format map into a single file. I bought a wand scanner two weeks back which did not work.  The concept was good.  Literally waving the tool across the paper on a flat table to get the best coverage.  The package was battered and seemed like a secondhand item, which Amazon assured could not be the case. Amazon are taking it back and refunding me.  But I still want to get the job done.  Reading more about it, I have tools already for the job.  I paid for an all singing all dancing photo editor with my new computer.  If you treat scanned map segments from a flatbed scanner as photos, and tell the editor that you want a panorama made out of them. Voila a complete map in a single copy.  This was a small map joined from two neat halves.  The test will be a full topographic map with maybe up to six pieces. The editor also lets me draw on the map so I can show the order of checkpoints taken.  The actual route in this case was to use the road network as much as possible then vere off when needed.  

with route added

I did this rogaine with James 30 yar ago, at age nine.  That means I have a few years yet to get my legs going again before Asher might want a try at this stuff.  We got 2nd place in a family category and walked about 10kms to get our 380 points.  I walked about 5kms the other day but that was on a pavement.

Scanners

 I have two scanners here that I use every day. There is a document scanner that is used a lot. Then there is the flatbed scanner, for stamps and photos but also negatives, and is used almost hourly. I have been poking around for ways to scan large format documents, like maps.  I have around 100 rogaining maps with many personalised touches like the route plot and notes etc. These can also endup quite damaged after 24 hours in the field. Photographing is possible but not easy. I have ordered a wand scanner which is designed to be rolled across a surface and scanning what's underneath.  It could be a lemon but the reviews and feedback from other users say it will scan maps. It seems there is a skill to moing it at a consistent speed and direction. I will have to navigate this problem when it gets here from the US of A.  

This one almost fitted on the flatbed

Bellarine Map

 You might remember some 30 yar back that a wall map of Melbourne was produced in what might be described as a caricatured version of Melbourne.  These were more art than map but you could definitely recognise road patterns, features etc.  Melinda Clarke was the one who started this venture and I was reading about a much more recent map of the Bellarine Peninsular which was inspired becuase she moved to this area. These projects are 5 year marathons to get one of these maps published. I ordered a laminated copy and the web page said expect a delivery the following week.  I was standing on the balcony and a car pulled up and a lady leaned out and said your Neil aren't you.  This was Melinda Clarke who was hand delivering my copy of the Bellarine map.  She also threw in a calendar which featured the updated Melbourne map, this was another 5 year project which brought in all the changes in Melbourne over the last 30 yar to the new Melbourne edition.  She said that to get thru the Covid mayhem she printed her map on a diversified  range of gear eg tea towels and mainly jigsaw puzzles.

Maybe I should have gotten her to sign my copy

There is also a Where's Wally type of search list for features

Oxbow

An oxbow is a bend in a river and a lake formed in the old channel is an Oxbow Lake.  I did many rogaines in and around Tallarook and along the Goulburn Valley. Not to forget the pumping station MWC put in further up stream. We were following an old channel yesterday until we got to an electric fence. In the rogaine days no electric fence would stop you.  The Goulburn River is a meandering one with many old deviations. I can remember a few times getting caught up in those twists and turns.

There was water in the top bow when this was taken

Tasman Glacier Fly By

I have been revisiting Google Earth and Google Maps.  I have previously mentioned the plotting of wayside points in GM using icons and photos as icons to show the route of your trip  A manual plotting of points provides a good result if you can find where the photo was taken. Prior to GPS co-ords being included in cameras, this was the only way.  With GPS comes the GM import option. You can load a representative set of photos to your Google drive and create an album for them.
In Google maps you have a one time only option to import a set of photos to a newly created layer in your map.  Sounds fine in theory but the GPS does not always work at the time the photo is taken. Also the import never takes them in the order you have placed them in the album.

This has consequences for any FlyBy sequence you are trying to establish.  Once the map is set, with all waypoints, photos and captions in place the export option can be used to create a Keynote file for use in Google Earth.  The order of progression can be adjusted in the KML file by using a text editor like Wordpad.  Search for your first waypoint using either its caption or a GPS co-ord. Cut the text between <placemark> and </placemark>  and position it at the top without disturbing any other code. *Note to Google developers to incorporate the time taken field as a sorting method to preserve the chronological order.  After some time the file is now in order.  Import the file into Google Earth and save it to My Places.  Now the FlyBy can be run to show your tour.   I have prepared a short one below where I have tried a physical interaction which takes some practice to appear seamless. I used SnagIt to record the show.

WayPoints View

Google Map Tips - alt 0176

I have numerous photo projects to complete after a trip one of which is to plot our track in Google maps. The philosophy being that if you have paid the time and the money on the trip then you should record and relive it as many ways as possible. You can also export this route to a file and import it to google earth where you can display a flypast of your trip.  I digress. Previously I have positioned each photo by already knowing its location. You can also type the co-ords from the photo into the google maps search box and let google locate the point. The trick is to get the format just right eg

53°33'27.78"N 10°13'16.6"E

 

This is the exact format, so type in the degree sign ° by using ALT 0176 which is the secret code.  Once I finish this map I can move onto the other photo projects eg the display board in the lounge or the more permanent wall picture frame or the newest addition to the list the "jigsaw puzzle".

 

 

On Display





The old days Remapped.

Rode into town today to meet up with an old cartography mate. Robyn is featured in the photo below from 1976. I last saw her during the 1984 metrogaine which co-incidentally I plotted on my Google map the other day. People roll their eyes when I mention that I am plotting X and they are asking Y. (see shirt slogan).  There is now a lunch for old cartographers on the cards. Watch this space.

Final year excursion

PS I have my own cartography joke...

"Why are you using such a fat X  and such a fat Y ?"
"... because the plot thickens."

The boon's a lagoon

Did a lot of kayak paddling this week. Miniloc is famed for lagoons. The small lagoon, the big lagoon and the secret lagoon. I have drawn a map locating the lagoons in case any of my legion of readers wants to find the secret lagoon in particular. (Not very secret!)  Also the secret lagoon requires crawling through a hole in the wall. I recommend kayaking along the large lagoon at 7:00 am. This means you will be free of the daytripping outriggers from El Nido Town. It reminded me of drifting through Katherine Gorge 30 yar ago. Good to do.

This is a Kayak..Not

Paddle me

Offline maps for travelling

My windows phone has an app called Here Maps from Nokia. This is now available on Windows 8.1 and has an offline option allowing you to download any country's map in the world.  I still use the TomTom for in car navigation while travelling but this is a good backup and maybe handy if you are walking the back streets of Rome and you have the tablet in the backpack. It is a freebie app from the windows store. For subsequent map downloads you need to search for the location first and add it to a collection then a button allows for downloading.