ISYS OUTDOORS Newsletter 2005/02 - Easy GPS
In this Newsletter
- Events
- From the January Newsletter
- Rebranding (Continued)
- ISYS Website
- Icebergs in Derwent Water
- Trail Review
- Product News - Easy GPS
- Computer News
- Viral Advertising
- Hints and Tips
- Humour?
This is the Newsletter for user of ISYS OUTDOORS Software: Hillwalker, MapWise and Alpiniste
Fort William Mountain Film Festival - Friday 18 and Saturday 19 February 2005
Friday from 13:00; Saturday all day.
ISYS OUTDOORS will be in the foyer of the Ben Nevis Centre, Fort William. If you are in the area, skiing, walking or climbing, come along to visit us. You can even view one or more of the films after which the Festival is named.
We will also be demonstrating ISYS OUTDOORS Software in Westcoast, the outdoors shop at the other end of the High Street.
Tony Wale, well known in Silva circles and a Navigation expert, makes the following comment on the report in the last Newsletter that two walkers had got lost because of over-reliance on their GPS:
Re. two lost because GPS batteries ran out
It sounds as though they were lost because they:
- depended upon their GPS, which they should not of course
- obviously did not have spare batteries
- did not even know roughly where they were [were not following their route even roughly on their map]
All good navigators and all competent outdoor instructors know all this. GPS or any other aids to navigation should not be blamed for such incidents.
Best regards
Tony [Wale]
Thanks, Tony, for these words of advice.
You are all now familiar with the new names for the MapWise Products: MapWise 25, MapWise 50, MapWise 250 and MapWise Basic. Now it is the turn of the Hillwalker range:
Hillwalker with OS Maps becomes Hillwalker Max. There are three programs: The Munros, Lakeland Fells and Mountains of Wales.
Hillwalker with Harvey Maps becomes Hillwalker Info. This avoids the confusion: "Hillwalker with OS maps £40; with Harvey £20 - I will take Harvey" followed by "How do you print the maps?" There is no facility to print the Harvey Maps, whereas the OS maps can be printed as often as required for your own use. Also OS can give a complete coverage of the country.
There are four Hillwalker Info products: The Munros, The Corbetts, Lakeland Fells and Mountains of Wales.
Hillwalker Lite remains as it was with: Hills of Ireland, Peaks, Moors and Dales and Hills of Man.
Those who have ordered any items from our webshop recently will have noticed that the payment method is now more secure with the advent of PayPal which is now our preferred payment option.
The website has been improved recently but our support team has lost Graham who is off to Australia to do a PhD. We wish him well and hope he doesn't suffer too many withdrawal symptoms.
The site can now be viewed with FireFox, Internet Explorer, Opera and NetScape. If you use a different browser, let me know how the website looks and we will add to the list.
The changes seem to be making a difference, as visitor numbers climb. Visit at www.isysoutdoors.com.
What? I thought we had global warming? Icebergs are the best explanation offered for the discontinuity in the height data in MapWise 25 Lake District which appeared around Derwent Water.
The problem is now resolved and if you have noticed these icebergs floating around, then let me know and we will melt them by providing a new version of the software without charge.
Thanks to the many of you who wrote and spoke to me about the Trail review. Trail reviewed many mapping software programs recently and ISYS reached the finals with MapWise 25 LAKE DISTRICT.
I think that this is quite remarkable as four out of the seven tests were unsuitable to our software. The three remaining tests, which we must have excelled in, were: Mapping Options, System Requirements and Ease of Use.
The four tests which were not to our benefit were: Search Functions, 3D Views, Aerial Photography and Street Maps. We actually have excellent Search Facilities (the best?) but these are available only in the MapWise 50 and MapWise 250 Great Britain and Man products. Had we known the test in advance, we could have submitted these products.
If I could have replaced the four disadvantageous categories, I would have selected: Support, Actual Photographs, Information, Sound Tracks and Value for Money. That would have changed things around! Never mind.
The comment on ISYS: "They offer what most walkers will actually want." It is also interesting to note that the only Explorer product to reach the final was the ISYS Lake District.
The method of communicating with GPS is greatly simplified. Further, you do not even have to upgrade your software to get it. GPSU now accepts whr files. Communicating with GPS has never been easier. Here are the steps:
- - Install GPSU (www.gpsu.co.uk)
- - Upgrade to GPSU v4.15.n (this will become a main release soon)
- - Create a route or spider and save as an hwr file
- - Run GPSU and open the whr file. Your route is in GPSU.
In Hillwalker 5.5, Alpiniste 5.5 and MapWise 5.5, to be released soon, there is a GPS button on the Route Card and on the Spider Card. Clicking will open GPSU and pass the route or spider directly to it.
Bill Gates receives 4,000,000 emails a day.
Spam now accounts for over 60% of email volume
Word on the street: Is Google about to buy FireFox?
VoIP is the next "big thing". Along with "Push to Talk" for mobiles these two technologies are about to change, yet again, the way we communicate. Voice over Internet Protocol especially must be starting to worry the telecoms as it allows for free telephone calls, worldwide, over internet broadband. Radio is already on the net. Television must be next: your favourite programs, on demand, when you want them.
MSN have just taken the 'Beta' label of their new search engine. The technology seems better than Google so the war is on. I have just said that Microsoft are leading the field technically.
The new method of advertising is viral! You see it, you like it, you pass it on - no charge to the advertiser. So that I am not the one to break the chain, let me share this advert with you. You will find out what the advert is advertising after playing the game for a few levels. ISYS stopped work for an hour or so when this was discovered, but some members completed all levels, including Grandmaster.
Be amused at www.telescope-game.com/uk - but don't go here unless you have some spare time. WARNING: This game is addictive.
When printing Maps, the scale on the screen and the scale on the printer are entirely independent. Make the scale on screen fairly small so that the print rectangle (a black and yellow rectangle) can be seen easily. If this is not exactly in the correct place, you can drag the rectangle to the desired position.
Landranger maps from the MapWise 50 range can be printed at a scale of 1:50,000, their natural scale and the one used by OS on the paper version. Using MapWise, you also print these maps at 1:25,000. They are still Landranger maps but they are easier to read, especially if the sight is not quite as good as it used to be.
MapWise 25 maps are the OS Explorer range. These have more detail than their MapWise 50 cousins and can be printed at a variety of scales. This time, no matter what scale you print at, you will get the field boundaries.
In the Hillwalker and Alpiniste Range, when you add your own images, these are attached to the Current Hill. Add you own images at Tools | Own Image.
Walk long and safely
Iain R White
ISYS OUTDOORS
www.isysoutdoors.com
support@isysoutdoors.com
Humour? has very high standards: we eschew sexism, racism and ageism; not much left really. Perhaps we try to keep the ethics high (sometimes in desperation we stumble), but there is no similar attempt to keep the humour standards high. The ethics must be high this month when we visit church during lent.
The new minister was visiting his parishioners. At one house it seemed obvious that someone was at home, but no answer came to his repeated knocks at the door. He took out a card, wrote "Revelation 3:20" on the back, stuck it in the door and left. Revelation 3:20 is: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock."
That following Sunday, when the offerings were processed, he found that his card had been returned. Added to it was this cryptic message, "Genesis 3:10." Reaching for his Bible to check out the citation, he found that Genesis 3:10 reads: "I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid for I was naked."
