ISYS OUTDOORS Newsletter 2006/01 (follows 2005/09) - Version 6.1 In this Newsletter Version 6.1 WebSite WebSite - User Area WebSite - Links WebSite - Demo Disc Accommodation Edition 6 PhotoMaps - Special Price Isle of Wight x4 Isle of Arran Isle of Man Hill News Abernethy Art Computer Hints Hints and Tips Nag New Features in Version 6.1 Humour This is the Newsletter for users of ISYS OUTDOORS Software: Hillwalker, MapWise, MapWise and Alpiniste. There are many reasons why this is the first Newsletter this year but now there are some major announcements. You might have waited for a while for this Newsletter but it will be worth the wait. My thanks to everyone who emailed wondering what had happened. Clearly, a two-month gap is acceptable but a five-month gap is too long! Read to the end - the humour is worth it this month! Clearly everything is slowly returning to normal. I even managed one new Munro on Skye, the first for at least two years and it did feel like it! We have had many requests for program enhancements recently. These have mostly been accepted and incorporated into version 6.1. Version 6.1 is available now. New this month is the Isle of Wight x4 and The Isle of Arran program. Upgraded are MapWise Standard and MapWise 250 Great Britain and Man. Details below. We have also some Special Prices for this month only. VERSION 6.1 V6.1 is now available for the following products: MapWise 250 MapWise 50 Great Britain All MapWise 25 products MapWise Standard MapWise International now called The World on CD Many of you have MapWise Standard. If you have a MapWise Standard you can upgrade your existing copy. If not, then even the new price will not put you off! MapWise Standard is now available for download (6Mb for existing users so probably broadband only) so you don't need to wait for the post. A full list of features is appended, but here are the major points: In all programs: - Route editing is greatly extended As many routes as you wish can be parked on the maps Parked Routes can be linked Routes and Parked Routes can be drawn any colour, width and style. This is controlled separately for each Route. The day can be shown as well as the time, useful for longer routes It has always been possible to have a fixed break but you can now specify the departure time for a break, useful for an overnight stop. Routes can be broken into smaller routes Groups of Waypoints can be deleted or nudged - During mouseover, press shift for Route identification rather than point identification - Airport and Airfields are added (UK, Ireland) - Many more cities and towns are added - Vector mapping is improved in many places - If two (or more) waypoints are co-incident, then normally the first is selected. Press Shift and then mouseover to select the last. In MapWise Basic (Standard and International) - You can now draw your own points on all map formats Points can be linked to form a line or a closed loop You have complete control over the colour, width and form of the line Points can be represented by various shapes eg circle, triangle or square. If a circle the size can be specified on metres, giving a fixed size on the ground, or in pixels, giving a fixed size on the screen. Points can be represented by your own image. - Airport and Airfields are added (UK, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Germany and Italy) - World cities are added In MapWise 50 and MapWise 250 Great Britain - Some features for road users are added Congestion Zones (Currently London only) Low Bridges with the option of specifying a required clearance height Filling stations: Shell, BP, Texaco, Jet, Esso and Total Motorway Service Stations are added The cost of MapWise Standard is currently £30. If you already have an older copy, you can upgrade for £15.00. This is no charge at the moment for p&p for online orders. For speed of delivery for MapWise Standard and The World on CD, ask for the download version: 6Mb for existing users of any ISYS v6 software, 140Mb for new users. My thanks to Andrew in Cornwall who provided much of the Point of Interest information. WEB SITE The website is www.isysoutdoors.com but it was hosted under www.hillwalker.org.uk. We have changed it over to be hosted under isysoutdoors.com. There was some interruption to access but this is all in the past. Always visit www.isysoutdoors.com. WEB SITE - USER AREA If you were an ISYS OUTDOORS Registered User before October, then you can update your contact details in the User Area of the Website. You can choose to receive (or not) any of the ISYS Newsletters and update email and physical address and telephone numbers. One publication which has caused special interest is the Simple Newsletter. This will provide very simple tips on using ISYS software and Windows. You can order it now from the WebSite. WEB SITE - LINKS Since we have got the new website, we have revamped our website links. However, in order to turn the structure we have created into a valuable resource for you, our user base, we strongly encourage you to submit sites that you feel would be of interest to other ISYS OUTDOORS visitors. To suggest a Link, visit www.isysoutdoors.com then click 'Links' and then 'Suggest a link'. Additionally, if you have a related website of your own, reciprocal linking is available. Visit the Link page as above. WEB SITE - DEMO DISC There is a demo disc of the website for free download. ACCOMMODATION For some time now, the ISYS software has included B&B and other accommodation. Everyone who has a B&B on the map is a 'Friend of ISYS' so we encourage you to use these B&B wherever possible. Do you run a B&B, Guest House, Self Catering or Hotel? If so, you can have your accommodation positioned on the map right where users are planning their routes. If you want to discuss this, please give ISYS a call. The Accommodation is in the new version and the database will be built up over the next few months. EDITION 6 The offer to upgrade to Edition 6 from versions 1 to 5 continues throughout May to the end of June. 50% discount is allowed on all direct upgrades. Indirect upgrades (eg Hillwalker Info to Hillwalker Max) are attractively priced. PHOTOMAPS - Special Price For this month and to the end of June only, ISYS are offering the PhotoMaps for 30% off. ISLE OF WIGHT x4 (v6.1) New this month is the Isle of Wight x4 program. This program covers the Isle of Wight with Vector, Explorer, Landranger and Photomaps. The price is £49. ISLE OF ARRAN (v6.1) MapWise 25 Isle of Arran is Arran on Explorer maps, with full crinkle and Route Planning capability. Price £35. ISLE OF MAN (v6) As we are doing the island maps, consider the Isle of Man. This is a MapWise 50 product and is currently on offer with a Hills of Man included. www.isysoutdoors.com/products/B013/ HILL NEWS There was a daft proposal a while ago to ask walkers for £1 per day to walk the West Highland Way. This is a very worrying trend and I think the idea has been quietly dropped. The problem is that once suggested, these concepts tend to re-appear and vigilance is required. £1 per day is about three times the cost of car tax but any charge for venturing into open country is totally unacceptable. ABERNETHY ART ISYS OUTDOORS are hosting the website for AbernethyArt.com. On display is the fine art by Derek Young which you can view and buy on our site. Let us have your comments on this exciting addition to our extended site. COMPUTER HINTS Every computer connected to the internet should be protected against viruses and spyware. ISYS have previously recommended the following free software: AVG (anti-virus) from Grisoft. Download from www.grisoft.com Adaware (anti-spyware) from Lavasoft. Download from www.lavasoft.com Most homes now have an internet connection. Like television, now more than one person wants access at a time. Making a little network of two computers is not difficult. You need a network card in each PC (most have it built in already) and a cable to connect the computers. The cable must have a 'twist' so that the output from one PC is connected to the input of the other. Now you can transfer files between the two computers with ease. For more than two PCs, connect them all (with straight cables) to a hub or switch which should cost under £30. Slightly more expensive, but easier to install is a wireless network. Once installed, ensure that the network is encrypted to prevent all your software and files being made available to all the neighbours! If the PCs have XP, and one is connected to the internet, access from the others is not difficult to achieve. Email on the second PC is much more interesting! There is a free download from www.software602.com which gives free email on up to five PCs on a network but setting it up is not for the fainthearted. ISYS do not offer support for your network email. HINTS AND TIPS Routes are independent of maps. You can have a Route open without having a map open. You can type the grid references into the Route Card using a paper map. This is slow but it does work. You can save a route. Right click on the Route Card and select Save form the popup menu. This will save the Route as an hwr file. You can send the Route to you GPS. Download from www.gpsu.co.uk. GPSU can read and write hwr files and so send route to the GPS or read tracks from the GPS. From Windows Explorer, click the hwr file and your ISYS software will open with the route already open and drawn on a Vector Map. Spider Cards are similar to Route Cards but can only be used to visit known Waypoints. These are currently used in only The High Alps. You have a Route open but no map open. Perhaps a friend emailed the route to you. You have no idea where the Route is. How do you open a suitable map? Open any Vector Map and click the 'Christmas Tree' on the Button Bar. The map will be re-drawn to show the route. If you still don't recognize where the route is, Zoom Out until you do recognize the location. You can always click the 'Christmas Tree' again. To draw an Image Map with the Route, right click on the Vector Map in the middle of the Route (but away from WayPoints and Way Arrows) and select a map of the right scale, eg a Landranger map. Landranger Maps are great for planning routes but long routes will spread beyond the screen. Open a Travel Map to see the whole Route. If this is still too small, try the MiniScale Map. Travel and MiniScale maps are the Great Britain package: www.hillwalker.org.uk/products/B000 NAG If you do send us an email, please check that your user number is in the subject line. This ensures that the email gets through our filtering system. Are you getting duplicate Newsletters? Tell us the numbers in the subject lines and we will sort it out for you. You can change your own email address online. Visit the User Area of the Website. The user Area can be access by users who were users in October. New Users will have access by January. Iain R White ISYS OUTDOORS www.isysoutdoors.com support@isysoutdoors.com NEW FEATURES IN VERSION 6.1 User Levels In User Levels One and Two (where previously buttons and menu items were disabled to ensure that only one map of any type could be shown), the creation of a new flat map will close all existing flat maps. 3D Crinkle Maps Mouse Over of hills and some other points is implemented for Crinkle Maps made from Vector Maps. Own Drawing Points are included on the Crinkle Map if they were present on the Crinkle Base Map. Mouseovers are implemented for Own Drawing Object points. Drawing Object points can be Renamed and the Properties viewed from Crinkle Maps. PhotoMaps The thumb tabs can now be used for scrolling Showing Representative Fraction is now also controlled from the popup menu. Own Drawing is implemented. Right Click over an Own Drawing point for a popup menu to Rename or view Properties. Routes, Parked Routes and Walks are included in mouseover identification. Press shift during mouseover for route identification. Parked Routes and Linking of routes is implemented. The Mouseover label now moves to side of the identified point away from the cursor, leaving the area under the cursor clear. PhotoMaps can now be exported as bitmaps (or jpegs). There is an hwm file also created so that the exported map can be easily imported as a Raster Map. The exported map can be imported into mobile devices such a mobile phone. Waypoints on Route Card can now be labelled with Waypoint Number, Waypoint ID or Waypoint Name. The label is restricted to 20 characters. Vector Maps UK and Irish Airports and Airfields are added Swiss, French, German and Italian Airports and Airfields are added Many World Cities are added Default Mouseover on Vector Maps is changed to True Showing Representative Fraction is now also controlled from the popup menu. Own Drawing is implemented. Right Click over an Own Drawing point for a popup menu to Rename or view Properties. Vector Maps can now create new Vector Maps centred on clicked point (right click for menu). Routes, Parked Routes and Walks are included in mouseover identification. Press shift during mouseover for route identification. Parked Routes and Linking of routes is implemented. The Mouseover label now moves to side of the identified point away from the cursor, leaving the area under the cursor clear. This makes it easier to drag a rectangle if mouseover is active. Waypoints on Route Card can now be labelled with Waypoint Number, Waypoint ID or Waypoint Name. The label is restricted to 20 characters. Image Maps The thumb tabs can now be used for scrolling Own Drawing is implemented. Right Click over an Own Drawing point for a popup menu to Rename or view Properties. Routes, Parked Routes and Walks are included in mouseover identification. Press shift during mouseover for route identification. Parked Routes and Linking of routes is implemented. The Mouseover label now moves to side of the identified point away from the cursor, leaving the area under the cursor clear. On Explorer Maps the envelope is now calculated from maps actually installed. Previously the envelope was calculated from available explorer maps. On most installations, the envelope will be much smaller. Scroll bars will therefore usually be much less sensitive. Menu items and buttons to create Explorer maps are disabled when the requested map is outwith the envelope. With the envelope's being smaller in most cases, this will happen more often and 'white maps' will occur less often. Image Maps can now be exported as bitmaps (or jpegs). There is an hwm file also created so that the exported map can be easily imported as a Raster Map. The exported map can be imported into mobile devices such a mobile phone. Waypoints on Route Card can now be labelled with Waypoint Number, Waypoint ID or Waypoint Name. The label is restricted to 20 characters. Raster Maps Raster Maps can now be crinkled. Raster Maps can now generate Vector Maps, Image Maps and PhotoMaps centred on the clicked point (right click for menu). Routes, Parked Routes and Walks are included in mouseover identification. Press shift during mouseover for route identification. Parked Routes and Linking of routes is implemented. Raster Maps can now be created from PhotoMaps or Image Maps. Waypoints on Route Card can now be labelled with Waypoint Number, Waypoint ID or Waypoint Name. The label is restricted to 20 characters. MapWise Standard and MapWise International Own Drawing on Vector Maps, Image Maps and PhotoMaps includes the drawing of various Drawing Objects. Each Drawing Object is one of: Polygon: Outline and Fill in any colour, thickness or style eg red crosshatch with no outline Poly Line: Outline and Fill in any colour, thickness or style eg Dash Dot Dot green with black between Set of Label Points: Label any point. Choose label colour, font colour and the x and y offset Set of Label Points Centred: Label any point. Choose label colour, font colour and the y offset Set of Triangle Points: Outline and Fill in any colour, thickness or style eg red crosshatch with no outline. One data point gives one triangle. Set of Inverted Triangle Points: Outline and Fill in any colour, thickness or style eg red crosshatch with no outline. One data point gives one triangle. Set of Square Points: Outline and Fill in any colour, thickness or style eg red crosshatch with no outline. One data point gives one square. Set of Circle Points (pixels): Outline and Fill in any colour, thickness or style eg red crosshatch with no outline. One data point gives one circle. Radius is in pixels. Set of Circle Points (metres): Outline and Fill in any colour, thickness or style eg red crosshatch with no outline. One data point gives one triangle. Radius is in metres on the ground. Set of Symbols: User provides the symbols as a bitmap and the x and y offsets of the hotspot. The Hotspot is placed exactly at the location coordinates. Each Drawing Object is drawn large, small or not at all depending on the scale of the map. The user chooses the changeover points for each Drawing Object. Drawing Objects can be created from Routes or saved as Routes. Once made, Objects can be edited, saved or deleted. Individual points within an Object can be edited by location and name. Drawing Object points are including in mouseovers on Vector Maps, Image Maps and PhotoMaps and Crinkle Maps made from any of these. Own Drawing is fully realtime. An Own Drawing Object point renamed, for example, on a Crinkle Map will have the new name shown in all open Properties windows and the new name will appear on a mouseover of that point on all open maps. Parked Routes and Linking of routes is implemented. MapWise Great Britain Several features have been added for motorists and HGV drivers: - Low Bridges can be shown on Vector Maps, Image Maps and PhotoMaps - Optionally, enter a required clearance height to shown only those bridges which are too low to allow passage - BP, Shell, Esso, Jet, Total and Texaco filling stations are shown throughout the UK - Congestion Zones (currently only London) can be drawn on Vector Maps, Image Maps and PhotoMaps - Motorway Service Stations are added to Vector Maps, Image Maps and PhotoMaps. Telephone numbers are given where known. List Walks and Climbs A Walk of Climb can be made Current from the listing, allowing it to be drawn on all open maps. Route Cards The Route Card now includes Easy GPS for downloading to GPS and uploading a walked track. The Height Profile shows the actual ground profile as well as the Route Card profile used for calculation. The profile now works in fraction of metres; not important in Am Monadh Ruadh areas but it has removed the 1 metre high pavements from the streets of London! The number of WayPoints entered before entering FastAppend Mode is now configurable. There is also an option never to enter FastAppend Mode. Waypoints on Route Card can now be labelled with Waypoint Number, Waypoint ID or Waypoint Name. The label is restricted to 20 characters. Parts of a Route can be nudged, that is all Waypoints in the chosen part of a route can be moved a fixed amount in any direction. When working in Lat / Long the distance moved is constant; the angular distance may not be. This effect will be most noticed far from the equator where the route extends over a long north / south distance. Each nudge is limited to 100m but the number of nudges is unlimited. Before Saving, if the Route Card has not been named, the user is encouraged to name the Route Card. The user is given the option of using the Filename or a name devised from the highest point on the Route or to create a new name. A part of a route can be saved as a new Route. A long route can be broken into smaller routes of fixed size and saved. The last point can (optionally) be used as the start point for the next route to be saved. A part of a route can be deleted. This is much faster than deleting individual waypoints. Any number of routes can be 'Parked'. Parked Routes are drawn on Vector Maps, Image Maps, Raster Maps and PhotoMaps and are Crinkled from these map types. When first drawn, a parked route is drawn with the default parked characteristics of colour, line type etc. The characteristics of individual parked routes, or blocks of parked routes, can be changed as desired. The default characteristics can also be set as required. Parked Routes can be linked to the start or end of the Current Route to form a new Current Route. If appropriate, the user is given the option of reversing the parked route before linking. Any map can be used as the canvas for Linking. The Popup Menu is restructured into a two-tier menu. The date can be shown for either or both the ETA and ATA. The Start time and Date can be set. It is now possible to add a Stop / Restart to a Route. If the restart time is later than the original ETA, the restart time is moved forward one day. Rests are included in the Elapsed Time calculation; Stops are not. If two (or more) waypoints are co-incident, then normally the first is selected. Press Shift and then mouseover to select the last. NAG If you do send us an email, please check that your user number is in the subject line. This ensures that the email gets through our filtering system. With spam running at over 1,000 per week, we now rely on the filter system and human scanning is minimal. You can change your own email address online. Visit the User Area of the Website. The user Area can be access by users who were users in October. Walk long and safely. Iain R White ISYS OUTDOORS www.isysoutdoors.com support@isysoutdoors.com HUMOUR Helpful hints for recommendation letters. You're called upon for an opinion of a friend who is extremely lazy. You don't want to lie, but you also don't want to risk losing even a lazy friend. Try this line: "In my opinion," you say as sincerely as you can manage, "you will be very fortunate to get this person to work for you." This gem of double meaning is the creation of Robert Thornton, a professor of economics at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. Thornton was frustrated about an occupational hazard for teachers, having to write letters of recommendation for people with dubious qualifications, so he put together an arsenal of statements that can be read two ways. He calls his collection the Lexicon of Inconspicuously Ambiguous Recommendations, or "LIAR", for short. "[LIAR] may be used to offer a negative opinion of the personal qualities, work habits or motivation of the candidate while allowing the candidate to believe that it is high praise," Thornton explained last week. Some examples from LIAR: 1. To describe a job applicant who is not worth further consideration: "I would urge you to waste no time in making this candidate an offer of employment." 2. To describe a person with lacklustre credentials: "All in all, I cannot say enough good things about this candidate or recommend him too highly." 3. To describe a person who is totally inept: "I most enthusiastically recommend this candidate with no qualifications whatsoever." 4. To describe an ex-employee who had problems getting along with fellow workers: "I am pleased to say that this candidate is a former colleague of mine." 5. To describe a candidate who is so unproductive that the job would be better left unfilled: "I can assure you that no person would be better for the job." When the writer uses LIAR, "whether perceived correctly or not by the candidate, the phrases are virtually litigation-proof," Thornton said. A lesson to be learned from typing the wrong email address! A Minneapolis couple decided to go to Florida to thaw out during a particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier. Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel schedules. So, the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday, with his wife flying down the following day. The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an email to his wife. However, he accidentally left out one letter in her email address, and without realizing his error, sent the email. Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston, a widow had just returned home from her husband's funeral. He was a minister who was called home to glory following a heart attack. The widow decided to check her email expecting messages from relatives and friends. After reading the first message, she screamed and fainted. The widow's son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor and saw the computer screen which read: To: My Loving Wife Subject: I've arrived Date: May 1, 2006 I know you're surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now and you are allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I've just arrived and have been checked in. I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was. P.S. Sure is hot down here! Thanks to Robert from Renfrewshire for this one.