Just in case you missed the news about the 1400% price-hike:
The announcement: https://mapsplatform.googleblog.com/2018/05/introducing-google-maps-platform.html
The reaction: http://geoawesomeness.com/developers-up-in-arms-over-google-maps-api-insane-price-hike/
I expect that my online maps at Google, Map Channels and My Maps + will soon be toast, leaving gaping holes in this blog.
I may well be ditching the GPS in favour of a GFYG.
Unlike O.S. maps, this map of Britain is free and can be copied, posted etc. under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License (see here).
LOL @ the BBFC's protractor to the south of the Mull of Kintyre.
I went to LGH for venesection no. 3 today, and got the pre-bleed result from venesection no. 2 - you may recall that I had a bit of a WTF episode during that session.
That pre-bleed result from venesection no. 2 was 1462 × 10-6 g/L - way higher than the previous result, but it seems to more like what we expected, and the Hb is still holding up:
This seems to add weight to the theory that the pre-bleed result of 998 × 10-6 g/L from venesection no. 1 was either wrong or not mine. Time will tell - two points on a graph isn't really enough of a basis for a trend. Nevertheless, I still intend to "discuss the matter" when I attend my next haematology out-patient consultation next week.
Anyway, sitting on a bed for over 2 hours today in a room full of ill people while intermittently bleeding into a bag does have a few benefits... as well as getting me free cuppas and biscuits, it also allows me to get stuck into a good book which I've not read for some time:
Map Addict. A Tale of Obsession, Fudge & the Ordnance Survey, by Mike Parker.
If you've not yet acquired a copy, I recommend that you add it to your Christmas wish-list. It's much better than a poke in the arm with a sharp needle eye with a sharp stick.
It's the 1st of August and the layout of the north of England has gone barmy. The LDNP extended within Cumbria - I can just about understand that. But the YDNP extended into Cumbria and Lancashire? How does that work?
So, now there are even more bits of the LDNP that are not merely unmarked but simply don't appear on my worn-in but not yet worn-out OS OL English Lakes paper set, or my Memory-Map 1:25k Lake District 'puter maps, or even my two excellent AZ Adventure Lake District map-books.
How long before the OS tries to sell us Outdoor Leisure OL "7 and a bit"?
Clearly history taught us nothing:
Warmongering pluckers
Sometimes a bit of idle surfing can get you to where you didn't realise you wanted to be...
During a short "free period" I'd been poring over some maps. Real maps. Big flappy unruly Ordnance Survey paper sheets. If you remember these things, you'll remember the faff involved in folding them away neatly after use. You'll likely also remember that repeated use destroys any stressed/strained intersections of folds.
Anyway, duty called so I put away the maps. Some DIY was required, a drill was necessary, and the all-singing, all-dancing one that I'd bought for my Dad (so that I could borrow it permanently) was, for some strange reason, at my Dad's place. No matter, a detour to the local Lidl during a cardio-exercise walk resulted in the acquisition of a cheap cordless jobbie.
Back at the ranch I did the DIY and decided that the cheap jobbie was in fact quite good. So good that I looked into buying a spare battery-pack for it. At some point during the web-search I got distracted by Wikipedia's page on Li-ion batteries and found myself reading about their flexibility (see here).
I got side-tracked by the Miura Fold/Solar Panel Array thing...
And Google took me here and here...
And then the dropping penny reached its target.
Yeah, I know it's been done before, but I've a mind to give it a try for myself on a newish real map once I've ironed-out all of those standard-issue O. S. creases. I might start with a Memory-Map printout and work my way up from there.
Here's a YT clip of how it works:
Not this:
This:
That's just a screenshot of the BGS Geology of Britain viewer, you can load the viewer in you browser by clicking here.
You can also generate embed code for sticking interactive maps into blog posts, just like this:
That's where Ken was a few days ago.
The BGS also have a few apps for iPhone and Android, I have both the iGeology and iGeology3D apps on my HTC Wildfire and they've been useful for info when out and about. I'd imaging that they'd look and work really well on an iPad or an Android tablet but I can't verify that as I own neither.
That said, the iGeology app works a treat on the XP laptop when running in the BlueStacks App Player:
Cock of Arran
It's a nice bit of kit to have around if you're into that sort of thing.
If it would work in/with Memory-Map etc. then route-planning according to geological features rather than by topography would be a doddle.
