Sorry to interrupt the interesting car tax discussion with an on-topic post, but here goes.
Using google maps, I've created a map of hire firm bases in England and Wales. You can have a look at: http://www.canals.com/england-wales-hire-map.htm The map works in IE and Firefox. I've only tried it on PCs (and, in fact, it doesn't work with IE7 on my laptop, but google maps itself fails there in the same way!). I have to still add the bases for the large firms (e.g. Alvechurch, Black Prince, ...). Also there are several firms whose bases I have yet to pinpoint. See what you think about how it works. Also, if there are any bases you are familiar with, see if the map shows the proper location (especially when zoomed in). Before doing this, I did a search to see if any other canal-related websites had done this already and found none. But I could have easily overlooked some. Is anyone aware of any maps of this type on any other website with a canally theme? Other applications (besides hire bases) are certainly possible. An interesting one could be boat tracking, which could encourage more mini-GIGs. Of course, this would be a bit trickier as those cruising would need a way to update their position, but it could be done. (There could be a privacy issue with this also, so we might need to require a password for people to view the boat locations.) Looking forward to replies, - george www.canals.com
