So tell me your stories! They are valuable content for my talks.
First hello everybody, as it's the first post to the list.
I've been following this project since about 1 year, and as soon as the
Freerunner was on sale I ordered mine (2nd July) and I'm eagerly
awaiting it from Pulster's shop (hope it is sent tomorrow).
I have to say that I bought and had on my hands a Nokia N95 for about
100 Euros less than what I've payed for the Freerunner, and inspite of
having more features (camera) and beeing more proven I sold it on ebay
without even opening it cause I received it the same day I learned the
Freerunner was on sale.
As for my story,.I don't know if I will ever have the time for it, but I
envision the following:
For some years now I've been an official and scorer (sort of a judge)
for Hot Air Balloon competitions, and previously an observer. Until
recently an observer followed each balloon in competitions either in a
car or on the balloon. The tasks a balloon has to fly are mostly going
as near as possible to a given set of targets some kilometers away from
where it launches. Remember hot air balloons can only climb or descend,
but otherwise flow in the wind. By changing heights they try to find the
winds and local airstreams that bring them as close to their target as
possible.
With the observers they had to throw a coloured marker when they thought
they were as close as possible to the target and then it was measured by
tape if close enough or on the map by reference.
Now (at least in national events; I think world and continental
championships still require observers) everything is measured using GPS
tracks (except on some targets where there is a measuring area of
~50-100m and they have to drop markers to be measured by a team). I'd
like to write an app that automaticaly sends the track live over GPRS to
the competition centre (if there is GPRS signal), and also that stores
it crypted on the phone so that it can't be altered. I also would like
to try to emulate the marker dropping by having some push buttons on
the screen the competior would had to push when he decides it's best,
because sometimes there are scoring areas where, if your mark is
outside of it, it isn't valid. With markers thrown, the competitor had
to decide if he drops the marker when he is about to leave the scoring
area of he will try to reenter later to have a better mark. With current
GPS rules this pilot decision is lost, as all trackpoints inside the
scoring area are measured.
Me trying it doesn't mean it will be adopted (that would mean every
competitor had to buy one FR or maybe the the national federation), but
maybe at least we will have something to show and who knows. Of
course this can be made with any other phone with java and a GPS, but
still I prefer the FR.
Of course, even if I don't do anything of the above, I plan to using it
for sshing to some servers, maybe even VNC or Remote desktop, also for
openstreetmap and also as a SIP UA. And I almost forgot, also for fun
Marcos
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