B. Mann Consulting

After the jump, the email I received from LoadMyTracks -- saying that the Globalsat DG-100 is now supported on Mac OS X with their application. Here are my previous posts about the DG-100.

Yeah, I know, I've been *really* bad about using it. I got busy right when I received it. Now it's time to re-invest some time into using it consistently. I want my Flickr map to have more photos on it (I recently uploaded my 9000th photo).

Remember the DG-100-GPS? That cheap data logger that I've been really bad at finding the time to use consistently? Jaako left a comment letting me know that he got the DG-100 working on the Mac:

Hey Boris! Wanted to drop you a line and let you know that I managed to get a pretty decent solution to the DG-100 / Mac issue. The key lies in Mirko Parthey's dg100.c script he wrote as a basis for implementation into GPSBabel. I made some tweaks to his original code and added a GPX output mode and have a pretty reliable command line interface for the DG-100. Check it out ( + the relaunch of my blog ) at Blog-Shmog.com and let me know if you have any luck!

Good news! I've been in touch with Corey Leach of Expansys / Mobile Planet, and he's agreed to help out with both a bulk buy and with getting a loaner unit out to the Chief Babelhead for the open source GPS Babel project (thanks to Richard Akerman for making the post that prompted that connection). I've also had an update from the folks at LoadMyTracks, who have been contacted by the Globalsat manufacturer directly.

So, it's time to pony up some money and start geo-enabling yourself. The Globalsat DG100-GPS is the unit that I wrote about previously and it is currently listed at $100.95CDN.

If we get 5 - 9 buyers, the price will be discounted $5 USD per unit.

If we get 10+ buyers, the price will be discounted $10 USD per unit.

Corey Leach has suggested that the easiest way to make sure we get the discount applied is for everyone who is interested in purchasing to email him directly. We'll wait a couple of days to see if you get above 10 buyers, and then apply the discount and it will get shipped to everyone directly.

Note: this is open to *anyone* that wants to buy this unit -- the more the merrier. Just include a link to this blog post in your email and/or cc me on the email. What are you waiting for? email Corey to book your order.

Update: we are now at 7 people and only need 3 more to get the magical 10 person discount. We'll wait another couple of days, and then everyone can place their order, Corey will ask for your REF number, and the price will be reduced. Travis also pointed out to me a good thread on Vandigicam talking about geo logging.

Update 2: we are now at 10 people! Please go ahead and purchase the unit normally and email Corey your confirmation / ref number to receive the discount.

I've continued to think about GPS and geolocation, and thinking about how to, well, be more geo.

Update 2: you can now participate in a bulk buy of a Globalsat DG100-GPS from Expansys.

Some of this in context of Placeblogger, of course, more of it in imagining a future where even MORE photos and media are easily discoverable as being "local". In fact, Jeffrey Veen's Fixing the Web has a modest proposal to geo-enable *everything*:

I wish every device that was capable of talking to the network could send its geolocation. I'd like this to be fundamental—let's send longitude and latitude in the HTTP header of every request. Let's make it as ubiquitous and accessible as the time stamp, user agent, and referring URL.

So, it has to be easy, it has to be (almost) always on, and I need to be able to easily combine geo information with other media -- blog posts, photos, videos, etc. -- that get created along the way.

Enter GPS logging devices. "What is a GPS logger?", you ask. Well, it's a simple GPS receiver that does nothing more than log your location to local memory with a timestamp, which you can later pull off onto your computer as a GPS "track". It's small, it's battery powered, and you can keep it with you all the time. OK, OK, still too complicated.

1. Buy GPS logger
2. Turn on and clip to belt
3. Walk around taking pictures, video, blogging, etc.
4. Get back to your computer, download the GPS track and the media you've just taken
5. Run some software to merge your GPS location information with your pictures (e.g. GPS Photo Linker)
6. Voila! Thousands of your pictures on a map

Of course, this works for keeping track of hiking, biking, running, boating or anything else where you might want to see a map of a route you've taken after the fact.

After a little research on where to buy (I like Expansys and NCIX) and what to buy (this review of the Globalsat DG100-GPS and the Sony GPS-CS1 was immensely helpful -- some photos by the reviewer rakerman on Flickr are good to get a sense of size), I'm pretty sure that the Globalsat DG100-GPS is the unit for me. It charges over USB, has a longer battery life, and a bunch of different logging modes. It can even do "GPS mouse mode", where it can act as a GPS receiver for a laptop (e.g. various mapping software packages on your laptop showing real time location info for when you do have your laptop with you).

The only, only downside is that it really doesn't work all too well with the Mac. As in, it comes with a bunch of crazy Windows software and that's about it. Enter ClueTrust's LoadMyTracks, a Mac app for sending and receiving GPS data tracks to/from various devices. It doesn't *currently* support the Globalsat unit, but...

...here's where you come in: Want to pay around $100 CDN for a Globalsat DG100-GPS and start geologging your social media? Leave a comment below, and I'll continue talking to Expansys about getting a bulk order in (we'll need to buy 5 or more), including arranging to get a unit to the guys at ClueTrust. I've put emails in to both Expansys and ClueTrust, and the guys at ClueTrust have provisionally said that they should be able to make it work nicely on the Mac. And of course, if you're on Windows, feel free to just take advantage of a bulk order :P

Update: in the comments, Richard Akerman, the person whose review I enjoyed, did a round up of GPS logging and the Mac. Looks like we are on the right track to try and get more support in software...