All Narfed Up photography and words by Bryan Villarin

After my trip to my Hawaii, I finally realized how much I want a GPS data logger for geotagging. So, after the TWIP recommendation for the Amod AGL3080 GPS Data Logger and a bit of reading, I decided to buy one.

Oh yeah, it helped that Semsons is literally a mile from me — and they allow for pickup! That saved me eight bucks. Note: I’m not affiliated with Semsons. I bought the device with my own money.

I went for a drive to get some ice cream, then In-N-Out. I took a few photos while I was out, of course.

Back at home, I plugged in my Amod AGL3080 and copied the log file to my desktop.

I ran the GPSBabel (GUI) to convert the log file so GeoSetter could read it. Set the input format to NMEA 0183 sentences, choose the log file on your desktop, then choose an output format and new filename. For GeoSetter, choose GPX XML.

If you want to make a map with Google Earth, choose Google Earth (Keyhole) Markup Language. Then, you can open that log file and visually see the route like so:

Import your photos into your Lightroom as usual. I don’t use the DNG format right now — I keep the original RAW files and use XMP sidecar files.

Run GeoSetter and set the file options for the type of photos your working with. I enable “Save data in XMP sidecar files.”

Now, navigate to the photos and select all the photos your log file applies to. Then, go to Images > Synchronize with GPS Data Files (Ctrl+G). Since I’m at home, I used the Local Windows Settings for the time adjustment. (I’m sure I need more research on this section, but this’ll work for now.)

Click OK, then it’ll popup a box confirming the photos that the log applies to. Click YES, and it’ll write the locations for each photos, prompting for the different sublocations if applicable. (How’s that for more details?)

Your last step in GeoSetter is to save that data to the XMP files. Ctrl+S does the trick, backs up the original XMP files, and writes the new ones.

Finally, in Lightroom, select the photo(s) you just geotagged in GeoSetter, right-click and go to Metadata > Read metadata from file. It’ll throw up one last warning, but you’ll be fine — click Read.

Now, if you look at the metadata on the right pane (Loupe View in Library), Location should be filled in. Also, notice the plethora of additional keywords? Flickr can read this and I’m sure Picasa Web can, too.

Now, process your photos like normal. When you export your geotagged photos to JPEG and upload them to Flickr, they’ll already be geotagged.

How awesome is that?

Please look at the sources for Mac solutions and other software recommendations.

Sources

• AMOD AGL3080 Mac-compatible driverless GPS logger reviewed (Richard’s Tech Reviews)
• GPS Geotagging with my Nikon D80 (trick77.com)
• An ABC of geotagging photos on the Mac (bioneural.net)
• To DNG, or not to DNG (Inside Lightroom)

Software

• GPSBabel (free)
  
• GeoSetter for Windows (free/donationware)
  
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

Updates 6/25/08 2pm PDT

I posted a link to this in the TWIP Flickr group and have already received a couple insightful and encouraging comments that my workflow is legit. (Thanks guys!)

Gunnar Steinn suggested merging points closer than ten meters to keep the GPX file slim. I need to figure this out or someone needs to show me how. Also, don’t edit the photos before geotagging because “it will get lost when you reread the files.” (permalink) That hasn’t happened to me yet, but I’ll be working on them after the fact anyway.

“k2pi” also loves the Amod AGL3080, but uses RoboGEO as his software solution. A single user personal license is $39.95. (permalink)

Awhile ago, my friend told me that my passenger side brake light was out. (I drive a 2003 Toyota Corolla.) This should be a simple do-it-yourself task, right?

So, I bought a set of stop light bulbs at Kragen Auto Parts. (Cost: About $6) I asked the employee how to change it, but he said he couldn’t help me because people have been suing them for instances where they messed up. (Harsh.)

Next stop: Stop Brake Shops. Fortunately, one of the mechanics was nice enough to change it out for me, and to show me how to do it. Did I need any tools? Nope.

• Pop the trunk.
• Look at the backside of the tail light area - it’s wide open. Turn the affected light bulb socket to the left. It’ll take some force, but you won’t break it.
• Once it unlocks, you can pull the light bulb out.
• Push the new bulb in.
• Put the socket back into its place by pushing it in, then turning to the right. It’ll lock back into place.
• Test the brake light to make sure it works.

Disclaimer: Don’t hold me responsible for any damages you cause to your car. I just documented this process to help you.

Esther called me up a little while ago. She was lost somewhere in La Cañada Flintridge and needed help to find the rest of the way. With two pieces of information — where she was and the destination address — I easily gave her directions for the rest of her journey.

What rocks: Yahoo! Maps

I wrote a review of the service last year. Since then, Google Maps did add support for multiple destinations, as well as reverse destinations.

The feature of being able to drive to/from the center cross hair slays Google Maps! Why hasn’t Google implemented this feature? Pfft.

I mentioned earlier this week that my six-week-old AeroBed got a tear in one of its seams. See “Review: AeroBed Premier Classic (Queen).” Fortunately, it’s fixed! I’ll tell you how to do it in 48 hours!

Note: The following assumes you found the leak(s). This doesn’t require the repair patch.

1. Buy Marine Goop. Home Depot didn’t have Marine Goop, but All Purpose seemed to work fine for me. It costs about $3.
2. Get the cheapest piece of sandpaper. Borrow, if possible, because you won’t use it too long. I just bought a small reusable block. Oh well.
3. Roughen the area of the tear.
4. Apply a generous amount of the goop. I’d say 1 cm thick, and ensure the surface area covers a few centimeters wider than the tear.
5. Let it sit and cure for 48 hours.

Okay, I tricked you — it actually took a minute or two to apply the goop. I’m not sure how long this will hold up, but I’ll let you know. For now, it looks promising! Also, if I have to do this again, I’ve got a lot of goop left, it’s not even funny.

Source: DoItYourself.com Forums

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but how do you get what you want? Just ask! The worst someone can say is “no.” Well, they could add a terrible expletive, then verbally abuse you. Technically, it’s still “no” — an elaborate “no.”

Think about it this way: they could say “yes!”

Other than professional poker players and women, nobody can read your mind! You need to voice what you want.

Story

I have Custom Checking with Wells Fargo. Months ago, I wanted to try their Bill Pay service. It was free for a month or something, then $6.95 after that. If I had direct deposit, then it’d be free. I thought their system would automatically figure it out, but I was naive to think that. Bryan, you’re a moron!

Today, I finally took action and called to cancel Bill Pay. Fortunately, the banker told me that if I switched to Custom Management Checking:

• Bill Pay is free
• the account fee is waived if either of the following are true: direct deposit is setup for over $100/month, or I have a $1000 minimum daily balance

Without hesitation, I accepted the account changes. That’s awesome!

Since I’ve had direct deposit through work for awhile, I also asked if he could credit the Bill Pay fees from the last few months. I was expecting only one month, but he said he could credit the last three months. High five! Yes!

Like this? See other “Money” articles I’ve bookmarked at del.icio.us…

If you haven’t heard of RSS, or haven’t used Bloglines, Google Reader, Netvibes, or Newsgator, please watch this video: RSS in Plain English. It’ll explain how it’ll save you time and make your life much easier — in less than 4 minutes! (via Chris Pirillo, Twitter)

Click To Play

This is an update to the How-to article, “How to speed up podcasts for free with Audacity.”

In Audacity 1.3.2 (Beta), configuring the batch script is easier. The developers moved the location, though, so you might be lost if you recently updated to this version.

First, setup the chain: File > Edit Chains

In the left pane of the window that pops up, you’ll need to add a new chain. Title it “Speedup,” or whatever you like. With it selected, the right pane should have only one parameter: END.

Select that command, then at the bottom of the window, click Insert. Another window will pop up, and you’ll want to choose Change Tempo. Change the parameter to 25.000000, then click OK. (Later, you can increase the tempo if you’re comfortable.) Again, click Insert, select the ExportMP3 command, then click OK. Finally, OK out of the Edit Chains window.

Then, if you want to run the script, go to File > Apply Chain. Select the chain you just created, click Apply to Files, then browse to the folder where the podcasts are stored. Like I mentioned in the previous How-to, I copy the MP3s to the root podcast folder, so I’m not limited to one show (folder) at a time.

Conclusion

This’ll empower you to listen to podcasts, or any other supported audio files in a shorter amount of time, and you can convert multiple files at once. In addition to podcasts, I also speed up class lectures. 80-minute classes reduced to 64 minutes — awesome!

Update 4/18/2007: This post is outdated. Audacity 1.3.2 (Beta) changes the method a bit, which I describe here.

Over a month ago, Lifehacker linked to an article: “Speeding Up Podcasts and Audio Books“. Here are the two sentences that caught my eye:

It lets you play one minute and fifteen seconds of audio for every minute you listen. In other words, you get an extra 25% of content.

However:

It’s the feature that Apple introduced with the 4G iPods back a couple of years ago. The feature is the ability to speed up (or slow down) audio without changing the pitch (if you are familiar with variable speed tape recorders, you understand that simply speeding up the playback of something tends to also make the speaker sound like a chipmunk).

I have a 3G iPod, so I don’t have this feature. The article mentioned Amazing Slow Downer, but it’s not free. Fortunately, Matt commented about Audacity:

Audacity is great for this, at an unbeatable price ($0). [..] It is cross platform, open source (free), and [speeds] up audio excellently, [in addition to] being a general purpose audio editor. There was a beta of the next version last time I checked that allowed bulk conversion. Unfortunately no command-line. (Effect [menu] > Change Tempo is the command you want.)

So, if I want to speed up podcasts, I have to do some work. Except for the tempo increase, it won’t be automatic.

(more…)

I’m switching from Gmail to using Mozilla Thunderbird since I found out my webhost has IMAP installed. I don’t need all that space for email anyway. Here goes nothing:

1. In Gmail, “Enable POP for all mail (even mail that’s already been downloaded)”
2. When messages are accessed with POP, “archive Gmail’s copy“
3. Read “Why wasn’t all my mail downloaded?“
4. Configure Thunderbird for Gmail
5. Leave Thunderbird open to download all my email from Gmail’s servers
6. Setup Thunderbird for my server’s IMAP account
7. Create an archive folder on my IMAP account, so I have someplace to move the email I download
8. Set Gmail to forward email to my IMAP email account; disable POP email
9. Add a nice theme and some extensions, then enjoy!

After settling in, I’ve created some filters that’ll be moving messages to more distinct folders. I’m feeling comfortable now.

I don’t want to say why I’m doing this switch. There’s pros and cons to using a webmail app (like Gmail), IMAP, and POP. Fortunately, with my host, I have all three options. SquirrelMail isn’t great, but if I absolutely can’t use Thunderbird, it gets the job done until I get to one of my computers. Then when I connect, everything is just the way it’s supposed to be in my email account. In any case, if I’m happy, that’s all that matters, right?

Oh yeah, Gmail? It’s not goodbye - it’s more like, see ya later…

If you have a firewall/router, you’ll need to open up some ports to speed ZipTorrent downloads. The program refers to this page, but not all routers are alike. The image below is for a D-Link DI-614+: