Hacking geotagged images and galleries

Last weekend, I spent some time learning about the GPS tags embedded in the pictures I take with my hacked G1. The specification is called EXIF and allows to record metadata about your JPG/TIFF images or RIFF WAV audio formats.

The overall idea was to tag the pictures so I could present them in a more visual way, like how Flickr does with its maps feature, but without having to use Flickr or Picasa. After some research, I only found an Android based application that would do the trick (for now).

Step 1: First of all, we need to have the pictures geotagged and we can do this operation using Geotag, a multi-platform free software developed in Java. Geotag allows you to load a directory with images and edit the GPS coordinates on a simple way (it uses Google Map). Once all tagged, we need to save them on a folder in the sdcard of the phone.

Step 2: Install GalleryMap for Android and select the directory with your geotagged images. The application has two modes in which it displays the pictures: gallery and map. The map mode uses Google Maps to display an icon where there is a picture to display.

Although I would like to have found a complete solution, preferably to run on a LAMP server, the Android platform will be available in a multitude of tablets during 2011 so we will experience the GalleryMap next year.

The other hack of the week has been the research of image galleries that could help you to visualize your albums online. After some research, I found a couple of galleries worth to use:

- Minishowcase is a free software project that uses PHP to dynamically generate an overview of your albums with thumbnails.

- Exploring the Codrops tutorials, I found a couple of amazing designs that I would definitely use to present some albums. First, the astonishing Thumbnails Navigation Gallery design has the downside that it is coded as a static web page. Another very good design is the FreshSliding Thumbnails Gallery, which is partially dynamic (reads from a directory and creates the album list). For both galleries, you need to manually create thumbnails which can be very time consuming (unless you use a script to resize and crop the images - personally I use GIMP with the batch process module). Finally, also in Codrops I found a gallery designed specifically for smartphones like iPhone or Android-based, Wonderwall Mobile Gallery, that also requires some extra work to generate the thumbnails.

Will keep you posted whenever I finish with my own examples!

Open source is not a dirty word anymore...

Neelie Kroes is European Commissioner for Digital Agenda and Vice-President of the European Commission. More information about her.

What motivate us?

Welcome to Android... i'm back online!

Y es que después de pensar que había convertido mi móvil HTC en un ladrillo, gracias a la comunidad cyanogenmod, lo he recuperado. Lo que no me esperaba recibir es el siguiente email:

Hello,

Your new Nexus One phone has many cool and useful features. Learn more by clicking on the links to watch brief YouTube videos directly on your phone:

• Customise your home screen with widgets and live wallpapers. Learn more
• Read, search, archive, label and write emails on the go. Learn more
• Watch videos or upload your own videos directly to YouTube. Learn more
• Get turn by turn directions with satellite and street views of your route. Learn more
• Speak and have the phone type for you with voice input. Learn more
• Take pictures with your 5mp camera with flash, and view them in your 3D Media Gallery. Learn more
• Get cool applications and games on Android Market. Learn more
• Sync your contacts, Facebook and email accounts with QuickContact. Learn more

Enjoy!
The Android Team at Google

Y es que aunque no tengo el Nexus One, la ROM instalada es común con la del Nexus One!

El fin del servicio Storytlr.com

La imagen me ha parecido muy simpática: www.Storytlr.com terminó de dar servicio a sus usuarios el 1 de Mayo de 2010 y a partir de entonces, esta es la imagen que aparece cuando se intenta visualizar una de sus páginas.

Y como dicen sus creadores, "y vivieron felices y comieron perdices como software libre...". Ahora, la plataforma está liberada y disponible en http://www.storytlr.org/, a cargo de la comunidad y con larga vida por delante!

Make no little plans

Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will no be realized.

Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency.

Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your whatchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big.

Daniel Burnham, Chicago architect. 1846-1912.

Start over and over again...

On imagine jamais très bien
Qu'une histoire puisse finir si mal
Quand elle a commence si bien

On imagine pourtant très bien
Voir un jour les raisons d'aimer
Perdues quelque part dans le temps
Mille tristesses découlent de l'instant

Alors, qui sait ce qui nous passe en tête
Peut être
Finissons nous par nous lasser

Si seulement nous avions le courage des oiseaux
Qui chantent dans le vent glace

Tourne ton dos contre mon dos
Que vois tu je ne te vois plus
Si c'est ainsi qu'on continue
Je ne donne pas cher de nos peaux

Parfois, qui sais ce qui nous passe en tête
Peut être finissons nous par nous lasser

Si seulement nous avions le courage des oiseaux
Qui chantent dans le vent glace

Si seulement nous avions le courage des oiseaux
Qui chantent dans le vent glace

Le courage des oiseaux, Dominique A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgeI6G4CLMk

Cloud computing, Johan Neuts

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Cloud computing, Johan Neuts

View more presentations from elgaelo.

What you should do to get a database or programmer job in Kampala or Nairobi or the Open Source Community paradigm

When you are able to download, install, experiment and share your findings back with the community, you are promoting collaboration and social innovation. Open source communities are able to do so through self-motivated and self-interested people leaded by a common passion: technology.

I was not surprised at all when Michael Trucano, a senior ICT & Education specialist at the World Bank, explained the outcomes of a survey done in Nairobi with HR managers looking for diverse IT profesionals as database administrators, programmers or graphical designers. The method for finding the most suitable candidate was going through their curriculums and compare their grades and working experience together with specific technical skills required for the job description. However, in order to take a decision in the eventual situation of a rather similar profile, those managers would look at the personal involvement in open source communities and projects.

In a similar case, in Kampala, the Director of an IT company told me that the critical questions to identify employees with great potential were the kind of websites and blogs he or she was interested about.

Why all this interest on open source communities and personal blog interests? Welll, mainly because the added value of an individual is, needless to say, the real interests and motivations he or she has about technology and how those interests will work as incentives when hired.

The open source communites around the world are decentralized, self-motivated and self-incentivated communities which main aim is to self-explore and learn without being obliged to do so. This paradigm offers to their employers the ability to invest on those individuals in a way that others could not do, only because they don't believe how long they will stay in the company before leaving to a better paid job.

Money is not the only thing after all. Working in a learning environment, with managers that understand your interests and cope with some of your learning expectations is a much better rewarding future that a well-paid job with no motivation after 6pm. Open source communities are, in some way, the place where real learning is done through exchange of opinions, technology experimentation, feedback on tips and tricks and much more, on a voluntary basis and self-leaded.

As for non-profit organizations or foundations like the one I'm working for (IICD), being a sponsor of open source communities can have multiple effects such as promoting innovation in the solution finding process (through an active and motivated community) or filling a learning gap providing another source of inspiration for thousands of graduate students that find themselves unemployed and without experience on the ICT sector after completing their degree.

Campaña publicitaria

Estupendo anuncio británico que sin duda veréis al menos un par de veces. Los ciclistas lo agradecerán.

Gracias Dani, vía La Mujer de Marte.