At the beginning of 2015, I tried selling statewide BirdsEye(TM)-format maps on MicroSD cards. Because Garmin locks your GPS’s firmware, you need to install an unlocked copy in order get maps from anywhere other than their paid BirdsEye subscription service. A naked cash grab if there ever was one; Garmin would apparently prefer to milk its […]
The USGS has been adding portions of Alaska to the National Elevation Dataset (NED), and although coverage isn’t anywhere near complete, I finally decided it was time to pull the trigger on an initial buildout of elevation data for Alaska. current coverage footprint The buildout includes: Normal and enhanced relief 40′ contours Elevation data DEM […]
Answering emails has become a growing part of my daily routine, and I’ve been looking for ways to cut back. A support forum felt like the obvious answer, but I didn’t want to force people to signup for forum accounts, and it would be nice if private account issues could be handled in the same […]
One of the advantages of shifting to a paid, commercial model is that it gives you cash to spend on things. In one my first expenditures beyond CalTopo’s regular operating costs, I’ve acquired a copy of nztopomaps.com’s tile set, expanding scanned topo coverage to New Zealand. As with coverage for Canada, none of the elevation […]
While the freehand drawing tool helps, it’s never been easy to plan long-distance trail hikes using CalTopo. The only two ways to get realistic mileage estimates were to painstakingly trace over the map, or import someone else’s GPS tracks. By piggybacking on the MapBuilder database, CalTopo now has an auto-routing feature. There are still a […]
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