Toposhare.org is about openness and sharing. Its about sharing adventure trips with others, but also about sharing knowledge of how to use the web technology for mapping and sharing GPS tracks. The code behind the web site is open source, but it has been differcult for others to reuse the code. Actual it has been impossible because the code has not been distributed. I’ve been thinking of how to make the code easy for others to use and have decided to fork out the core libraries to make them more general-purpose. The code can be reused in similar sites or in any site that deals with GPS tracks. If you use the code please drop a comment and tells us about your project. You can also join the toposhare.org team at sourceforge.net and help us develop the code base.

Check out the example site where the code is available. Enjoy!

Need a totally waterproof headphone set to go with your now totally waterproof MP3 player?

Here is your answer…  Although you might need to read Chinese to get all the details.

Via AliBabba

Here is a camera you will salivate on (and not destroy it)!  Olympus has announced a 10 MegaPixel camera that is almost indestructible.  A 3D accelerometer will allow you to change settings just by tapping on the case (sounds a little creepy).  The best part is the list price is supposed to be under $300.00

Via InfoSyncWorld .

For the record, I am not fond of MP3 players in the wilds.  It seems to destroy the stillness for me.  But for those of you that are more open to these types of things, here is a waterproof MP3 player.

Via GlobalSource .

So you really want to yammer on your cell phone while on the mountaineering trek?  Well, this new headset from Plantronics will make that possible.   This device give you everything you would expect from a headset with outdoor features such as waterproofness, shock resistance, long battery life, and wind noise suppression.  However, before you pull out the headset to make the call from the ski lift, lets have a conversation about etiquette.
Check out SlipperyBrick for more information.

Delorme has recently announced their Earthmate PN-20 GPS.  It is supposed to be better all around, but I am not sure I understand why.  It is supposed to be super duper rugged and it will support USGS 24k quads — that is impressive.

Via First Tracks.

A interesting discussion took place the other day at the “GPX discussion group”:http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/gpsxml/message/1804

It was about the trkseg tag in a GPX feed, which is used to split a track up in segments. The problem is that track segments are not supported by all GPX exporters, including the popular open source project “GPSbabel”:http://www.gpsbabel.org/. GPSbabel and some other exporters parse every track segment into a new track, which can result in literally hundreds of new disjoint tracks! This is intensional by GPSbabel. I’m happy to read that many posters in the group agree with me on that track segments are a reasonable construct in the GPS schema and they should be supported by GPX exporters.

The GPX parser and exporter behind TopoShare.org supports track segments.

Here is GPS for your mountain bike.  It clips on your handlebars and gives you all the features of a sport GPS while you ride.  The units include measurement for speed, cadence, heart-rate, altitude.  It looks like you can buy it from REI or Amazon when its available.
Via Garmin Blog

Its always a good idea to pack paper maps before going on an outdoor adventure and now TopoShare.org enables users to create high resolution paper maps with routes from the site. Click the Acrobat icon below the route map and the PDF generator screen appears. Here you can drag the map to the right position and change the scale and paper orientation. You can then select a base map. The base map is requested from the web service in high resolution and it can take a while to get (about 5-6 mb of data). When ready hit ‘Make pdf’ and shortly after the pdf is ready for download.

I’ve experienced that the browser return a blank page after clicking ‘Make PDF’. Just try to hit the reload button on your browser. I’ll try to fix this bug.

Before you complain about Big Brother tracking your every move with the new breed of GPS-enabled cell phones, consider the safety benefits. According to a story reported on the ABC-affiliate in Phoenix, a lost couple’s cell phone may have saved their lives after they got lost in the Sedona desert. The hikers made a call to 911 before activating the GPS in their phone. Rescuers were lead within 200 feet of their position — getting them out of the desert quickly. So, you might want to keep your cell phone with you on your next hike — as long as you are going to be within cell coverage.
From: ABC15.com