Seems we're now all called either Offline or Online. I notified MAGIX.info via the Feedback link.
Or has that always been the case? BTW, how exactly are those terms defined?
Happy New Year!
You are presently Online. This has always been indicated below your Avatar. Your name is to the right at the top of the thread. Online means that you are logged in.
We're headed out snowshoeing on the golf course at the end of the street. We received a lot of snow a couple of days ago - about 40 cm.
I have a couple of questions for you:
1. What do you use Macro Express Pro for mostly? I almost bought it, but couldn't figure what to use it for. I see that you use PSP scripting language a lot.
2. How do you get the vertical graph of your walks? I just logged our snowshoe hike from Christmas day and we seem to have ended up at a much lower altitude than when we started. Something is wrong with the GPS program or the cell phone.
All the best!
Hi John,
Happy New Year to you too from a wet and windy West Sussex.
What prompted my odd question was getting a reply recently addressed to me as 'Online'! Which seemed a natural mistake. Then I looked at a few pages of the site and found that I was apparently the only user 'online'. Can that really be true? The only user currently logged on? Hang on, I'll check again. OK, I've just browsed 100 posts in Q& A and 100 in this Forum and as usual I'm the only one 'Online'.
Anyway, I don't recall ever checking to see if a user is online or offline until now. And I'd personally rather see my name underneath the avatar, as in just about all other forums.
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Macro Express Pro would be close to the first application I'd reinstall on changing PC, so it would take a very long (OT) post to describe my countless uses of it. From very simple text string entries to complex tasks that take minutes to perform. Taking just one example I mentioned recently of my thousand or so macros: with the first object in track 1 of MEP 2014's slideshow wizard output selected, it changes all of their durations to 80% of the originals.
Rather like PSP scripting, but running across all applications and the desktop, not just within PSP.
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How do you get the vertical graph of your walks?
Are you using a particular application to plot your GPS recordings? There are many, but I mainly use one of three: GPS Utility (GPSU), Memory Map, and Google Earth.
Here are a few examples:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/GPS-iPad-MM-GPSprofile.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/MM-ElevProfileExample.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/Day03-Plan%2812.1%29ElevProfile-2.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/Day3-Elev-GE-3framed-2.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/20140722PillowMound-Elev-GPSU-1-2.jpg
The reason for that snowshoe hike altitude discrepancy is almost certainly a GPS error. For a start, satellite z coordinate measurement is inherently much poorer than x and y. But in particular in my experience the first trackpoint record is often grossly wrong for some obscure reason. When I return from a circular walk I first view it in Mem-Map, export it to the standard GPX format (from Mem-Map's proprietary MMO file) and then check it in GPSU. Even before looking at the trackpoint data it will be obvious if the gross ascent is significantly different to the gross descent. (Gross = Cumulative.) And then almost always I'll have to delete the first record because its altitude differs by a 100 m or whatever from the second record. Both taken within a couple of minutes, typically while booting up by the car.
I should add that I'm using my ageing HTC Touch Pro 2 for GPS recording. A more recent unit, and particularly a dedicated GPS unit, might well not have this 'first record' problem. So you might need to consider other causes. Was the GPS receiving a signal from the very start, for instance? Did you lose signal in woods or valleys? Etc. Or perhaps you should have left the hip flask in your pocket and wouldn't then have driven off from a different finishing location in someone else's car?
Better continue by email if you need more info. Or John EB will have to interrupt his skiing to chide us for excessive OT discussion.
Hi
. . . . Or John EB will have to interrupt his skiing to chide us for excessive OT discussion. . . . .
To chide or not to chide that is the question.
Whether tis nobler to let the topic run or suffer
The slings and arrows of OT discussion
Or take actions against the members
And by opposing them risk the wrath of others
No more, an OT subject, we say to end
The typing and the thousands of words
That OT is to run to. Tis a subject
To be discussed, or end here now
Depending on the topic matter
For if if helps another member
Then it may remain here for all to see.
Happy New Year to all
John EB
"Happy New Year to all"
You too John.
P.S: What are they putting in the mulled wine where you are? And should we call you 'John E Bard' from now on?
Hi Terry
I am actually at home at present - having got back from Germany on Monday, going to Austria & Italy next week.
@John CB - snow is forecast ready for when we arrive.
. . . . What are they putting in the mulled wine where you are? And should we call you 'John E Bard' from now on? . . . .
We make our own Feuerzangenbowle as shown here www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BBXu_62E1w
I appear to have a talent for making up songs and verse 'on the fly', often with very hilarious results and occassional ' effects'.
Cheers / Prost / Zum Wohl
John EB
Hi Terry and John,
I was going to start a new thread for my questions, but got lazy, as my wife was trying to hurry me out the door. The results of my OT were wonderful! Thank you, John, for the poem and the Feuerzangenbowle, which I will definitely have to try. The Feuerzangenbowle reminds me of the rum drink that a friend would make after coming back from XC skiing. Terry, thank you for the replies and for reminding me to get the flask out for the next outing, or, maybe I should get a small cask for Bernadette to carry.
Now to tie everything together into the topic.For the snowshoeing, I carried the camera and my cell phone. The GPS route program that I use on the cell phone (BB Z10) is called Retrace. When we left the chalet, I was Online in this forum, but Offline when I returned. So as you noted, Terry, maybe I lost the signal and went Offline as a result and also ended up with some sour coordinates on the GPS. Still, even if I lose the cell phone signal and go Offline, the GPS should still work.
On my cell phone, I have to log in manually to magix.info for some reason, including inputting my email address. My BB Playbook logs me in automatically and keeps me logged in unless I quit the browser or lose the WiFi connection. On my desktop, I also have to log in semi-manually by puttting in the first letter of my email address which causes a popdown to appear for me to select. Then I have to select it and do OK. From what you say about macros, I could have a macro that would automate getting me Online quickly. Whew! There you have it, Online/Offline are linked to GPS and macros and poems, the Feuerzangenbowle and hip flask are bonuses.
Terry, you mentioned sending a message using Feedback. I had to look around for how you did this as I had not noticed 'Feedback" in the top menu. Nor did I notice that right beside it is the word "Members." I clicked on it and found that there is a Hall of Fame, a total of 222,178 members and climbing, and a listing of those who are Online (45) . The latter includes all languages. I was always looking on the Home page for information as to who was Online, and didn't find it. Today, the home page has an "Expert" listed who has not been Online since 2009, and he had only joined a month before that. Maybe Magix should do something better with the Members area on the Home page.
@John EB, Germany, Austria and Italy, with snow! Make sure to come Online once in a while to make us envious with some pics/videos. Once we have recovered from our 2 hours of skiing in powder at Mont Grand-Fonds last week, Nathalie and I will have to take a trip to the slopes an hour or so away. My body is starting to remind me of my age, my brain thinks otherwise. Enjoy your trip!
@Terry, I will take a look at the details of my z-points. The x and y points also go out of whack as we went out and came back on the same track but the return GPS points are off. I did a similar trek a couple of days before and the return points were spot on. As for the z-points, the elevation line in Retrace is way out but looks fine in Google Earth Pro. Strange. I'm just about to try out the route in Vasco da Gama.