This is so cool! A Google-powered pedometer (or, in my case, a bike-o-meter). I can’t believe Joseph hasn’t blogged this already, since he’s the one who told me about this.
Once you’ve arrived at the pedometer site, choose your country (if outside the US), state, and type in your city. As on the original Google Map site you can scroll around the map and zoom in/out to focus on the area that you’ll be riding (walking, running, whatever). The app can not only save a route that you’ve mapped, it can also create a TinyURL at the same time. I used this to map the route I ride between work and home.
This app is great, but the site is made even better by the “Acknowledgements and references” section. (Scroll down below the map, the section is on the left side with all the other text.) The links to all the enabling technologies and resources are awesome!
The only problem I’ve seen so far is printing. Clicking the “Print map” link is supposed to reformat the map for printing, but on my browser it opens up the print dialog. I have to cancel the print dialog to view the reformatted map. I’m using Firefox 1.0.1 on a PowerBook G4 running Mac OS X Panther v10.3.9. It’s an easy enough workaround, and until I get around to updating Firefox I’m not going to report this as a bug.
Most (hopefully all) of the organizers of various Sacramento gaming groups, websites, et cetera, will be getting together for an organizational meeting on Sunday, the 11th at 5:30 PM. Our preferred meeting place, Fox & Goose, is closed on Sunday evening, so we’re trying to come up with a suitable “stand-in” venue. I’ll update and/or comment on this post when we settle on a meeting place.
FYI, this is a meeting, not a game event!
Organizers of gaming events or groups in the Sacramento area are invited to attend. Whether you host game nights at home, run a “real” game club, manage a gaming website, or are one of the Meetup co-organizers, we’d like to all get together to coordinate our efforts.
Topics of discussion: (”Agenda” sounds so formal…)
- ConQuest convention in Sacramento 2006
- Membership, i.e. Chicago vs Sacramento
- Calendar, scheduling–are we having “too many” events?
- Locations–can we schedule/post events outside Sacramento, e.g. Elk Grove, Davis, Roseville, etc?
- Interlinking Sacramento-area gaming websites
- Promoting the hobby/our groups–game store flyers, word of mouth, news coverage?
- New members–some prefer more structured introduction, some just like to dive in. We’re good at the latter, need to improve for the former.
- Recurring meetup events–designating “hosts” or who’s responsible for posting the event, collecting feedback, etc.
- Meetup “kitty”–the site is no longer free. I don’t mind paying for it for the time being, but I’d like to start collecting change from people willing to chip in. I guess this means treasury reporting.
- Other topics upon request, leave a comment on this entry.
- Gaming, if there’s time and inclination.
About three weeks ago, I got together with a few other Harry Potter fans to discuss the story. One of the topics that came up was the release date for the final book. Somebody (don’t remember who, sorry) said that they heard it would be published in 2007. This lead to speculation about the actual release date, which we predict will be July 7, 2007. This will be a Saturday (Friday night/Saturday morning at midnight), just like the last few books. Besides, since 7 is the most powerful magical number, how could the 7th book possibly be released on any other date than 7/7/7 (2007-07-07)?
