Exploring the Backroads of BC

Exploring the Backroads of BC guidebooks

Find your way outdoors to the beautiful British Columbia backcountry with Exploring the Backroads of BC guidebooks. These documented trips along scenic BC Forest Service, logging and mining roads makes BC Backroad travel easy for everyone, with or without a 4×4. More than half the roads in these guides can be travelled by your average family car or minivan! Unlike paper maps or other mapbooks, these ebook guides actually show you which roads are safe for your vehicle to travel on. No other guidebooks shows as much detailed information. These are the definitive guides to back country travel along BC Forest Service and mining roads. Exploring the Backroads of BC guides are designed to be easily viewed on your computer screen or printed on any printer using the free Adobe Reader software. Download the samples to view what’s inside these feature packed guides.

Check out the guidebooks here.

Great websites on digital photography

Check these great websites.

Composition tips and tricks.
http://www.livingroom.org.au/photolog/tips/digital_photography_composition_tips.php

Short Course website. Just about everything you needed to know about digital photography. http://www.shortcourses.com/using/

Buyers and comparisons guide.
The best independent review site on the web. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/

GPS Information for beginners – start here

Not sure of what type of GPS is best for you? Just about everything you ever wanted to know about GPS you’ll find here. http://gpsinformation.net/

GPS Guide for beginners http://www.garmin.com/aboutGPS/

All about GPS – a tutorial http://www.trimble.com/gps/

Useful GPS Information http://www.maps-gps-info.com/gp.html

Independent PDA/Pocket PC review site

If you want truly independent PDA and Pocket PC reviews and product comparisons then this is the site for you. Check out http://www.davespda.com/ Side by side comparisons, buyers guide and overall great information.

How to get GPS waypoints and trackfiles into Google Earth

Okay, so now you’ve got some waypoints and trackfiles and want to view them in Google Earth Free Edition but you’re not sure how to get them in there.

If you already own mapping software of any kind make sure you’ve got the latest version and see if it’s got an export to Google Earth feature. Most mapping software you have to pay for either has this feature or if they want to stay competitive they’ll soon be coming out with it.

Mapping software such as Touratech QV 4 or OziExplorer version 3.95 4j or higher has this feature built in. You’ll first need to load some kind of map before you’ll be able to load your waypoints or track files into them. Once you’ve got your waypoints or track files loaded select the export to Google Earth feature and hopefully Google Earth will awaken and load the files to the Temporary Places section. You can put these files into your permanent My Places section by selecting the top folder in the Temporary Places section and dragging it into My Places.

If you don’t own mapping software don’t despair as there are a number of free packages out their. Our favorite is GPS Trackmaker, you can download the free version at www.gpstm.com.

Once you’ve installed and launched the program you can load your gps data files into the main window. Take a few minutes to go through the Help menu to figure out how to do this, it’s quite simple. Your waypoints or track files show in the main window and you select the ones to upload to Google Earth. Once selected choose the Export to Google Earth function and they will load into the Temporary Places area.

There you have it! Enjoy!

Google Earth – What’s with all the hype?

Just download it.

Probably the single most incredibly useful mapping tool available. There is no other program on the market that is free, shows as much detail and allows you to import GPS data and do a virtual fly-through from that data. Be prepared to spend hours playing.

Upgrade to Plus version required to upload waypoints and tracks fdirectly from supported GPS units. Mac and PC versions available. http://earth.google.com/

Mapping Software Suggestions

If you’re looking into buying mapping software then here are my picks.

Touratech QV – a full featured mapping package with export to Google Earth feature. More information at http://www.geopath.ca/touratechqv.html

OziExplorer – easy to use, one of the most popular mapping software offerings but not as feature rich as Touratech QV. The latest version also supports export to Google Earth. More information at http://www.oziexplorer.com

For the Mac users check out MacGPS Pro, really your only option. http://www.macgpspro.com/

Mac vs PC, the age old fight is over

I’m a Mac user, not an admission of guilt but proud of it. Over the past 15 years I have been subjected to much abuse by the PC community and depending on the subject, rightly so. I’m not going to rant about this here as I also use PCs for business and pleasure depending on what software I require.

With the recent advent of the Intel based Mac that allows the Mac OS to boot as well as Windows, the decision on which type of computer to purchase these days has become a no-brainer.

The Mac is and always has been a better computer for a lot of things but that’s not the reason for this post. If you’re looking at a new computer these days I urge you to have a look at the latest offerings from Apple.

If you’ve never owned a Mac then you’ll be very surprised. The Mac is simply built better than most PCs and you’ll give yourself the option to ease into the Mac environment on your terms.

Remember the giants of the past like IBM and Xerox? They’re not so giant anymore and I predict Microsoft will one day fall victim to itself the same way.