Automatically add geonames.org tags to Gallery

As always, an imminent holiday has inspired me to update the entire system behind geotagging my photos.  Likewise, needing to plan said holiday has given me the opportunity to procrastinate and do something else instead.

Wishlist

• A repository I can drop files created by the Genie BGT-31 GPS tracker.
• Automatically convert the tracks into GPX format.
• Automatically stamp any photos within Blakepics with their longitude / latitude values into the EXIF information.
• Use that EXIF information to populate the database for the Gallery2 maps module.
• Use geonames to get some basic tags, and automatically add those to the tags database.

I can happily report all of the above is happily running on a schedule on the Blakepics server.   Whilst I realise a lot of these options aren’t particularly available on a shared hosting server, I’m going to talk about them anyway.

A small disclaimer

Be under no illusion, a lot of these scripts are hacked together with no thought given to scalability, stability, or re-use.  They’d be a lot better off as a proper Gallery2 module to be honest - and hopefully someone will beat me to it in making that a reality.  However, for the time being - this is all provided as-is

NMEA repository

The repository is quite simple with an SFTP server running (sshd for example), and FileZilla on the client

Convert the tracks to GPX

1. Install the rather excellent gpsbabel.
   yum install gpsbabel
2. Run this convert-to-gpx.pl.txt perl script to combine all your nmea tracks to create a single gpx file.

Stamp the photos

1. Get the gpsPhoto perl script.  You might find you need to install some perl modules:
   perl -eshell -MCPAN
install modulename
2. Use this geocode-photos.pl.txt script to find any matching photos from your Gallery, and tag them.  Note that I limit them to only photos I’ve uploaded myself, as I don’t want to go messing around with other peoples (and they were probably not at the same location anyway)

Fill the Gallery2 maps module with the EXIF data

There’s a maintenance task to use the EXIF data to power the maps module of Gallery2, so using Roel Broersma’s excellent script to run the maintenance tasks, these can be scheduled with the extra line:

wget --quiet --output-document=/dev/null --cookies=on --load-cookies $TMP_PATH/myg2cookies "$G2_URL/main.php?g2_controller=core.AdminMaintenance&g2_form%5Baction%5D%5BrunTask%5D=1&g2_taskId=PopulateGPSEXIFInfos&g2_authToken=$AUTHTOKEN"

Give some meaning to your location data with geonames

Geonames provides a reverse-lookup to get some more human readable descriptions of your photos.  So I use this to put in the country, region and town data into my Gallery.  You can go a bit further and get details of nearby landmarks from Wikipedia to add if you like, but i don’t find it too useful for my purposes.

1. You’ll need some more perl modules
   perl -eshell -MCPAN
install Image::ExifTool;
install Image::ExifTool::Location;
install Geo::GeoNames;
install Data::Dumper;
2. Get my write-geoname-tags.pl.txt perl script, which is actually a combination of all the previous scripts.  This will query the web service, and update your tags.

It all sounds very complicated…

Well, yes.  My aim isn’t to create the easiest system to set-up, it’s to create the easiest system to use.  Uploading a single NMEA track list now causes all of the above to happen automatically.  That said, I recognise that it’s not for the faint-hearted.

So why not try one of these easier solutions:

• GPS Babel GUI (Windows / Linux command-line tools available)
• GPicSync (Linux / Windows)
• GPS Correlate (Linux only)
• Flickr (all)

What next?

Add all of these scripts mentioned above to a cron task, and forget all about it.  You can probably combine the whole lot into a single job (I wanted to keep them separate, so some could be run nightly, and others weekly or monthly).

Hopefully this is the humble beginnings of a more efficient and elegant solution.  For now I’m at least getting a lot more data into and out of my photos

Do let me know if you make any improvements, or have any ideas for viable new features - I’d be interested to hear from you.

But in the past two years, it’s also caused me to create and use some really really complicated geotagging techniques, frustration over forgetting what the flashing lights mean in Krakow, and aided and abetted in destroying one man’s Internet business in Split, even if just for a day.

Even the new Trackstick II’s still only boast a 1MB block of memory for storing tracks on, and I still need their proprietary drivers that caused me to destroy the book store/Internet Cafe in Split.  So for my next trip to Vietnam, I’ve bought the Genie BGT-31.  Granted, it’s almost twice the size of the Trackstick but contains a USB-chargeable battery which means no more carrying around stacks of AAA batteries and separate charger.

The built-in memory will store up to 20,000 records - but more importantly, supports SD cards, increases the measly 1MB into 1GB (thanks to the numerous cards lying around my flat and down the side of sofas).  These can taken out very quickly and dropped into the EEE where gpsbabel will convert the flat NMEA text format to whatever you might need … GPX, for example.

It also has a screen, so I no longer need to repeat the mantra constantly to myself in my head (or aloud) - “green for good, red for bad”.  Not to mention keep my blog posts updated with some more positioning (well, possibly).

So far the first impressions are good - and it will certainly tide me over until we can just tag the photos using our government-issue ID card’s weekly e-statements.

Eee Ubuntu

Since installing Ubuntu on the Eee, I had no doubt it was going to replace the Xandros install full-time.  It has a lot more features for my inner geek and better support for the applications that only I can find essential.

It also takes a hell of a lot longer to boot up.

But that’s okay, these new Atom processors don’t take up a lot of battery life when they’re in standby… If I were a real reporter, I’d test that theory.  But since I’m blogging, so I’ll throw out any kinds of lies that I like - so long as I’m upfront and honest about it.

So far so good, except Resume doesn’t work on Ubuntu Eee, either.

Great.

So I followed the steps on the usual eee user wiki about suspend/resume.  And that didn’t work either.

What I did find, is that you can actually resume from the never-ending sleep of the Ubuntu if you run the command:

sudo /etc/acpi/sleep.sh force

Furthermore, you can replace the pm-suspend command with the same - and your shiny new Ubuntu Eee will wake up when you ask it.  Rather than whining about it being too early and throwing the covers over its head.
#Make a backup, just in case.
sudo cp /usr/sbin/pm-suspend /usr/sbin/pm-suspend.bak
sudo echo "/etc/acpi/sleep.sh force" >/usr/sbin/pm-suspend


And that will let you continue to use the lid or the shut-down screen for all your eee suspension needs.  Hopefully I can do something about that initial boot-time, next.

'i twitter from my fridge' ... Still waiting...

Two months ago, I had no use for Twitter.  Now it seems it’s everywhere, on everything and no device can survive without that talkative little bird.  So I thought I’d gather together all the different applications I’ve managed to dig out and install so far.

1. TwitterFeed - Update Twitter automatically from this blog - both the posts and currently reading RSS feeds.
2. Twit4Live (MSN Live Messenger Plus!) - Update your status from within any messenger chat window with /twitter <tweet>.
3. rss2psm Nutz (MSN Live Messenger Plus!) - A slightly modified version of this script updates my MSN Personal Message whenever I post to Twitter.
4. Twitula (Windows Mobile enabled iPAQ 4150)
5. Shozu (Symbian Nokia N95)
6. Twitux (GNOME Linux / Ebuntu Eee PC 701)
7. TwitterFox (Firefox) - Update and view status from within the browser.
8. RSS2IMAP - My RSS feed reader of choice, read the Twitter RSS and convert into emails, for viewing in Thunderbird.
9. Facebook Twitter - Updates my Facebook status whenever I post to twitter (from anywhere).
10. BeTwittered (iGoogle)

And because of all of this, I never need to visit twitter.com any more.  That’s progress

Wordpress have full instructions for setting up your blog with SVN.  I’d recommend sticking to the ‘Tracking Stable Version’ section and controlling your upgrades rather than checking out the trunk and risking an unstable install.  This basically comes down to a single command to be run within your wwwroot.

svn co http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/tags/2.6.2 .

When a new version is released, you can switch to that with:

svn sw http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/tags/2.6.3

What they don’t mention, is you can do exactly the same with your plugins using the repository here…

• http://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/

For example, find the plugin you want, and checkout to your plugin folder:

svn co http://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/share-this/tags/2.3/ share-this

As before, you can switch to new releases (make sure you’re in that plugin directory first) with:

svn sw http://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/share-this/tags/2.3/

And should you forget the URL you’ve got it from (like when you see there’s an upgrade available, running ’svn status’ in that directory should help you out.

Once you get the hang of it, it really saves so much more time than that slow download, unzip, copy process you’re probably all used to, and you stand a much better chance at maintaining your own modifications without rewriting them all the time

• Eee PC 701
• Nokia N95
• Bluetooth dongle
• Ubuntu Eee installed on the 701 (not Xandros - although check out these scripts if you don’t want to change)
• T-Mobile UK contract with included data plan (preferably).  And Internet already working on the phone.

You’re going to be setting up your connection though pppd, and all of these instructions are based on instructions that I’m going to steal, slightly change and probably skip parts to suit my purposes (and hopefully yours) perfectly.

If your set-up doesn’t match exactly, perhaps you can make use of both pages and work out where things should change.  Or lovingly rip these instructions off, as I did - to make your own.

Setup your bluetooth dongle
First off, you’re going to need an apt repository that has the bluez-utils packages in. So open up a terminal
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
and add the line
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian etch main

Then you can install the package.

apt-update
apt-get install bluez-utils
/etc/init.d/bluetooth restart
lsusb | grep -i bluetooth
(should show the bluetooth device)
hcitool dev
(also lists bluetooth devices)


Setup networking

You can grab my gprs-settings which should be put into /etc/ppp/peers directory, and untarred.
tar -xvf gprs-settings.tar

Pair the phone

First, get the bluetooth ID of the N95
hcitool scan
Then pair your Eee with your phone, you have to do this from the N95.
Bluetooth -> right arrow (Paired devices) - Options
New paired devices (search)
Choose your eee and then type the pairing keys (anything of your choosing

Bind bluetooth to an rfcomm device

We use “rfcomm” to bind the bluetooth connection to a device. So first, find out the channel the phones bluetooth dial up networking system is on. You can do this with sdptool (Service Discovery Protocol tool):
sdptool search dun
Service Name: Dial-Up Networking
Service RecHandle: 0x1001e
Service Class ID List:
"Dialup Networking" (0x1103)
Protocol Descriptor List:
"L2CAP" (0x0100)
"RFCOMM" (0x0003)
Channel: 2
Language Base Attr List:
code_ISO639: 0×454e
encoding: 0×6a
base_offset: 0×100
Profile Descriptor List:
“Dialup Networking” (0×1103)
Version: 0×0100

Note the “Channel: 2″ which show which channel to bind.

Then to bind the channel (in this case #2) to one of the rfcomm devices (for example, rfcomm0):
rfcomm bind 0 11:22:BE:EF:44:33 2
You can see the binding with:
rfcomm
rfcomm0: 11:22:BE:EF:44:33 channel 2 clean
You might find you need to reset the bind and restart it every now and then (especially failed connection attempts)
rfcomm release 0
rfcomm bind 0 11:22:BE:EF:44:33 2
You can edit the settings in “/etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf,” set bind to “yes” and give the device and channel for rfcomm0. Then you can put these commands into /etc/init.d/bluetooth and it will automatically bind and release the rfcomm device:
# At the end of the "start)" section
rfcomm bind all
# At the beginning of the "stop)" section
rfcomm release all
Start pppd to connect.
Start up pppd.  Command line first, but because we’ve called it ppp0, you will later be able to do this via the normal ubuntu eee networking menu in the menu bar.
% pppd call ppp0
You should now have a ppp0 interface in your ‘ifconfig’ output that is up and running. The output should look something like this:
# pppd call ppp0
Press CTRL-C to close the connection at any stage!
defining PDP context...
rAT
OK
ATH
OK
ATE1
OK
AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","general.t-mobile.uk","",0,0
OK
waiting for connect...
ATD*99#
CONNECT
Connected.
If the following ppp negotiations fail,
try restarting the phone.
Serial connection established.
using channel 1
Using interface ppp0
Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/rfcomm0

You can hit control-c on the pppd process and it will shut down the connection, then you can release the rfcomm binding.

So… as I was saying… It’s not the easiest thing in the world to get going, but once you’ve got the hang of it, and set it up once you’ll have a connection everywhere you go.

Eee PC compared to a John Grisham paperback, and full size laptop

I recently bought myself an Asus Eee 701 4G Surf from Expansys for the bargain price of 169.33 including delivery.  If you don’t know about these tiny laptops, they’re low-spec, cheap machines often times running a Debian-based Linux installation called Xandros, rather than Windows (although XP versions are also available in the higher spec versions).  Its key specs are a 7-inch screen, 512MB of RAM (upgradeable to 2GB), built-in WiFi and hard wired ethernet ports, 4GB solid-state drive, weighing only 922g, and really really small.

For those of you that just about nodded off to sleep - it’s really light, really small (for a feature-packed laptop, I mean), and lets you use word processing, spreadsheets, browse the Internet, read emails, blogging, instant messenger, Skype and, well - just about everything you’d normally do on your laptop really.  Except… did I mention it’s really portable?

I’m not totally sure where it fits into my technology arsenal yet.  It’s certainly not a desktop replacement, and it might even be best described as a second-laptop (the first of which, I hasten to add, spends way more time charging than it ever does getting used).  But the Eee PC is certainly a lot easier to carry around, and more likely to be dropped into my rucksuck as an afterthought since it takes up so little space.

It’s also been described as “something to play with” and the Eee fits into this category just as well as it would as a solid dependable netbook (if you’d rather leave the endless tinkering alone).  Perhaps it’s because the device is so cheap, or easy to reinstall the base system with all your essential apps in tact (take that Microsoft) - but even if you’re just looking for an alternative to Windows, the Eee might just be a good place to start.

So, expect more posts about the Eee shortly - the usual technical-guides are going to help me rebuild the system if I do manage to break it - as well as give me an excuse for something to write about

Yellow Superlambanana in a cage

As you might have guessed, I”m a big fan of large, public displays of art. It can be a small piece of graffiti on the wall that makes me chuckle, or it can be street theatre involving a 40ft tall mechanical spider. I try not to ask for much. So this weekend in Liverpool has brought three of them all along at once, and I”ve loved it all.

Super Lamb Bananas. Lots of people have heard the name by now. It was originally a huge 17ft tall sculpture by a Japanese artist named Taro Chiezo. As with a lot of great pieces of art it was originally met with a resounding “huh?” by the local population of Liverpool. However, when art lovers and travellers from all over the UK to visit, they all went “huh?” too. So it”s no great surprise that the 2008 City of Culture created 125 two-metre high versions and put them all over the city.

Everyone is still going “huh?”, but the persistence is making everyone grow to love these little genetically modified beings. Liverpool has painted its spirit onto every single one of the unique animals, and it now sits firmly alongside the Liver bird as a modern-day symbol of the city. And now, the 8th-9th September sees a huge amount of them on display at the front of St. George”s Hall, before they”re auctioned off for charity on Wednesday. The original experience was like the pigs I”ve talked about in Bath, but Liverpool did really beat them to it. And they used genetically modified animals (originally to highlight the dangers of GM crops). You can almost sing along to “Cities just wanna have fun” (to the tune of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun) as you parade madly through the distorted flock. And you probably wouldn”t get any funny looks.

Another Place, Crosby Beach

Another Place is much more serene, slightly disturbing and intense. I had no idea it was near Liverpool, but a helpful lady on the train on the way in had mentioned it as a place that would be great to go and see if I could find a bus. It”s 20 minutes from Liverpool Central on the Northern Line to Crosby, or Waterloo. Both an easy 10-minute walk from the beach that stretches for 2 miles, and is full of 100 statues of Anthony Gormley, staring out to sea.

I”m a big fan of Anthony Gormley, and this piece is reminiscent of Event Horizon where 31 statues were placed on rooftops around London. Designed to symbolise the relationship that man has with nature, Crosby beach is such a perfect location, with signs of industry to one side, wind farms in the distance, and a long sandy (often muddy) beach meeting the sea at the horizon. So perfect, that when it came to November 2006 when the exhibit was to be moved to New York, it stayed in what will hopefully a permanent home to these 100 figures.

During particularly high tides all 100 figures are totally submerged, swallowed by the sea to return the next day, slightly greener, a little more worn, but still standing. A lot could be said for this as a metaphor… But having already fallen in love with a spider, genetically modified lambs, and a city running high on enthusiasm and a will to enjoy itself… I think I”ll leave this one up to you….

La Princesse

Yesterday was the final day of La Machine”s incredible La Princesse. The weather has held out, with only a few light spots of rain whilst the rest of England has been submerged. But we don”t care, we”ve been watching Princess with awe. Even the people who turned up to watch her on the docks on Friday said they didn”t mind they had to do so in the midst of a monsoon.

“Have you seen the spider yet?” I asked the new guy in the hostel. I forgot his name already, sorry, let”s call you Gary. Because it was something like that. “What spider?” He replied. I”d come across the only person within 15 miles of Liverpool that hadn”t heard about this magnificent event. “Right, get your shoes on, you”re coming with me.”

A false start at 3pm had brought everyone out to rival Saturday nights huge crowds. The spider wasn”t doing anything until 7.30pm, but the rumours had been going round and everyone turned up anyway. These had made it to the tourist offices, and all over the city. I think it was originally on the web site, but later removed - so no wonder that everyone was excited. But it wasn”t to be, and La Princesse wouldn”t awaken from her slumber on Concourse tower for another 4.5 hours.

And what an awakening. She walked the path around St. George”s Hall with her huge entourage of drums, harpists, and full brass band. Spraying everyone in the crowd with water, and lowering legs to just slightly skim the crowd as she went. We”d waited hours in the spots we”d all chosen. But everybody was smiling, and everyone was happy that La Princesse had graced the city with her presence.

The finale was spectacular. I write this as I”m on the train back home, and as someone has just attempted to proudly point out - “yeah, but the London one had a narrative, and more of a story”. Well, Liverpool had fireworks, snow, fire and a water ballet (I think that”s the correct terminology)… Not to mention the spider made use of all of its surroundings, including climbing a building!

I don”t say this to downplay anything that the team accomplished with the Sultan”s Elephant, because both events were huge and unforgettable. Both were remarkable feats of engineering, media, and public interaction - and something that I hope we will see much, much more of in the years to come. La Machine have dared you to dream, but I hope that they also inspire each and every one of us that magic can happen in our streets and in the cities we live. Thank you La Machine, and thank you Liverpool.

La Princesse on Concourse Tower

Back in 2006, a time traveling elephant visited London, on command of an eccentric rich sultan who was seeking to find another similar time traveler in the form of a young girl who was haunting his dreams. Well, you all know the story.

And now, new agents used on a building due to be destroyed in Liverpool has created a creature we all know and love, only just ever so slightly bigger. About, 40ft bigger in fact (although the sizes seem to get larger every time I hear them).

Royal De Luxe, or rather La Machine as they seem to now be called have let a huge 40ft spider loose on the streets, and indeed buildings of Liverpool. And there”s no way I”m going to miss something like that! She goes by the name of Princess (ahhhh), and she started out in a cocoon on the side of Liverpool Lime St. Station last Thursday. And she is definitely magnificent, if, y”know, freaky as hell at night time.

As soon as I left the station though, memories came flooding back of the crack-addled elephant worshipers of 2006. Children and adults alike all filtering out of the station with only one purpose in mind. “Have you seen the spider?” “Where is the spider?” “Hey, dude, like, stop hogging all the Pringles.” Not the last one.

The media has worked its magic, and everyone knows about Princess. Everyone wants to meet her, and we all want to be her friend (through fear of being kept alive in some kind of spider-feeding larder deep underneath Liverpool station before being eventually chewed on by gammy spider-jaws, I”d guess).

And the crowds are huge. They”re expecting over a million people over the three days, and I counted at least 200 today. People line the streets everywhere, and if you’re unfortunate enough to get stuck in front of Princess (as I was) - you will die (I was lucky). I’m not kidding, as we all tried to move out of the way of the incoming spider, and people behind us just wanted to get closer and stand in the way … Someone actually, genuinely, and I”m not lying here, shouted “think of the children!”. And sadly they weren”t joking either, there did seem to be panic brewing among the group of, shall we say “dads”, children were leaving crying, men with pushchairs were looking angry, and apparently some Liverpudlians just need to relax. Still, we made it out alive, the spider didn’t eat us - and I’m actually rather looking forward to collecting other prominent phrases like “we’re all going to die” and “oh, the humanity”.

Speaking of crowds, don”t worry, Liverpool has opened all three of its restaurants for this event, and you will only need to queue out the door and down the street for 30 minutes. I”m sure it”s always like this. Really.

All said, these shows are incredible. There”s a very very good reason that they draw such huge crowds, and they”re a once in a lifetime experience that you”ll never forget and hopefully look back upon fondly, forever. Queues, crowds, and long waiting times mean absolutely nothing as soon as you see the spiders legs appear around the corner. And you”ll probably never hear a huge crowd in the hundreds of thousands cheer for a giant spider again. Unless it”s eaten all the killer bed bugs. Which is quite possible. The final day is tomorrow, and I can”t wait ]]> http://www.kevinblake.co.uk/the-spider-that-ate-liverpool/215/feed/ 53.410777 -2.977838