Converting NoteStudio files to TiddlyWiki

Tuesday, 21 March, 2017

For many years I was a user of NoteStudio on Palm as a tool for implementing David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GtD) productivity methodology. It was great, worked well, had a few foibles and then the developers dumped it.

After that I then ran NoteStudio on the StyleTap emulator on my Android device (see blog) but the touch interface doesn’t sit well with Palm (everything’s a bit small). So I moved on to using ToodleDo and Keep - I still use Keep, but whilst ToodleDo is good, the Android client is frustrating to use. So…

I came across TiddlyWiki which is a great Wiki system that can operate in server or single-file mode. The single file is great for using on Android and AdTidWiki provides a simple interface to using it. I like it.

Exporting data from ToodleDo is easy, simple and painless (good for them) allowing me to move data out as a CSV and then import it directly into TiddlyWiki. That made me think, why don’t I revisit the NoteStudio data and see if I can recover it?? These were the steps I took:

1. Reinstall StyleTap onto my Android phone and then restore the last backup of the ROM (I had always used RightBackUp on Palm, so had a complete copy I could restore).
2. NoteStudio supports export to MemoPad format (although this was VERY slow)
3. MemoPad isn’t included as a standard app in the StyleTap ROM which led me on a search for a freeware replacement. This led me to Redwood’s MemoLeaf. Install this into the ROM, import the Memopad file and then export as DOC format (which generates a single PRC file with all the selected entries in).
4. Copy the PRC file to your PC and then use Zamzar to convert it to a TXT file (Zamzar is actually using the libraries in Calibre in the background to do the conversion).
5. That finally left me with a text file for some text wrangling to convert the data entries into JSON which TiddlyWiki would happily read. My programming skills are a little rusty so I asked James to throw together some code to do this. The code does this, taking the input TXT and doing some extra wrangling:

-put the title in the title tag
-insert \n for a line break
-replace double quotation (“) with single (‘)
-replace anything in square brackets (e.g. [linkname]) with [[linkname

Controlling email…

Friday, 17 March, 2017

Straight from one of the best books I’ve read on communication (Trees, maps and theorems by Jean-Luc Doumont), is this paragraph on helping stem the flood of emails. Sage advice indeed:

If you are buried under too much incoming email, you may feel helpless about it. Yet, without hoping for a revolution, you can still take concrete steps toward easing the overload. To receive less email, simply send less email - and send better email, too.

So, starting today, think before you send and if it’s not required, don’t send it.

Cameras and settings for aerial surveys in the geosciences: optimizing image data

Friday, 3 March, 2017

James O’Connor, Mike Smith, Mike R. James (2017)
Progress in Physical Geography


Aerial image capture has become very common within the geosciences due to the increasing affordability of low payload (<20 kg) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for consumer markets. Their application to surveying has subsequently led to many studies being undertaken using UAV imagery and derived products as primary data sources. However, image quality and the principles of image capture are seldom given rigorous discussion. In this contribution we firstly revisit the underpinning concepts behind image capture, from which the requirements for acquiring sharp, well exposed and suitable image data are derived. Secondly, the platform, camera, lens and imaging settings relevant to image quality planning are discussed, with worked examples to guide users through the process of considering the factors required for capturing high quality imagery for geoscience investigations.

Given a target feature size and ground sample distance based on mission objectives, flight height and velocity should be calculated to ensure motion blur is kept to a minimum. We recommend using a camera with as big a sensor as is permissible for the aerial platform being used (to maximise sensor sensitivity), effective focal lengths of 24 - 35 mm (to minimize errors due to lens distortion) and optimising ISO (to ensure shutter speed is fast enough to minimise motion blur). Finally, we give recommendations for the reporting of results by researchers in order to help improve the confidence in, and reusability of, surveys through: providing open access imagery where possible, presenting example images and excerpts, and detailing appropriate metadata to rigorously describe the image capture process.

OSM then and now

Friday, 3 March, 2017

Quite astonishing what 10 years of volunteered mapping can do…. wonderfully exposed at OSM Then and Now. Use the slider and be amazed!! Ive centred upon Bletchley, a suburb of Milton Keynes, and home to Bletchley Park and the home of the codebreakers.

Irish Citizenship based on ancestry - the easy way!

Saturday, 18 February, 2017

My grandmother was Irish and, as the Irish government allow individuals to apply for citizenship based upon ancestry back to their grandparents, I thought it would be good to go ahead and do it. So two years ago I started putting the paperwork together, this being well before Brexit, and certainly before anyone thought Brexit could actually happen!! If you Google Irish Citizenship you will probably end up at the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service which details the various ways to apply, including by descent. You can apply through them (as I did), but the process is long, slow and relatively expensive. SO DON’T DO IT!

The easiest (and cheapest) way to apply is through a Foreign Birth Registration (FBR) via the Passport Office which will then allow you to apply for a passport (and passcard). The workflow (and online application) are here.

HOWEVER, you will need ALL original paper evidence for the citizenship, which means the relevant grandparent’s birth/marriage/death certificate, relevant parent’s birth/marriage/death certificate and your birth certificate. If it’s the maternal line then EVERY change of name requires documentation (which means marriage) - I’m not sure why they required death, but they did.

Certificates can be original CERTIFIED copies from the General Register Office. You can order UK certificates here.

and if you don’t know the register reference you should be able to find it at FreeBMD.

The grandparent’s Irish birth certificate can be searched for at FamilySearch and ordered from the Irish Government.

Divorce certificates (in the UK, and if relevant) can be more problematic/expensive as they are recorded in the county court where the divorce was recorded (and you need to know it). You need the reference number otherwise there is a search fee.

The process was rapid, efficient and painless (as long as you have the certificates)… well well worthwhile!

xkcd’s bad map projection

Thursday, 16 February, 2017

The timezone world according to xkcd

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Uber Drone?

Tuesday, 14 February, 2017

Is this the next Uber Drone, coming to some skies near you? As the article says, would like to see 1000 hours of safe flight time first and the ability to fly with only two motors by feathering then should there be a failure. Exciting times though - I get a sense of scenes from The Fifth Element coming true (that would be Ruby Rhod first maybe)!!

Dronebase

Thursday, 2 February, 2017

And the cost of hiring a UAV is being driven down…. Dronebase is your AirBnB of UAV operators. Don’t pay over the top and go to one site to find them. The growth has been extremely rapid - see what their investors think. Its a great idea and, well, a very useful resource.

Best discount code ever??

Wednesday, 11 January, 2017

This might just rank as the best discount code Ive ever received, courtesy of Pixellu with their new SmartSlides beta… Judge for yourself!

Maths - the magic number (or magic bullet?)

Wednesday, 4 January, 2017

A really interesting news story from October (I know - it’s sat in my bookmarks staring at me!) on the BBC titled Maths becomes biology’s magic number… it’s a good point that Tom Feilden makes about the nature of inter-disciplinarity and how different subject areas draw upon one another and interbreed to use existing methods/solutions to new problems.

As the introduction to this, he quotes Sir Rory Collins (Oxford University) as saying: “If you want a career in medicine these days you’re better off studying mathematics or computing than biology.” But actually, you could replace “medicine” and “biology” with a range of other subject areas, including geography. Maths (and related areas in computer science) is the language of nature, of science (something Galileo commented on). Maths provides a descriptive and analytical framework for understanding, analysing and communicating scientific ideas and a lack of mathematical ability is something that continues to vex educators around the world (see the ASE for a guide).

So it’s a timely reminder where our current capabilities lie and how we need to build communities that can identify and explore the pressing research requirements that society will have in the future.

Geosheets tutorial

Wednesday, 4 January, 2017

GIS-Geography had a nice geosheets tutorial just before Christmas which is worth a look-in. Geosheets is not a service I had seen before and operates as a plugin for Google Sheets, adding functionality to geocode spreadsheet data and plot on a basemap. Of course ArcGIS Online and, indeed, Google MyMaps. However Geosheets offers you the ability to create within Google Sheets itself using some simple syntax. I wonder if they have enough to survive (don’t complete with Google or Esri!) but, in the interim, it’s another toolbox for geoenthusiasts.