[Talk-ca] Adding to Open Street Map on the cheap.

[Colin McGregor]

For those of you in (or near) southern Ontario, just thought I would
note that Factory Direct (factorydirect.ca) had a flyer in last
Saturday's Toronto Star newspaper (and I assume (though I don't know
for certain) some other southern Ontario newspapers).

In that flyer were two items of interest, a coupon that will let you
get a copy of "Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006 with GPS locator" for
$19.99 (buy the package, toss the software, the GPS locator does have
Linux drivers :-) ). They also have "Microsoft Streets & Trips 2007
with GPS locator" for $29.99. The difference between the locator
included with the two editions is the 2007 version is somewhat smaller
and is supposed to be a bit more sensitive.

I used the 2006 edition locator to map most of the streets in Perth ON
in September, locator on the dashboard, Linux running laptop in the
front passenger seat, all of which worked quite well. Anyone with a
laptop who wants to start playing with Open Street Map on a tight
budget, well, this is just the ticket.

Granted these GPS locators are a bad pick if you want to document
trails... but for streets, as seen from a car or truck. these are
great :-) .


Colin McGregor