08 February 2011
07 February 2011
Los Angeles Twilight Approach and Landing
Surfbum published this wonderful video of a low level approach and landing at LAX Airport during a fiery red sunset. The video below is 30 actual minutes compressed into about three minutes.
The video is taken with the Canon Powershot S95 compact camera. The Canon Powershot S95 has one of the largest sensors for a compact camera. Coupled with maximum aperture of f/2.0 (wide angle view) the camera can take some really nice photos and video during low light.
If you want to see it in real time / raw video, check out the video below
06 February 2011
South Korean Toilet Traveller’s Guide
South Koreans like their technological gadgets and have apparently changed their toilets into gadgets too.
South Korean Toilet
Of course the seat is heated, but let’s take a look at the control panel.
South Korean Toilet Control Panel
I had no idea what the buttons did. There was no instruction manual! I pressed the blue button – a little nozzle pushed out from the back of the bowl to the front and happily sprayed water upwards. Closing the lid does not stop this (there is still room for improvement in the user interface…). Luckily the red button does what you expect – stop the water flow and retract the nozzle.
To prevent further accidents I left the other buttons untouched…
Back home I found out this toilet is a DoBiDos bidet. It is the Daelim DB-752NA, one of the bestsellers of the Korean firm Dobidos (www.dobidos.co.kr).
This is what the buttons do:
Top Button Group from left to right (low / medium / high setting):
Set Water Temp, Seat Temp, Econo function (set water and seat temperature to the lowest setting)
Coloured Button Group
Red – Stop
Blue – Wash function
Green – Bidet function
Grey – Dry function
Three Button Group right hand side
Move nozzle Front / Back
Middle button starts an automatic nozzle movement front-back giving a massage effect.
Lower Right Button Group
Set water pressure for the Wash and Bidet function
South Korean Toilet
Of course the seat is heated, but let’s take a look at the control panel.
South Korean Toilet Control Panel
I had no idea what the buttons did. There was no instruction manual! I pressed the blue button – a little nozzle pushed out from the back of the bowl to the front and happily sprayed water upwards. Closing the lid does not stop this (there is still room for improvement in the user interface…). Luckily the red button does what you expect – stop the water flow and retract the nozzle.
To prevent further accidents I left the other buttons untouched…
Back home I found out this toilet is a DoBiDos bidet. It is the Daelim DB-752NA, one of the bestsellers of the Korean firm Dobidos (www.dobidos.co.kr).
This is what the buttons do:
Top Button Group from left to right (low / medium / high setting):
Set Water Temp, Seat Temp, Econo function (set water and seat temperature to the lowest setting)
Coloured Button Group
Red – Stop
Blue – Wash function
Green – Bidet function
Grey – Dry function
Three Button Group right hand side
Move nozzle Front / Back
Middle button starts an automatic nozzle movement front-back giving a massage effect.
Lower Right Button Group
Set water pressure for the Wash and Bidet function
05 February 2011
Konglish in South Korea
During my trip in South Korea I encountered some funny usage of the English language. This is called Konglish.
“To prevent losing your belongings, please do not put your personal items on a shelf. We apologize for any convenience”
Written on an airport luggage cart.
“Please, Keep out this room except for the responsible staff because it is the area preparing for housekeeping the rooms”
Sign placed outside a housekeeping room in a hotel in Seoul
“Present Food Coupon, Exchange Spoon”
Instructions in a restaurant
“If you have any inconvenience items, Please call near Staff”
Found on the wall in a toilet
“Description of the tree is available under or next to a tree. Will be reading a lot of help”
In a Bonsai park
“Have a feeling fine day”
In a train station
“Please don’t go up”
Sign on a hill of a Bonsai park
“Moving Forward”
Sign explaining the route through a Bonsai park
“We love having you here”
We are glad we are here too.
South Korea Seoul Toilet Instruction. No English text here, but still very funny.
“To prevent losing your belongings, please do not put your personal items on a shelf. We apologize for any convenience”
Written on an airport luggage cart.
“Please, Keep out this room except for the responsible staff because it is the area preparing for housekeeping the rooms”
Sign placed outside a housekeeping room in a hotel in Seoul
“Present Food Coupon, Exchange Spoon”
Instructions in a restaurant
“If you have any inconvenience items, Please call near Staff”
Found on the wall in a toilet
“Description of the tree is available under or next to a tree. Will be reading a lot of help”
In a Bonsai park
“Have a feeling fine day”
In a train station
“Please don’t go up”
Sign on a hill of a Bonsai park
“Moving Forward”
Sign explaining the route through a Bonsai park
“We love having you here”
We are glad we are here too.
South Korea Seoul Toilet Instruction. No English text here, but still very funny.
04 February 2011
Mapping your Way on a Holiday with The Cartographer iPhone App
Before starting a trip I always make a custom map in ‘the My Maps’ section of Google Maps containing the locations of all the sights I want to see. It helps me to visualize which locations are close to each other, and which place is nearby when I am walking around. After inputting all the locations I had to make printouts of all relevant regions of the map. I used these maps while travelling.
An iPhone app called ‘The Cartographer’ changed all that for me.
The app gives me access to all my locations pinned in a ‘Google My Map’ (the software syncs with Google Maps). You can even pin locations on your iPhone and sync them back to Google Maps.
The most important feature for me is offline maps. The Cartographer can download maps from the OpenStreetMap database for offline usage (at the time of writing Google Maps are only available with an online Internet connection). On a recent trip I downloaded the maps of Seoul and Tokyo beforehand into my iPhone. This way I could navigate around without paying expensive charges for Internet access from a foreign country.
Downloading the maps is easy. In the app you can trace an outline of the area you wish to download for offline viewing. Next step is to select a zoom level. The app will tell you how many kilobytes/megabytes of data must be downloaded for a certain zoom level. You can then instruct the app to download the offline map. Please note the download can take 1-2 hours or more when you select a detailed zoom level.
The Cartographer worked flawlessly while travelling in Seoul and Tokyo. I could walk around in Tokyo, see where I was on an offline map (no Internet access needed!) and walk straight through my destination, thanks to the built in GPS support. I also placed pins on interesting spots on the map so I could find back home where I was exactly.
Here are some screenshots:
Tokyo Map
The black ‘lollypop’ drops a pin in the center of the screen. You can use this for later reference to see where you were. The ‘crosshairs’ repositions the map so that your current position is in the center of the screen.
The yellow tabs are all the sights I pinned down into a Google ‘My Map’. The blue dot on the right hand side shows my position – in the Narita Express heading for Tokyo.
The Cartographer showing my position on the South Korean Island Jeju-do.
Near Harajuku station in Tokyo
During my stay in Tokyo version 1.2 of the Cartographer was released. In this version you can adjust the ‘vintage effect’ of the map. Here the ‘vintage effect’ is removed leaving a ‘clear map’ in ‘Google style’ While I like the ‘vintage effect’, I used the ‘clear map’ more often because it shows more information with less clutter on the screen.
I liked The Cartographer a lot and I will certainly use it on my next trips. No need to printout all your Google Maps, just keep them in your iPhone. The developer is also very responsive and answered all my questions I had when I started using version 1.0. You can seem many more screen shots and demos at http://cartographer-app.com/
Highly recommended!
An iPhone app called ‘The Cartographer’ changed all that for me.
The app gives me access to all my locations pinned in a ‘Google My Map’ (the software syncs with Google Maps). You can even pin locations on your iPhone and sync them back to Google Maps.
The most important feature for me is offline maps. The Cartographer can download maps from the OpenStreetMap database for offline usage (at the time of writing Google Maps are only available with an online Internet connection). On a recent trip I downloaded the maps of Seoul and Tokyo beforehand into my iPhone. This way I could navigate around without paying expensive charges for Internet access from a foreign country.
Downloading the maps is easy. In the app you can trace an outline of the area you wish to download for offline viewing. Next step is to select a zoom level. The app will tell you how many kilobytes/megabytes of data must be downloaded for a certain zoom level. You can then instruct the app to download the offline map. Please note the download can take 1-2 hours or more when you select a detailed zoom level.
The Cartographer worked flawlessly while travelling in Seoul and Tokyo. I could walk around in Tokyo, see where I was on an offline map (no Internet access needed!) and walk straight through my destination, thanks to the built in GPS support. I also placed pins on interesting spots on the map so I could find back home where I was exactly.
Here are some screenshots:
Tokyo Map
The black ‘lollypop’ drops a pin in the center of the screen. You can use this for later reference to see where you were. The ‘crosshairs’ repositions the map so that your current position is in the center of the screen.
The yellow tabs are all the sights I pinned down into a Google ‘My Map’. The blue dot on the right hand side shows my position – in the Narita Express heading for Tokyo.
The Cartographer showing my position on the South Korean Island Jeju-do.
Near Harajuku station in Tokyo
During my stay in Tokyo version 1.2 of the Cartographer was released. In this version you can adjust the ‘vintage effect’ of the map. Here the ‘vintage effect’ is removed leaving a ‘clear map’ in ‘Google style’ While I like the ‘vintage effect’, I used the ‘clear map’ more often because it shows more information with less clutter on the screen.
I liked The Cartographer a lot and I will certainly use it on my next trips. No need to printout all your Google Maps, just keep them in your iPhone. The developer is also very responsive and answered all my questions I had when I started using version 1.0. You can seem many more screen shots and demos at http://cartographer-app.com/
Highly recommended!
03 February 2011
Oktapodi in Oia
Joy sent me a link to this wonderful and funny Oscar nominated Animated Short Film called ‘Oktapodi’. The village in the film sure looks a lot like Oia!
And take a look at ‘The Making Of Oktapodi’ at http://www.oktapodi.com/makingof/
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