Wow...
3 years since my last entry, and not so much upload last year.
Well, life has continued since then.

OpenStreetMap has changed too.
From the weekly updated map with a big portion of blank parts, it's now one of the best available online map, and the most accurate one for sure, when mapping has been done.

While, 3 years ago, I could just go anywhere and be almost sure the route wasn't mapped. I know have to do that differently, based on my knowledge of things (which is a limited 10 km area) or by comparing satellite views or other maps to get an idea.
It's also more necessary to pay attention to all the tiny details. Because you often find roads and streets, but the POI are missing.

When I look at what I published here in 2008 about the hardware. It justs feels like a joke today. Come on, 2 MB?
But that is what the society and the marketing says.

I'm now using an Android Samsung Galaxy S phone to record GPS tracks. It works, but I find it less accurate, but the worst problem is battery life, and the fact that you can't just throw it in your bag and forget about it.
So, tracking in a car with a mobile power outlet is OK, but if you're going on foot or any mean of transportation without power supply, the smartphone just won't do it.
I found the Android application for OSM mappers to be useful. I only use its short-geopositioned-audio-files-recording capability, and it really saves time.

I've previsously worked with paper and pencil before. And, to be honest, it wasn't that bad. It's also easier to thing about where you will be heading in a second, when you do that. The problem is, this takes time, and you're not as fluid as just "talking". You must stop everytime to take note of street name, POI, etc.
The difference is the price. $500 smartphone vs $70 Bluetooth GPS data logger.

If you bring your computer in your car, I found my USB GPS mouse to give the most accurate results. The fact I can put it on the roof certainly helps.
The nice thing about the laptop, is that you can view your GPS accuracy (how much GPS in sight, quality of signal), log much more than you could possibly do in your entire life, no lag of system, ability to show the route taken on a map with background, ability to open images, etc.

I own a MacBook Pro, but couldn't make my GPS device work on it, despite installing kExt modules.
Sorry but you won't find better GPS support on any other OS than Linux.
gpsd is just the best thing invented since sliced bread.

I want to share my experience since October 2008 on how to make the better job.
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At first, I had a USB GPS unit connected to a laptop and I was travelling mainly by bicycle. The backpack was a little heavy...
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Then, I thought invest a little in good material wouldn't be bad. I bought an i-Blue 747 pocket standalone gps recorder, with 2 MB internal memory, and which could work as logger or navigation mode (Bluetooth).
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It's easy to use, full customisable, has an extra long battery life (you can use it an entire week if you want!). It's very thin and light. The packaging is excellent, it comes with a USB cable, a driver-CD, a software, a car jack (Zigarettenanzünder/allume-cigares) charger. What would you ask more?
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About how to travel, let's begin with nothing, this means: on foot. In fact, I never tried it a lot, because I think it's good only for city mapping.
Most people survey roads, but only some persons take time to look at services, buildings, crossings, footways. The best way to survey this kind of things is on foot. You can add a camera and a sheet of paper in your backpack to help you.
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If you want to survey residential streets in a city, and also some important POI like bus stops, post boxes, or just because you like "free air", the bicycle is your friend. The big advantage is that you can easily stop at any place, and that you have enough time to see things, because you're less focused on traffic. It's perfect to log paths in the forest for example. You can do it faster than on foot, and it's fun!
The camera is another good friend here. Don't use any reflex or bridge. Compact camera is a lot more useful. Throw it in your pocket. Take it when you need it, Point and Shoot. That's it.
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Without talking about motorcycle and animals (horses), the last way I see is by car.
I can already see some remarks about it: fuel consumption, cost, etc.
It's also a very bad solution to map anything in a city. Not so useful with cycleways, footways, ...
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Of course you can make all what I'll say by bicycle, but it will take a lot more time. If you live in the countryside (like me), and you want to map tertiary/unclassified roads, roads climbing up to mountains peaks, etc. the old good car appears to be perfect for this.
However there are some problems: you can't stop, you loose concentration on traffic (if there is any ;-) ), you CAN'T do anything with your hands. They've to jump either on the steering wheel, or on the gear lever. Even driving an automatic you can't use a camera properly.
Another problem is that it's quite impossible to notice everything. If bus stops are easy to see, post boxes, telephone cabins, benches, restaurants, crossings and all this kind of things are too small and too usual to be noticed.
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The BEST FRIEND here is a dictaphone. I'm using the corresponding function on my mobile phone and it works very good. You can hold the steering wheel, you don't have to bother with devices because it requires no manipulation. As soon as you see something you can say it and then use the recording with JOSM.
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I think the best solution is a mix of the three. Car for fast and long roads, bicycle for streets in the city and important POI. Foot for footways, and all details we usually don't get by car.
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Nice mapping!

October 11, exactly 1 month before my 18th birthday.
The sky is blue, and the temperature is about 20° C and higher. What a perfect day for a bicycle trip!

2 minutes to pump up the rear tyre of my bicycle (I think it has a hole, but, indeed it's 10 years old and maybe even more!), put my blue helmet and I'm gone, 1.5 L water bottle, some chocolate, usb gps unit and laptop in the bag.

"Sense", I'm coming. After cycling up the hill in Praroman, I widely open my eyes for the very long descent coming (Route de Thorin). Wow. Even my eyes catched teardrops.
Then, reality coming back. Junction without any road signs. So... let's thing, where do I want to go? Sense ? Javoll! "Talfahrt" geht weiter... => "Plunge" continues...

Oh, "regional cycle routes signs" on the way!
It seems that I took the good decision!
Schöne Strasse in den Wälder! Kein Auto, mmmh :-)

Stersmuehle, industrial zone. And little place to have a bath in the Sarine/Ärgera.

Then, after this long descent, it's time to climb, climb, climb, ...
And get afraid of crazy young riders (on motorcycle) coming in the opposite way!!!

Tentlingen. Schöne strasse mit "double cyclelanes" but only one lane for cars, so, the cars meet in a very special way when there's someone cycling there...
Something a little afraid for me, if you see what I mean...

Then, Giffers village. Oh! Children exiting a restaurant. Some child had his birthday lunch there. Schönxi!
Nowadays, get lost, and oh! I must go there : "Le Pafuet" or something like this. Long descent "Aergerastrasse" and medium climb after it.
Le Pafuet, Centre Sportif du Mouret. Go to "Route d'Oberried". Oh. What a awful climb. Then turn right to Montévraz.
Industrial zone, no road left! ?!?!? So take the mucky path strait ahead. Ouch!
Ok, and then, I found the "Route cantonale" again to Le Mouret, and took my way back to home.

Wonderful trip. Wonderful day. Wonderful "Bénichon"!

See you soon on the roads of Fribourg!

I completed the missing residential streets in my hometown. I went on my bicycle, and I didn't track the long climbing streets, for example "Chemin de la Molleyre", or "Les Palaz" (in front of "La Pala", descending to the forest.
I forgot "Pré du Château" and the footpath between it and "Au Village".
I'll do it next time.

Then, I went to Ferpicloz, using "Route de Ferpicloz". I mapped it and the streets connecting Ferpicloz to Le Mouret, and I was asking myself some questions at this point.

- Should I indicate "Parking" when cars can easily stop for a moment in front of a school, or in front of a shop?
- How many points and which proprieties do I need when there are a "surface" parking and an "underground" parking?
- How to set the "boundaries" of a village?
- In Le Mouret, they've built a new road, connecting the tertiary one with the secundary one with a roundabout inbetween. They put a barrier (this kind of thing : | | | | | |) only on the side of the old junction so that's the situation :
You can go both ways by bicycle and foot, cars may go from the tertiary road until they reach the secondary road, making it "noexit=yes" but only for cars.
How should I indicate it?
- In Marly, I've found a footway that goes under the road, in order to cross it.
I draw steps before, a long footway with "layer=-1", and steps after.
Is it the right solution or should I use "tunnels" or sthg like that?

Thanks in advance.

- Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Li-2727, 2GB RAM, built-in Wifi ; - NAVILOCK NL-302U (USB, I think you could guess it ;-)) GPS receiver, which runs out of the box (really!) - NAVILOCK NL-65AT MMCX GPS Accessory Antenna (that I can't use!) ; - Maxxtro 150W Mobile Power Inverter [DC --> AC] (really useful to power all this equipment in the car :-)) ; ... oh yeah! and an indispensable small punger, that comes with the GPS receiver! - Last but not least, my Panasonic DMC-FZ7 camera for mapping information and for "art" :-D (see my photographs on Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/freebourg/)

Ubuntu Linux ; the usual tools 'gpsd', 'gpxlogger', 'gpsbabel' do the thing very well. For mapping, I'm using JOSM (retrieving, building and using the svn version every time I use it), the appropriate photo plugin, and GPicSync for the "normal" photographs. While geocaching on foot or by bicycle, I try to make the battery duration longer by doing some tricks [www.lesswatts.org] and almost killing every unnecessary program running and shutting down all wireless devices (Wifi (unload the kernel module, turn it off via the BIOS (?) option by sending 0 to the wireless led 'dev' file ('acerhk' module), Bluetooth). Then, I stop gdm (killing X), open tty1, sudo gpsd..., open tty2 gpxlogger, and go! Sometimes, for fun, I do some wardriving/warcycling/warcycling, and instead of gpxlogger I use kismet that give me logs in several formats, ready to be used. Afterwards I create a Google Earth KML from the Kismet XML to see the networks, and export the GPX (what a great and simple format!) to my "big monitor computer" ;-)

The day before yesterday ("avant-hier"), I took my bicycle and had a 2 hours ride around "Bois d'Amont". My battery was estimated to work more 60% by returning home! It was the first time I worked with JOSM. That's a great tool. I'm actually retrieving, building and using the svn version everyday, and can't find a good reason to use Potlach instead! This work (drawing roads, crossing, parkings, churches, shops, restaurants, and giving them the right properties took me 4 hours! But I'm proud of it. Of course, there isn't any residential road (unless one I took to join a pedestrian/cycle path) but the main (tertiary road, but in fact called "route secondaire" in the French-speaking part of Switzerland) is there, right on the Osmarender! Today, I tried all my material in the car, between Ependes, where I didn't have got "Route de Sâles" (road) gps traces to map it, and the end of this little car trip was near Saint-Jean in Fribourg old town (Basse-Ville). I corrected some turns, by adding more points to them, making them look more circular, added some bridges, roundabouts. And it was fine!