A tale of two cities

This past weekend, my wife and I were in New York City (Manhattan) for my cousin's wedding. I've been to NYC a number of times and frankly, I'm not a big city kind of person. After being in the city for less than hour, I started complaining to my wife. She didn't want to hear it, so I kept my mouth shut for the rest of the trip. We got back to San Diego on Monday and I was back in my element.

On Wednesday, I took a nice stroll (1.5 mile walk) from our office to the San Diego Convention Center for CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment. This walk took me through downtown San Diego and so many things struck me as different from New York. First off, the weather. I realize that the city can't control the weather, but it does have an effect. One day in New York, it was pretty nice, but then got cloudy and rained one day. Second, the streets were much cleaner in San Diego. Third, the city seemed to run at a much slower pace; in New York (in all areas except Little Italy), people were moving so quickly to get from point A to point B.

For some people, NYC is a great place to live; for me, it isn't. San Diego has a lot of people, but it isn't as dense. Up until I started my job 11 months ago, I really didn't explore downtown San Diego. Since then, I've walked a bit around downtown and it isn't that bad of a city. There has been a lot of revitalization and it really shows. If you're willing to walk, parking isn't all that bad, either.

A geotagging tip for iPhoto

I one of my articles about using PhotoLinker and i-Got-U GPS, I had kind of a cumbersome method for geotagging the photos. Well, today I discovered an option in iPhoto "Rescan for Location". So now my process is as follows:

1. Import GPS tracks using igotu2gpx.
2. Drop gpx file on PhotoLinker.
3. Import photos into iPhoto.
4. Drag photos from iPhoto to PhotoLinker.
5. Geotag photos in PhotoLinker.
6. Select photos in iPhoto, control click and select "Rescan for Location".

This is huge for me as I don't have to import the photos into the Finder, then into PhotoLinker and then import into iPhoto. My camera doesn't show up as a Mass Storage device, so I had to take out my SD card and place it in a reader. With this new method, that isn't required.

Acquiring a GPS signal

Lately, I've come to realize that certain GPS units (including the Garmin Forerunner 305 and the i-Got-U 120) really only acquire the initial GPS fix when the devices are stationary. This can be a problem if I walk out the door and want to start tracking. Despite giving the units ample time to acquire a signal, they just never get one. Both units, I believe, use the SIRFStar III chipset. Is this issue inherent in this low power chipset or does it happen in all GPS units?

I've seen this behavior in USB GPS sticks as well that I think use the same chipset. Does anyone know if there is a way to make these units acquire the initial signal while moving? Once they get the signal, these units all work fine moving.

HD vs SD pictures

I've been using the EyeTV for recording and watching most of my TV in the last few weeks. This has given me the luxury of watching shows in HD and I just realized that I'm now spoiled.

After a bit of fighting with the EyeTV where the signal strength and signal quality aren't great and missing shows, I had to revert back to the TiVo to watch some shows.

We started watching a show and the quality difference is quite amazing. I'm hopeful that I can solve my EyeTV problems pretty soon with a signal amplifier. I've been hesitant to get an amplifier and place it between the incoming cable and my cable modem (my cable modem is at the same place as my TV and EyeTV; I have to split the line to handle all the devices) as a cable guy several years ago warned me that my Internet connection could be degraded by an amplifier. This, however, may have been because of the particular amplifier and wiring in my house (I have RG59 in most of my house and an old amplifier in the garage).

Luckily, the cable connection to all my equipment is basically a straight connection from the outside with one splitter that was installed by the cable company. So, I'll get an amplifier and give that a try.