> Have you guys been to:
> http://demo.geogarage.com/noaa/
> Where Google Maps and satellite views get the marine chart overlays?
>
> Take a look....(c;
>
> My little Nokia N800 Linux internet tablet has an open source freeware
> app the Linux hacker geniuses wrote called Maemo Mapper that uses these
> tiles and a little Bluetooth GPS receiver (12 channel, WAAS-corrected,
> very sensitive, size of a matchbox) to put a fix, track your progress, do
> waypoints and plan routes on a wide variety of map tile repositories it
> downloads and stores from open internet repositories such as Google,
> Virtual Earth, open source map repositories, NOAA weather radar LIVE,
> Terraserver, Runway Finder (latest aviation charts!)....etc., etc., more
> every week. On the road, it connects to Points of Interest databases so
> detailed it even has the self-serve laundromat up the street, complete
> with their phone numbers you can use while ashore in some strange port,
> lost as usual trying to find that maritime museum in Tahiti. You'll
> carry the tablet while ashore walking around with the little GPS in your
> watch pocket of your jeans. That way you won't get lost in Key West,
> again, next time and can find that special bar right on the map!
>
> I'm in contact with the guys who wrote Maemo Mapper (open source
> freeware) for the Maemo Linux tablets, and am trying to get them to do
> what's necessary to get Marine Charts, with your boat's position tracking
> on top of them.....no, no...not those OLD, OBSOLETE charts from 1989 on
> the damned expensive chart plugs....straight off the internet with the
> latest charts available for FREE! So, there you are cruising the ICW or
> your favorite Chesapeake Bay, tracking your course on top of the latest
> marine chart...or...Virtual Earth's latest satellite photo...or...any of
> many land mapping sources...with the LATEST weather radar picture
> directly from the NOAA doppler radar available by clicking the WX icon
> over any picture/chart/map...all in relation to your course being plotted
> by a $230 Linux internet tablet connected through your Bluetooth cellular
> phone's internet service to shore.....if it can connect, of course. If
> not, it'll use the STORED maps/charts/tile photos from your two 16GB SDHC
> memory cards ($59 ea at buy.com when I got mine.)
>
> Interested??.....(c;
>
> http://www.nseries.com/n800
> the tablet....
>
> http://maemo.org/downloads/OS2008/
> all the freeware for it.
>
> http://maemo.org/downloads/product/OS2008/maemo-mapper/
> the open source freeware mapper program
> (installs on the tablet by coming to this page and clicking
> that green arrow's .install program. Linux is easier than WinXP.)
>
> http://www.youtube.com/results?
> search_query=maemo+mapper&search_type=&aq=f
> some older videos on using Maemo Mapper not related to a marine
> environment....
>
> Search Google for maemo mapper to get lots more info on this
> fantastic little Linux program.....
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> So, there I hope you'll be, crusing down the ICW plotted within a couple
> of ft by the little GPS up under the bimini in a ziplock bag. Wherever
> you are on the boat, not just tethered to wires at the helm, you can look
> at your tablet and see where you are on the chart. Wondering what the
> terrain looks like up ahead, you click up the menu button to the left of
> the screen, click MAPS and pick VE Hybrid from the list of repositories.
> Maemo mapper switches itself from the NOAA chart to Virtual Earth's
> latest satellite photo with all the local streets and roads around you
> nicely plotted and labeled...EXACTLY where the chart just was with your
> little blue icon in the center. You look up around the bend from a real
> picture and see some docks to look out for sticking out from shore and
> the fork in the ICW not far beyond you need to take the left channel on
> according to the chart you just left. You press the WX clicker and NOAA
> weather radar's NEXRAD displays on the satphoto (or chart as selected)
> showing you a nasty thunderstorm about 12 miles ahead you've heard
> banging away in the distance but can't see where it is for the trees and
> terrain, here. Now you know the storm's exact location on the chart and
> can keep an eye on it to see if it is approaching your course of going
> the other way.....
>
> Lying comfortably in your aft cabin with the tablet on your pillow, you
> decide you can snooze a little longer before being needed on deck. You
> put the tablet in LOCK mode, shutting down the display, but the programs
> keep tracking your movements and that weather cell for instant retrieval
> without having to boot up. In standby with the display off, you don't
> need to charge it for days....It runs for 6 hours at full brightness, not
> 45 minutes like the damned laptop battery hog at the chart table. It
> charges in an hour, ready for a few more watches....
>
> This is what I'm trying to get the Mapper hackers to do for you...(c;
>
> Not $1500, Not $2400, Not $699.......$230 for the tablet, $0 for the
> software and data off your cellphone, $100 for the tiny GPS box that
> recharges in an hour and runs for 22 on its little cellphone battery
> that's also user changeable as easy as your cellphone's.
>
> Still interested??
>
> You'll switch Maemo Mapper to the runwayfinders.com aviation charts next
> week when you fly down to Miami....exactly like this, too....(c;
>
> After you've docked, you'll connect the tablet to the marina's wifi (it's
> 5 times as sensitive as the most expensive laptop we can find) so you can
> click up Streamtuner and pick one of its 15,000 radio stations across the
> planet streaming on the internet....or watch any number of internet
> videos from youtube on MyTube those hackers wrote for it free....or use
> mplayer to play one of the DivX movies you loaded on its external card
> off alt.binaries.movies.divx newsgroup. Who needs XM?? How silly....
>
> iPhone my ass.........
>
>
>
>