Recharge & Voltz: Ramblings of Introversion "Recharge & Voltz" is about subjects on photography, videography, writing, tech gadgets, outdoors, family, and this thing we call Life. Feel free to contact me anytime. Thank you & Enjoy!

Truly amazing from a Geographic stand point as well as coming from the type of background I work in - Geospatial Information/Data. Enter Wikipedia, we all know it, we all probably one time or another have even used it, but what is GeoHack? Still fresh here and to put it mildly, I'm not yet positive on what exactly it is; but can interpolate that it is a very powerful tool if you think like I do. Put simply, it is easier to instruct you with this basic tutorial of sorts on how to use it rather than explain what it is; I'll do my best here - GeoHack is a culmination of geographic information that has been organized in a "One-Stop Shop" for users to access. For example, head over to Wikipedia and type a known location; in the graphic above, I used Port Sulphur, LA. Once at the result page for Port Sulphur, LA you will see a coordinates link at the top right-hand side of the page; click on the actual Lat/Long coordinate link. This link will redirect you to Wiki's GeoHack page; once here you will see an organized list with links to everything possibly related to this geographic location distributed from many Federal, State, Local, & Private entities, etc. Fore fun, click on the "Satellite" link from "GeoNames" listed under Global Services section as seen below:

Do you see some potential in this tool? Can you imagine what this can be used for? For many Geospatial related industries... hell, even Planners, Engineers, the list goes on and on - this culmination/wealth of Geo- information/data that Wikipedia has organized and made available to the general public, truly is a work of art. Plug in some cool cities/towns from anywhere on Earth and have fun with Wikipedia's GeoHack and all it has to offer!

The technology of "Geotagging" imagery has come across my brain and I have to say it is very intriguing. What is Geotagging? Geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as photographs, video, websites, or RSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata. These data usually consist of latitude and longitude coordinates, though they can also include altitude, bearing, distance, accuracy data, and place names. It is commonly used for photographs, giving geotagged photographs. How is this intriguing or even helpful?? Let's say you are are a Shrimper contracted by BP to patrol the Gulf waters in search of any oil plumes and report the findings. Simple, take a photo of the image, Geotag the image, and Email, MMS, SMS the info to Headquarters for use with additional mapping aids, reports, etc. Simple and effective. How is it fun? Well, take for example you are a Field Journalist for National Geographic Explorer and you have been sent out to study & document a rare plant species in the rain forests of South America. You have planned for the trip and have a good idea of the general areas you will be in, etc. Head out with camera in hand, find the plant species, GPS the waypoint, Geotag the image and move on within the study area. Once back at the office you can then construct a route based on the geotagged photos & GPS data; plot them on a map such as Google Maps, Google Earth, etc. add field notes, descriptions, and you now have a viable, documented, & proven geographic tool which can tell a story or figure out a problem, etc. 


EveryTrail.com is just one service out there amongst many. Geotagging can be done several different ways, one, is to use a GPS and set waypoints with names of the images in which you take. Two, Companies are now making what is called Geotaggers; a small GPS gadget that records waypoints and routes differently from conventional GPS devices. Once all the images are taken, you can sync both the GPS data from the Geotagger and the images via the time stamp, as both have recorded data fixed within, third, you can enter coordinates in manually by visiting say Google Maps, drive to the actual location where you took the photo, copy and paste the coordinates and set the images. I have done some extensive research on "Geotagging" and the process of which; if you would like consultation on a system & workflow to best fit your needs and experience level, shoot me an email, I would be happy to help.


Here is my first and very quick attempt at a Geotagging Project. Many of you have seen my images of the Mt. Olive Photo Expedition, but not with the Geotagging spin on it. I chose to us the third route mentioned above, manual plugging of the coordinates; as I did not have a GPS that day, nor had I known about Geotagging yet. Two of the images I could not find precisely. Once at the link given below, Check out the options in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. The application uses a flash-based slideshow, as each image changes, you can see where the image was taken on the map as the push pin highlights. You can also pause the slideshow in the bottom left-hand corner and manually click on either the images or the red push-pins. You can even change the Google map view in the top right-hand corner of the screen and zoom in and out. Give it a try by clicking on the text below!

Mt. Olive Photo Expedition

Well, after 5-months and 6 - Orthopedics, it seems #6, Dr. Richard Meyer, MD (www.drrichardmeyer.com) finally sees things in terms of "Total Patient Care/Quality Of Life!" Visited him today and will have THR on the left hip first on October 12th, 2010. I have a busy September ahead of me as I need to visit my Primary Care Physician to get an "OK" for the surgery, an appointment at Touro for basic Pre-Op Testing (i.e. Cardio & Blood tests, etc.), plus a Pre-Op Class. Looking forward to getting my life & mobility back!

Dr. Meyer will be using the newer Anterior Hip Replacement procedure (Anterior Approach). With this approach recovery times are drastically reduced as there are no cutting of the muscles, etc. I am still waiting for the Doctor's office to confirm the actual Hip Prosthetic name, but I know that the "Cups" used will be the Pinnacle Hip Solution Cups seen here:
The actual Hip Stem may be the DePuy  Tri-Lock^® Bone Preservation Stem seen here:
More info to come soon, so stay tuned!