DualSportMaps.com is now here to help!

This is of interest to any of you who go beyond your back yards, out where a GPS and mapping is a valuable tool.

One of our own (and one of ADV's own), CraftyCoder, started an incredibly useful online GPS mapping and track sharing/storage tool not quite a year ago. It has progressed in leaps and bounds primarily because this guy is a pretty skilled code monkey, but also because of all the feedback and requests from dual sport riders. If you haven't been there already, you can see the website utility at Dual Sport Maps

Due to one thing and another, the support thread over at ADV which has helped so much in the development and support of DSM was moved into the Vendor area (although it is absolutely free to use, no requests for donations, nothing). And because of that, inevitably, once it was moved out of the GPS/Mapping area, it quickly began sinking into the primordial ooze below dozens of new "for sale" posts each day.

And so, I offered Crafty a spot here where he could resume support for DSM and continue receiving suggestions for improvements, corrections, etc. Luckily for all of us who travel (I think his website is that good, and I do GIS/Mapping professionally), Crafty accepted.

So, you'll find Crafty and the topic at New Mapping Site For Riders, grouped in with the other forums dealing with GPS hardware and mapping/GPS software. Go take a look, and hope many of you find some use in this.

And... spread the word on other forums - we're seeing quite a library of saved rides building up, coming from all over the world. We can all only benefit from that.

The URL brings up a blank page. I tried it with three browsers on two computers, Linux and Windoze.

I'm running Chrome on Win7. Works fine.

Empty page on all relevant Mac browsers. Not very surprising when it come back with:

< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< X-Powered-By: JSP/2.1
< Server: Sun GlassFish Enterprise Server v2.1.1
< Content-Type: text/html
< Content-Length: 0
< Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2011 04:00:40 GMT

If it works on Windows, I'm not interested anymore.

TBird1 wrote:

The URL brings up a blank page. I tried it with three browsers on two computers, Linux and Windoze.

Are you talking for the URL inside my post for the thread here in our forum:
https://wr250rforum.forumotion.com/t5790-dualsportmapscom-new-mapping-site-for-riders#55068

Or are you talking about the URL of the site itself: http://www.dualsportmaps.com/

I've sourced it on quite an assortment of computers with various browsers. Earlier versions of Explorer don't cut it, but you get a message on what level of browser you require.

If you're still having problems, then post on the thread related to the site and it is a fair certainty that Crafty will respond and fix whatever is broke.

cug wrote:

Empty page on all relevant Mac browsers.

If it works on Windows, I'm not interested anymore.

I suppose the appropriate response to that comment would be "As it is predominently a Windows world and as it figures it wouldn't run on a Mac, I'm not interested in whether it runs on Macs or not"

Particularly when it is a service freely offered to riders, not something you have to pay to use.

However... Crafty has proven over the last year he'll go to considerable lengths to help riders with the features they want, and I doubt he'd simply lock out the small minority that choose to use Macs. Perhaps, but not likely. I'm not going to go visit the original thread to search for comments regarding Macs when others can do the same.

The bottom line is that if it doesn't work in your browser, Crafty would probably like to hear about it and see if it is a problem with his code and fix it if he can. What you choose to do at this point is up to you.

I for one think that being able to download GPS tracks for the TAT, the CDR, local rides, etc with ride notes, gas station and camping locations, notes on gnarly sections, attractions you will be riding by, etc is pretty damned useful. Others, of course, may disagree.

Jäger wrote:

I suppose the appropriate response to that comment would be "As it is predominently a Windows world and as it figures it wouldn't run on a Mac, I'm not interested in whether it runs on Macs or not"

There is no "predominant windows world" per se anymore - if you want to reach people you have to take Mobile and Macs into account, you get Linux and alternative browsers for free then.

Jäger wrote:

Particularly when it is a service freely offered to riders, not something you have to pay to use.

That might be an argument. Yes. It shouldn't be, but being realistic - it is. But as I can't even see the site I didn't get far enough to find out. The problem is, if a website is designed like this it is very unlikely that it will work on a Mac except installing Windows on Fusion or Parallels.

Nevertheless - I have no Windows, have no access to Windows, will not buy and install Windows for this - therefore I'm done. Bummer, but that's what it is.

Don't get me wrong, this shouldn't sound arrogant or so, just that over the last years I have given up on pages that are not compatible with the system I use for everything I do in my computer life. And I do use my Mac for absolutely everything and have no problems at all.

cug wrote:

There is no "predominant windows world" per se anymore - if you want to reach people you have to take Mobile and Macs into account

It is true that if you want to reach "more" people you have to take Mobile and Macs into account, but all the recent market share statistics I have seen still place Windows as the "predominant" OS.

cug wrote:

just that over the last years I have given up on pages that are not compatible with the system I use for everything I do in my computer life. And I do use my Mac for absolutely everything and have no problems at all.

Sounds like you do have the odd problem with pages that are not compatible with your systems.

It's not unheard of for a new site to have teething problems, and it sounds like the creators are happy to fix them up. Maybe it will eventually work on your mac - it looks like a useful service.

This site works fine on Firefox 3.6.6 (running on XP)

cug wrote:

Don't get me wrong, this shouldn't sound arrogant or so, just that over the last years I have given up on pages that are not compatible with the system I use for everything I do in my computer life. And I do use my Mac for absolutely everything and have no problems at all.

It would appear that you do have problems with the Mac since you cannot get to the site. Like many others here, In my business I use computers belonging to me and my clients on a daily basis and I find that anyone who refuses or is unable to have access to both windows and Mac platforms simply misses out on some of the features and products not available on their platform. If that is your situation that is all well and good but comments such as "If it works on Windows, I'm not interested anymore." do sound arrogant and IMHO do not come across well to someone who has spent time and effort in creating a free and quite useful site.

bmwrider1946 wrote:

It would appear that you do have problems with the Mac since you cannot get to the site.

Don't get me wrong again - I don't have a problem with that. Websites are made available by a person for several reasons. If that reason is "make it widely available" for whatever drives this, it's not me that has a problem.

Of course I understand that the motivation for a free website is different as are the technical possibilities, but that is still not my problem. I have learned to put this in the bucket of "badly made pages" and be done with it.

bmwrider1946 wrote:

Like many others here, In my business I use computers belonging to me and my clients on a daily basis and I find that anyone who refuses or is unable to have access to both windows and Mac platforms simply misses out on some of the features and products not available on their platform

I'm in the lucky position that I can ignore Windows completely. Professionally as well as privately. I plain have absolutely no need for this system. I have better things to do with my time.

The interesting part of your quote is that it is always much more applicable to content providers than to content consumers. To tell a consumer "just get Windows" is pretty poor. To tell a content provider "make it available for the Mac and I might use it" is a valid request - whether it's honored or not doesn't matter, the request is still valid.

bmwrider1946 wrote:

If that is your situation that is all well and good but comments such as "If it works on Windows, I'm not interested anymore." do sound arrogant and IMHO do not come across well to someone who has spent time and effort in creating a free and quite useful site.

I admit that I missed the word "only". But it's fairly obvious that this was what I meant.

Here's a data point:

DualSportMaps.com works fine on my Mac:

iMac 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Mac OS X 10.6.5
Firefox 3.6.23


Not the latest/greatest hardware and software... but it does what I need and want for now.

Another datapoint: it started working for me now too. Big thanks to the developer.

cug wrote:

There is no "predominant windows world" per se anymore - if you want to reach people you have to take Mobile and Macs into account, you get Linux and alternative browsers for free then.

According to Apple, they own something like 11% of the US PC market, and much of that due to the iPad. When Microsoft owns the other 89%, you do have a predominantly Windows world. If you want to suggest that a an enormous number of people are running a flavour of Linux, then go ahead. I'll respond that there are far fewer Linux users than Apple.

The point is, if you have only so much money (or so much spare time as in Crafty's case), you target the greatest pool of potential users to start out with. When an Apple user can run a virtual Windows machine, I'd be even less inclined to spend time/money to write for 11% of the market unless it was going to pay off to do otherwise.

This is not a new discussion. It is one frequently held in the GIS world with people complaining that ESRI does not offer ArcGIS in an Apple flavour. The bottom line is Apple users are a small minority and appear to remain that way for some time to come. Particularly regarding devices that would have the horsepower to run ArcGIS - which the iPad isn't.

However, we digress.

Quote :

Nevertheless - I have no Windows, have no access to Windows, will not buy and install Windows for this - therefore I'm done. Bummer, but that's what it is... And I do use my Mac for absolutely everything and have no problems at all.

So it won't run this website, that's a bummer, but you use your Mac for absolutely everything and have no problems at all.

What I'm suggesting is if it DOESN'T work, you at least post over on the thread for DSM that it won't with your browser, and see if Crafty can fix that for you. The worst that can happen is he'll say "no", and you'll be no further behind than you are now.

EDIT:

I see Crafty already went in and fixed things for you proactively, without even waiting for a Mac user to post in the thread about problems.

Point made?

The thread exists to provide support for DSM users - and for users to offer suggestions for improvements and new features. That's why the DSM thread was created and why those who could benefit from DSM are encouraged to use it.

Jäger wrote:

According to Apple, they own something like 11% of the US PC market, and much of that due to the iPad.

Apple owns 11% of the desktop PC market. Mobile: There is virtually no mobile market aside from Apple at the moment - for the good or the bad, lets not get into this part of the discussion. When you look at mobile browsers, other platforms are virtually irrelevant.

The other point is: even with just 11% of the desktop market (or whatever the number currently is), this is the market where the private money is.

Jäger wrote:

The point is, if you have only so much money (or so much spare time as in Crafty's case), you target the greatest pool of potential users to start out with.

That's a misconception in my opinion as you can see from sales figures for good shareware. There is rarely any money to be made in the Windows or even the Android market. People there aren't buying software or services apart from anti virus software and personal firewalls and Office and a couple games. The Mac market is alive and kicking for all kinds of developers. If you can ignore that market - all the power to you.

Jäger wrote:

I see Crafty already went in and fixed things for you proactively, without even waiting for a Mac user to post in the thread about problems.

Point made?

Point taken. EOD for me now. Dead horse.

It wasn't working, and now it is, and I AM SUPER EXCITED!!!

very cool! excellent job

Anybody else just getting a rotating ball with a message that says "loading dualsportmaps.com"?

I'm running Windows XP (yeah, I know it's old. I'm at work......) and IE 8.

Thanks,
Scott P.

My Mac has no problem with this site. Thanks for all the hard work.

I used to just get a blank screen, now I get the (very cool) rotating ball and then it loads fine. Windows 7 and IE 9.

I'm sure that my problem is an old OS and older version of IE.

I'll try it at home. I've got Windows 7 and IE 9 there.

Thanks.

It loads just fine now on my Linux/Chrome setup. That didn't take long to fix!

What do all the symbols mean? Gas fill is obvious, gravestone not so much. Is there a legend somewhere?

GusinCA wrote:

What do all the symbols mean? Gas fill is obvious, gravestone not so much. Is there a legend somewhere?

Same as Garmin - they mean whatever the guy wanted them to mean when he selected them.

If they aren't super obvious, one would hope the uploader would comment their waypoints so they have some relevance to those using them. That's the idea behind it. I try to take the time to edit my waypoints whenever they aren't obvious i.e. a gas station. And then I try to put the phone number for the station in there and the hours they're open. Sucks to need gas and get there half an hour after they're closed...