Last week, we succeeded in hiding our first geocache.
We have hidden a "multi-cache", this is a walk which guides you along several waypoints. On these waypoints you need to search for a tag that leads to the next waypoint. On the last one, you will find the cache.
Since the launch last wednesday, 12 cachers found our cache so far. None did not succeed.
You can always visit the cache description, even without registering. Special thanks go to Isis, for the English translation, and to Team Cabdriver, colleague cachers that have tested our cache before it was published.
BTW this is a good cache to start geocaching. It's not too difficult, and shows you one of the most beautiful nature places in Limburg.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
Press Release results
It has been 3 weeks since we released a first press release on Vidivic. Google hits have been a keen indicator on the results. Where we went from 0 to 22.000 hits in one week, we dropped to 500 hits after 2 weeks and a half. Since this weekend, we went up again, to 3.300 hits today.
Most sites just took over the original message, which is nice off course, but what really pleases me are the websites that really review our service.
Last week, David Tebbutt contacted me with some questions concerning Vidivic. After answering some questions, we met in a Vidivic conference to show some features. David decided to blog in SmallBizPod, a very interesting blog, where David writes software and technology to increase business productivity.
This weekend he sent me a notification of the release of the Vidivic article. I'm delighted with the result, and hope more articles like this will follow.
Next to Google Alerts, I use BacklinkWatch to check new backlinks on Vidivic. Which made me find some other articles on Vidivic: CollaborationLoop, Jane's E-pick of the day and Kolabora
Most sites just took over the original message, which is nice off course, but what really pleases me are the websites that really review our service.
Last week, David Tebbutt contacted me with some questions concerning Vidivic. After answering some questions, we met in a Vidivic conference to show some features. David decided to blog in SmallBizPod, a very interesting blog, where David writes software and technology to increase business productivity.
This weekend he sent me a notification of the release of the Vidivic article. I'm delighted with the result, and hope more articles like this will follow.
Next to Google Alerts, I use BacklinkWatch to check new backlinks on Vidivic. Which made me find some other articles on Vidivic: CollaborationLoop, Jane's E-pick of the day and Kolabora
Friday, November 02, 2007
Garmin Etrex H GPS Geocaching Review
I finally found some time to write a review about my new Etrex H.
When searching for a new unit, reviews are always fun to read, but I couldn't find to many reviews when I was searching. This is probably due to the fact that the Etrex H is a quite recent model. However I promised myself to write a review when I've had the chance to test it fully. So here it is (finally).
The test is fully focused on Geocaching, since that is what I'm using the GPS unit for :)
In the box
The yellow Etrex H
A wristwrap
Manuals and a quickstart guide
There are no batteries included, but I was aware of that, so I bought a set of four AA NiMh2500 batteries, which were charged in advance :)
Let's Go!
As told in the manual, I went outside after inserting the batteries and firing the device up. It took about 2 minutes to calibrate and search for sattelites. It was however a very rainy day, which could cause some difficulties to find signals.
The real test began when we had the chance to do some geocaching.
The usability of the device for entering waypoints is one of the biggest disadvantages. I have used the Etrex Legend C which was much easier to use, but I guess this is probably one of the points Garmin saved money on, to make the Etrex H as cheap as it is... To overcome this problem, I ordered a serial cable on ebay, which arrived pretty quick, although it had to travel from Hongkong to Belgium :) Although it only solves part of the problem (when doing multicaches, you still have to enter coordinates manually), it is certainly a recommended attribute.
Out in the woods, the Etrex H never let me down. I have changed batteries before they ran out, but 10 hours without recharging is easily achievable. The Etrex H has indeed good reception, even in difficult areas with lot of trees or in the city.
The trip computer seems not as accurate as it should be. When putting the GPS in your jacket, it's not registering the complete distance. I haven't had the time to install the firmware upgrade from the end of october. Maybe this is solved. Measuring the distance we walked is however not one of the features I bought this device for.
Conclusion?
If you are new to geocaching, and want to spend as less money as possible, the Etrex H is a good choice. For fanatics however, the burden of inserting waypoints will quickly become to big, and the device will end up in the bin (or on ebay).
For us, this is however completely what we expected from it. It's cheap, and so far we have a 100% success rate on finding the caches. (15 out of 15 I guess:) )
When searching for a new unit, reviews are always fun to read, but I couldn't find to many reviews when I was searching. This is probably due to the fact that the Etrex H is a quite recent model. However I promised myself to write a review when I've had the chance to test it fully. So here it is (finally).
The test is fully focused on Geocaching, since that is what I'm using the GPS unit for :)
In the box
The yellow Etrex H
A wristwrap
Manuals and a quickstart guide
There are no batteries included, but I was aware of that, so I bought a set of four AA NiMh2500 batteries, which were charged in advance :)
Let's Go!
As told in the manual, I went outside after inserting the batteries and firing the device up. It took about 2 minutes to calibrate and search for sattelites. It was however a very rainy day, which could cause some difficulties to find signals.
The real test began when we had the chance to do some geocaching.
The usability of the device for entering waypoints is one of the biggest disadvantages. I have used the Etrex Legend C which was much easier to use, but I guess this is probably one of the points Garmin saved money on, to make the Etrex H as cheap as it is... To overcome this problem, I ordered a serial cable on ebay, which arrived pretty quick, although it had to travel from Hongkong to Belgium :) Although it only solves part of the problem (when doing multicaches, you still have to enter coordinates manually), it is certainly a recommended attribute.
Out in the woods, the Etrex H never let me down. I have changed batteries before they ran out, but 10 hours without recharging is easily achievable. The Etrex H has indeed good reception, even in difficult areas with lot of trees or in the city.
The trip computer seems not as accurate as it should be. When putting the GPS in your jacket, it's not registering the complete distance. I haven't had the time to install the firmware upgrade from the end of october. Maybe this is solved. Measuring the distance we walked is however not one of the features I bought this device for.
Conclusion?
If you are new to geocaching, and want to spend as less money as possible, the Etrex H is a good choice. For fanatics however, the burden of inserting waypoints will quickly become to big, and the device will end up in the bin (or on ebay).
For us, this is however completely what we expected from it. It's cheap, and so far we have a 100% success rate on finding the caches. (15 out of 15 I guess:) )
Friday, October 26, 2007
Androme: Vidivic enables free web based Videoconferencing
I've tried to blog the post from Digg, which worked out just fine... Interesting!
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
First Press Message: Vidivic: Free webbased Videoconferencing
This week, in our company Androme, we launched a first press message about our service Vidivic.
I assisted the company in doing this and was astonished with the results.
This is the original message we posted in collaboration with PRNewsWire
After a day the results were visible on google, our website went from 178 hits to 380 hits. After two days, this became 1100 and today we achieved 12000 search results. We know this will be temporarily, but it is interesting however.
To add something to it, I've added our newsmessage to some social bookmarking sites, like digg and del.icio.us.
Digg it!
Reddit!
I assisted the company in doing this and was astonished with the results.
This is the original message we posted in collaboration with PRNewsWire
Vidivic Enables Free Web Based Video Conferencing
DIEPENBEEK, Belgium, October 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Androme, a leading software development company announces the launch of Vidivic (http://www.vidivic.com), a free web based service offering high-quality video conferencing using Androme's Intellivic Software Development Kit (SDK).
Vidivic is a revolutionary new offering that will transform the way meetings are conducted. It enables users to meet business partners inside the web browser window, thus removing the need to travel long and time consuming journeys for often short meetings. The platform allows participants to join the meeting from their desks at the actual starting time.
In addition to high-quality video and audio, Vidivic manages the arrangements for the meeting - the user simply selects the people to be invited and states the meeting date and time. Vidivic makes video conferencing accessible to everyone with an internet connection, a web cam and a web browser. Without a web cam, participants can still join meetings using a microphone or telephone.
Nowadays, regular video conferencing solutions require large investments, hence being affordable by larger companies. Vidivic does not require large investments or dedicated hardware and will therefore also benefit a host of smaller companies too, making video conferencing more widely accessible. As a result, Vidivic targets all companies in need of inexpensive and easy-to-use video conferencing.
Notes to editors
Androme has gained market power in the area of video telephony communication platforms with its Intellivic product line (Softphone, Smartphone, SDK), a set of high quality SIP based audio and video telephony tools and products. The Vidivic service is based upon Androme's Intellivic Software Development Kit (SDK) which provides easy access to video telephony and communications using a set of APIs. The SDK is also sold to telecom operators and software companies wanting to integrate high quality audio and video into their products and services.
http://www.androme.com
http://www.intellivic.com
Vidivic is a free online video conferencing service which allows users to organize and attend web meetings. These meetings can be joined using a web cam and headset, to enjoy full video conferencing. If a pc or internet connection is unavailable, users can use a regular telephone to dial into the video conference and still participate in the meeting. Vidivic is built by in-house developers, using Intellivic SDK, a software development product which helps software developers to create their own video telephony applications.
http://www.vidivic.com
After a day the results were visible on google, our website went from 178 hits to 380 hits. After two days, this became 1100 and today we achieved 12000 search results. We know this will be temporarily, but it is interesting however.
To add something to it, I've added our newsmessage to some social bookmarking sites, like digg and del.icio.us.
Digg it!
Reddit!
Monday, October 01, 2007
Disneyland
Last week, we went to Disneyland in Paris.
We stayed in the Santa Fe hotel for 5 days, and went to the Disneyparks for 3 days.
I've uploaded some pictures to give you an idea of the fun we had :)
These are some pictures of the Main entrance of the Disneyland Park, with Main street.
We started with the Thunder Mountain train, which we did twice, since we were practically alone in the park :)
On the second day, we went to the studios park, where we enjoyed the ride through some Special Effects scenes, as you can see on the picture below.
On our last day in the park, we went to Discovery Land, and took some pictures, e.g. with the sword of Excalibur. I couldn't get it out of the stone, so I'm not the true king of Excalibur I guess.
Offcourse we enjoyed geocaching too when we were in Paris. We did some very pretty caches. We left our first geocoin (The Long Island Geocoin), and took another we found with us.
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After the trip to Paris, we stopped at the seaside in Belgium to spend the weekend. We went for a trip to Bruges, where we found 3 geocaches. Too bad all the geocoins were stolen from the caches...
We stayed in the Santa Fe hotel for 5 days, and went to the Disneyparks for 3 days.
I've uploaded some pictures to give you an idea of the fun we had :)
These are some pictures of the Main entrance of the Disneyland Park, with Main street.
We started with the Thunder Mountain train, which we did twice, since we were practically alone in the park :)
On the second day, we went to the studios park, where we enjoyed the ride through some Special Effects scenes, as you can see on the picture below.
On our last day in the park, we went to Discovery Land, and took some pictures, e.g. with the sword of Excalibur. I couldn't get it out of the stone, so I'm not the true king of Excalibur I guess.
Offcourse we enjoyed geocaching too when we were in Paris. We did some very pretty caches. We left our first geocoin (The Long Island Geocoin), and took another we found with us.
.jpg)
After the trip to Paris, we stopped at the seaside in Belgium to spend the weekend. We went for a trip to Bruges, where we found 3 geocaches. Too bad all the geocoins were stolen from the caches...
Friday, September 21, 2007
GPS update
The shop where I ordered our GPS (Etrex H) called today. They had some bad news, the shipment of Garmin did not include our GPS.
But, since we are leaving on a holiday, they could offer us a replacement GPS until we returned! I was stunned by the service, which I was definitely not expecting. Chapeau for Traxs!
So we are on the road with a Garmin Extrex Legend C! We will be going for our first GPS-based geocaches this weekend! To be continued!
But, since we are leaving on a holiday, they could offer us a replacement GPS until we returned! I was stunned by the service, which I was definitely not expecting. Chapeau for Traxs!
So we are on the road with a Garmin Extrex Legend C! We will be going for our first GPS-based geocaches this weekend! To be continued!
Thursday, September 20, 2007
New hobby: Geocaching!
About two weeks ago, Sophie told me about some friends of her, who were enjoying their new hobby.
"They walked with a GPS in search of some treasure".
My first thoughts were: "WTF and WTF".
After she told me the GPS wasn't actually very sofisticated, but was just giving coordinates and directions, my second thoughts were: "WTF, and who spends money on such things?"
After rethinking it, and doing some google, and finding some other friends who were also enjoying their hobby (WTF). My state of mind started changing slowly.
I got interested in geocaching (as it's called), and we found our first geocache, without a GPS :) (It was actually located about 750metres from our appartment).
For those who want a decent definition:
So my interest began to grow, and I started looking for an affordable GPS. I started looking for a GPS which I could use for geocaching and for car navigation. This seemed a bad idea since they are completely different. Car navigators are not accurate enough, and have difficulties for getting GPS signals in woods e.g. GPSes which can do both, cost easily up to 600 euros (maps included)...
So I started looking for a cheap handheld GPS, excellent for Geocaching. I finally ordered the Garmin Etrex H, where the H stands for High Sensitivity receiver. Which should get us within 3 metres of every cache we would like to find.
Since saturday, I'm waiting on the Garmin delivery at the local dealer. I'm hoping we will receive it before monday noon, since we are leaving for Disneyland at that time.
We would love to take the GPS with us, since there are some geocaches in paris which we would love to add to our "caches found" list. At the end of our 5-day trip to Paris, we are going to the seaside to spend the weekend (since they have geocaches everywhere, they also exist in Knokke... There are about 450.000 geocaches worldwide).
That should be enough to find new energy to start working again on monday!
"They walked with a GPS in search of some treasure".
My first thoughts were: "WTF and WTF".
After she told me the GPS wasn't actually very sofisticated, but was just giving coordinates and directions, my second thoughts were: "WTF, and who spends money on such things?"
After rethinking it, and doing some google, and finding some other friends who were also enjoying their hobby (WTF). My state of mind started changing slowly.
I got interested in geocaching (as it's called), and we found our first geocache, without a GPS :) (It was actually located about 750metres from our appartment).
For those who want a decent definition:
Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for gps users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a gps unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.
So my interest began to grow, and I started looking for an affordable GPS. I started looking for a GPS which I could use for geocaching and for car navigation. This seemed a bad idea since they are completely different. Car navigators are not accurate enough, and have difficulties for getting GPS signals in woods e.g. GPSes which can do both, cost easily up to 600 euros (maps included)...
So I started looking for a cheap handheld GPS, excellent for Geocaching. I finally ordered the Garmin Etrex H, where the H stands for High Sensitivity receiver. Which should get us within 3 metres of every cache we would like to find.
Since saturday, I'm waiting on the Garmin delivery at the local dealer. I'm hoping we will receive it before monday noon, since we are leaving for Disneyland at that time.
We would love to take the GPS with us, since there are some geocaches in paris which we would love to add to our "caches found" list. At the end of our 5-day trip to Paris, we are going to the seaside to spend the weekend (since they have geocaches everywhere, they also exist in Knokke... There are about 450.000 geocaches worldwide).
That should be enough to find new energy to start working again on monday!
Back!
Oh my, this blog completely got out of my mind, until a good friend of mine remembered me about it, by starting a blog by himself: Sjarel's Soccerproject behind the scenes blog
I'll just turn this blog up to date, and post something new now and then.
I've changed jobs, working at Androme now, which is actually a spinoff of the company I was previously working. We are in the telecommunications business, trying to get Videoconferencing accessible to everyone out there.
I'm still living with my girlfriend in the appartment I told about about a year and a half ago.
We went on holidays to the Provence (France), Athens (Greece) and Saalbach (Austria), but since that's a while ago, lets just forget about it ;)
We are leaving on a holiday next week, to Disneyland Resort Paris in France. I'll keep you posted about that trip!
I'll just turn this blog up to date, and post something new now and then.
I've changed jobs, working at Androme now, which is actually a spinoff of the company I was previously working. We are in the telecommunications business, trying to get Videoconferencing accessible to everyone out there.
I'm still living with my girlfriend in the appartment I told about about a year and a half ago.
We went on holidays to the Provence (France), Athens (Greece) and Saalbach (Austria), but since that's a while ago, lets just forget about it ;)
We are leaving on a holiday next week, to Disneyland Resort Paris in France. I'll keep you posted about that trip!
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