Updated from previous posting!

Garmin Forerunner 405

UPDATE: thanks to the efforts of lots of people in the community we are now able to download tracks from the Garmin Forerunner 405 Linux. See comment 3432 for a summary of how to do it.

I’d really like to get a Garmin Forerunner. It’s a GPS device with a heart rate monitor which you use for training, I’d use it for my running.

I don’t mind which model I get I don’t suppose – I’d like to get the 405 as it’s the latest and greatest and looks swish, but should be happy with the 305. Which I get depends on the money I can raise.

My immediate concern is that I use Ubuntu Linux, not Microsoft Windows, as my primary operating system. This, as any Apple Mac user will attest, means that typically manufacturers forget about us significant minority and so we can’t use their tools. In the case of Garmin their “Training Center” [sic, USA spelling] software is fairly critical to the whole experience as it analyses all the GPS data etc and gives you graphs/targets yada yada.

So I decided to get in touch with Garmin to ask whether Linux support was on its way, or whether they perhaps had a web-based version.

Off I trotted, onto the Garmin website. First of all I went to the UK site but the contact form was broken, it gave a 404 Not Found or something similar when I submitted my email. Thankfully the ‘back button’ saved me and I managed to retrieve the long text I had typed in.

I then tracked down an email address for the webmaster so emailed them about the contact form problem, but not had a reply.

At the same time I found a form on the USA version of the site and sent my enquiry to their.

I’m pleased to say that I did get a reply. Sadly they don’t have plans to support Linux, but Garmin Connect does look like it may be what I’m looking for as a web interface. So fingers crossed.

Conclusion? Their website let me down, but when the website worked the people manning the support email were helpful. I shall let you know if I manage to save up enough to get one!

This article serves as a reminder that as professional web developers we should never assume a certain level of prior knowledge from our users; it also demonstrates how Windows needn’t be the first operating system we introduce our relatives to.

http://dnc.digitalunite.com/2009/03/31/shopping-delivered-by-ubuntu-linux/

Sorry about the lack of posts recently, things are a bit hectic.

I have two draft articles that I haven’t gotten around to tidying up yet – one reviewing my online selling experience with Gumtree, Craigslist, Stuff4Sale and Preloved; the other reviewing my Garmin Forerunner 405. Plus I have photos of the garden from about 2 months ago which I still haven’t posted up, rubbish!

Also I have a load of GPX data and photographs from Hornsea back in August which I haven’t put on OpenStreetMap yet … which makes me wonder whether this mapping business was a bit of a flash in the pan for me, more on that later.

It’s going to be a while until I get these bits and pieces finished too because this week we start ripping out our old kitchen and replacing it with some ‘hand me down’ units and a new floor and the like.

I will however hopefully be finding time to visit the nice people at Ryedale Linux User Group this week – fingers crossed anyway.

I need to do a bit more flag waving for Ubuntu Linux. I have said it before, and I will say it again:

Ditch Microsoft Windows.

Download Ubuntu for free, don’t pay the Microsoft tax.

Anyway, my most recent wonderfulism was when I was sharing printers. A few years ago I was using Fedora Linux on a machine upstairs. Vicky was using Windows XP downstairs and wanted to use the printer that was connected upstairs.

Frankly this was always a pain in the arse.

It didn’t “Just Work” ™. Windows hated the printer. I had to edit config files by hand on the Linux machine.

A few weeks ago I re-installed the operating system, overwriting it with Ubuntu because I’m desperately trying to sell my old machine (shameless plug!).

I was dreading setting the printer sharing backup – but I needn’t have worried. About a dozen clicks later, on both Linux and Windows and lo’ it was all working.

If you want to share your printer with Windows, do this:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NetworkPrintingFromWinXP

I should say by the way that I’m not sure whether this is because Ubuntu is ace, or just because Linux has moved on somewhat in recent years. I suspect the latter, it would certainly be unwise to draw conclusions about Fedora based on this as it would not be a fair test!

This is a useful guide for beginners to Bash shell scripting: All about Linux: 10 Seconds Guide to Bash Shell Scripting.

I recommend that if you’re a little bit interested in Linux you have a listen to the Ubuntu UK Podcast.

Recently I joined the transcribers’ team. The aim of the team is to transcribe each of the existing episodes and all future ones to publish on that there Interweb.

My only contribution to date is to provide a way of prettifying the the transcriber XML files automagically, but more will follow!

I was speaking to good friend the other day and he was surprised to learn that I use Linux instead of Microsoft Windows. Given that he is doing some IT training at the moment it is a bit of a shame as he didn’t appear to regard Linux as viable alternative.

I have been using various flavours (distributions/distros) of Linux since about 2003. These have included Novell’s Suse and the Redhat sponsored Fedora.

If you are new to Linux you could think of the flavours of Linux as different versions of the Microsoft operating system – e.g. 98, ME, 2000, XP but that isn’t correct because each of those is an upgrade to the previous. It is better to think of a Linux distribution as an operating system in its own right, and it could replace whatever version of windows you currently have installed.

Anyway, enough of that – the point of this entry was to tell about a recent upgrade which I did.

For the last 6 months I have been using Ubuntu version 7.04 which was codenamed Feisty Fawn. It was the most user friendly o/s I had ever used. Well last night I fired up Ubuntu’s version of Windows Update and it told me that version 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon was available. Upgrading your entire o/s is generally risky, however I decided to give it a go and I’m glad I did – it went perfectly.

The files which needed to upgrade were downloaded in about an hour (1.6GB) and the upgrade itself took a further hour. But it just worked, I am quite amazed. Can you imagine upgrading XP to vista over the Internet and it not costing you a penny? No… neither can I!

So, thanks to the efforts of volunteers across the globe I have a totally free operating system that has all the shiny aspects of Vista installed over and evening without having to lose any my files. Great!