Drift Diary: An app for Continuous Cruisers to log and prove their distance travelled

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, Tasemu said:

I don't think i'd want that. I already have a job, not after a second one.

 

I wouldnt take much notice of the negative comments if they are not particularly constructive.

 

At the end of the day if its a tool used on a voluntary basis people will decide if they wish to use it or not.

 

However the dynamic would change I think if there ever was a realistic proposition that this would become the 'de facto' method for monitoring boat movements used by CRT.

 

There would be I reckon a significant kick back against that.

[Higgs]

Just now, M_JG said:

At the end of the day if its a tool used on a voluntary basis people will decide if they wish to use it or not.

 

Voluntarily won't.

 

 

[IanD]

7 minutes ago, magnetman said:

It would be a fun statistic to compare smartphone market penetration amongst owners of canal boats in Englandland versus everyone in Englandland. 

 

Maybe it is something like 50 percent versus 90 percent +. 

 

Or not. 

 

Of course there is an age factor. 

Maybe it actually IS 50 percent because of luddite/old gittery. 

 

Fuddy duddies probably hate smart phones. 

https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/studies/mobile-statistics/

 

Last year by-age figures were available for had 88% for all adults, 96% for 16-24yo, 78% for 55+yo. Probably higher today, I expect 55+ are over 80%. Maybe boater luddite figures are lower...

 

 

[Arthur Marshall]

2 minutes ago, Higgs said:

 

Voluntarily won't.

 

 

So what? There are a raft of apps out there you don't use. Nobody's asking you to use this one, it's just being, rather generously, being made available to those who might. Your ungaciousness seems to have reached a new level.

[magnetman]

I wonder what the average age of a continuous cruiser is. 

[rusty69]

2 minutes ago, magnetman said:

I wonder what the average age of a continuous cruiser is. 

Nnnn nnn nnn nineneteen 

 

Paul Harecastle 

Edited July 31, 2023 by rusty69

[system 4-50]

1 hour ago, Tasemu said:

Hi all, been a while since I've posted here and i've decided to take a break from my usual begging for engine help to sit down and write something that I believe might help the boater community. I posted this on my Kennet and Avon facebook group earlier but thought it might be prudent to post it up here too. I wrote a snazzy intro i've copied below, but anyway I hope some of you might find it interesting.

Excellent!  The process of checking on movement by bodies who could be better employed in checking and fixing the infrastructure is 20th Century, perhaps your app will be a small step forward in changing this.

Any novel idea will automatically trigger negative responses, ignore them and soldier on!  It may turn out to be a useful tool, or develop slowly into a useful tool, but it will not if you allow yourself to be discouraged.  Keep at it! 

[Higgs]

Just now, Arthur Marshall said:

So what? There are a raft of apps out there you don't use. Nobody's asking you to use this one, it's just being, rather generously, being made available to those who might. Your ungaciousness seems to have reached a new level.

 

I've never asked anyone to do what I'm going to do. I've given reasons. I'm not the one browbeating.

 

 

[magnetman]

I suspect that people who genuinely do live an itinerant lifestyle might be marginally more likely to own smartphones due to the increased convenience versus computers. 

 

I almost always use the phone for internet and have done since internet enabled phones first came out (Nokia N95 was a favourite for posting on here back in the day). 

 

1 minute ago, rusty69 said:

Nnnn nnn nnn nineneteen 

Eighty Four

 

 

Add together divide by two. 

[Arthur Marshall]

15 minutes ago, magnetman said:

It would be a fun statistic to compare smartphone market penetration amongst owners of canal boats in Englandland versus everyone in Englandland. 

Maybe it is something like 50 percent versus 90 percent +. 

Or not. 

Of course there is an age factor. 

Maybe it actually IS 50 percent because of luddite/old gittery. 

Fuddy duddies probably hate smart phones. 

I got a Nokia smartphone many years ago, when even the concept of a smartphone was new. Still use it, still does everything I need. Not sure if that makes me fuddy.

Edited July 31, 2023 by Arthur Marshall

[IanD]

1 minute ago, Arthur Marshall said:

So what? There are a raft of apps out there you don't use. Nobody's asking you to use this one, it's just being, rather generously, being made available to those who might. Your ungaciousness seems to have reached a new level.

 

If CART decided that it was up to boaters to provide data to "satisfy the board", and by far the easiest way was a free app like this, and other ways to do it involved reams of paper and printouts and posting them to CART and paying a fee for them to manually check it, I wonder if Higgsy's opinion would be the same? 😉

2 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Nnnn nnn nnn nineneteen 

 

Paul Harecastle 

Maybe, if they were born on Feb 29th... 😉

[magnetman]

Just now, Arthur Marshall said:

I got a Nokia smartphone many years ago, when even the concept of a smartphone was new. Still use it, still does everything I need. Not sure if that makes me fuddy.

Can you access Canalworld with it? I have some very early smartphones but they are obsolete as the operating system no longer functions. 

[Higgs]

3 minutes ago, IanD said:

 

If CART decided that it was up to boaters to provide data to "satisfy the board", and by far the easiest way was a free app like this, and other ways to do it involved reams of paper and printouts and posting them to CART and paying a fee for them to manually check it, I wonder if Higgsy's opinion would be the same? 😉

 

I already pay to support people to do the checking. Didn't they used to be called Lengthsmen, or persons?

 

 

Edited July 31, 2023 by Higgs

[IanD]

5 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

Excellent!  The process of checking on movement by bodies who could be better employed in checking and fixing the infrastructure is 20th Century, perhaps your app will be a small step forward in changing this.

Any novel idea will automatically trigger negative responses, ignore them and soldier on!  It may turn out to be a useful tool, or develop slowly into a useful tool, but it will not if you allow yourself to be discouraged.  Keep at it! 

 

I wasn't trying to be discouraging, in fact exactly the opposite -- if such an app is good enough and resistant enough to being fiddled, the money spent on towpath checkers could be spent on lock fixers instead, and CMing would be discouraged... 🙂

Edited July 31, 2023 by IanD

[magnetman]

Should Marinas be required to pay for an NAA ? 

[IanD]

2 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Should Marinas be required to pay for an NAA ? 

For gawd's sake don't start that again so the usual idiots can pollute yet another thread with inane irrelevant arguments... 😞

Edited July 31, 2023 by IanD

[Arthur Marshall]

1 minute ago, magnetman said:

Can you access Canalworld with it? I have some very early smartphones but they are obsolete as the operating system no longer functions. 

Yup, though I don't, I use a tablet. Its web browser is, to put it mildly, clunky, but it does work. The email system is worse, but is fine in emergencies . It's got a big fold out screen, real keyboard, gps, garmin maps, book reader...

My son's an Apple addict always with the latest iphone, and I keep the phone partly to irritate him. The tablet is therefore android.

5 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Should Marinas be required to pay for an NAA ? 

Shhh...

[magnetman]

The App looks good. I wouldn't use it but it does make sense and could get quite a bit of takeup. 

 

I have no apps on my phone of this kind (photos, location etc) because I think it is a bit dodgy from a privacy point of view. At the end of the day the data Will get used. Even if the system says it won't it will. 

 

 

(Exception is the Victron SmartSolar app which won't work without location services enabled)

[ditchcrawler]

25 minutes ago, magnetman said:

It would be a fun statistic to compare smartphone market penetration amongst owners of canal boats in Englandland versus everyone in Englandland. 

 

Maybe it is something like 50 percent versus 90 percent +. 

 

Or not. 

 

 

 

Of course there is an age factor. 

Maybe it actually IS 50 percent because of luddite/old gittery. 

 

 

 

 

Fuddy duddies probably hate smart phones. 

How old gittery do you have to be. I have an android phone, I pad and laptop on board, the wife has an Iphone( I don't like them) but I am only 75, now my sister, she dosent boat but she has an Iphone and she is 83. It always surprises me when I see the age of people with there phones, my mother had one into her 90s

[rusty69]

3 minutes ago, magnetman said:

The App looks good. I wouldn't use it but it does make sense and could get quite a bit of takeup. 

 

I have no apps on my phone of this kind (photos, location etc) because I think it is a bit dodgy from a privacy point of view. At the end of the day the data Will get used. Even if the system says it won't it will. 

 

 

(Exception is the Victron SmartSolar app which won't work without location services enabled)

Yeah privacy is important. Lucky for you nobody has managed to glean any info about you from your infrequent postings on any forums innit. 

 

Edited July 31, 2023 by rusty69

[IanD]

3 minutes ago, magnetman said:

The App looks good. I wouldn't use it but it does make sense and could get quite a bit of takeup. 

 

I have no apps on my phone of this kind (photos, location etc) because I think it is a bit dodgy from a privacy point of view. At the end of the day the data Will get used. Even if the system says it won't it will. 

 

(Exception is the Victron SmartSolar app which won't work without location services enabled)

Why is enabling location data on Drift Diary any different to enabling it on Victron? Both presumably keep the data private to the app, and won't work without it. It's not enabled on other apps unless you authorise this... 😉

Edited July 31, 2023 by IanD

[rusty69]

Just now, IanD said:

Why is enabling location data on Drift Diary any different to enabling it on Victron? Both presumably keep the data private to the app, and won't work without it. It's not enabled on other apps unless you enable this... 😉

Maybe he trusts victron more than Google. 

[magnetman]

Just now, IanD said:

Why is enabling location data on Drift Diary any different to enabling it on Victron? Both presumably keep the data private to the app, and won't work without it. It's not enabled on other apps unless you enable this... 😉

Well the whole point of the drift diary appears to be uploading geotagged photos. Victron will probably just be using the data for identification of unexpected markets. 

 

I don't upload pictures of my boat to Victron. 

 

 

 

Geotagging (metadata or whatever) is quite a dodgy subject to get into in terms of privacy. 

 

 

[IanD]

2 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Maybe he trusts victron more than Google. 

Huh? Both are apps downloaded from Google Play, like all other apps secure and otherwise. What they do with the data is nothing to do with Google...

 

(enabling location on Google Maps and similar is a very different kettle of fish...)

Edited July 31, 2023 by IanD

[magnetman]

@IanD

 

I like your words 'presumably keep the data private to the app'. 

Edited July 31, 2023 by magnetman