Vor kurzem habe ich über eine mögliche Möglichkeit berichtet, wie ich mir vorstelle, dass Augmented Reality und GeoCaching miteinander verknüpft werden könnten.
Nachdem Wikitude eine API bietet, um erweiterte Informationen in ein Kamerabild hinzuprojizieren, ist mit GeoBeagle – so wie es ausschaut - die Realität nicht mehr weit von meiner Vision entfernt:
Sie sind da! Die ersten Sammelkarten für GeoCaches. Sammelkarten? Genau! GeoCacher sind Sammler. Wir sammeln GeoCaches. Wir tragen uns in Logbücher ein und markieren einen Cache als Found im Internet. Dadurch steigt ein virtueller Zähler, und sobald der Marken wie 50, 100, 200, 500, etc. übersteigt belohnen wir uns mit virtuellen Trophäen.
Einige Cache-Owner legen sogar Urkunden in ihre GeoCaches für den First to Find, Second to Find und sogar Third to Find.
Noch mehr Spaß kann es da bringen, wenn man als GeoCacher tatsächlich einen handfesten Beweis dafür in der Hand halten kann, dass der Cache gehoben werden konnte. Und dafür gibt es jetzt die Cache Collectible Cards.
Bislang gibt es erst einen GeoCache, bei dem es so eine Sammelkarte zu finden gibt. Little Jones I ist gleichzeitig der erste Multi, den Aer1th und ich gemeinsam gelegt haben. Zum Start habe ich den Cache mit neun Karten bestückt. Sobald die weg sind, lege ich nach.
Damit die Idee eine weite Verbreitung findet, rufe ich alle interessierten Cache-Owner dazu auf, sich mit mir in Verbindung zu setzen. Den Entwurf für die Karte gebe ich kostenfrei raus. Er lässt sich prima auf 270g schwerem Fotopapier drucken und damit kann jeder selbst starten, der einen entsprechend guten Drucker sein eigen nennt.
Ich habe viele coole Ideen, wie sich diese Idee noch ausbauen lässt. Für den Moment habe ich erst einmal eine kleine Dummyseite geschaltet, die ich aber demnächst noch ausbauen werde.
Update:
I have a new hobby. It’s called GeoCaching. In case you don’t know what GeoCaching is, you can get a good introduction here. Otherwise simply think of it as some sort of treasure hunt with the treasure map being GPS coordinates (that you find using a GPS enabled device) and the treasure usually being some sort of waterproof box with a logbook for you to leave your name and date when you found it. Believe me, it’s a lot of fun searching and more than that: finding GeoCaches.
As you can imagine, there are different types of GeoCaches. Traditionals like described above, Mystery Caches for which you need to solve puzzles, NightCaches that can only be found at night and several more. However, recently an absolutely awesome idea popped into my mind. An idea for a new type of GeoCache.
Augmented Reality basically means that the reality is “extended” by virtual information (most commonly 3D Objects). But how does this work? Easy: You place a marker that can be recognized by a special software that runs on a device which has an integrated camera (or the ability to have a camera attached). The software then extends the real world image with the virtual object and displays the result on the display. What makes AR so damn fancy is that this all happens in real time. So if you turn or tilt your device, the virtual objects does the same just as if it exists in the real world.
More easy: On the display it simply looks like as if the giant monster dwarf was really standing in front of you swinging his enormous warhammer. Only… that he’s of course not really there. 
Look here to get an impression of what the heck I am talking about.
So back to GeoCaching. GeoCaching means that you go to given GPS coordinates and then search for some sort of hidden treasure (the Cache). Sometimes you follow hints or need to solve puzzles.My vision now works like this: The coordinates lead you to a traffic sign for instance. You point your Windows Mobile cellphone with an integrated GPS device and camera to the sign and what you see on the display is a virtual three-dimensional arrow pointing to the right with a text on it saying 50m. Everyone else only sees that traffic sign. But you have a device that extends your sense of reality. You see more. You took the red pill!
So the AR Cache could incredibly increase the GeoCaching experience by adding hints, coordinates and visual clues to real world objects. Also, many cacher already use devices like Windows Mobile cellphones (for instance running CacheWolf) or the iPhone (running Groundspeaks own proprietary software). So there will be lots of people who can experience this new type of GeoCache.
For this type of GeoCache to work, a couple of things need to be accomplished. First of all, applications need to be developed that are able to recognize either simple marker or even basic geometric forms (to be able to work with real objects like traffic signs instead of stickers that need to be attached to real world objects). This application needs to be able to import markers as well as 3D Objects, images or whatever, so that a Cache Owner can create an own set of extension for his specific AR Cache. Of course it would be awesome if this application also has an Owner-Tool that makes it possible for the owner to create markers from real world objects instantly with the integrated camera of his device for instance.
Next, this type of software needs to be made widely available for different platforms. The easiest would most certainly be Windows Mobile. Also, Groundspeak should be pretty interested in extending their own GC software with this feature. A Java based application should be interesting, too, so that it will work on basically every device that is able to run own applications. Maybe this is something, the CacheWolf community is looking for?
Speaking of Groundspeak: I sent an email to them with a suggestion to create this new type of GeoCache. I am curious if I get feedback.
Please comment on this if you like the idea.
The one or other might have already stumbled across the famous three words when using InstallShields’ LogonInformation dialogs: List is empty. This preferrably happens right after you finished creating your setup and befor you are about to deploy it to a customers’s server. You click on <Browse> to see a list of available Domains and get “The list is empty”. You enter a domain name for yourself and click on <Browse> for a list of users in that domain and Windows Installer tells you it can’t find the domain you entered. So what the hell is wrong with that thing?
The answer is easy but you will be less than thrilled.
One of the software developers of Acresso explained they were using the API function NetServerEnum. And if you look here you will find out that if it does not work, the reason might be that the ComputerBrowser service is not active.
In all test cases I tried, I was able to get the LogonInformation dialog to work with enabling the ComputerBrowser service. However, this solution has a major drawback: The ComputerBrowser service itself depends on File and Printersharing. All these services are disabled by default on a Windows Server 2008 for instance.
In most cases you won’t be able to tell your customers they need to enable and active several services only for your setup to work. So I guess the bad news is that you will need to find a work around.
What I did, by the way, is implementing a couple of own Custom Actions and replace the calls in InstallShields’ dialogs with my own ones. That works like a charm.
If you are trying to deal with Security Descriptors, Access Control Lists, permissions and all that funny stuff, you might have already thought about why the hell nobody implemented an easy to use managed library for it yet.
Well. Somebody did.
There used to be a sample called Microsoft.Win32.Security that was released for free on gotdotnet. When you are reading this, I bet you already know that and found out that GDN does not exist anymore and Microsoft somehow forgot to put the code up on MSDN.
Also you will almost certainly already have stumbled across this site, that newsgroup and in case you are actually searching for a way of playing with DCOM also across myITforum and maybe Acresso.
If you also found out that the Assembly was built for .NET 1.1 and Microsoft already implemented an own (official) wrapper for .NET 2.0 and called it System.Security.AccessControl and if you also found out that it does not contain the features you needed, than read further.
Although you won’t find the official source of Microsoft.Win32.Security, there is at least one project still active that makes use of it and – fortunate for us – contains the complete sources. The project’s name is FlexWiki and you can download its sources easily with any Subversion Browser. Here is how:
For the last step you will have to enter the following URL: https://flexwiki.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/flexwiki and simply check out the main trunk.
You will find the sources for the Microsoft.Win32.Security assembly right under flexwikicore/trunk/lib/Win32Security. In the bin subfolder there already is a compiled dll you can use right away.
Hope that this information if useful for someone. If so, please comment.
Did you ever get to know something that existed right in front of you for years but you didn’t notice (like… factory farming for instance)?
Then look at this:
The common answer to this topic may be rather doing without any custom actions whatsoever However, I believe that there is a strong request for running PowerShell scripts for configuration purposes at installation time.
Although there currently is no real native way of doing so, it is still virtually possible and I will show you how.
On December, 4th, I posted a small article containing a youtube video of Brian the Build Bunny and simply the comment that I wished I had one (update on this: maybe I’ll get myself one…). What was most fascinating on this was, that two weeks later, I suddenly got over 300 hits on my blog (which usually has around 10 to 20 hits per day). I had a quick look at the stats and noticed that all of them went directly to my Build Bunny post.
However, the article didnt actually contain anything of any interest. And the referers didn’t show how those people got to my blog. Today, I noticed that there are still visitors looking for Brian (did you notice, that I had a typo in the headline?). This time I got curious. Where did those people come from anyway. So I had a closer look into the stats.
And guess what: From Redmond. Microsoft Corp.
This is so typical. I post really interesting stuff about how to quit Microsoft Windows Live OneCare, why Microsoft Windows 7 will kick ass, the all new Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2008 Branching Guide 2.0, how to generate Release Notes with Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2008 Team Build and automate the incrementing of Assembly version numbers (thanks again, Chris!). And they come for looking at a youtube video about Brian the Build Bunny.
Time to get one and do something with it, they really find interesting.
Since I can safely assume, that you guys from Microsoft still visit my blog for Brian, could you please add comments about why and where you got the link from?
The maya calender ends on december, 21st four years from now. That’s right. In 2012, the time’s over. There must be a reason for such a sophisticated civilization to calculate a calender that abruptly ends,… well… so soon. However, the mystery is finally solved. It becomes more and more obvious that an extraterrestrial group of maya enthusiastics are going to do something spectacular to initiate the resurrection of the most famous yet historical beings.
Understandably enough, this happening is not quite as easy as turning only one one dead man back alive. And with a schedule that tight, our foreign friends need to discreetly introduce their existance to us so that we are not gonna go crazy when last tickets are sold and the curtain finally rises. Because that’s gonna be one hell of a show and you can bet nobody wants to miss it.
So look around. It already started: On January 18th, a mysterious flash of light makes the sky over northern germany light up. Experts say, it was a meteor that went down. However, the remains are due to be found. See the video here and decide for yourself. Three days later, on January 21st, something identified as an unidentified flying object set off the alarm at Stuttgart Airport as it suddenly appeared, disappeared in Welzheim and reappeared in Dinkelsbuehl before it eventually vanished completely near a US military training area. Two appearancec within only three days. A coincidance?
And today, the newspaper cover a story about a flying object seen during the preparation of the inauguration of Barrack Obama in Washington D.C. CNN showed a video about something flying straight above the Washington Monument. Three appearances!
I am sure, authorities are well informed about the going ons and will start to leak information to us soon.
Stay tunes.
Vor kurzem hat Joel Spolsky einen Artikel in seiner Columne des Inc. Magazins veröffentlicht, in dem er von seinen Überlegungen und Erfahrungen zum Thema Bonuszahlungen spricht. Wie immer basieren diese Gedanken auf persönlichen Erlebnissen. Dieses Mal sind diese auch nicht lange her: Letzten Sommer verdankte Fog Creek Software einem jungen Praktikanten eine Idee, die so erfolgreich war, dass sie dem Unternehmen mehr als eine Million Dollar einbrachte. Um was für eine Idee es sich dabei handelte, wie Fog Creek damit umgegangen ist und ob dieser Praktikant am Ende einen Vollzeitjob antrat, kann in dem Artikel nachgelesen werden.
Für diejenigen, die mit englischen Texten nicht so viel anfangen können, habe ich ihn hier auf deutsch übersetzt. Viel Spaß beim Lesen!
