From Fortune: Sports stars should be subject to clawbacks
Much has been made of Lance Armstrong’s loss of future earnings. But his past earnings should be at stake too. Continue reading Weekend Reading List (9.8.2012): Repay Day, Google Maps It, Reasons to Run, Scotsman to Fly AGAIN!
From the Kansas City Star: Olympic blade runner is redefining what it means to be ‘able’
Learn the name. You’ll know his unique stride soon.
Oscar Pistorius will be a man to watch at the London’s Summer 2012 Olympics. He’s a South African runner who will challenge your view of what it means to be “disabled.” Continue reading Weekend Reading List (7.14.2012): Blade Runner, Beat the Heat, Google Bikes, Dumb Sports Tech
While not everyone always knows where they are going, with MapMyFitness -the health and fitness technology portal – now offers several new features to help you find your way. These the new Courses, advanced integration of Google Maps API for Business and even a new look and feel. The Courses span five primary categories including cycling, running, walking, hiking and winter sports – with hundreds of subcategories and specialties such as cross-country skiing and unicycling!
“As the largest online fitness social network community with more than 9 million users, we are excited to expand the functionality of our product portfolio to our rapidly growing base,” said Richard Jalichandra, chief executive officer of MapMyFitness in a statement. “Our goal is to enable athletes in the 40-plus sports supported by MapMyFitness to benefit from this enhanced level of product capability and functionality.” Continue reading MapMyFitness Gets Updated Website
GPS is very good for plotting distance when fairly direct travel is involved, but this isn’t always possible. One notable area where this can be difficult is with sailing as tacking to catch the wind is necessary, making it nearly impossible to determine arrival time. Continue reading A Tack With GPS
When you get home from a workout, do you want to review every step you took? The BackTrack D-Tour from Bushnell is a GPS device with just such a function. Clip this on your body and it tracks your movement, speed and other variables that you can upload to your computer and review all your stats and check out your distance on Google Maps. You can also share your workout results on various social networks.
The ruggedized device is weather resistant and can stand up to inclement weather including rain. It has a self-calibrating digital compass, time, temperature and altimeter. Even if you venture into territory where cell phones won’t get a signal, the BackTrack D-Tour won’t miss a step.
The D-Tour runs on Windows (XP SP1 or later) and MAC (10.49 or later) and takes three AAA batteries. It measures distances in yards/miles or meters/kilometers depending on your desired settings. It’s available for abou$120.
BackTrack D-Tour web page.
When you pull off the perfect stunt, you want to keep that memory forever and subject your family and friends to repeat viewings. But not only is a video camera capable of filming in HD heavy, it won’t stand up to the abuse of the road, trail, water, freefall or other dirt you might get into. The ATC9K all-terrain video camera from Oregon Scientific has you covered from 12,500-plus feet above sea level to 56 feet below the surface.
The camera’s bright yellow and black casing is built to withstand the tumbles and rolls in the dirt that come with adventure. The camera is waterproof and shock-resistant, and has a mount to allow for strapping it to a helmet, handlebars, surfboard or snowboard. To minimize the shaky video footage you see on many sports videos, the ATC9K has a built-in G-sensor that measures the force of gravity during acceleration, deceleration and hang time. An additional plug-in will enable PC-users to map the location, or the trip, where video was taken and tag it using Google Maps or Google Earth. When you ride your next century you can film the whole hundred miles and chart it on Google Maps to prove your distance and bragging rights.
To introduce the $299 camera, Oregon Scientific is running a video-upload contest on Facebook for a chance to win a prize worth $750.
We applauded Google years ago when it added walking directions to Google Maps. Public transportation directions are also helpful. The newest addition to Maps is Bicycling directions. Now in beta (what at Google isn’t?), you can look up the bike routes you take, and learn about new ones. I just mapped a ride I took a few times last summer, Manhattan to Nyack, New York. It suggested two routes that differed even a little from the two routes I’ve ridden in the past. Now I’m looking forward to a nice enough day to take the new routes.
For discovery, Google highlights streets by bike friendliness. Dark green lines on the map indicate dedicated bike-only trails. Light green lines mark streets with a dedicated bike lane along the road. Dotted green lines indicate roads without bike lanes, but still appropriate for biking based on terrain, traffic, and intersections. In hilly cities such as San Francisco Google Maps will plot out a course that’s less hilly. Of course you can always drag and drop your route on the map to adjust to your specifications.
Google partnered with Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a nonprofit that creates a network of trails from former rail lines, to build the data in over 150 cities for this project. To get biking directions you can go to Google Maps and select bicycling as your mode of transportation, or go to the specific page for bicycling.
Check out Google’s video on its new maps for bicycling.