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-   -   [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;) (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=73068)

MasterZap 2011-05-23 16:12
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by LaptopU (Post 1013477)
Couple of questions though please. I would like to switch between other apps and leave this running in the background. I can switch by pressing ctrl-backspace on the keypad, but some other apps (particularly web browser) allow the title bar to appear by tapping the bottom right of the screen, yours doesn't. Would you plan to add that?
Actually, it's (trivially) possible to make a it such that the switcher thingy is still visible in the upper left (together with clock, battery, etc.). I simply opted against it purely for Aesthetic reasons.

I can quite trivially add a switch in the configuration for that, or a keyboard toggle, or whatever.

Quote:
Originally Posted by LaptopU (Post 1013477)
Also if I set the daemon to still run after the program exits, it seems to use a 'fast' GPS location which is generally the cell tower nearby. I can see the GPS fire up and shut down but it doesn't get a true lock, whereas if I leave the program running it gives an accurate lock.
It's supposed to give you a lock, but maybe the 15 second timeout I added in a recent release is too short for it to get a good gps.... basically, I turn on the GPS, and give it 15 seconds to give me a good fix, and if I havn't gotten a good fix in 15 seconds I take whatever "bad" fix I got

I should probably increase that a little, 15 seconds is pretty tight... it's okay when you have good signal (like I have out on the countryside where I live) but in a tighter scenario it's probably touch-and-go. I will increase this timeout.


/Z

ndi 2011-05-23 20:42
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
15 seconds is plenty with a-GPS.

Configuration of timeout could be nice, but if it's not locked in 15 secs you probably don't have a-GPS or haven't locked before, meaning the next timeout is the full GPS cycle of 90 seconds plus in perfect conditions, 4-5 minutes under less than ideal. It's a bit on the large side?

MasterZap 2011-05-24 05:37
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ndi (Post 1013905)
15 seconds is plenty with a-GPS.

Configuration of timeout could be nice, but if it's not locked in 15 secs you probably don't have a-GPS or haven't locked before, meaning the next timeout is the full GPS cycle of 90 seconds plus in perfect conditions, 4-5 minutes under less than ideal. It's a bit on the large side?
Yes, 15 seconds is plenty with good reception, I "normally" get a fix within about 5 seconds (or as little as 3). But since my code does have a 15 second timeout (where it then reverts to the cell tower location), and I've found that, sometimes, I still get cell-towers (maybe when the phone is in my pocket or whatnot), clearly 15 seconds isn't quite enough.

I will probably be adding a third mode that is "Always use GPS", which has the same logic and timeouts, but simply will *never* use a cell location, simply not posting any update at all if it didn't get a "gps quality" fix within the timeout. Then you, as a user, have the choice suitable for your environment, i..e

- very urban (New York city-canyons and offices): Cell only
- medium (smaller city with some open spaces): Cell+GPS
- rural (nearly always good gps fixes): GPS only

Should be a trivial change.

/Z

MasterZap 2011-05-24 06:53
A Question about User Interface
 
Hi Guys, a question:

I think I may have been a bit too paranoid with the Daemon settings in the UI of ZapLoc.

I'm starting to think of changing it like this:

- default "Background Updates" to off (I still think I need to have somethign like this off by default so people are always aware when they turn it on... or do you think people is smart enough to realize this anyway? I don't want to get liable for my app sharing stuff people didn't want....)

- remove the settings of "when to start" and "when to stop" the daemon.

The new logic would be:

- if "background updates" is on, daemon starts at boot and never stops
- If "background updates" is off, daemon either a) doesn't run at all, or b) just runs while the main program is visible.


My questions to you:

#1 Does this change make sense?
#2 Should it do a) or b) for "background updates"=Off mode?


I just realized I was being overzealous here: For example, "auto checkins" and "latitude updates" are ALSO both off by default. Lots of stuff to turn on before it actually works :)


/Z

amadeukaos 2011-05-24 07:15
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
how can I add a new place? :D

MasterZap 2011-05-24 07:18
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by amadeukaos (Post 1014179)
how can I add a new place? :D
You can't... this is a consumption app, not a creation app.

For Gowalla, I suggest m.gowalla.com

For FourSquare I suggest www.cotchin.com/m

For Facebook Places I don't know what to suggest any more, in the past touch.facebook.com worked on the N900, but Facebook has removed that site in favour of a crappy mobile site :(

Maybe someone has a tip how to add facebook places on the N900?

/Z

Gusse 2011-05-24 07:20
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Thanks for the great application!

Should I have several zaploc-daemon.py running parallel? After 1st start I have.
Quote:
~ $ ps -w|grep zap*
18575 user 125m S /usr/bin/python /opt/zaploc/zaploc.py
18609 user 50072 S /usr/bin/python /opt/zaploc/zaploc-daemon.py -d
19116 user 50072 S /usr/bin/python /opt/zaploc/zaploc-daemon.py -d
19150 user 50072 S /usr/bin/python /opt/zaploc/zaploc-daemon.py -d
After each start of ZapLoc there will be a new zaploc-daemon.py running in addition to old ones. Does not matter if background updating is set to stop when app closes or not. Battery drain is also quite huge after enabling Zaplog even updates should happen in every 30min. Drain remains also after disabling background updates.

petur 2011-05-24 08:12
Re: A Question about User Interface
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MasterZap (Post 1014170)
The new logic would be:

- if "background updates" is on, daemon starts at boot and never stops
- If "background updates" is off, daemon either a) doesn't run at all, or b) just runs while the main program is visible.


My questions to you:

#1 Does this change make sense?
#2 Should it do a) or b) for "background updates"=Off mode?
For me, enable/disable daemon is more than enough, and in that context in OFF mode it should do b) - only update while the program is active....

I understand you're looking for new stuff to work on, but for me ZapLoc is good as it is :)

Or maybe.... you could add an option to let it behave like Android. On Android, latitude is updated more frequent and using GPS when you are moving. But I'd probably never use this anyway ;)

morti 2011-05-24 09:05
Re: A Question about User Interface
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MasterZap (Post 1014170)
- if "background updates" is on, daemon starts at boot and never stops
- If "background updates" is off, daemon either a) doesn't run at all, or b) just runs while the main program is visible.
Short answer:

Makes perfect sense in my opinion, this is how I would expect it to work and I bet everyone already has it configured this way.
I would go with mode b).

Long answer:

There are two separate cases in mode b):

- If you don't have the background daemon running, you are probably starting the main program in order to update your position and to see the map/check in - daemon should be on while the main program is running.

- If you already have the daemon running, you are probably starting the main program to see the map and/or check in - in this case the daemon should either:
b1) keep the same settings it had in background mode, or
b2) restart with the default settings

My humble (and possibly too laborious) suggestion is:
Keep the background daemon and the main program daemon separate from each other. When the user starts the main program, you could suspend the background daemon until the main program is closed. The settings should be separate as well, as the use cases for using the background daemon and running the main program are typically rather different.

MasterZap 2011-05-24 09:06
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gusse (Post 1014183)
Thanks for the great application!

Should I have several zaploc-daemon.py running parallel? After 1st start I have.


After each start of ZapLoc there will be a new zaploc-daemon.py running in addition to old ones. Does not matter if background updating is set to stop when app closes or not. Battery drain is also quite huge after enabling Zaplog even updates should happen in every 30min. Drain remains also after disabling background updates.
No, this should not happen. Which build are you running? Are you starting it from the icon or command line? And if from the command line, are you "user" or "root" when doing so?

/Z

Gusse 2011-05-24 09:37
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MasterZap (Post 1014234)
No, this should not happen. Which build are you running? Are you starting it from the icon or command line? And if from the command line, are you "user" or "root" when doing so?

/Z
Program is started from menu icon, not command line.
Same issue with versions: 0.9.4-36 & 0.9.4-37.

MasterZap 2011-05-24 09:38
Re: A Question about User Interface
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by morti (Post 1014233)
Short answer:

Makes perfect sense in my opinion, this is how I would expect it to work and I bet everyone already has it configured this way.
I would go with mode b).
Thinking about it some more, I actually disagree.

If I said "no" to background updates (by unchecking it) I then per definition want nothing to happen "in the background", regardless if the app is running or not... so for example, if I am composing a nice manual check in to the location I'm at, I don't want to be preempted by some auto-check in in the back. Or I may be turning it off for bandwidth reasons, or whatever.

Remember you can still MANUALLY check in, even if the daemon isn't running.

The only thing you are missing is Latitude updates.... but also remember, these explicitly live in the user interface behind the "Run in background" checkbox... which is off. Sould latitude updates still happen? Methinks not!

Then I'd rather add an explicit manual latitude update mode for that case.

So I decided that "run in background=OFF" really means the daemon is completely off.

Quote:
Originally Posted by morti (Post 1014233)
Long answer:

There are two separate cases in mode b):

- If you don't have the background daemon running, you are probably starting the main program in order to update your position and to see the map/check in - daemon should be on while the main program is running.
You need no daemon to manually check in (except for Latitude, which is a special case)

Quote:
Originally Posted by morti (Post 1014233)
My humble (and possibly too laborious) suggestion is:
Keep the background daemon and the main program daemon separate from each other. When the user starts the main program, you could suspend the background daemon until the main program is closed. The settings should be separate as well, as the use cases for using the background daemon and running the main program are typically rather different.
This is sort of what is happening. Check ins that happen when you press the "Check In" button is a different thing than the daemon auto-checking you in.

All that is missing really is a manual way to check in to Latitude.... which is quite easy to add.

/Z

morti 2011-05-24 10:12
Re: A Question about User Interface
 
Thanks for the clarification, it seems I had a slightly different idea about what running the daemon means. Taking your description into account, this does make sense - I also wouldn't want auto check-ins to happen while I'm running the main program.

As you said, the only thing missing with your description is a way to update latitude without the daemon - manual check ins for this sounds like a good solution.

MasterZap 2011-05-24 10:25
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gusse (Post 1014260)
Program is started from menu icon, not command line.
Same issue with versions: 0.9.4-36 & 0.9.4-37.
That's odd. Doesn't happen here. Do you have the updated busybox, by any chance?

What does this line print for you:

Code:
ps -a | grep "zaploc-daemon"

EDIT: Try build 0.9.4-39.


/Z

Gusse 2011-05-24 11:19
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MasterZap (Post 1014279)
That's odd. Doesn't happen here. Do you have the updated busybox, by any chance?
Yes I have. Is this a problem? Should I revert back?

Quote:
Originally Posted by MasterZap (Post 1014279)
What does this line print for you:

Code:
ps -a | grep "zaploc-daemon"

EDIT: Try build 0.9.4-39.


/Z
Using 0.9.4-39.
If background service is OFF, then it shutdown OK (no ghost program running in backgroung)
If background service is ON, then
Code:
~ $ ps -w|grep "zaploc-daemon"
3815 user 50968 S /usr/bin/python /opt/zaploc/zaploc-daemon.py -d
3951 user 50820 S /usr/bin/python /opt/zaploc/zaploc-daemon.py -d
4066 user 50824 S /usr/bin/python /opt/zaploc/zaploc-daemon.py -d
4130 user 2832 S grep zaploc-daemon
Above is after 3rd time closing ZapLoc. Each time a new daemon is added.

MasterZap 2011-05-24 11:27
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gusse (Post 1014319)
Yes I have. Is this a problem? Should I revert back?
Other people have had the same issue w. new busybox, but it was due to a wrong "ps -e | grep" line I used (-e not a proper option in new busybox, and it was wrong anyway, was supposed to be -a)

However, that should have been fixed in 39... :/ Strange.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gusse (Post 1014319)
Using 0.9.4-39.
If background service is OFF, then it shutdown OK (no ghost program running in backgroung)
If background service is ON, then
Code:
~ $ ps -w|grep "zaploc-daemon"
3815 user 50968 S /usr/bin/python /opt/zaploc/zaploc-daemon.py -d
3951 user 50820 S /usr/bin/python /opt/zaploc/zaploc-daemon.py -d
4066 user 50824 S /usr/bin/python /opt/zaploc/zaploc-daemon.py -d
4130 user 2832 S grep zaploc-daemon
Above is after 3rd time closing ZapLoc. Each time a new daemon is added.
What's "-w", I wonder? "-a" (all users) is what I would have expected to use....?

If you start ZapLoc from xterm and see what it prints ("Starting Daemon", "Stopping Daemon" etc. like that) would be helpful. Ideally run as "user", not "root".

Actually the exact output of this would be very helpful:
Code:
ps -a | grep "python.*zaploc-daemon.py" | grep -v grep | awk '{print $1}'
/Z

Gusse 2011-05-24 11:37
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MasterZap (Post 1014325)
Other people have had the same issue w. new busybox, but it was due to a wrong "ps -e | grep" line I used (-e not a proper option in new busybox, and it was wrong anyway, was supposed to be -a)

However, that should have been fixed in 39... :/ Strange.



What's "-w", I wonder? "-a" (all users) is what I would have expected to use....?

If you start ZapLoc from xterm and see what it prints ("Starting Daemon", "Stopping Daemon" etc. like that) would be helpful. Ideally run as "user", not "root".

/Z
There seems to be only one option in the new busybox for ps and it is -w, -a is not valid (w = wide output). Don't know why this modifications is done?
Code:
~ $ ps --help
BusyBox v1.18.4 (Debian 1.18.4power4) multi-call binary.

Usage: ps

Show list of processes

Options:
w Wide output

ndi 2011-05-24 11:51
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
IMO, for the paranoid, app should use a flag. E.g., a file on disk, created on start, deleted on end, or, better, locked when app starts.

Daemon doesn't updte if file isn't locked, so start and stop daemon is only a matter of resources, not security. So even if it doesn't stop right, it simply sits there.

ETA: App closing could check daemon has stopped. Exiting could issue a kill and inform user it's done or not via a ps | grep

Gusse 2011-05-24 13:48
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Uninstalled "Enhanced Busybox 1.18.4" and now ZapLoc works OK.
Thanks for your help!

Edit: I tried once again with new BusyBox with procps installed, which brings better ps tool, but still not working as it should.

MasterZap 2011-05-24 13:51
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Ok, then I will remove "-a", I must have misunderstood the earlier poster about the problems w. new busybox "ps". It seems the current busybox actually ignores all options anyway (gladly takes "-klptzyxm") so it doesn't matter anyway....

Will be fixed later....

/Z

ndi 2011-05-25 13:09
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Updated to 42.

Now daemon starts at boot (--boot) which is not fun, because it doesn't have network yet and it doesn't lock.

Furthermore, exiting app leaves it running (-d). Setting seems gone. Did you give up trying to kill it?

petur 2011-05-25 13:24
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
tried the manual latitude 'checkin' and it froze the app - had to kill it.

MasterZap 2011-05-25 13:26
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Yes, read back a few pages, I decided to change the semantics of the settings:

- removed the "when to start" and "when to stop" crap (too many settings for the same thing, really)

- there is simply a single on/off button for "Background updates". When on, it starts at boot, and doesn't stop. When off, it doesn't start at boot, and if you run zaploc and it finds a running daemon it kills it.

Was this too much change...?
I could consider re-instating a "start at boot" checkbox if that helps.

/Z

MasterZap 2011-05-25 17:26
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by LaptopU (Post 1013477)
Couple of questions though please. I would like to switch between other apps and leave this running in the background. I can switch by pressing ctrl-backspace on the keypad, but some other apps (particularly web browser) allow the title bar to appear by tapping the bottom right of the screen, yours doesn't. Would you plan to add that?
Now hitting "F" on keyboard toggles fullscreen mode.

Quote:
Originally Posted by LaptopU (Post 1013477)
Also if I set the daemon to still run after the program exits, it seems to use a 'fast' GPS location which is generally the cell tower nearby. I can see the GPS fire up and shut down but it doesn't get a true lock, whereas if I leave the program running it gives an accurate lock.
There is now a third mode which NEVER uses any non-gps coordinates. Instead of failing over to cell-tower, it simply doesn't post the location at all, if there is no GPS fix.

/Z

ndi 2011-05-25 21:36
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MasterZap (Post 1015137)
- there is simply a single on/off button for "Background updates". When on, it starts at boot, and doesn't stop. When off, it doesn't start at boot, and if you run zaploc and it finds a running daemon it kills it.
Could you add a delay at start? First, the network is still down, as posted, second, there's a lot going on at startup, why add to the pain? Add a wait 60 or something at startup, give the phone a chance to start fully, do the desktop, go though the tracker, browserd doing stuff.

Just rebooted, and it failed to lock, keeps blinking for minutes. Sometimes I'm low on battery and powering GPS on boot doesn't help.

Just a suggestion. May work fine for other people

MasterZap 2011-05-26 15:53
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ndi (Post 1015533)
Could you add a delay at start? First, the network is still down, as posted, second, there's a lot going on at startup, why add to the pain? Add a wait 60 or something at startup, give the phone a chance to start fully, do the desktop, go though the tracker, browserd doing stuff.
Added to build 43.

Tho on my device this is not a problem... I'm hooking the latest possible hook-point in event.d, which is when hildon-desktop has started.... but now there is an extra 60 seconds of "do nothing" until it turns the location subsystem on.

/Z

morti 2011-05-26 19:16
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Got a problem lately, where the daemon seems to be satisfied with cell location even though mode is on --gps. When starting the daemon, GPS icon flashes for a few seconds until coarse accuracy appears, then disappears and latitude is updated.

Verbose output of an example case:
Code:
Starting ZapLoc daemon...
Location method: GPS only
60 minutes between samples
22:07:38: Starting GPS...
22:07:38: Actual GPS interval 60 minutes
22:07:38: Got loc data <snip> (acc nan), Mode 1 - IGNORED
22:07:40: Got loc data <snip> (acc 53.763000), head nan, speed nan, Mode 2, Try 0
22:07:40: Latitude update <snip> (acc 53.763000)
22:07:41: Checked you in at <snip> on Latitude
22:07:41: General location update <snip> (acc 53.763000)
22:07:41: Searching for closest spot:
22:07:41: The closest AutoCheck spot is <snip>
22:07:41: Spot ignored because it is further than 50 meters away
22:07:41: Sleeping... Zzzzz
22:07:45: Got loc data <snip> (acc 53.763000), Mode 0 - IGNORED
22:08:08: A good location fix was acquired within the timeout: Good!
(build 43, happened with earlier builds as well)

As you can see from the timestamps, the daemon doesn't even try to wait for a better fix.

Ideas?

ndi 2011-05-26 23:57
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Why try better than 53 meters?

MasterZap 2011-05-27 05:39
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by morti (Post 1016231)
Got a problem lately, where the daemon seems to be satisfied with cell location even though mode is on --gps. When starting the daemon, GPS icon flashes for a few seconds until coarse accuracy appears, then disappears and latitude is updated.

Verbose output of an example case:
Code:
Starting ZapLoc daemon...
Location method: GPS only
60 minutes between samples
22:07:38: Starting GPS...
22:07:38: Actual GPS interval 60 minutes
22:07:38: Got loc data <snip> (acc nan), Mode 1 - IGNORED
22:07:40: Got loc data <snip> (acc 53.763000), head nan, speed nan, Mode 2, Try 0
22:07:40: Latitude update <snip> (acc 53.763000)
22:07:41: Checked you in at <snip> on Latitude
22:07:41: General location update <snip> (acc 53.763000)
22:07:41: Searching for closest spot:
22:07:41: The closest AutoCheck spot is <snip>
22:07:41: Spot ignored because it is further than 50 meters away
22:07:41: Sleeping... Zzzzz
22:07:45: Got loc data <snip> (acc 53.763000), Mode 0 - IGNORED
22:08:08: A good location fix was acquired within the timeout: Good!
(build 43, happened with earlier builds as well)

As you can see from the timestamps, the daemon doesn't even try to wait for a better fix.

Ideas?
Yep. Your tower claims to be closer to you than 53 meters... which I kind of doubt it is... I actually seen this myself, towers that obviously claim their accuracy is way higher than reality.

Basically, I'm now looking at accuracy, rather than the sample mode, but I think that in "--gps" mode, I should change it to still be looking at the mode=3 (which means "this value came from the GPS"). This is a trivial fix.

Curious; how far away would you guesstimate that tower actually is? I noticed that the tower I normally get connected to, which is about 2000m from me, claims to have "253 meter" accuracy. Dunno what's with the "53" at the end at all these :)

/Z

morti 2011-05-27 06:42
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MasterZap (Post 1016486)
Basically, I'm now looking at accuracy, rather than the sample mode, but I think that in "--gps" mode, I should change it to still be looking at the mode=3 (which means "this value came from the GPS"). This is a trivial fix.

Curious; how far away would you guesstimate that tower actually is?
Sounds like a good idea, if we can't trust the accuracy of the tower. It's a shame though, I like your idea of first looking at the accuracy regardless of mode.

The tower is roughly 450-500 meters away in reality.

MasterZap 2011-05-27 07:24
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by morti (Post 1016514)
Sounds like a good idea, if we can't trust the accuracy of the tower. It's a shame though, I like your idea of first looking at the accuracy regardless of mode.

The tower is roughly 450-500 meters away in reality.
Right. If the tower accuracy was better, this could be extremely useful information. For example, I was originally tinkering with an idea something like
- if we don't get a GPS lock, but the LAST GPS lock is within the accuracy radius of the cell tower lock, assume it is still the GPS lock, but if not, take the cell tower.

All such logic sounds clever, but completely breaks due to the useless reported "accuracy" of towers :(

Next build (whenever I get around to make one) will have this change, it's a supertrivial change.

/Z

ndi 2011-05-27 11:55
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
May I say, if you care about 100 meters you should look for GPS accurate lock only. Issue being, even with "20 meters", subsequent positions jump around by 50 meters under normal circumstances.

Using the positioning desktop applet I can see it wiggle. Not to mention GPS has about 10 meters under ideal circumstances, add real life and it goes dancing for 20-50 meters.

If you want this kind of accuracy, use GPS perfect lock, but what if it isn't available? Smallest radius? For how long? Is it worth having GPS working a minute for a relative improvement of basically within tolerance of a lock?

IMO, lock mode should be Tower, GPS, Tower+GPS and GPS+tower.

In Tower+GPS, it tries tower. If tower is good, hurray.
In GPS+Tower, it tries tower. Then GPS. If GPS fails or is worse than tower, use tower.

Idea being that one does high precision or bust, the other is best try. Then there's battery-saving tower and battery-eating GPS.

Alternately, have Tower and GPS ckeckboxes, and another chack to "use best guess".

If tower, try tower. If GPS, try GPS. If use best guess, it uses the best accuracy it could. Not if it's completely off, though, with a limit like it is now. Ideally, GPS could have a manual timeout setting for each. Me, e.g., I'd keep GPS on, 10 seconds (either I'm out or not), tower and use best guess if under 1000 meters.

So, check box GPS, check Tower, Lock time limit and accuracy limit edit boxes. Should cover all situations thus far?

MasterZap 2011-05-27 14:02
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
This is roughly what is there already. You have three modes:

"Cell tower": Takes any position it gets... doesn't even try to turn the GPS ON

"Cell+GPS". Turns the GPS, and tries for a while (30 seconds for now, and not configurable, for now - this might change, but I don't want to clutter the UI with useless minuteae) and if no GPS fix comes in, settles for the cell tower fix... if a GPS fix DOES come in, take that.

"GPS Only". As per above, but if 30 seconds pass with no GPS fix, it simply doesn't do anything and ignores it, never actually uses a cell location AT ALL.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ndi (Post 1016691)
So, check box GPS, check Tower, Lock time limit and accuracy limit edit boxes. Should cover all situations thus far?
Interesting. I'll think about it. In a sense, I have all those parameters already, tho the timeout and the accuracy limit are not configurable at this point.

/Z

cpm 2011-05-29 07:13
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Thanks MasterZap for creating ZapLoc and for your receptive approach to feedback in this forum.

I'd appreciate a selectable GPS fix duration: at the moment (0.9.4-41) ZapLoc background daemon normally puts me around 400 metres away from my true position when I'm at home, but the UI gets it right if I leave it open for a bit. The "googlelatitude" app was more accurate for me (before it broke).

If I find it drains the battery too much, I'd decrease the update interval rather than lose accuracy. Accuracy is more important to me.

MasterZap 2011-05-29 09:25
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Have you set it in the "GPS" mode, not "GPS+Cell"? And use the latest version (build 44) .

But you may actually get what you want in next version (i.e. settable timeout). Doesn't hurt to make it a settable option....

/Z

cpm 2011-05-29 10:08
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MasterZap (Post 1017848)
Have you set it in the "GPS" mode, not "GPS+Cell"? And use the latest version (build 44) .
I've now upgraded and reconfigured and will see how it goes. Thanks!

Xudonax 2011-05-29 20:18
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
I really love this app, finally I can join my friends in our FourSquare madness :D
Only downside is that I can't seem to enable Facebook Places in build 45. The error is:
Code:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/zaploc/zaploc.py", line 6, in <module>
    while (app.zaploc.main())
  File "/opt/zaploc/zaploc.py", line 1848, in main
   
  File "/opt/zaploc/zaploc.py", line 863, in config_services
   
pygame.error: Unsupported image format
This only happens wih Facebook Places. I've already added a FouurSquare account.

MasterZap 2011-05-30 08:14
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xudonax (Post 1018146)
I really love this app, finally I can join my friends in our FourSquare madness :D
Yep, and with the Auto-checkin feature, you'll be Mayor everywhere, because you'll never forget checking in ;)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xudonax (Post 1018146)
Only downside is that I can't seem to enable Facebook Places in build 45. The error is:
Code:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/zaploc/zaploc.py", line 6, in <module>
    while (app.zaploc.main())
  File "/opt/zaploc/zaploc.py", line 1848, in main
   
  File "/opt/zaploc/zaploc.py", line 863, in config_services
   
pygame.error: Unsupported image format
This only happens wih Facebook Places. I've already added a FouurSquare account.
Hmm, this means that your profile picture on Facebook wasn't a jpeg file... which the code assumes.

I can wrap this in an exception handler so it doesn't break.

/Z

Xudonax 2011-05-30 08:31
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MasterZap (Post 1018372)
Hmm, this means that your profile picture on Facebook wasn't a jpeg file... which the code assumes.

I can wrap this in an exception handler so it doesn't break.

/Z
Well, this happens as soon as I tick the Facebook Places checkbox. So at this point the app doesn't even know what kind of profile picture I have...

Gusse 2011-05-30 08:42
Re: [Announce] ZapLoc - a Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook places/Latitude aggregator - "All your location based services are belong to us" ;)
 
1 Attachment(s)
V45 caused a huge battery drain due to reason that it left GPS on even time out was set to 30s. I used GPS only mode because GSM cell gives wrong location in my home area (don't know why and don't care).

I reverted back to v44 and no more problems with high current consumption.
Status menu showed that GPS receiving coarse location all the time and it never switched off.

1st circle shows when updated to v45, 2nd when reverted to v44.


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