Spot On! [pretty much, anyway]

One of the things I've been wrestling with regarding my upcoming ride (two days and counting) has been how to share it online... in real time.

Obviously I'm not going to be live blogging the ride. Yes, I will have my iPad with me, but that will be a navigation tool for when I stop to refuel (great real-time maps showing my location), but I won't have time to start writing posts or sending out email blasts.

A close friend and I were discussing the merits of various online programs such as Google Latitude, Glimpse, etc... apps that you install on your cell phone that use the cell towers to estimate your position.  Then they allow you to share your location with others via the web.

Sounds like exactly what I wanted, right?

The problem is that some of the areas where I'll be riding will have really spotty cell coverage.  Not only that, but my phone is not the most advanced technology (/understatement) so it wasn't clear if it could even accept these programs.

Then this friend called me up yesterday to tell me that he had just remembered that before his son went on his post-army back-packing trek around South America, he'd bought him a satellite tracking device called a SPOT Personal Tracker.  In fact, if memory serves, it was one of the conditions of letting the kid go.

The way this thing works is once it's turned on, so long as it can see the sky, it bounces a signal off of the GPS satellites every ten minutes or so, and provides an online track of where it has been.

There are also buttons on the SPOT device that allow the user to send an 'OK' message... as well as a 911 button that will notify predetermined friends/relatives via email... as well as emergency personnel.

 
I tested the SPOT device on my way to work this morning and it seemed to work well.  Only one problem... none of Israel's roads or cities show up on the online map. 

You can use the satellite view or topography view, but on the map view, you see only the outline of the country (and the west bank)... nothing else but white.

I zoomed out to see if any other countries in the region had road and city details... and sure enough, they all did. 

I zoomed out even further, and it seems that Israel is the only country in the world that shows up as blank (i.e. with no road or city details).

My first thought was, 'those anti-Semitic bastards!  How dare they leave Israel off the map!!!

But then my friend and I started doing a little checking around.  And it seems that the problem is on the Israeli side.  You can go into Google Maps and Google Earth and see every last detail of every neighborhood in Israel.  But when it comes to releasing the necessary API interface between 3d party applications (such as the SPOT tracker) and the Israeli map details, the Israeli authorities have refused to let it happen.

They haven't said as much, but if you think about it for a moment, allowing third party apps to interface in real time with detailed Israeli maps would allow missile guidance systems, unmanned ground and aerial vehicles and even explosive devices placed in public transportation, to be sent to harm specific locations.

It sucks that Israel is the only country that has to worry about such things... but until the reality changes, there's nothing to be done about it.

So when I leave on my ride this Wednesday... you will be able to track my progress on the Satellite map view... but you won't be able to see the road outlines, street numbers or place names that you would see anywhere else in the world.

Here's a link to the track from this morning's commute.

And for those who are wondering about such things... here is how much time is left before I set out: