Calling for help early saves lives

Buntzen task may 20 2013

Yesterday my SAR team was called to rescue three stranded hikers near Buntzen Lake. Global News covered the story. The location software they are referring to is YourLo.ca/tion, a prototype I whipped up based on some ideas myself and another

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BCA Tracker 3 Avalanche Transceiver

Compared to a Tracker 2

I was at the Canadian Avalanche Association AGM/CPD/Trade show in Penticton last week (where I was in fact demoing an early version of my software TrueNorth) and caught a quick look at the Backcountry Access Tracker 3 Avalanche Transceiver. There’s

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New BCSARA Web Site

BCSARA Logo 128

The BC Search and Rescue Association, the organization that represents all ground Search and Rescue volunteers in British Columbia, has a new web site. As a member of a BC SAR group, I’m also a member of BCSARA, and if

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Live tweeting police scanners

Nobody could have missed the tragic incidents in Boston this week, but one thing that caught my eye was the live tweeting of what police and other emergency responders were saying over the radio, and how the police asked for

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Hello there

Well hello there.
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Hazardous Jobs

Cyclotron_patent

Sometimes when I am searching for someone, be it in the middle of the night, raining and while bushwhacking, and carrying 80 pounds of rescue gear, I smile to myself about how much I like doing this job. The reason

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Snowflakes that look like small, alien devices

Electron Microscope image of a snowflake

Twisted Sifter presents a gallery of snowflakes taken under high magnification and some with an electron microscope. Looking at them, you can imagine them being machined in a factory rather than occurring naturally in the trillions each winter. Included are

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Avalanche Bulletins on a Map

AvalancheBulletinMap

It’s always frustrated me that something so clearly spatial as the Canadian Avalanche Centre’s avalanche bulletins aren’t on a Google map. Based on my recent work on the map of SAR teams in Canada I figured it would only take

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Mapping SAR Teams

SAR Map of BC

I’ve been doing some work for the BC Search and Rescue Association, and the other day I posted by Twitter, Facebook and Google+ a prototype of the map I’m working on for them. Here is the map, embedded below. View

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Locating lost people using smart phones

Location-256

A few weeks back I managed a search for two people lost near Buntzen Lake. After we rescued them, I learned that one of them had a smart phone with a GPS (in this case, an iPhone), but neither subject

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BlueToque Software
BlueToque Software
Software Design, Architecture and Consulting

TrueNorth Geospatial
TrueNorth Geospatial
Mapping Software for Backcountry Professionals

YourLo.ca/tion
YourLo.ca/tion
Locate people using their SmartPhones
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