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Gas Manager

UPDATE: Version 1.0.3 has been released.

UPDATE: Version 1.0.2 has been released.

UPDATE: Version 1.0.1 has been released.

I’ve finally released my new gas management program for iPhone & iPod touch. Gas Manager helps you choose and blend custom gas mixes for diving. It includes partial pressure blending (with fudge factors), top off and best mix, as well as MOD, END and EAD calculations.

Check it out!

That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.

— RIP Hitch

gcc on Lion

If you’re using rvm or anything else that specifically wants gcc on Lion. Install Xcode as usual, but also do this:

  1. Download Apple’s gcc: http://www.opensource.apple.com/tarballs/gcc/gcc-5666.3.tar.gz
  2. Build it http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/gcc/

    From within the source directory:

    mkdir -p build/obj build/dst build/sym
    
    gnumake install RC_OS=macos RC_ARCHS="i386 x86_64" \
    TARGETS="i386 x86_64" SRCROOT=`pwd` \
    OBJROOT=`pwd`/build/obj DSTROOT=`pwd`/build/dst \
    SYMROOT=`pwd`/build/sym
    
    sudo ditto build/dst /
    
    ln -s /usr/bin/gcc-4.2 /usr/local/bin/gcc
    

Points of Interest added to crashcard

Crashcard’s map view now features “Points of Interest” showing where nearby towing services, public transport, taxis, repairers, hospitals etc are. Tapping on a POI shows you the address and allows you place a call where available.

Available now on the app store

Thanks Steve.

(Source: apple.com)

Who with the Wot now?

A little Dropbox syncing, notes app I wrote for myself is now available for everyone else.

“Democracy without transparency is just an empty word”

Safeguard with crashcard

Finally, crashcard has been released in the App Store.

Unfortunately, car accidents do happen. CRASHCARD guides you through the collection of important information during these stressful times, granting peace of mind and simplifying insurance claims.

The Thresher Shark Research & Conservation Project

In 2011 I’ll be returning to The Thresher Shark Research & Conservation Project for a six month stint as Science Officer. Helping out on an important scientific and community project with some of the greatest people I’ve had the pleasure to meet and work with.

I spent the best three months of my life there in 2009. Diving every day, researching sharks and mantas, and helping a small island community—through the research and its application to conservation and within the local dive tourism industry, but also directly within the community, where the project provides jobs, helped construct housing and where TSRCP volunteers teach marine biology and conservation at the local school.

Life on the island was confronting at first. About 2 km square consisting of a couple of small villages and a few dive resorts (largely foreign owned, but where the island community gets 80% of its income), there is no permanent electricity and no fresh water. The island is powered by petrol generators prone to breakdown and drinking water is imported daily. A simple, largely subsistence lifestyle. I grew to love the island and its people.

History

TSRCP was started in 2005 by research scientists Simon P. Oliver and Alison J. Beckett to create a baseline of Monad Shoal in the Philippines—primarily concerned with Pelagic Thresher Shark (Alopias pelagicus) cleaning activity as well as the shoal’s coral coverage and general health.

Monad Shoal is about 8 km east of the southern beach of Malapascua Island in the Visayan Sea—an open water seamount with a relatively square dive profile around 21–24m that plunges to 250m, presenting a unique opportunity to observe and record these rarely studied oceanic sharks.

Both threshers and Manta Rays (Manta birostris) frequent the site, as well as a myriad of other pelagic and reef fish. Particularly the various species of cleaner fish that draw the oceanic wildlife to the shoal.

TSRCP is a significant source of environmental, ecological and behavioural research for Pelagic Thresher Sharks, providing research, education and conservation locally, regionally and internationally.

GUE Relationship

Through volunteer divers (including myself) TSRCP became aware of Global Underwater Explorers, a non-profit diver training agency focussed on research, conservation and exploration, whose training methods and techniques are uniquely suited to scientific research diving. In 2009 TSRCP became a GUE affiliated project and now provides all volunteer divers with basic training aimed at perfecting the buoyancy, trim and propulsion techniques necessary for a successful research diver.

Join Us

I encourage any divers out there to volunteer with the The Thresher Shark Research & Conservation Project. My three months there were amazing—peaceful, eye opening and life changing. The most fulfilling ‘work’ I’ve ever done. I can’t wait to be back in 2011.

Air Depth Crash Bug

UPDATE 2010-06-25: Air Depth 1.3.1 is available. No more crashing on iOS3.x. Thanks for your patience.


UPDATE 2010-06-24: Air Depth is currently in Review. Hopefully that means it will be available within the next day.


Version 1.3 of Air Depth contained a crash bug related to an iOS4 framework. I’ve already submitted 1.3.1 to fix the issue. 1.3 was approved in 12 hours, so I hope 1.3.1 is approved within a similar time frame.

The issue manifests on iOS versions less than 4. iOS 4 is released on 21 July. However, 1.3.1 will fix the issue for all prior iOS versions if you don’t intend upgrading to iOS 4.

Sorry for any inconvenience.