Call for Action!

ChopWatch is an aggregated database of upcoming timber cuts on public land which are proposed by various government departments and agencies. Users can see and connect with areas for the first and possibly last time before they are deforested. Users can input their address and visually see on a map the outline of the closest forests that are planned to be cut down within the next year. Additional information including acreage, GPS coordinates, cutting method (clear cut, partial, etc) are also available. ChopWatch is primarily a geo-spatial database enabling users to easily visualize proximity, scale, and frequency of timber management practices in areas of interest.

Additionally, the aggregated timber data will be accessible via an API so developers can use the data for their own application-speciic purpose. Whether it be a concerned citizens group automatically finding the nearest forest and the corresponding district representative or a radical environmental group generating a map of large forests near city centers where support can be mobilized from, ChopWatch provides the information and basic visualization while allowing users to creatively use the data for their own application. Eventually, increased transparency of public land use and timber management policy could lead to public pressure for improved timber policy and more democratic decisions of public land use.

here's my code for a basic remote monitoring application. if you send a text message to an mms-enabled phone running this script, the mms-enabled phone will get a gps location fix and then take a picture with the camera and auto-reply with an mms including hte current picture and gps coordinates. great for....just about nothing practical! but, good basics for developing something more useful. if you have an unlimited data plan it might be better to http post this stuff online somewhere w/ coords & image for remote surveying, maybe with a timer? have fun playing. the .py file is attached below..click the linkzzz.

brad

i originally wrote a simple script to acccess gps position but kept getting KErrPermisionDenied error relating to the positioning module. turns out that the python script shell and interpreter need to be signed with appropriate capabilities in order to access sensors and read/write data to/from them. i went ahead and through the app manager on the phone uninstalled the python script shell and python interpreter. then i downloaded the high capability unsigned .sis versions of each of these from https://garage.maemo.org/frs/download.php/5532/Python_1.9.2_3rdEd_unsign... and https://garage.maemo.org/frs/download.php/5527/PythonScriptShell_1.9.2_u... . after you get these, you can head over to https://www.symbiansigned.com/app/page/public/openSignedOnline.do and go through the short upload/download process (make sure to check all capabilities) and you'll end up w/ signed versions of these .sis files. upload these to your phone, from your phone open the file manager, install the newly signed versions of each of these (the interpreter first then the script shell) and you should have yourself readable sensors!
-brad

edit: a lot of gps programs require an initial fix before running the script. otherwise u will just get data filled with zeros. here's a quick tutorial on getting an initial fix http://www.ulpukka.com/obtaining-your-initial-gps-fix-on-your-n95