Freediving Media Base & Apnea Training Manager

[trux]

I can't past the test . Can some one give an idea please .I work every day i have no time to guess questions.

The purpose is definitely not to guess the questions. You must know them. If you do not know them, read some theory.

And as for giving ideas - I explicitly write on the quiz page that I do not wish that anyone posts any tips for answering the questions, or that the questions or answers are published anywhere outside APNEA.cz. Anyone violating this rule will be mercilessly and permanently banned.

I have nothing against it if someone writes a document speaking about all the topics used in the quiz, and explain in details the theory, but I am definitely strongly opposed to the idea of directly giving the right answers or tips.

And to Jome - yes, since the answers are generated randomly from a bigger database, it may happen there are multiple correct answers, or no correct answer at all. It can even happen that there are only correct answers, and no wrong answer too! I explicitly notice it above the test, but I see I may need to make it more visible.

BTW, there was one member who had problems with Firefox - he could not pass the test, and the quiz was always reloaded after its submission (although he answered correctly). Normally you have only 3 tries, and then you are blocked out for 24 hours, so it is actually a security hole, because you should not have the chance to see it as often as the user who experienced the bug. I am looking at it, but so far am unable to simulate it. If you happen having the same problem, please contact me by PM.

 

[trux]

I hope you are collecting statistics Trux - would be interesting to see what are the most common misconceptions in freediving!

That's actually an excellent idea. Although I logged some data from the quiz, it was not intended for any serious data post-processing, and the data is not in format that could be parsed easily. I did not really expect it causes so many problems, so did not think it would be worth of it. I have changed it now, and am logging it more detailed into a database, allowing easier statistical analysis. Some basic quiz statistics is now available on the Site Statistics page. More detailed analysis including result rates at individual questions will be available later (for registered member only, though - to avoid easier guessing of the answers by new users).

I have also changed the quiz program little bit. It now shows a score when you complete the test, so you can see how much you were wrong. Each answer has the weight of 3 points. Some answers are more wrong than others so the number of lost points discloses the number of wrong selection only approximately. 2 lost points may mean one really wrong answer or two not entirely correct or exact answers. It may give you some clues, but I do not plan showing the full results, telling you what exactly you selected wrong - that would be too easy.

I also limited the reloading of the quiz page. Originally I kept it unlimited, so the user could reload it without answering and getting so another randomly generated set, but now such a page reload counts like a failed pass.

 

[rbsub]

Trux,
what about the idea to have the quiz part avaiable all the time for test your knowledge?
BUT with the information which question was answered false:t. And perhaps you can integrate some AIDA**- or AIDA***-course questions?

 

[trux]

what about the idea to have the quiz part avaiable all the time for test your knowledge?

Yes, I was already considering it, but am little bit afraid that the information would necessarily leak out easier than in the current state; people will post the information on forums and blogs, so am still hesitating about it. I would need to regularly change the questions and answers, and taking in account also the translations to the other available language versions, it is definitely something I do not want to do too often.

BUT with the information which question was answered false:t. And perhaps you can integrate some AIDA**- or AIDA***-course questions?

I am afraid, it is the same case as above. I did not find any AIDA course questionnaire online, so I guess AIDA does not want them published either, for the same reasons. In that case, I would avoid using their questions in my quiz altogether. The purpose of the quiz is not training you Pavlovian reflexes for giving always the correct answer for a specific question, but rather testing your knowledge. It is for this reason, that I've created a bigger database of diverse questions and answers, and each user gets to see only a smaller part of it, and in random order. In this way, I am trying to avoid "learned" or echoed answers. I fear that making the full test public would be rather counterproductive - people, instead of trying to find the answers in books, and online documents, would simply pick up the right answers without thinking about them. Hence, rather than publishing the quiz, I may prefer writing a more in-depth document discussing the theory and physiology, without mentioning the specific questions and answers.

 

[trux]

I have finally added some more detailed statistics for the ATM quiz. It does not include data from the very beginning, but it is quite interesting, nevertheless. You can see it at APNEA.cz - Site Statistics

I list the worst three questions (most frequently missed) and the easiest one (most often answered correctly). To each question, there are numerous possible answers that are being displayed randomly. Some answers are pretty easy, others seem to be quite difficult for many freedivers. I listed the three most often missed answers, and also the the one most often selected correctly.

Although I have the full statistics available internally, currently I do not plan publishing them in the full length - I fear that it might facilitate the quiz too much. I also do not use the full question and answer texts in the statistics, but rather just their ID names. You will get the picture, but it does not compromise the quiz.

DCS currently leads the statistics, both as a question, and also several answers belonging to the question are at the top or close to it. It looks like DCS is Tabula Rasa for a surprising number of freedivers - 85% of 40 users who got the question in the quiz failed to answer correctly! That seems pretty bad. I recommend all of them to enter the termsd DCS or decompression into the search box here in DB - there are many threads discussing it, and there is also this recent discussion that is quite interesting.

Then there are two different questions about hyperventilation. One of them ranks second on the list (current success rate of 48%), and the other is very easy - it is at the bottom of the list, currently with the success rate of over 70%.

 

[trux]

Just an update about changes and new features:

I fixed diverse bugs, and added some planned functions, and also others that I did not preview but found to be needed or interesting. To make the following of the changes easier, both for myself and for others who are interested, I started a changelog, where (since yesterday) I record all bigger modifications or additions. This page is currently linked nowhere in menus on the Apnea.cz pages, except of the English section of the Site Map.

Since my last post, I greatly enhanced the Site Statistics page. It now includes more details in all sections. I also added new statistics section for most popular searches and search URL's.

After adding totals for quiz results grouped by the interface language selection, I was very much surprised by the differences that are bigger than I expected and also in the order that I did not quite expect. The sample is already relatively big (~500 answered questions), so it does not seem to be only by hazard. The sum of success rates of individual quiz questions is currently 47.1% for the English version, 42.9%, and surprisingly far above - 58.7% for the French localization.

Although the lower success rate at Czechs is not very surprising to me (despite being linguistically probably the most comprehensible version, because Czech is my native language), the high score of the French version is almost shocking, especially because the French translation is incomplete, and my French is even worse than my English, so the questions that are already translated may not be perfectly comprehensible. Many French freedivers complained about the untranslated questions, because they did not understand them (even the few of them who speak some English are not familiar with English freediving terms like packing, LMC, blackout, etc., because they are entirely different in French, and online translation does not really help with such terms). So for these reasons, the result of almost 59% and (by big distance) the highest number of subscribed French users (18 of 116) is indeed very surprising, and proves that the French apneist educational system (FFESSM), and the big network of freediving clubs in France, indeed bring good results. Well, I am curious if the tendency remains the same with the growing sample rate.

However, the overall (all languages) success rate of entire quiz results (3 random questions) is very low: success rate for users is just around 50%, and the overall quiz success rate is even lower: only 17%! Most freedivers need several attempts (max 2 per day) before they manage to pass (and still about 50% of them remains out). For these reasons I decided creating a separate page dedicate to Freediving Safety. Currently I only listed documents from diverse security related categories of the Media Base, but I plan (if time allows) writing some articles discussing the listed topics closer.

I also added Google advertising banners to the pages, and was quite positively surprised how relevant they mostly are. I saw a lot of quite related ads - for example for freediving courses in Dahab, for Emma's book, for fins, etc. I hope the advertising is not too much invasive and not too much disturbing. Should you see some offending or abusive advertisements, please let me know - I can filter some URL's (if known). Paying users (well, there are almost none at the moment) won't be harassed by any ads, of course. On the other hand, I am quite disappointed by the efficiency of the advertising. During the 4 days it is operational, despite the relatively high number of visits, and the relevancy of the ads, I gained only 36 cents (it is paid per click on the banner), so it looks like it may pay a beer or two in a year. If it goes on in this way, I'd better remove it. Finding direct advertisers might be better for all parties, but so far I had no success.

What I still miss is some user feedback, and active participation in adding new media and new exercises. I offered to the public almost 1500 media links, and over hundred freediving exercises and training sessions, and expected that the community will not only use the available data, but also share their own links and training methods with others. So far, in the third week after opening, there was only a single media addition by a user (around 50 by myself), and no new exercise at all (I added another two in this time). Frankly told, it is very disappointing and discouraging for working on further enhancements.

 

[trux]

OK, I did some major fixes and changes, so there is time for another update:

If you are using Firefox and experienced problems passing the ATM Quiz, I fixed some problems that were caused by a buggy Firefox behavior (this browser has the unwanted attitude of reloading the page in background second time, requesting so another random set of questions than the one you see on the screen). I worked around it and the Quiz should be now behaving correctly in Firefox too.

I also increased the results evaluation tolerance. Originally you could miss only one point in the first round to get a chance for a second one, otherwise the next attempt was possible only in 24 hours. Now, you can miss two points in the first round, one in the second one, and unlike previously, you can even get a third chance where you then need to answer perfectly (36/36) before getting the 24h stop. It ought to be in this way since the beginning, but somehow it was stricter than I planned, until now.

I also fixed some other problems. Some people reported problems with logging in, others were unable to reset lost passwords. This is now possible, so if you were unable to access your account, please try it now, and if it does not work, please use the password reset function.

As usually, you can see changes that were made on the Change Log page, and the progress of the website, and the content of its media, training, and user databases at the Site Stats page.

I'll try to add a forum on my website, so that people can discuss relevant topics directly there, and I do not need to spam you here on DB, and also that people do not need to contact me privately for help. It will still take some time, though. At the moment there is still a lot of other work to do. I hope Papa Smurf and all you will continue to tolerate my occasional posts here for some time to come.

Any feedback is welcome - I'd be happy to hear both problem reporting, and suggestions, or even just simple appreciation of the effort. So far, I am still waiting for the first exercises and the first media submitted by users. I may need to try to find some stimulation; as for now there was amazingly no attempt to add any data (except of one website link added to the Media Base). I am not quite sure what is the reason, but seeing the number of people registering (or trying to register), I'd tell people are at least interested in using the data, even if they are not willing to contribute. So here you go

APNEA.cz Contest - 3 full paying accounts for free:
I propose free account upgrades to the paying account version to three most active users - those who will add the highest number of exercises to the ATM, and/or links to the Media Base. However, I'll also take in account the quality of those submissions, so just light editing or even duplicating of existing records will not be valued as much (if at all) as good quality new stuff. The winner will get a PRO account upgrade (one year), the 2nd will get two years of standard paid account, and a year of the standard paid account goes to the third contributor. The closing date is 21st of June 24:00 UTC.

If you already have a free account, you can see the advantages of the paid membership after entering your profile screen (the left-most menu item in the ATM section) and the clicking on the upgrade link - it will display a comparative chart of available and planned features of all three accounts.

 

[cigarlung]

Trux would like to use your program however when using the stopwatch locks up on the first exercise used it a couple times in the past had great workouts thankyou for your contribution to this great sport. I probally add in order to run it for a minute I had arrow off the features which are real helpful.

 

[trux]

Trux would like to use your program however when using the stopwatch locks up on the first exercise used it a couple times in the past had great workouts thankyou for your contribution to this great sport. I probally add in order to run it for a minute I had arrow off the features which are real helpful.

Sorry, Cigarlung, I missed this your post. Depending on the checboxes you select on the left side, after an exercise it may stop and prompt you to continue with the next one. If that's not what you mean, then please send me a PM with more details - the name of the exercise, your browser and OS version, your alias at Apnea.cz, and if possible a screenshot.

Thank you,
Ivo

 

[trux]

Buddy Search and User Map

I developed another funky toy for the APNEA.cz website and hope it may be of some interest for you too.

I combined APNEA.cz user registration and access data with a Geo-IP database that I purchased for that purpose, and wrote a program using the Google Maps API that displays all registered users on a nice interactive map. You can so easily locate other freedivers in your vicinity or in the location of your future trip.

When you access the User Map, it should automatically detect the location from where you connect and center the map at that place. Well, in some cases, the connection place can be rather far from your physical location, and some IP rooms are not well mapped, but it works rather well in most cases. When you click on the individual pins representing cities or towns with one or more freedivers, a window with more details appears, and it will also show the distance in km from your connection node.

In the same way, the website also locates new users, or registered members logging from multiple places. The map can display even those past and present physical locations of individual users, but for privacy reasons, it shows only the registered location. I will though add an option to the User Profile settings where people can allow disclosing of their connection places, but won't do it by default.

. . . ​

You can navigate in the map as usually - dragging it to any direction, and zoom in/out using either your mouse wheel, or the on-screen controls (top-left corner). You can also switch from the hybrid map mode to a simple map (top-right corner).

There are two levels of markers - small red pins and national flag icons. The user markers are visible in higher resolutions only, and after clicking show user names in given location. Country markers are visible also in lower resolutions, and after clicking display a list of all registered members in that country (but only those who registered also their town, or could be located during the registration by the software - hence at each country there may be slightly less localizable users than shown in the statistics). In total there are now 136 registered freedivers in APNEA.cz.

You can also use the search box top right - you can either enter a name of a country to see freedivers from that country only, or a freediver alias to locate his/her registered position. I plan adding some more features in future, like for example the possibility to re-fine own coordinates, and perhaps also adding favorite freediving spots or competitions you have participated in.

There are, of course, also other changes, including some important bugs fixed, so if you previously have some problems to log in, or register, please try again. Occasionally I still hear about diverse problems (for example inability to start an exercise, missing stop watch,...), but despite testing it on 6 different machines with 5 different browser types, I was unable to simulate any of the problems, and unfortunately the affected users were not able to give me sufficient details. In case you experience any issues, please send me a PM with maximum available details (including your OS and browser type, any error messages, steps to reproduce the problem, etc.)

 

[par2005]

Hi Trux,


Although i did find a freediver in my country, i can't find any proper way to contact him.

:/

p.s. country: Lithuania

 

[Jorg]

Very nice add-on! Looks pretty interesting... I'm using the same technology to rewrite World wide freediving spots for the 2.0 version.

 

[trux]

Although i did find a freediver in my country, i can't find any proper way to contact him.

Yes, I know But there are still hundreds of features on the to-do list. Member communication (PM's) and a forum are relatively high on the priority list. Until then, you indeed cannot contact them. Sorry for that.

Very nice add-on! Looks pretty interesting... I'm using the same technology to rewrite World wide freediving spots for the 2.0 version.

Yes, that's absolutely ideal for that purpose. I am looking forward to it.

 

[trux]

I have added an option "Allow GeoIP Tracking" in the User Profile. By default it is turned off, but if you wish that others can view diverse locations (for example when traveling, or when registered in another city that you actually live or work), you can turn it on (in menu go to Training >> Profile). The default registered location is marked with a red pin (with a diver flag style white diagonal band), and the connection locations are marked with half white/half blue pins (another diver flag). Though, the blue pins are visible only when you search for specific member, using the search box. Otherwise the map would be too cluttered with markers.

You can test it with my own account - simply enter trux into the search box on the User Map page. I registered in Prague, but am currently located in Lyon.

 

[marginatus]

Re: Buddy Search and User Map

Hi trux, i'm misplaced! I'm somewhere in Portugal mainland and not in Pico- Azores... How can i change that?

thanks

I developed another funky toy for the APNEA.cz website and hope it may be of some interest for you too.

I combined APNEA.cz user registration and access data with a Geo-IP database that I purchased for that purpose, and wrote a program using the Google Maps API that displays all registered users on a nice interactive map. You can so easily locate other freedivers in your vicinity or in the location of your future trip.

When you access the User Map, it should automatically detect the location from where you connect and center the map at that place. Well, in some cases, the connection place can be rather far from your physical location, and some IP rooms are not well mapped, but it works rather well in most cases. When you click on the individual pins representing cities or towns with one or more freedivers, a window with more details appears, and it will also show the distance in km from your connection node.

In the same way, the website also locates new users, or registered members logging from multiple places. The map can display even those past and present physical locations of individual users, but for privacy reasons, it shows only the registered location. I will though add an option to the User Profile settings where people can allow disclosing of their connection places, but won't do it by default.

. . . ​

You can navigate in the map as usually - dragging it to any direction, and zoom in/out using either your mouse wheel, or the on-screen controls (top-left corner). You can also switch from the hybrid map mode to a simple map (top-right corner).

There are two levels of markers - small red pins and national flag icons. The user markers are visible in higher resolutions only, and after clicking show user names in given location. Country markers are visible also in lower resolutions, and after clicking display a list of all registered members in that country (but only those who registered also their town, or could be located during the registration by the software - hence at each country there may be slightly less localizable users than shown in the statistics). In total there are now 136 registered freedivers in APNEA.cz.

You can also use the search box top right - you can either enter a name of a country to see freedivers from that country only, or a freediver alias to locate his/her registered position. I plan adding some more features in future, like for example the possibility to re-fine own coordinates, and perhaps also adding favorite freediving spots or competitions you have participated in.

There are, of course, also other changes, including some important bugs fixed, so if you previously have some problems to log in, or register, please try again. Occasionally I still hear about diverse problems (for example inability to start an exercise, missing stop watch,...), but despite testing it on 6 different machines with 5 different browser types, I was unable to simulate any of the problems, and unfortunately the affected users were not able to give me sufficient details. In case you experience any issues, please send me a PM with maximum available details (including your OS and browser type, any error messages, steps to reproduce the problem, etc.)

 

[trux]

Re: Buddy Search and User Map

Hi trux, i'm misplaced! I'm somewhere in Portugal mainland and not in Pico- Azores... How can i change that?

You will be able to edit your location in a few days.

 

[trux]

Bug Fix

Note: if you had a problem starting an exercise in the last few days, please try now again. I added a new option on the left pane - there are now two check-boxes for suppressing all beeps (both check-boxes cleared), or disabling the beeps each 30s, but keeping the ones at the start and end of an apnea. Due to glitch when releasing the new option, the second checkbox was missing and may have caused Javascript error preventing the start of an exercise on certain browsers.

 

[rbsub]

Same with me. I'm misplaced, too.
I think, the system uses the place where the ISP is located. Would be nice, if I could overwrite that.

BTW: This GEO-tracking feature would be nice in DeeperBlue too.

 

[Jorg]

geo tracking for deeperblue is easy, just implement this mod for vbulletin: [ame=http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=123148]VBGooglemap Member Edition - vBulletin.org Forum[/ame]

 

[rbsub]

geo tracking for deeperblue is easy, just implement this mod for vbulletin: VBGooglemap Member Edition - vBulletin.org Forum

But - who does it? Papasnuf?