Freediving Media Base & Apnea Training Manager

[Jorg]

I don't really know who is the technical man behind deeperblue. Is it stephan? All by himself? Well, it's not really hard to install, you just have to take some time to do it. 1-2 hours is all you need to implement this mod.

 

[trux]

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.

There are two possible reasons: since I implemented the feature only after most of the current users were already registered, and I did not have the GeoIP info of all of them, the system either looked up the last IP they used, and then it could have been indeed misplaced to the closest connection node (though I see that in most cases it works pretty well), or when the user entered the name of the city in the Profile settings, the system looked up the geographical coordinates of that city. Unfortunatelly, there are often several cities of the same name, or small villages sharing same name as bigger towns, so since there was no way to find out which one is the correct, and no interaction with the user possible at that point, I simply let the system selecting the first matching name in given country. Again, in most cases it worked, but there are certainly some mistakes. As I wrote, you will be able to change the location in a few days (if I am lucky, and there are not too many complications, maybe even today or tomorrow)

 

[Stephan Whelan]

I am actually the only technical person on the team at DB and I have little time these days!!

We did implement that plugin a while ago but disabled it due to some technical difficulities during an upgrade.

Jorg / Trux - i'd like to talk to both you of when i'm back (i'm in Rhodes at the moment) about some collaboration with DB. I've got some ideas and hopefully we can all work closely together to build and grow some excellent freediving resources.

Both send me a PM with your email addresses / skype / telephone numbers so we can chat when I am back next week.

 

[trux]

OK, you can now modify the location of your marker on the User Map or even pin it exactly on the street or house where you live (if you wish). You can see instructions in the FAQ. Although it was not without complications to implement it, I think it is made rather easy and user friendly. If you encounter any problems or find a bug, please let me know. Please do not abuse the possibility to move the marker just for fun to some irrelevant locations. The system will detect some of such cases and such users may be then removed from the map entirely. If you wish to be removed deliberately, please rather enter a dash (-) into the City field in your profile - you account will become stealth then. Please see more details in the FAQ.

 

[marginatus]

I changed the location, did the double click and next time i checked, i returned to the same [wrong] place...

 

[trux]

I changed the location, did the double click and next time i checked, i returned to the same [wrong] place...

As I wrote in the FAQ, a window asking for confirmation must appear after the double-click, where you then must click the "yes" button. Unfortunately it can happen that the first double click just opens the standard info window instead of the confirmation form, but it is a property of the Google Map application and I have little control of it. So if the confirmation window does not appear, simply repeat the double click and then submit

 

[rbsub]

Perfect Trux, it works for me

 

[trux]

Perfect Trux, it works for me

Great, Rbsub! I already saw you changed it. Do you live directly in the swimming pool you have your marker at? I see also a quarry nearby to you (around a km or two south-west) - is it something where you can dive?

BTW, you can now distinguish between the automatically looked up positions, and those edited by the user - the automated positions are using a diver flag style pins (red with a white diagonal stripe), and user edited positions are marked with a full red tags. Also, when you click on a user's marker, there is now written either "user edited pos." or "auto pos". Another way to show all user edited positions is entering an exclamation sign (!) into the search box - it will then show only the ones that were modified by users.

 

[rbsub]

No, I don't live in that pool - but this is where I spend a lot of time. I live 500 m nearby.

The quarry is nice - but it is forbitten do dive there :head. The water is very clean, but the depth is only 12 m. There are really not so much possibilities for diving in our area. A nice reservoir some 20 km north is closed for all kind of watersports. It's a trinking water reservoir. 50 m depth, clear water (as I heard ).

Perhaps this is one of the reasons for not having so much freedivers here. As you can see I'm a little bit alone in my area (beside my wife who is freediving too)

BTW: If I open my profile, there is a red "!" at my birthday and at my email address. I don't know why.

 

[trux]

BTW: If I open my profile, there is a red "!" at my birthday and at my email address. I don't know why.

These are in fact the only mandatory entries. All others are optional, though the more you enter the more functionality you can enjoy (for example location data for the map, PB data for estimating the exercise level, physiological data for evaluating statistics, etc.)

You can see it if you move your mouse over the exclamation mark and wait a moment before the mouse-over info pops up. I use the mouse over info very extensively everywhere, because it is the quite user-friendly and the most intuitive help, so keep it on mind and every time you are in doubts about some element, try poitining your mouse cursor over it for a while.

PS: I've just added some more FAQ about the User Maps. The last one, is for example here: APNEA.cz - Frequently Asked Questions

 

[trux]

APNEA.cz Contest

I just want to remind that there is the contest I announced a few days ago that is still running. You can win a full-featured PRO or standard paid account type. Since until now there are still very few contributions, everyone who submits a valuable link that is not yet available in the database, or a new exercise has a very good chance to win one of the three prizes. I repost the conditions below:

APNEA.cz Contest - 3 full paying accounts for free:
I propose free account upgrades to the paid 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.

Although some of the planned extended features are not yet available, new functions are being added continuously, and very likely there will be even more available than currently planned and listed.

 

[trux]

I have added the possibility to upload your photo, that is then visible, together with other details, after clicking on your marker on the User Map:

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You can upload the photo in your Profile Settings. The best size is 80 x 100 pixels, but if it is a bit bigger it will be scaled down to that size. The maximal accepted size of the file is 50kB, and it can be in a GIF, JPEG, or PNG file format. Please do not upload avatars or a photo of another person. I reserve the right for censorship. Offensive or inappropriate pictures will be removed without a notice, and the account may get limited or suspended. If you prefer staying in anonymity, simply do not upload any photo at all.

 

[peka]

Dneska jsem prosel registraci, takze jsem se na to koukl nazivo. Vcera jsem trochu podcenil otazku, ale jinak ten test neni tezky, a to jsem mel nepopularni otazky z DCS. Zatim bych to cele zhodnotil tak, ze by to jednou mohlo byl dobre a pouzitelne. Ted je to cele zatim dost zmatecne, ale chapu, ze kdyz jeste nebyly stranky oficialne spusteny, tak nemohu cekat zazraky. Mapu mam napriklad namackanou do 1x1 centimetru. Trochu ale nechapu, jak ma fungovat ten training manager. Vyberu nejakou polozku, treba zaklady teorie kompenzace, dam start a pak si mohu akorat spustit odpocet trech minut. Pod "75m + 2min pauza" se pak skryva popis, ze mam uplavat 75 metru a pak 2 minuty dychat. Ale jestli to mam opakovat, kolikrat apod. to zde neni, zato si mohu spustit stopky. To si mam brat pocitac do bazenu, abych si zmeril cas? K cemu to cele je? Navic me to odrolovava porad nekam, kam nechci. Jak rikam, jednou to bude fajn, ale ted se nemuze nikdo divit, ze se kazdy po registraci jednou prihlasi a pak uz se neukaze.
Kazdopadne drzim palce.

 

[trux]

Dneska jsem prosel registraci, takze jsem se na to koukl nazivo. Vcera jsem trochu podcenil otazku, ale jinak ten test neni tezky, a to jsem mel nepopularni otazky z DCS. Zatim bych to cele zhodnotil tak, ze by to jednou mohlo byl dobre a pouzitelne. Ted je to cele zatim dost zmatecne, ale chapu, ze kdyz jeste nebyly stranky oficialne spusteny, tak nemohu cekat zazraky. Mapu mam napriklad namackanou do 1x1 centimetru. Trochu ale nechapu, jak ma fungovat ten training manager. Vyberu nejakou polozku, treba zaklady teorie kompenzace, dam start a pak si mohu akorat spustit odpocet trech minut. Pod "75m + 2min pauza" se pak skryva popis, ze mam uplavat 75 metru a pak 2 minuty dychat. Ale jestli to mam opakovat, kolikrat apod. to zde neni, zato si mohu spustit stopky. To si mam brat pocitac do bazenu, abych si zmeril cas? K cemu to cele je? Navic me to odrolovava porad nekam, kam nechci. Jak rikam, jednou to bude fajn, ale ted se nemuze nikdo divit, ze se kazdy po registraci jednou prihlasi a pak uz se neukaze.
Kazdopadne drzim palce.

OK, I'll translate it, so that others can understand something too:

Basically Peka tells that the program could be good, but seems to have still a lot of problems and looks more or less useless. Peka complains the User Map is just 1cm wide. He also asks for the purpose of the exercises and the ATM, wat it is good for and how it works.

As for the collapsed user map, that's an incompatibility at MSIE6. It works fine on MSIE7, Firefox, Opera and some other browsers. I need to complete some other issues before I start ironing out incompatibilities with older browsers. You can also download the free MSIE upgrade (it is indeed a better and safer browser), or get Firefox that you can keep on the PC together with MSIE. I'll fix the incompatibilities later though anyway, it just may take some time. Thanks for the patience in the meantime.

In Czech: mapa 1x1 cm je problem kompatibility s MS Exlplorerem v6. Zatimjsem se nedostal k tomu abych se tim zabyval, ale funguje to dobre s MSIE7, Firefoxem, Operou i dalsimi browsery. Pokud jsi tedy zvedav na to, jak to vypada, stahni si volny upgrade MSIE7, nebo Firefox, ktery muzes pouzivat zaroven s MSIE. Jinak to samozrejme budu resit, ale zatim jsou na poradi dulezitejsi ukoly. Diky za trpelivost.

As for the functionality of the Training Manager, it has two principal purposes:

1. Similarly to some other interactive apnea tables, you can start a static exercise, where the timer measures your breath-holds and breath-ups. The advantage of ATM is that unlike other currently available programs it allows to build and modify the exercises much more flexibly. This interactive part is useful especially for dry static apnea training, but the use of a PC, PDA, or a Cell Phone (in a waterproof case) for timing your training exercises directly in the pool was previewed also.
2. Static, dynamic and other types of exercises may be also printed in a completely different format, and then used in the pool for the training. In our club we do that every time -each group gets their own sheet corresponding to their performance level and then follow that instructions. Though, it is true that this printing function is not available in the free account, so you can only look at the exercise, and write it down.
3. Theoretic exercises and lessons will be filled with theory that can be the printed, or spelled out by a voice generator. The theory exercises that are currently listed in that category serve for dynamic pool exercises - it is just a schedule for the instructor - so for example if there is 5min theory of turns or 5 minutes theory of compensation, it just means that the instructor has 5 minutes time to explain to the course participants some basics about turns (resp. compensation). There is currently no text, but everyone is free to edit the exercises and add text as needed. I also anticipate that instructors in our club and the wide public will complete the text and add more exercises. This was intended to be a community work, but if it turns out that people just use it to pull out the info, but nobody participates, it is possible that club instructors will prefer keeping our exercises private (not visible to public) which is also possible at the advanced accounts.

Czech: Doufam, ze rozumis anglicky, protoze je to trochu dlouhe na preklad, ale pokud ne, dej vedet a zopakuju to cesky
(I am just telling I'll translate to Czech if necessary)

 

[peka]

Thank you for your answer and translation. English is not my prefered language and when we are both from Czech Rep. it is quite funny to communicate in English. When do you want to release the official version with most of functionality and with minimum of bugs? Do you plan to create a group of administrators with certified knowledges of freediving safety verifying published trainings and methods to eliminate accidents incurred by dangerous directions? So, anybody can add training method, but only administrators should have competence to certificate them.

 

[trux]

Peka, your English is just fine, possibly better than mine. It is always better to communicate in the language that others understand too, so that I do not need to repeat the same answers in several languages. Although I already do it in French on the Esprit Apnea forum, it takes some time that I could better use elsewhere.

The site is already released and I am not aware of too many serious bugs. There may be some rather minor incompatibilities with older or exotic browsers, some features are still missing, more text and help messages needs to be added, but basically the crucial functionality is there and working fine - you can run the exercises, you can add and edit them. You can train dry statics just fine, and many users indeed do it, and you could even use it for timing dynamic training, but I realize that it is not too likely that someone will do it with a PC at the pool.

I am adding new features and fixing diverse problems daily (see the Change Log). The development is a continuous process and it is interactive - I react on the user feedback and fix problems or add features that are the most urgent or demanded. With the time the number of tasks on the to-do list grows, so the day when it will be finished is nowhere on the horizon. The development, maintenance, and data collection cost a lot of time, and since the project brings no income, I cannot afford hiring other developers to help with it. If there is any specific feature you would like to see, you simple have to tell it. So far there were very few demands.

Anyone can add exercises or edit the present ones. They will be always saved as new ones and will need to be approved by an administrator. There is indeed an administrating interface, but currently nobody volunteered for the posts. Actually it is also not really needed yet, because there are virtually no submissions at all, so no work for admins. I could use though some volunteers for translations, and for adding explanatory texts.

 

[peka]

trux, I added three trainings (DNF technique) into ATM, but the names of them are empty. And the second bug - when you check "empty" and then press create/change, you can create a new training, but it is not possible to add a new line with some activity, because only actions with "--" (for example -- WAIT --) are in the list box. When you create a new training modifying an old one, it works, but the name of new training is not visible in the list (it is empty).

 

[trux]

Thanks for the feedback, Peka.

The names were stored - I see them in the admin interface and they will show up as soon as I approve them (I already tried with one of them). The exercises do not show to other users (just to the author) until I approve them. I do not remember if I hide the name on the author's list intentionally for some specific reason, but it makes no big sense right now to me too (without looking at the code), so I will have to verify it, and enable if nothing speaks against it.

The empty record chosen as template is indeed not the best solution - you then need to select the exercise type in the edit form, reopen and only then the according options will be available. Choosing an existing exercise as a template is better way, but I'll try to find some way even for this case. Maybe automated reloading of the page after selecting the exercise type, or something similar.

Thanks again for the feedback, and for adding the exercises!

 

[trux]

OK, Peka, I fixed the missing names at created/edited exercises. It was indeed a bug, not an intentional feature. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

I saw a new exercise made by another user (shoutatthesky) - a static CO2 table for beginners. Thank you for the effort, Adam, but in fact almost identical table was already there. It's no problem to make light modifications - for example adding or removing a cycle like in this case, but there is much better, easier, and faster way to do it than you did here. I see you took quite a bit of work to put the exercise together, although you could simply take on of the present tables and edit it. For example the exercise Cyrnéa CO2 table [standard] is almost identical, it just has 3 cycles of 15s instead of one at the end. So you could have clicked on it, remove the last two cycles and save (it always saves as a new exercise).

Additionally, you've set fixed times for the breath-holds, which means that you would need to build many such tables for different levels. Much better than that is using percentage values of PB max values - just like it is done at the original exercises. In that way, the table automatically adopts to every freediver's level (assuming he entered real PB values), but still can be adjusted with the +/- buttons if not matching perfectly.

 

[shoutatthesky]

Thanks for that Trux. This has huge potential and I have alot to learn!