[New software] openBmap logger (GSM positioning)

[Onen]

Hi everyone,

the openBmap team is happy to announce the first release of the openBmap 
[1] logger/uploader for freesmartphone.org.

As mentioned on the main page "openBmap is a free and open map of 
wireless communicating objects (e.g. cellular antenna, Wi-Fi, 
Bluetooth). It provides tools to mutualize data, create and access this 
map."

At this time, only cellular networks are concerned.
All the software code is AGPL v3 and data are Creative Commons License
(creative commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported), thus the data 
is free to use (in the same way as OpenStreetMap).

Map status (last update 2009-02-06 03:30:31)
Cellular: 6 countries, 9 mobile networks, 313 location area codes, 8905 
cells

This could be used for:
* locate you on a map. You don't need to turn GPS on. And as your GSM is 
always on, and the database is located on your phone, it is 
instantaneous. This prevent your battery and your privacy (don't need to 
send your GSM data to anyone on the Web).

* provide rough location (the GSM gives less precise result as GPS) to 
the GPS, in order to speed up first time to fix.

* ...

The package "Freesmartphone.org client" [2] provides you with a logger, 
and an uploader. It has been tested against FSO Milestones 5.

If you want to get located through your GSM data, at the moment you can 
use the Web API [3]. There is a Web interface [4] available to use this 
API and display zones on a map.

We hope many will upload!

Privacy note: when you upload, exactly as with OSM, your logs allow to 
know where and when you were. You have been warned ;-) !

I copy/paste the README of the package at the end of this email.

Onen

[1] http://realtimeblog.free.fr/
[2] http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=218065
[3] http://realtimeblog.free.fr/api/openbmap_api.php
[4] http://realtimeblog.free.fr/cell_map.php

README:

openBmap logger version 0.1

What you should expect:
* generation of logs
* upload of logs

Manual:
Interface is straightforward.

* A button to start generating logs. Values will be displayed when
valid. Logs are stored under HOME/.openBmap/Logs by default.
* A button to stop generating logs.

Note that at the moment, the GSM part gets updated only after
receiving an asynchronous update from the network. This
means at start time, it is normal the GSM part does not display
GSM information, even if you are registered to network.

* A button to upload. This will block the interface until every log has 
been uploaded.
This means that if you do not have Internet connection up and
running, the GUI will be frozen until timeout of the upload part.
After succesfull upload, the logs are moved to
HOME/.openBmap/Processed_logs by default.

Warning: you should create an account on realtimeblog.free.fr
website, and fill the login/password in the configuration file
before upload works.

* A button to exit.

Config file and application log are located under HOME/.openBmap
directory by default.

Known bugs:
* when you are generating logs, and you press 'Stop' button.
   A popup window let you know you should wait for the logger to
   finish stopping. Under FSO M5, if you press the power
   button, the phone suspends. You press it again it wakes up.
   Nevertheless the GUI is frozen. You will have to kill the
   process.