Bike 2.0

Yet more web 2.0 intrigue... this time bike related. It starts with Twitter and ends on a personalized Google map, going via tinyurl.

Today I read a tweet (Twitter posting) from ctanowitz who noted: "One day while biking to work a car is going to hit me here http://tinyurl.com/45e94w. Even if I give a hand signal they don't care."

What is that "tinyurl" thing? It is a free service where you copy and paste a long unweildy URL (web address) and it gives you a tiny URL like the one in the message. This is great for many uses, especially for twitter with its 140 character limit on each posting. Someone is now going to ask me how the tinyurl service makes money ... I have no idea!

Setting aside someone else's money worries and click on that tinyurl link to get a fabulous map where he marks the spot about which he is so worried... a small rotary in Waltham which I use pretty frequently. As a cyclist myself (although not on that rotary), I think I am a reasonably thoughtful driver around bikes ... I sure hope he's not complaining about me!

On a related (bike 2.0) note, I wrote yesterday that my GPS elevation change readings differ significantly from those on Guy Sapirstein's GPS. I felt sure I could easily get an elevation chart based on proper surveys (rather than consumer GPS barometers) for any route by looking on Google Earth or some other web 2.0 site ... so far no good - anyone care to make suggestions?