Archive for the 'article' Category

Helsinki, UN and Certain Surveys.

Published
by
Ilkka
on 8.7.2008
in accessibility, article, news and survey
. 0 Comments

United Nations (UN) just released their survey about municipal websites, world wide. Actual title was “Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide (2007) ~ A Longitudinal Assessment of Municipal Websites Throughout the World” (PDF-link!).

What was the survey about? (Bolding by yours truly, quotes from the summary part of the survey) In the survey they “evaluated the websites of municipalities in terms of digital governance and ranked them on a global scale”. Cities and nations were selected as follows: “The top 100 most wired nations were identified using data from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)…”.  and “The largest city, by population in each of these 100 countries was then selected for the study and used as a  surrogate for all cities in the respective country…”

To summarize: top 100 most wired nations were under inspection, of which biggest cities’ websites were evaluated. Helsinki is the most crowded city in Finland, so Helsinki’s website (www.hel.fi) was evaluated.

Five components were evaluated:

  1. Privacy/Security;
  2. Usability;
  3. Content;
  4. Services; and
  5. Citizen Participation

I’ll leave other aspects alone and concentrate on the second component, usability. On the survey they examined “three types of websites: traditional web pages, forms, and search tools”. Sounds like a good selection to me, although in my opinion those are just parts of one website. What was then, in fact, evaluated? Branding, structure, consistency (colours, navigational elements etc.), requirements stated (clearly), availability of sitemaps and alternative versions for documents, basic forms’ usability, search tools and so on. Quite good a selection (imho), again.

In the content-component they also evaluated the “Bobby compliance” (sic!) or access to web site via a TDD Phone Service. (Side notes: Bobby was originally “a free online tool provided by the Centre for Applied Special Technology (CAST) used to validate websites for WAI and Section 508 compliance” (Wikipedia). At 2005 it became “Watchfire WebXACT” -tool (still free to use online) and was finally integrated by IBM at 2008 and is nowadays part of IBM’s Rational Policy Tester Accessibility Edition and therefore not available for free use.)

In the usability section Helsinki was ranked fourth overall and in the content section sixth overall. Not too bad, eh? About Helsinki was said: “Helsinki increased in its overall score and its ranking
significantly from those in 2005 and 2003. Helsinki was ranked 35th with a score of 34.62 in 2005 and was not ranked in the top five cities in any of the categories.” Now Helsinki is among top ten in four out of five categories (privacy, citizen participation, usability and content - if I’m not wrong).

Hooray for Helsinki and hooray for Finland, as the survey quite clearly states that “(The largest city, by population … was … ) used as a  surrogate for all cities in the respective country“. Points for Finland, not for Helsinki, I’d say, although finnish media wanted to state so (for example Helsingin Sanomat says that “Helsinki’s Website is the third best in the world” /  (HS: Helsingin verkkosivut ovat kolmanneksi parhaat maailmassa).To claim that Helsinki’s site is the 3rd best in the world is at best misleading and at worst just plain wrong.

Anyway, pretty nice results.

Why am I not pleased?

Helsinki’s site is in my opinion not as good as all this hype could lead us to believe. Good, yes, they’ve done a lot of work, but still! The URI structure is awful (take http://www.hel.fi/wps/portal/Helsinki?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/Helsinki/fi/Etusivu as an example), layout is table-based, front page has a lot of HTML errors and so on. Quite minor things, have to give you that.

The thing I’m worried about at the moment is that the given UN Survey will now be used as a way to measure basic quality of web sites in Finland (”Survey says that www.hel.fi is the third best in the world!”) and the not-so-nicely-implemented features will be forgotten (at hel.fi and other sites, too). Quality of finnish sites has improved but is not that good when accessibility and usability are taken into account. Even technical quality can be questioned in many cases.

To sum things up: Helsinki (or actually Finland) scored pretty well on municipal websites survey. Overall quality is ok, but in my opinion not as superior as the media tends to say. we still have a lot to do!

My Comparative Study about Facebook Ads (weeklies, part 1)

Published
by
Ilkka
on 25.6.2008
in article, facebook and nonsense
. 2 Comments

This may just be the beginning of a long and fruitful friendship!

Erm, what?

Facebook is a well-known social platform. Or as they put it: “(Facebook) is a social utility that connects you with the people around you.” I’ve been playing with FB last few years, not that early adopter world wide but quite early here in Finland (as it has gained popularity during past year).

Anyway, Facebook’s business model is quite interesting, altogether. Ads, targeted marketing, applications etc! (If you’re interested: Facebook Case Study: Offline behavior drives online usage, Facebook’s uncertain Business Model, Facebook Platform Developers’ Guide (with business model warnings) and so on).

Business model is a whole different matter - perhaps I’ll post something about that later. This posting will focus on Facebook’s (targeted small) ads. FB promises “advanced targeting“, where ads can be targeted by “age, gender, location, interests and more”.

As a Finn living in Finland this is quite interesting as Finland is a small country with a low populage, only 5,1 million or so. Language spoken is finnish - not that common elsewhere;) Now, why is it interesting?

First things first, finns in Facebook are quite neat a target group. The Finland Network at Facebook has at the moment (25th June) about 410 000 members. Supposing these are mainly Finns we can say that 10 % of Finns is moderatly active at FB. Now, if you want to target all Finns you can pick that group as target or all the members who give their location as Finland (this probably would include all the foreigners in Finland, too, excluding Finns abroad).

Anyway, the ads. I actually wanted to write about the targeted and localized ads as they become more common sighting at FB. I’ll do this by listing here 10 ads I see during this afternoon (perhaps later, too) and commenting on them. (Most of the translations (from english) to finnish are quite hilarious. Too bad they don’t translate that well back to english.)

Here we go!

  1. Title:
    Laihduta kuten Hollywood  (In english something like “lose weight like Hollywood”)
    Content:
    Picture of a young (skinny) lady in a smallish swimsuit on a beach. Some kind of weight loss dingy.
    Relevance (to me):
    Not relevant at all. I don’t a) need to lose weight b) want to lose weight.
    Origin:
    Translated from some other language.
  2. Title:
    Uudet Arabian Muumi-mukit (new Moomin cups by Arabia)
    Content:
    Picture of cups with Moomins. Web address with a promise of quick shipping.
    Relevance (to me):
    Well, I have two of those cups, so quite relevant.
    Origin:
    Finnish
  3. Title:
    Mitä tekisit 60 tonnilla? (What would you do with 60 grand?)
    Content:
    Picture of some guy with huge glasses wearing a lot of bling. Some half-naked ladies behind him. Text tells me to pimp my life (”tuunaa elämäsi”) and a web address.
    Relevance (to me):
    Not relevant at all. I don’t want to pimp my life.
    Origin:
    Finnish
  4. Title:
    Omega Seamaster
    Content:
    Picture of a watch. Ad for 1 cent auction.
    Relevance (to me):
    Watch looks ok. Don’t do auctions online (or otherwise)
    Origin:
    Have no idea. Probably translated.
  5. Title:
    Voita uusi MacBook Air (Win a new MacBook Air)
    Content:
    Picture of a MacBook Air.  Ad for some online auction.
    Relevance (to me):
    MacBook Air is always ok (would like to have one if I just had too much money). Don’t do auctions online (or otherwise)
    Origin:
    Finnish?
  6. Title:
    (network addess for a “finnish online pharmacy” - censored)
    Content:
    No pictures. Some generic ad fro health products online.
    Relevance (to me):
    Not relevant. Side note: selling pharmacy related stuff online is illegal in Finland. This ad is actually for natural remedies.
    Origin:
    Finnish
  7. Title:
    Kämppiksen kanssa menoja? (Going out with your room mate? — or something. Very bad translation to finnish)
    Content:
    Logo of a web site. Text tells us about this wonderful service which you can use online or with a Handy.
    Relevance (to me):
    Not relevant. I have no “room mates”
    Origin:
    Translated
  8. Title:
    1 year MBA in Boston.
    Content:
    Picture is obscure - don’t actually know what the hell is in it. Golf clubs? Ad for some MBA in Boston.
    Relevance (to me):
    Not relevant. I think my M.Sc (tech) is enough.
    Origin:
    US. Not translated (in english)
  9. Title:
    Lainaa rahaa - (name censored) (Loan money - (name of the company))
    Content:
    Logo of the company. Text says that they’ll help me to get a loan online.
    Relevance (to me):
    Not relevant. I don’t want a loan (from Internet)
    Origin:
    Finnish
  10. Title:
    Lemmenlaiva (Love Boat)
    Content:
    Logo of the company. Text tells us that there’s a high quality online shop for couples (you get the point?)
    Relevance (to me):
    Hmm. Hard to say, perhaps relevant.
    Origin:
    Finnish

Bonus:

  1. Title:
    Says my cousin added this one particular Facebook application.
    Content:
    Logo of the application. says the above plus that I can use this application for what it was meant.
    Relevance (to me):
    Hmm. I actually do have this application installed. Don’t like it (nor use it), though.
    Origin:
    Not translated. International.

Well, not that many hilarious results this time. Conclusions? Those ads weren’t very relevant for me. Online auctions are not my thing, nor is weight loss or diets. I have plenty of applications installed (too many!), but I don’t add them usually from an ad. At my case the targeting was quite bad. Some other time perhaps better!

(Perhaps I’ll do this weekly. Could be nice - yeah, I’ll do that if I have the time and energy)

Firefox 3 and mouse gestures (general whining and Fangs!).

Published
by
Ilkka
on 22.6.2008
in accessibility, article, firefox and nonsense
. 4 Comments

As I’m always eager to be accepted in a gang (any gang?), I did my part of the hype. Downloaded Firefox 3.

First impressions? Not that good as two thirds of my extensions stopped working.

Second impression? Pretty good. I’ll go with this version, any time.

Anyway, mouse gestures.

“In computing, a mouse gesture is a way of combining computer mouse movements and clicks which the software recognizes as a specific command.
– Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_gestures”

I truly love my mouse gestures, have ever since I first bumped on them on some ancient version of Opera. Now, in Firefox, there’s as far as I know no native mouse gestures implemented. May be wrong, anyway.

I used to use the infamous “All-in-one mouse gestures” -plugin, but as paradise began (FF 3), it didn’t quite make the upgrade with the browser. Which is not nice.

A friend of mine (thanks F!) gave me a tip ’bout mousegestures.org (Mouse Gestures Redox). Now I’m a happy camper, again!

Entensions and versions in Firefox have been somehow problematic combination since beginning of the browser and sadly still are. For example, My favourite accessibility extension, Fangs, has been a major pain in the ass with the compatibility issues for many years. And yes, still is. No Fangs for Ilkka, again! (I highly recommend Fangs for web developers - makes making things a bit accessible easier. What is it then? I quote: “creates a textual representation of a web page similar to how the page would be read by a modern screen reader.“)

Hope in the future the problem persists no more. Please!

Custom Feeds.

Published
by
Ilkka
on 4.6.2008
in article and howto
. 0 Comments

Feed43 is a site where one can create RSS Feeds from web sites (without ready made feeds).

I’ve used it a few times, works quite fine after you get the logic.

Why am I writing this? Well, this one particular site got a redesign, too. Broke the feed, of course, provides no feeds whatsoever. Complained about the thing, message was that if I please could fix the feed! (As the RSS -feature would cost that particular nonprofit org some 30 euros/month or so…)

Oh well, this might be a good moment to write down what has to be done in order to get the feed running, again!

Ok, first surf to Feed43 (open the feedable site in another window).

Either login in to access your old feeds or just create a new one. (I’ll use my own account here).

Type in the source page’s address (this should be the page you want to feed). Don’t forget the encoding (here in Finland mostly ISO-8859-1)!

Define extraction rules.

  • {%} is the (global) selection rule (select the whole html-document for processing with the wildcard {%})
  • {*} is the whatever -operator
  • item rule is the rule for feed items.

Global search pattern for this case:

{*}<table class=”NewsSummaryContent SummaryContent”>{%}</table>{*}

Pattern states that:

  • first we don’t care what comes before <table class=”NewsSummaryContent … as all the news are located there, hence the {*}
  • <table class=”NewsSummaryContent SummaryContent”>{%}</table> tells the parser that we are interested in the contents of that particular table, we’ll type {%}
  • and last but not the least, we don’t care about the rest: {*}

If everything works fine, you should get all the news in the clipped data -section.

Item rules are a bit tricky, depending on the source html. In this case the html is shitty at best, so the work is not nice at all (tables are used for layout and so on.).

Anyway…

The main idea is to find repeating patterns of items for the news. For example title, date, excerpt and url.

For this case the html looks like this:

<tr>
<td>
<p class=”odd”><a href=”http://www.example.fi/kaikki_uutiset/?x137352=147144“>Just some title</a>
<span class=”pvm”>(3.6.2008)</span></p><div class=”ingressi”>This is the excerpt.</div></td>
</tr>

and the item rule like this:

<tr>{*}<a href=”{%}”>{%}</a>{*}<span class=”pvm”>{%}</span>{*}<div class=”ingressi”>{%}</div>{*}</tr>

Could be better and more optimized, but who cares? I certainly know I don’t…

Anyway, when writing the item rules you can always check the result from the “Clipped data” -view, which is nice.

Next step is to define output format, titles for the feed and so on. After setting those, the interesting part begins - RSS Item properties.
Select the correct template tag (marked with {%1}, {%2} and so on) and type it in the right input field (in my case title is number two and three as I want to include the date, too. I type {%2}{%3})

And voila: there it is, the feed, fixed.

Now just figure out a good url and send it to everyone you know…

Tips:

  • Be patient, the item rules are sometimes tricky
  • Set up an account if you want to control your feeds - otherwise anyone can edit them.

Good luck with feeding!

How Paris Got Hacked (or Why I Sometimes Disagree on Internet Security Issues)

Published
by
Ilkka
on 21.5.2008
in article
. 0 Comments

Some of you may remeber this old case about Paris Hilton and how she got hacked couple of years ago (link to article), main reason being the “secret question” (asked when one forgets one’s password) about favourite pet’s name. Well, in Paris’ case dog’s name (I don’t care what it is - google yourself;)) was publicly known.
After that?
I don’t have to draw a picture, do I?

Why this blabbering?

Dear old University of mine issued some new password policies. The new regulations require that users’ passwords must be at least 10 characters long and have to be changed every 9 months. Ok, jolly good.

9 months is not that often, I’ll give you that. I can live with it.

10 characters? Yes, ok. That’s fine, too. Fine with the usual “has to contain this and that and that”, too. Also fine with the complexity requirements (these I understand quite well!).

But, all put together I’m now in a situation where I can’t log in to my account, at all.
Why not?
Because I can’t freaking remember the password! I remeber in my opinion quite well. Type it, doesn’t work. Retype all the 12 chars, nothing. Type them in another form. Nothing.

Great. All the time this login form resets my user name, have to a) retype it every time or b) copy and paste it every time.

Anyway. Try some other forms I use. Nothing.

How do I get my password set again? (have absolutely do idea what the exact form I typed it was).

Take the bus to my university (when it’s open, 0,5 hours ride). Go to help desk, try to find the right person. Show my student id card with the awful picture on it. Type in the password. Retype it. Try to remember it a bit better this time. Take the bus back (0,5 hours ride).

Yep, that’s secure.

Time spent? About 2 hours. The state of “vitutus“? Maximum.

Anyway.

Security is perhaps the major issue as even more traditional services are being transferred to internet. Main issue is, I think,  identifying the user - with which mechanism can we be sure the person is really the person he/she claims to be?

Usernames and passwords, yes. Works quite well. Only problem is that people tend to forget things. Complex and long enough passwords are not that easy to remember. So what do we do? Write them down! Hey, that’s brilliant! Everything solved. What about the physical security? Someone coming to your desk, in real life? Oh well, in reality this is perhaps not that major a risk, but anyway…

What makes things more complicated is the fact that every website, desktop program or whatever wants you to log in. And the login is made with a pair of user name and password.

Now, for obvious reasons one shouldn’t use the same password and user name in every service. That multiplies the number of passwords to remember by the number of services - or by little less if one cheats. Anyway, one reason for not using the same password in every place was seen last year here in Finland. Almost 80000 password/user name -pairs were hacked (posting about the topic). Not a big deal - except for the fact that people use same passwords in various services.

Yeah, stricter password policies at my Uni can be traced to that case, too.

What was the point? Can’t remember it anymore as I try to remeber all my passwords.
In particular the password for my Uni.

Nokia Sports Tracker (or Why I Strongly Believe in Nokia Being Stronger in Mobile Markets, Not in the Internet)

Published
by
Ilkka
on 18.5.2008
in article and mobile
. 0 Comments

Now, I’m a pretty active person when it comes to recreational sports. I jog, inline skate and so on.

Major problem in past has been the measuring part: how to measure distances, paces and speeds? How can one go through the workout later?

Well, having gone through various different solutions (step counters, heart rate monitors, Sport Gps’s and so on), I ended up with N82 and Nokia Sports Tracker. N82 has a built-in GPS receiver, which is nice. It’s also nice that Nokia Sports Tracker is quite good (the beta version).

IMHO, the mobile application is easy to use, clear and usable. Works fine, font is big enough so you can check out the readings while running or skating. Uploading to service works well.

Now, the problem and the title.

Nokia Sports Tracker Website is not that good. Again, flash where there’s no need for flash. Annoying things. Clearly not that good a grasp at social software. Usability hindered by small things (like the login page and disappearing usename if password wrong). Accessibility? don’t even mention it.

First things first: login (and usability).

  • Login without JavaScript?
  • If password wrong, username disappears.

Lost my Password -functionality:

  • no clear indication of mail sent (just the same form presented). Password is always reseted with the feature (hey, you can reset someone else’s password, how cool!)

Friends -page (after login)

  • Thought this page would include all the routes and workouts from my friends. No, actually an admin page for friend functionality.
  • Friend list: no choice to view my friend’s details, only to remove (them from my list). Is that odd or what?

Well then, how does one get to see friend’s workouts? Choose Community, choose person > friends. Simple as that, eh? All my friends at the moment being from Finland, would be nice if the zoom level of the map would be something else as the whole world…

Dashboard?

  • Ok, this one is pretty good. Shows one’s latest workouts on map (zoom level!) and as a list. Works fine. Small list with latest workouts from friends.

Other points:

  • Favourites -link shows a page with text “No data to display”. What kind of data this could be? Tips, anyone?
  • My Profile -page: ok, shows some useful data. Curiosity: “Joined the service in the beginning” (Phee!).

Summary:

  • Sports Tracker is an excellent mobile software and a good service. There still remains a lot of work to do on the website, though. Still waiting for the first good Nokia Website!

Tampere United Redesign

Published
by
Ilkka
on 16.5.2008
in article, finnish and test
. 0 Comments

Front Page of Tampere United\'s redesigned site.

Tampere United, my local football (soccer, natürlich!) team, just released a redesign of their site.

My first opinion: WTF?

Flash, Javascript, font size even smaller than it used to be, almost everything displayed as images (and the list goes on and on and on).

77 validation errors (according to W3C’s Validator). And yes, although valid HTML is not the key to happiness, it is certainly a measure of quality.Tampere United - front page without flash

News -section at front page done with flash (sic!). WTF?

Antti Pohja’s so-called Blog: no RSS, no proper archives, no commenting. Nice stories, though, no complaints to Ato!

Tested with Opera Mini Simulator (latest version):

  • with mobile browsing off (no mobile view):
    Looks quite nice. News don’t work. Menu doesn’t work. Sponsor -list doesn’t work. Images look terrible (at lo-res).
  • mobile browsing on (mobile view):
    Fucking awful (imho)! (Menu comes first, news don’t work at front page, ad’s are really, really big and so on).

Visually the redesign is quite ok. Huge player up front is a nice touch, visually speaking. Colours go well with the team colours (blue and green).

Bearing accessibility and usability in mind the redesign is a total failure:

  • Menu system is based on drop-down menus (CSS-based, I’ll give you that!), but still really hard to use for people with disabilities or for the elderly.
  • Layout is fixed (try to enlarge the text, see what happens! How about lower resolutions, likeTampere United Front page without images 800×600?)
  • Reading order (linearized) is not logical.
  • Alternative texts for images and other content are not that informative (like the picture with team’s goalie, Mikko Kaven: Icon 01 Kaven) or seem to be missing completely
  • No images? Almost no content at Front Page! (Screen capture to the right)

Summary:

I don’t like this redesign. There’s nothing new for me and the old features are even worse than they were. But, as I already am a fan of TamU, perhaps it doesn’t matter.

Perhaps time will tell if I grow to like this one, too. Like I did with the older ones.

Edit:
There seems to be some new features, though. One is videos from games attached to reports (example), with interviews. Too bad this isn’t, technically speaking, not that good. Flash video, yes. Why, oh why does it start automatically?
Overall quality of videos is good, have to give you that!

Opera Mini 4.1 (or my mobile browsing, revisited)

Published
by
Ilkka
on 13.5.2008
in article
. 0 Comments

As some may know, I’m a big fan of Opera Mini, perhaps the best mobile browser (imho).

I first installed Opera Mini 3, I think. That was way back when my phone was Nokia 6125. It was good, although had some annoying features. Upgraded to 4, better! Although 6125 is not by definition a smart phone, my phone got a lot smarter.

Anyway, now my phone is Nokia N82 (there be flash, beware!)- and the browser?

Yep, Opera Mini. It’s fast, reliable and comfortable. Ok, lacks some nifty Symbian OS native features, but still. It’s my choice.

Now, the version 4.1. Tested the beta version for a while, was quite happy with it. Then  the memory card  broke, had to install everything again and didn’t have the time to get the beta. Installed the stable version. Disappointment was great.

Now, fortunately, the features I so much loved are back:

  • it should be faster (don’t know about the 50 %, though)
  • You can find text in a web page
  • URLs are auto-completed (nice!)
  • Downloading and uploading works…
  • and you can save pages for off-line viewing.

(Source: http://www.operamini.com/features/)

Perhaps more later…

Doodlings and Wordpress 2.5 Gallery Feature.

Published
by
Ilkka
on 6.5.2008
in article, test and wordpress
. 0 Comments

As some may already know, I doodle. A lot.

Posted some doodlings to “art?” -section of this blog while I wanted to test the new gallery feature of Wordpress 2.5 (some info) .

First impressions after the break…

Continue reading ‘Doodlings and Wordpress 2.5 Gallery Feature.’

Draft/saved: Ubiikkia juoksukokemusta etsimässä

Published
by
Ilkka
on 28.4.2008
in article and finnish
. 0 Comments

(Original saved as draft at Hypermediaa ja elämää. Copied and published with draft status here at 28.4.2008. Will work on this when I have time… Topic: “Quest for ubique running experience”)

Juoksusta on tullut yhä tärkeämpi osa allekirjoittaneen arkea vuosien varrella. Ja kyllä, musiikkia pitäisi pystyä kuuntelemaan juostessa.

  • C-kasettisoitin ei 90-luvun kokemusten mukaan toimi juoksun ohessa. Liian painava laite, puskurista huolimatta musiikki hyppii ja pätkii.
  • CD-soitin ei kokemusten mukaan toimi juoksun ohessa. Liian painava ja isokokoinen laite, puskurista huolimatta musiikki hyppii ja pätkii. Bonuksena saattaa saada CD-levynsä naarmuille.
  • MD-soitin (minidisc) ei kokemusten mukaan toimi juoksun ohessa. Laite on kyllä siedettävän kokoinen ja kevyt, mutta pitkään samoja levyjä kuunneltaessa levyt kuluvat ja musiikki pätkii. Puskurointi toimii pääsääntöisesti, muttei kuitenkaan kauhean hyvin.
  • MP3-soitin toimii juostessa, useimmiten oikein hyvin. Keveys ja pieni koko bonuksena. Ongelmaksi muodostuu soittimen paikka juoksulenkin aikana; taskussa? Pomppii.
    Ranteessa? Njooh, jos on sopiva malli ja/tai sopiva rannenauha.

Vuosien käytännön testauksen perusteella ainoa toimiva tapa kuunnella musiikkia juoksulenkin aikana on MP3-soittimen käyttö. Takavuosien kokemuksen perusteella paras vaihtoehto on erillinen soitin; soittimen ollessa integroitu puhelimeen saattaa takaraivossa tykyttää koko lenkin ajatus siitä, että joku voi soittaa.
Ei siis minua varten, vaikkakin nykyiset puhelimien soittimet ovat jo varsin kohtuullisia.

Musiikin kuuntelemisen lisäksi olisi mukava tietää juostu matka, keskinopeus (ja kilometrinopeus, arvioitu tai todellinen). Allekirjoittanut on kokeillut askelmittaria; ei toimi käytännössä, koska juoksulenkillä maastossa askelpituus tuskin kovin montaa kertaa on sama kuin laitteeseen ennakkoon kalibroitu. Ok, kyllähän tämäkin tekniikka on parantunut, mutta…

Ad hoc -jaottelu erilaisista tekniikoista voisi olla vaikkapa seuraava:

  1. Askelmittarit
  2. Edistyneet askelmittarit
  3. GPS-pohjaiset ratkaisut

Ensimmäiseen ryhmään kuuluvat “perusaskelmittari”; siis sellaiset, joita voi ostaa kävelyyn esimerkiksi paikallisesta urheiluliikkeestä. Eivät toimi välttämättä kovin hyvin juoksussa.

Seuraavaan (hatarasti valittuun) ryhmään kuuluvat ns. edistyneemmät askelmittarit, jotka mittaavat esimerkiksi kiihtyvyyttä.

Viimeiseen ryhmään kuuluvat GPS-pohjaiset ratkaisut, näytöillä tai ilman.