Blog Posts
Connecting Rivers
Added all klia2 Parking Lanes (Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Terminal 2)
Mapping Saga Continues at klia2 (Kuala Lumpur International Airport)
Added Pier P gate numbers Added Pier Q gate numbers Added Pier K/L gate numbers I have discussed those changesets in Part 1 and Part 2. Now it’s time to complete this map. I recently added the final gates in klia2, which is located at Pier J (Domestic). That’s the main message, however someone have added some lengths of lines connected to the taxiway. Unfortunately, these are not visible in the regular OpenStreetMap layer. Before changeset Apparently, they are the aeroway:parking_position paths. These paths are self-explanatory, which are the ones followed by an aircraft to safely deliver passengers to the parking spot (and terminal gates). Bing satellite imagery provides a clear view of these lines to be added. That’s the motivation to complete the Pier K/L parking position lines in Changesets 63867934 and 63868266. Actually, there are some paths that are still unmapped, specifically in the gates K20, L20 and L22. aeroway:parking_position lines will be added in other piers (and hopefully Terminal 1) soon, to make the entire KLIA to be better mapped for the public.
Part 2 of Adding Gate Numbers in klia2 (Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Terminal 2)
Continuing from one of my previous post I have added more gates for Pier K/L and Pier Q. After changeset Before this changeset is submitted, the map of klia2 only has a full set of Pier P gate numbers (added by myself) and a lonely Gate Q10. I reused the old Q10 node in these changesets so there are fewer changes to the map database. Additionally, as in Changeset 63791506, I decided to join the Airport Gate “nodes” to the entire klia2 building. This makes node placement easier as I am no longer need to estimate the equal distance between the airport’s edge to those nodes. The Pier K/L is, perhaps, another unique feature of the klia2 Terminal. The official website from Malaysia Airports states that even though Pier K is intended for domestic flights and Pier I for international, they actually take place on the same pier area on different level heights. (Pier K gates are on Level 1A, while Pier L gates are on Level 2) Pier L has one additional gate, L22, which located very near to gates K20 and L20. To remove confusion I decided to re-join these numbers together in Changeset #63793136 After changeset As you can see above those gate numbers actually refer to three aircraft parking spaces nearby, where L22 has the largest one (for long-haul international flights such as AirAsia X). However, by joining the gate numbers in one point, passengers can simply know the direction they need to go to the gate. In KLIA Terminal 1 gate numbers are applied to apron areas instead of terminal buildings, but it would be good to add nodes such as lifts for informing passengers for waiting room areas for those remote gates. Pier J gate numbers are coming soon. Besides that, a skybridge above the aircraft taxiway is a great design.
Adding Gate Numbers in klia2 (Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Terminal 2)
I have recently submitted a changeset to add gate numbers in klia2. Although this seems easy, this terminal have a unique odd-even gate number assignments, which is unlike the Terminal 1. Displayed map of klia2, before changeset Displayed map of klia2, after changeset Current displayed map of KLIA (Terminal 1), with gate numbers assigned There is still work to be done in adding gate numbers to the other piers of the terminal, but I would be glad for others (especially the Malaysian OpenStreetMap community) to help in adding these as well. I am also planning to improve the Genting Highlands map in early 2019.
Behind The Changesets: From A Missing Rest Area in OpenStreetMap
Major Changes in Central Park Mall Jakarta
This post was originally published for OpenStreetMap. Changeset details: https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/56642302 The Central Park Mall is one of the popular shopping malls in West Jakarta, Indonesia. It is also inspired by the design of the Central Park in New York City. This mall has a park for visitors to walk around, called the Tribeca Park. Aside from that, this mall is also connected to the Tribeca (a 2-storey section of Central Park Mall consisting of several restaurants) and Neo Soho (the shopping mall below the new Soho apartment near to Central Park). These malls are owned by the same developer, PT. Agung Podomoro Land. In this changeset I added the new Tribeca (mall) section at the other side of Tribeca Park, including the skybridge connecting Tribeca ↔️ Central Park ↔️ Neo Soho. I also added more details on Tribeca Park itself, including added new footpaths, restaurants, ponds, fountains and a new escalator. There’s 1 more pond left unmapped, as I need to re-check on site for the accuracy of its position. So far, here’s the changes I made to this shopping mall. As of now, there might be some mistakes in my changes to, which I will fix it later. And here’s how my work is compared with Google Maps (as of 25 February 2018):
Who owns Android?
Note: This was posted as an answer on Quora. Android was originally founded by Andy Rubin in 2003 under the company name Android, Inc. It is correct that he previously worked for Apple and Microsoft, however he quit Apple, Inc. at about 15 years before the original iPhone was launched. At 2005, Google finished their acquisition of Android, Inc. Hence, Google becomes the author of Android. Two years after the acquisition of Android, Google launched the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), which lists companies, especially mobile device manufacturers, which ships some of their devices with Google’s Android OS (with Google Play Services). This leads to the fact that Android is not just owned by Google, but also all members of the Open Handset Alliance (including Samsung, Lenovo, Sony and other companies who makes Android devices). As the core parts of Android are open sourced, anyone may obtain these parts freely as regulated by the license. As a result, many variants of Android are also made available, which lead to creation of custom ROMs and inspires Google to create the “Be Together, Not the Same” motto of Android. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cz6drXxrMI Outside of Google and the Open Handset Alliance, there are also some companies and communities responsible for developing custom Android ROMs, which includes: Amazon: not an OHA member, while responsible in making the OS for Amazon Fire devices which are also based on Android.BlackBerry: joined as an OHA member, while they were responsible in porting the Android runtime for QNX and BlackBerry 10.Jide Technologies: responsible for Remix OS, which ports and modifies Android OS for usage in PCs.LineageOS: the community revival of the popular CyanogenMod custom ROMs.OpenMobile WorldWide: responsible in providing Android services and OpenMobile ACL Android runtime for Samsung’s Tizen (and probably BlackBerry’s QNX and BlackBerry 10 as well). In conclusion, Android can actually be owned by anyone. You could grab the Android Open Source Project source code and do something with it. I feel that your question is incomplete though, as someone could own an Android OS the same way as owning a copy of Windows. Hopefully, this answer makes you understand about the diversity of Android OS, even though Google is currently the largest owner of Android.
Q&A: What are the pros and cons of Android and iOS that most people are not aware of?
Android If you think that Google invented Android, you are absolutely wrong. Andy Rubin, an ex-Apple employee, founded Android, Inc. and Android as an open source OS before Google purchased and acquired Android. Advantages of Android Open source, anyone can take the source code of some AOSP (Android Open Source Projects) Applications and Components. That's why BlackBerry 10 and Jolla devices can also run Android Apps, and Android manufacturers are allowed to customize the UI/OS such as Xiaomi's MiUI, Samsung's TouchWiz, HTC Sense UI etc. Runs on many devices, since it's allowed to be ported for other phones/devices. Owned by Google, which means that there are many Google-integrated features in Android (such as Contacts backup, Gmail, Google Drive, etc.) Customization. This is one of the biggest factors of the switch from iOS/others to Android. You can choose many different types of Launchers/Home Screens, Keyboards (Even though this can be customized since iOS 8), Status bar, and more. Variants. Manufacturers can easily integrate Android with some new features on the phone, such as fingerprint and eye scanner. There are also some Android variants, one of them is CyanogenMod. App installation and updates. Most Google Apps in Android can be updated without updating the OS. Android users just simply update it in Google Play Store (or others). Many apps can also be installed/updated without Google Play Store, by just installing the app in .APK format. This is useful for enterprises to create company-specific apps for Android. External storage support. This is another factor of the switch to Android. iPhones does not have support for memory cards (Micro SD cards), and the only way to connect with PC/Mac is through iTunes (And iTunes is not available in Linux distributions). Some manufacturers may have their own app to connect their Android devices to computers, such as Kies3 by Samsung. First setup and updates. Android may not need any software (such as iTunes) to setup your phone and delivering updates. iOS setup must require iTunes. Android updates will also not deleting your apps and your data, so it's easier to update than iOS. Price. Prices of Android phones are vary, depending on your needs. Many of them are cheaper than iPhones and iPads, while some of them have features what iOS devices (iDevices) does not have. Disadvantages of Android Google Play Services. This is a Google's trick: As I mention earlier, Android is open source, but it's limited to AOSP apps. Google Play apps and Services are not open source. Manufacturers must comply with Google's standard (and pay to Google) to allow Google Play Services and Apps to be bundled with their Android builds. Google Play Services is also important to many Google APIs on Android, and this is the reason why apps with Google Maps API and other Google APIs may fail in BlackBerry 10 and Sailfish OS. Different screen sizes and resolutions can cause problems with app development. This can take time to developers to develop an Android App. Bloatware. Many Android Apps are bloatwares, including unnecessary Google Apps. Manufacturers may include "Exclusive" apps that you may not use. And, there are many Google Apps that you also may not use. Bloatwares can take up many of device memory. Fortunately, many of them can be disabled through Settings. Update lifecycle. This depends of the manufacturers' decision. Android One phones receive updates for several years, Nexus phones are often to be updated quickly and used to test the beta versions of Android. Samsung's high-end devices received updates about a year after Google's official release, while old and low-end Android devices may not receive updates at all. This is because some manufacturers are modifying and porting the new versions of Android for their devices, and that's a long process. Different versions. Since updates are released slowly, there are many different Android versions of all Android devices around the world. Currently, Android 4.x is more used than Lollipop (5.x), Marshmallow (6.x) and Android N (7.x). This may cause difficulties with developers to create apps and fix bugs. Compatibility with older versions of Android. Currently, Google Apps supports from Android Jellybean to Android N. Meanwhile, Google is also developing a compatibility layer for some features (such as Material Design for KitKat and below). Developers must choose which Android will be supported, since lower versions means less APIs and functions, as well as some things that are deprecated today. Security. Some bugs on Linux kernel in Android phones may open backdoors to security flaw. Furthermore, there are some malicious Android apps that can threat the OS itself. iOS If you think that iOS is the first smartphone OS, that’s another mistake. Before iOS, there are some smartphone/PDA OS before it, such as BlackBerry, Palm WebOS, Windows Mobile and even Apple’s Newton OS for their Newton Messagepad PDAs. Please note that iOS is originally a trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc. not Apple, Inc. Advantages of iOS Just works. If you don't care about customization, and random process of setting up your phone, iOS may be perfect for you. If you notice, there are far less steps for you to set up an email account, calendar, even installing Apps from the App Store can be done in a tap. In Google Play, users are asked to understand the App permissions (for non-Marshmallow devices). Software lifecycle. In iOS, it's far easier for iPhones to update (rather than Android devices, unless you are using latest Android phones). This also benefit for developers so they can integrate new iOS features easily. App size. Most of apps whose have both iOS and Android versions are different in memory size. In fact, iOS apps are “lighter” than Android apps. This happens due to diverse Android phones that are need to be supported, with new Material Design libraries for Android as well. Continuity. If you previously owned other Apple products (such as a Macbook), a new feature in iOS, MacOS (OS X), WatchOS and Apple tvOS, which allows you share content from an Apple device to another Apple device, including photos, clipboards, notes and more. Again,this is a new feature and requires latest version of those Apple OSes I mentioned above. User Interface. Even though Android's Material Design is good, iOS keep the UI as simple as possible. The aim of iOS to create a mobile OS which “Just works”. Security. By restricting other third-party content on iOS, iOS is more secure than Android. Even though there was some bugs in iOS, Apple fix those bugs on later versions. Disadvantages of iOS Apple ID. Most of iOS apps may require Apple ID for services such as Continuity, Apple Pay, Apple Watch integration, App Store, Game Center and even the iTunes. If you already have the Apple ID you won’t worry about this Restrictions. Unlike Android, iOS wants to monopoly your activities by their services. For example, you cannot install an iOS app just by download and install the packages like what Android does. Then, some of iOS apps are default for specific tasks, such as Safari for browsing and iTunes/Apple Music for playing music, even though Jailbreak is available for iOS. Meanwhile, this can improve the security of iOS as iOS apps are regulated in the App Store guidelines, and constantly reviewed by Apple. iTunes dependency. Every time you are updating to the latest iOS version, there’s always one more step: connect with iTunes for your computer. In Android, the updating process is straightforward and does not delete any of your previously installed updates. Price. iOS, alongside with other Apple OSes, are closed source. This means that to enjoy iOS you must have either the iPhone, iPad, or even the iPod Touch. In some countries, those devices are expensive due to taxes applied in their government. The iOS-capable devices are “the same”. This statement is even used in new Android marketing campaign, “Be together, not the same”. Unless a custom case is applied for iPhones, someone may incidentally steal your iPhone because it looks the same with each other. Storage. iPhones, iPod Touch and iPads are limited in storage. There are no external storage, weird iCloud problems, and other web storage apps available (such as Dropbox and Google Drive). Meanwhile, this should not be a problem because based on my experience, a 8GB iPod Touch (4th Generation, iOS 4) can be filled with almost 50 apps and Jailbreak, and less photos.
