Basics
Costs
The use of Track of the day is completely free of charge for users. But that doesn’t mean that there are no costs! The hosting of this website, the shop system, the access to the Microsoft Windows Store, the use of libraries and controls, the access to the Bing Maps services, all of this costs money. So that these running costs can be paid permanently, the Pro license with a term of 365 days costs 29 euros. Alternatively, a free Pro license with a term of 30 days is available.
User data
Many large corporations earn a lot of money on the Internet from storing and selling user data. In track of the day , no personal data is stored permanently outside the computer of the user. Of course, you can always save your tracks, routes and POIs on a USB stick or send them to your navigation device. But whoever does this is always in full control. The third-party software used, which is listed below, does not pass on any personal data or is networked with web services of any kind.
Maps
Track of the dayuses the map material provided by Microsoft Bing Maps. The control element for displaying the maps is part of the Microsoft WPF framework which is based on .NET. This control can display road maps and very detailed aerial photographs. This map material is the basis for the Bing Maps routing services, both are perfectly coordinated and designed to calculate routes that can be safely driven or run. This map material is continuously updated by Microsoft, which is the greatest advantage compared to locally installed map material. The control element used can only display this map material. A comprehensive expansion would be necessary for the use of open street maps or topographical maps.Therefore, only the freely available, very good maps are initially included.
Route calculation
The Bing Maps REST services are used to calculate routes and search for addresses. These services are accessed via a URL that never contains personal information. All that is sent are GEO coordinates in latitude and longitude format. When calculating a route, the longitude and latitude are sent to each route point.
Address search
When searching by address, the aim is to find a GEO coordinate from latitude and longitude for a search term with the name of a place and a street, which can be displayed on a map. If you click on a map with the mouse, you get the GEO coordinate for which the Bing Maps services can provide a formatted address. Not every GEO coordinate has an address.
Anonymize tracks
Tracks, routes and POIs do not contain any user data. But if you record a track that you start driving at home or plan a route from your home or to your home, you will inevitably have stored the GEO coordinates of your apartment or house there. If you want to publish a recorded track, you can anonymize it beforehand with Track of the day . To do this, open the track in the track editor and select a waypoint that no longer says anything about the home address. Then you delete all waypoints before. The end of a track can also be anonymized in the same way.
FFMPEG
Things like rendering MP4 files are a complex science in itself. The programming language used for the development of Track of the day and the associated libraries do not offer support for rendering MP4 videos. You would have to develop everything yourself. This is real rocket science and it would take a long time. But there is the happy open source software FFMPEG . NASA even uses this software for the rovers that are on the move on Mars. To render an MP4 video from a track, FFMPEG must be installed. If it is not installed, Track of the day can be useddownload the necessary executable files and store them in the user profile with the application data. It is just a download and a file copy, nothing is changed in the configuration of the computer. After the individual images of a track have been created, Track of the Day starts the FFMEG software, which generates the finished MP4 file from the individual images.
GPSBABEL
For manufacturers such as TomTom and Garmin, radar detectors and other POI services are good additional business. Therefore, the formats in which POIs are saved on the navigation devices are not documented, and in some cases are even encrypted. If you want to export self-created POIs from Track of the day to your Garmin or TomTom navigation device, the POIs must be converted into the respective POI format of the manufacturer. But how can you convert data to a file format that is not documented? Here comes the free open source software GPSBABELin the game. The developers behind this software have used complex reverse engineering to decipher the essential characteristics of the file formats from TomTom, Garmin and other manufacturers. This makes it possible to export your own POIs in GPX format and convert these files into Garmin GPI or TomTom OV2 format via GPSBABEL. Software like the Garmin POI loader is no longer needed.
Microsoft SQL Server LocalDB
The Microsoft SQL server has been an industry standard for years that runs on many thousands of servers worldwide and is also used by manufacturers such as SAP. The LocalDB Edition is available for use on a very small scale. This is the smallest SQL server available and it is completely free. Using this software enables a local database for GPX files. As of version 4.0 , the SQL server is an installation requirement. To make the installation as easy as possible, the installation package for the SQL server LocalDB is included in the setup of Track of the daycontain. When starting the installation for the first time, you will be asked to install the SQL server. You have to confirm this with “Yes”, otherwise you cannot use the application. The installation program for the SQL server starts automatically. After the installation, several SQL scripts are automatically played to set up the SQL server. The next step is to ask for a new database. You also have to confirm this with “Yes”, otherwise you cannot use the application. If the database was set up without errors, Track of the day is started.
Winding routes
When calculating routes or sections of routes, the Microsoft Bing Maps REST services can automatically provide up to four variants. You can tell whether a route is winding by the travel time and the number of waypoints. From version 4.1 there is the routing option Prefer winding roads in Track of the day . If this is selected, the route with the most waypoints and thus most curves is automatically selected from the alternatives that are calculated by the routing services.
Scenic routes
The routing services used do not know any motorcycle routes and therefore cannot conjure up super beautiful motorcycle routes at the push of a button. By embedding Calimoto, Kurviger and other services, services can be used that use routing algorithms that are specially tailored to the needs of motorcyclists. Through the integration, routes created in this way are opened directly in Track of the day and can be further processed there as required. Who the Calimeter unfamiliar and the really good routes studied, can already at the Routenpkanung Google Street View to use to see the route and the countryside. So you can easily decide for yourself which routes are worthwhile or not.
Routing overlays
The routing overlays from Track of the day are the counterpart to color-coded sections of the route, such as those at Calimoto, Kurviger, TomTom myDrive and elsewhere. But you can generate it yourself or install it specifically. A small selection of routing overlays is currently available free of charge in our shop .
Points of interest
POIs are a good tool for planning beautiful routes. With providers such as www.alpenrouten.de you can find a large number of POIs files that can be imported into Track of the day . From version 4.1 POI types and POI categories can be enriched with POI symbols. These can also be exported to devices on Garmin and other compatible devices and displayed there.
