TaxOnWeb, OSX and Chrome

- Not working at present

I believe that the Belgian government website went heavily with Microsoft for its electronic ID cards, and that means Belgian citizens and residents that are not Microsoft slaves will have a tougher time using eGovernment.  However, TaxOnWeb can sometimes be used.

The trick (from here) is to start Chrome with a flag:

/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --use-system-ssl

Then when it appears to ask for the password to the keyring, it actually wants the PIN-code for the eID card.

Regrettably, since first writing, TaxOnWeb now does a userAgent check and blocks Chrome.  Although I have found an extension to hep, this won't install today on my beta version of Chrome (16)

Logging into Keytrade bank with e-ID

For some bizarre reason Keytrade bank have dropped their existing 2-factor authentication process in favour of the Belgian e-ID.  The latter is notoriously linked to Microsoft, and Keytrade's instructions only refer to IE.

Although the FAQ suggests that Mac is supported, so far Keytrade's Java applet is not working for me - it fails to load completely.  If I find a way to login using Mac or Linux I will post here.

TaxOnWeb on Ubuntu

Installing Belgian e-ID middleware and reader

There are (at least) three versions of the software on the Internet:

• From the official site (dutch)- version 3.5.6;
• via Ubuntu software manager - version 3.5.2; and 
• From the developers' website - beta 4.0 (Note you also need a the e-ID viewer too from here.

Firefox - working
The official FAQ on Firefox is farcical - in short, Tax-on-Web is not available in Firefox 4 and above because this browser does not support the SSL connection that the Belgian state acknowledges it is is using, because it is relatively insecure (this has also received press attention)!

And it's true, when you try to connect with Firefox 4+ you get an error:

Error code: ssl_error_renegotiation_not_allowed

There is a way of forcing Firefox to work with this insecure connection method - see here or here.  Taxonweb further enforces its restrictions via a user-agent sniff, so you need a switching add-on - use any Microsoft user-agent - to be permitted to pay taxes!

Then all you need to do accept the certificate and permit access to card dialogues, an denter your PIN code.

Chrome - working

1. Follow http://code.google.com/p/eid-mw/wiki/ChromeLinux
2. Install a user-agent switcher from the Chrome store, and switch to Firefox (IE does not work)

Converting relations to cycle routes

So, I've uploaded a whole set of edits to the OSM and in particular set up a relation covering the whole of a marked ride in Belgium. But now I want to follow the route on my GPS. In other words, how to covert a relation into a gpx.

OSM comes with an API, and it is the xapi that provides access to data. The syntax to download all the elements of the same relation is:

http://www.informationfreeway.org/api/0.6/relation[name=witloofroute] Note: does not work
or
http://www.informationfreeway.org/api/0.6/relation?name=witloofroute
http://www.informationfreeway.org/api/0.6/relation#14813

But I believe that this just gives the raw data, which is very frequently not ordered and would thus be useless to follow.

So, thank goodness for the OSM Relation Analyzer.

http://ra.osmsurround.org/analyze.jsp?relationId=14813

Rendering Velomap maps with OSX

I like the work being done by Velomap.org, and he provides ready built files (but only for Windows). If you want more up to date builds (because of map or rendering file updates), then there are instructions on building your own maps. However, they are very brief.

The missing steps are:

Prerequisites
e) 'Download via git' means use the "Download" button on

https://github.com/aiomaster/aiostyles/tree/master/velomap_style/ and then you need to copy the velomap_style directory and the velomap.TYP file to the directory you plan to do the rest of the steps from.

Tweaking .typ file to work on a GPS

'adjust FID/PID of the .TYP-filewith gmaptool' was harder but these instructions suggest trying

./gmt -w -y 12241,1 velomap.TYP

where

• -w : write
• -y FID, PID,CP : adds the FID (=MapID, I will use 12241000 as 1224 is Belgium) PID (= ?, which seems always to be '1') and CP (=CodePage)

The instructions on the OSM wiki suggest using the --family-id switch when running mkgmap.jar

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Cycle_map

Installing the Map:

These instructions for GMapi Builder are needed for converting to the Mac gmapi format used by RoadTrip and BaseCamp.

Navigating in areas not covered by OpenStreetMap

I spent the last couple of weeks cycling in France. It was not an area well covered by OpenStreetMap, but I found a way of keeping to the roads I wanted to.

I started by setting the routes in Google Maps.

Then I used the bookmark from GMaptoGpx to download a KML and followed the instructions provided by this great tool to run it through GPS visualizer.

The resulting gpx was readily importable to RoadTrip, from where it could be transferred to the Garmin.

On the Garmin itself I choose Where To > Saved Rides > [ride name] > Map Setup. Then I chose a colour and clicked show on map. I could then follow the route around. Don't choose navigate.

[Note: there is a bug in Garmin's 3.2 software that means that once you have a map shown on screen un-clicking the show option does not work.]

OpenStreetMap for Garmin Edge

The standard OpenStreetMap downloads for Garmin may be appropriate for car drivers but the end result is little use for cycling using a Garmin Edge 605. I'd like to use the cycling specific data on OSM (see OpenCycleMap for the UK, or OpenFietsKaart for the Benelux) data instead with Garmin's RoadTrip or Basecamp for OSX.

Do-it-yourself
As there doesn't seem to be a pre-made version anywhere, I had to role my own using these instructions. That got me a gmapsub.img, which worked on the Edge 605 albeit with very slow rendering due to an excessive level of detail.

These instructions are needed for converting to the Mac gmapi format used by RoadTrip and BaseCamp.