I just don't log dives,why not?????

[doctormike]

Subsurface is totally free, compatible with most computers, and better than the (admittedly few) commercial software I've tried.

That looks really good...

I use Mac Dive, which is developed by this incredible guy named Nick Shore who answers tech support emails in minutes and has always been very helpful whenever I have had a problem. It's a very mature, polished, well designed program, and I'm happy to kick in $25 to support the work.

It's also nice that it syncs with my phone, so that I always have my entire dive log with me wherever I go. I have often referred to it for stuff besides correct weighting...

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I'm always struck in these discussions by the lengths people go to to avoid using appropriate tools for a job.

In 2014, there are many well thought out dive logging apps, both for your laptop/desktop, for your phone or using online versions. Many are free, and the few that cost anything represent such a tiny expenditure for anyone who dives regularly. Most of these allow for printing out of logs in a variety of formats, for storing data including GPS coordinates, for sharing and data migration using universal formats like comma separated variables, XML or UDCF (universal dive computer format). Most allow for direct importing of dives and profiles from your dive computer, so you don't need to type everything in manually.

Yes, you can use an Excel spreadsheet for tracking dives. Yes, you can make up a word document with all of your various equipment configurations and the weighting used in each one, in fresh and salt water, and over time if your weight changes. Sure, you can keep track of your bank balance using a text editor and write a novel using a spreadsheet too. But why would you?

Seriously, I'm wondering what the aversion is to using a piece of software that someone has spent years optimizing and debugging to be well suited to tracking dives? Is it the $25 shareware cost?

I have a friend who logs all of her dives the old-fashioned way ... with a pen and a notebook. She doesn't do it because she's out of touch with technology ... she does it because it satisfies a creativity need in her. I love reading her dive log. There narrative that makes you feel like you're there. There's drawings, stickers, stamps ... whatever's appropriate to provide info on that particular dive. Honestly, you could curl up next to a fire with this thing on a cold winter afternoon and relive the entire season.

Everyone has their own reasons for either logging or not ... for how much detail they want or not. A dive log isn't for anyone other than the person who's creating it. If it satisfies an urge, do it ... if not, why bother?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[doctormike]

I have a friend who logs all of her dives the old-fashioned way ... with a pen and a notebook. She doesn't do it because she's out of touch with technology ... she does it because it satisfies a creativity need in her. I love reading her dive log. There narrative that makes you feel like you're there. There's drawings, stickers, stamps ... whatever's appropriate to provide info on that particular dive. Honestly, you could curl up next to a fire with this thing on a cold winter afternoon and relive the entire season.

That's a good point... sometimes a physical object is more than just it's content. Not sure that is universally true (not for my own log), but I took John Chatterton's wreck course last year and he passed around one of his old log books for us to check out. Gotta say, it was pretty cool holding that in my hands, like Mick's first draft of "Gimme Shelter"...!

 

[DiveNav]

.....If I'd find a interdevice application to do this easily ....

Could you please elaborate more on this?

 

[Mikko Ilari Laakkonen]

Could you please elaborate more on this?

I am not saying there isn't one, just that with my limited research I haven't found one. To be honest about two years have passed since the last time I tried to find one.

If one exists today I just might start logging again.

Interdevice what i need meaning I could log dives easily both online and offline with PC and android phone/tablet.

- Mikko Laakkonen -

I love diving and teaching others to dive.

 

[Tigerman]

"I just dont log dives".. As far as anyone else than me need to know..
But reaching into my dive box and grabbing a random book, what I'll find is one of many little blue books..

What we choose to disclose and what we actually log is not neccesarilly the same..
What number the dive is wont be of relevance to anyone but me, but this is not the last entries of the last book.

 

[mala]

i stopped using a paper log at about 1500 dives.
now I just keep a check when I get a new comp or the old one dies .
my last died at 2489 and I have about 300 on my present comp.

must update profile sometime.

 

[tr3a]

I'm always struck in these discussions by the lengths people go to to avoid using appropriate tools for a job.

In 2014, there are many well thought out dive logging apps, both for your laptop/desktop, for your phone or using online versions. Many are free, and the few that cost anything represent such a tiny expenditure for anyone who dives regularly. Most of these allow for printing out of logs in a variety of formats, for storing data including GPS coordinates, for sharing and data migration using universal formats like comma separated variables, XML or UDCF (universal dive computer format). Most allow for direct importing of dives and profiles from your dive computer, so you don't need to type everything in manually.

Yes, you can use an Excel spreadsheet for tracking dives. Yes, you can make up a word document with all of your various equipment configurations and the weighting used in each one, in fresh and salt water, and over time if your weight changes. Sure, you can keep track of your bank balance using a text editor and write a novel using a spreadsheet too. But why would you?

Seriously, I'm wondering what the aversion is to using a piece of software that someone has spent years optimizing and debugging to be well suited to tracking dives? Is it the $25 shareware cost?

Problem is 5-10 years later, software is outdated and will not run on current devices. Data effectively lost.

 

[doctormike]

Problem is 5-10 years later, software is outdated and will not run on current devices. Data effectively lost.

A common misconception, but I agree, keeping information in digital form does require a commitment to forward migration of your data when standards change. For example, my writing is important to me, but I didn't just throw out the stuff that I wrote using WordStar in the early 1980s...

Content is content, and that is why you can and should keep important content as the world moves on. My dive logging software lets me export data as CSV files (comma separated variable format, which was readable in the 1980s and will always be readable in the future, as long as we still have computers). I can also use XML, UDCF (universal dive computer format), or even just print them out if I was really worried about the issue that you raised.

Yes, working with digital data does require learning some new practices, but we're divers and we are always learning, right? The only way that your data can be lost is if you go out of your way to lose it. Like, when you replace that 5-10 year old dive software, if you just throw out the data on the hard drive instead of hanging on to it...

 

[Mikko Ilari Laakkonen]

Can someone tell me what are the great dive logging softwares of 2014 that are effortless to use and work on every device

- Mikko Laakkonen -

I love diving and teaching others to dive.