Neighbors: Jim Holbrook

Jim Holbrook enjoys long walks on the beach, computer programming and his two Shih Tzus. But, sorry, ladies — this isn’t a personals ad — he’s been happily married to his wife, Karen, for 39 years.

Holbrook tries to walk two to five miles on Longboat’s beach each day, and he also spends a few hours developing applications for the iPhone. He’s maintained this routine for the past two-and-a-half years.

“Most of what I do is geared toward me — as the user — but every once in a while I develop something that might be useful to more people,” Holbrook says.

His most recent app, BeachWalk1.0, accomplishes both, and it can be downloaded for free. The app uses GPS satellite information and records walks by distance, time and speed, and you can attach photos, voice recordings and pin locations.

“You never know what you are going to come across,” Holbrook says.

For instance, one could walk Longboat Key beach from the south end to the north end and record every turtle-nesting site with a pin, take a photo of each nest and record audio along the way.

“Quite often, you go walk on the beach, come back, and it has been a nice experience. But you don’t have anything to document that you were there or how far you walked,” explains Holbrook. “It’s just kind of nice to have a little record of where you were and what you saw.”

The app proves useful for locations beyond local beaches — from marking real-estate properties for sale to tracking memories on a European vacation: BeachWalk1.0 can be used anywhere.

Holbrook conducted software development for 23 years as an oceanographer. He learned to program and develop software to process and analyze data for a supercomputer — before personal desktop computers.

But, now that he’s retired, it has become more of a hobby. He’s currently working on a game and has also developed GolfBase!, which records scores and handicaps and saves photographs to profile with whom you played, when you played and where you played. Holbrook says it doesn’t take long to build the initial program, but the fine-tuning takes months.

“Sometimes, the problem that materializes on your screen is so convoluted, it could take you days to iron it out,” he says. He’s been working on BeachWalk1.0 since last spring; it was released in May.

Who knows what he will create once the iPhone5 comes out — it’s rumored to have a larger screen. Holbrook thinks that would be great.

Other than the limitations of the iPhone’s physical space to display content, he doesn’t have many complaints.

“It’s a wonderful machine. The iPhone has more power and memory and capabilities than the supercomputers I used to program for,” he says.

It’s evident that technology excites Holbrook.

“All the information ever created by mankind is out there and accessible through the Internet,” he says. “If you don’t want to use or access that content — that’s crazy, and you might as well hide your head in the sand.”

And what a photo that sight would make for Holbrook’s next walk on the beach.