On 04/28/2010 08:39 AM, Tom Buskey wrote: > I get lost walking back from my mailbox :-( It seems to be age > related too. > > I've had my GPS for 3 years now. I've learned what it means when it > plots a route. When I don't agree with it, I ignore it (which I think > is the problem most people have with them). If I want to see the > whole route ahead of time, I use google maps, because a GPS isn't good > for that. > > With a GPS, you will always get there. It's hard to get lost because > it knows where it is. A map doesn't know where it is. If the > directions you brought are wrong or you stray from them, you are not > directed back on the right course. If I miss a turn, the GPS will > guide me back. > > A GPS gives an estimated time of arrival. I like knowing how late > I'll be to work every day. I can use it to find a restaurant, home & > garden store, gas nearby or near my destination. I've double checked > my speedometer readings too (GPS *do* have speed errors. I saw it > fluctuate my position when I was parked before) > > A GPS doesn't depend on a cell tower. I've compared an iPhone to a > GPS, side by side. If the signal is good, the iPhone is ok, but the > interface isn't as good. As an ex military pilot, I learned how to read a map and find out where I am on the map. In Viet Nam we rarely had any nav aids, and had to find LZs given map coordinates and colored smoke. One of the most important things I was taught by my first flight instructor, David W. Ferry, was to look out of the cockpit. It is your ass in the aircraft, not the air traffic controller. In flight school I was vectored into the ground twice, and in Viet Nam, I was vectored into a mountain on one occasion, and secondly cleared for a left turn directly into the path of another aircraft. I've also had a complete electrical failure on a night flight in New Orleans where the only light I had was my knee pad.
My Android phone had a GPS receiver, so when it can receive the GPS signals I get very good location, if not it uses the nearest cell tower. Basically, the issue with any mapping software is that it needs current maps and it needs to be adaptive. I am always amused that my car's GPS tells me correctly to get off of 128 at exit 22, but then tells me to take a left cross over 128, take the second right, then 2 more rights then a left and cross over 128 again rather than simply bear right off the exit. If I tell the GPS to use the short route, it gets it correct. Over time, the mapping software will improve, and GPS systems will also contain other real-time information. -- Jerry Feldman <g...@blu.org> Boston Linux and Unix PGP key id: 537C5846 PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846
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