> > global positioning system as in: I'm being kidnapped, find my cell > phone...
Well, that's part of it, but not the biggest selling point. :-) A small Global Positioning System unit in your car (or backpack or pocket) communicates with satellites in Earth's orbit to pinpoint your exact location. You buy and download (to a PC) maps for the areas you're planning to travel. You sync those with your GPS unit. The unit can then figure out the best way to get Point A to Point B. If I want to drive from my house to your house, I enter both addresses in the GPS and it will give me turn-by-turn directions. Oops... I missed that left turn because the street was closed for construction! No problem - the unit will recalibrate on the fly and devise a new route. Finished your business at Point B and suddenly remember you want to go to Point C? It can do that too, while you're sitting behind the wheel. Some units talk to you so you never even have to look at the map display. Most maps include useful info like gas stations, motels, hospitals, and restaurants along your route. Most of the map systems that I have investigated are subscription services, so you can get occasional updates which include new roads. There are a few PDAs that are GPS-ready. When I last researched (in September '03), they weren't Mac-friendly and didn't include other features I need in my PDA. GPS can be included in more extensive services. You may be familiar with the "OnStar" system available in some high-priced cars -- this is what Suzanne was referring to. They use GPS to navigate for you, but also remotely connect your car and all its circuitry to a monitoring station so they know to call 911 for you when your airbag inflates. "LowJack" (sp?) is another variation that can track stolen cars. Yet another use is the game of "caching," in which players hide tiny things in remote locations (a smurf doll in a hollow tree somewhere in the Daniel Boone Forest, for example), then post the exact coordinates on a website, and others use their GPS's to find the smurf doll and add another trinket. There was a story about this in the Courier-Journal sometime in the last year, but I can't find a link for it at the moment. To summarize, GPS technology is cool, and has many functions. As I said before, I just want it because I have no sense of direction and get lost a lot, even if I study a map before I leave home. If I had it, I wouldn't have been late to Suzanne's house for Christmas dinner! Alex (Why do you suppose Apple's spellchecker likes "calibrate" but not "recalibrate"?) | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be January 27. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. | This list's page is <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup>.
