OT - take some responsibility, will ya?

[bdhold]

Was listening to a radio gag on the way into work this morning.
People who have been led astray by their GPS were calling in to tell their story.
4 hours driving in the wrong direction.
(another ) going to the Pittsburg zoo and ended up in West Virginia.
My favorite quote,
"There's something wrong with the GPS and They need to fix it."

This is what happens when the computer is smarter than the operator.

[J Miller]

Most of the people that have problems with the GPS are the same ones who couldn't find their way across town with a paper map.

Some folks should just take a taxi or bus.

Joe

[RIHMFIRE]

Whatever happened to looking at a map....
memorizing it....and then go on your trip!

[fordwannabe]

4 or 5 times in the last month people have asked me if I have a GPS I say yep says Rand- McNally right across the top of it. It has gotten me to a whole bunch of states when I was a Truck driver and still works well. Tom

[Blaine]

Turn in your buggy whips for a better tool

A decent GPS IS a good map....Just turn it off and don't listen to it verbatem. Personally, Google Maps is great. Plan your route and print it out.

[jnyork]

I dont think most folks even know how to read a map any more.

A friend and I took his vehicle on a trip to Lake Havasu City a couple of week ago. We used his GPS (he is quite proud of it) dang thing led us all over town including a detailed tour of the suburban areas just going from A to B. A map would have been a whole lot better.

Another friend had one when he visited me in Wyoming last summer. It was next to useless out in the Red Desert, wanted us to take roads that didn't even exist, in some cases was off by MILES.

[madman4570]

I have a in-law relative like that
Asked em, Hey did you finally get a GPS for your poor wife.
He said "you mean--the (a name for a female dog)
he said,tried one and that (B----) kept telling the wrong turns on purpose)she's a (B----)
I just shook my head at him


Hey,
a little OT--- but any of you guys tried using your little portable GPS(like a TOMTOM) this way below?
You can get on Google Maps plot wherever you want,say your driveway,zoom up on it and take the Latitude and Longitude bearing readings given on the screen,even transfer it over to your TOMTOM via USB
cable from TOMTOM to Computer and then walk out to back or where ever and the voice(or as the in-law says the (B----) will guide you right to the spot.

Tried it with Google Maps zooming in on a apple tree in back yard about 60 yards from house then went out the front door of house(in the dark)and the (B----)talked me right up to the apple tree!

Can you imagine using this in a big city where you want to meet someone at a big company.
He could be in his car in the parking lot,tell you on the cell phone looking at his GPS hey I am at this Location(XXXXXXX)you plot that in and wham you get voice directions right up to his car

Or, how about a extremely close survey(within say 5ft of property line) get the X/Y coordinates f from your Deed/Tax Map etc. punch er in your little handheld GPS TOMTOM and you could walk your 1000acre property
boundry lines within probably 5ft margin of error and know if someone was messing with your land without having to survey the whole darn thing!!!!!!! Cool or What

I stated a TOMTOM because that GPS has a real easy transfer setup to take it from GPS to Computer and back. I think those TOMTOM GPS units can be had WITH all needed software on sale around $100 or so.

Whatcha think!

[Doc Hudson]

last year I worked for the Census Bureu as an Address Canvasser. We were all issued hand Held Computers with GPS and maps of the area we were to work.

The big problem in rural areas was that some of the 'roads" hey showed were blasted turnrows, not roads at all. That derned thing got me so lost I had trouble finding my butt with both hands and a flashlight in broad daylight.

It got to the point that if it didn't look right I'd ignore the map and find another route. Some of the road I took were not eveen in my Mississippi Atlas and Gazette!

In town, some of the streets were actually unpaved alleys, but they had to be checkded for residences.

From the boneheaded directions my personal GPS has given in the last few months, I've come to the conclusion that while helpful, especially if you more or less know where you are going, they are nothing approaching infallible. Some of the routes they pick are purely idiotic.

I will use a GPS on a trip to strange areas, but I will check the routes against a map, and follow the map when GPS offers a different opinion.

BTW, I paid $150.00 for my TOMTOM GPS with a 5" screen.

[madman4570]

Doc, Try the Google Map thing with the exact Bearings!
No way in heck high water you can get lost that way.

Tried it about 3 months ago at the Penn State Main campus, and we pulled right up to the parking spot right next to the daughters car!

[J Miller]

I've made lots of cross country trips with only a paper map.
In '02 I went from Spfld, IL to Costa Mesa, Ca (had never even been in CA) with a paper map and drove right up to my brothers apt building. Didn't get lost.
I drive all over IL and IN and haven't gotten lost yet.

A good sense of direction and a map is all you need. These GPS things are a waste of money.

Joe

[Booger Bill]

We explore the boonies with our quad. You guys seem to be talking about just driveing the country in a car. A GPS is good for the backcountry, but you need good maps with it. I have been tempted to use my lap top with map world along with my gps hooked into it, but I am afraid it would kill the lap top on the rough trails.
The GPS is too small and hard to see. Out in the bright light its next to impossable. I am thinking of getting a new GPS for my airplane as I am getting close to haveing it rebuilt after many years. I have flown over a big part of the united states many years ago with no problem with next to no equipment.
I do think they should build a "Notebook" size gps with a couple good programs hooked right in like map world and google earth, and be real rugged. I dont get out much, maybe they do now? I also have a tom tom, but it is no good for trail rideing. Trails arent programmed into it.

[Hobie]

I use maps in conjunction with my GPS(s). There have been some anomalies but mostly the GPS works very well.

[Hillbilly]

Back when I was messing with airplanes ... we had a guy leave the West Palm Florida area on a VFR (map, compass, and look-out the window navigation) fight up the east coast. He was headed into North Georgia or The Lower Carolinas.

Flying a costal route he should have had an Ocean in his right window and some mountains in his left for a greater part of the trip.

Well ...he flew for the time he had figured and landed. In Arkansas.

Story has it the compass in the Aircraft was off by several degrees and had never been "swung" or re-calibrated after the Aircraft owner had changed out the radios.
Moral... sometimes you CAN break and anvil with a feather.

[Pisgah]

>I dont think most folks even know how to read a map any more


Amen! It amazes me the number of people for whom a map is a complete mystery. Included among these is my fiancee -- but, to be fair, she is a real blonde, and a pretty good woman, at that.

For two decades, hardly a month went by without me taking a multi-day hike in the mountains of western NC. Sure, I carried maps and a compass, but my companions always noted with wonder that I almost never consulted them. My "secret" was simple -- for a couple of weeks before every trip I studied and absorbed every detail of the maps for the areas I'd be traveling. The maps were in my head.

I realize that I may be blessed with a gift of being able to visualize actual terrain from a two-dimensional representation, but I really think the problem at large is that no one is taught maps and map reading any more. I think it is related to the similar complete lack of math skills in most of society today. Once an electronic calculator, or a GPS, takes all the thinking out of it, it ceases to be a skill. The problem, of course, is that those who lack the skill are 100% gadget-dependent, and gadgets -- all gadgets -- break.

[L_Kilkenny]

I've driven a good bit all over the western U.S. and although I once ran around in circles in Sacramento for awhile after missing a turn I've managed to always get where I'm going. I do this by keeping my wife a minimum of 2 feet from my maps. Lordy she is the worst navigator in history.

Gotta love google maps for going to and from somewhere. I ignore directions any of the maps sites give and plot my own coarse.

As for memorizing a map........ not gonna happen here on a trip of any length. I've never had a good memory for numbers, names and B-days yet I can walk into a building we wired 15 years ago and know exactly how we got power from point A to point B. Go figure.

As for the original subject...... Responsibility? Unknown commodity in this day and age. Better get used to it for it's not gonna get better I fear.

LK

[gregg]

I have never been lost!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As long as I can find gas and fast food i'm not lost!!
My pard and me use to get sent to school together . At night we hit the
city . most the time we had no clue where we were at. It was great.
Had some good times.

[adirondakjack]

Whatever happened to looking at a map....
memorizing it....and then go on your trip!

EGGSAKLY how I've done it all my life. When I was a young, the "map" for a long trip was in an atlas in the LIBRARY, so I memorized the route (well maybe cheated with notes for some complex side trip, etc), stashed the notes (if any) in the glove box or tucked em over the visor and onward I went.

I went from Upstate NY to Central CA by simply pointing the motorcycle west and following my nose, assured that the states and their major cities would be where they were when we learned about em in grade school. They really were right where folks said they were.

More recently, on a trip to FL, i got there and had to shuttle somebody who LIVED THERE on some errands in the next town. By the end of the afternoon I had both towns figured out and made shortcuts HE didn't know about. It's all in making a mental map as ya go, a skill lost to the Iphone generation.

More than a few times I have had the following exchange with a fellow traveller "It's over there" (pointing)

"How do you know?"

"Because we came west a little, then south, then east, so we still gotta go east, and since it's late in the day, that means put the sun over the right shoulder...."

They don't believe me, but we get there...




But as those who study such things note, as we become more and more a "literacy-based" society (to include the digital image in lieu of paper), the less importance we place upon memory and memorization.

In effect, like the first guy who learned how to make matches, and whose kids subsequently forgot how to make fire without a match, we are ever more dependant upon our "toys" as soon as we adopt them.

Wanna be amazed by somebody who really KNOWS how to navigate, talk to some truck driver who is unable to read. He can spit out detailed routes everywhere he has ever been, and almost never gets lost....

[Rusty]

The company I work for driving big trucks post pictures from time to time of some of the accidents our drivers are involved in. A driver in Alabama had paid extra for a truck driver's edition of a GPS. It is supposed to have truck restricted roads, low weight limit bridges and low clearances marked. The driver was following his GPs when he tried to put a 31'6" trailer under a 12' bridge. Even with eh GPS it wouldn't fit. The published pictures told the story. It wasn't a pretty sight. I sure would have hated to make that phone call.

[Malamute]

I've been in some vehicles with GPS systems, and treid to use Google Maps to follow a route here. All I can say is they are both absolutely hilarious. Road names that nobody has heard of, two track dirt roads indicated as state highways, other two track dirt roads that have been fenced across sometime right after the second world war, river "crossings" that I seriously doubt have been used since cars became common, and other ridiculous gaffs, leave me to conclude that the technology needs to drastically improve before I'd trust one to navigate around here. Finding way points for direct nav, perhaps, using one as a road navigation tool, not so much.

Mapquest is pretty pathetic also. A mover used it, and ignored the clients specific instructions as to route, and ended up adding most of a day to their trip, then tried to charge the customer for the time delay. Mapquest didnt mention that driving through Yellowstone wasnt possible from Oct to May, or that any commercial trucking was prohibited. Most paper maps have that info.

[Blaine]

By Gum, I'm in high cotton now

[FWiedner]

I've got a pretty good sense of direction most of the time and can usually find my way using even a rudimentary map or by guestimating.

My mother got a TomTom as a free gift from somewhere and decided she didn't like it, so she gave it to me. I've found it to be a facinating device and suprisingly accurate, although it doesn't always select the same path that I myself might.

I'd never take it's direction over my own good sense, but I've found it to be a good backup, and handy for quick directions in a pinch when I forget to put a map in the truck.

Recently went on a hunting trip to a place that I'd never been and I rushed out of the house without grabbing my map book, but I had a printed email with the street address. This place is out in the sticks. The TomTom took me right to the driveway.

Kinda cool.

[bdhold]

my girlfriend has one, and it's really nice - but she keeps it put away unless she needs it, and then she uses it more for timing than direction.
I just think it's funny that some people can get so plugged into them they will mindlessly obey them as they drive.

[madman4570]

Man, I think they are one of the greatest things ever devised.
I also have a Sony Nav-U83, a Garmen 255W,and a small Garmen e-trex for Hunting.
Dont get me wrong I still carry my Silva Ranger Compass w/map when hunting the
boonies in case the GPS fails (I do always have a set of extra batteries)

But when driving around say in New York City(alone)many times trying to do the map thing is a accident waiting to happen.
GPS (waste of money) ------------------not for us!

Ask UPS about them? Buddy of mine is a District Manager and said the savings in the delivery times is unreal.
Same with UPS using ADS-B Technology which also uses GPS signals to determine an aircrafts position.

[Booger Bill]

I like the tom tom for going to a street adress in a town I seldom if ever been in. Other than that they are just fun to have along. I am at the point I could get along anywhere west of the missisippi river without a map. (I am not talking about quad trails here). Through the years if I flew commercial, say chicago to LA, I am one of those guys that like a window seat. I get a stiff neck looking out the window, but even at night I can pretty close tell you within 30 miles where we are flying over. I keep track of the larger citys we fly over, and often can tell you what smaller towns we are flying over. I listen to the pilots channel, figuer what route they are useing, keep track of the time and airspeed/ time of arrival just for something to do.
I remember as a small boy traveling with my dad, he would quiz me as to what direction north was etc. To this day anytime I enter a building that I have never been in I am aware of the directional layout. The few times I ever got temporarly mixed up on direction in my mind, I dont feel right untill I immediately straighten it out!
I have a mentally challanged nephew that I had to raise for a few years when his dad died. He was like a zombie as many people are directional wise. I bought him a compass, made him wear it on his shirt and would quiz him as my dad did me. Sometimes I hadnt seen him for months, but when I did, he would be wearing a compass!
My dad told me a story that happened back in the 30s. He was traveling on a deer hunting trip with a couple of his brothers. It was very cold and was snowing heavy. A nice buck ran across the road in front of the car. This was in wisconsin going through heavy woods where everything looked the same. He bailed out after the deer without a coat with nothing but a wool shirt and his rifle while his brothers waited in the car. He got mixed up for awhile, his brothers kept blowing the car horn and driveing the roads around the area, but dad said in that still cold 30 below climate it sounded like the horn was from every direction all around him. Obvisley he finaly found the road, but it could have been worse as he was freezing.
I deer hunted in wisconsin myself a lot back in the 50s. Back there a lot of the roads were laid out in mile squares. I got fooled a few times. Lets say you start out north and know there is a road a mile ahead going west to east. It may be a super cloudy cold day, maybe snowing. Everything looks the same, heavy woods and probley level country. No gps`s back then, you may or may not have a compass. Even if you do, unless you are a pilot, odds are the compass you are useing you havent corrected for magnetic deviation. It is easy to come out on a different road boardering you on your right going north and south, and you will assume its the road going east and west. Then you walk that road, hit the next cross road and now you are really confused unless you have drove that area a lot in the past. I have a number of times picked up people from the area that flagged me down for a ride back to their farm or vehicle and cant belive that they are two or three miles from where they swore they were!

[SJPrice]

Het guys, they got this new fangled idea where they put the powder and bullet in this brass case and it has a percussion cap in it too. You can carry a whole bunch of em in your pocket and you can leave your powder horn home........

[jnyork]

Het guys, they got this new fangled idea where they put the powder and bullet in this brass case and it has a percussion cap in it too. You can carry a whole bunch of em in your pocket and you can leave your powder horn home........

Doesn't sound like much fun to me!

[bdhold]

yee haw

[TedH]

I don't own one, but there was one in the Suburban we rented on vacation in California. It sure was nice for navigating LA. It was easy punching in the address of a restaurant or attraction and just driving. If I did a lot of driving in unfamiliar areas, I could see me getting one.

[El Chivo]

years ago my brother pretty much spoiled a family trip (and my birthday) with his obsession with his GPS. He was so intent on watching where he was in space that he almost hit oncoming cars.

I'm still overwhelmed that you can make a quick map on the internet and plan all my trips that way.

I've been slightly lost many times, but the only time I was really lost, and didn't know it, I was following a compass. The magnetism from my car was throwing it off and I went 30-40 miles the wrong way, just happily following the compass.

I feel the same way about GPS. I don't think I'll ever get one, just like I'll never get a microwave oven. It's one of those things that is a cool gimmick, but fixes something that wasn't broken.

[madman4570]

Here is the key, Keep them updated.Its easy.If you can use this website and connect here you can update your GPS most of the time---free

I just am not getting how some of you guys think these things are not 100 times better than anything else going.Also the first few years yes, they did have some issues but mostly all that stuff is fixed.

BTW-------------just ask my wife to do without her fancy over the range microwave a gimmick?


Just am not getting it?

Now,speaking only for myself the stuff like Mapquest etc. For me, thats the stuff thats kludged. Talk about off the mark?

[bdhold]

quite honestly, the more you can live without, the better off you are.

[Grizz]

hmmmmmmm

I used GPS for years fishing commercially in Alaska. I have stretches of coastline custom mapped for pinnacles and trolling routes in the deep troughs. I can run the drag in the fog or in the dark as well as I can in daylight with landmarks. The repeateability is awesome.

Then too, the GPS can get jillpoked just like any other gizmo, including a magnetic compass. But there's no way, absolutely no way you could troll my money spots with a compass and stopwatch. You'd strip all your gear off in a heartbeat.

Bush pilots use GPS in Alaska to fly down canyons they can't see in. It requires training and enough brains to know whether you can use the signal or not, and when NOT to use it.

I use GPS for everywhere I go, even though I can go anywhere in the country on the interstate system without consulting a map. Where the GPS can be a livesaver is getting you back on your route after you've wandered off.

The issue of wrong streets or street names or no streets has to do with the database, not the GPS system. My old Garmin gives me fits around DC because the interchanges were juryrigged after the map database was installed in the unit.

OTOH the GPS keeps me in the correct lane for the exit to every airport I've need to get to. It prevents the sudden need to tack across 5 lanes of traffic because it's a left exit, and only the last sign says so.

One thing that may help is the setting for "fastest route" vs "shortest route".

One may take you thru the place you want to avoid. I change that setting depending on which routes I'm driving. Sometimes I want to drive on the tertiaries, other times I avoid them like the plague.

The GPS can go bonkers. It's a good idea to learn how to know when it's doing that. Some form of dead reckoning should always back up any navigation.

Grizz

[madman4570]

Very well said Grizz! (right on the money)

[mikld]

I used a GPS when sailing in fog. Along with a good chart and depth finder I could go just about anywhere wet. I've driven all over the CA, Ariz. area pre-GPS using maps and yep, I got "lost" on rare occations, but I just figgered that was meant to be part of the journey. When I go off road (on foot) I'll prolly take my hand held GPS, mainly 'cause I grew up in the city and most trees look the same to me.