For some reason, I was given a GPS navigation system for Christmas. I guess somebody is giving me a hint. :-\
Anyway, I've been trying it out around town and it gets me where where I need to go. Sometimes it takes me the 'round about way, but seeing new things is always fun.
So as I'm cruising around town, I started getting this funny feeling like I was being watched. What, with four satellites beaming their waves down, a guy can start to get a bit paranoid. Then I start wondering if some person is checking up on my position or driving habits. This GPS unit also tells me how fast I am driving. With this bit of info, it's just a couple of small steps to getting a ticket in the mail for speeding down some back road that I didn't know was there in the first place.
Then I start thinking about the woman's voice from the GPS telling me turn-by-turn directions. I used to enjoy driving by myself. Nobody telling me which way to go or telling me I took a wrong turn. Now every time I head out there she is, "In four hundred yards, turn left....In two hundred yards turn left...In forty yards turn left. Turn left now. In four hundred yards make a U- turn." (I missed the turn just to tick her off.)
Then if my wife is in the car, I have two women telling where to drive. ::)
Carla's Dad got one of those for Christmas and while we were in Calgary last week,we took it out for a try.We set the address and picked the fastest route and we arrived in a part of town I'd never been before without a hitch.
I didn't always hear what the voice told me the first time but thankfully it's repeated.I told my wife that a man naturally tunes out a women's voice when they're giving orders. ;D
Quote from: Paul_H on January 07, 2009, 09:25:03 PM
I told my wife that a man naturally tunes out a women's voice when they're giving orders. ;D
And how is your head feeling now? :D
I'm okay,she somehow is able to tune me out ??? :D
It may surprise you the number of business using the units. We use em all time in my line of work. A good example is that at the start of restoration on Hurricane Ike we were getting crews in here from all over the country (Thank You) the first thing we asked the incoming crew leads was "do you have a GPS?" with a yes answer all you had to do was give an address to where you wanted them. Give a guy from Canada with a GPS and an address for some back road in East Texas and he can lead his crews there like a Martin to his gourd.
We use everything from just an address to street intersections. Latitude Longitude works great when flying off road lines. One of best features on mine is the ability to "find" food, gas. Lodging, etc. The one feature I hope I never have to use is the emergency services. Mine tracks my position in relation to the neatest Hospital, Fire Station, etc. This is required information for each man on all of our crews.
We used the "Find a Restaurant" feature on our trip to NOLA over Christmas. That was really handy. We looked up the restaurant (Chili's) in Hattiesburg on the GPS and got the phone number, called ahead while on the road, and picked up the meal to eat in the car. That saved us lots of time and was convenient.
My BIL is in the pest control business and uses his each day to run his route. He started his job the week after moving into this state. Having the GPS really helped him learn his way around quick.
MS, you mean to tell me you were in Hattiesburg, MS during Christmas and you didn't bother mentioning it? I was within 30 miles of you and was off work the whole month. Shame on you!! ;)
Love my TomTom. I know it doesn't always take me the route the locals would send me, but it always gets me there.
There Great.
Make sure they can be updated from the internet, plus extra info packages (POI) can be updated also.
I have had 3 so far and travel with 2 plus In car Laptop this year across North America .
One is for heads up on up coming roads , other is used for go-to, either can be used to figure route.
Laptop is Maps , Google or others plus Phone and tracking.
Even when there up to date there off , I was driving on grass(KY state) as the gps was showing, but was on a newer road , or it had no idea of roads 2 years old (Kissamme FL) , But if you sign up to help upload your new routes and updates , you can keep the units up to date..
Garmin,Tom,Magina, and 2 wally world ones i have used so far.
Updated my poor english
VT
Quote from: VT on January 07, 2009, 11:23:54 PM
Even when there up to date there off , I was driving on grass(KY state)
Oh, you were on one of our main roads. Most of the secondary roads are just dirt. :D
Used my GPS with Streets and Maps going through Quebec city and up in Saquenay. Worked fine and also had restaurants, hotels, shopping, emergency on it. My folks got a GPS and had to take it back. They are too old school to be bothered. :D
I dont have one . My dad has one and he likes it a lot . What I get here is those that dont up date there units . the road ends hereat the house at one time it continued on along the river but some forty or fifty years ago , the road was cut off and the bridge that crosse the river has been gone for many generations . But Google has managed to keep the road on its maps and doing so they have been put on many GPS's .. people trying to find Burnette road are led here and then scratch there coconut because there aint no road but there GPS is telling them that its here .
Now you want to see deer in head light looks .... Walk up to a car and tell the people inside that they need go back to the stop sign , turn left , cross the bridge turn left on the Missisquoi road , turn left again onto bridge road as they get into Sutton and after crossing the bridge they will be on Burnett road .... All this before they tell you that they are lost and looking for Burnett road . ;D For those that keep tellin ya that the GPS says they are on the correct road , they get to turn right at the stop sign and are sent to the border ;D :D
polly got me one for christmas also i am getting ready to try mine out on the farm i thought i would key in big walnut tree ,no defects and hit find i figure i better take my saw with me and be ready :D :D 8) 8)
Yeah the GPS maps are old for my area to. They don't even show the new roads or streets in town subdivisions that have been built in the last 20 years. It's kinda silly to, because it's all available online at the government website. ::)
GPS navigators have to be used with lots of caution in this part of the country. The "show me where I am on the map" function works pretty well, but letting the box navigate you to you to a destination, you will most likely find yourself headed down a muddy, narrow trail facing a locked gate. Problem is, most of the data is obtained from satelite photos. Service trails through the woods to thousands of gas wells show up as roads. They ain't.
Service people who use these trails ride 4 wheel drive ATV's with winches and radios.
Not recommended for mamma's grocery getter ;D
The wildlife Dept in my state has satellite radios with gps in all their trucks and cars.
I don't mean Sirius and Tom Tom. They have about a 12 inch dome on rollbar of truck or trunk of car. The radio is two way and they can all talk to eachother anywhere in the state.
Apparently after Katrina when power and cell towers were out they were the only agency with communication. The governer is said to have used it then.
Their gps is so the main office can know exactly where the officers are and how fast they drive from what I am told. Big brother is watching them.
The technology is amazing.
The new cellphone by Apple - iPhone 3G has a built in gps mapping ability, no voice yet. It will show exactly where you are and you can punch in an address and it will give a map to it.
Also, John Deere has GPS for tractors and combines, not sure how it's used.
I can see GPS traffic tickets in the future. Just think how much money it could save on salery, vehicles and gas. :) When the gov. Starts giving GPS vouchers to everyone "to help them save energy by mapping a more direct route" run.
I can download the most up to date maps for that day right off the web to my GPS. Changes are made to the web as soon as they get rubber stamped. I mean, once a new parcel of land is subdivided or a lot changes hands it's updated in the system within a reasonable time frame, not months down the road. Aerials depends, sometimes Agriculture gets new updates done every 3-5 years, typically forestry is 5 to 10. But, I have newer photos off the web and distortion free versus what I can purchase in paper form with distortion from DNR. I don't know if you can even buy a photo now that isn't at least 10 years old. The new aerials are done with digital camera.
Wrong thread... :/
My wife got one for her birthday. It came in handy when she won tickets to the Alamo bowl along with hotel accomodations for two nights. Going through Dallas, Oklahoma City and others it would tell us what lane we would need to be in two miles in advance. We had no problem getting there and back. The only problem was we told it the wrong Marriott Hotel we had no idea there was seven of them on the riverwalk.
Randy
GPSs are the ultimate man-gift: :)
1) While electronic, they can technically be classified as 'tools', not 'toys'.
2) They remove the "why don't you just stop and ask that old farmer for directions?" prompt.
3) If you allow it to recalculate enough, it will eventually let you take the route YOU wanted to take.
4) You can change the gender of the voice so it doesn't sound like the current 'autopilot' sitting next to you.
5) If your usual autopilot isn't with you, and you miss her, you can select Chinese and it will sound just like she's there. ;)
6) No matter where you are - just hit 'HOME' and it'll take you there, even if you don't know where you are.
Is this a great Country or what???
WoodMiller
:D :D