Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:35:40 -0230
Reply-To: Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
Subject: Re: maps vs GPS
In-Reply-To: <4387de760910110534w50424b07ve9bc6df236ac0a73@mail.gmail.com>
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I missed Mr. Squirrel's comments about women & maps - that we can't read
them? Or that unlike guys we aren't gearheads, so we don't need every most
recent electronic gadget to come out (i.e. GPS)?
I'm totally a map person, I love maps, I study them for fun and
enlightenment. Paper maps or electronic ones - I study many parts of the
world in google maps or google earth with the satellite imagery showing.
It's fabulous.
To drive I use maps. I suppose there are disadvantages - trying to read the
map while driving, having to get more and more as I go to new places. But I
like them. Like Maggie, I've got huge piles of them all over. Sometimes
duplicates, as I
forget that I already have this or that provincial or AAA map, and I pick up
another.
I used to laugh at my kayak friends - we'd be out on the water somewhere, me
with my nautical chart, them with a GPS. Their GPS would show our latitude
and longitude but no landmarks. My chart showed me what and where the tower
on the horizon was, so we could actually tell where we needed to go.
I do have one female friend with a GPS, and she loves it. I think she has
trouble with maps, I'm not sure. But I can't imagine not being able to read
maps any more than I could imagine not being able to read a book.
Joy
On Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 10:04 AM, Maggie Dew <wildebus@gmail.com> wrote:
> Despite Mr. Squirrel's observation about women and maps (and I am
> going to have to have a talk with R.J.), I dearly love maps and have
> quite a collection of them. My jobs always seem to require finding
> remote places - whether I'm doing archaeology or working as an on-call
> nurse in the middle of the night. I find maps and GPS to be
> complementary but I don't rely solely on just one of those
> technologies. I have two GPS units - a Garmin handheld and a Garmin
> unit with a map display that rides in the car. They don't always do
> the job in rural areas, and a map isn't always totally accurate
> either. When doing the nursing job, I rely on whoever did the
> original recording to give good directions. That is often very
> frustrating when trying to locate a home in the middle of the night.
> Information such as "turn left at the red mailbox" or "turn in 1.6
> miles" are helpful. Both kinds of data are useful. Not useful (and
> I'm not making this up) are directions that say "black jeep in the
> driveway." So, was it up on blocks???!!!! No, it actually belonged
> to a visitor who was only there on the day of the original visit. If
> you are giving directions, be specific and throw in whatever landmarks
> that might be helpfpul. Also consider that not all odometers are
> exactly accurate - or even working!
>
> Maggie
>
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