Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:15:25 -0700
Reply-To: Al Knoll <anasasi@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Al Knoll <anasasi@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Maps vs GPS
In-Reply-To: <003f01ca4a00$2dd83540$89889fc0$@com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
In MY vanagon the right seat driver is mostly a go to here, turn, go to the
next here, turn, go past the alligator hide nailed to a stump then turn left
at the end of the fence.
The left seat driver uses a more arcane go north 5.1 miles to y
street...then east 3.4 miles to x..... Descartes would be proud of that.
It's merely a relative and and absolute comparison. Back in the vector
graphics days one had the concept of current position and pen up, pen down
and move. The results depend on the accuracy of the previous move. The
minor errors accumulate, the major errors are disastrous. Miss one turn and
the whole sequence is invalid.
An absolute method does not accumulate errors along the way. The Descartes
goal seeking GPS method although distasteful to many as too geeky does not
accumulate error. It's absolute vector based rather than incremental
position based and lends itself to long distance routing without the danger
of accumulated error and having the additional feature of easily correcting
course errors along the way. Charlie Trimble is my friend from days at HP
Santa Clara Division.
Back to the warm rock.
Pensionerd.
On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 4:19 PM, Robert Fisher <refisher@mchsi.com> wrote:
> Different wiring produces different results. I've read several times that
> women navigate more by land marks rather than by directions, number of
> turns
> etc. which is more in the way that men do it. If she can see the Lane
> Bryant
> and the 7-11, she'll have confidence she's in the right area, at least.
> A friend of mine from high school became her class valedictorian and went
> on
> to be one of the first women in the world to get a PhD in her field. She
> basically made it through Geometry and Physics because of my help (we
> worked
> in groups); she couldn't think in 3-D or deal with vectors and so on at
> all.
> On the other hand, I made it through (physics, anyway) because I foolishly
> got into it without the required advanced math, which she did have. She
> wound up with the better grades too, of course.
>
> I think maps are a developed or taught skill for most people. I've seen as
> many men as women get completely flummoxed by a map. Despite their (former)
> ubiquity, many people just don't know how they work, and god forbid they'd
> read the instructions, since they're usually lost/in a hurry and therefore
> under pressure to boot.
> Then there's the aforementioned ability to reverse left/right and
> top/bottom
> in your mind when you're driving south and so on- I don't know how well one
> can learn that.
>
> A lot of the popularity of GPS is in the same forces that drive the
> popularity of Toyotas and diet pills; most people have neither the interest
> nor the time for bootstrapping a problem the hard way. That's not
> necessarily a bad thing in of itself, considering how often those same
> people have trouble even with the easy way. On the other hand, it once took
> me 7 hours to make the 2.5 hour trip home from L.A. (with three kids in the
> car) because of an overturned tanker on the 405. I would've given a
> port-side accessory for a GPS that afternoon, and I wasn't even close to
> lost, just ignorant of the alternative routes. I had to stop at a HellMart
> and sneak a look at a Thomas Guide. : /
>
> Cya,
> Robert
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Rocket J Squirrel
> Sent: Saturday, October 10, 2009 11:11 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Maps vs GPS
>
> Hi Jim,
>
> Interpreting route directions, like the sample provided, is not difficult
> for Mrs Squirrel, although the directions she gets from her women friends
> often contain extraneous detail like, "Turn right on 3rd street and after
> a while you'll pass a gas station on the left, then a big red house after
> that. You'll come to an intersection with stoplights, go straight through
> that, then turn left at Concord, which has a Lane Bryant and a 7-11."
>
> "Why not just say `Go north on 3rd for 2 miles, then left on Concord'," I
> ask.
>
> "We like to make sure we're going the right way," is her response.
>
> So despite different styles, Mrs Squirrel can follow route information
> fine. Reading a map, however, does cause her considerable confusion.
>
> --
> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
> 74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
> Bend, OR
> KG6RCR
>
>
>
> On 10/9/2009 5:59 PM Jim Arnott wrote:
>
> > I use GPS to get me from this house to that address. I use dead tree
> > maps when I need to get from here to about there. Miss Lisa is a fine
> > map reader/navigator. Though she and I differ on how to fold a map.
> >
> > Mr Squirrel, you need to spend a bit more time teaching your primary
> > navigator how to interpret route instructions. Maybe see if there is a
> > rally club in Bend. A couple TSD rallies under her belt and you'd never
> > complain again. Nor have reason to. (of course, your marriage might well
> > not survive....)
> >
> > Jim
> >
> > Sample:
> >
> > 0.00 1. Right out of parking
> > 0.32 2. Left at stop.
> > 8.91 10. Right at T.
> > 9.42 11. Right after "Stop"
> > 10.07 12. End odometer check at "35". CAST 37
> > 13. Right onto Palm Ave.
> > 14. Right after "State Rd 7". CAST 44
> > 15. Right after State Rd 7.
> > 16. "NW 5th". CAST 32.
> > 17. Right onto unpaved.
> > 18. Right on 2nd paved road.
> > 19. Pause 30 seconds at TCL.
> > 21.30 20. Left.
> > 21. Pause 1.00 min. at stop.
> > 22. Left.
> > 23. etc.
> >
> >
> <
> http://www.tropicalsportscarclub.com/standard.htm#E.%20ROUTE%20INSTRUCTIONS
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Oct 9, 2009, at 3:46 PM, Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
> >
> >> Yeah -- what's up with that? Not to paint with too broad a brush, but
> can
> >> women within one standard deviation of the median read a map? None of my
> >> three wives has ever known how to read a map.
> >
> >
>
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