Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:31:38 -0400
Reply-To: Rowan Tipton <uther@DRAGONHOME.ORG>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Rowan Tipton <uther@DRAGONHOME.ORG>
Subject: Re: GPS Recommendation
In-Reply-To: <20100328133802.PPLFI.1144225.imail@eastrmwml34>
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On Mar 28, 2010, at 1:38 PM, Dave Mcneely wrote:
> I thought the point of a map was to get somewhere, while
> understanding where that somewhere is. With a map I have the option
> of exploring when and if I have time. The GPS is a great way to get
> somewhere sometimes (the times it works), but not to understand the
> terrain. More than one person has been sent up a blind alley that
> he would have known about and probably not pursued if he'd consulted
> a map. That's all I'm sayin'.
I agree totally. Speaking as a GPS fanboy, I use my maps a lot and
don't understand how you get around just using a GPS.
> BTW, I have to use GPS for some of my work. I once encountered a
> young colleague who told me that the location on a creek that I'd
> reported for a fish collection was not where I said it was. Turned
> out he had used a GPS to look it up (not to field truth it), and his
> lat/long did not agree with mine. I'd been there, he hadn't, but he
> insisted that because his GPS gave him (erroneous) data, (reporting
> a bridge to be on a different road from the one it was on), he
> insisted it was the right location, down to a thousandth of a
> second. He claimed there was no bridge located at the lat/long I
> reported. People can become tech dependent, rather than common
> sense dependent. He and I both had reason to return to the location
> together for some further work. I suggested he meet me there. I
> went, started on the part of the work I could do myself, but he
> never showed up. I called him. He was wandering around, trying to
> get to where his erroneous GPS told him to go. He was in the
> vicinity, but about three miles away on a road that didn't even get
> to the creek. I directed him how to get to me, and we got the work
> done, hours late.
Yeah, any GPS is only as good as the maps it uses. If the map it uses
is wrong, it's useless to keep trying it hoping it will get better. I
read about people that drive down a stream because their GPS says it's
a road. That's not a GPS problem it's a people problem... well, the
GPS error is a GPS problem. But somehow we expect technology to
always be correct. I've owned or at least used most of the major
brands of GPS and I've never seen one that had totally correct maps.
> Maps can be erroneous, too, of course.
Sure - that's what causes the GPS problem. It has erroneous maps.
> People can be tech dependent, at the expense of common sense.
So true. I've been a living example of that more than once!
>
> DMc
I remain, as always
YrLyl&ObdntSrvnt,
r
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