RE: MS S&T w/GPS on a laptop while driving. Simple answer is yes, it will work, and the little GPS receiver is very good, very sensitive. BUT, having tried this some years back I found it dangerous as hell. That is, if you are a solo driver. If you have a co-pilot in the right seat then you should be okay. Frank and Rita use such a setup and swear by it. But after trying such a setup I went out and acquired a dedicated GPS to mount on the dash and it works much better. A couple of cautions, based on my experience, about laptop mapping software. First, avoid the the Delorme setup. I found the software, Street Atlas, to have the worst interface you could imagine, totally user opaque. Get Streets & Trips. But get the latest version, 2010 or later. They made major improvements in the 2010 version (I understand that 2011 is out now but what I could find there is no major change, just more data). The little GPS plug in is amazing. Even though I don't use the laptop while moving I'll set it up at night, use the GPS to mark exactly where I am and add in the route I've traveled that day. Then I end up with a full track of the entire trip by the time I get home. And since I have a ton of POI files loaded into S&T I've pulled over and fired up the laptop to find campgrounds, etc. in the general area then put the coordinates into the GPS to get there. But I don't recommend the laptop setup for use while driving. |
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