Had a few minutes between pool/yard work and picking up Mary, so I decided to look for new MT4-compatible plug-ins. What I was looking for was something for Flickr, but saw one that enables geo-referenced entries via Google Maps. So, I installed it - will delve into the template work and such later. Not sure where I was, but there was an advertisement for a new auto GPS device called Dash. So, I followed, read about it, and, of course, read the reviews of it. I just love reading the reviews - always worth a chuckle, especially when it relates to gadgetry (my toy is better than your toy).
Kills me... both as an avid lifelong lover of maps and as a student geographer, this wonder invention for the iPod generation. And, yes, I own a GPS, one that has a USB cable attached and works with mapping software on my laptop. We used it on our two cross-country road trips as an additional reference tool to a paper road atlas and as a way of preserving the route we took via the logging feature. Well worth the roughly $100 I paid for it and the software about 5 years ago.
Enter the super-duper, dash-mounted, tell me where to drive GPS that will forewarn me when I get near a Starbucks and my USB-connected coffee mug is below 10%. Yes, that is about the level they have gotten to with an inflated price to match. Add the monthly/annual/whenever the manufacturer decides fees to the several hundred dollar initial investment. Let's see... last paper road atlas I bought was around $15. With my AAA membership, I get free maps (regional, state, local), tour guides, TripTiks (my favorite), and routing services, along with road service and towing for around $100 a year.
But then, everyone says how wonderful it is to just tell the GPS where you want to go and it magically guides you there. Need I tell you the number of times I have been detouring traffic around an accident or fire scene where someone will tell me that their GPS says that they must go through the scene and that there are no other options? I actually had to ask one of those motorists to turn off the talking box so I could hear them.
And, like cell phones, GPS units are yet another thing to distract the driver from their major mission: driving and hopefully not hitting another car or a tree or me, dressed in florescent green, standing in the middle of the road directing traffic.
In reading the reviews, it seems like most own 2, 3, even 4 GPS units. Strange, do you mount them all, ask each one of them for directions, and put it to a vote? With such an investment, I would think that if one didn't perform to your satisfaction that you would take it back and get a refund.
While I firmly believe that GPS is one of the major innovations in the spatial sciences and has many applications, I think that the personal GPS unit for personal vehicular use is more of a hindrance to safe driving. I can understand mobile workers, such as outside salespeople and tow trucks, how they would find this a very useful tool, I still don't understand why most have a need for them. Funny example: one reviewer of the Dash unit said that the GPS gave him 4 possible routes to his childhood home where his mother lives. Strange, I would think that if you grew up somewhere, you'd have local knowledge of the streets. That must just be too trivial - much more important to remember the order of the songs in your iPod.
Bottom line: get a life and plan your trip before you hit the road using either a paper map or a web-based mapping system and print it out. Much cheaper plus you might actually learn something about the roads along your route, too.
Kills me... both as an avid lifelong lover of maps and as a student geographer, this wonder invention for the iPod generation. And, yes, I own a GPS, one that has a USB cable attached and works with mapping software on my laptop. We used it on our two cross-country road trips as an additional reference tool to a paper road atlas and as a way of preserving the route we took via the logging feature. Well worth the roughly $100 I paid for it and the software about 5 years ago.
Enter the super-duper, dash-mounted, tell me where to drive GPS that will forewarn me when I get near a Starbucks and my USB-connected coffee mug is below 10%. Yes, that is about the level they have gotten to with an inflated price to match. Add the monthly/annual/whenever the manufacturer decides fees to the several hundred dollar initial investment. Let's see... last paper road atlas I bought was around $15. With my AAA membership, I get free maps (regional, state, local), tour guides, TripTiks (my favorite), and routing services, along with road service and towing for around $100 a year.
But then, everyone says how wonderful it is to just tell the GPS where you want to go and it magically guides you there. Need I tell you the number of times I have been detouring traffic around an accident or fire scene where someone will tell me that their GPS says that they must go through the scene and that there are no other options? I actually had to ask one of those motorists to turn off the talking box so I could hear them.
And, like cell phones, GPS units are yet another thing to distract the driver from their major mission: driving and hopefully not hitting another car or a tree or me, dressed in florescent green, standing in the middle of the road directing traffic.
In reading the reviews, it seems like most own 2, 3, even 4 GPS units. Strange, do you mount them all, ask each one of them for directions, and put it to a vote? With such an investment, I would think that if one didn't perform to your satisfaction that you would take it back and get a refund.
While I firmly believe that GPS is one of the major innovations in the spatial sciences and has many applications, I think that the personal GPS unit for personal vehicular use is more of a hindrance to safe driving. I can understand mobile workers, such as outside salespeople and tow trucks, how they would find this a very useful tool, I still don't understand why most have a need for them. Funny example: one reviewer of the Dash unit said that the GPS gave him 4 possible routes to his childhood home where his mother lives. Strange, I would think that if you grew up somewhere, you'd have local knowledge of the streets. That must just be too trivial - much more important to remember the order of the songs in your iPod.
Bottom line: get a life and plan your trip before you hit the road using either a paper map or a web-based mapping system and print it out. Much cheaper plus you might actually learn something about the roads along your route, too.
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