Tech: Performers and Sat Nav

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Anne Lister
Date: 04 Jul 08 - 03:56 AM

Guest Jon - yes, getting from town to town is a doddle. That's never been my problem. The reason I use a SatNav is to find destinations within towns, or destinations (like prisons) which aren't signposted in quite the way you'd expect.
However, a useful by-product of the SatNav is that it gives you a fairly accurate estimate of how much further you have to travel and how long it will take, and it adjusts this when and if you're stuck in a jam. As well as being able to calculate an alternative rapidly if the route you're taking is blocked off or jammed or otherwise not free-moving.
Mine does have a few blind spots, however, where there are new roads now open...despite updating regularly.

Anne

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Rasener
Date: 04 Jul 08 - 01:04 AM

That was funny :-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Bonecruncher
Date: 03 Jul 08 - 10:18 PM

Guest Laura.... re. your comment that you have to travel on roads with 3 or more lanes....
Keep to your left except when overtaking.
Do not rely on the sat-nav to tell you when to change lanes.
Big blue (on motorways) or green signs tell you when to turn off for a particular town.
Mirror, signal, manouvre.

Now, is that worth £300?
PM me with your cheque.
Colyn.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 03 Jul 08 - 08:50 PM

FYI

How Global Positioning Systems Work

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 30 Jun 08 - 04:31 AM

Has to be a lot safer than my normal navigators i.e. Wife and daughters.

Pip (mum) is great. I've yet to get it through to her that while I can understand instructions like "take next left" or "get in middle lane", I can not understand her pointing and "go that way". I've no doubt it looks right to her but from my angle in the driving seat she can look to be directing me between lanes, into on coming traffic, etc. Peter (dad) could give instructions like left or right but (even before his stroke - he's worse now) left can mean right or visa versa...

My favourite navigational error though was not caused by them and Pip was the driver. We were trying to get to a party after a session and our navigator was a bit vague with lots of yes/no... The confusion winded up with Pip jumping red traffic lights and it turned out there was a police van behind us. The teetotal Pip was breathalised. I saw the funny side but she didn't.

--
I'm on L plates in a car but when I had motor bikes, years ago, my method of navigation was just to look at a map and write down the names of towns and roads I'd need to be aiming for. Never had a problem, except trying to find the end of journey in a town and I guess that's the only place I would see sat nav as being useful.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 30 Jun 08 - 03:55 AM

Sufficently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic to the unknowledgeable.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Tangledwood
Date: 30 Jun 08 - 03:36 AM

Sydney I've only driven around a couple of times and Perth not at all. My impression is based on all other state capitals and country driving. A high percentage of the time, if you put the indicator on to show an intended lane change the vehicle behind will accelerate to close the gap and keep you out. My (limited) experience in UK is that the majority of drivers back off and assist the change.

Don't want to take the thread topic away from GPS though and start an interstate civil war. :)

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Rowan
Date: 30 Jun 08 - 01:27 AM

Also I've found British drivers more courteous than Australian and more likely to allow you to change lanes.

Ah, Tangledwood, perhaps you've only been to Sydney. My experience of capital city drivers in most Australian states is that the natives of each city have their own perceptions of what counts as proper behaviour and none of them has much time for the differing norms of other cities' drivers. While I've been relatively successful in adapting to each city as I've spent time in it, I've found Sydney to be the most "difficult" to adapt to.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Tangledwood
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 06:33 PM

Laura, the GPS and software I use is for a PDA, so possibly different to what you are looking for. However, the program menu gives options of how far ahead of a turn you start getting warnings. Too far ahead is a nuisance in a built up area and not far enough isn't helpful at motorway speeds. I'm guessing that other GPS units would have the same facility.

From what I've seen British multi-lane roads are well signposted so there shouldn't be need for total reliance on GPS warnings. Also I've found British drivers more courteous than Australian and more likely to allow you to change lanes.

I'll be hiring a TomTom and driving round UK with it for the next month so will put these ideas to the test.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: mandotim
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 09:07 AM

Hi Laura; I think all the ones with TomTom software include advance warning of lane changes. I've got a fairly old one; the newer ones are better still, changing the view to show the details of the lane layout. TomTom aren't the cheapest, but if you don't want all the European maps and so on they can be had for about £150 or so. If you want really cheap, try Morgan Computers at http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/?adnetwork=af . They've got TomTom at around £100, plus several others.
Tim

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: GUEST,Laura
Date: 29 Jun 08 - 07:16 AM

This is very helpful, as I don't know anyone with a Sat Nav and can't decide what to buy...

Incidentally, Halfords have a little "bean bag" that you put on the dashboard, to seat your Sat Nav in. No telltale "sucker" marks on your windscreen, to alert thieves that you might have something worth nicking.

I have to drive on quite a few roads that have more than 3 lanes. As far as I can see, the only Sat Navs that have advanced lane change warnings are the £300+ ones. Are they worth the extra cost? Has anyone got something cheaper which is good for lane changes? Any advice greatfully received. I live in the UK.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: M.Ted
Date: 20 Jun 08 - 03:13 PM

Incidentally, Rowan, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for everyone who fights the big fires, especially the aerial guys--just watch it with the Bambi bucket!

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: julian morbihan
Date: 20 Jun 08 - 09:58 AM

I don't have SatNav (yet?)

But I can see that it has problems at times with it taking people down wrong roads.

Whilst travelling up to Telford the other day I passed a great sign pointing to the River Severn at Hampton Loade "Walk-on ferry only SatNav Error"

Made me chuckle for a few miles at the thought of drivers blindly following instructions and ending up at the end of a very narrow lane with their car deep into the Severn!!!

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 20 Jun 08 - 07:42 AM

I have a Garmin receiver disk that that has a USB connection to my laptop. The smarts are already in the computer so the cost is a lot lower than a stand alone device. It works well for what I need.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 20 Jun 08 - 07:22 AM

I don't know why it is, but my SatNav always seems to get a bit vague in Yorkshire. It will get me to within about 2 miles of where I want to go then suddenly tell me that I'm at my destination, when I'm obviously not! It's done it three times now on journeys to different places.
It works perfectly in Lancashire, the Midlands, Somerset, Hampshire....

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: jiva
Date: 20 Jun 08 - 07:09 AM

We have our SatNav (TomTom 710) on the dash in the middle (ie between driver and passenger). The centre position on the dash is great - we can both listen to the spoken instructions and see the display, the driver only occasionally glancing at the screen in the same way that one checks the rear-view mirror.

The holder is permanently installed in place of one of the air vents, and so looks inconspicuous when the SatNav is undocked. When leaving the car we undock the SatNav and take it with us.

jiva (Jimmy & Val)
www.jiva.co.uk

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: M.Ted
Date: 20 Jun 08 - 03:40 AM

You said "I for one don't rely on a single criterion as indicating "human"ness"--curious how often you have to deal with this question--I must admit that I've never had to determine whether a creature was human or not, at least, leaving out the whole "Bat Boy" thing--

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Rowan
Date: 19 Jun 08 - 06:36 PM

It's a good article, M.Ted, and I for one don't rely on a single criterion as indicating "human"ness. Over the years archaeologists and others have argued over whether skeletal metrics were "the go" and then the debates turned on "tool use", "language" and symbolic representation; the latter is what I was referring to when I put the "50kya" as a current debating issue.

I remember the disregard I received when I argued that the Laetoli footprints (3.8Mya, from memory, and certainly from a separate genus) showed behaviour one could consider "human". There were three sets, with different separations and regarded as a family group. The two "adult" ones were attributed to the male and female parents while the one with a much smaller sized foot was regarded as a "child", and most of its footprints were within those of the "Dad"; the child was deliberately placing its feet into its father's footprints and it was that feature I regarded as indicating a very human behaviour.

And, back to the GPSs; when plotting firelines in a chopper doing aerobatics over the flame front of a wildfire, you can bet I used the best GPS I could lay my hands on and even I, a serious map user, found coping with five or six 1:25K topo maps in the chopper's cabin more than I wanted to cope with while my mate, with one arm shrivelled from a disability, on the other hand coped with even more maps superbly.

Like I said, I have nothing against the technology, but I'm very selective about which bits I rely on.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Rasener
Date: 19 Jun 08 - 01:43 PM

I would like to thank everybody for their views and help.
In particular I would like to thank John Kelly for his honest viewpoint. I wish I could be like you, but I can't. Thank goodness we are all different. Stick to your beliefs John.

Now where was I, where is that bloody Sat Nav, I had it yesterday. I need a sat nav to find my sat nav :-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: M.Ted
Date: 19 Jun 08 - 05:13 AM

Who to believe, Rowan, or this New Scientist Article. Not that it really matters much--

As to the compass vs. SatNav debate, I am in Palm Springs this week, and my rental car has a handy Garmin device that has facilitated driving around as if we really knew where we were--show me a compass that can find the 24 hour supermarket that's nearest to the casino--

Without the device, one is pretty much confined to quarters, pouring over maps and searching the phone book til you've plotted out an expedition. Much better, in my view, to be out and about--

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Tangledwood
Date: 19 Jun 08 - 03:52 AM

. . . there's another thing. I don't want a computer that decides to send the message before I finish it. What I was going to say was that most of the time I don't even want to receive a phone call when not at home.

GPS however is another thing. Navigating by the sun is great on foot (unless you're in UK or Melbourne) but if moving at 2km/minute a slightly quicker method is useful.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Tangledwood
Date: 19 Jun 08 - 03:47 AM

Some technology does seem to exist purely for its own sake. Take a mobile phone (no, not everywhere) - I want a phone to alert me when there's an incoming call. It doesn't need to be able to contain 37,000 optional ring tones or musical scores to do that. A simple buzz will do thanks. I don't want it to take photos; I already have a camera. Actually most of the time

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Rowan
Date: 19 Jun 08 - 03:34 AM

The human race has been around a lot longer than you think, John Kelly(human remains have been reliably dated to 160,000 years ago)

Well, hominid and hominin remains, perhaps, but the palaeoanthropologists are currently debating the evidence concerning whether truly "human" hominins were around before about 50kya.

and had maps, signalling devices which were analogous to the SatNav and cell phones, using the technology of the day

Like voices, petroglyphs (much harder to carry around but more durable) and the occasional message stick?

in an ontogyny recapitulates philogeny kind of way, cell phones and SatNavs use the basic ideas that the oldest and most primitive mapping and signalling technologies used

By the same token, knives, forks and spoons are, in an ontogeny recapitulates philogeny kind of way, the same basic ideas as teeth, fingers and hands, which are the ulimate in primitiveness.

Humour aside, and without consulting him on it, I suspect that part of John's beef is that so much of the technology we use today encourages us to take a 'black box' view of it, whereby we assume that whatever comes out of the black box is correct. After all, it's "technology" so it must be correct, musn't it? Without some connection to the basic competencies we end up deskilled and "totally" (and "obligatively rather than "facultatively") reliant on said technology and incompetent if it doesn't work.

Think of all the checkout attendants who rely on the electronic till to do their totalling; even though I was brought up to perform reasonably extensive arithmetic 'in my head', I wouldn't want to have to add up all the items in a fully loaded shopping cart. But when I stop being at a checkout I can use mental arithmetic for most of my domestic needs; most school leavers nowadays can't do the same because all of their experience is with "black box" calculators. Even some uni students run foul when trying to correctly keep track of 'orders of magnitude', whereas us old farts know the traps and (mostly) manage to avoid them because we were forced required to do mental arithmetic.

I don't have any particularly negative attitude towards GPS instruments; I teach student how to use them. But I'm more comfortable in most tricky situations if I have a map and compass, unless I'm trying to pinpoint a location on a featureless plain. Technology is part of what makes us human; so is second guessing.

But then, I also instinctively use the sun and my sense of time as a direction finder; pretty good until I found myself seriously north of the equator for the first time - very awkward.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: M.Ted
Date: 18 Jun 08 - 02:27 PM

The human race has been around a lot longer than you think, John Kelly(human remains have been reliably dated to 160,000 years ago), and for much, if not most of that time, has had maps, signalling devices which were analogous to the SatNav and cell phones, using the technology of the day. Furthermore, in an ontogyny recapitulates philogeny kind of way, cell phones and SatNavs use the basic ideas that the oldest and most primitive mapping and signalling technologies used--so nothing has been tossed out the window.

And this stuff is necessary, because it helps us to deal better with the world we live in, and it helps us to expand that world.

Anyway, the larger point here is, why have you adopted the role of a cranky old man at 61? My grandmother learned to use a computer at 93, and learned to text message and take and send photos with a cell phone at 103.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Anne Lister
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 04:05 PM

John - one of the many disadavantages of this method of communication is that you have no idea what tone of voice I'm using or what facial expression I'm wearing, any more than I have of yours. I have never been anything BUT calm in this discussion, but being called "dear" by you in this context might well shake things up a bit!
You talk about the "real world" as if there was a way to opt out of it. I spend most of my life in the real world, getting lost following real people's fallible directions, getting stuck in real traffic jams and paying for real fuel. Which is why I value my SatNav. I coped for years without one. I manage most of my journeys now without one. When I'm travelling with my husband normally one of us uses the maps in the car and navigates. Sometimes, though, we use our nice, handy little gizmo to see what other options there might be. Mine has been invaluable navigating me to a precise post code which is where the work is - I've done a lot of work over the past year or so in prisons, and it's amazing how often they're not marked on maps, but a postcode will get me there with my SatNav.

George - we have happy conversations now about all manner of things, including the joy of discovering roads the SatNav doesn't know about (and nor does our road atlas). Don't think of it as losing a conversation, more of gaining someone else to argue with on a long journey.

Anne

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 01:30 PM

I resisted it till now. But I hope Father Christmas might bring me one. My only concern is - what will we talk about now on the long drives? Will this be the end of conversation? And will blaming the satnav be as satisfactory?

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Rasener
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 12:05 PM

Lets not let this get out of hand.
There has been some great info and quite rightly not everybody needs to be into technology.
I have my Sat Nav now and am very happy with it.

Now where is that bloody satelite

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Harmonium Hero
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 10:35 AM

M Ted: These things are NOT necessary for survival. See - this is what's worrying me, as I've tried to point out; the human race has been around for - according to various estimates - anything from 40,000 to maybe 200,000+ years. In the context of that sort of time scale, the mobile phone, satnav etc barely even exist. So how can it be that suddenly we can't survive without them? I am surviving, and I'm not alone. And the world is not passing me by, I can assure you.
If you want to pass me by, then be my guest; I'm not contesting the road with you. The road is heading straight for a precipice, and, unlike the rest of the human race, I'm in no hurry to get there. The way forward is to go back to where we last had any inkling of where we were going, and try again. That's probably about 50 years ago. We were, in many ways, better off then - and that's not just my opinion. As things stand, we'll be lucky if we're still here to look back in another 50 years.
And I'm not taking potshots at anybody, and apologise to anybody who thinks I am. The Villain asked for advice about satnav, and I offered mine. Villain doesn't have to take it. OK, I did it in my Grumpy Old Man way, but that's what I do. If you knew me, then you'd know how to take it. I think. however, that I've as much right to take potshots as anybody else - and as I've said, I've had a lifetime of being on the receiving end. Why does everybody feel so threatened by the voice of dissent? I shall say no more, as I'm not trying to hi-jack the thread.
Now, where did I put me coat?
John Kelly.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: M.Ted
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 06:20 AM

John Kelly-- Cell phones, computers, iPods, and all that stuff are a critical part of the world for most people these days, like it or not. They don't work sometimes, and you spend extra time dealing with problems you shouldn't have, but don't fool yourself, they're not just fashion-they are necesary for survival. If you can't use them, the world passes you by.

Maybe you want the world to pass you by. That's your business, and your choice. Nothing wrong with the rest of us for taking advantage of the power that new technology gives us--and you've got no business taking potshots at us.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 05:55 AM

You must live in some place where they don't deliver letters to front doors, Tanglewood. Hard luck.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Tangledwood
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 07:30 PM

"ain't it a pain that the phone books don't include postcodes, to make it easier entering destinations?"

Doesn't worry me. I don't know many people that live in post boxes. :)

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 01:25 PM

Any number of innovations are transient rubbish, that's true enough. But every now and again something comes along that provides significant options for making life better, if used sensibly. For example, the stuff that makes it possible for the Mudcat to exist. And Svetlana.

No hassle to remove her from the car, or stick her and her connections in the glove compartment.

One thing though - ain't it a pain that the phone books don't include postcodes, to make it easier entering destinations? I imagine it's some cockeyed business about the Post Office owning the copyright, and the phone companies not being willing to pay to use them. The result is we all are deprived of a useful convenience.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Harmonium Hero
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 10:23 AM

Anne: Calm down dear - it's only a gizmo! You seem to be taking this all rather personally. Let me explain; I have always been at odds with the society in which I live, and have suffered all manner of abuse for it - verbal and, in my school days, physical. Forgive me if I now see fit to hand some of it back. I am not meaning to be nasty to anybody, unlike a great many of the people I have had to deal with in my time. There is an element of rib-poking in what I say. However, it does seriously concern me that I am living in a society which very quickly becomes obsessed with anything new. This is almost always fairly short-lived; in the '70's, everybody around me was sneering at me for not wearing flares, tank tops, platform shoes, etc. Then all that stuff suddenly went out of the window, and within a very short time, those same people were looking at photos of themselves from two years earlier, and cringing in embarassment. This kind of thing is increasingly being applied to technology (and the van, by the way, isn't technology; it's mechanics. That's bad enough, but I don't fancy living in a horse-drawn caravan on our roads, much though the idea appeals.), and I now find myself being sniped at - not by you lot, but by people around me, for not having a mobile phone or satnav. Apart from my concern about the rapidly-growing mountain of redundant technology (which is redundant by the time you've got it home and taken it out of the box), I don't think it's such a great idea to jettison everything that went before - which is what happens. The amount of human skill and knowledge that has been built up over many centuries, only to be abandoned during my adult life time, is quite frightening. Technology is the bore of the age, and half the time, it doesn't even work. You mention emails; they are unreliable. Some seem to disappear into cyberspace (a place which doesn't even exist), while others arrive a week or more late. A friend of mine told me he'd had one which was sent out six months earlier. And I'm not being stuck up; I just wish some of you would pop into the real world now and then; you'd be very welcome.
M.Ted: Why haven't I got a future?
Al: yes - I ve heard of them, but I couldn't eat a whole one.
John Kelly.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Rasener
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 04:55 AM

I am right handed, so take your point.
It was amazing, becuase when I first bought it, I just placed it on the passenger seat and it worked like a dream.
I have air conditioning so hopefully that will sort the heat issue out.
The screen is a modern anti glare screen.
I have a fixing for on the dashboard, but am reluctant to use that as i think its very difficult to remove when leaving the car.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Tangledwood
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 03:59 AM

Are you right or left handed? While making adjustments when mobile is not good practice it is still handy to have easy access while parked or waiting at lights. Nice for the family to watch maybe but the driver is the one that has to follow the map so placement should be best for him/her. Although voice can give you directions there is better situational awareness with a quick glance at the map, giving more notice when lane changes are needed for example.

Placement to avoid sun glare on the screen is also a consideration.
Mine is mounted on a suction cup on the windscreen to the right of the steering wheel (right hand drive, right handed driver). The other option, a bracket on an airvent, is too low. By coincidence this places the unit just above the vent which gives it ideal cooling when outside temperature is in the high 30s and the battery is charging.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Rasener
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 03:08 AM

Hi Anne
Why I wondered about that, is if my family are in the car, they can look at the map whilst I am driving. I will only use the voice to guide me.
Si if I put it to the left of the steering wheel, are their any drawbacks to doing that?
Les

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Anne Lister
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 02:42 AM

Mine (a TomTom) has a suction pad on the bracket. I drive a Picasso, and put the bracket on the side window, which means the screen is just to my right above the steering wheel. I always remove the bracket and the SatNav when I'm leaving the car, no matter for how short a time, and we make sure that we clean the inside of that window frequently enough to remove any marks from the suction pad.
Although my SatNav is now well out of date in terms of design and style I'd prefer not to encourage a casual thief to break into the car.

Anne

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Rasener
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 02:22 AM

I found this, but it doesn't say where the safest position is on the windscreen.

The ease of fitting is clearly an advantage since there's no (or very little) fitting cost involved. However, as well as giving a rather untidy appearance and being somewhat prone to detaching itself in strong sunlight, the typical glass-mounted arm makes a very visible target for thieves.

Portable navigation units have replaced the car stereo as the most desirable item for the opportunist thief. Unlike a CD player they are neither difficult to remove or protected by a security code or removable panel.

Even if you religiously remove the device from the arm and carry it with you (not always convenient as some are more portable than others in terms of their shape) the hawk-eyed thief who sees the arm on the windscreen may well break in anyway, assuming that the device will be in the glove-box. Our advice is to always remove the arm from the windscreen when you park.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Rasener
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 02:08 AM

This might seem a bit silly, but where do you poeple have your satnav positioned in the car? Please bear in mind I am in the UK

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 03:56 AM

Svetlana wouldn't do that!

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Tangledwood
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 02:57 AM

"I'm looking forward to the version a few years down the road which will take over driving the car, and I can sit in the back and have a drink..."

That worries me. A few years down the track voice recognition will also be more developed. Imagine the scenario - the GPS is listening for you to say a street name. Meanwhile the traffic report on your radio mentions an accident on Main Street. GPS hears that and takes you straight to the middle of it.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 06:00 PM

Garmin 250W is the one we bought, only £130 and it does an excellent job.

There's an option for avoiding main roads, and I've found some fascinating routes using it. And the lady in the box is good company too. We call her Svetlana, which is an anagram of Le SatNav.

The great thing is the you don't have to do what she says - go the wrong way and she instantaneously recalculates and adjust the routes accordingly. She never gets cross about it either, unlike human navigators in a similar situation.

I'm looking forward to the version a few years down the road which will take over driving the car, and I can sit in the back and have a drink...

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Tangledwood
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 06:49 PM

"I live in a rural area where we frequently have walls demolished and trucks/coaches stuck on roads which are clearly signposted as unsuitable for large vehicles (or in some cases bridleways which are unsuitable for ANY vehicle) "


There was mention on TV here recently of an English village being inundated with army vehicles. The village has the same name as an exercise range in the area which isn't shown on the GPS map.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Anne Lister
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 02:59 PM

Who said I didn't have maps in the car? I said you were making that assumption (which isn't true in my case, for sure), so if this is an example of your accurate reading of anything, John, heaven help your route finding!
Bully for you and your photographic memory. Glad you can negotiate unknown territory in the dark. Hope I don't meet you on the road when you have to rapidly re-calculate your route because of external factors. All I have to do is touch the screen a couple of times and I'm still moving, still safe and still taking a sensible route. But you're proud of not relying on technology (apart from the car, of course, and email) so that's fine for you. I'm proud of using technology that helps me and not being too stuck up about it.
Different strokes, different folks.

Anne

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 02:27 PM

never heard of trafic jams?

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: DebC
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 01:10 PM

I do still carry an up-to-date US road atlas in my car and a UK one when I am over there.

For MYSELF, the acquisition of the Sat-Nav was an issue of safety as I stated in my previous post. If someone chooses not to have one (or anything else technological for that matter) I say good for you and will not judge them for that choice.

Thanks, Anne for saying what I was thinking.

Debra Cowan

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Rasener
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 12:41 PM

Nice response John

I would still have maps in the car, just incase things do go wrong.

I think the computer is a wonderful thing to keep the brain active and running live music events. At 63 that helps a lot.

I had tolaugh. The guy who I bought the Sat Nav from, told me about this elderly couple who brought theirs back becuase it caused them to have an accident. They took the voices instructions to mean instantty. So when the person said "Turn left", the guy did it, but unfortunately their wasn't a road to turn into.

Les

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Harmonium Hero
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 12:21 PM

Oh, dear. I seem to have hit a raw nerve here. I do, as one or two people have suggested, have a memory which is to some extent photographic, but I dion't think that's entirely relevant. I don't want to lose the use of memory, which is what's liable to happen if you don't use it.
Anne: you say you don't have maps in the car; they are portable - you can put them in the car. You also talk of an 'increasingly middle-aged memory'; I'm not exactly getting younger - 61 at last count - but I don't believe in giving in to the supposed inevitability of galloping decrepitude. And I wasn't preaching, and if that's how it came across, then I humbly apologize. Sneering, maybe...
Anne, Les, Dick: Almost all of my driving is done alone, and a large part of it at night. and never mind the Paris ring road - have you tried Stockport? I know people who have, both with and without satnav, and they get lost either way - as I do with maps!
M.Ted: why?
Al: What are you doing eating jam on the motorway? As regards the small print, you need the larger, spiral bound edition. The pocket edition has print that I can't read with a magnifier.
Anyway, I'm still not getting a satnav, or a mobile, or a tuner, or....ZZZZZZZZ
John Kelly.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: SonnyWalkman
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 11:55 AM

Used in conjunction with a brain sat-nav is fine. Unfortunately a lot of users disengage their brains and blindly obey the voice from the dashboard.

One problem with them is that they take no account of a vehicle's size, motorcycles or articulated lorries all get sent on the same route. I live in a rural area where we frequently have walls demolished and trucks/coaches stuck on roads which are clearly signposted as unsuitable for large vehicles (or in some cases bridleways which are unsuitable for ANY vehicle) - it's never the drivers' fault, always the sat-nav gets the blame.

I guess artificial intelligence still needs a bit of human assistance from time to time.

Subject: RE: Tech: Performers and Sat Nav
From: Tangledwood
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 04:32 AM

What a wonderful asset it must be to have a photographic memory. Having memorized a route what happens if you are unable to follow it? Roads get closed by road works or accidents, and sometimes you miss a turn simply by getting stuck in the wrong lane. The GPS calculates an alternative very quickly. Sure some people don't like technology (apparently that dislike doesn't extend to car ownership) but I hope that I don't meet one who has his head down reading the map instead of looking through the windscreen.