The Stupidity Of Blindly Obeying Sat Navs!!!

Must have left his spectacles at home.

 

I have a problem all the time with delivery people that trust their GPS directions over my directions to my home. There is a road that is on google maps that does not and never has really existed. At one time a guy put a sign on the end of his driveway and somehow that ended up as a street. He moved and the "road" disapeared when the new owner fenced and put up a gate. This somehow made the directions wrong. The GPS will send the delivery drivers over the hills and through the woods rather than coming to my house directly and try to turn them down a road that doesn't exist.

 

Sometimes, GPS (Garmin in fact) goes completely NUTS! Was in Durham, NC today and the GPS kept trying to send us in the exact opposite direction we needed to go. Canceled it twice before the correct directions came up. I hate cities.

Dale

 

I still use maps / make my own.

First thing I locate a regular map, paper or online. With the aid of satellite images I go 3-D and do a fly-over to see what things look like. I'll sometimes use Google to put the little man down on a road and take a look from ground level. I must see where I'm going. I must know North, E., W., and South. I must know how the mountain ranges lie. I do not like surprises. And I'll buy topographic maps. I always have a state atlas and gazetteer.

http://shop.milwaukeemap.com/north-carolina-atlas-gazetteer

Satellite navigation -- not for me.

Someone may give me directions; how nice. Not enough. I must know the big picture, the "lay of the land". I do not trust words. Show me. And yes I carry a compass. And I love that my SUV has a built-in compass and outside temperature reading.

At day's end today, according to the traffic condition map and radio news, I was trapped where I was working. B.S., I whipped out the maps and drove mightily out of my way. The route twisted through farmland and mountains and forests ... . Had anyone prone to motion sickness been with me, they would have developed projectile vomitus. But my drive was beautiful.

Just this morning, while descending a mountain, I witnessed a scene such as the following


When I had been ascending this mountain, I witnessed clouds literally spilling over a mountain range. The following photo doesn't even begin to do justice to what I was almost inside of. The range was huge and the clouds were huge and the clouds didn't look like clouds but like cream-topping that was 100 to 200 foot thick and utterly opaque. The vision was overwhelmingly beautiful and frightening. Had this been filmed and incorporated into a movie "as is" everyone would say that it looked too enormous and obviously the work of computer graphics. I was there and felt smaller than an ant. I was a blip. I was a nothingness.

 

If your GPS road nav system wants you to drive over a field alarm bells should be ringing in your head?

Again another 'horror' story so popular with the gutter press. Lets be honest, millions of people use sat nav everyday and have no issues so don't ignore or dismiss this extremely useful bit of technology because some idiots leave common sense at home.

I'm playing with an app which could well be a life saver if your out lost on the road or the hills
https://what3words.com/daring.lion.race
UK emergency services are starting to use it.

 

Map and compass are a vital basic skill all outdoor folk should have but don't rely on them too much because thing change.

I've a collection of old and new OS maps, I love looking at the old ones but so many things have changed since their printing that I'd only use them for off road travel, hills and mountains tend to stay as they were, roads and towns don't.

 

Where I come from that is called "Evolution in ACTION!" Should have let her drown...

 

The net will go down without doubt but your tech equipment still has uses. Looking at my phone and even without the internet or mobile phone signal it still has

Off line UK maps
Contact list of names and addresses including wholesalers
A little over 200 books
A little over 500 songs
Some favorite films
Some games like Chess and Backgammon
And more

All I need to keep this little device running is a small solar charger designed for camping.

PCs, Laptops and Tablets are the same but have a lot more storage, I've got around 20TB of films and books stored which can be run from a not too expensive solar setup and I have a lot of back up drives stashed away.

So don't think all your tech stuff will have no value if things go breast shaped because they are actually vital tools.

 

LW, your cutting off your nose to spite your face. Pick up a used smart phone off ebay, something like an old Samsung S3 or the bigger screened Note 3. I presume you have a wireless router to connect to the net so your phone can go straight online.

Nobody is going to rely on their hi tech gizzmos if it hits the fan but you need to look at them as simply another TOOL. Embrace technology chap. I've battery powered (solar) trail cams which are useful, my extensive home alarm system has battery backup...these are tools of real value.

 

In fact you do need it, your just too stuborn to admit it. I'll send you one to play with if you want.

 

I guess we can strike compassion off your list of attributes and add delusions of grandeur ... thinks he is God and knows who deserves to survive.

 

Good morning all,

Another aspect of high tech gadgets. Applicable to low tech ones also.

On some evacuations and many emergency responses, I'd never take off my gloves.

Industry has recognized that an office gadget placed in the field does have other "human factors engineering" requirements and it's being addressed. As of today, not there yet.

I've got a couple of high tech items but must treat like a heliograph; can't be used at all times.