So I'm sitting here minding my own business reading this message and
giggling and then Mike has to go and get personal. But you are right,
Mike.
When your expectations are correct, the blind spouse's gps is the coolest
thing since sliced bread. I also like having that hard copy Mapquest
printout. But over the years I have learned that I really can rely on the
Sendero GPS to the point that now I (almost always) just do what I'm told!
Of course since I have the actual steering wheel, I can ignore it when I
think my way is better, or can see a problem with the gps directions, but
truthfully, that is seldom necessary.
Forget gps bashing, how about this one: We were traveling north on I-5
through California. At one point, the freeway forks where I-5 north
continues north and veers east, while Highway 99 continues north and veers
west. The quickest route to our destination required staying on I-5. But
after years of traveling up Highway 99 to Bob's parents' house, I took
that
highway without thinking about it. Bob had been sleeping and an hour or
so
later woke up, checked his gps, and asked me why I was on the 99. Oops.
So
I pulled off at the next exit, Bob recalculated, and lucky for me (and
probably for our marriage) we were right at the point where it wasn't too
hard to get back to where we needed to be. So without gps, I have no idea
how far I would have gone before I realized I was on the totally wrong
highway. Nor how I would have figured out what little country road would
have gotten us back on track.
That said, here's a little piece of advice: When you are stuck in one of
those notorious Los Angeles traffic jams, it is not conducive to your
wife's
well-being to turn the speech on and press S just so she can hear the
machine say "not moving".
But anyway, I'm up for the Spouse's Breakout Session at the GPS Summit.
The
CSUN conference 2010 is moving to San Diego. Maybe that could be the
venue!
Sue Sweetman
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:46:12 -0700
From: Michael May <MikeMay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [gps-talkusers] question about locations
James,
There is a document on the Sendero site or in your others doc folder that
came on your compact flash card. It is called GPS Accuracy. This goes into
detail about all the accuracy factors of GPS and of maps.
There are a host of things that can impact accuracy. All maps are
susceptible to being inaccurate. From the time the data is recorded until
the user gets the data may be a month or a year but then that street or
POI
may not be updated for another year.
GPS fluctuation could cause the side of street to be misreported or
perhaps
the POI is recorded in the wrong place to begin with.
Set the expectation that things will be in the vicinity and not spot on
and
then there won't be disappointment.
I tell my wife that I'll get her in the right block and then her eyeballs
can take over. If I do better than that, everyone is happy but best to be
conservative in what you expect.
Map Quest is certainly wrong plenty of the time and the GPS in our car is
also wrong but both are pretty close most of the time, same as our
accessible GPS systems.
I also tell my wife that I won't fuss at her when she misses an exit
because
she didn't see the sign if she doesn't fuss at me because either I goofed
or
my GPS goofed occasionally.
We should organize a GPS summit and have a special gripe session for the
spouses. I bet they would feel a lot better after doing a bit of GPS
bashing
in mass. Right Sue?
Mike
Hello all!
I was working with the latest version of GPS 6.0 while my wife was
driving down town. I did an address look-up and found the location, but
I got a message stating that the address was slightly to the right.
However, my wife reported that it was in front of me and to the left,
and started fussing at me because the GPS was wrong as far as she was
concern.
So my question is what one does when we are slightly off. Grantit She
likes getting her directions from map quest, and I also find that they
are wrong sometimes too. Has anyone got in to an argument at one time
when a point of accuracy was question?
As far as I'm concern, the GPS works fine for me. However, I don't have
the concept of knowing what side of the street to be on when looking
for a address.
Any thoughts on this as well?
James
