Listers,
On an exploration of Kansas Saturday, I had my BrailleNote PK GPS running as
we drove from Wichita to the Flint Hills. Along the way, I could call out
the names of the small bergs and interesting points of interest we were
passing while monitoring directions. The driver would call out interesting
sights as well. It was a wonderful way of sharing information and making the
most of what you might otherwise think was a ho-hum environment.
Our destination was Strong City Kansas and the Tall Grass nature conservancy
where we hiked a few miles through the rolling hills. Fortunately, none of
the local bison were grazing in our vicinity. They may not have cared that
our dogs were guide dogs. It was an absolutely beautiful day.
My favorite part of traveling is the unexpected person you meet. It also was
a beautiful day for stone masons to be repairing the hundred year old 4 foot
high stone walls separating the highway from the conservancy. One of the
workers broke off from his work and introduced himself. I could barely
understand his accent. He was Neil from Scotland, specifically here to lead
a crew restoring 885 feet of wall. I grabbed a quick audio clip of Neil
talking to us.
Some of you may remember one term we used for custom user points of
interest, virtual footprints. These are the points we attach to files
uploaded to the shared database for your BrailleNote and Braille Sense GPS
as well as for the Sendero Maps for the PC. I marked a point for this Tall
Grass location and attached an audio clip of Neil talking to us. So, if you
use your Sendero Maps to download User POIs with F5, you too will have this
and thousands of other points recorded around the world, our virtual
footprints. In the details, you can see the name or initials of the person
who provided that point. In my case, it is MGM. I noticed yesterday a point
in Kansas recorded by someone calling himself Genius Boy, whomever that is.
Using my PK on this trip was a reminder of the rich feature-set we developed
over 15 years, like User points, manual routes, bread crumbs and many more.
None of the iPhone apps come close to having all these features but of
course we primarily use the mobile apps because of their convenience. When
you really want to have details at your fingertips, break out the old GPS
software and if you are feeling ambitious, add your own footprints to the
shared database.
Remember, "It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive."
Mike
Michael May, Executive Director, Envision Workforce Innovation Center
Cell, 530-304-0007
Personal web, http://www.Crashingthrough.com
