Monty by Jim Meddick for July 05, 2015

And THAT’S why I use Google Maps on my Android.

Keep driving forward and you WILL reach your Final Destination!

Correct me if I’m wrong, but many devices that claim to have “gps” (and call it gps) do not actually have a gps receiver in them. Instead, they use cell tower triangulation, which is not as accurate. A true gps would have a receiver to pick up the satellite signals.

Google Maps decided to relocate a campus to the site of a skeevy-looking warehouse downtown, causing me to miss the first 45 minutes of art spiegelman’s lecture.

I had this happen twice. Once, it told me to turn right. On the right was a wooded area. But I did see my destination thru the trees! Another time it told me to go right and the road was fenced off. The strangest part of that was going left turned out to be shorter. Still and all, I can barely find my way out of the house and I love GPS.

Serves Monty right for messing with E.B.’s heart! If only his brakes had failed!

Blissful Sunday afternoon my friends.-———There is a section of highway near Dunlap TN where the speed limit has been raised from 55 to 65mph. My gps after several map upgrades still tells me the speed limit is 55. You would think in 3 years they could have corrected that error. -——-Be happy and healthy everyone.

“Recalculating …”

Ha ha!I might use printed, paper maps; or I might pre-check a route on my home computer, using more than one map service if not satisfied; or I might read the street signs and/or highway markers.But I don’t rely on onboard navigation systems or smartphones to find my way.Sometimes my main concern is just to find the correct boarding gate for an air flight.But Monty’s plight, withal, rings very true, indeed!

Monty was trying to get to Weehawken… he deserves what happened to him.

I was a quartermaster (navigator) in the Navy, and I like to chart my own way, but I cannot resist having a GPS to play with. I have a Magellan, and have developed enough confidence in it that on occasion I have just thrown myself on it’s mercy and let it direct me without having looked first myself.

But sometimes local knowledge trumps the directions, however accurate: starting from where I go in NJ, home to CT the quickest route would be over the GW Bridge, BUT the traffic is murder AND the toll is 3X that of the Tappan Zee Bridge. So I take the Palisades Interstate Parkway north to the TZB. The GPS sees the speed limit of 50mph, and spends half the trip insisting I get off and turn around. Of course, no one goes 50, and the traffic is much less, so my way is better.