By Chris Campbell
To say a GPS saved my life, and the life of my family would be a lie. I could however say, that my Magellan GPS Sport Trak was a reassuring tool during a real life threatening situation. And that would be the truth. More...It was only the second year our family had been sailing, and we decided to venture a little further from our home port. The perfect starter trip, presented itself, when two other family friends decided to take their two boats on a short weekend sail from Bayfield to Goderich Ontario. It's a pretty short distance. a couple hours sailing there on a Saturday, a stay overnight in different marina, and a couple hours sail home the next day. It also seemed like a perfect chance to try out the new GPS.
GPS And The Real World
The entire trip would be insight of land, and a GPS was probably not really necessary. But, as with all tech gadgets, there is a bit of a learning curve. So, I figured it would be a good chance to learn a bit more about the GPS in a very practical environment. With the added benefit, of something to amuse the cyber kids during a potentially long and boring (translation: no computer games) adventure. The trip up took a little longer then planned, as the wind was of course very light, and not blowing the direction we were heading. It was a nice sunny day, making a longer trip more pleasant. All three boats arrived just fine. The GPS worked fine, and it was kinda cool seeing it track our trip over the lake. Much more fun that watching it track my speed, as I walk around the block. Thats what I did the first day I had it, since its really not much fun to play with a GPS standing still.
GPS Bread Crumbs
After a pleasant dinner and fun time in the Goderich marina, we headed of for sleep, with plans to head home early the next day. The next day brought a little more weather early on, so it seem to be prudent to head off early. The wind picked up quickly, and pretty soon we were sailing in 20 knot winds with 3 to six foot waves. The wind of course blowing the opposite direction from where we were heading. A little rough, but we were managing, and we could easily find our way back home by following the shoreline, or our previous days trip, still stored in the Magellan GPS. About 5 miles directly off shore from our home marina, we made our last tack in and could see our home port in the distance. Thinking smugly that we had avoided any storms I relaxed a little. I noticed the big black wall heading toward us from the south, but was sure we had it beat. About 2 miles from our port, I realized just how wrong I was.
A GPS Makes A Crummy Umbrella
The line squall hit us dead on. Winds went from 20 to 30 knots, and the rain poured. We furled our head sail, and sent the kids below for safetys sake (which of course sent one racing for the head to deposit her breakfast). Over the radio, helpful advice from our friends boats attempted to assure us we would be fine. The worst thing, was that the shoreline completely disappeared. Nothing but black. Sailboats like water, but they dont do so well crashing into land. As one boating friend tells me, 'In a boat, the land is not your friend'. And here we were heading for land, but just not sure where it was. Not a good thing. Fortunately, our GPS had our home port as a waypoint, and all we could do was follow its course. Actually all three boats had their GPS set for the home port, and they were following their GPS heading just as we were. Fortunately, it was a quick storm (only 15 minutes or so), a great beginners introductory storm. As the black dissolved, and the sun shone, our GPS had been true. We were right on target at the mouth of the Bayfield river, and it was pretty simple to just sail in and tie up. Fifteen minutes later, we watched the next squall blow through from the safety of our dock. Who says tech gadgets are just toys? My GPS was a real life saver.
About The Author
For more on Magellan GPS visit gpstravelling.com or read other GPS articles at http://foolishmumbles.com/category/gps/
The manufacturers of bags and cases developed the GPS cases on the basis of their sizes and functions. Today, on the market you can find a standard GPS case, GPS holster, GPS bags that are intended for GPS accessories like mounting brackets, cables, batteries, and data cards if they are required.
Find gps trackers for kids in our store.
Units have been urbanized for use on soar tubes also - as GPS technology advances, the systems become more and more compact and their uses more and more extensive.
If you have a Web-enabled cell phone or PDA, you can receive instant street maps of your current location with a subscription software package from Handmark. This service for people who don't have GPS receivers returns precise maps based on street and city queries that you send wirelessly. You can also get up-to-the-minute news, weather (with live radar maps), sports, stock prices, directories, and movie times and ticket purchases. The street maps can help you avoid having to ask for directions; but aside from that, the service's unlimited directory assistance (with reverse directories as well) more than justifies the $70 yearly subscription. For $30 a year, you can obtain just mapping and directory assistance.
Get a great new GPS accessory
Qualcomm's Vision of the Wireless Future "When he finished, there were 20 brand-new, CDMA-based mobile handsets and devices arrayed on the table, the high-tech souvenirs of Belk's most recent trip to Hong Kong and Japan.... 'These are not PowerPoint slides,' Belk said. 'These are real devices that are already shipping in volume in Asia.' " at Business 2.0]
And there's the rub. When I do my presentations, that's all I have - pictures of prototypes or of devices not available in the U.S. Europe and Asia really are 18 months ahead of us in this area.
"Beale also discussed Qualcomm's gpsOne location technology.... It also opens the door for many new location-based services, such as traffic information and local weather forecasts. On Japan KDDI's network, there are already more than 20 location-based services available -- all of which are relatively inexpensive, costing less than $5 per month."
I'm looking forward to being able to travel and have information come to me automatically based on my location. For example, if I'm at a conference and I'm looking for a restaurant, I'd like my phone/PDA/whatever to know where I am and offer a list of nearby choices. Maybe it should tell me what movies or plays are on tonight and if there are still tickets available. You get the idea....
"Predictably, both Belk and Beale anticipate strong growth for the wireless industry as ever-more-compelling products and services become available and the industry settles on a single communication standard. How long will that take? Belk, whose career began in the personal computing business in 1983, likened the wireless industry today to the PC business of the 1980s. 'I wouldn't worry about the wireless industry yet, it's still relatively young,' he said. 'Just look how long it took the PC industry just to get to the point of standardized parallel cables.' "
Not to beat a dead horse, but the ebook industry is even younger than PCs, and PDAs have really only come into their own during the last few years. So don't count any of these technologies out just yet.
Lots of interesting articles from today's PC World. First up, Microsoft Takes on MapQuest: "MSN launches MapPoint online mapping service, offering maps, directions, and more."
Apparently this is going to be yet another component of MS' push for .Net services with hooks into other MSN services. MapPoint is XML-based, which makes it interesting in other ways, and there it launches with a phone-based direction service. The articles notes that this is another step towards location-based services. "For example, you might someday be able to click on a Windows Messenger buddy's name and retrieve a map showing the location of his or her home."
Good or bad? You make the call. I like parts of this, but I'm incredibly wary of .Net.
Global Positioning Systems offer everything from hole overviews to Internet access "Shortgrass Technologies' Internet-based sports information system and financial ticker enables golfers to check college football scores on a Saturday afternoon or the price of stocks any weekday. Global positioning systems can track golf cars no matter where they are on the course, thus discovering bottlenecks and slower play. Golfers can order beverages and food en route to the turn, so golf clubs can offer more than a quick hot dog - a higher priced chicken sandwich, for instance...."
I always thought that GPS would go mainstream in automobiles first, and in a way I suppose it has, but maybe golfers will lead the real charge. I could have used a portable, library-centered GPS system myself to navigate the Chicago Public Library's Harold Washington Library when I was there last fall!
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