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Hiding in plain sight
On Thu, 4 Feb 2016 09:20:42 +1100, "Rod Speed"
wrote: snip Yup, ridiculous. Thinking on though I wondered how many people don't have the mental map of the country in their heads and who may not even realise the M25 was a ring? There are also some people who have to ask which way to undo a tap or a nut. ;-) And plenty more don't have a clue which way is north etc. True. ;-( I use to say that stuff when coordinating the garage sale opening times, 'Its at the northern end of xxxx street' Now I say it's at the town end etc. Yup. snip As these units have become more common / cheaper they have also been simplified (from my POV) to be more 'user friendly' and therefore some of the things I might find useful (like current lat / long) hidden, if available at all. ;-( Yeah, that has certainly happened with the tomtoms, the low end ones are much more limited than the top of the range models. Ok. I guess that's also why I generally / still refer to such things (especially the portable jobbies) as 'GPS units', rather than 'Sat Nav' as my early ones didn't have any autorouting type navigation, just a generic 'Go that way' pointer. ;-) And then there is turn by turn and lane guidance etc and anticipated arrival time etc and live traffic. Yup, things have progressed. [1] It used to amaze me how many people simply don't update anything ... from GPS maps, system firmware (inc PC BIOSs) or their PC OS's (when it's often the first thing I do when given some stuff to play with). It doesn't amaze me given the stupid prices tomtom charged. Yeah, I was just looking at that! Ouch. Cheers, T i m |
Hiding in plain sight
On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 21:57:03 +0000, DJC wrote:
On 02/02/16 22:38, T i m wrote: Is it only me who would be happy with 'Clockwise' or 'Anticlockwise' on roads leading onto the likes of the M25? I may be very aware that I need to go clockwise but don't know if I want Heathrow or Luton, when neither are on the M25! ;-( Me too, Oh good. ;-) I just don't know which junction number is which. Not me, but then I try to avoid motorways unless I just need to get somewhere quickly. I have driven London to Newbury often enough to know where M4 J13 is, but that's about it. Well it's hardly the sort of thing the most of us would bother to remember is it? I think most people would know what exit one would need on the motorway nearest them and possibly any they use regularly but that's probably it? The general problem is that if you don't have some idea both where you are and where the places mentioned on signposts are, relative to each other and where you are, then said signposts can be very unhelpful. Indeed. That's why the GPS was such a godsend to me. It seems to me that many of the road signs you are given when entering something like the M25 are just the places the bloke making the signs knew were in that rough direction. ;-( I can't remember what the signs said when joining the M25 from the A3 and trying to go clockwise but it might have said 'Heathrow' and I think that's on the M3 (M4?), not on the M25? Cheers, T i m |
Hiding in plain sight
On Wed, 03 Feb 2016 22:49:26 +0000 (GMT), charles
wrote: In article , DJC wrote: On 02/02/16 22:38, T i m wrote: Is it only me who would be happy with 'Clockwise' or 'Anticlockwise' on roads leading onto the likes of the M25? I may be very aware that I need to go clockwise but don't know if I want Heathrow or Luton, when neither are on the M25! ;-( Me too, I just don't know which junction number is which. I have driven London to Newbury often enough to know where M4 J13 is, but that's about it. The general problem is that if you don't have some idea both where you are and where the places mentioned on signposts are, relative to each other and where you are, then said signposts can be very unhelpful. Actually, Heathrow Terminal 5 has its own junction on the M25. (14a) Ah, ok, then that makes a bit more sense then when joining the M25 from the A3 (J10?) and trying to go clockwise. But why 'Heathrow'? Why not 'Clockwise' as at least clock or anticlock are universal no matter where you join the M25 (or the Nth Circ or any other ring road) and from the inside or outside? Maybe they could signpost clearly the current junction number on the way in as one thing most people may know is the junction number they intend leaving the motorway at? If it's higher than the one you are entering on you want to go clockwise (as long as you know where the thing starts and stops I guess). ;-) Cheers, T i m |
Hiding in plain sight
On Thu, 4 Feb 2016 08:52:00 +1100, "Rod Speed"
wrote: snip good stuff I used to do that regularly using Garmins Mapsource (on Windows, no Linux support) before my GPS's had postcode support. Postcodes don't work here. Ours aren't anything like as fine grained as yours are. All the garage sales have the same postcode even those in adjacent towns. I don't think you are unique with that either as that was why the early Garmin units didn't use postcodes (because in some countries it wasn't specific enough). Even then, some just used the first few digits. I still do so now when planning an actual trip but the waypoints can often get unused if we change our plans en-route. I don't do many trips like that. They most have a fixed destination and at most a choice of routes to get there. That is also my most common use these days. snip I don't lose my keys either 'Yet'. and almost never run out of petrol. Nor me. 'She' ran out of petrol in Scotland on her 750 but luckily I had a larger tank and even two up and towing a trailer I had some fuel left and we split what we had and both made it to a petrol station. This was pre our owning a GPS (and *way* before smartphones) and partly why we got one. Hardly ever manage to go out without my wallet either, just once in something like 60 years now. Me neither ... it generally gets transferred into whatever trousers I change into along with my belt, Leatherman and phone pouch. snip No, there are plenty of offline mappers and google maps can be used like that if you want to. Yes, so you are using it like a straight GPS (no mobile Data) at that point? I don't usually use the offline mode because the data costs me peanuts, not even 20c for the entire garage sale run. The petrol costs me much more than that. Sure, but you couldn't use offline maps without the GPS in the phone right? Important if you are out of range of data? Yes, it will do full routing in offline mode. Yes, as a straight GPS (so no real advantage over a straight GPS at that point). Unless you are just using it like a dumb paper map? You can use it like that but I don't. Ok. And it only costs peanuts if you don't bother. I pay 7.5c/MB for data and pay by the KB so I normally get a nav for about 1-2c for the data. But you do therefore have to have an active connection No you don't have to. You can use offline mode if you want. Using the phone as a straight GPS. ;-) (that you agree isn't actually 'free') It is in offline mode when you load the map using your wifi before you leave. See above. and that isn't all the time (over here anyway). It is if you use offline mode. See above. And is always completely up to date. See above (or not even functional). Doesn't apply with offline maps. google maps reminds you to update them for free when on wifi. Ok. I have Navmii on my SGS4 and I think that tells me when there are updated maps available. (I tried it earlier and it did just that). Google maps just tells you that you haven't updated it for a while, doesn't actually try to keep track of what changes have happened because they happen at a hell of a rate with users adding stuff and fixing errors. Ok. And when out walking for exercise its handy to just go wherever looks interesting at the time particularly where you haven't been before and then just ask it for the best route back to the car etc. Yup, routing back to a know point ('breadcrumb trail') is also a handy function. I prefer not to come back the same way I went out, prefer to come back on a different route so I move thru somewhere different instead. Yes, and that makes sense when you are happy to carry on your 'trip' and are 100% confident you can get back to the start / car a different way. Yeah, I am always 100% confident of that even without any gps or map or compass. Its just more efficient done with a gps and I only use the gps for that very rarely. Ok. However, if it's getting dark and you aren't sure, That never happens with me. I am always sure. The only thing I don't know is where it might be less convenient because the scrub is too thick to move thru easily because I haven't been that way before. So pretty similar to a gorge then. 'Impassable'. ;-) returning the way you came will always be safer Not for me. No, it will, for everyone. I'm not saying there aren't often alternatives but it's generally understood that 're-tracing your steps' is one of the safest way of doing it. (or at least more predictable). Yes, that's certainly true, but less interesting. Ah, a different matter. ;-) A straight line from your current point to the destination might be via a ravine. ;-) Easy to check using goggle earth etc and for where its dense scrub that is a nuisance to get thru and rivers that are a nuisance to get across. Again, assuming you have a data connection in the middle of that remote scrub land No that can be loaded into the phone before you leave. And then use it as a straight GPS. or a GPS preloaded with detailed maps of that area. You can do that into any smartphone. And some GPS's. snip Leaves farting around with timetables etc for dead. Again, 'only' if you have 'Data' on your phone. But only costs peanuts for that. Possibly. No possibly about it here. I spent the entire day doing that in Sydney and checking the timetables for the trip home etc and it cost me peanuts data wise. Yes, you, hence 'possibly'. Over here it's not that cheap, either to buy as an add-on or as part of a contract. It's only of any use at all, *if* you have a connection. Over here it is most commonly linked to having a contract and so will cost all the time if you are using it or not. That is an option here, but I choose to pay for the data I use. Ok. You can get add-ons to go with PAYG voice but it's all starting to get messy complicated with an always on, 100% free GPS. Its not messy or complicated. Just tell google maps to save the map on your phone before you start. Even the backpackers had free wifi and there are plenty of others too. But no use in the back of beyond unless you are using it as a straight GPS? This is sounding like those Linux fanatics that hate Windows but have to use some Windows apps and think that running Windows in a VM isn't running Windows. ;-) I am saying that for straight GPS functions, in most cases a straight GPS will be better than a smart phone being a GPS. I can answer my phone (directly, no other gadgets) *and* follow my GPS for example. ;-) My total phone bill per month is hardly ever more than $10 for the month and that includes all the calls to coordinate the garage sale openings and the gps data because I am too lazy to use offline. The phone calls normally cost 12c. Sounds like it's much cheaper over there than here then. I could have unlimited calls and texts and GBs of data for $50 a month but clearly that would be very poor value when I don't normally spend $10. I have pretty well unlimited everything but still prefer to use my GPS for GPS type things. snip Well, I rarely update the maps as unless you get a 'free updates for life' deal (that many come with these days) it's often cheaper to buy a new GPS with the latest maps on (and they often give you one years updates for free etc). I don't buy GPSs anymore, use the phone instead and get a lot better result with the phone than the GPS, particularly the satellite mode with google maps and street view and real time measured traffic. Ok. WiFi may not be available in the middle of a forest. ;-) Doesn't need to be, you load the map into the phone before you go there using your home wifi or the one where you are staying etc. And then use it as a straight GPS. ;-) Often our destination is a campsite in the back of beyond with no voice coverage, let alone data. Trivially fixable by downloading to the phone before you leave. And using the phones built-in GPS hardware (so it's *just* a GPS at that point). No its not. It has the satellite view and street view etc. OK, but only if you have loaded them prior to losing data connection? snip I have with the earliest devices. Not so much these days. Not at all these days in my experience. The phones even interpolate when you are in underground tunnels etc. As does my GPS. ;-) snip So they 'get by' by poncing off the efforts and expenditure of others. ;-( Only when the **** hits the fan. And that's just the time I'd like a phone and a GPS. ;-) Best of both worlds eh. ;-) Cheers, T i m |
Hiding in plain sight
On Thu, 4 Feb 2016 08:56:55 +1100, "Rod Speed"
wrote: "T i m" wrote in message .. . On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 11:44:35 +1100, "Rod Speed" wrote: snip Another advantage of a dedicated GPS is the fact that it *isn't* on my phone, leaving it (and it's battery) free for more important phone based tasks. ;-) That's better fixed by powering it in the car and having an external battery pack as well. The only real advantage with a separate GPS is that if one dies you can still use the other one and even that is better done with two phones which most have without doing anything unless you are travelling alone. Unless you try to operate your touch screen phone GPS I've never bothered with a non touch screen GPS and that is one of the reasons I changed to a touch screen phone, kept getting ****ed off going back to the non touch screen phone from the touch screen GPS. Ok. with gloves on whilst it's clamped to the handlebars of your motorbike in the pouring rain. ;-( I'm not actually stupid enough to ride a motorbike at all, in any weather wearing anything :-) Not the point though eh. ;-) Nope, I'll (mostly) stick with a GPS for routing and a phone for phoning thanks. ;-) You're always free to dinosaur away any way you like. But it isn't. My GPS is *far* superior to your phone_cum_GPS solution in ways that are highly important to me and unimportant to you. I'm not trying to convince you to get a stand-alone GPS because your phone_cum_GPS does all you need. It wouldn't last 5 seconds out in the rain on some motorbike handlebars and being operated by gloved fingers. FWIW, I have used my phone as a GPS in the top of my motorcycle tank bag and it was a complete PITA (and it wasn't dark or raining)!. ;-) Cheers, T i m |
Hiding in plain sight
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Hiding in plain sight
On Thu, 4 Feb 2016 10:44:01 +1100, "Rod Speed"
wrote: "Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message ... In article , Tim Streater wrote: If you don't have a smart phone, a tablet, or a surface and you own a car, and you can read a map, its amazing what you don't need. Well quite. I just got a new phone for £25. It has a 2Mpx camera, but only because I couldn't get one without. I'm on PAYG, but bought a phone with a decent camera. That get more use than the phone. ;-) That's the way I used to be before we started coordinating the garage/yard sale opening times by phone. And not just because it's a decent camera either, much more convenient to take a quick photo than to take notes most of the time. And when you can't read the microscopic lettering on a nanosim, very convenient to take a photo and zoom in and read it that way. Same with id plates on appliances, much easier to poke the phone where it can see it and take a photo than it is to lie on the floor where you can read it etc with stuff too big to lift up easily like a fridge etc. +1. Cheers, T i m |
Hiding in plain sight
"T i m" wrote in message ... On Wed, 03 Feb 2016 17:52:19 +0000, John Rumm wrote: On 03/02/2016 12:24, T i m wrote: On Wed, 03 Feb 2016 11:21:46 +0000, John Rumm wrote: Can't say I am that partisan... I have an old Tomtom (GO 700) that works well - nice clear voice, works as a handfree for a phone as well. Plus it has maps for all of western europe built in - so no dependence on a data connection. Ok. On the downside its not got any real time updates on traffic, like the current models. Not used a Garmin in the car (although have used their eTrex for walking etc). Yeah, I guess you really have to compare like with like (model / age / price spec wise) but from my experiences so far, more seem to complain that their TomTom sent them the wrong way than Garmin users did (only a tiny survey of course). [1] It might be there are far more Tomtom users out there, so you hear the horror stories more often? (I don't know what the market split is) Good point and I don't know either (but would be interested to find out). (There is a sign on the entrance to the road at the end of my road, which says "Attention satnav users (especially Garmin), this is a no through road". Which suggests no brand is immune to inappropriate routing) Tell me about it. We regularly get continental 'artics' down here who have been guided then get stuck down here by their (more often than not) TomTom Satnavs (I know because I ask). ;-) One wrote our old family car off then drove off (thanks). ;-( It's possible they may only have the more basic maps for countries outside their own, or simply haven't ever updated them. Maybe TomTom attracts the less technical user (their marketing / TV ads seem to support that) and so maybe their 'typical' users doesn't investigate the routing settings or somesuch? Could be... I'm pretty sure it was *only* Garmin in the beginning (for consumer price GPS's) Yes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_na...device#History Hard to claim that they were the only thing available for turn by turn navigation in cars and trucks etc tho. but that doesn't stop any 'new boys' overtaking if their marketing and pricing are good enough (being as they all work similarly these days). If you saw a GPS in a car, boat or plane is was probably a Garmin at the beginning. I've never seen one in that situation and I did try what the mobile homers I know had before I got one myself. None of them ever had a Garmin and almost all of them had something, normally a tomtom or a navman. I went for the tomtom myself basically because the navman still had discrete buttons and the tomtom was entirely touch screen and I could see that that was the way to go. Navman did eventually go that way too. Some else I talk to on usenet also loves his Garmins, also a pom, but an immigrant one to here in his case. He migrated using the £10 pom system back in the 60s, long before anyone had any GPSs. I think they were also the first to make the waterproof models (boats, motorcycling and hiking). Likely. I love my old Garmin GPS V as it has a fully programmable display. Say it can display 100 different fields (like altitude, dusk / dawn, ETA, current speed, max speed etc) and you can choose what combination you want on each display screen. As these units have become more common / cheaper they have also been simplified (from my POV) to be more 'user friendly' and therefore some of the things I might find useful (like current lat / long) hidden, if available at all. ;-( Indeed. You can get different classes of device aimed at different users though. Some really are intended just for on road navigation, while others are more cable as general purpose location (and elevation) measuring devices. Ok. I guess that's also why I generally / still refer to such things (especially the portable jobbies) as 'GPS units', rather than 'Sat Nav' as my early ones didn't have any autorouting type navigation, just a generic 'Go that way' pointer. ;-) [1] It used to amaze me how many people simply don't update anything ... from GPS maps, system firmware (inc PC BIOSs) or their PC OS's (when it's often the first thing I do when given some stuff to play with). Could be because the satnav makers charge for updates, I guess, although even pre 'Free Map updates for life (of that unit g), many of the Garmin units allowed you to update the map to the current map for free, if one had been released reasonably recently. They all have that now. But still plenty of them have utterly silly prices for their software only version for smartphones. Like $80 or more. It would have to offer a hell of a lot more over google.maps to be worth paying anything like that for it and they in fact offer a lot less, nothing like as good real time traffic and no street view at all and no satellite view at all either. and for many journeys and old map will "get you there" even if not taking advantage of newer and better routes. Oh indeed. Because I haven't updated the maps on my Nuvi for a good few years now I sometimes appear to be driving across a field (rather than the new by-pass I'm actually driving on) or that roundabout is now a crossroads etc. You getting many roundabouts being changed to crossroads ? With lights presumably. As you say, whilst it may be awkward if you are now in a one way system that your GPS doesn't know about (so you have overridden it's instructions of course) it's generally not long before you are back on course. ;-) I still think they are amazing bits of kit and I've had one for over ~12 years now. My first: https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/spor...-/prod121.html Waterproof (submersible, IPX7), ran on AA cells (alkaline or rechargeable and had battery monitor settings for each) so you could never be caught short with no power, had an external power jack and removable aerial with a std BNC connector. The screen and aerial could also be rotated though 90 Deg for hand held use. http://www.bobulous.org.uk/imho/gpsIIIpraise.html I think I paid a bit less than the £260 the guy paid in the review but I think I got it from the same place. One place I used it with interest was a scheduled flight to Nice. Interesting to see where you were over the ground, altitude and speed. ;-) And they have done a few over the years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Garmin_products |
Hiding in plain sight
"dennis@home" wrote in message web.com... On 03/02/2016 20:43, Rod Speed wrote: dennis@home wrote T i m wrote I'd agree for unpredictable congestion but argue that local knowledge would probably win over any GPS congestion displays. I've been taken on routes by the GPS I wouldn't typically take because I know all the little side options etc. My tomtom knows the traffic congestion around here better than I do. But not as well as google.maps does. Google can't track phones in the UK, its illegal. It isnt tracking phones. The system actually knows how long its taking to get down a road while the local knowledge only knows its usually a five minute delay. The tomtom will take you down the quickest route it can find and includes the back streets. So does google.maps and it has much better measured traffic info than tomtom does. |
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"T i m" wrote in message ... On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 20:32:15 +0000, dennis@home wrote: On 03/02/2016 18:30, T i m wrote: On Wed, 03 Feb 2016 17:52:19 +0000, John Rumm wrote: On 03/02/2016 12:24, T i m wrote: On Wed, 03 Feb 2016 11:21:46 +0000, John Rumm wrote: Can't say I am that partisan... I have an old Tomtom (GO 700) that works well - nice clear voice, works as a handfree for a phone as well. Plus it has maps for all of western europe built in - so no dependence on a data connection. Ok. On the downside its not got any real time updates on traffic, like the current models. Not used a Garmin in the car (although have used their eTrex for walking etc). Yeah, I guess you really have to compare like with like (model / age / price spec wise) but from my experiences so far, more seem to complain that their TomTom sent them the wrong way than Garmin users did (only a tiny survey of course). [1] It might be there are far more Tomtom users out there, so you hear the horror stories more often? (I don't know what the market split is) Good point and I don't know either (but would be interested to find out). (There is a sign on the entrance to the road at the end of my road, which says "Attention satnav users (especially Garmin), this is a no through road". Which suggests no brand is immune to inappropriate routing) Tell me about it. We regularly get continental 'artics' down here who have been guided then get stuck down here by their (more often than not) TomTom Satnavs (I know because I ask). ;-) Ask them if its a tomtom truck satnav. Is there such a thing? http://business.tomtom.com/en_us/pro...ro/7250-truck/ https://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/drive/truck/ These have all the restrictions programmed in. I'm not sure even a bicycle Satnav would be confused by a complete dead end! ;-) The ones in argos, etc. are car navs and are not suitable for 40 tonne trucks. Even my earliest Garmin had the option of different vehicles and when you select say 'Truck' it adjusted both the typical speeds but also any width restrictions etc. One wrote our old family car off then drove off (thanks). ;-( It's possible they may only have the more basic maps for countries outside their own, or simply haven't ever updated them. Or are cheapskates that don't use the right tool. See above re dead ends. ;-) |
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"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message ... On 03/02/16 20:15, Hilo Black wrote: "The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message ... that is designed to tell everyone else where you are. It does nothing of the sort on a phone. Actually, it does. Actually, it doesnt on the everyone else. |
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"T i m" wrote in message ... On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 21:35:23 +0000, dennis@home wrote: snip Even my earliest Garmin had the option of different vehicles and when you select say 'Truck' it adjusted both the typical speeds but also any width restrictions etc. I doubt if it did. I don't still have my actual first, the GPS III+ but I do still have the V so I'll check it out for you. It my have avoided single track roads but did it know about height restrictions, I didn't actually mention them. load limits, etc.? Or them, I just said width restrictions (and a typical speed profile). Check this out: https://www.manualowl.com/m/Garmin/G.../Manual/229180 p58. '... Some roads have vehicle based restrictions associated with them (e.g. no commercial truck traffic, no pedestrians or no bicycles) . By selecting vehicle type you can avoid being routed where you cannot legally go ... ' So, just a plain "Sorry Tim" will do dennis. ;-) One wrote our old family car off then drove off (thanks). ;-( It's possible they may only have the more basic maps for countries outside their own, or simply haven't ever updated them. Or are cheapskates that don't use the right tool. See above re dead ends. ;-) Go on tomtom and report it as an error. Not for me to do is it, Corse it is when its you that has to come out at 2am to avoid them demolishing any more private cars getting out. although I have a TomTom and think I've registered it so maybe I could? You don't need to be a registered tomtom owner to do that. |
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T i m wrote
Rod Speed wrote I used to do that regularly using Garmins Mapsource (on Windows, no Linux support) before my GPS's had postcode support. Postcodes don't work here. Ours aren't anything like as fine grained as yours are. All the garage sales have the same postcode even those in adjacent towns. I don't think you are unique with that either as that was why the early Garmin units didn't use postcodes (because in some countries it wasn't specific enough). Even then, some just used the first few digits. Ours only have 4 digits for the entire country. We do have a different system for big rural propertys, hundreds of acres or lots of square miles. RMB 5243 style, its obvious what RMB means. I don't lose my keys either 'Yet'. Taint gunna happen unless Alzheimer's gets me etc. The only time I even came close was just after I moved into the house I build on a bare block of land and moved into long before it was legally possible, just at very bare lockup stage. The 'bed' was a door on 4 lose concrete blocks with a mattress on top in the second bathroom that had nothing in it at all, just the very rough concrete floor with 5 6" earthenware pipe coming up thru the concrete slab where the floor drain and sink and shower etc would eventually be. Had my usual after lunch snooze and then couldn't find the keys which would normally be in my pocket. Turned out that they had fallen out of my pocket and into one of those 6" earthenware pipes and were 4' down there. Only took an hour or so to decide that that was where they must be. and almost never run out of petrol. Nor me. 'She' ran out of petrol in Scotland on her 750 but luckily I had a larger tank and even two up and towing a trailer I had some fuel left and we split what we had and both made it to a petrol station. This was pre our owning a GPS (and *way* before smartphones) and partly why we got one. Yeah, the only time I have ever run out was when I picked up a couple of very young alsatian puppies from Melbourne and drove them home in the VW beetle. I took the passenger's seat out and let them stagger around on newspaper where the seat would normally be. That trip can't be done without a fill of petrol enroute and I managed to run out only 70K from home because I was concentrating on the puppys making sure they didn't get under my feet and get squashed. What we call a squatter's wife picked me up in her volvo and drove me to the quite close petrol station and back to the car. Hardly ever manage to go out without my wallet either, just once in something like 60 years now. Me neither ... it generally gets transferred into whatever trousers I change into along with my belt, Leatherman and phone pouch. I just keep mine with they keys in a tray next to the seat I normally sit in during the day and put them in whatever I am wearing on the way out. Cant lock the main door without the keys and can't use the car without them either. Haven't ever walked out and forget to lock the door either. No, there are plenty of offline mappers and google maps can be used like that if you want to. Yes, so you are using it like a straight GPS (no mobile Data) at that point? I don't usually use the offline mode because the data costs me peanuts, not even 20c for the entire garage sale run. The petrol costs me much more than that. And I have my own facebook group that lists all the garage sales that I load from the online local newspaper and from the other local facebook buy sell swap groups that are where people list their garage sale when they don't want to pay the $35 for the ad in the paper. And the few odd ones that don't advertise at all and just have a sign out in front of it and maybe a few signs on poles at the street intersections get added when we find them during the run. Usually about 70 read my group to find the garage sales most weeks. So I have the mobile data for that and so don't bother to do google maps offline. Sure, but you couldn't use offline maps without the GPS in the phone right? Sure, but that's true of a dedicated GPS too. Important if you are out of range of data? No, the GPS in the phone works fine without data. Yes, it will do full routing in offline mode. Yes, as a straight GPS (so no real advantage over a straight GPS at that point). Yes there is when you cache the satellite view in the phone and the maps are always completely up to date. Unless you are just using it like a dumb paper map? You can use it like that but I don't. Ok. And IMO that's much better than a paper map because it shows you where you are on the map and you can zoom around much more conveniently than with a paper map. Easy to drop pins and make notes too. I do that quite a bit where its easy to get thru a barbed wire fence or where there is a locked gate that is easy to climb over instead of trying to get thru the barbed wire fence. And it only costs peanuts if you don't bother. I pay 7.5c/MB for data and pay by the KB so I normally get a nav for about 1-2c for the data. But you do therefore have to have an active connection No you don't have to. You can use offline mode if you want. Using the phone as a straight GPS. ;-) No, it has full turn by turn routing for walking and you can cache the satellite view and street view etc too. (that you agree isn't actually 'free') It is in offline mode when you load the map using your wifi before you leave. See above. See above. and that isn't all the time (over here anyway). It is if you use offline mode. See above. See above. And is always completely up to date. See above (or not even functional). Doesn't apply with offline maps. google maps reminds you to update them for free when on wifi. Ok. I have Navmii on my SGS4 and I think that tells me when there are updated maps available. (I tried it earlier and it did just that). But they don't get updated at anything like the rate that google maps does. I just updated it yesterday and just got an email saying that my update had been added. Did that the week before too. But errors I noticed during the garage sale run. Google maps just tells you that you haven't updated it for a while, doesn't actually try to keep track of what changes have happened because they happen at a hell of a rate with users adding stuff and fixing errors. Ok. Dunno how many others are updating google maps in my town. I did notice someone had moved the Anglican cathedral to one of the back streets in a tiny local village well out of town, to some slum of a place, presumably as a joke. And when out walking for exercise its handy to just go wherever looks interesting at the time particularly where you haven't been before and then just ask it for the best route back to the car etc. Yup, routing back to a know point ('breadcrumb trail') is also a handy function. I prefer not to come back the same way I went out, prefer to come back on a different route so I move thru somewhere different instead. Yes, and that makes sense when you are happy to carry on your 'trip' and are 100% confident you can get back to the start / car a different way. Yeah, I am always 100% confident of that even without any gps or map or compass. Its just more efficient done with a gps and I only use the gps for that very rarely. Ok. However, if it's getting dark and you aren't sure, That never happens with me. I am always sure. The only thing I don't know is where it might be less convenient because the scrub is too thick to move thru easily because I haven't been that way before. So pretty similar to a gorge then. 'Impassable'. ;-) Nar its not impassable at all, just rather slower going than if you avoid that. returning the way you came will always be safer Not for me. No, it will, for everyone. Not for me, just as safe going a different way. If it does turn out to be impassable, I can always backtrack but I have never had to do that. Even when I was a crazy teenager and hitched a lift into the mountains behind Canberra and walked down one track in quite deep snow and ended up going down a very steep drop in waist deep snow deliberately, it was fine albeit a bit of a mad thing to do if I had broken something. That was before GPS had even been invented and while I did take a map, I didn't actually refer to it at all just did it by instinct and a good sense of direction. I never bothered to take a compass and there were no mobile phones in those days either. I'm not saying there aren't often alternatives but it's generally understood that 're-tracing your steps' is one of the safest way of doing it. Its no safer at all if you know what you are doing. (or at least more predictable). Yes, that's certainly true, but less interesting. Ah, a different matter. ;-) A straight line from your current point to the destination might be via a ravine. ;-) Easy to check using goggle earth etc and for where its dense scrub that is a nuisance to get thru and rivers that are a nuisance to get across. Again, assuming you have a data connection in the middle of that remote scrub land No that can be loaded into the phone before you leave. And then use it as a straight GPS. Nope, because the satellite view is cached. or a GPS preloaded with detailed maps of that area. You can do that into any smartphone. And some GPS's. Not the satellite view. Leaves farting around with timetables etc for dead. Again, 'only' if you have 'Data' on your phone. But only costs peanuts for that. Possibly. No possibly about it here. I spent the entire day doing that in Sydney and checking the timetables for the trip home etc and it cost me peanuts data wise. Yes, you, hence 'possibly'. Over here it's not that cheap, It is actually. either to buy as an add-on or as part of a contract. There are more than just those alternatives. It's only of any use at all, *if* you have a connection. Sure, but you obviously do in the towns even there. Over here it is most commonly linked to having a contract and so will cost all the time if you are using it or not. That is an option here, but I choose to pay for the data I use. Ok. You can get add-ons to go with PAYG voice but it's all starting to get messy complicated with an always on, 100% free GPS. Its not messy or complicated. Just tell google maps to save the map on your phone before you start. Even the backpackers had free wifi and there are plenty of others too. But no use in the back of beyond unless you are using it as a straight GPS? Its not a straight GPS when you cache the satellite view. This is sounding like those Linux fanatics that hate Windows but have to use some Windows apps and think that running Windows in a VM isn't running Windows. ;-) Nope, nothing like it except with what you are doing. I am saying that for straight GPS functions, in most cases a straight GPS will be better than a smart phone being a GPS. You're wrong, because the straight GPS can't cache the satellite view etc. I can answer my phone (directly, no other gadgets) *and* follow my GPS for example. ;-) You can do that on any smartphone and I do that a lot during the garage sale run. It keeps giving you the turn by turn instructions while you are talking on the phone. My total phone bill per month is hardly ever more than $10 for the month and that includes all the calls to coordinate the garage sale openings and the gps data because I am too lazy to use offline. The phone calls normally cost 12c. Sounds like it's much cheaper over there than here then. No its not. I told someone else about it who is there too. I could have unlimited calls and texts and GBs of data for $50 a month but clearly that would be very poor value when I don't normally spend $10. I have pretty well unlimited everything but still prefer to use my GPS for GPS type things. Just another dinosaur. Well, I rarely update the maps as unless you get a 'free updates for life' deal (that many come with these days) it's often cheaper to buy a new GPS with the latest maps on (and they often give you one years updates for free etc). I don't buy GPSs anymore, use the phone instead and get a lot better result with the phone than the GPS, particularly the satellite mode with google maps and street view and real time measured traffic. And multiple free mappers too. The error I just reported to google is correct in apple maps. Plenty of examples of the reverse too, mainly because apple maps ignores reports of map errors here for some reason. Ok. WiFi may not be available in the middle of a forest. ;-) Doesn't need to be, you load the map into the phone before you go there using your home wifi or the one where you are staying etc. And then use it as a straight GPS. ;-) Nope. Often our destination is a campsite in the back of beyond with no voice coverage, let alone data. Trivially fixable by downloading to the phone before you leave. And using the phones built-in GPS hardware (so it's *just* a GPS at that point). No its not. It has the satellite view and street view etc. OK, but only if you have loaded them prior to losing data connection? Yep, but that is completely automatic if you want. I have with the earliest devices. Not so much these days. Not at all these days in my experience. The phones even interpolate when you are in underground tunnels etc. As does my GPS. ;-) Not as well as the best of the smartphones which use wifi and bluetooth and mobile bases to interpolate in the worst for GPS reception locations. So they 'get by' by poncing off the efforts and expenditure of others. ;-( Only when the **** hits the fan. And that's just the time I'd like a phone and a GPS. ;-) I'd much rather have the much more capable phone and a spare if I am that paranoid. Best of both worlds eh. ;-) Nope, dinosauring along, just like with your A-Zs and paper maps you never actually use anymore. |
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"T i m" wrote in message ... On Thu, 4 Feb 2016 08:56:55 +1100, "Rod Speed" wrote: "T i m" wrote in message . .. On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 11:44:35 +1100, "Rod Speed" wrote: snip Another advantage of a dedicated GPS is the fact that it *isn't* on my phone, leaving it (and it's battery) free for more important phone based tasks. ;-) That's better fixed by powering it in the car and having an external battery pack as well. The only real advantage with a separate GPS is that if one dies you can still use the other one and even that is better done with two phones which most have without doing anything unless you are travelling alone. Unless you try to operate your touch screen phone GPS I've never bothered with a non touch screen GPS and that is one of the reasons I changed to a touch screen phone, kept getting ****ed off going back to the non touch screen phone from the touch screen GPS. Ok. with gloves on whilst it's clamped to the handlebars of your motorbike in the pouring rain. ;-( I'm not actually stupid enough to ride a motorbike at all, in any weather wearing anything :-) Not the point though eh. ;-) Nope, I'll (mostly) stick with a GPS for routing and a phone for phoning thanks. ;-) You're always free to dinosaur away any way you like. But it isn't. My GPS is *far* superior to your phone_cum_GPS solution in ways that are highly important to me and unimportant to you. I'm not trying to convince you to get a stand-alone GPS because your phone_cum_GPS does all you need. It wouldn't last 5 seconds out in the rain on some motorbike handlebars and being operated by gloved fingers. That's why anyone with even half a clue has it in their pocket with a proper headset and voice commands that leaves that for dead. FWIW, I have used my phone as a GPS in the top of my motorcycle tank bag and it was a complete PITA (and it wasn't dark or raining)!. ;-) But isnt if you have even half a clue and have it in your pocket with a proper headset and voice commands. |
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In article , T i m
wrote: On Wed, 03 Feb 2016 22:49:26 +0000 (GMT), charles wrote: In article , DJC wrote: On 02/02/16 22:38, T i m wrote: Is it only me who would be happy with 'Clockwise' or 'Anticlockwise' on roads leading onto the likes of the M25? I may be very aware that I need to go clockwise but don't know if I want Heathrow or Luton, when neither are on the M25! ;-( Me too, I just don't know which junction number is which. I have driven London to Newbury often enough to know where M4 J13 is, but that's about it. The general problem is that if you don't have some idea both where you are and where the places mentioned on signposts are, relative to each other and where you are, then said signposts can be very unhelpful. Actually, Heathrow Terminal 5 has its own junction on the M25. (14a) Ah, ok, then that makes a bit more sense then when joining the M25 from the A3 (J10?) and trying to go clockwise. TomTom tends to tell you to go in the direction of the first named place on the roadsign. -- from KT24 in Surrey, England |
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On Thu, 4 Feb 2016 16:30:08 +1100, "Rod Speed"
wrote: snip Go on tomtom and report it as an error. Not for me to do is it, Corse it is when its you that has to come out at 2am to avoid them demolishing any more private cars getting out. Well, it has been a dead end now for probably longer than domestic GPS's have existed so I have no idea why they are ending up down here. The only reason I can think of (other than the lorry drivers not reading the GPS correctly) is their map detail is sufficiently low to not cover these sort of back roads accurately? although I have a TomTom and think I've registered it so maybe I could? You don't need to be a registered tomtom owner to do that. So anyone could submit anything to them? Cheers, T i m |
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In article , Chris French
wrote: T i m Wrote in message: On Wed, 03 Feb 2016 22:49:26 +0000 (GMT), charles wrote: In article , DJC wrote: On 02/02/16 22:38, T i m wrote: Is it only me who would be happy with 'Clockwise' or 'Anticlockwise' on roads leading onto the likes of the M25? I may be very aware that I need to go clockwise but don't know if I want Heathrow or Luton, when neither are on the M25! ;-( Me too, I just don't know which junction number is which. I have driven London to Newbury often enough to know where M4 J13 is, but that's about it. The general problem is that if you don't have some idea both where you are and where the places mentioned on signposts are, relative to each other and where you are, then said signposts can be very unhelpful. Actually, Heathrow Terminal 5 has its own junction on the M25. (14a) Ah, ok, then that makes a bit more sense then when joining the M25 from the A3 (J10?) and trying to go clockwise. But why 'Heathrow'? Why not 'Clockwise' as at least clock or anticlock are universal no matter where you join the M25 (or the Nth Circ or any other ring road) and from the inside or outside? Maybe they could signpost clearly the current junction number on the way in as one thing most people may know is the junction number they intend leaving the motorway at? If it's higher than the one you are entering on you want to go clockwise (as long as you know where the thing starts and stops I guess). ;-) Thus speaks someone who lives to the west of the M25 :-) That doesn't work so well if if you are joining on the east, nearer the start/end of the M25. If I join at junc 27 (m11) and I want to go to j3 (m20) then i don't want to go anticlockwise. Of course, you could always look at a map before you start out. -- from KT24 in Surrey, England |
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On Thu, 4 Feb 2016 16:10:14 +1100, "Rod Speed"
wrote: snip Ask them if its a tomtom truck satnav. Is there such a thing? http://business.tomtom.com/en_us/pro...ro/7250-truck/ https://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/drive/truck/ I'm pretty sure none of them had anything like that. They all looked like pretty small / std units. snip But like I said, a dead end is a dead end even to a car so ... Cheers, T i m |
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On 04/02/16 09:26, Chris French wrote:
T i m Wrote in message: On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 21:57:03 +0000, DJC wrote: On 02/02/16 22:38, T i m wrote: Is it only me who would be happy with 'Clockwise' or 'Anticlockwise' on roads leading onto the likes of the M25? I may be very aware that I need to go clockwise but don't know if I want Heathrow or Luton, when neither are on the M25! ;-( Me too, Oh good. ;-) I just don't know which junction number is which. Not me, but then I try to avoid motorways unless I just need to get somewhere quickly. I have driven London to Newbury often enough to know where M4 J13 is, but that's about it. Well it's hardly the sort of thing the most of us would bother to remember is it? I think most people would know what exit one would need on the motorway nearest them and possibly any they use regularly but that's probably it? I have learnt some of the junctions on the A14, so that when I see signs saying congestion j22-24 or whatever ( which is a common occurrence on the a14 through Cambridgeshire) I know if it goign to affect me or not. The general problem is that if you don't have some idea both where you are and where the places mentioned on signposts are, relative to each other and where you are, then said signposts can be very unhelpful. Indeed. That's why the GPS was such a godsend to me. It seems to me that many of the road signs you are given when entering something like the M25 are just the places the bloke making the signs knew were in that rough direction. ;-( Signs are always only going to have their limits for navigation by themselves, you can only put a few place names on them, that's why we have maps as well. I can't remember what the signs said when joining the M25 from the A3 and trying to go clockwise but it might have said 'Heathrow' and I think that's on the M3 (M4?), not on the M25? IIRC there is a junction for Heathrow from the M25 as well? Heathrow is on the A4 and/or M4 IIRC. I cant remember if they merge inside the M25 to become a single road. -- The biggest threat to humanity comes from socialism, which has utterly diverted our attention away from what really matters to our existential survival, to indulging in navel gazing and faux moral investigations into what the world ought to be, whilst we fail utterly to deal with what it actually is. |
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On 04/02/16 09:43, charles wrote:
In article , Chris French wrote: T i m Wrote in message: On Wed, 03 Feb 2016 22:49:26 +0000 (GMT), charles wrote: In article , DJC wrote: On 02/02/16 22:38, T i m wrote: Is it only me who would be happy with 'Clockwise' or 'Anticlockwise' on roads leading onto the likes of the M25? I may be very aware that I need to go clockwise but don't know if I want Heathrow or Luton, when neither are on the M25! ;-( Me too, I just don't know which junction number is which. I have driven London to Newbury often enough to know where M4 J13 is, but that's about it. The general problem is that if you don't have some idea both where you are and where the places mentioned on signposts are, relative to each other and where you are, then said signposts can be very unhelpful. Actually, Heathrow Terminal 5 has its own junction on the M25. (14a) Ah, ok, then that makes a bit more sense then when joining the M25 from the A3 (J10?) and trying to go clockwise. But why 'Heathrow'? Why not 'Clockwise' as at least clock or anticlock are universal no matter where you join the M25 (or the Nth Circ or any other ring road) and from the inside or outside? Maybe they could signpost clearly the current junction number on the way in as one thing most people may know is the junction number they intend leaving the motorway at? If it's higher than the one you are entering on you want to go clockwise (as long as you know where the thing starts and stops I guess). ;-) Thus speaks someone who lives to the west of the M25 :-) That doesn't work so well if if you are joining on the east, nearer the start/end of the M25. If I join at junc 27 (m11) and I want to go to j3 (m20) then i don't want to go anticlockwise. Of course, you could always look at a map before you start out. I see your sig says KT24. I lived in that postcode before it was a postcode.. -- The biggest threat to humanity comes from socialism, which has utterly diverted our attention away from what really matters to our existential survival, to indulging in navel gazing and faux moral investigations into what the world ought to be, whilst we fail utterly to deal with what it actually is. |
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In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote: On 04/02/16 09:26, Chris French wrote: T i m Wrote in message: On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 21:57:03 +0000, DJC wrote: On 02/02/16 22:38, T i m wrote: Is it only me who would be happy with 'Clockwise' or 'Anticlockwise' on roads leading onto the likes of the M25? I may be very aware that I need to go clockwise but don't know if I want Heathrow or Luton, when neither are on the M25! ;-( Me too, Oh good. ;-) I just don't know which junction number is which. Not me, but then I try to avoid motorways unless I just need to get somewhere quickly. I have driven London to Newbury often enough to know where M4 J13 is, but that's about it. Well it's hardly the sort of thing the most of us would bother to remember is it? I think most people would know what exit one would need on the motorway nearest them and possibly any they use regularly but that's probably it? I have learnt some of the junctions on the A14, so that when I see signs saying congestion j22-24 or whatever ( which is a common occurrence on the a14 through Cambridgeshire) I know if it goign to affect me or not. The general problem is that if you don't have some idea both where you are and where the places mentioned on signposts are, relative to each other and where you are, then said signposts can be very unhelpful. Indeed. That's why the GPS was such a godsend to me. It seems to me that many of the road signs you are given when entering something like the M25 are just the places the bloke making the signs knew were in that rough direction. ;-( Signs are always only going to have their limits for navigation by themselves, you can only put a few place names on them, that's why we have maps as well. I can't remember what the signs said when joining the M25 from the A3 and trying to go clockwise but it might have said 'Heathrow' and I think that's on the M3 (M4?), not on the M25? IIRC there is a junction for Heathrow from the M25 as well? Heathrow is on the A4 and/or M4 IIRC. Terminals 1, 2 and 3 are accessed through the tunnel that is is fed from both the M4 and A4. T4 is on the south side of the airport and accessed from J14 of the M25, T5 has its own junction (J14a) from the M25. I cant remember if they merge inside the M25 to become a single road. Not until you get to Chiswick. -- from KT24 in Surrey, England |
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In article , The Natural Philosopher
wrote: On 04/02/16 09:43, charles wrote: In article , Chris French wrote: T i m Wrote in message: On Wed, 03 Feb 2016 22:49:26 +0000 (GMT), charles wrote: In article , DJC wrote: On 02/02/16 22:38, T i m wrote: Is it only me who would be happy with 'Clockwise' or 'Anticlockwise' on roads leading onto the likes of the M25? I may be very aware that I need to go clockwise but don't know if I want Heathrow or Luton, when neither are on the M25! ;-( Me too, I just don't know which junction number is which. I have driven London to Newbury often enough to know where M4 J13 is, but that's about it. The general problem is that if you don't have some idea both where you are and where the places mentioned on signposts are, relative to each other and where you are, then said signposts can be very unhelpful. Actually, Heathrow Terminal 5 has its own junction on the M25. (14a) Ah, ok, then that makes a bit more sense then when joining the M25 from the A3 (J10?) and trying to go clockwise. But why 'Heathrow'? Why not 'Clockwise' as at least clock or anticlock are universal no matter where you join the M25 (or the Nth Circ or any other ring road) and from the inside or outside? Maybe they could signpost clearly the current junction number on the way in as one thing most people may know is the junction number they intend leaving the motorway at? If it's higher than the one you are entering on you want to go clockwise (as long as you know where the thing starts and stops I guess). ;-) Thus speaks someone who lives to the west of the M25 :-) That doesn't work so well if if you are joining on the east, nearer the start/end of the M25. If I join at junc 27 (m11) and I want to go to j3 (m20) then i don't want to go anticlockwise. Of course, you could always look at a map before you start out. I see your sig says KT24. I lived in that postcode before it was a postcode.. so did I. Been here since 1964. -- from KT24 in Surrey, England |
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T i m Wrote in message:
On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 21:57:03 +0000, DJC wrote: On 02/02/16 22:38, T i m wrote: Is it only me who would be happy with 'Clockwise' or 'Anticlockwise' on roads leading onto the likes of the M25? I may be very aware that I need to go clockwise but don't know if I want Heathrow or Luton, when neither are on the M25! ;-( Me too, Oh good. ;-) I just don't know which junction number is which. Not me, but then I try to avoid motorways unless I just need to get somewhere quickly. I have driven London to Newbury often enough to know where M4 J13 is, but that's about it. Well it's hardly the sort of thing the most of us would bother to remember is it? I think most people would know what exit one would need on the motorway nearest them and possibly any they use regularly but that's probably it? I have learnt some of the junctions on the A14, so that when I see signs saying congestion j22-24 or whatever ( which is a common occurrence on the a14 through Cambridgeshire) I know if it goign to affect me or not. The general problem is that if you don't have some idea both where you are and where the places mentioned on signposts are, relative to each other and where you are, then said signposts can be very unhelpful. Indeed. That's why the GPS was such a godsend to me. It seems to me that many of the road signs you are given when entering something like the M25 are just the places the bloke making the signs knew were in that rough direction. ;-( Signs are always only going to have their limits for navigation by themselves, you can only put a few place names on them, that's why we have maps as well. I can't remember what the signs said when joining the M25 from the A3 and trying to go clockwise but it might have said 'Heathrow' and I think that's on the M3 (M4?), not on the M25? IIRC there is a junction for Heathrow from the M25 as well? -- Chris French ----Android NewsGroup Reader---- http://usenet.sinaapp.com/ |
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T i m Wrote in message:
On Wed, 03 Feb 2016 22:49:26 +0000 (GMT), charles wrote: In article , DJC wrote: On 02/02/16 22:38, T i m wrote: Is it only me who would be happy with 'Clockwise' or 'Anticlockwise' on roads leading onto the likes of the M25? I may be very aware that I need to go clockwise but don't know if I want Heathrow or Luton, when neither are on the M25! ;-( Me too, I just don't know which junction number is which. I have driven London to Newbury often enough to know where M4 J13 is, but that's about it. The general problem is that if you don't have some idea both where you are and where the places mentioned on signposts are, relative to each other and where you are, then said signposts can be very unhelpful. Actually, Heathrow Terminal 5 has its own junction on the M25. (14a) Ah, ok, then that makes a bit more sense then when joining the M25 from the A3 (J10?) and trying to go clockwise. But why 'Heathrow'? Why not 'Clockwise' as at least clock or anticlock are universal no matter where you join the M25 (or the Nth Circ or any other ring road) and from the inside or outside? Maybe they could signpost clearly the current junction number on the way in as one thing most people may know is the junction number they intend leaving the motorway at? If it's higher than the one you are entering on you want to go clockwise (as long as you know where the thing starts and stops I guess). ;-) Thus speaks someone who lives to the west of the M25 :-) That doesn't work so well if if you are joining on the east, nearer the start/end of the M25. If I join at junc 27 (m11) and I want to go to j3 (m20) then i don't want to go anticlockwise. -- -- Chris French ----Android NewsGroup Reader---- http://usenet.sinaapp.com/ |
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On Thu, 4 Feb 2016 15:27:27 +1100, "Rod Speed"
wrote: snip I'm pretty sure it was *only* Garmin in the beginning (for consumer price GPS's) Yes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_na...device#History Cool. Hard to claim that they were the only thing available for turn by turn navigation in cars and trucks etc tho. Who did that then? but that doesn't stop any 'new boys' overtaking if their marketing and pricing are good enough (being as they all work similarly these days). If you saw a GPS in a car, boat or plane is was probably a Garmin at the beginning. I've never seen one in that situation I had, Dad being an ex Merchant Navy and therefore us spending a lot of time in and around boats. Mate (the private pilot) also suggests 'most' of the inbuilt plane GPS's are / were also Garmin. Could all just be coincidence of course. and I did try what the mobile homers I know had before I got one myself. None of them ever had a Garmin and almost all of them had something, normally a tomtom or a navman. I wonder how much of that was down to marketing? I've seen people go for something because the marketing suggested it was 'easy', even when the competitors offering were equally easy. I went for the tomtom myself basically because the navman still had discrete buttons and the tomtom was entirely touch screen and I could see that that was the way to go. Navman did eventually go that way too. With (protective) gloves on discrete buttons are still the best way to go. Touch screens can be ok when the buttons are big enough but aren't so good to use on the move as there is nothing to 'centre' the finger or keep it in place (so you end up swiping rather than pressing). I know this to be true from using the (touch screen) Nuvi on my bicycle / tandem. Some else I talk to on usenet also loves his Garmins, also a pom, but an immigrant one to here in his case. He migrated using the £10 pom system back in the 60s, long before anyone had any GPSs. Well, I think there are country by country differences that can make the need for owning a GPS more relevant. Like I live on top of one of the biggest city's in the world and because most of it is 'old', it has loads of small / complicated roads and back streets (and no old towns with the American 'grid system'). My GPS sometimes sounds like a rapper, trying to get all the turn instructions out quick enough! Compare that with somewhere like The States or Aus where I could imagine hearing 'In 2000 miles, turn right'. ;-) [1] I think they were also the first to make the waterproof models (boats, motorcycling and hiking). Likely. And again, it's ok for alternative manufacturers coming up with this stuff 'now', but the likes of Garmin were the only people out there for some time and often were the first to offer suitable and specialised products (like waterproof units for walking and glove friendly_waterproof units for motorcycling). It's like the Linux fanboys getting all excited about the Steam game platform being available on Linux, only 10 years behind Windows. ;-) snip I guess, although even pre 'Free Map updates for life (of that unit g), many of the Garmin units allowed you to update the map to the current map for free, if one had been released reasonably recently. They all have that now. Well, I've seen 'many', I'm not sure I'd go as far as all. ;-) But still plenty of them have utterly silly prices for their software only version for smartphones. Like $80 or more. Yeah. It would have to offer a hell of a lot more over google.maps to be worth paying anything like that for it and they in fact offer a lot less, So, say I was going on a motorcycle tour of the UK and wasn't going to have any data connection on the trip. Could I download all the maps required to the same level of detail as most GPS's before I set off? nothing like as good real time traffic Again, I'm not sure of the value of that (in the UK). I have it (free for life) on my Garmin Nuvi and it works but I'm not sure how often I see the suggestion of traffic and then do anything about it? Or how often you can do anything about it (like when something happens on a motorway and you are right behind it). Coming back from a 100 mile trip the other day it was indicating traffic (red line on our route) but gave the estimated delays as being no greater than 5 minutes. It really wasn't worth trying to avoid it as it would have probably taken longer. and no street view I've never used street view when out and about because I can see that with my eyes. ;-) at all and no satellite view at all either. I'm generally in a car, not a hot air balloon g so I'm not sure what advantage that would be either (to me)? and for many journeys and old map will "get you there" even if not taking advantage of newer and better routes. Oh indeed. Because I haven't updated the maps on my Nuvi for a good few years now I sometimes appear to be driving across a field (rather than the new by-pass I'm actually driving on) or that roundabout is now a crossroads etc. You getting many roundabouts being changed to crossroads ? Many, no. On any reasonably long journey, sometimes. I'm also seeing crossroads turned into extended roundabouts of course. With lights presumably. I think the inclusion of lights is a function of the peak traffic loads (and then if they are left on 24/7 or only used at peak periods). snip Cheers, T i m [1] The furthest ahead I've heard our GPS announce as about 75 miles. We (daughter pillion) broke down on the motorbike whilst on a motorcycling trip (clutch splines stripped) and had to be relayed the 175 miles home. We sat my Garmin portable GPS next to the Garmin GPS that was built into the AA truck and the driver gave the remote for his GPS to our daughter to see if she could setup out home as the destination. She had input the destination before he had started telling her how (he was laughing how they were sent on a course to learn how to use the GPS's g) and it was interesting to see the two devices mirroring each other exactly (speed, ETA etc). Once on the motorway both GPS's went quiet and then after some time, his closely followed by mine said 'Straight ahead for 75 miles' (or some such). ;-) He was a good driver and recovery guy, ex Army Royal Engineers. Cheers, T i m |
Hiding in plain sight
On Thu, 04 Feb 2016 08:23:21 +0000 (GMT), charles
wrote: In article , T i m wrote: On Wed, 03 Feb 2016 22:49:26 +0000 (GMT), charles wrote: In article , DJC wrote: On 02/02/16 22:38, T i m wrote: Is it only me who would be happy with 'Clockwise' or 'Anticlockwise' on roads leading onto the likes of the M25? I may be very aware that I need to go clockwise but don't know if I want Heathrow or Luton, when neither are on the M25! ;-( Me too, I just don't know which junction number is which. I have driven London to Newbury often enough to know where M4 J13 is, but that's about it. The general problem is that if you don't have some idea both where you are and where the places mentioned on signposts are, relative to each other and where you are, then said signposts can be very unhelpful. Actually, Heathrow Terminal 5 has its own junction on the M25. (14a) Ah, ok, then that makes a bit more sense then when joining the M25 from the A3 (J10?) and trying to go clockwise. TomTom tends to tell you to go in the direction of the first named place on the roadsign. That's not unreasonable then as at least it makes it easy to confirm you are going in the right direction. My Nuvi being older, doesn't announce the road you are going into, just telling you to 'In 100 yards turn left' or 'Keep right' etc. I think it does display the name of what you are turning onto at the top of the screen. As I mentioned elsewhere, it might be time for an upgrade. I'm not sure I'd like the latest offering though where it actually says 'Turn left before the church' or 'turn right after the gas station'? I understand distance and the chances are the roads won't change, whereas a petrol station could easily be flats a month later? ;-( I guess it would be ok with free updates for life. ;-) Cheers, T i m |
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On Thu, 04 Feb 2016 01:07:42 +0000, T i m wrote:
Southampton hasn't had a Hovercraft terminal for many a year now ( though it was so noisy people may still be walking around deaf). Perchance you went to Southsea? That was the badger (I think). Car park near Treasure Island overlooking the Solent. ;-) Cheers, T i m Notice any of the Forts out in the Solent? Had to do some work on one once and started late as were delayed by fog getting there, the owner had to nip back to the mainland mid afternoon after checking we didn't mind waiting a few hours into the evening to be picked up. It is the only the time someone has said as they left "I'll leave you holding the Fort" that the statement was actually accurate. G.Harman |
Hiding in plain sight
T i m Wrote in message:
On Thu, 4 Feb 2016 16:30:08 +1100, "Rod Speed" wrote: snip Go on tomtom and report it as an error. Not for me to do is it, Corse it is when its you that has to come out at 2am to avoid them demolishing any more private cars getting out. Well, it has been a dead end now for probably longer than domestic GPS's have existed so I have no idea why they are ending up down here. The only reason I can think of (other than the lorry drivers not reading the GPS correctly) is their map detail is sufficiently low to not cover these sort of back roads accurately? No, I doubt that. Most likely just an error in the mapping data that has never been corrected. There are to big companies Teleatlas (owned by TomTom) and Navteq ( owned by whatever the bit of Nokia that does mapping is now called) that produce the all data that is used in lots of the mapping and navigation products. Google used it as well, though how much it still uses that third party data now I don't know. These companies have various way to update the map data user reports, data collected from their satnav units, their own mapping cars etc.), but a less used road might only get changed when someone tells them. Apparently they can spot new roads sometimes using the data from the satnav units. I found an error in Google maps recently, it tried to navigate me down what is now a track but obviously was a road a one point. Presumably it's an error in the mapping data goign back years. And it has an error in it's data for cambridge where t tried to send me down what is a restricted access (buses, taxis, bikes) road. ( that one surprised me more). although I have a TomTom and think I've registered it so maybe I could? You don't need to be a registered tomtom owner to do that. So anyone could submit anything to them? Probably, it's to their benefit to get errors reported. The obviously check them out before changing the map data -- -- Chris French ----Android NewsGroup Reader---- http://usenet.sinaapp.com/ |
Hiding in plain sight
charles Wrote in message:
In article , Chris French wrote: T i m Wrote in message: On Wed, 03 Feb 2016 22:49:26 +0000 (GMT), charles wrote: In article , DJC wrote: On 02/02/16 22:38, T i m wrote: Is it only me who would be happy with 'Clockwise' or 'Anticlockwise' on roads leading onto the likes of the M25? I may be very aware that I need to go clockwise but don't know if I want Heathrow or Luton, when neither are on the M25! ;-( Me too, I just don't know which junction number is which. I have driven London to Newbury often enough to know where M4 J13 is, but that's about it. The general problem is that if you don't have some idea both where you are and where the places mentioned on signposts are, relative to each other and where you are, then said signposts can be very unhelpful. Actually, Heathrow Terminal 5 has its own junction on the M25. (14a) Ah, ok, then that makes a bit more sense then when joining the M25 from the A3 (J10?) and trying to go clockwise. But why 'Heathrow'? Why not 'Clockwise' as at least clock or anticlock are universal no matter where you join the M25 (or the Nth Circ or any other ring road) and from the inside or outside? Maybe they could signpost clearly the current junction number on the way in as one thing most people may know is the junction number they intend leaving the motorway at? If it's higher than the one you are entering on you want to go clockwise (as long as you know where the thing starts and stops I guess). ;-) Thus speaks someone who lives to the west of the M25 :-) That doesn't work so well if if you are joining on the east, nearer the start/end of the M25. If I join at junc 27 (m11) and I want to go to j3 (m20) then i don't want to go anticlockwise. Of course, you could always look at a map before you start out. Well yes, as I said somewhere, can be of limited usefulness by themselves for navigation -- -- Chris French ----Android NewsGroup Reader---- http://usenet.sinaapp.com/ |
Hiding in plain sight
T i m Wrote in message:
On Thu, 4 Feb 2016 15:27:27 +1100, "Rod Speed" wrote: snip It would have to offer a hell of a lot more over google.maps to be worth paying anything like that for it and they in fact offer a lot less, So, say I was going on a motorcycle tour of the UK and wasn't going to have any data connection on the trip. Could I download all the maps required to the same level of detail as most GPS's before I set off? You can download Google maps for use offline, it's at the same level of detail, AIUI it now contains basic routing and search data. It seems to contain the data for things like supermarkets, libraries, postcode etc. It doesn't do nicer things like tell you what is at that postcode etc. There is a limiting the area though I tried on my phone at it seems for example the largest area it would let me download was SE, east Anglia, across to Leicester, down to Southampton area. But really, for offline use, a specific app might be better. I use Here Maps ( produced by Nokia) which is free and works well enough. nothing like as good real time traffic Again, I'm not sure of the value of that (in the UK). I have it (free for life) on my Garmin Nuvi and it works but I'm not sure how often I see the suggestion of traffic and then do anything about it? Or how often you can do anything about it (like when something happens on a motorway and you are right behind it). Coming back from a 100 mile trip the other day it was indicating traffic (red line on our route) but gave the estimated delays as being no greater than 5 minutes. It really wasn't worth trying to avoid it as it would have probably taken longer. and no street view I've never used street view when out and about because I can see that with my eyes. ;-) at all and no satellite view at all either. I'm generally in a car, not a hot air balloon g so I'm not sure what advantage that would be either (to me)? I sometime find the traffic data useful, I have a avoided a few big snarl ups, and it can be useful if you have alternative routes and you want to check if one is particular ly bad. I don't drive long distance enough for it to be essential. Of course Google maps uses the data when it chooses the best routes as well. I have even used things like sat maps to find things like likely looking parking areas. It ones of those things where once it available you start to find uses for it. -- -- Chris French ----Android NewsGroup Reader---- http://usenet.sinaapp.com/ |
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On Thu, 4 Feb 2016 17:31:53 +1100, "Rod Speed"
wrote: snip I don't think you are unique with that either as that was why the early Garmin units didn't use postcodes (because in some countries it wasn't specific enough). Even then, some just used the first few digits. Ours only have 4 digits for the entire country. We do have a different system for big rural propertys, hundreds of acres or lots of square miles. RMB 5243 style, its obvious what RMB means. Should it? Melbourne something? Our postcodes generally pin it down to a block of houses. Ours for example covers 8 properties. So, '62, AB1 2BC, England' should get post here. I don't lose my keys either 'Yet'. Taint gunna happen unless Alzheimer's gets me etc. From reading on it sounds like you already have 'lost' them. Lost is only a state until something is found. ;-) The only time I even came close was just after I moved into the house I build on a bare block of land and moved into long before it was legally possible, just at very bare lockup stage. The 'bed' was a door on 4 lose concrete blocks with a mattress on top in the second bathroom that had nothing in it at all, just the very rough concrete floor with 5 6" earthenware pipe coming up thru the concrete slab where the floor drain and sink and shower etc would eventually be. Had my usual after lunch snooze and then couldn't find the keys which would normally be in my pocket. Turned out that they had fallen out of my pocket and into one of those 6" earthenware pipes and were 4' down there. Only took an hour or so to decide that that was where they must be. Lost and found (but lost none the less). ;-) snip What we call a squatter's wife I understand 'squatter' as we have them over here but I'm not sure if it means more than it reads? Hardly ever manage to go out without my wallet either, just once in something like 60 years now. Me neither ... it generally gets transferred into whatever trousers I change into along with my belt, Leatherman and phone pouch. I just keep mine with they keys in a tray next to the seat I normally sit in during the day and put them in whatever I am wearing on the way out. We do similar but there are 3 of us a several vehicles. Cant lock the main door without the keys Same here. and can't use the car without them either. Same here. Haven't ever walked out and forget to lock the door either. I think we (here) all have for one reason or another (like being interrupted by the postman on the way out) but often we go back and check because something subconsciously prompts us to. snip And I have my own facebook group that lists all the garage sales that I load from the online local newspaper and from the other local facebook buy sell swap groups that are where people list their garage sale when they don't want to pay the $35 for the ad in the paper. Good job. And the few odd ones that don't advertise at all and just have a sign out in front of it and maybe a few signs on poles at the street intersections get added when we find them during the run. Usually about 70 read my group to find the garage sales most weeks. Nice. So I have the mobile data for that and so don't bother to do google maps offline. Ok. Makes sense in your usage. Sure, but you couldn't use offline maps without the GPS in the phone right? Sure, but that's true of a dedicated GPS too. Quite. But my point was a phone is 'just' a GPS when there is no data. Important if you are out of range of data? No, the GPS in the phone works fine without data. Quite. Yes, it will do full routing in offline mode. Yes, as a straight GPS (so no real advantage over a straight GPS at that point). Yes there is when you cache the satellite view in the phone I can see how that is use to us for finding a house in a rural area but not much use to me for driving somewhere. and the maps are always completely up to date. No, the maps are regularly 'updated' but may not actually be 'up to date'. With a GPS with free map updates for life, as long as the person syncs regularly then that too will be as 'up to date'. Unless you are just using it like a dumb paper map? You can use it like that but I don't. Ok. And IMO that's much better than a paper map because it shows you where you are on the map and you can zoom around much more conveniently than with a paper map. True. Easy to drop pins and make notes too. Ok. I do that quite a bit where its easy to get thru a barbed wire fence or where there is a locked gate that is easy to climb over instead of trying to get thru the barbed wire fence. OK. ;-) And it only costs peanuts if you don't bother. I pay 7.5c/MB for data and pay by the KB so I normally get a nav for about 1-2c for the data. But you do therefore have to have an active connection No you don't have to. You can use offline mode if you want. Using the phone as a straight GPS. ;-) No, it has full turn by turn routing for walking As do most GPS's? and you can cache the satellite view and street view etc too. Not sure the value of that other for than your (not particularly 'typical') usage? snip Ok. I have Navmii on my SGS4 and I think that tells me when there are updated maps available. (I tried it earlier and it did just that). But they don't get updated at anything like the rate that google maps does. See above. Updated but not (necessarily) 'up to date'. I just updated it yesterday and just got an email saying that my update had been added. And had anything changed that you could see? Did that the week before too. But errors I noticed during the garage sale run. ? Dunno how many others are updating google maps in my town. I did notice someone had moved the Anglican cathedral to one of the back streets in a tiny local village well out of town, to some slum of a place, presumably as a joke. Great. snip That never happens with me. I am always sure. The only thing I don't know is where it might be less convenient because the scrub is too thick to move thru easily because I haven't been that way before. So pretty similar to a gorge then. 'Impassable'. ;-) Nar its not impassable at all, just rather slower going than if you avoid that. Yup, classic usage of the 'Breadcrumb trail'. ;-) returning the way you came will always be safer Not for me. No, it will, for everyone. Not for me, just as safe going a different way. Always, even in the dark and rain? If it does turn out to be impassable, Ahaha! ;-) I can always backtrack but I have never had to do that. Mate, the fact that you never had to do something doesn't negate it as something considered the right thing to do. ;-) Even when I was a crazy teenager and hitched a lift into the mountains behind Canberra and walked down one track in quite deep snow and ended up going down a very steep drop in waist deep snow deliberately, it was fine albeit a bit of a mad thing to do if I had broken something. Quite. Not something that anyone trying to get home 'safely' would be advised to do. That was before GPS had even been invented and while I did take a map, I didn't actually refer to it at all just did it by instinct and a good sense of direction. I never bothered to take a compass and there were no mobile phones in those days either. Hmm. I'm not saying there aren't often alternatives but it's generally understood that 're-tracing your steps' is one of the safest way of doing it. Its no safer at all if you know what you are doing. Nope. If you got from A to B safely via a particular path, getting back to A from B using the same path *will* be more predictable than taking any alternatives. snip No possibly about it here. I spent the entire day doing that in Sydney and checking the timetables for the trip home etc and it cost me peanuts data wise. Yes, you, hence 'possibly'. Over here it's not that cheap, It is actually. No, over here, not over there. ;-) either to buy as an add-on or as part of a contract. There are more than just those alternatives. I'm sure there are but none are as free as a straight GPS solution. It's only of any use at all, *if* you have a connection. Sure, but you obviously do in the towns even there. But we don't camp in towns, we camp in the country and there is often no mobile phone coverage, let alone data. See, you are using a scenario where your solution can work and works for you. My solution (straight GPS) would do most of what you want but yours wouldn't do any of what I want, unless you were using your phone as a straight GPS? snip 'Satellite view' stuff I can answer my phone (directly, no other gadgets) *and* follow my GPS for example. ;-) You can do that on any smartphone and I do that a lot during the garage sale run. It keeps giving you the turn by turn instructions while you are talking on the phone. Is your ear on the same side of your head as your ear? How can you 'see' what the map is showing at the same time? Answer (of course) is 'you can't', something else I wouldn't want to be without. snip No its not. It has the satellite view and street view etc. OK, but only if you have loaded them prior to losing data connection? Yep, but that is completely automatic if you want. I don't want. ;-) I have with the earliest devices. Not so much these days. Not at all these days in my experience. The phones even interpolate when you are in underground tunnels etc. As does my GPS. ;-) Not as well as the best of the smartphones which use wifi and bluetooth and mobile bases to interpolate in the worst for GPS reception locations. Yup, there are no detectable WiFi or bluetooth signals in any tunnels I know of. snip I'd much rather have the much more capable phone and a spare if I am that paranoid. I have the 'much more capable phone' but I'm not interested *at all* in the features a phone offers *you* as a phone-cum-GPS but *do* need the features my GPS offer me over my phone as a GPS. Best of both worlds eh. ;-) Nope, dinosauring along, just like with your A-Zs and paper maps you never actually use anymore. Interesting ... have you ever heard of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally%E2%80%93Anne_test You enjoy features on your phone_cum_GPS that are worthless to me. I need features in a GPS that aren't as easily available to me on the SmartPhone and all_you_can_eat contract I've already got and can use as you suggest. I just choose not to because it doesn't suit me and my needs. Are we back on the same page yet? ;-) Cheers, T i m |
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On Thu, 4 Feb 2016 17:35:21 +1100, "Rod Speed"
wrote: snip But it isn't. My GPS is *far* superior to your phone_cum_GPS solution in ways that are highly important to me and unimportant to you. I'm not trying to convince you to get a stand-alone GPS because your phone_cum_GPS does all you need. It wouldn't last 5 seconds out in the rain on some motorbike handlebars and being operated by gloved fingers. That's why anyone with even half a clue has it in their pocket with a proper headset and voice commands that leaves that for dead. Yeah, you haven't ever ridden a motorbike have you? FWIW, I have used my phone as a GPS in the top of my motorcycle tank bag and it was a complete PITA (and it wasn't dark or raining)!. ;-) But isnt if you have even half a clue and have it in your pocket with a proper headset and voice commands. See above. Here is another saying you might find interesting re audio v visual cues: What you hear you forget. What you see you remember. What you do you understand. So, *you* may be more than happy walking to a garage sale and talking on your phone and listening to the direction prompts at the same time. It's all very easy at 5mph. At 70 mph *I* (so not you remember) am much happier with an audio prompt (that can come though my bike intercom) but prefer the visual instruction re what I actually need to do. In most cases it's actually only a confirmation of what I already know, but nonetheless, it's still how I like it. Now, I am fully aware (and accept) what *you* prefer, how about having a go at considering what I might prefer and we can finish this eh. ;-) Cheers, T i m |
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On Thu, 4 Feb 2016 16:06:51 +1100, "Rod Speed"
wrote: "dennis@home" wrote in message aweb.com... On 03/02/2016 20:43, Rod Speed wrote: dennis@home wrote T i m wrote I'd agree for unpredictable congestion but argue that local knowledge would probably win over any GPS congestion displays. I've been taken on routes by the GPS I wouldn't typically take because I know all the little side options etc. My tomtom knows the traffic congestion around here better than I do. But not as well as google.maps does. Google can't track phones in the UK, its illegal. It isnt tracking phones. AFAYK. You *can* track phones (they do). You can't track a GPS *receiver*. Cheers, T i m |
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T i m wrote on 03/02/2016 :
Hmm, that's the thing, I can't imagine *not* being able to explain it to an alien (even). Right is just the label to that side / direction, just as is forward or up. How come even those who can't remember their left from right, don't generally have issues with the other dimensions? Left and right are more or less symmetrical, the others are not. I am one who has always struggled or at least taken a few seconds to work it out - left from right. I pick a pen up and if I think about it, I am lost. The same with knife and fork. I am though, mostly ambidextrous. I was born left handed, but at school I was one who was forced to right handedness, by tieing my left hand behind my back, so now I write right handed, but my hand writing is terrible. Someone who I was teaching to drive had a problem distinguishing left from right, so I put a large L and R on the back of his hands :') -- Regards, Harry (M1BYT) (L) http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk |
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On 04/02/2016 00:16, T i m wrote:
On Wed, 3 Feb 2016 21:35:23 +0000, dennis@home wrote: snip Even my earliest Garmin had the option of different vehicles and when you select say 'Truck' it adjusted both the typical speeds but also any width restrictions etc. I doubt if it did. I don't still have my actual first, the GPS III+ but I do still have the V so I'll check it out for you. It my have avoided single track roads but did it know about height restrictions, I didn't actually mention them. load limits, etc.? Or them, I just said width restrictions (and a typical speed profile). Check this out: https://www.manualowl.com/m/Garmin/G.../Manual/229180 p58. '... Some roads have vehicle based restrictions associated with them (e.g. no commercial truck traffic, no pedestrians or no bicycles) . By selecting vehicle type you can avoid being routed where you cannot legally go ... ' So, just a plain "Sorry Tim" will do dennis. ;-) Sorry tim. I have a gps V somewhere. I don't know if its the same as yours but I remember it didn't have enough memory to hold more than about 15% of the UK maps so you had to download the areas you wanted. It was very heavy on batteries too. |
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It happens that whisky-dave formulated :
I have the same problem with sheep but apparently sheep can recognise 50 faces least I have trouble recognising faces, at least until I have seen them a few times. I particularly struggle with female faces, due to makeup. Makeup can make them look so very different to my eyes. I once walked straight past a new girlfriend, because I had never seen her before wearing makeup and he hair done. -- Regards, Harry (M1BYT) (L) http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk |
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On Thursday, 4 February 2016 12:39:13 UTC, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
It happens that whisky-dave formulated : I have the same problem with sheep but apparently sheep can recognise 50 faces least I have trouble recognising faces, at least until I have seen them a few times. I particularly struggle with female faces, due to makeup. Makeup can make them look so very different to my eyes. I once walked straight past a new girlfriend, because I had never seen her before wearing makeup and he hair done. In those cases you need to have some pre-prepared lines to get you out of trouble. In the above case I might have said "Sorry I forgot I had such a beautiful girlfriend" and or be good a ducking flying objects. :-) -- Regards, Harry (M1BYT) (L) http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk |
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whisky-dave brought next idea :
In those cases you need to have some pre-prepared lines to get you out of trouble. In the above case I might have said "Sorry I forgot I had such a beautiful girlfriend" and or be good a ducking flying objects. :-) That would not have worked, she spoke only Italian and I only spoke English :o) -- Regards, Harry (M1BYT) (L) http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk |
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On 04/02/2016 10:27, T i m wrote:
8 nothing like as good real time traffic Again, I'm not sure of the value of that (in the UK). I have it (free for life) on my Garmin Nuvi and it works but I'm not sure how often I see the suggestion of traffic and then do anything about it? Or how often you can do anything about it (like when something happens on a motorway and you are right behind it). Coming back from a 100 mile trip the other day it was indicating traffic (red line on our route) but gave the estimated delays as being no greater than 5 minutes. It really wasn't worth trying to avoid it as it would have probably taken longer. Well yes, if the tomtom doesn't suggest an alternate route then there probably isn't one. Its constantly checking for quicker routes and will indicate if there is one. |
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