GPS is great.....if you're a good speller

[marmar]

via CBCNews:



Misspelt name on GPS sends 2 Swedes looking for Capri island on wrong end of Italy
Published: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 | 8:26 AM ET

Canadian Press THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


ROME - Officials say a Swedish couple looking for the pristine waters of the popular island of Capri ended some 400 miles (660 kilometres) away in the northern industrial town of Carpi after misspelling the destination on their car's GPS.

Angelo Giovannini, a spokesman for the Carpi town hall, near Modena, said Tuesday the couple drove into the main square last week and asked the local tourist office how to reach Capri's famed Blue Grotto sea cave.

Giovannini said "we thought they might mean a restaurant. Capri is an island, they did not even wonder why they didn't cross any bridge or take any boat."

He said the couple, who were not identified, arrived from Venice and later set off to their planned destination at the other end of the Italian peninsula.


http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/090728/K072808AU.html

[Are_grits_groceries]

1. That's why the Rethugs

and Tea Party people will never find their way. They can't spell.

[MadHound]

2. Sorry, but I find that GPS is for the intellectually lazy or terminally stupid

Instead of using a map, printed on paper that can be recycled, we spew more pollution and create more toxic waste by manufacturing these gee whiz gadgets for mass consumption. Not to mention that a GPS unit is just one more way for you to be tracked where ever you go.

More out of control consumerism.

[marmar]

3. I think you're taking it a wee bit too seriously......

[MadHound]

4. Oh well

Yes, it is a lighthearted, humorous piece, but the underlying story of mass consumerism is killing us.

Sorry to be a killjoy in your thread.

[question everything]

27. It is OK if the cities are layed out in a rational fashion

as former governor Jesse Ventura once suggested that the Twin Cities were designed by a drunken sailor.

And then you have rivers, and lakes, and freeways that cause you to be at a dead end with no way to continue. Or your destination is really on a service road parallel to the main one with the address you have in hand.

Plus with my eyes getting older, reading a map, especially at dusk, is getting a chore.

Last year we selected a cheap(er) car rental in Los Angeles. We had the van to take us there and then we marked it on the GPS. It would have been almost impossible for us to find it later when it was time to return the car.

We have had a GPS for almost two years and have had many occasions where we wondered how would we manage without it.

:hi:

[texastoast]

5. Yes, bless their hearts

I know so many people who can't read a map. And when giving directions to some people, you can't tell them north or south. Confuses the hell out of them. Never good to get too dependent on technology. Besides, skills are sexy. ;-)

[uncle ray]

7. i just bought my first GPS a month ago.

i'm not much of a blind consumer, but i love the GPS unit. low end ones like mine, a garmin 205, can be had for about $100. we take lots of road trips and do lots of exploring, there is no paper map that contain all the info the GPS does. we just spent the weekend on a destinationless road trip, that little screen sure made exploring strange towns easy. i can read a paper map just fine, but my navigator has a hard time keeping up with the turns, besides the gps has much greater detail than the best maps, the atlas and gazetteer that i would normally use is big and (more) dangerous for the driver to look at, you can safely glance at the blown up map on the screen.

my cell phone is many years old just so i don't have to have a GPS chip in it. the GPS navigation unit however is not registered to me in any way, and i don't believe the gps unit transmits any data, only receives it.

i "was" totally a map guy but now consider the $100 i spent on the gps to be the best money i've spent for traveling.

[Johonny]

25. I totally love it

No more 1000 road maps that I buy, lose, have to fold and unfold. Driving in a place you've never been by yourself and trying to read a map and drive at the same time is very unsafe. Let's not forget all the people saved by search and rescue because of the GPS system. I'm afraid GPS is one of the best things the space program has brought us. I'm amazed people are against it. Well I guess it's the DU so your going to find someone against anything here:)

[SemiCharmedQuark]

33. Yes, a GPS can also find rest areas, restaurants, hospitals etc. that are nearby

A map, unless its a city map, doesn't do that.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

9. Luddite

:) - just kidding.

I think the GPS is the best invention since the sun-visor. Besides getting you from point A to point B, it's a great way to estimate ETAs, lane management and at-a-glance pinpointing of your current location.

Heck, I like having it for night time driving to anticipate sharp curves in the road when I'm in the country. I remember once driving to Buffalo I got caught in a white-out where I couldn't pull off. Semis were whizzing past so I couldn't slow down too much or pull over. I felt like I was flying on instruments (I'm a pilot) so I was able to navigate to a safe location by following truck tail lights AND anticipating curves.

I prefer NOT to read a map while driving - especially in an in-town highway driving where pulling off is not an option.

I'm sure the resources used in the production of my GPS have been more than made up for in time saved, turns not missed and gasoline not wasted.

That said, I keep an atlas in the car for back up and general pre-trip planning.

[ecstatic]

10. It's not safe to drive and look at a map at the same time

Unless you have lots of time to kill studying a map before taking off, an electronic GPS is a pretty good system that is especially helpful when traveling out of town.

[TheWraith]

11. I find threadcrapping is for the terminally negative and moralistic.

Lecturing people about the error of their ways, how the old is better than the new no matter the obvious advantages, along with scorning and deriding anyone who makes different decisions than they themselves do. :eyes:

And by the way, you really have no idea how the technology works. You cannot be tracked by a GPS receiver.

[MadHound]

18. Fine, go merrily on your way with your GPS

However don't come around bitching about how the earth is being polluted with heavy metal toxins, or how this society is suffering the negative effects of mass consumerism because otherwise you'll be hypocritical, sitting there with your bright, shiny plastic computerized GPS unit. Thanks for contributing to the problem.

Oh, hate to burst your little bubble, but yes, you can be tracked with GPS units. Don't believe me, go look it up for yourself.

[cherokeeprogressive]

21. What kind of computer are you connected to the net with and how many new computers have you had

since it became fashionable to have one? What model is your cell phone and how old is it? How many new ones have you had since it became fashionable to have one? What was your last new purchase and how many of that item have you had before?

You're a liar. You don't hate to burst ANYONE'S bubble.

As for being tracked with my GPS unit, the unit can be tracked, but there is no connection to me. I paid for it with cash, as I do with most of my purchases.

[MadHound]

22. LOL!

Let's see here, trying to draw a comparison between the usefulness of a computer and that of a GPS unit. Well, you are correct, modern humans can do without both devices, however living without a computer would limit a person in many ways, communications, time savings, etc. etc. Living without a GPS unit limits you how? Oh, yeah, in no way whatsoever.

But hey, I'll play along. I've had two new computers in my life, one bought in '93, one bought in '03. Both are Macs(which explains the longevity), and I haven't thrown away either of them.

I don't have a cell phone, doubt that I ever will.

So yes, you're GPS can't be tracked to you(though your cell phone can), but it can be tracked to where you are. Combine the two and think for a minute:think:

[cherokeeprogressive]

24. Yeah well my cell phone is made from recycled milk cartons

and my GPS unit is made from modeling clay left over from a kindergarten class my daughter was in, along with three vacuum tubes I took from the short wave radio my grandfather had. It has saved countless lives and when the National Forest Service Search and Rescue Team needs to find someone, they usually come to my house and borrow it. My espadrilles are made of hemp and I save rainwater to shower with.

Please accept my apology, I didn't mean to be an ass this early in the morning. It usually takes me a little longer than that but I got some bad news this morning and can't find my smile. I put it next to my bed last night and now I don't know where it is.

The apology is sincere though.

[Silent3]

12. Compare the mass of a GPS unit to the mass of the car...

...you drive around while following a GPS. The difference in resource consumption is enormous. What about the resources consumed in taking a vacation drive to Capri or Carpi or anywhere else, whether you use a paper map or GPS? The fuel burned, the typically greater wastefulness of restaurant eating vs. eating at home, all of the waste that goes on at the kinds of events people travel to see like concerts and plays, the waste in tiny, individually-packages tiny bars of soap and bottles of shampoo in hotels, bedding that's washed daily when after use vs. bedding you'd probably wash once a week (if that) at home?

GPS is an incredibly useful, practical technology (at least if you're smarter than the idiots in the OP). GPS certainly saves lives at sea and in the air where navigational accuracy is important, but I wouldn't be surprised if it saves lives on the highway too, where it's a whole lot less distracting and error prone than trying to follow a paper map while driving at the same time.

I'm all for reducing waste too, but I think you've picked a strange example to target for out-of-control waste and consumerism.

[MadHound]

19. Why do you find it strange?

Oh, yeah, you probably own one and don't want the errors of your ways to be held up for everybody to see.

Yes, relative to a car, a GPS unit is pretty small. Yet considering that it is a totally needless technology(after all, the human race managed to navigate around the whole world without GPS units until quite recently), it's appalling that so much of this needless crap is used up and tossed, to forever become waste, toxic waste at that.

But hey, just keep buying needless crap and tossing it away, it is the American way after all. Just don't whine when we're up to our necks in toxic trash. Oh, wait, we already are, never mind.

[Silent3]

23. Ah, yes, the "errors of (my) ways".

I'm obviously trembling with fear and filled with shame that my ownership of a GPS unit might be discovered. My shame is doubled, because people might even find out that not only have I had a GPS unit in my car for the past couple of years, but my new cellphone has GPS too.

And obviously, I only defend GPS because I own GPS devices. Were I free from their evil touch, I'd obviously see how right you are. :eyes:

the human race managed to navigate around the whole world

Please define "managed"? People have "managed" without antibiotics, while relying on leeches instead. People have "managed" without knowing how to read. People have "managed" without ever venturing further than the villages they grew up in.

Practically everything we do is a trade-off. If GPS saves lives as I expect it does, how many saved lives would it have to take before GPS meets your lofty standards of what we need vs. what we don't need? How much gas saved from fewer wrong turns?

How much is simply enjoying a product worth? Absolutely nothing at all, so that if people "managed" to get along without a product before it existed, no one should ever want such a product?

[Odin2005]

30. Who died and put you in charge of deciding what's "useful" or not?

I'm sure luddites of times past said the same thing about other new technologies.

[SheilaT]

14. I'm inclined to agree with you.

My now-ex husband got a GPS several years ago and soon became utterly dependent upon it to navigate to places he knew perfectly well how to get to.

I can see where they might be useful finding some hard to locate spots, such as the soccer fields in north Boulder which have absolutely no signage, even at the entrance, and are remarkably difficult to find.

But a year ago I had one on a driving trip to the east coast and found it much more trouble than a paper map and mapquest.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

16. Maps are the tools of the nitwit.

Maps cut down trees and don't fold properly.

Intelligent people use dead reckoning and divining rods.

[tjwash]

20. You're not the one who starts those stupid threads about the flossers are you?

Hee...

[scheming daemons]

26. i find that people who dont realize that.....

GPS units are passive receptors...they dont transmit... And can't be used to "track" anyone (any more than a transistor radio can) are intellectually lazy and criminally stupid. Your cell phone can be used to track you.... Your garmin, magellan, or tomtom unit cannot.

Also..... The ink on your paper maps is worse for the environment than anthing in a gps unit.

[Odin2005]

28. Oh wow, a luddite. What are you doing using a computer?

:crazy:

[SemiCharmedQuark]

31. A GPS can be updated regularly for new roads, construction, etc. A map cannot.

Also, I drive alone. It is safer to rely on a GPS than fumble with a map.

[Goblinmonger]

34. now get off my god damn lawn. n/t

[conscious evolution]

6. It would be nice

if they updated the maps that mapquest and the GPS devices use.
Several times a day me and my nieghbors have to give lost motorists directions.The street we live on use to extend several more blocks south of where it ends now.The road was cut into two sections when the MARTA rail line was built.
It was over thirty years ago that the road was cut off.Thirty years.And they still have not updated the maps.

[rrneck]

8. A little common sense goes a long way.

Navigation toys are nice and everything, but at least look at a map once in a while and be aware of your surroundings.

It's ironic that Marco Polo set out from Venice and look how far he got without having to talk to a satellite.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

13. Marco Polo was lucky. How many never made it back? Huh?

:)

I get your point about the map. My boyfriend gave me shit about buying a brand new atlas before our recent trip to Norther Michigan. Well it sure came in handy avoiding the nightmare construction on the way home after July 4th. Our friends were an hour ahead so we got a heads-up on the back-ups. The atlas allowed us to plan a route that took us out of our way but avoided construction. Our GPS can only take you "shortest route" or "fastest time." The boyfriend has GPS on his phone that gives us traffic avoidance routes but his phone hasn't been reliable in town so I don't pay it much mind. I will say it did anticipate some of the back ups we DIDN'T miss.

[MineralMan]

15. Good story. Now, if it were me, I'd have explored Carpi

had a nice meal, then had a funny story to tell on myself for years.

I don't have a GPS, although I wouldn't mind having one. What I do have is Google Maps for most trips, and I print out not only the directions, but the detail maps and a zoomed out map of the destination so I know what's around it.

I also carry an up-to-date road atlas in my vehicle. There's one beside my chair in the living room, too. I like looking at maps.

[Goblinmonger]

35. No shit. And it's right by Modena

so they should have picked up some kick ass balsamic.

[pokerfan]

17. It's not a substitute for common sense

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/traveloutdoors/2003462778_webwrongroad05.html">Online directions may have helped lead family astray in Oregon

...with tragic consequences, I would add.

[KamaAina]

29. Then there was the guy who asked for a ticket to Auckland

in his Kiwi accent.

Yup, he ended up in Oakland.

[deaniac21]

32. There is no cure for stupid.