On Feb 23, 2:49*pm, DaveS wrote:
Damn if I understand why these things are such an attraction.
Especially the ones in cars. What a distraction, and mistakes these
things make wipe out any advantage they might have. *What I *find most
amazing is how they seem to reveal who can and who cannot read a map
and do basic orienteering. I can see some advantage at sea and maybe
in calling in air support, artillery, nite ops etc but otherwise ? I
see folks using them just for simple stuff like where is north. I just
don't get it.

A curse of being a capable person is that it's sometimes hard to see
the POV of the incapable. For a lot of people, these things are a
godsend. People who couldn't read a map if they had one. People who
couldn't find north with a compass, or even have a concept of what
north represents. Yeah, they're out there. The people who, if
driving south, have to turn the map around to figure out they need to
turn right to go west.

That said, I do see the utility. For the couple times I actually used
one to go someplace unfamiliar, it saw it as a map I didn't have to
stop the car to unfold and look at.

I'll also go as far as to say I don't think it's less of a crutch than
looking up an address on Google Maps & printing out the map. If you
do that, you're not relying on your own skills, but those of a
database. Except that this database and map are GPS-based and can
travel with you. Same thing, just better technology.

I'll certainly agree with the downsides, though. I see too many
people programming (or playing with) these things while driving. In
that sense, they're dangerous distractions; but just a casual glance
at the screen or a brief audio prompt isn't much of an issue for me.
In fact, I can see where they'd increase safety in the way they offer
advance notice of an upcoming course change or waypoint instead of a
driver having to dart across three lanes because they didn't realize
their exit was coming up. It's like most things, safe enough if used
properly.

Yin and yang for me; but I'm geeky enough to like the gadget aspect
and too poor to buy one just for the entertainment value.

Joe F.