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About Me
As a man thinks, so he is. Some people are never. Recent Posts
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CarSpace Alternate RouteTurn off the nav system, crumple up that MapQuest printout, and let's find out where the next random turn may take us! Apr 17, 2008 - Quest For Maps
But even I will use something like Google Maps to reconnoiter someplace I haven't been to before to familiarize myself with the area. BMW has come up with a way for me to take that information with me into the car without having a printout from my desktop on the passenger seat. The MyInfo service allows owners of the 2008 X6 equipped with BMW Assist and Bluetooth to send information from the Google Maps website directly to their BMW. You find your destination on your computer then click on a special "Send" link on the results page and send them to your car. And you can send up to 10 locations to your car in case you're going to more than one place. I'm not a big fan of navigation systems. I know people who no longer can drive their vehicle without consulting their "electronic friend", but for those times when you don't know where it is you're going, MyInfo sounds like what I would use a nav system should be... a way to increase my knowledge. Not an excuse to have no idea where I'm going on my own. Read the story at Motor Trend
Feb 10, 2008 - Lost In Space
In the 1997 rematch, Deep Blue defeated Kasparov. By an odd coincidence, Magellan claims to have created the first GPS-based navigation system in 1995, and increasing numbers of motorists have become completely dependent on them ever since. The war is over, the machines have won. The ability to think seems all but dead. A perfect example happened yesterday. My daughter plays varsity basketball here in State College and the opponent was coming in from Johnstown, PA which is about 90 miles away. The junior varsity game was scheduled to start at 5 pm and there had been a bit of snow in the morning so the trip was likely to take almost 2 hours. We expected that they'd arrive at about 4 pm to have time to settle in, get dressed, warm up, and all the other things that happen prior to a game. 4 o'clock passes. At 4:30 our coach calls their coach and finds out they didn't leave until 3:30 because they thought it was only a one hour trip. Like I said, thinking is dead.
Jul 15, 2007 - Dead Reckoning
My wife, on the other hand, (she's not listening is she??) sometimes forgets about those little visual hints that things like the mountains on your left or the sun shining in your eyes can give you to help you get where you are going. So yes, I'm a typical male, never asking for directions. But I really don't ever get lost. I try to know where I am and where I want to be, and understand what I need to do to get there. So I haven't succumbed to the temptation of getting a navigation system. Sure, they ARE kind of neat to play with for a while. But I've noticed... just like pocket calculators... people tend to become completely dependent on them very quickly. And it makes them turn off their brain! Just because something CAN do something for us doesn't mean we should let it! There was a recent posting in the Nissan Altima Hybrid Navigations System Questions discussion where someone remarked: "Knowing the name of the street to turn on is a habit from reading maps and is no longer necessary, just follow the arrows and voice prompts." Maybe it's just me, but I kinda like knowing where I am and where I'm going all on my own! Besides, there's enough to do behind the wheel without another display to distract me... but I'll save that for another day! Take the next left... just because!! Alternate Route's Haiku Corner Lost on the highway
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