Aug 23 2010
How true, again from our favorite geek comic strip, XKCD.
GPS Navigation Humor
Original here:
Rob.
Apr 20 2010
Obviously I am pretty dependent on GPS for just about everything when it comes to getting around [also for money...].
I have 3 GPS Navigation devices with me when I drive my car (factory installed, Garmin, & my iPhone) so I never print directions any more.
So, on the way out to Long Beach a couple weeks ago, my family and I took our 3 month old car with Ford’s/Microsoft’s “Sync” system (with GPS Navigation). No directions, just our factory installed GPS navigation unit.
Just outside of town it crashed on us. I figured out how to do a factory reset and get it back up & running.
Here’s the point: AFTER RESETTING IT, I FORGOT TO TELL IT “FASTEST” & NOT “SHORTEST” when optimizing our route. DOH!
We took the 10 out to LA area, but then it took me through some really sketchy, slow-moving areas.
On the way home, I thought about it, & realized I needed to change my GPS setting to FASTEST from SHORTEST.
I was curious how much longer it took me time-wise to get there than to get back, so I ran a 3D history report & saw very quickly that it was twice as long (60 vs. 30 minutes):
Run a week long history for our trip to/from Long Beach
Slow, direct route vs. Fast, indirect route
All I had to do is look at the 2 points where the route deviates then converges again, and compare times and distances:
Where I took a GPS dictated "dumb turn"
The times/mileages are:
Going there: 17:47 & 4571.6 miles to 18:53 & 4602.5 miles
Coming back: 10:26 4618.8 miles & 10:58 & 4656.3 miles
Doing the quick math, it took 31 miles & 66 minutes there the “short” way, & 37.5 miles & 32 minutes (half as long) the “long way.”
So to save 6.5 miles, I wasted 34 minutes of my life, praying we didn’t get car-jacked. At least if we did, I would know where the car went…
Anyway, I thought of this the other day & was curious just how much extra time it took us because of that one GPS setting on my (Factory Installed — not GPS Insight…) navigation device.
Because I track that vehicle, it took me about a minute to figure it out using GPS Insight.
Oddly enough, while I was writing this, my new Microsoft Windows 7 box crashed Google Earth as well. It knew I was badmouthing Microsoft. Sooner or later, all things Microsoft eventually crash.
I’m really glad we don’t run our systems on Microsoft products.
I just checked and our two “primary” servers which our customers rely upon (with lots of auxiliary and backup servers, of course) have been up for two years to two years & 3 months:
GPS Insight servers run for years without incident
I’m glad most of our competitors run Microsoft though…
Rob.
