Satellite Navigation Systems

[TheEndIsNigh]

Happy Joe: Yes this will soon be happening (probably is) with boats and navigation systems. I know I fell foul of it on a recent holiday when I was a bit casual about my position opn a flottila.

One thing though in fairness the to the car it wasn't lost. It knew exactly where it was.

 

[Dave]

Bumping thread rather than making new one.

I just read this: BBC News - UK 'over-reliant' on GPS signals, engineers warn and I thought that there must be a science fiction story here somewhere.

Millions of people suddenly unable to find their way back home. Delivery trucks stranded in unfamiliar towns and cities. They have no paper maps any more. They don't know road numbers or street names. They couldn't use a compass even if they had one. They ask the locals, but they are just as confused.

 

[Ursa major]

Am I allowed to mention that my WiP1 has this very situation (though not with cars and not on roads)?

Losing maps are the least of our problems**. What will happen when there are no physical copies of anything and the power goes off for a long period of time? or documents are all somewhere in a data cloud and so can be edited to suit the politics of the day?






** - I'll always have plenty of paper maps. Before I could drive, I had road maps of places I couldn't visit (because they were behind the Iron Curtain). And I just love those DeLorme topographic state atlases. But that's obsession for you.

 

[Dave]

Shades of '1984' and 'Fahrenheit 451' there, Ursa, but I'm sure you've read those.

 

[Ursa major]

Just before they vanished.









(By the way, my WiP1 comment refers to a navigation system problem, not the deleting of books.)

 

[Esioul]

Are you talking about a laser scanner Lenny? Those are expensive!

GPS is useful, but it's also useful to know how to read a map.

 

[Lenny]

Not sure if it's a laser scanner (though it does throw out warnings when a laser speed thing goes off), but this is the model I was thinking of back in 2008:

Beltronics Euro 550 Speed Trap Devices UK - GPS Laser Speed Trap Detectors Jammer Speed Camera Detection Radar Detectors

Very expensive. Works an absolute treat, though.

 

[Interference]

...I wonder sometimes if we are going to spawn generations of people who don't know how to read normal maps ...

I wonder if, when they invented maps, some wondered if we'd spawn generations of people who don't know how to navigate by stars?