Sooooo, kids... what's the best way to get from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of this map?
Posted on 02/13/2019 8:57:19 PM PST by Rebelbase
Full title: Mankind has lost the art of map reading, says the man who INVENTED GPS: Bradford Parkinson says world is 'too dependent' on smartphones that are vulnerable to failure
The inventor of GPS has lamented that people are unable to read maps because they are now 'too dependent' on using their smartphones or sat-nav devices.
Bradford Parkinson, the pioneer inventor of the navigation system relied upon by billions of people, said that he 'worries' about what impact its failure could have.
Professor Parkinson received the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering in London last night for his key role in developing the Global Positioning System or GPS, along with the rest of his team: Professor James Spilker, Jr, Hugo Fruehauf, and Richard Schwartz.
They originally began working on the system in the 1970s as a military project but were unaware of the revolutionary impact it would have on wider society.
GPS signal is made by a network of around 30 spacecraft in orbit that transmit positional information and precise timing to receivers around the globe.
It helps cars, trucks, planes, ships and trains to navigate as well as providing a timing reference for the financial industry.
Professor Parkinson said that many of the tasks it performs were not anticipated when it was created but that it is vulnerable to failure, the Times reports.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Sooooo, kids... what's the best way to get from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of this map?
I still remember map reading.
I have a couple of boxes with a bunch of topo maps. Every time I see them as I’m moving something to try to find something else I think I should just toss them to make more room. I just don’t have the heart to though. Although I’m 98% sure that I’ll never use them again.
Tell me about it. As an Uber driver, last October I gave a traveling salesman a ride from Lexington to Pikeville, KY, a distance of 138 miles each way. The mountains of eastern Kentucky are a dead zone for my phone, and the GPS on my phone didn’t work, so to find my way back, I drove on little country roads in the dark, navigating the old-fashioned way — with a paper map. Since then, several people I have told the story to have said they wouldn’t have made it back, if they had been forced to use a paper map.
I can still read maps, but do you have an up to date one for your area of operations? Do people even make up to date gas station maps?
That answers my second question.
I am a flight instructor. I love GPS as it makes life easier. I also have a real map. I like the GPS as it tells me were to go with precision. It also tells me a lot of other things that are not on the map. GPS is good!
I like my magnetic compass even more. When the GPS tells me where to go I do not have to punch a screen to know where to go next. I do refer to the GPS as needed. If the GPS went “tits up dead” I will arrive safely at my destination via a map and compass.
If flying IFR you are totally dependent on electronics.
I saw a news piece about how young kids resent having to learn stuff because if they need to know something, they can just look it up online, and that being able to manage interpersonal relations is more important than knowing basic science, math and history. It explains why a lot of them think socialism is cool, but can’t figure out how a toaster works.
I still have my slide rule and know how to use it. My Dad taught me how to read maps and charts when I was quite young and I would rather use a paper map than a GPS.
I still have a full set of Jeppesen aviation charts.
GPS is most times helpful, but more than a few times it’s told me to turn thru a block wall or fenced off area or end of cut de sac that has houses and no road that goes through to the rest of the same street on other side of houses.
I lived with my Thomas Guide when living in Los Angeles. Simple, easy to read and taught me all the side streets in the area.
Hmm, take the trail to the Paradise Creek headwaters. Head east, bring rope, drop into Cony lake and follow the river out?
Most gas stations don't sell maps anymore.
GPS screens are just too small. If you are zoomed out you get no detail other than the interstates and if you are zoomed in you get no perspective that is especially helpful if you need to take an indirect route GPS would never find. For me it was ten miles in opposite direction to the traffic jams to get to an interstate. The GPS would have had me travel 40 more miles on the back roads to get to the interstate about three hours later.
What fun is GPS is you end up with all of the second lieutenants pointing to north in the same direction?
Oh, I took I-64 and the Mountain Parkway going east. The thing is, construction shrank the end of the Parkway to two narrow lanes, and I didn’t want to go through that twice. Hence, on the return trip, it was the country roads until I reached Mt. Sterling, then I-64 the rest of the way.
Another thing I learned on the trip was that most folks in the 606 area code go to bed early — I saw few lights in the windows of the houses I passed.
*looks at current count of lost trucks tearing up stuff at my job, remembers age spread of most drivers being 20’s to 50’s, reads article*
No comment.
When I was in the Navy (1979-1983) I think most Quartermasters were also trained in Celestial Navigation, or using the night time stars and constellations to guide your vessel. I believe some have returned to this old method. It may be along with more modern methods. I was a Supply Petty Officer. No way was my math or sense of direction good enough to be a Quartermaster.
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