Re: Recommend a GPS ?

"nothermark" <nothermark@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:9o1sk39rev65mop3qe9tbdnlv0f2i3j6ju@xxxxxxxxxx
On Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:37:02 -0000, spinner <invalid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:29:14 -0800, CCBlack wrote:

I already have Streets and Trips on my laptop. That's the map program I
was referring to. I've been using it for years now. I realize I could
hook up a GPS unit to my laptop and use it with S+T , but that's not
what I want to do. I was referring to the little portable GPS units
that you stick on your dash such as a TomTom or a Garmin etc.

After using laptop GPS, I wouldn't have one of those dash mount units.
They're designed as a "trouble-free" device where you enter a starting and
ending address and the unit does everything else automatically. On the
highway it chooses the same route a laptop GPS would, but down in the
streets it can easily choose a route that would get a big truck into
trouble. If you can't trust the route it's selected, and can't efficiently
plot out your own route on the device, and the 3.5" screen is so tiny you
can't get a good at-a-glance view of the alternate streets around you when
something goes wrong, then you're missing most of the functionality of GPS.

(I hear that some of the more recent devices do let you plot routes.
However, you're still working on a small screen and the reviews I've
seen have said that entering the changes is a painfully clumsy process)

Rather than a dash mount unit, I'd invest instead in a GPS receiver and
a good laptop mount that puts your laptop in a convenient position and
supports the screen at a convenient angle. Or, if you'd like the monitor
in a specific place where a laptop won't fit, consider an automotive display
that can plug into the external VGA connector on your laptop. You can get
automotive displays that hang down from your overhead, strap to your
visor, mount on your dashboard, etc. Be sure to check the actual
resolution of the display - many automotive displays are designed only
for viewing movies rather than as computer displays. Even if they advertise
a VGA connector, when they say "high resolution", they're talking in
terms of television resolution rather than computers. Many that say they
have computer connectors and claim to be "ultra high resolution" are only
480x284 or somesuch.

It took a lot of searching to find something that looked promising. For
what it's worth, here's a 9", 800x480 display that I'm thinking about
getting:

<http://www.caraudiodeals.com/tview-t92vga-touchscreen-widescreen-tft-wvga-input-remote-p-1282.html>

Pricey little bugger ;-) Cute though. It looks like you can
connect it and boot your laptop, close the lid and run everything from
the external touch screen. At least everything you can do with a
mouse click.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Popeye8762/20070826Dashboard/photo#5103087646144480530

I'd pay a handsome fee for a larger version of what spinner listed.

This has been working for me pretty good with a wireless mouse.

There's a mouse pad on the computer top, in the left corner of the picture.

I'd like to get a remote fingerpad if I could find one.

And I was thinking of trying a track ball mouse.



An automotive display is preferred to a standard computer monitor because
they're designed to be seen in daylight or dimmed enough so they don't
blind you at night. Home-and-office computer displays - and this includes
most laptop screens - are hard to see in bright sunlight and can't be
dimmed to a safe level for night driving. The first laptop I used - a Dell
Latitude - had a rather narrow brightness range so I used a cardboard light
hood on bright days and a *** of dark neutral-gray plastic for night
driving.

BTW, I prefer Delorme to Microsoft Streets & Trips for the sole reason that
Delorme provides better lane detail at ramps and interchanges. Other than
that they're pretty much the same. Both of them do have occasional errors at
the street level, so it's a good idea to have them both so you can check one
against the other while planning your route.

By the way, GPS doesn't work worth crap when you're down between tall
buildings and sometimes drops out in inclement weather. I always have my
street directions written down just-in-case.




--
"I don't know much about the different guns but based on the tv I watch
there are lots of automatic weapons out there. In fact I'm sure they're
in the majority, certainly in the handgun department. I guess my
concern would be with the more easily concealed weapons capable of
firing sustained bursts at extreme cycling rates." -JOF

Popeye/ www.finalprotectivefire.com

.