Re: OT

On Thu, 20 Aug 2026 17:05:33 +0100
"J. P. Gilliver" <[email protected]> wrote:

> On 2026/8/20 16:41:47, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> > J. P. Gilliver <[email protected]> wrote:
> []
> >   For use in countries like your and mine, a dedicated device is fine.
> > 
> >   But for more sparsely populated areas it's nice and often essential to
> > have several different map sources (TomTom, HERE/NAVTEQ, OSM). A
> > dedicated device doesn't offer that flexibility. (N.B. The OSM
> > (OpenStreetMaps) maps often show roads where the vehicles of the
> > commercial map providers don't bother/dare to come.)
> 
> In this country they do get to soee pretty obscure places - I remember
> being at a remote farm in Northumberland and most surprised to see the
> Google car there! For many years I used to show people me and my friends
> on Google (Rivergreen mill), though you had to pick your angle. But yes,
> I take your point.
> 
> > 
> >   Case in point: In Queensland (Australia), we encountered a couple with
> > a car and caravan who were about to take a 500km detour, because the
> > road they were on was not on their dedicated device and they didn't dare
> > to continue. We could show them that the road would take them where they
> > wanted to go, saving them some 400km.
> 
> Probably apocryphal story - someone going to an address in, I think it
> was, Alice Springs. The SatNav said turn right (or left), then didn't
> say anything for the next 500 miles or whatever. ("And then I missed the
> turn ...")
> 

BT,Didn'tDT - "Take the (Hume?) Highway, after 500km take the third
exit at the roundabout".

> > 
> >   A long, long time ago, in Australia, I was about to buy my first
> > dedicated navigation device, but hesitated several times. Eventually I
> > bit the bullet and bought my very first 'smartphone', with a whopping
> > '4GB' - actually 1GB 'free', if that 'much' - (non-volatile) storage.
> > Added a MicroSD card for the maps and never looked back.
> > 
> >   But, as always, YMMV/YMWV.
> 
> I would imagine smartphones - plus the incorporation of SatNavs into new
> cars (are they a standard thing these days? I rarely buy a car - mine's
> twenty this half) - has more or less done for standalone devices, except
> for people wanting to drive old cars in areas where there's no cellular
> coverage, which can't be a very big market, so the price of standalones
> has probably rocketed.
> -- 
> J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()ALIS-Ch++(p)Ar++T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
> 
> If a cluttered desk is characteristic of a cluttered mind, what does an
> empty desk mean ?


-- 
Bah, and indeed Humbug.