By Edwardo Mascasas
Where am I? Where am I going? Where have I been? These were some of the few questions involved in our day-to-day activities especially if you are involved in an activity where you are required to travel or go to secluded places.
Today with our advancing technology, navigation and positioning has never been this easy. If you feel lost then GPS technology can shine some light on your location. With the use of satellites and ground stations the ability to track aircrafts, cars, cell phones, boats, and even individuals has become a reality.
GPS technology comes in many forms for various needs and industries. With miniaturized GPS units and fewer integrated circuits this makes GPS technology economical and accessible almost to everyone. GPS technology is a navigational system that has changed the way we work and play .
A Global Positioning System or GPS is a satellite navigation system that works by continually transmitting high-frequency radio signals containing the time and location of the satellite in relation to earth. This information is obtained by a GPS receiver on the planets surface from three of more satellites and the GPS receiver has calculated the users position on the planet.
The receiver pinpoints, between 3 and 15 meters, where the device and thus the user is located. With multiple measurements, the receiver can also calculate speed, trip time, distance to destination, altitude, sunrise and sunset, and more. On average, eight satellites are always within sight of wherever you are on Earth. The more satellites your GPS receiver can contact, the more accurate your readings will be.
If you are thinking about getting a GPS for mobile use, make sure you have a laptop, probably the one you already use, a GPS receiver and software. Installation is the same for almost all GPS models.
To install GPS on a Windows XP-Based laptop, you just need to start your Windows XP-based laptop, install the software, and plug the GPS receiver into the laptops USB port. With Windows XP and Plug and Play hardware, you really cant go wrong. Most GPS systems come with extensive mapping software and the installation is as simple as inserting the CD into the appropriate drive.
After you configure a GPS, install software, and fully charge the laptops battery, its time to take off on an adventure, right? Well, almost. You need to configure the laptop for optimal settings before you go.
To configure battery alarms:
1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click Power Options.
2. On the Alarms tab, under Low battery alarm and Critical battery alarm, specify the settings you want by dragging the slider.
3. Click Alarm Action to select the type of alarm notification and power level you want.
To configure a power scheme:
1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click Power Options.
2. On the Power Schemes tab, in the Turn off monitor, Turn off hard disks, System standby and System hibernates lists, configure the time settings you want. (See the list below of how to configure them.)
3. Click Save As, and in the Save Scheme dialog box, type Travel.
4. Click OK twice.
Running your laptop on batteries, configure the settings as follows:
* Turn off monitor: After 2 minutes * Turn off hard disks: After 8 minutes * System standby: After 3 minutes * System Hibernates: After 10 minutes
So thats it, youre ready to go. With your powerful laptop-enabled GPS and your road experience will never be the same again.
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Learn how to eliminate speeding tickets. Feel free to reproduce this article as long as there is an active hyperlink accompanied with it.
Garmin n�vi 680; Garmin leads the other GPS manufacturers with the introduction of real-time location-based services that go way beyond traffic reports. You'll also find a bright 4.3-inch screen, SiRF Star III GPS receiver, a Bluetooth speakerphone interface, and an MP3 player.
Get a great new Meridian GPS
Qualcomm's Vision of the Wireless Future "When he finished, there were 20 brand-new, CDMA-based mobile handsets and devices arrayed on the table, the high-tech souvenirs of Belk's most recent trip to Hong Kong and Japan.... 'These are not PowerPoint slides,' Belk said. 'These are real devices that are already shipping in volume in Asia.' " at Business 2.0]
And there's the rub. When I do my presentations, that's all I have - pictures of prototypes or of devices not available in the U.S. Europe and Asia really are 18 months ahead of us in this area.
"Beale also discussed Qualcomm's gpsOne location technology.... It also opens the door for many new location-based services, such as traffic information and local weather forecasts. On Japan KDDI's network, there are already more than 20 location-based services available -- all of which are relatively inexpensive, costing less than $5 per month."
I'm looking forward to being able to travel and have information come to me automatically based on my location. For example, if I'm at a conference and I'm looking for a restaurant, I'd like my phone/PDA/whatever to know where I am and offer a list of nearby choices. Maybe it should tell me what movies or plays are on tonight and if there are still tickets available. You get the idea....
"Predictably, both Belk and Beale anticipate strong growth for the wireless industry as ever-more-compelling products and services become available and the industry settles on a single communication standard. How long will that take? Belk, whose career began in the personal computing business in 1983, likened the wireless industry today to the PC business of the 1980s. 'I wouldn't worry about the wireless industry yet, it's still relatively young,' he said. 'Just look how long it took the PC industry just to get to the point of standardized parallel cables.' "
Not to beat a dead horse, but the ebook industry is even younger than PCs, and PDAs have really only come into their own during the last few years. So don't count any of these technologies out just yet.
Global Positioning Systems offer everything from hole overviews to Internet access "Shortgrass Technologies' Internet-based sports information system and financial ticker enables golfers to check college football scores on a Saturday afternoon or the price of stocks any weekday. Global positioning systems can track golf cars no matter where they are on the course, thus discovering bottlenecks and slower play. Golfers can order beverages and food en route to the turn, so golf clubs can offer more than a quick hot dog - a higher priced chicken sandwich, for instance...."
I always thought that GPS would go mainstream in automobiles first, and in a way I suppose it has, but maybe golfers will lead the real charge. I could have used a portable, library-centered GPS system myself to navigate the Chicago Public Library's Harold Washington Library when I was there last fall!
Write Here, Write Now: And you thought you were overloaded with information now, just wait. Hewlett Packard is working on a technology to let folks print messages in mid-air based on their location incorporating GPS technology. I find this stuff fascinating, even if no one seems to have thought of a good use for it yet. The first sentence of the article is right, though: "The kids are going to love this." in New Scientist via RCPL's Liblog]
When the ALA summer conference was in San Francisco in 1997, the SF Museum of Modern Art had a fascinating exhibit called Icons: Magnets of Meaning. I spent hours browsing through it, but one of the pieces that has always stuck in my mind was called @: Marking the Electrosphere . It talked about the meaning of that one little symbol. How it can define, place, and root you in the world, but at the same time let you be found anywhere. Integrated, widespread use of GPS is going to take this to a whole new level.
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