My journey into the 21st century

[OldRightHander]

I don't like change. I never really have. I like to figure out how things are and get comfortable and I resist vehemently when people want to go and change things. That doesn't apply to every area in my life, but that is true of me for the most part.

It all started here. I was very comfortable viewing baseball through Marty colored glasses and I didn't need to be confused by any dissenting opinions. Then I start hanging around here and learning new things and what do you know, I don't know where I've left my Marty colored glasses. No great loss there. The frames were bent and things looked kind of blurry through them anyway.

Over the years I've always prided myself on my ability to find my way around the country with nothing more than an atlas and a local map for the city I was heading into, and I did pretty well doing that. But I started hanging around a web site for expedited truckers and more and more people kept talking about GPS units. I don't need something to tell me how to get around. I know how to read a map. People who can't read maps are idiots who shouldn't be behind the wheel of a vehicle.

Well, they wore me down. I now own a GPS unit. I haven't given up on the maps as well, because I think it's important to be able to find your way with them, but I've become hooked on the other features like finding local restaurants, grocery stores, and historical landmarks. I still use my atlas to route myself from city to city and then I just enter the route into the GPS, and I still think people who can't get around without one are idiots, but at least now I'm not so dead set against them. It will probably pay for itself pretty soon with the money I've saved not dialing 411.

And then there's music. I'm now in that "what are those young people listening to?" stage and that attitude had carried over not only to what they're listening to, but how they're listening to it. The whole mp3 thing just scares the daylights out of me. It's not that I don't like different formats for storing music, but I fear the end of the album. It seems to me that people are just grabbing individual songs all the time and that eventually artists are going to stop producing albums. I like albums. It's all I've known. I listen to them beginning to end, because that's what the artist created and that's how it was meant to be heard. Then recently I was at a friend's house and he showed me his ipod. I was expecting to see all these individual songs on there, maybe sorted by artist, but he showed me that he had actual albums stored on there and he could pull up an album and play it straight through, then select another one. That was a revelation to me. I guess I had never really thought it through, or even bothered to research it, but I now own an ipod.

But don't go thinking I've given up all of my curmudgeonly ways. My ipod only has complete albums stored on it. I just can't bring myself to download separate songs. Heck, I can't even bring myself to just download things. I found myself buying a CD the other day and then loading it onto the ipod. The CDs now stay with the stereo at home, which still has a turntable by the way, while the ipod goes on the road with me. I have my entire CD collection on there and I think I might work on converting some of my LPs, but only in their entirety.

Now texting...nah. I can't bring myself that far, but at least I'm for the most part living in the current century. That's a start, isn't it?

[Degenerate39]

Welcome to the darkside

[Highlifeman21]

I hear ya about GPS units.

I bought my fiancee one last year for her birthday (essentially to shut her up about wanting one), and I've found that while I feel that I know my way around very well, sometimes I don't always know the suggested fastest route.

So, that's why I like them. They know the fastest/quickest way from point A to point B.

Aside from that, they are useless, and people become dependent on them. My fiancee is a prime example. Her GPS is such a crutch for her it's amusing. I'm convinced she couldn't get from Unionville to Farmington without it.

Ok, I'm kidding about using it to get from Unionville to Farmington for her, but it's not far from the truth!

[BRM]

I really like GPS units but I honestly don't have a need for one. I very rarely go anywhere that I'm not already familiar with.

[Red Heeler]

I hear ya about GPS units.

I bought my fiancee one last year for her birthday (essentially to shut her up about wanting one), and I've found that while I feel that I know my way around very well, sometimes I don't always know the suggested fastest route.

So, that's why I like them. They know the fastest/quickest way from point A to point B.

Around here, a GPS will occasionally take you down a goat path unfit for any vehicle that cannot compete in the Baja 1000.

[OldRightHander]

So, that's why I like them. They know the fastest/quickest way from point A to point B.

Not always. Test it out sometime on routes you know well. I live in Forest Park, right off West Kemper close to Hamilton Avenue. I was coming back from Louisville last night and I was just curious so I put in my home address when I was coming across the bridge from Kentucky. It told me the fastest route was to take 74 and then Colerain up to 275 and then over to Hamilton Ave. That might be the shortest route as far as mileage goes, but any sensible person knows you don't make good time going up Colerain from 74 to 275. It's just as quick to stay on the highway. It's more miles but you don't have to deal with the traffic lights either. That's my major beef. The darn thing always just picks the shortest distance when I want to stay on the interstate as much as possible. That's why I always read the route ahead of time and make necessary changes if needed.

[Unassisted]

My GPS was indispensable when I moved here, a city I'd visited for all of 5 days prior to the move. I still depend on it mightily when I visit places I've never been. When I went to Pittsburgh this year, I used it to walk from my hotel to the ballpark. When I got to the ballpark, I stuck it in my pocket. At the end of the game, I dug it out for the return trip and found the battery was dead! Thanks to wrong turns and bad guesses, it took me 3x as long to fumble around in the dark and find my way back to the hotel. Next time I'll carry a map, too.

The device I resisted for years was satellite radio. I couldn't accept the idea of paying for radio. Now that I have it, I couldn't bear to give it up.

[RichRed]

I don't have GPS but I can definitely see the benefit of having it. Texting, on the other hand, is something I have absolutely no use for.

[durl]

I'm fighting the urge to get a GPS for my Treo. I don't really "need" it because I don't do a lot of travelling, but I'd still like to have one.

I recently surrendered and got a texting plan. Now I have to send more than 30 messages a month to justify the additional cost.

[Highlifeman21]

Not always. Test it out sometime on routes you know well. I live in Forest Park, right off West Kemper close to Hamilton Avenue. I was coming back from Louisville last night and I was just curious so I put in my home address when I was coming across the bridge from Kentucky. It told me the fastest route was to take 74 and then Colerain up to 275 and then over to Hamilton Ave. That might be the shortest route as far as mileage goes, but any sensible person knows you don't make good time going up Colerain from 74 to 275. It's just as quick to stay on the highway. It's more miles but you don't have to deal with the traffic lights either. That's my major beef. The darn thing always just picks the shortest distance when I want to stay on the interstate as much as possible. That's why I always read the route ahead of time and make necessary changes if needed.

Does your GPS have an option to switch between "Shortest Distance" and "Fastest Route"?

My fiancee has hers set on "Fastest Route". It has the option for "Shortest Distance", but you're absolutely correct that the shortest distance isn't always the quickest/fastest. I've found that it's more often than not it's definitely slower.

Best example I can give is when we go to her brother's place in Melrose, MA. If you set it on "fastest route", it takes you MA Pike to 95N to 93S to their exit. If you set it on "shortest distance", it takes you MA Pike to 95N to MA 2 East, to 93N, which is a much shorter distance than the fastest route, but the fastest route is at least 15 mins quicker.

[princeton]

the other day, I drove to a soccer game using directions provided by club, then drove home using GPS.

the first drive was quiet and boring; the second one was exciting. I saw loose women, and a car on fire. It educated my children

is there a "no redlight district" setting on that GPS?

[OldRightHander]

Does your GPS have an option to switch between "Shortest Distance" and "Fastest Route"?

My fiancee has hers set on "Fastest Route". It has the option for "Shortest Distance", but you're absolutely correct that the shortest distance isn't always the quickest/fastest. I've found that it's more often than not it's definitely slower.

Best example I can give is when we go to her brother's place in Melrose, MA. If you set it on "fastest route", it takes you MA Pike to 95N to 93S to their exit. If you set it on "shortest distance", it takes you MA Pike to 95N to MA 2 East, to 93N, which is a much shorter distance than the fastest route, but the fastest route is at least 15 mins quicker.

It is set on fastest route, but I wonder if it gets confused if a road like Colerain Ave is also a US Route with a number. Maybe it thinks a road with a route number is a wide open road.

[*BaseClogger*]

the other day, I drove to a soccer game using directions provided by club, then drove home using GPS.

the first drive was quiet and boring; the second one was exciting. I saw loose women, and a car on fire. It educated my children

is there a "no redlight district" setting on that GPS?

The same thing happened to me when I was driving through Chicago...

[RedsFan75]

Hey glad to see I'm not the only one with FULL albums on my IPOD.

[timmario66]

Hey glad to see I'm not the only one with FULL albums on my IPOD.

I have plenty of albums on my Ipod. I downloaded my whole CD collection and update my Ipod now by reserving CDs at the library. I'm such a cheapskate.