That Pillar of Fire just got a little Brighter... and Smarter.

We want to thank everybody who participated in the poll – your feedback was much appreciated.

B-Daddy, who claimed that GPS use was not a malesmanship-sapping technology, nevertheless, lamented in-car GPS’ lack of “smarts” i.e., it could give directions from point A to point B but could not provide real-time feedback to the driver as to the driving conditions that driver would be facing. B-Daddy likened the type of aggregate feedback from multiple sources that would smarten-up GPS to Wikkipedia which relies on its disparate group of contributors for its articles.

Well, fear not, B-Daddy. We’re one step closer to smart GPS. Dash Navigation of Sunnyvale, CA began selling this week two-way Global Positioning Systems for cars in the hopes of creating a network of better informed drivers. From the article:

“A central computer will collect speed and location information from each car, then create and transmit back what the company hopes will be the most complete and up-to-the-minute picture of traffic ever created.” Story here.

Now, if they could just do something about that $599 dollar price tag we might be a little more interested.

Just a reminder....

...one more day to vote in our GPS/Man Law poll.

But more importantly…. Mongo posted this over the weekend so you may not have seen it the first time around. We thought it was an outstanding idea because it involves a little time and a little effort. Scratching out checks to the USO and PVA is goodness but whether we like it or not, we as citizens of this country are fully vested in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and a “deck plates” effort like this is our opportunity to contribute to this fight instead of behaving merely as consumers in the War on Terror as has been, at times, a recommended course of action.

"America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."
- Alexis de Tocqueville

"Google-ing It" is so old school

Story here in yesterday’s fish wrap documents the increasing use and dependence (?) of drivers upon GPS devices that are now standard features in many new cars today. Though we own a hand-held device, we only recall having to use it once to bail us out of trouble in off-road territory in the eastern Mojave. And speaking of trouble, that’s precisely what drivers who use GPS as a primary navigation device find themselves in as street names change, businesses close or relocate and the technology therein does not refresh real-time.

Besides all that, we’re pretty convinced that the use of the in-car GPS as primary navigation device is a clear violation of Man Law… those esteemed principals that provide the foundation for this planet’s malesmanship.

So, we’re throwing this out there: is dependence on one’s in-car GPS as your primary navigation (ahead of looking at a map, googling, or…. yes, asking for directions) a violation of Man Law?

(And we definitely want to hear from our female readers on this)