jondru

I read _somewhere_ (maybe the Garmin site? maybe gpsinformation.net?) that most GPSRs are accurate to ~ 0.5 mi/hr. FWTW. BTW, the Uncertainty Principle has *nothing* to do with bits of matter bigger than, say, a photon. vv J.O.

Oops...you're right. Mea culpa. I must have been thinking of this link off the USGS site: http://mcmcweb.er.usgs.gov/drg/free_drg.html vv J.O.

Well that bites! I can think of a variety of possibilities for you to explore for the TN state set: 1) There are links to various DRG sharing rings from the MacGPSy site. 2) You should be able to get them for free from the USGS site, but the problem there is the effort involved in getting an entire state's worth. I believe the USGS will sell you a bundle on CD, but I don't know the cost. 3) Have a look around www.mapmart.com. They have excellent stuff and their sales and support are very helpful. I see they have DRG state bundles, but they're expensive...TN is $265 (although that does include *all* the scales). I don't think you mentioned which scale you wanted...you ought to see if you can find a one-scale bundle there at Mapmart and if you don't see such a thing, shoot them some mail and ask if you can get some kind of volume discount on a whole state at one scale. If I think of anything else, I'll post it. Good luck! vv J.O.

Heh, good point! I wondered about that information on the drgmaps.com site...the term "state plane" normally refers to a datum, not a projection. You might also try contacting the drgmaps.com people to get some clarification just what projection their data is using. If they are normal DRGs, such as one would get from the USGS, then they're probably using Transverse Mercator (California being a notable exception). Here's another thing to try: if you can view any of the DRGs in any application (including Photoshop or GraphicConverter, since they're just image files), have a look at the map legend information, which should have been scanned along with the rest of the map. The projection and datum information is usually in the lower left corner...then you'll know for sure what setting to use on import. vv J.O.

Hmmm...during the DRG import, did you get the opportunity to specify the calibration parameters? If so, be sure you choose TN State Plane for the projection and NAD83 for the datum. That alone will cause huge location errors if it isn't right. After that, the import should be able to calibrate itself since the .tfw files were supplied to you (MacGPSPro uses them automatically). Are the .tfw files in the same folder as the map you're importing? If all that is right and it's still giving you trouble, don't hesitate to shoot some mail to the MacGPSPro developer...he should be very helpful. vv J.O.

Yes, MS owns Connectix now. They really like VPC and it is now the internal standard for emulation (useful for setting up massive testbeds). There are currently no indications of killing off VPC for Mac (it is extensively used in MS's Mac division, for example). The current version of VPC (6.1) is just a re-branded version that has all the MS product ID and other registration crap, but the code is identical. However, rumor has it that there is a new version under development at MS that is supposed to come out later this year. For this reason, I would not expect there to be a patch...they'll expect you to change versions. vv J.O.

I'm not following exactly what the problem is...are you able to Import the DRG Map into MacGPSPro? Once you do that, you should have a calibrated map file that you can do all the other stuff with (like overlay tracks onto or show your live position). You should also shoot some mail to the MacGPSPro author (see his web site)...he's always been very responsive and helpful with my questions. vv J.O.

Howdy, Greetings to all...I've been lurking for some time, and thought now was as good a time as any to chime in. The Keyspan adapter works perfectly for me in Jaguar. I use it all the time with MacGPSPro, which I would recommend over GPSy (another app I've used a lot). MacGPSPro has much better tools for calibrating maps and images. For a recent vacation, I was able to download beautiful 1m-resolution georeferenced aerial photos of a lava flow, import them into MacGPSPro, then upload the tracks of my hiking paths and sample locations. I'm also learning my way around VPC 6. I had the same issues getting the Keyspan adapter recognized...the solution turned out to be very simple: 1) Install the Keyspan software on the virtual machine. 2) Connect the adapter to the USB port, then in VPC itself, under the settings for the virtual machine, click on COM1 (or COM2). You get a window with a list of radio buttons, one of which says "mac serial port" with a pulldown. 3) In the pulldown will be "modem" and something like "USA19QW23P1.1." That's the Keyspan adapter. Choose that and you're good to go. Now does anyone know how to get Windows Update to work in VPC? vv J.O.