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Interresting use of GPS


geospyder

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Just spotted this article - interesting use of a GPS.

 

Nov 17, 6:57 PM (ET)

 

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) - A small black object that was found attached to the bottom of a woman's Jeep and prompted an evacuation of a three-square block area on Friday wasn't a bomb after all. It was a tracking device planted by the woman's husband.

 

A temporary shelter was set up at the Queen of Peace Church to house the 45 people who had been evacuated, while authorities investigated for more than two hours.

 

After learning the woman and her husband were going through a divorce, detectives learned that the woman's husband had hired a private investigator. He admitted attaching the tracking device to the woman's Jeep, Maynard said.

 

Bomb technicians used a robot to confirm the box was indeed a Global Positioning System device, Alachua County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Stephen Maynard said.

 

The names of the woman and her husband were not released.

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Just spotted this article - interesting use of a GPS.

 

Nov 17, 6:57 PM (ET)

 

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) - A small black object that was found attached to the bottom of a woman's Jeep and prompted an evacuation of a three-square block area on Friday wasn't a bomb after all. It was a tracking device planted by the woman's husband.

 

A temporary shelter was set up at the Queen of Peace Church to house the 45 people who had been evacuated, while authorities investigated for more than two hours.

 

After learning the woman and her husband were going through a divorce, detectives learned that the woman's husband had hired a private investigator. He admitted attaching the tracking device to the woman's Jeep, Maynard said.

 

Bomb technicians used a robot to confirm the box was indeed a Global Positioning System device, Alachua County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Stephen Maynard said.

 

The names of the woman and her husband were not released.

 

I thought about doing this when my kids get older and start to drive. It would not only record where they went but how fast!

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I thought about doing this when my kids get older and start to drive. It would not only record where they went but how fast!

 

When I worked at Auto Zone we had a device you plugged into the OBD port on a car. It recorded data that you could retrieve by conecting it to your PC. Wouldn't do tracks like a GPS but would record speed, braking, etc. You could see if Junior had been racing or "parking"...

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Just spotted this article - interesting use of a GPS.

 

Nov 17, 6:57 PM (ET)

 

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) - A small black object that was found attached to the bottom of a woman's Jeep and prompted an evacuation of a three-square block area on Friday wasn't a bomb after all. It was a tracking device planted by the woman's husband.

 

A temporary shelter was set up at the Queen of Peace Church to house the 45 people who had been evacuated, while authorities investigated for more than two hours.

 

After learning the woman and her husband were going through a divorce, detectives learned that the woman's husband had hired a private investigator. He admitted attaching the tracking device to the woman's Jeep, Maynard said.

 

Bomb technicians used a robot to confirm the box was indeed a Global Positioning System device, Alachua County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Stephen Maynard said.

 

The names of the woman and her husband were not released.

 

I thought about doing this when my kids get older and start to drive. It would not only record where they went but how fast!

Sometimes it better not to know. :anicute:

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I just got my latest catalog from The Sharper Image. What do I see on page 16?? For the sum of $499.95 you can buy your very own hidden wireless GPS that is trackable through a website.

 

here is a link: http://www.sharperimage.com/us/en/catalog/...ails/sku__MT200

and

http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20060816/tr...h-locate-1-gps/

 

Hulk Hogan was using something like this when his daughter was dating some guy and he was following them on a website.

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I just got my latest catalog from The Sharper Image. What do I see on page 16?? For the sum of $499.95 you can buy your very own hidden wireless GPS that is trackable through a website.

 

here is a link: http://www.sharperimage.com/us/en/catalog/...ails/sku__MT200

and

http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20060816/tr...h-locate-1-gps/

 

I watch "It takes a theif" on the Discovery channel, and they're always installing those in people's higher end cars. Cool idea. If the theives don't find it and plant it on a 79 Yugo...

 

--MGB

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This weeks Canadian Tire Flyer has a unit that you put in the car and it tracks via GPS where the vehicle has gone and also gets speed and breaking info from the vehicle's computer. Only $299 Canadian. you get the info from it via memory stick and transfer to your PC.

 

If my daughter was driving I would definately get one. Cost effective solution. Can't find her while she's out, but you can find out where she's been.

 

J

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Just spotted this article - interesting use of a GPS.

 

 

I thought about doing this when my kids get older and start to drive. It would not only record where they went but how fast!

 

Don't keep your kids on a leash ....

 

Would you have liked a tracking device on your huffy and your own vehicle once you turned 16?! Your parents able to see everything you did...... Taking away childhood / teenagers coming of age is just bogus...

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Knowing what I did at that age makes it even more tempting. All joking asside, I agree with you, however there were a few boneheaded moves I made that my parents probably should have known about. Unfortunately my daughter will not enjoy the freedom of driving.

 

I agree that we have to let our kids live, but some recent events (2 kids killed and one in the hospital with severe head injuries) with ATVs in the last month in my area makes me think that we have to keep them close to us and not be so willing to let go all the time.

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I see nothing wrong whatsoever in tracking our children. When we were coming up the biggest concern of parents was junior not getting suzie pregnant and MAYBE smoking some weed. Now people kill you for being in the wrong part of town. I have EVERY intention of tracking my son when he starts driving. I have 11 years yet, but will tell him he is being tracked and he BETTER be using our car the whole night. A car switch will be grounds for punishment. Love yer kids, track the little heathens! :unsure:

Edited by fabasard
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Don't keep your kids on a leash ....

 

Would you have liked a tracking device on your huffy and your own vehicle once you turned 16?! Your parents able to see everything you did...... Taking away childhood / teenagers coming of age is just bogus...

 

My house, my car, my money for car insurance, gas, maintenance. My kids are going to be monitored. My daughter hates that her cell phone usage is limited. Right up to the point where I suggest she buy her own phone and find a way to pay for it every month. Then, somehow, it's not such a big deal.

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little known fact is that many cars are manufactured with recording device similar to a black box that insurance companies use to modify their actuarials using facts gathered from accidents these vehicles are involved in. this is done in cooperation with NTSB and many studies are done using these facts. they claim however that they dont use the info in regards to that accident and only when the cars are totalled and purchased back from you in a settlement.

 

also many rental car companies use a gps that is installed in their cars to locate them in case of theft or late returns....read the fine print in the contract....it will usually state that if they have to activate the GPS to locate their car that they will charge you an extra fee....usually 500.00.

 

also many fleet vehicles will have gps in their vehicles to monitor their drivers. while in costa rica last summer the news there stated that since many drivers pull over to siest in the afternoons or pay a visit to their lovers that by implementing gps tracking they could save money and eliminate this abuse of company assets.

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All our vehicles at work have GPS trackers in them. We of course tell the driver, but they have saved us several times. Knowing if the driver was driving safely before the accident, knowing if they really visited the customer's site as they were suppose to, was he 3 towns away from where he was suppose to be, did he stop by his house for a power nap when he was suppose to be working.

 

All in all it has lowered the number of accidents and enabled us to give our employees friendly reminders that driving 110km in an 80km zone is not usually a good move.

 

Joe

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also many fleet vehicles will have gps in their vehicles to monitor their drivers.

 

 

Yep. I have a close friend who works as a safety inspector, checking fire alarm and sprinkler systems; all the company trucks have GPS units installed which monitor location and speed. They are also somehow linked up to the motor so that Big Brother can tell whether or not the vehicle is running when standing still.

 

IOW, the company actively monitors not only how long the inspectors spend at a job site and how fast they drive - they get warnings if they exceed the speed limit by too much or for too long - but whether or not they're sitting in the vehicle AT a job site. Which means that even when they're on a lunch break, they can't sit in the truck and run the A.C. or heat.

 

Another friend is an ATM tech (repairs and refills money machines), and last I heard, his company is preparing to install similar equipment.

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We monitor our employees, but I don't see anything wrong with it. If it was someone with the vehicle running for AC while he has lunch, I don't have a problem, but then again that's company gas and and addes expense for the company. As for monitoring speed, etc, I again agree. I recently had an employee who was in an accident. The GPS showed that he was not travelling at an excessive speed, helped him. But for the employee who drives fast on a regular basis he will eventually create an accident whic can cause a companies insurance (Vehicle and WCB) and other related costs. The accident I mentioned above cost my company $5000 out of pocket, not including WCB costs which have not been assessed yet.

 

IMHO if you don't have anything to hide, then you won't have a problem with "Big Brother".

 

J

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NEXTEL has the feature for our cell phones. I can log onto nextel.com and see exactly where all the phones on my account are currently located. Only thing is, if the phone gets turned off, so does the tracking, but the kids know that they are in deep doo doo if they turn off their phones while away from home. I haven't had to use it to monitor their activity yet, as they still respect their parents and the rules of the house. And they know that if I want to I can log in and locate them.

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We monitor our employees, but I don't see anything wrong with it. If it was someone with the vehicle running for AC while he has lunch, I don't have a problem, but then again that's company gas and and addes expense for the company. As for monitoring speed, etc, I again agree. I recently had an employee who was in an accident. The GPS showed that he was not travelling at an excessive speed, helped him. But for the employee who drives fast on a regular basis he will eventually create an accident whic can cause a companies insurance (Vehicle and WCB) and other related costs. The accident I mentioned above cost my company $5000 out of pocket, not including WCB costs which have not been assessed yet.

 

IMHO if you don't have anything to hide, then you won't have a problem with "Big Brother".

 

J

 

I have a problem with "Big Brother" when it IS "Big Brother".

 

There's a difference between keeping an eye on whether logged time and location match reasonably with what the GPS shows, and/or whether an employee is a habitual excessive speeder - which is what it sounds like your company is doing - and considering ANY deviation shown by the computer, no matter how small, a matter for "disciplinary action".

IMO, it's a waste of supervisory time AND utter overkill to insist that there should be NO deviations from what the computer says an employee "should" be doing, and/or interrogating an employee as to why, for example, he ran the truck for 10 minutes at lunchtime on a 102-degree day, why he stopped for a few minutes on the way home, why he went up to 70 MPH for 3 minutes while driving on I-95 in the middle of the day, etc. - regardless of what the employee's work record is, or whether it's the first or 10th time you've seen the "blip".

 

Trying not to get heat stroke while eating lunch, grabbing a soda along the route home, and passing a semi on I-95 are not reasons why a manager should be scolding a hard-working employee.

 

Or, to put it another way, micromanaging and implying that you distrust all employees isn't a very good way to keep your employees working effectively. It's not surprising that the company in question is hemorrhaging inspectors since the units were installed.

 

Although they have least stopped calling the inspectors every single time they exceed the speed limit by 5 mph, no matter how short the duration of the "speeding" was.

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I have a problem with "Big Brother" when it IS "Big Brother".

 

There's a difference between keeping an eye on whether logged time and location match reasonably with what the GPS shows, and/or whether an employee is a habitual excessive speeder - which is what it sounds like your company is doing - and considering ANY deviation shown by the computer, no matter how small, a matter for "disciplinary action".

IMO, it's a waste of supervisory time AND utter overkill to insist that there should be NO deviations from what the computer says an employee "should" be doing, and/or interrogating an employee as to why, for example, he ran the truck for 10 minutes at lunchtime on a 102-degree day, why he stopped for a few minutes on the way home, why he went up to 70 MPH for 3 minutes while driving on I-95 in the middle of the day, etc. - regardless of what the employee's work record is, or whether it's the first or 10th time you've seen the "blip".

 

Trying not to get heat stroke while eating lunch, grabbing a soda along the route home, and passing a semi on I-95 are not reasons why a manager should be scolding a hard-working employee.

 

Or, to put it another way, micromanaging and implying that you distrust all employees isn't a very good way to keep your employees working effectively. It's not surprising that the company in question is hemorrhaging inspectors since the units were installed.

 

Although they have least stopped calling the inspectors every single time they exceed the speed limit by 5 mph, no matter how short the duration of the "speeding" was.

 

I agree. I have seen times where the gps was definately off. And I don't spend my day looking at what they did, but I can tell you when we were suppose to be somewhere to check something and after we did something goes wrong, it can save you loads.

 

The guy that installed our first unit, however said he installed for a company here in Canada that when checking where their vehicles were, couldn't figure out why one was in California, guess the employee forgot there was a GPS on board.

 

Joe

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I disagree with you. I have a real hard time with someone worrying about the fact that someone might be watching them when they claim not to be doing anything wrong. I agree that these technologies open things up to misuse. I do agree that there should be a stated purpose for the technology that is acceptable, however I have to disagree with one recent decision from the Privacy Commissioner here in Canada.

 

The case centered on a rail yard where a camera had been installed to help the employees see the yard and help direct the movement of the trains. When viewing the yard by camera a supervisor noticed 2 employees sneeking out of work early. The 2 employees were disciplined. The privacy commissioner said that they should not have been disciplined because the purpose of the camera was not to watch for the employees leaving early.

 

I disagree with this because I see that no different than the supervisor seeing them without the aid of a camera, based on this decision they could have been disciplined.

 

If you are not doing anything wrong and have nothing to hide then you shouldn't worry. I do however believe that any misuse should be dealt with harshly. I thing that would provide the balance needed.

 

Joe

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Don't keep your kids on a leash ....

 

Would you have liked a tracking device on your huffy and your own vehicle once you turned 16?! Your parents able to see everything you did...... Taking away childhood / teenagers coming of age is just bogus...

 

My house, my car, my money for car insurance, gas, maintenance. My kids are going to be monitored. My daughter hates that her cell phone usage is limited. Right up to the point where I suggest she buy her own phone and find a way to pay for it every month. Then, somehow, it's not such a big deal.

 

Agreed. It's just using existing technology. Hey if this were the 50's and kids were hanging out at the Soda shop past when the streetlights came on....that's one thing....But when your kids are heading out drinking, shooting, gambling (what not MY kids.....yes your kids) that's another....

 

Better to live in certainty than denial...There's trust, and then there's ignorance...

 

When my son grows up, he'll be lucky if he doesn't have a transmitter surgically implanted in his head...preferably with a camera sticking out the side of his head like a Borg Implant....disobediance is futile...

 

you can make the argument, "I raise my kids right..." and that may be true, but how about your kid's friend's parents???

 

--MGb.

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