Great-great-great-great Uncle, twice-removed?

[+Markwell]

My mom forwarded me the following story from Paul Harvey News and Commentary on Monday. My personal comments to follow.

 

quote:

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It is just 20 years since a Stanford University professor named Per Enge surprised us all with a device called a "GPS," a Global Positioning System. When a satellite would pass overhead, anybody with a GPS could know where on earth he is. That first GPS was the size of a microwave oven.

 

In the years since, with more satellites orbiting overhead, most every ship afloat is equipped with a GPS - many automobiles, many golfcarts. You have but to press a button to locate yourself precisely.

 

The other day [my wife] "Angel" and I saw demonstrated a Global Positioning System entirely contained inside a wristwatch. And next we're told a GPS may be reduced to the size of a microchip buried under your skin. [it will] Make it easier to find fugitives - make it easier for parents to find lost or kidnapped children. At least one airline right now has its pilots wearing GPS wristwatches. Just in case a crash destroys their airplane's locator, the pilot will wear a spare.

 

I remember Mr. Enge predicted that there might be a market for maybe 40,000 of his GPS devices. Today, they're selling 100,000 every month.

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Mr. Harvey evidently got the dates wrong - at least about the “20 years” thingy. In researching Per Enge's Faculty Position at Stanford and his Biography, he has only been at Stanford since 1993 (9 years). Before then he was at Worchester PolyTech working on Differential GPS, but started there in 1986.

 

That being said, it still might be reasoned that Per Enge was one of the great-great ancestors of Geocaching. Not by any means a direct ancestor, but without his work, we would not be here today dicussing boxes in the forest with exact coordinates.

 

Markwell

My Geocaching Page

[+GatoRx]

Then I raise my glass to Per Enge and say thanks.

 

I've been shopping around for a new cell phone, and have found a couple that have some GPS-type capabilities. From what I've heard, its so that you can have ads/offers from businesses and restaurants that you're passing by flashed on your phone. A sort of location-based advertising.

[+pizzachef]

Ads on your cell phone??? Don't they pollute our minds enough? Now they're going to put ads on our phones? And I bet you have to pay more to get the special gps phone...sheesh.

 

And I do have to admit, I think the whole microchip thing under the skin thing...scares me a bit. I'd like to think that I could hide from the government in a cave if I so wished. Doesn't the bible say something about everyone getting a number....anti-christ...second coming...

No no..I don't really go in for the end of the world thing. We've all had social security numbers for years and years now. But I don't think I'd be very comfortable with a gps buried in my brain. I like my magellan just like it is

-pizzachef

[+VentureForth]

quote:

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Originally posted by pizzachef:

...I don't think I'd be very comfortable with a gps buried in my brain.

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Wow. Tap a GPS into the brain. Then you'd always "KNOW" your exact position, and best of all, it can run on Snickers bars!

 

Of course, it'd stink to get that 'lost' feeling everytime you went under an overpass or into a building...

 

Go! And don't be afraid to get a little wet!

[+Rebel]

"At least one airline right now has its pilots wearing GPS wristwatches. Just in case a crash destroys their airplane's locator, the pilot will wear a spare."

 

Uh, doesn't he usually sit in the front of the plane? The part that usually reaches the ground first?

[Zuckerruebensirup]

quote:

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Originally posted by Da Rebel:

Uh, doesn't he usually sit in the front of the plane? The part that usually reaches the ground first?

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I guess he had time to hit the ejection button.