GPS - When line-of-sight isn't!

[ChrisGreaves]

This caught my eye:
"... GPS receivers, which typically sit under the windshield for line-of-sight communication with satellites that hover above the Earth ..."

12 questions to ask when buying a GPS unit

[John Gray]

And your point is? I suppose "hover" could have better expressed as "geostationary", but I can't see anything else obvious to object to.

[Bowlie]

And your point is? I suppose "hover" could have better expressed as "geostationary", but I can't see anything else obvious to object to.

I think the GPS satellites are in low earth orbit around 20,000 km., not in a geostationary one which is closer to 36,000 km. The certainly don't 'hover' over a point on the earth.

[John Gray]

And your point is? I suppose "hover" could have better expressed as "geostationary", but I can't see anything else obvious to object to.

I think the GPS satellites are in low earth orbit around 20,000 km., not in a geostationary one which is closer to 36,000 km. They certainly don't 'hover' over a point on the earth.

Yes, you're right - I was thinking of the TV broadcast satellites, which are (required to be) geostationary. The GPS ones are going round all the time!

[Bowlie]

This caught my eye:
"... GPS receivers, which typically sit under the windshield for line-of-sight communication with satellites that hover above the Earth ..."

12 questions to ask when buying a GPS unit

Maybe my Canadian English is out of date, but what are they trying to say here ....

3. What's the battery like? ... make sure the GPS unit offers a good, long battery.

I didn't know the length of a battery was important!

4. Is traffic supported? Many new GPS units offer free lifetime traffic in select North American cities.

Why would you want 'free lifetime traffic'?

5. How many points of interest (POI) are included with the GPS unit? Most have a couple a million, which should be ample.

I would have thought a couple of dozen would be ample. A couple of million is way too many for my 'bucket' list!

7. How do you update the maps or add new countries?

Updating the maps might be easy, but adding new countries would require a revolution or two. N'est pas?

8. ...? Is it easy to glance at (er, while at a red light, preferably)?

Is the ease with which you glance important here?

10. Do they have a tech support lie – for free?

Why are they asking? Surely they know that very few tech supporters charge for lies! Most do it for the laughs!

11. Can you add voices to change up the directions?

Mystery, what does 'change up the directions mean'?

12. Can the GPS do more than give directions?

AFAIK the GPS doesn't do much other than wizz around the world beeping a time signal. Throughout they refer to GPS when they should be referring to the receiver of the GPS signal.

[StuartR]

That reads like an entry for the lounge pedant competition, You are going to have to work much harder than that to beat our resident expert.

[John Gray]

<chortle!>

[Bowlie]

That reads like an entry for the lounge pedant competition, You are going to have to work much harder than that to beat our resident expert.

No, just too much time on my hands ...

[BobH]

Ah, Bowlie!

You must re-read Orwell - particulary 1984. "Thinkspeak" has become the norm for advertisers. It was, however, necessary because the education level and the mental acuity of the last couple of generations in the West have diminished to the point that they would not understand anything else.

Now if someone would invent a means of increasing their attention spans and building within them some sense of deference for achievement instead of their 'whatever, talk to the hand, my bad' attitude, perhaps us old fahrts (travelers) would be able to converse with them and understand their adverts.

[ChrisGreaves]

And your point is?

It was the quaint wording "under the windshield for line-of-sight", where the eye can't see, of course, the other electro-magnetic radiation is free to travel.

Aart from that i found the article vaguely interesting.

[ChrisGreaves]

Maybe my Canadian English is out of date, but what are they trying to say here ....

Bowlie your CE is quite OK.
I was fascinated by the phrase "line of sight" which 200 years ago used to mean a form of "inaccessible".

We use "line of sight" now for "direct line between two points for the vehicle of information", in this case, electromagnetic waves other than those in the visual spectrum.

Of course, tucking it "under the windshield" suggests hiding it away, i.e. out of sight as far as visual wavelengths go, so I thought . . .

Oh!
Never Mind! (grin)

[ChrisGreaves]

Now if someone would invent a means of increasing their attention spans ...

I gave up at this point.

[ChrisGreaves]

That reads like an entry for the lounge pedant competition, You are going to have to work much harder than that to beat our resident expert.

How about if he pointed out that they missed question 13:

"How much does this cost to buy?"

[PJ_in_FL]

Now if someone would invent a means of increasing their attention spans and building within them some sense of deference for achievement instead of their 'whatever, talk to the hand, my bad' attitude, perhaps us old fahrts (travelers) would be able to converse with them and understand their adverts.

Let them connect / communicate through an XBOX or PS3 interface and keep score?