Gadgets

Once upon a time there was talk of calculators being bad for maths.  It should all be done by consulting fingers and toes and studying arcane formula.

What if you didn’t have a calculator, what if the batteries ran out mid sum.  You mind would have atrophied during the use of the adding contraption and perhaps you would forget to feed yourself.

I was not around for the invention of the slide rule or the creation of log tables but I am sure there were people out there wanting to burn them and to do all the calculations in their heads while leaving a proportion of their mind free to congratulate themselves on being so clever, before getting the wrong answer a week later.

Computers were laughable items that sent people incredibly inaccurate gas bills.  Now they are highly efficient bits of kit that run the world, unless its a council computer in which case it is always down for maintenance when it comes to something you want, but working overtime when its time to get the council tax bills out.

Now we have GPS and there is a significant proportion of the walking populous that believe it is the devils work.

What if the batteries die, what if you drop it, what if the satellites spin out of orbit, you don’t know how to use it.  Scenarios of increasingly unlikely events are paraded, all warning off near certain disaster just looking at the device.

Map and compass, that is the thing, always works, never goes wrong.

Okay, what if its blowing a gale and the map disappears over the hill.

What if its raining and the map turns into a sodden lump of mush.

What if there is high iron content in the ground and your compass is inaccurate.

What if you don’t know how to use a map and compass?

Well says the wise old acre, you have a spare map of course, you have it securely housed, waterproof.  The idea of your compass being deflected by iron is scoffed at, the concept someone does not know how to read a map, take a bearing, locate yourself in the middle of nowhere on a moor is laughed to scorn.  If you cannot do that, you should not be trusted out of your own front door, let alone near a rucksack.

Some of those that shun the devilry of gps seem quite happy to strap something that looks to me like mosquito netting on their feet, claim them to be walking shoes  and head off into the hills.

All joking aside, what we see played out again and again is new fangled meets old fogie.

Everyone has their old fogie streak, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, but it does have to be recognised.  Essentially you are out of step with the modern world and must accept it.

The trouble begins, as it so usually does, when you start taking a pride in your fogie attitudes and it begins to take on a life of its own.

There is nothing wrong with GPS, a spare pair of batteries and not hurling it around will see you right most of the time.  It is a great tool to be used in conjunction with your map and compass.

A map and compass is only useful if you know where you are, a GPS is only useful if you know where to go next.

I love my GPS, its a very simple etrex, it pinpoints me within 10 metres or so.  That’s good enough.  I plot in various waypoints of a walk when on footpaths and for the most part that is it.  I just follow the footpath till a junction, the gps comes out, quick look at the screen and I know the direction to walk in.

The map and compass is packed away safely and having plotted the walk on my computer I have a mental picture of it in my head.

So for most of my day, my primary navigational aid is the GPS.  None of this is rocket science, it seems perfectly sane and rational.  What does not seem sane and rational is the reaction I get from some and the justifications they have for navigating by the stars.

GPS is going to take over map and compass which will increasingly be used as backup devices for most everyday use.

This I will find a shame as I already miss the visual scope of a map and the tactile nature of a compass and the fun it is in using them properly.  I have just bought myself a new Silva Ranger Series 3 (actually its old, I like a compass that has miles on the clock and stories to tell).  My only concern is it probably will not get the use it should have, just because GPS is so convenient.