GPS 101: Spelling lessons
August 10, 2009 by Valerie HelmbreckPosted in: Communication, Gadgets, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Travel and entertainment
Everybody knows technology isn’t perfect. But a Swedish couple recently learned one of the great commandments of IT:
Garbage in, garbage out.
And while a small Italian town isn’t exactly garbage, it’s not the Isle of Capri, which is where the lost Swedes actually wanted to go.
Seems the couple were searching for the isle on a driving trip through Italy. They used the GPS system in their car to try and find it, but misspelled the island’s name as “Carpi” — which happens to be the name of an industrial town 400 miles away.
Italian officials say the couple asked at Carpi’s tourist office where they could find Capri’s famous Blue Grotto.
“Capri is an island. They did not even wonder why they didn’t cross any bridge or take any boat,” said a bemused tourism official in Carpi.
Once they realized their mistake, the couple got back in their car and headed south, the official added.
At least that’s the right direction. Maybe they’ll use a compass and a map next time. Some low-tech seems to be in order.
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Tags: Carpi, GPC, Isle of Capri, Italy, lost
August 11th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Sounds like a classic case of: “Blame the fool behind the tool!” LOL!
August 18th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Who goes on vacation without knowing how to get to your destination before you ever leave? Silly expensive mistake that was.
August 18th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Could have been much worse. How many times has a GPS machine told you to take a route through a building?
I don’t care if the machine has a gazillion maps covering the planet or even other planets…if the maps where I want to use it are no good, neither is the GPS.
If you complain about bad maps, most companies will just tell you that they only buy them and sell them–not create them. That’s an excuse?
Many GPS don’t seem to permit the user to correct such database mistakes. Which is why I bought an off-brand 5″ personal PC/GPS…at least I can program it, and it was cheaper than nearly every other GPS I’ve found.
A GPS is a wonderful tool, but no tool is perfect, and having a physical map to reference is a god ides–GPS’s can and do fail..paper maps remain useful even when heavily damaged.
And there are some strange things that can happen routing. I’d still be running back and forth over the same half mile of Connecticut if I had followed the GPS last month, as each time I got on the road it would immediately tell me to make a “legal U-turn”
Still, even imperfect tools are more useful than no tool at all.