Handy item for long distance glides

[bystander]

Handy item for long distance glides

Saw this over on engadget:

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&ndmConfigId=1000010&newsId=20070807005332&newsLang=en

http://www.findmespot.com/

(warning, second link is a flash site)

There have been a number of recent threads explaining how to use google and/or the features of various phones to track someone remotely. (here's one (http://forums.segwaychat.com/showthread.php?t=16188))

The difference is, this seems to be a single purpose device, specializing in the locator feature, without the extra stuff needed for phone service. So when you "get away from it all", you really get away, instead of being obligated to answering the email or phone. And if you have an emergency, you can still get help.

Also, it doesn't depend on cell towers for position info, so it can cover areas that would otherwise be out of range for a phone.

Costs $150 + $100 for "service".

Seems inexpensive compared to phone service. Problem is, I don't think many folks will be using location service 24/7 365 days a year.

Now if a person could rent one for a weeks vacation or a weekend at a reasonable price, I can see the value.

Might be useful as an insurance policy when you rent cross country skis or a snowmobile. Or go on an overnight hike during inclement weather. Or boating.

[polo_pro]

I actually used something like this during my solo trips in the outback. EPIRB isn't as responsive, but same principle. If something goes tragically wrong, you can summon help eventually.

Along PCH, there were some dead spots for cell service going through Big Sur. But overall, I wasn't too worried. I was at a hotel every night (checking in with several people by phone), and if something went wrong the search by car for me would take an hour or two tops along a well known route. Of course, that wasn't bear country either!

ps - The price is right. Even with the "service fee"!

[Mr. Protocol]

I go to Yellowstone almost every year to take data on geysers in the back country. There are two schools of thought about devices like this. There are folks who are very unhappy about the fact that there is increasing cellular coverage in the park. Arguments against it are of two main types: practical and, well, philosophical.

The practical argument is that people who would ordinarily get themselves out of jams can now ask for help when it's not truly a life-threatening emergency. Often these people are from other countries, and after S&R comes and bails them out when they phone for help, they immediately split for home and bail on the bill for the rescue. (Because news coverage stops when the bodies are dragged out or the tearful family thanks the news crews for the safe rescue [like the news crews had anything to do with it], most folks aren't aware that the rescued people get to foot the bill for their own rescue.) The argument here is that people who are pulled out because they're overdue and are truly in trouble are the ones who should be rescued, not those who phone for help because they're pooped. Possibly the fact that the truly needy generally get hauled off to the hospital, where they can easily be located to be handed the bill, may have something to do with this attitude, but perhaps I'm only being cynical.

The philosophical argument is more interesting: that the real joy in back-country adventure comes at least partly from the knowledge that you could indeed die back there. If all element of danger is eliminated, then even the existence of the choice not to carry a cell phone cheapens the experience. It turns a primal man-against-the-elements experience into a literal walk in the park. This, they feel, lessens the possible size of one's life.

Me, I think dying is kind of final. I'll take the pocket satellite thingy, thank yew very much.

[pam]

I'll second that!
Pam


Me, I think dying is kind of final. I'll take the pocket satellite thingy, thank yew very much.

[KSagal]

I understand both sides, and would opt for the ability to communicate over the in-ability as well, especially if with others that I was responsible for...

I believe that is where the rub comes. People around the globe are being conditioned more and more by the various forms of the nanny state. I beilieve in ultimate responsibility for oneself lies with the individual, but many people have been taught since birth and re-indocrinated constantly, that the government or someone else is responsible for everything...

You see this in criminal defense cases, where a 50yo criminal blames last weeks actions on his parents and poor childhood, or where the person who bought the house they could not afford blames the government for not stopping the mortgage company that loaned them the money, and then wants a bail out.

It does not surprise me that people skip out on their bill that they got from skipping out on the responsiblity to undo what they themselves did.

I believe that having the ability to communicate is a good thing. I just do not believe that having that ability will change the quality of the content of that communication.

[polo_pro]

bump....three and a half weeks to go