[time-nuts] Problems with Garmin - maybe we should cut them a little slack

[Jean-Louis Oneto]

Let's look at it from another point of view:
as it is, the map data store about very few points for each road (less than 
10 in most cases anyway).
To have correct coordinates for each number on each road (I suppose here 
that these data exist somewhere...) would multiply that by a factor between 
10 and 100, if not 1000, and I think I'm rather conservative here.
The last map I have from Garmin are almost 2GB for North America, more than 
3 GB for Europe: do you know of a device (beside HDD/SDD, which must be 
excluded for volume/weight/price/shock_sensitivity in most of GPS related 
uses) able to store 100's of GB ?
Happy New Year to all of you,
Jean-Louis Oneto

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "J. Forster" <jfor at quik.com>
To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" 
<time-nuts at febo.com>
Sent: Friday, December 31, 2010 5:49 PM
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Problems with Garmin - maybe we should cut them a 
little slack


>> Well, I won't rant back at you, Dick, but your expectations are way off
>> base.  GPS cartographers have to designate billions (yes, billions) of
>> addresses and the fact that they miss a few scarcely justifies a backhand
>> brushoff as "shoddy work."
>
> Look at it another way:
>
> They are producing one product for 10s of millions of customers. The
> reproduction costs are trivial, so they have hundreds of millions of
> dollars to get one product right!
>
>> Can you have a product of this size and complexity that is completely
>> error free.  No.  No matter how hard you try, the answer remains...no.
>> (References on stochastic processes available on request.)
>>
>> Can you have a product with* fewer* errors?  Of course.  Can you have it
>> for eighty bucks.  Nope.
>
> The $80 is for one copy. Try near a $1,000,000,000 for the digital map of
> the USA.
>
>> Be a good capitalist and take your choice.
>
>
> -John
>
> =================
>
>
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