I went for a walk yesterday, climbed up a hill off a side street, into tiny little houses packed in close together. Its obvious to me they've got lots of burglars because there's locks everywhere you look, and the overhanging plants and broken up street speaks of poverty. Apparently those houses were cheap a year ago, but now they aren't. I can't understand why. These are cottages, spitting distance apart. The street, even in mid day, was crammed with cars, and is probably worse at night. I wonder how many people live in each little house? It reminds me of the Russian River, actually. That kind of crammed together continuous party, the desperate kind that sometimes results in murders or the police showing up after a lamp breaks and angry words are spoken. I think I spotted pot plants peaking over a wall too. Apparently, the local cops have their hands tied so pot is growing everywhere. The only upside to that is if its everywhere, you're less likely to get shot over it. Seeing it doesn't mean instant felony for the owner, so they have less reason to kill you on sight. That's a big problem with hiking in the foothills, btw. Its one of the reasons I hike the high sierras instead. No pot up there. Probably. Too much of the local economy is tied to pot. Its also a big part of why I see high people staggering around all day on the sidewalk.
When I got home from my job yesterday, my GPS arrived. I find it to be pleasantly small, fitting into my palm. Its twice as thick as it looks online, so BOO to Amazon there, but it got satellites and locked on right away, in seconds. Its as fast as my old Trimble GPS was. It also gave me elevation, which then moved a foot per second so it still has trouble with that thanks to the trigonometry involved. Still, its cool that I can get a rough number anyway.
The Basemap is crap. It only has main roads. It needs streets. I'm going to see about downloading those for where I live. Start with free. Go from there. I also tried to get the geocaches for the area. The "open-cache" community only has 7, and those are 20 miles in all directions away from here. The main geocaching site has 440 in 10 miles. That's what I want. I'm seeing about getting those free. More work to do.
I also want the proper roads and either shaded relief or contours on this gizmo so I can see what street I'm on, when walking or bicycling. I think I want to find a mount which isn't obnoxious to use so I can put the GPS on the bike. Most of the cases I've seen for these are crap. Adding bulk and reducing usefulness. Probably made for people who think their keys belong up against the screen of their dumb-phone and then complain about how its all scratched. I am fortunate I got out of the cellphone business before that was the primary complaint in customer service.
I'm glad I didn't get a "screen protector". The screen is tiny. This really is palm sized. At $5 for 3 protectors, those are like 70 cents per square inch. For tape. Are you kidding me? I'm pretty sure I can put magic tape on this thing, a few strips and its done. Maybe packing tape. Easy.
The joystick is pretty easy too. Another complaint by clumsy people with no relation to reality. The other buttons are fine too. Its easy to turn on and off. I wonder how bad the older firmware was, but the current version is fine. Works great. Everything about this is what you'd expect with 12 years to improve on the Trimble I used professionally. So yeah, its pretty cool. Once I have things dialed in and a mount for my bike, I think it will be just fine.
Oh, and the biggest amusement? A GPS is $180 to tell you "you are here". Take that philosophically if you want.
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