More Maps.

[asterroc]

Man, what is it with the Google Maps generic map/directions service slams these days?

Comments

[rosefox]

That looks more like a GPS slam to me.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Oh duh. Thanks. Correcting above.

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

I know the comic has a GPS, but I do think it's a reference to Google's "use the ferry" instructions.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Does Google Maps actually do that? Or is it just a meme spawned by xkcd?

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

Our return from Quebec contained take-the-ferry instructions. They were actually pretty reasonable, except for the fact that we were driving home at 1AM. I probably would have helped if I'd checked over the directions. Aaaand we didn't have any New York maps. :)

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

Hm, my wife's telling me I remember it wrong. We got on the wrong side of Lake Champlain, and it was a convenience store clerk who told us to take the ferry at 1AM. I thought his directions corresponded with the maps, but I trust her memory more than I trust mine.

Ugh, a second self-reply.

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

OK, I'm not crazy. I have seen Google Maps do ferry directions.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=from%20Indiana%2C%20USA%20to%20Providence%20Bay%2C%20Canada

Re: Ugh, a second self-reply.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Hm, in the options there should be options for "avoid seasonally closed roads," and "avoid ferries". I hadn't noticed that there's walking directions allowed now.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

It drives me absolutely batty when being a passenger while the driver is navigating purely off of GPS directions. Partly because I am a control freak and would prefer to be reading a map and offering navigational help (or my own knowledge of an area).

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Google Maps makes me lazy, I tend to not do the sanity check they recommend and it sometimes gets me into trouble.

People who use GPS but don't know how to use it also drives me crazy. A couple of my workfriends just got GPS, but they're still learning how to enter in things, so by the time they figure it out we could've gotten there already.

[marquiswildbill.livejournal.com]

It's people who like me who like printed media :) I love the ability to get academic/technical data in digital form, and the speed with which it can be screened through. But once screened through I like to go through it in printed fashion. And reading for pleasure must be printed, bound media if at all possible.
If I hit the lotto, perhaps the first thing I would buy is a set of Steinbeck first editions. Especially The Grapes of Wrath. Gotta love a book that got attacked from the left, right and center as propaganda of whatever they didn't like. And featured a character who is often compared to Jeebus and liked to fool around (the Preacher Jim Casy). After that it would be Travels With Charley because Steinbeck tells stories so well. And it contains a bunch of extremely useful advice, including but not limited to: how to wash your clothes while driving, how having a fishing rod legitimizes your presence anywhere (these days smoking a cigarette outside does that pretty well, too), and countless other ways in which a Nobel Laureate can wander the country undetected and mostly self sufficiently. All of which apply even more so to the common man.