[gps-talkusers] Re: Setting your virtual position to an unnamed location in a city

  • From: "Carol Pearson" <carol.pearson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 7 May 2006 20:48:31 +0100

Yes,

here in the UK we use Post Codes as opposed to zip codes, but they're basically the same idea and I know heaps of those without necessarily knowing necessarily all of a friend's house address.

I'd go both for the inclusion of these codes and being able to search without necessarily filling in all details.


-- Carol - who's still playing and gaining some experience! carol.pearson@xxxxxxxxxxxx




----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Scialli" <shrink99@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2006 4:50 PM
Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: Setting your virtual position to an unnamed location in a city



Hi Charles,
I'd like to add something for consideration. Around here in Northern Virginia, there are lots of unincorporated towns that have a mailing address associated with a more major local city. I've found in many cases, the town name that I know from the postal address is not the town name on the area map. For example, my address is in Oakton, Virginia. If I look for my address in Oakton, I can't find it at all. It turns out, the data base lists my house as being in Sully, Virginia. Sully is a town name I've never heard and nobody ever uses. It may have been called that at some time in history, but there is no post office with that name, etc. I recall from the Atlas Speaks days. At least, I think I recall, that you could find an address knowing only its Zip code. Is that something that could make its way into the GPS software?


Peter
----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles La Pierre" <lapierre@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2006 11:15 AM
Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: Setting your virtual position to an unnamed location in a city



That is an interesting point and something I will consider and put into our feature request database.
I actually do what you are describing a lot. My work around which I should have thought about what I was doing and actually implemented it was: "Ctrl / Space S" Pick the state I want, then Find the city I want. When it asks for a street I usually just type M or Main then pick the first street that pops up, then I just hit enter again to get a list of cross streets and I usually just either hit enter to take the first address found or cursor down once and pick the first cross street, and set that as my Virtual location.


That way I am in the right city and I can quickly search for what I want. I can do a POI search for City Center and it usually shows up within a mile or so. The POI City centers are defined by our POI database company Info USA provided by TeleAtlas. I don't know how they classify the center of a city but I am sure each city has what they consider as the center of the city and at this location is what is geocoded as the City Center POI.

Hope this helps you out.
Charles.



At 12:46 AM 5/7/2006, you wrote:
Yes, thanks Dave for your comments. Perhaps Sendero would consider
setting a city as the virtual position as previously described as a
feature in the next release.

-----Original Message-----
From: gps-talkusers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:gps-talkusers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David
Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2006 10:29 PM
To: gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: Setting your virtual position to an unnamed
location in a city


Hey rob, I agree that it takes forever to search for a city within a state, especially if the city is not close by. In exploring your search, I started In San Francisco because I knew you wanted to start outside of Oakland, but they are right next door so I didn't encounter that problem.

In future releases it would be nice to be able to search for a city, as
you
suggest, or even a state, without having to know street names or
addresses.

I think that seeing a difference of mileage to various areas is common.
Recently I did a route from South Bend Indiana to Cincinnati because we
are
going to be traveling that route this summer. There were two ways to
travel
that were recommended to me by friends, but the GPS chose a third way,
which
was about fifty miles longer than Map Quest.  It also chooses a longer
and
more circuitous, but perhaps much more scenic, route through the
mountains
from where I live to Prescott Arizona, but it would get you there.  I
think
that while playing with maps and longer routes is fun, the true
usefulness
is in short routes.  It is designed primarily for walking and does a
heck of
a job in that regard.

I believe that the true accuracy is in marking way points and POIS.  For

example, I can stand in front of my house and if I check the address, it

will tell me I'm two blocks away.  This was true with version 3.3 and is

true with 3.5, and I don't realistically expect it to change.  I think
it's
in the inaccuracy of the maps and there isn't much that can be done
about
it.  However, once I made my home a POI, it works flawlessly by telling
me I
am home when I reach my driveway.

A couple of days ago I was traveling and stayed in one of those motels
with
outside entrances.  I found that by marking my building and my room, I
could
travel quite flawlessly around the complex with little orientation.

Dave

taxation WITH representation isn't so hot, either!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rob Gentell" <rggeneral@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2006 8:08 PM
Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: Setting your virtual position to an unnamed

location in a city


> Thanks Dave for the tip. The issue I have with searching for a city > as a POI is that It becomes less practical when the city is more than > 15 or 20 miles away because of the time it takes the software to > perform the POI search. From experience I know that the gps software > can quickly verify that a city exists in the database almost > instantaneously even hundreds of miles away. This is why I wish there

> was a way to use Space S, specify a city and then perhaps have the
> option of pressing Space V to set my virtual position whereby skipping

> the prompts for street name and number.
>
> I've also noticed some anomalies with approximate distances to POI
> cities in which the distance reported to a city is incorrect by a
> significant amount (in one case I recently saw the POI distance was
> more than 20 miles short of the actual distance from my virtual
> position).
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: gps-talkusers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:gps-talkusers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David
> Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2006 12:28 PM
> To: gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: Setting your virtual position to an
> unnamed location in a city
>
>
> I am sorry, press space and the letter F as in foxtrot.  Then select
> city as the category you are looking for.  Once it finds Oakland you
> can do the space and F again and continue your search.  I apologize
> for the typo, or
> perhaps gap in thinking.
>
> Dave
>
> taxation WITH representation isn't so hot, either!
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Rob Gentell" <rggeneral@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2006 12:07 PM
> Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: Setting your virtual position to an
unnamed
>
> location in a city
>
>
>> Dave,
>>
>> This is precisely what I'd like to do but it doesn't seem to work as
>> you described.  You wrote:
>>
>> "Once in California in virtual mode, you can press space and S and
>> look under cities for Oakland and make that your virtual location by
>> pressing V ...".
>>
>> While in Virtual mode and pressing Space s, entering Oakland as the
>> city and pressing Enter, I'm prompted for the street name.  This is
>> where I'd like to effectively abort the normal procedure and set my
>> virtual position within some unspecified location within that city.
>> I
>
>> tried pressing Space V which I believe you had implied.  An error
>> tone
>
>> is sounded when I press Space V at this point because the software
>> needs me to specify a street name. Am I missing something?
>>
>> Thanks Cheng for your descriptive step-by-step instructions.  This is

>> more or less what I have been doing and I'd like to simply cut down
>> on
>
>> the number of steps.  I like your method of choosing "cent" as a
>> street name because I'd imagine that most cities have at least one
>> street called Central or Center.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: gps-talkusers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> [mailto:gps-talkusers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David
>> Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2006 9:48 AM
>> To: gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: Setting your virtual position to an
>> unnamed location in a city
>>
>>
>> There is always more than one way to skin a cat, sorry cat lovers.
>>
>> Once in California in virtual mode, you can press space and S and
>> look
>
>> under cities for Oakland and make that your virtual location by
>> pressing V, that way you don't need to choose any streets.  I don't
>> know how GPS
> decides
>> where to place you in Oakland, or any other city for that matter, but
> in
>>
>> this case it got you real close to your desired destination.  If you
>> press space plus S again and search under the Buss Railway category
>> you will find Jack London Square, Bart station, 0.87 miles.  .  Make
>> that your
> virtual
>>
>> location and you can then search for restaurants or anything else you

>> want.
>>
>> Dave
>>
>> taxation WITH representation isn't so hot, either!
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Cheng Hock Kua" <adaptive@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 8:28 PM
>> Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: Setting your virtual position to an
> unnamed
>>
>> location in a city
>>
>>
>>> Hi Rob
>>>
>>> I took your challenge from Singapore and did this:
>>>
>>>
>>> Have the four maps for California loaded,
>>>
>>> Use the search address command with space-s
>>>
>>> Choose California
>>>
>>> Since you wanted Oakland
>>> choose Oakland
>>>
>>> Choose street name by entering
>>> cent
>>> since you were suggesting the center of the city
>>>
>>> and three street options came up
>>>
>>> Choose Center St.
>>>
>>> Since you did not have an address
>>> choose the default cross street at address 0
>>>
>>>
>>> At this point, choose v for virtual instead of destination.
>>>
>>> Next, set yourself in the virtual mode with the v command
>>>
>>> Now you are at the position on Center St.
>>>
>>> Use the space-f command to search within 0 miles to 10 miles or use
>>> any arbitrary distance.
>>>
>>> I chose 10 miles since I suspect I should be around the city center
>>> and want to look for the railway station.
>>>
>>> Choose the bus/rail category
>>>
>>> I then chose the search string by typing
>>> jack
>>>
>>> since you suggested Jack London in your e-mail.
>>>
>>> Jack London Square Bart Station, Alice Street, Oakland CA94607 was
>>> found within less than 2 miles away from my virtual position.
>>>
>>> At this point of interest prompt, I re-set my virtual position with
>>> space-v so that I would virtually be at the rail station
>>>
>>> and I was brought to the virtual position of the railway station.
>>>
>>>
>>> Now that I am "virtually at the Jack London Station", I can do
>>> another search for Restaurants with the space-f command.  remember
>>> to
>
>>> start at
>> the
>>> 0-miles to 1-mile radius so that you can find the nearest
>>> restaurant.
>> 238
>>> restaurants showed up!
>>>
>>>
>>> Enjoy yourself touring around Jack London Square Station before you
>>> arrive.
>>>
>>> Regards
>>> Cheng Hock
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Rob Gentell" <rggeneral@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 2:09 PM
>>> Subject: [gps-talkusers] Setting your virtual position to an unnamed

>>> location in a city
>>>
>>>
>>>> Question: Is there a way of setting your virtual position by
>>>> somehow
>
>>>> specifying the city without having to first set your virtual
>>>> position
>>
>>>> to a street name and a street number or cross street when you don't

>>>> know the name of a nearby street in order that you can locate a
>>>> POI?
>>
>>>> For example, perhaps you know ahead of time which train stop you'll

>>>> be getting off at (such as Jack London Square in Oakland CA or
>>>> Grand
>
>>>> Central Station in New York), but you haven't got a clue what part
>>>> of
>>
>>>> town the station is in and you simply want to locate a nearby
>>>> restaurant ahead of time because you're starved.  I'm looking for a

>>>> quick way to tell the GPS software that my virtual position is
>>>> somewhere in a particular city such as Oakland, CA so that I can
>>>> then
>>
>>>> perform a POI search for a railway/bus containing "Jack London".
>>>> Then, I can reset my virtual position to that railway stop and then

>>>> search out restaurants from that location.  It would be convenient
>>>> to
>>
>>>> be able to skip the necessity to specify a street name and street
>>>> number or cross street when using the Set address command.
>>>> Wouldn't
>
>>>> it be nice if after issuing the Set Address command and specifying
>>>> a
>
>>>> state and city that one could then choose "Center of Town" as your
>>>> virtual position, and start exploring from there?
>>>>
>>>> Any ideas or comments are appreciated.  Thanks.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
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>
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Charles M. La Pierre CTO Sendero Group, LLC

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