2. A lot of places that don't have an ILS do have a GPS.

Agreed. Got to know GPS approaches.

1. I'm a computer science graduate and no computer is going to
get the best of me!

Don't bet on it. A computer is a personal servant, to whom you give
the keys to your house, your car, and your bank, who only speaks
Swahili, who takes his orders from a high school student in Pakistan,
and who invites its friends over for parties when you are out of the
house.

The only way around this is to program the raw chip yourself.

(and yes, I also do programming)

I'm sure once learned, the GPS seem trivial, it is just taking
me a little while to get the hang of it.

With steam gauges, you depend on the laws of physics. With GPS, you
depend on the twisted logic of whoever had too much coffee the day the
design was burned in ROM.

The laws of physics have never failed me. I've yet to encounter a
computer that didn't go belly up just for jollies.

Jose
--
Freedom. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.