GPS approach question

Jose wrote:

[GPS approach procedure snipped]

Wow... and people say GPS makes life =simple=? I'll take an ILS over
that any day!

Jose

Yes, I still feel that way, but I'm determined to learn GPS approaches
for two reasons:

1. I'm a computer science graduate and no computer is going to get the
best of me!
2. A lot of places that don't have an ILS do have a GPS.

I'm sure once learned, the GPS seem trivial, it is just taking me a
little while to get the hang of it. Then again, I've only flow about 6
GPS approaches so far, so I'm not too worried about my current ineptness.

Matt

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.

Jose wrote:
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.

No, you can always turn off the power! :-)


(and yes, I also do programming)

I did programming, but I grew out of that phase. :-)


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.

Yes, there is some truth to that.


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

Well, the first computer I worked on was a PDP-11/34 running RSX-llM and
that sucker never crashed once in the five years we used it as a
development host. The only downtime it saw was when we applied patches
or did a sysgen to change its configuration.


Matt

In article ,
Matt Whiting wrote:

Jose wrote:
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.

No, you can always turn off the power! :-)

Actually, with a lot of devices these days, turning off the power is
harder than it appears. It may have an on/off switch, but that usually
just shuts down the display and leaves the processor running. Pulling
the plug out may not even help, if it's got backup batteries.

Roy Smith wrote:
In article ,
Matt Whiting wrote:


Jose wrote:

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.

No, you can always turn off the power! :-)


Actually, with a lot of devices these days, turning off the power is
harder than it appears. It may have an on/off switch, but that usually
just shuts down the display and leaves the processor running. Pulling
the plug out may not even help, if it's got backup batteries.

They only keep track of the date and a few other key settings,
typically. Can't do much real processing for long on the backup battery.


Matt

[battery backup only keeps track of] a few other key settings

Those may be the settings that prevent you from doing something you
thought was reasonable under the circumstances, but the programmer
didn't think of. You are always depending on the programmer to have
thought of whatever situation you are in, =and= come up with the right
answer.

Jose
--
Money: What you need when you run out of brains.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.