GPS

Navigating through the Pittsburgh area is a challenge, especially when I am used to driving the more familiar terrain of the Eastern side of Pennsylvania. Driving distractions abound in the “Three River” area. There is an endless variety of scenery: ornate never-ending brickwork structures, massive steel bridges, and rivers everywhere. The magnificent panorama makes it tough traversing the roller coaster-like highways and byways winding through Pittsburgh’s famed hills. It’s hard to focus as I try to absorb all the architecture and natural beauty and still make all the turns. Even though I have the same Pennsylvania license plate as the locals, folks seem to know I am an outsider. Perhaps it’s my sometimes erratic driving and missed turns. Thank heavens; I have some help to keep me from looking totally out of place. Like millions of other folks I now trust a tiny 4-inch-long screened device in my car that directs me turn by turn. With all due respect to the others who have directed me, my tiny GPS (Global Positioning System) device is the best “back seat driver” (actually front) that I’ve ever had. Not only are my directions displayed, but I can be directed audibly. I even have a choice of either a female or male voice in a choice of languages and even accents. I appreciate that the GPS doesn’t get excited and there is no panic or condemnation when I miss a turn. Just a simple statement, “recalculating” in a calm voice as it accepts my missed turns and change of plans and readjusts accordingly. It’s not the just the directions. The GPS has a wealth of other information available at my “beck and call.” When I query, it can provide and lead me to the closest hospital, Chinese restaurant, police station, gas station, or a wide variety of other places. Even when I am not enroute, it can tell me how far away each is and give me a phone number to call. It can actually dial those numbers directly for me using Blue Tooth technology linked to my cell phone. The GPS can tell me how fast I am going, how long I’ve been traveling and the exact time I can expect to arrive along with a lot of other yet to be discovered information. It even can suggest alternate ways to circumvent developing traffic jams. Amazingly with all this capability and the ability to talk to me, it doesn’t brag or talk down to me and has no ego that I’ve detected. In fact, it will even work silently if requested. It just sit’s patiently waiting to fulfill my every request. Even though this GPS looks like “a stand-alone miracle worker,” it’s not a solitary entity. It has been programmed to be totally dependent on 24 up to 32 orbiting positioning satellites that have made this technically possible since April 27, 1995. It’s only because of those unseen satellites high in the heavens above that my GPS unit can function. In fact, initially, it often spends a considerable amount of time displaying a message “Searching for Satellites” before it will function at all. It actually can’t do anything without input from above and is smart enough to know it. Now that’s what I call smart!