Say Good-bye to Radar — and Flight Delays?

by Catherine Bodry on

The Federal Aviation Administration is hoping to use a new technology that relies on an aircraft tracking system based on GPS rather than radar. The new system, known as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), will also have a high-speed data network that allows aircraft to transmit information to one another and the ground as if they were on the Internet.

This technology will hopefully allow jets to fly much closer to each other with less risk of collision, and therefore “save the aviation system from the stranglehold of flight delays.”

Currently, air traffic control relies on radar, which sometimes spins as slowly as once every 12 seconds. But jets at high altitude can travel more than one mile in 12 seconds, so the FAA has to keep planes 5 miles apart. With ADS-B, planes will be able to fly within 3 miles of each other, hopefully making your wait at the airport that much shorter.

Read the full article at USA Today

Crossing the “Ditch”

by Erik Olsen on

Ask any seasoned explorer and he/she will tell you that there are few “big firsts” left to do. Sure, the bottom of the ocean still holds a lot of promise since, as scientists say, some 70 percent of the deep ocean has never been explored. But up on the surface, there are few places man has not trod, and few big accomplishments he has not already made. Well apparently one of these firsts is crossing a stretch of nasty water known as The Ditch. The Ditch stretches between Australia and New Zealand, and according to this site, it has never been crossed in a two-man, human-propelled boat (aka kayak).

In late 2007, James Castrission and Justin Jones will kayak over 1000 miles across the Tasman Sea, from Australia to New Zealand. If they pull it off, it will be the first ever crossing and the longest two man kayak expedition ever undertaken. The pair have loaded up a finely-tuned, state-of-the-art two man kayak that looks more like a pace ship than a boat. They’ve got GPS and communication devices and have trained intensely for the effort. All the details of their prep can be seen here. Sounds like an amazing, perilous journey. We wish them well.

Prague’s Hotel for Hipsters

by Iva Skoch on

The days when Prague was the mecca of backpackers are long gone. They have slowly been out-priced and replaced with the “weekend-trip city-dwellers” from Western Europe, especially the UK. Few new hotels have been quick to respond to this trend and cater to the semi-affluent Western hipster who comes just for a few days (and doesn’t mind that virtually everything in the hotel is branded.)

At the chic Icon Hotel in Prague’s city center (where you get into the room with a fingerprint) the staff wears Diesel clothes, gushes over the oh-so-comfy Hastens beds, guests are encouraged to use Apple computers and iPods and bring the Navirent GPS systems when walking around town.

Friends recently stayed there when visiting Prague and loved the 120 Euro Urban Secrets package, complete with champagne breakfast and the above-mentioned GPS system. They also confessed they would run and buy a pair of Diesel jeans immediately because they liked it so much. Just kidding. At least I hope so.

Watch for The Gap/IBM hotel in the neighborhood near you. It’s only a matter of time.

Don’t BlindlyTrust Your GPS Device

by Justin Glow on

I don’t have a GPS device. For me, part of the fun of road trips is getting lost; I enjoy navigating unknown cities and long, remote stretches of highways with my trusty Rand McNally. That’s not to say I wouldn’t use a GPS device in conjunction with a paper map — but I wouldn’t rely solely on the satellite navigation system. Case in point: Back in March, the driver of a £96,000 Mercedes relied on her GPS system a little too much and ended up following its directions right into a river.

“The Mercedes SL500 was swept 600 yards downstream, bouncing from one bank of the River Sense to the other as the woman, in her late 20s and from London, frantically tried to escape,” described the Daily Mail. “She was finally rescued by villager Alice Clark when the car ran aground.”

This seems to be happening more and more often. A driver in Italy recently trusted their GPS device’s directions when it advised pulling off the road and onto a train track. Here’s a rather boring video of said car being pushed off of the tracks:


And even when you’re not blindly following incorrect, computer-generated directions, studies have shown that “using GPS while behind the wheel is actually more distracting and less safe than unfolding a paper map and using it to find your way,” reads our sister site Engadget. Thirteen percent of drivers, according to the survey, relied exclusively on their GPS for directions, “rendering them completely oblivious to the world around them.” With numbers that high, I’m surprised we don’t have more people driving into rivers and onto railroad tracks.

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Minnetrista: GPS Adventures for Geocaching Fans

by Kelly Amabile on

The latitude of Minnetrista, MN is 44.938N and the longitude is -93.717W. But plugging those coordinates into your GPS unit won’t get you to a new geocaching exhibit set to open at this Minnetrista. To get here, you must plug in coordinates for Muncie, IN (40.12N latitude and 085.23W longitude), home of this East Central Indiana museum and cultural center.

Geocaching enthusiasts may already be plotting summer excursions to this new exhibit sponsored by Groundspeak (the folks behind Geocaching.com), in partnership with Trimble and Minotaur Maze Exhibits. GPS Adventures is a hands-on presentation designed to teach people of all ages about navigation, GPS technology and geocaching. It features GPS stats, history, current uses and future possibilities; and simulates geocaching by leading museum visitors through a 2,500 square foot interactive maze. Subtitled, “From Tracking to Treasure Hunting”, the exhibit will premiere this coming Saturday, June 2nd during a geocaching event that will be held from 2 – 4 p.m at the museum.

If mapping trends and technologies interest you, be sure to check out another navigation-themed exhibit Gadling mentioned recently. Coordinates for its city location: 38.51N and 77.2W.