Online maps suck

[Sean Renaud]

I don't totally agree with him, but I've never had the battery go dead with a paper map.

I've never had the battery die on a GPS either. . .okay I have but honestly when my car battery died I had a much bigger problem than knowing where to turn off the road.

 

[warrior queen]

None of the GPS maps from any maker show my street, therefore I don't exist.

 

[BotanyBoy]

I don't totally agree with him, but I've never had the battery go dead with a paper map.

Ever try keeping one dry for shit in a rain forest for more than a day or two?

Zip lock baggies only go so far against that kind of wet.

Get in some bush like that...rains on an off all fucking day.... that's the kind of wet that will soak in and take the bottoms of your feet off without you knowing it.
http://image.payloadz.com/products/79413.png

I have done it...b/c at the time most military instructors were all about teaching you the old school/analog/long way first. Because you are right...batteries never run out on a map...and it is a good back up/skill to have. But I would have sucked dick for a weatherproof garmen and gladly humped an extra set of batteries.

 

[Wrong Element]

Actually the online maps not only can tell you that, but they can tell you if there is traffic or construction on the road at the time. They are always up to date so if you're friend lives on a new street you don't need to go by a new map to find out about it.

What I like about digital maps are the updates. Especially the ease of figuring out backcountry dirt roads/logging roads/single track trails and shit like that. Also its easier to have a route preprogrammed into a gps than to carry a bunch of paper maps especially when on a motorcycle.

This and this.

I grew up as a map-o-phile also (presumably the only thing I have in common with the thread starter), and I still like having them around. (They're actually not that hard to find, if you know what you're doing.)

But digital maps are 1) easily updatable; 2) can give you turn-by-turn directions if you need them; and 3) can provide a level of block-by-block detail that it's not easy to find on a paper map. I don't find them hard to read; I'm not sure why anyone who can read a standard paper map would have any problem with an online map.

 

[CHNOPS]

This and this.

I grew up as a map-o-phile also (presumably the only thing I have in common with the thread starter), and I still like having them around. (They're actually not that hard to find, if you know what you're doing.)

But digital maps are 1) easily updatable; 2) can give you turn-by-turn directions if you need them; and 3) can provide a level of block-by-block detail that it's not easy to find on a paper map. I don't find them hard to read; I'm not sure why anyone who can read a standard paper map would have any problem with an online map.

My brother in law makes a point of using maps over GPS. He likes to puzzle out the best and most clever route.

It's futile and infuriating. GPS has better algorithms than he does, is updated more often, and KNOWS WHERE WE ARE AT ALL TIMES. Put the big colored paper down, stop staring like a madman, and get us the fuck to the funeral home.

 

[warrior queen]

My brother in law makes a point of using maps over GPS. He likes to puzzle out the best and most clever route.

It's futile and infuriating. GPS has better algorithms than he does, is updated more often, and KNOWS WHERE WE ARE AT ALL TIMES. Put the big colored paper down, stop staring like a madman, and get us the fuck to the funeral home.

It doesn't know where we are at all times.
I turn off into my home street and disappear!

Oh, and try telling that porkie to the two Japanese tourists who tried to drive to Fraser Island, because the GPS told them to.

 

[CHNOPS]

The "get us the fuck to the funeral home" actually happened. After my father died, we flew his body from Florida to New York. Brother in law did his map shit. Got us lost on a shortcut in Queens. I flipped. "Put the fucking maps down and get us the fuck to the funeral home." It was on Queens Boulevard, which is not exactly hard to find in Queens.

Then something incredible happened. He got us lost exactly in my infant-childhood neighborhood, and while he was trying to find his way to Queens Blvd, he drove literally right past my father's old apartment, the one I used to live in/visit him in when I was a tiny Limatina. Floods of childhood memories all in that instant. It was the first time I'd been back in decades. I was moved and cried and said it was a beautiful thing.

Fucking brother in law got all puffy, like he was some kind of superhero. He didn't understand: I still thought he was a fucking self-indulgent twerp who got us lost on the way to my father's funeral just so he could play map hunter. He just got the right answer the wrong way, like in algebra.

 

[lovetoread]

Well to be fair, the GPS does not get signal in certain parts of the city.

Other than that, I couldn't live without it. I can't read maps going 90 down 80.

 

[ChinaBandit]

One of the most productive ($$$) business meetings I ever had was in the map room of the Macquarie University library. I love maps for this reason and this reason alone. They drove me nuts in the Corps and I could be fucked with them otherwise now.

Isn't life odd? Very....

 

[rosco rathbone]

My brother in law makes a point of using maps over GPS. He likes to puzzle out the best and most clever route.

It's futile and infuriating. GPS has better algorithms than he does, is updated more often, and KNOWS WHERE WE ARE AT ALL TIMES. Put the big colored paper down, stop staring like a madman, and get us the fuck to the funeral home.

I am one of those guys. It's not that I have anything against GPS and I always ask for it when I rent a vehicle, but _I_ have to know where I am at all times and those GPS maps aren't too good for that.

 

[MonaLittle]

My GPS system is terrible. I have it in my car and I have never once used it.

If I need directions, I look them up before I go. I will occasionally use a map. I will also D/L directions if needed.

 

[Wrong Element]

My brother in law makes a point of using maps over GPS. He likes to puzzle out the best and most clever route.

It's futile and infuriating. GPS has better algorithms than he does, is updated more often, and KNOWS WHERE WE ARE AT ALL TIMES. Put the big colored paper down, stop staring like a madman, and get us the fuck to the funeral home.

Oh, that's me. A decent map in my hands renders all GPS totally obsolete.

It's not that I don't trust GPS, but there are certain things I just like doing for myself.