Mapping Reality: I have mentioned that I have reached a point in my life where I am letting new technologies pass me by, and am quite happy to do so. Any take on Social Networking is lost on me. Instant messaging…well I exchange texts on my cell, does that count? Facebook…I really have plenty of friends already, thanks. Twitter…you’ve got to be kidding me. MMOG…uh, what?
What all these things have in common is that they are enhancements to virtual life. I’ll pass on that, but there are occasional bits and pieces of tech that are of actual use for someone who isn’t looking to weave himself into the fabric of cyberspace, but exist more easily in the tactile world. Mapping software is one of them. In the past six months I have driven all around Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, and Newfoundland with little more than printed out Google or Mapblast maps to guide me.
I am currently hunting around making plans for my next excursion almost exclusively by zeroing on one destination in Mapblast and simply moving the map around on screen to get ideas for side trips. A little while back I spent some time on Google Maps designing running routes of specific distances around the local neighborhoods.
When I had to get to a certain funeral home half way across the state, I only needed the name of the business and the city to get a turn-by-turn print out; no asking at gas stations for directions, no ball park guesses based on a poorly communicated phone call, no hoping I can read what I scribbled down or wondering if I am correctly oriented to tell north from south.
It’s like magic. I can guarantee you that whoever came up with mapping software and the intelligence behind it deserves a Nobel Prize more than anyone of this year’s winners, whoever they were.
