Conversation

Well, I did remember that I have a PalmOne Bluetooth GPS receiver, and while that obviously won't get a fix indoors, it does work, as it's just a Bluetooth serial port. Now my laptop can know where it is. (What to do with this power is currently unknown.)

3
0
0

I can now be the dingus who tries to find his way with like an old netbook or something

1
0
0

GPS is fascinating... what do you mean there's things flying in the sky and you can stare at them to find out where and when you are

3
0
1

I mean I guess we (humanity, not really us filthy landlubbers) did that with stars before, and that's even more fascinating

0
0
0

@ozzelot yup...and you can get a pretty accurate clock, too.

1
0
0

I did get fixes indoors sometimes when I lived at the dorms. Might have had something to do with my window aiming at a park and not at a bunch of buildings.

1
0
0

Phone signal sucked sometimes, but eh, acceptable tradeoff.

1
0
0

I have gone outside and got a fix, which gpsd reflected. I won't provide a photo (you'd know where I've been), but it's fun to see a 12 year old laptop get its location with a 21 year old GPS.

1
0
1

@ozzelot going outside to touch grass

1
0
0

@ozzelot ~~touch me and see the satellites transmit some data to you~~

0
0
0
@ozzelot Actually... if you look at stars, you can determine your position at kilometer accuraccy with just angle measurement, clock and some math. And you don't really need the clock :-).
0
0
1
@ozzelot Good gps should be able to get fix indoors. AGPS helps a lot.
1
0
0

@pavel
AGPS may very well help, but a 20 year old receiver of just GPS, designed for use with a period correct PDA, will not support that :D

1
0
1
@ozzelot AGPS is quite old technology. Anyway, you might be able to get a good fix outside, then bring receiver inside, and keep getting position data. That will also get you almanach / ephemeris data, in a similar way AGPS would. OTOH... usually indoors you already know where you are :-).
0
0
1