“…….Technology marches on……”

Yeah it does Dogtag, and the older I get the more aggravating it gets .

I usually don’t upgrade electronics very often and when I do it’s usually only because I have to. Computers and cell phones are about the worst, by time I wear one out, the one that I have and am used to are no longer available and of course the operating system have been changed and usually it won’t support some of the programs I’m using, so I have to re-learn and re load everything again (hell I’d still be using XP if it was available).

I did get the first Satellite radio pretty much installed yesterday (waiting on a cigarette lighter receptacle to finish the installation off). It wasn’t horrible and I think I’ll be happy with it.

The GPS is another story. ….that came in yesterday. I ordered what is basically an updated version of the old one I currently have. The programming and screens are pretty much the same between the old and new so the learning curve on setting it up and using it won’t be too bad. Installation and use is another story

The GPS is one of the portable ones that plugs into the cigarette lighter. The first issue is how it mounts. My old GPS slides into the mounting bracket with a pair of slots. When I got the old one I set my 3 cars up with a bracket where the GPS is positioned best and didn’t use the god awful useless suction cup bracket that goes on the windshield. Of course the new one (and the other ones I looked at) doesn’t have the slots that will work with the brackets I already have. Rather than re-make the brackets that are already in the 3 cars I’m currently building an adapter so I can the existing brackets.

The other thing I found when I was researching GPSs is that almost none of them (at least in the price range I’m looking at) have an audio-out port so you can listen with an ear plug. The internal speaker on the small units is just about worthless, so I usually use the ear plug a couple of places on the trip (like Kansas city where there are a lot of lane/highway changes). At least I knew going into it that I’d be taking it apart and adding an audio output when I bought the darn thing. It’s not a big job just an aggravation to make it work like I want it to.

Before anybody brings up blue tooth or any of the other things, I know but I’m old and grumpy and want things like I want them




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