Jack and I get questions about "Why do you write those product reviews?" I guess I think its just "fun" and I like for people to know something about what they are buying. Here is an answer Jack wrote some time ago that pretty well sums it up. Joe Mehaffey ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3/23/1997 GSW wrote: > > Joe and Jack, > > Perhaps you two (Joe and Jack) could clear something up for me, and > I'm sure for others too... Just what is your role and reason for doing > these reviews? Are you in this to make money? are you consulting for > someone? Do you work for someone in the GPS industry or what? Har, har, har!! Too bad we AREN'T working for someone! I hate to think about how much money we've spent of our "wife's home-project money" on all this hardware and software... At first we paid full price for everything. More recently, vendors have seen fit to provide units to us for test and review. This is much appreciated as neither Jack or Joe could afford to put out the money to buy all of the equipment and software we have reviewed. Actually we are both retired Engineers with sufficient retirement income to fund a very interesting hobby... Joe talked me into cooperating on reviewing GPS hardware. We started out with (Garmin for me and Magellan for Joe because that is what we already owned) and because there were some obvious differences... Joe spent close to $500 for Map Expert II while I invested $300 in Vista CDs so we would have some quality mapping software to test with initially. Eventually, Delorme must have decided "10,000" times $50 was bigger than "100" times $500 and reduced the price of their Street Atlases -just as Joe and I were about to run out of "house project" money!! When we did our first reviews, software developers we never even HEARD of came running out of the "woodwork" asking why we didn't review THEIR software! Well, I tell you, reviewing a new software product isn't done over night... It takes a week, minimum, just to fully UNDERSTAND a typical package and figure out its foibles... -And with some, I'm STILL finding out features months later. So, this hobby took on a life of its own starting about Jan. 1st. Here it is March and we're still getting requests for review... I'd say MOST of the software we've reviewed is itself still under development, and we stay in touch with their personnel as changes are made... The whole concept of USGS DRG maps has thrown GPSing into a new phase... I'd say, the development effort here is for developers to make their programs read them (efficiently)... With DRG you can have a very detailed map of most of the US that now AGREES with the WGS-84 output of GPS units (for those interested in the best accuracy possible)... These maps are $32 for 64 quadrangles compared to $25 for <ONE> quadrangle -commercially- thus putting good GPSing within reach of almost everyone... Also these maps are already been "registered" ,and the time consuming effort of doing this manually (for scanned maps) is <OVER>... I notice that even HIKING trails in parks near here are shown on the DRG maps for the outdoor hobbyist... I was a flight test engineer for Lockheed, and as such was used to calling 'em like I see 'em... (Else, somebody could get hurt)... Joe is also an ex Lockheed Design Engineer/Manager, and later designed, developed, and manufactured his own brand of telephone PBX/ACD exchange equipment which was widely sold to Bell and ITT and others in the 1970's and 1980's. > Please note that I am not asking this because I feel that your are not > being fair in your reviews, I just wonder where you find the time to > do these reviews and such, if your not being paid by someone. I think > that what I have seen thus far, is about as good as it gets in the way > of reviews of GPS equipment, but I can't help but question what your > motives are for doing all of this work. Especially now that you are > actively seeking other GPSs to evaluate. It's well that someone like Glenn ask us these questions, because our reviews have been appearing in more and more overseas web sites... We grant permission, if only they don't revise them, give us a credit line, and replace old reviews with the latest to appear on Peter Bennett's GPS Index -our "Depository of Record"... Like I say, it's just a retirement hobby... And we enjoy helping others while learning ourselves. Jack Yeazel
Jack Ponders "Yet Another GPS Receiver" * Joe's Motto is "Never Leave Home Without -Some"