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Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

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mansaxel:

--- Quote from: tggzzz on July 05, 2022, 10:17:44 pm ---
--- Quote from: mansaxel on July 05, 2022, 07:53:24 pm ---
--- Quote from: tggzzz on July 05, 2022, 05:12:52 pm ---The rest, not so much: a major benefit of going out is to inhabit somewhere completely different, not to stay in cyberspace.

--- End quote ---

The trick is to do Augmented Reality -- experience the Real World enhanced with information from Other Places. It makes the Real World a more multifaceted place. And it takes less time to immerse yourself into something when you can apply the aggregate previous knowledge of the world on top of the actual experience.  The most obvious example to me is GPS and electronic maps.

--- End quote ---

That feels close to someone else indicating what I should experience, and to avoiding thinking and planning, and accidentally avoiding serendipity. (One of my favourite concepts and words!)

Do offline research, then experience X for yourself, then do research to find what you missed. And equally, what other people missed.

--- End quote ---

I argue they're essentially the same; what's being done is shortening the feedback cycle.

For the furthering of knowledge, there's nothing like aggregating and criticising said knowledge and disseminating it (both before and after critique; what's in the cupboard can't be discussed, so dissemination is essential to critique). This, the Internet and the applications built on the changing circumstances that data flows are available and cheaply so, has made faster. 

What I do when I travel is to make heavy use of online resources to plan in advance.  Then, I have stored information easily carried (one of my favourite tools is a GPS app for Android that is completely offline-capable; it uses OpenStreetMap data that can be freely downloaded) that is the guide book of what I have decided to do. As we travel, we verify and enhance the online resources we use -- the hotels all get reviews that add to data and so on.

But, having the tools available at low cost (thanks to the EU and their telco-whipping policies) makes it possible to do a more fluid information processing. What I described above is "easy" to do on paper too. I've done it, several times.  But, I'd rather not, again.

Two examples;

* Day before yesterday, we were zig-zagging around the northern peak of Luxembourg to do three earlier planned things, get from Dortmund to Sedan, shop and fill up diesel in Luxembourg (very cheap!) and pass Bastogne to see the Battle of the Bulge museum.  I went through this region with my parents a very snowy Easter in the early 80s and we were amazed at the amount of war memorials; there's one in every village, and not the usual "Aux Morts" we see in France, but a Sherman tank or similar. I had been talking about that with my own family, and on a whim decided to try finding one. Sure, 8 km away from where we were, there was a PaK 43 in a park, with a stone talking about the US 6th armoured division.  This took 5 minutes to find online, and enhanced the day.
* Yesterday as we were done with visiting the Main de Massiges outdoor trench museum, youngest son was hungry and specifically wanted pizza. Online, we located a pizzeria in a nearby town, got the directions and drove there. The pizza was excellent! This saved enormous amounts of time, and made for a better experience.

mansaxel:

--- Quote from: Cerebus on July 05, 2022, 10:52:06 pm ---Pah! You can have my compass and Ordnance Survey 1:25000 maps when you can prise them out of my cold dead hands.

--- End quote ---

I've done that, and since we actually have forests we're allowed to be in (Allemansrätt, the ages-old right of Swedes to be in the forest and do actually quite a lot, regardless who owns the forest.) I've made some pretty serious cross-country trips on maps alone. If I can, I have both, please.

Now, while being on a long motoring trip in Europe, we carry several different GPS and map combinations (Android with both OpenStreetMap and Google maps; Apple and their maps, et c.) for redundancy.  No paper map, though. I brought it along several years without using it; this time I simply forgot because it did not even cross my mind.

Actually, I'm quite the luddite, but this is so good that I will adopt.

mansaxel:

--- Quote from: tggzzz on July 06, 2022, 12:30:09 am ---
OSmaps show interesting features that you didn't know existed.
VR stuff tends to have advertising features that you don't care exist. Plus black propaganda, fake news, and people/organisations flashing "look at me".

No contest really.

--- End quote ---

I very specifically wrote Augmented Reality, not "VR".  That is a thing, actually.

You don't have to be on the Holo-Deck to use the Tricorder.

Saskia:
@mansaxel located the HDMI matrix. Digitus 4*2 if I glanced at it correctly. pM if interested.

bd139:

--- Quote from: mansaxel on July 06, 2022, 05:27:34 am ---
--- Quote from: Cerebus on July 05, 2022, 10:52:06 pm ---Pah! You can have my compass and Ordnance Survey 1:25000 maps when you can prise them out of my cold dead hands.

--- End quote ---

I've done that, and since we actually have forests we're allowed to be in (Allemansrätt, the ages-old right of Swedes to be in the forest and do actually quite a lot, regardless who owns the forest.) I've made some pretty serious cross-country trips on maps alone. If I can, I have both, please.

Now, while being on a long motoring trip in Europe, we carry several different GPS and map combinations (Android with both OpenStreetMap and Google maps; Apple and their maps, et c.) for redundancy.  No paper map, though. I brought it along several years without using it; this time I simply forgot because it did not even cross my mind.

Actually, I'm quite the luddite, but this is so good that I will adopt.

--- End quote ---

Yeah there are some recent advances which pretty much make the paper maps a backup option only in the UK. It has got to the point where even on the mountain leader courses it’s secondary navigation only.

The OSMaps app is a fine example. You have vector, 25k and 50k layers, full offline support, precise positioning and backtracking. Importantly it’s far more up to date than paper maps, particularly in areas with coastal erosion which change very rapidly.   This all fits in a little box that lasts all day, is waterproof and takes photos too and works in the dark without having to shoot your adjusted eyes with a torch. And it syncs with the compass on your wrist to give you absolute bearings for each leg. Of course I have backup nav. I usually carry an eTrex 10 for backtracking and GPX plotting and paper map in bag.

Killer feature? Not having to piss around with a map case in this…



22km of 80mph gusts and pissing rain. My phone was soaked through to the point there was all sorts of detritus floating in the clear case. So map would have been mush, even the plastic coated ones!

I’ll take the phone any day! It’s much better.

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