The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

GDB2222

I recently complained to Amazon and mentioned that I have made over 100 purchases in the last 6 months. They were gentlemanly enough not to point out that roughly half of those were free ebooks.

Pyxis

Pastures, I sympathise.

That's one of the reasons why I prefer to just toddle down the road to my little local branch and draw out cash from the chappie at the counter!
Also, if I have a query, I can just ask him too.

I'm terrified they'll close it down. One other bank did close down, although there are still two more and some building societies and quite a few shops, so hopefully they still get enough business.

Sometimes I go in just to check my balances/see if a credit or cheque payment has gone through. They often tell me that I could do that with an online account (doing themselves out of a job?), but I always refuse. Too scared of a security breach.

About 20-25 years ago, you used to be able to do telephone banking.... by arrangement, you could check balances and transactions in your existing accounts, and transfer money...... but they shut that down when they started the online accounts. Right pain, as that was useful.

chris_m wrote: »

It is also a good idea to keep an eye out for fresh bear scat so you have an idea if bears are in the area. People should be able to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear scat.

Black bear droppings are smaller and often contain berries, leaves, and possibly bits of fur. Grizzly bear droppings tend to contain small bells and smell of pepper.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:


There you are, you see; you wouldn't get bells in wolf droppings.

michaels

So there is a new problem with the 'roads' in Devon.

Google now know which of the little lanes is the quickest route and so all motorists now take that route if they are using the sat nav.

The little lanes are wide enough for 1 car with passing places every few hundred yards. Works fine with 3 local (who know how to reverse) cars a day, fails completely with several hundred cars an hour almost all of whom have no clue of how to reverse.

Set off this morning with google showing 4.30 to get home. Spent 40 minutes to travel the lanes to the main road that normally takes 15 then had that sinking feeling crawling down the M5 where despite having been driving for an hour it was now going to be 5 hours until we reached home

One 'amusement', stopped after an hour as the red triangle warning light had come on. Got out the manual and finally figured out it wasn't a pending breakdown but that whilst trying to find the button for the rear windscreen wiper I had inadvertently turned off the abs/esr and that was what the light was warning me about.

Doozergirl

michaels wrote: »

So there is a new problem with the 'roads' in Devon.

Google now know which of the little lanes is the quickest route and so all motorists now take that route if they are using the sat nav.

The little lanes are wide enough for 1 car with passing places every few hundred yards. Works fine with 3 local (who know how to reverse) cars a day, fails completely with several hundred cars an hour almost all of whom have no clue of how to reverse.

Set off this morning with google showing 4.30 to get home. Spent 40 minutes to travel the lanes to the main road that normally takes 15 then had that sinking feeling crawling down the M5 where despite having been driving for an hour it was now going to be 5 hours until we reached home

One 'amusement', stopped after an hour as the red triangle warning light had come on. Got out the manual and finally figured out it wasn't a pending breakdown but that whilst trying to find the button for the rear windscreen wiper I had inadvertently turned off the abs/esr and that was what the light was warning me about.

Waze is a really good app for taking the lesser known route. It's great in cities for taking back routes. I imagine it could be of similar value down the lanes. Google is indeed capable of creating its own traffic jams these days.

We tend to stick to bits of Devon with proper roads. I like Salcombe a lot, but not in August I'm not taking more than two sub roads off the M5.

LydiaJ

Doozergirl wrote: »

Waze is a really good app for taking the lesser known route. It's great in cities for taking back routes. I imagine it could be of similar value down the lanes. Google is indeed capable of creating its own traffic jams these days.

We tend to stick to bits of Devon with proper roads. I like Salcombe a lot, but not in August I'm not taking more than two sub roads off the M5.

Thanks DG. I hadn't heard of Waze, but have just looked it up and it looks good. Now, next time I find where I've put my phone, I can install it...

chris_m

michaels wrote: »

So there is a new problem with the 'roads' in Devon.

Google now know which of the little lanes is the quickest route and so all motorists now take that route if they are using the sat nav.

The little lanes are wide enough for 1 car with passing places every few hundred yards. Works fine with 3 local (who know how to reverse) cars a day, fails completely with several hundred cars an hour almost all of whom have no clue of how to reverse.

Hehe, sounds just like [STRIKE]EXTREMELY outer Outer Herts[/STRIKE] Cumbria

The trouble is that the maps know the speed limit and many of these little roads are NSL, even if driving at 60mph would be at the very least stupid, at the worst suicidal. We have a 3-digit A-road that I use frequently and in places it's worse (extremely narrow and/or poor visibility) than many B-roads, C-roads or even unclassified ones also within the Lake District.

The satnav software looks at distances and speed limits, because that's all it has with which to work, and decides to pick the little roads because it thinks they will be quicker than any slower limit larger roads that it can also find for a route.

Pyxis

chris_m wrote: »

Hehe, sounds just like [STRIKE]EXTREMELY outer Outer Herts[/STRIKE] Cumbria

The trouble is that the maps know the speed limit and many of these little roads are NSL, even if driving at 60mph would be at the very least stupid, at the worst suicidal. We have a 3-digit A-road that I use frequently and in places it's worse (extremely narrow and/or poor visibility) than many B-roads, C-roads or even unclassified ones also within the Lake District.

The satnav software looks at distances and speed limits, because that's all it has with which to work, and decides to pick the little roads because it thinks they will be quicker than any slower limit larger roads that it can also find for a route.

I like maps.

I like studying a map and working out a route myself. These days I supplement that with looking at Google Earth, particularly at junctions, to see what the lane layout is like, etc., and also to look for landmarks.

Still not foolproof, but I find that if I've gone the route in my head, it helps an awful lot.

I can see that a satnav can be useful in some situations, particularly if something goes wrong, or you're diverted away from your planned route, etc.

I don't have one; they didn't come as standard when I got my car, and I didn't see the need for one. When I finally get around to getting a smartphone, I'll probably get an app to put on that, for "emergencies".

Can anyone recommend a good app for my iPad, also for said emergencies? (I wouldn't normally take my iPad in the car with me, but if it were a long journey into uncharted territory, I might. Oh, just thought though.... it wouldn't work because I wouldn't have wifi in the car! Silly me! Or can you get ones that you can use with GPS and not wifi? I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I expect you get my drift!)

My first port of call will still be maps (road atlas plus map on the iPad), and Google Earth, though!

GDB2222

Surely, with all the GPS info they must have available, they can calculate actual traffic speeds on these roads and route traffic accordingly? That can all be done in real time. Why don't they do that, possibly as a premium service they charge for?

silvercar

Doozergirl wrote: »

Waze is a really good app for taking the lesser known route. It's great in cities for taking back routes. I imagine it could be of similar value down the lanes. Google is indeed capable of creating its own traffic jams these days.

We tend to stick to bits of Devon with proper roads. I like Salcombe a lot, but not in August I'm not taking more than two sub roads off the M5.

Waze was invented in Israel and has been used there for years, it relies heavily on picking up data from other users and using that live information to direct. The downside is that it will do a diversion eg through an estate to avoid the lights on the main road, thinking that will save a minute off your journey. just because the speed limit is 30mph, doesn't mean that you achieve that with 6 left turns and 5 right turns through the heart of a housing estate!
We used it recently and gave up on it for that reason, though friends swear by it and it is meant to be the app that is most upto date with traffic reports.

Google has recently bought waze and so gradually the technology will be merged.

silvercar

Can anyone recommend a good app for my iPad, also for said emergencies? (I wouldn't normally take my iPad in the car with me, but if it were a long journey into uncharted territory, I might. Oh, just thought though.... it wouldn't work because I wouldn't have wifi in the car! Silly me! Or can you get ones that you can use with GPS and not wifi? I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I expect you get my drift!)

Google maps will act as a satnav. You can create a wifi hot spot on your phone and connect your ipad to it.