So back in 2000 I picked up Rand McNally’s “Deluxe” bundle which included TripMaker, StreetFinder, and a GPS unit. The 3 worked well together and I was pleasantly surprised how accurate and quickly the GPS unit would lock on. This setup navigated me out of some funky Miami neighborhoods.
Fast forward to today and I find the 2000 edition doesn’t run well on XP (even their GPS unit doesn’t work with their software). Their GPS unit does work with Netstumbler. So I picked up the Rand McNally’s 2004 edition and still no go. Contacted tech support and no luck there either. I bought Delorme’s Streets & Maps (or something like that) which came bundled with their GPS unit. The software has taken a little bit of time to get used to, but is surprisingly easy to use. The voice prompting works well although gets a little lost in with all the noise in the car (patching it through to the cassette deck works well).
So now I have 2 GPS units. Delorme’s Earthmate seems to work well across all my software. But what will I do with the Rand McNally one? Wardrive! The Rand McNally unit still works with Netstumbler and I leave it on COM2. I’ve got the Earthmate setup on COM4. Now when I wardrive, I can plot the WAPs and keep track of where I’ve been on the map. Is it practical? Heck no! But still a lot of fun!
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