We were talking about a recent caravan trip they had taken using their brand new Navman. I can’t recall the model but it’s on the cheaper end of the scale.
Pa had a fairly good idea where he was going but was pretty excited about using the GPS. Initially everything went well, he was quite happy that the unit was taking him exactly the way it should. I need to point out that to get to this particular destination you first need to take a freeway. Basically, there is only one road you can take.

So Pa was pretty impressed but then the Navman told him to turn left at the next intersection. He thought this was odd as previously he had always continued along the road. Assuming the GPS knew best, he faithfully turned left. At this point my Nan queried the Navman. She spoke to it. Navman didn’t respond. They continued down the road for 20 minutes, alarm bells ringing in my Pa’s ears. Eventually Navman told them to to turn right. It kept telling him to turn right so he did what he was told. My Nan then directed her questions towards Pa after getting no response from Navman. Pa told her that it was a GPS unit and was sure it had found some new shortcut not previously known to him. As he continued down the road, they noticed the vegetation was changing from country to bush and then to their complete surprise, a dead end!

My poor 86 year old grandparents had to turn their caravan around a dead end road that had turned to gravel.

My Granddad’s opinion of GPS units is this:

“GPS units are great if you have no clue where you are going. If you have the slightest idea of where you should be going, turn off the GPS. Better still, if your wife starts to query the direction….listen to her!”

I haven’t noticed electric outlets on light poles in Perth, Western Australia but I am going to look a little closer the next time I am out shopping!

It looks like a pretty impressive electric bus conversion and the blog has some updates and additional information so check it out: Electric VW Bus Blog

Of interest to us is the navigation (GPS). I also like that it uses a keyboard as my fingers are too big for the touch screens that are now starting to become more common.

From CNet:

The good: The T-Mobile G1 features a full QWERTY keyboard, 3G support, Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth. The Google Android operating system offers good integration with Google applications as well as access to the Amazon MP3 Store and YouTube. As more applications become available, the G1 will also become a more powerful smartphone for all types of users.

The bad: The G1 doesn’t include a standard headphone jack and lacks stereo Bluetooth and Microsoft Exchange support. There are some annoying design quirks that make the smartphone uncomfortable to hold and difficult to use. The GPS tracking was disappointing, and speakerphone quality wasn’t the greatest.

From TheAge.com.au:

While it’s far from perfect, the G1 powered by Google’s Android operating system is packed with plenty of consumer-oriented features that may even make iPhone fans take notice.

Made by Taiwan’s HTC Corp, the G1 is being released October 22 by T-Mobile in the US and will cost $US179 with a two-year contract.

(There are no details available yet about any planned launch of the phone in Australia.)

The device, about the size as the iPhone but plumper, will be available in black or bronze. It sports a large touch screen, and the lower smidgen of the device is angled – the curvature seemed more stylistic than functional to me – and sports four buttons and a trackball.

Beneath the touch screen is a slide-out QWERTY keyboard that makes the G1 feel like a grownup’s version of another device T-Mobile sells, the Sidekick. The keyboard will appeal to anyone who, like me, still prefers the feel of physical keys rather than virtual ones on the screen (sorry, Apple).

Once I started cleaning up the rust, I was quite shocked to discover more and more of it. I couldn’t just let it go so ended up spending about 5 months on the body cutting out rust and making up new frames where needed.
It was exhausting and I wasn’t quite sure if it was ever going to end!

Very thankfully, it’s all done now. I feel it was well worth my time and effort as I simply couldn’t have driven around in it knowing what was underneath.

It’s been a really busy few months as I finally got to the inside of the bus and have done things like lined the inside roof and dash.
I’ve started putting together the kitchen cupboards.

So here is what we have done so far:

It’s very MacGyver ish!

Cool Little Miniature Stove! – More free videos are here

It gets a 4.5 /5 star rating which is pretty good. It will be hard to go past buying a TomTom although the Navman units are pretty good as well.

Here are the basics of the unit:

Features:
Screen resolution: 320×240
Screen size: 3.5″
Multi language voice notifications
Number of speakers: 1
Weight: 148g

Price: $349

Pros: Slimline design, ease of use, EasyPort mount, TomTom HOME software, Map Share, Help Me! safety menu

Cons: No included AC adapter

The final word: The latest edition ONE features an even smaller design and an EasyPort mount, and it supports TomTom’s Map Share feature. The ONE continues to set the standard for other GPS units to strive for.

Read the full review here.

With our plan to travel around Australia within the next 2 years, GPS will be an important addition to the bus. We are more or less settled on buying something along the lines of TomTom but wanted to see if we could kill two birds with one stone and have a mobile along with a GPS.

After reading a review from CNET.com.au, I think we might stick with a stand-a-lone unit.

In a nutshell, the iPhone does have pretty nifty GPS capabilities but it isn’t a true navigation aid but more of a yellow pages system. Currently there is no voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation so it makes it almost useless if driving. The software can plot a course, but checking your progress while driving would be extremely dangerous.

Apparently TomTom are developing mobile navigation software for the iPhone but it might be costly.

It looks almost identical to the Prius. You would think they could have at least tried to change it up a little!
I wonder if this means that the car industry sees us all driving around in cars that more or less look the same but with different badges on them?
What do you think? Does it look like the Prius or are we all just imagining it?

But it seems he wasn’t losing his grip on reality, people really are converting their vehicles to run on waste vegetable oil from fish and chip shops.

Civil engineer, Gerard Mimmo from Australia and his wife, Rachel are embarking on a trek around Australia in their converted 4WD using waste vegetable oil. Their plan is to travel 30,000 km’s having so far completed over 1,000 km’s. BTW, this is actually their honeymoon, much credit guys..great to see!

Their vehicle can use either diesel or vegetable and as Gerard explained it a solenoid switches between the diesel and the oil. A cold engine starts with the diesel but once it’s up to a running temperature they can switch it over.

They are using oil donated by truck stops and fish and chip stores and hope to complete a carbon-neutral journey.

You can track their progress by visiting their site: www.ozonabatteredfish.blogspot.com/

I realise Gerard and Rachel are on the road but if you happen across our blog, we would love to hear from you!

Very cool indeed. And Dad, I apologise for ever doubting your obvious brilliance