Wednesday roadkill report
Oct. 19th, 2005 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jhetleyOne messy raccoon out by the junkyard.
Looked at the weather forecast and decided to snatch another ride today, because, well, I could. Windier than I'd like, temperature in the low 50s F again (11 C for you metric types) but probably better than what we'll have the next few days.
GPS recorded 15.6 miles as opposed to the 15.75 for the bike odometer. I pondered trigonometry for a while and decided that the unit will probably under-count most moving paths. The odometer measures actual pavement covered, while the GPS computes straight-line distance between waypoint "fixes." This means that turns and corners will be cut by tangents between the waypoints. Straight-road sections will do fine, twisty turny Maine back roads and city walks with lots of turns less so. Maze of twisty little passages all alike? Fuggedit. Leave your GPS behind when you enter Zork.
Meanwhile, back in the Caribbean, Wilma looks like a real bitch. I hope our friends in Florida miss out on all the fun the forecasters are currently predicting. Although I remain amused that the TV folks chatter on about Florida and the US Gulf Coast, totally ignoring the little matters of Cuba and Yucatan Mexico that likely will see the storm at its worst....
Looked at the weather forecast and decided to snatch another ride today, because, well, I could. Windier than I'd like, temperature in the low 50s F again (11 C for you metric types) but probably better than what we'll have the next few days.
GPS recorded 15.6 miles as opposed to the 15.75 for the bike odometer. I pondered trigonometry for a while and decided that the unit will probably under-count most moving paths. The odometer measures actual pavement covered, while the GPS computes straight-line distance between waypoint "fixes." This means that turns and corners will be cut by tangents between the waypoints. Straight-road sections will do fine, twisty turny Maine back roads and city walks with lots of turns less so. Maze of twisty little passages all alike? Fuggedit. Leave your GPS behind when you enter Zork.
Meanwhile, back in the Caribbean, Wilma looks like a real bitch. I hope our friends in Florida miss out on all the fun the forecasters are currently predicting. Although I remain amused that the TV folks chatter on about Florida and the US Gulf Coast, totally ignoring the little matters of Cuba and Yucatan Mexico that likely will see the storm at its worst....
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-19 12:11 pm (UTC)GPS units don't work worth a damn indoors, let alone underground.
And as for Wilma? Definitely keep an eye peeled; the most recent five-day forecast has New England within the day-five cone.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/180413.shtml?5day
no subject
Date: 2005-10-19 01:30 pm (UTC)We've also discovered that this one appears to lose sat-tracking in the presence of cats....