FoxTrax Blog

The End of the Roadmap?

2008-09-08T10:41:00.003-05:00

Australian IT has declared that the advent of the GPS navigator means the end of the road map as we know it. Is it true?

Well, yes and no.

I'm reminded of the e-mail/snail-mail debate. People used to say that the Post Office would go out of business, but it hasn't. E-mail is quicker, cheaper, more versatile, but snail mail is tactile (people like tactile), and capable of sending physical things. Mail is harder to ignore than e-mail, and a lot more useful when you need to be sure that it was actually received.

So what are the pros and cons for GPS navigators versus maps? Well, the GPS is easier to read, can give you turn-by-turn directions, is more likely to be up-to-date, and is... you know... cool. What chance does the map have?

First, it's a lot cheaper. It might not be worth it for someone to pay upwards of $100 to get a GPS tracker when they can bet a map for $7. Second, maps don't break down--so even if you have a Garmin, you might want to also have a map as a back up. Maps can be general, whereas a GPS typically is sending you to a direct place. Granted, GPS can be used to find, say, Rhode Island (as opposed to a pizza parlor in Providence), but maps lend themselves more easily. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, a map is something you can put on your wall and draw/trace/push-pin your routes and destinations. A map can be a commemorative tool, much like you can save an old letter, even frame it, better than you can save an e-mail.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.FoxTraxGPS.com

GPS Coffee

2008-08-11T08:07:00.003-05:00

So I was trolling the web for St. Louis coffee shops that aren't Starbucks and found one called Kayak's. It looks to be pretty knew, and I only mention it here because they have posted on their home page, inexplicably, the GPS coordinates of their shop. For those that need something a bit more direct than Google-Maps, I suppose.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.FoxTraxGPS.com

GPS Uses, 4 Good, 4 Not So Good

2008-08-04T09:33:00.003-05:00

Welcome back. I've been off getting married, but it's time to re-start the ongoing conversation about GPS devices and what they can do for you. What better way to begin that discussion than with a brief overview of what they can't do for you?

Things you should never do with a GPS tracker:

1. Spy On Your Employees - This is probably the second biggest request we get. The chief problem here is that it's probably illegal, even if you're really only tracking your own vehicles. And even if you're not criminally liable, there's still civil court to deal with. Here's the scenario. You track one of your employees who is having an affair and using the company vehicle to meet up with his mistress. You catch him, he gets fired and subsequently divorced. He sues you. And us. There have been cases like that in which the employee has won.

The other side of the coin is this: what are you going to do when you catch the guy? When you say "hey, I've been tracking you and I caught you driving where you weren't supposed to be", how is that conversation going to go? Will it be any less awkward than saying "we're going to start tracking everyone--gas is $4 a gallon and we need to know what we're spending so we can afford to keep paying you!" before the fact? Isn't the point to correct bad behavior, rather than fire bad employees?

2. Cut Food - GPS trackers are expensive and don't have any sharp edges. This is a task much better suited to a knife.

Okay, now that that bit of silliness is out of the way...

3. Track Packages - Once in a while, people ask us to leave the tracker on while it's in transit so they can track it to it's destination. This rarely works out. There are too many times the tracker will be in a metal building (where it won't work well) or on a plane (where it won't work at all and may or may not interfere with the navigation systems).

4. Spy On Your Cheating Spouse - Biggest downside, again, it's probably illegal. And what are you going to say when you have your evidence? You're almost certainly better hiring a PI, who knows how to spy on people without breaking laws.

Are we noticing a pattern here? Lots of people regard GPS as a weapon for passive-aggression. And it can be used for that, I suppose, but spying on people is almost certainly not going to end well for the spy... spyer... spier... person who is spying.

So, just to contrast, here are some things that GPS is great for:

1. Personal Tracking (of a non-secretive nature) - Got an expensive car and a teenage driver? Maybe a loved one with dementia? Even a pet that's prone to wandering off.

2. Mileage Tracking - Compare it to the odometer, even calculate labor costs.

3. Navigation and Routing - Okay, our system doesn't do this, nor do most systems like ours. There are basically two types of GPS trackers, the type that track or the type that navigate. Ours is the former, but the latter are quite useful as well.

4. Theft Prevention - Enough said.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.FoxTraxGPS.com

St. Louis Drivers

2008-07-17T09:21:00.004-05:00

Is it just me, or have there been more people pulled-over than usual? The police seem to be out in force, bringing the long arm of the law to, well, to speeders.

I'm thrilled. I'm a long-time believer that St. Louis drivers are amongst the worst you'll find in the country. And I learned to drive in Houston. And I lived in LA. And I've driven in Jersey. But St. Louis has something special: a willful ignorance of traffic laws, the likes of which I've not seen.

I can live with speeding. I can live with the lack of turn signals. It's the utter disdain for consideration that gets me. Texas drivers can be insane, but Texans are normally pretty cordial, and that generally includes time they spend driving. And nobody in L.A. is moving very fast anyway, so they try not to take it out on each other. But in St. Louis, it's every motorist for himself! Nobody lets you in when you try to merge. And the worst: nobody yields for emergency vehicles--and that really bothers me. When you're in too much of a hurry to let an ambulance through...

So hopefully the police are trying to, you know, work on that.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.FoxTraxGPS.com

Who Would Want to Target a Billboard?

2008-07-14T09:12:00.007-05:00

Coming Soon: Targeted billboards. A French company called Quividi had been putting cameras in billboards that will count the number of passersby and even record their gender (with 85% accuracy). If a woman approaches, it will show a different ad than it would show to a man. They're also working on the technology to identify relative age and pick out family groups so they can use even more specific targeting. And it doesn't stop there, these billboards are capable of projecting 3D images and sending audio messages as well.

As with many new technologies, this walks the fine line between science-fiction-cool and George-Orwell-scary.

There are already laws in place that will keep billboards from blaring audible messages or projecting 3D images at drivers without certain permissions, shop windows and pedestrian billboards are under no such restrictions (yet), and I think we can expect to see higher-tech ads on sidewalks of metropolitan areas very soon. To the folks at Quividi: here's some advice to pass on to your clients who want to avoid nasty lawsuits.

Let's avoid personal products. No one in public wants to be the target of an ad for acne medication or tampons. Possible exceptions: fragrances and body sprays.
Tighten up the gender-identification before relying too heavily on it.
Avoid 3D images that are likely to scare children (who might then run into, say, the street). I'm looking at you, Orken man!

We can't be more than ten years away from seeing these in major cities, which means we can't be more than fifteen years away from being able to ignore them completely. And I can't help but see the irony of my weekend trip, which I spent on a river, in a canoe, no less than 8 miles away from a single working cell phone.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.FoxTraxGPS.com

Coming soon, the jPhone!

2008-07-11T08:43:00.004-05:00

It's iPhone Day. Have you bought yours?

I'm fascinated by the trend towards devices that do everything. It's a phone, it's a music player, it's a GPS device, it's a computer, it bakes cookies for you when you're sick! But there are some inherent drawbacks to having one über-device as opposed to several unter-devices.

And yes, that joke was in German.

Power - what kind of a Kryptonite battery must it take to power these things? I know GPS is a battery-killer on phones, not to mention it's an Apple product so it's not like you can run down to the electronics store and pick up a spare (although the 3G can be replaced without a soldering iron, so that's a step in the positive!). I've seen the specs for it, I know what it's supposed to do. 6 hours of internet may seem like a long time, so might 8 hours of a video or 5 hours of talk or 24 hours of music. But if you spend your day talking, texting, surfing, and tuning alternately, you're going to end up killing it quickly, and I like a phone to go for at least 4 or 5 days between charges. Maybe that's just me.
Coordinated obsolescence - You can't just upgrade the phone. You can't just upgrade your mp3--player. If the GPS chip goes all whopper-jawed, you have to replace the whole device. If you accidentally drop your phone in the toilet, you've lost all of your devices instead of one, and subsequently have to replace all of them.
One Size Does Not Fit All - What if I have no use for internet on my phone. I have internet at work. I have internet at home. I have a laptop, and there's still a Starbucks on every corner (well, all but six-hundred corners, now). Is there an iPhone out there for me? Or what if I want something with nicer mp3 player and I could care less about video? What if I want something with extra memory for video but I don't need GPS? What if I want a the internet features but don't ever want to use it as a phone? It doesn't matter--you're paying for all of it or none of it.

Now, having said all that, there is certainly something nice about combining tech products into tech product. If you want all of the functionality of the iPhone 3G in separate devices--good luck! It'll certainly cost you more than $199. But I'm fairly certain that I'll never want to watch movies on my phone (Lord of the Rings just loses that epic grandeur when viewed on something the size of an index card). But who knows? Maybe I'll buy one and be hooked. Stranger things have happened.

I just wonder what's next. How many gadgets can you combine? Phone, internet, GPS, audio, video, driving directions, relationship advice, calender, foot massager, flotation device, and finder-of-lost-car-keys all in one? What comes after the iPhone 3G? We'll find out soon enough, I suppose.

Have a good weekend.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.FoxTraxGPS.com

If a Jeep Falls in the Woods

2008-07-10T08:48:00.003-05:00

A man in Spring, Texas was found by firefighters thanks to the built-in GPS in his cell phone. He was driving his jeep through the woods, got stuck and disoriented, and started trying to find his way to civilization on foot. He wandered about 3 miles before he was found. He called his wife, she called the authorities, and after about half an hour he was found.

My reactions:

First, I used to live in Spring, Texas (it's a suburb of Houston). There are a lot of woods. But there's a lot of civilization too. I don't know if he was walking in circles or just managed to the find the most densely wooded area in town, but 3 miles is a pretty good stretch of uninhabited land for a significant suburb of a major city.

Second, why didn't the man call the authorities, himself, rather than call his wife? Is this just an extreme example of the stereotypical male being unwilling to stop and ask for directions? I can hear the conversation now "No, honey, I don't need to call the police, I have an excellent sense of direction. I just might be a little late for dinner, that's all."

Third, what was he doing driving a jeep in the middle of the woods? Is this what happens when you take SUV commercials too seriously?

Okay, joking aside. Many people don't know that nearly every cellphone made in the last couple of years has a GPS chip in it. It's not terribly sophisticated, but it's there expressly so the police/fire can find you. The jeep, it's worth noting, has not yet been recovered.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.FoxTraxGPS.com

What Did You Do With Your Holiday Weekend?

2008-07-07T08:30:00.003-05:00

Kent Couch's second lawn-chair-and-balloon-flight was a complete success. On July 5th, 2008, he traveled over 200 miles from Bend, Oregon and landed in a field in Cambridge. Cambridge, Idaho, that is.

Lawn-chair-and-balloon-flight aficionados were able to watch his progress online via his GPS device. Thank goodness the prevailing wind was Easterly, because if he'd gone 200 miles the other direction, he would have been over the open ocean.

So what did you do with your 4th of July weekend? Some people launch/watch fireworks. Some people dress up in red, white, and blue. Some sing patriotic songs. Some visit their families. Some barbecue and drink beer. And some tie a bunch of helium balloons to a lawn chair and fly across state lines. To quote Pink Floyd: "Shine on, you crazy diamond!"

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.FoxTraxGPS.com

Happy 4th

2008-07-03T11:49:00.002-05:00

Everyone drive safe over the weekend, and to those of you who won't be able to enjoy the three-day-holiday.

Nya nya nya.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.FoxTraxGPS.com

Coming Soon, to a Handheld Near You!

2008-07-02T09:48:00.007-05:00

According to an article on NetWorkWorld.com, SkyHook Wireless has released XPS 2.0, the latest version of it's positioning firmware (the previous version can be found on, for example, the iPhone). XPS is an attempt to bridge the speed of WPS, in which a device uses the location of Wi-Fi access points to get a rapid position fix, and GPS, in which a device uses satellite data to get a very precise position fix.

XPS uses data from both to achieve both speed and accuracy, as well as (when necessary) cellular network data. Version 2.0 is supposed to have several improvements in the vein of it-does-the-same-thing-only-better, changes to the algorithm and what not.

GPS and it's derivatives still aren't perfect: there are lots of areas that lack coverage, satellite communication can be slow, and it's often a battery hog. But perfection is a goal, "usable" is what you actually sell, and it's not like cellphones never drop calls or work in the Antarctic. The technology is becoming more and more ubiquitous, especially in handhelds. To quote the article directly: "GPS is very precise, and a rash of specialized location products increasingly smarter versions of it." And while that isn't, technically, a sentence, it is a harbinger of what's heading our way. More and more, portable computers are replacing cellphones. More and more, these are coming with sophisticated GPS built-in.

What does this say about our culture? Well, we'll never get lost on the way to the supermarket again, not so long as the phone has battery. Alas, that it cannot also tell us which aisle has the hot-dog buns! I do worry sometimes about becoming over-dependent on such tools for simple things. I knew someone who, when asked what 10% of 300 was, punched a flurry of keys into her graphing calculator before responding emphatically that the answer was "30" (it is--but you shouldn't need the help for simple math like that). Will it be the same for GPS--will it result in an underdeveloped sense of direction? Will we be able to navigate if we go out into the wild--like people used to do in all those SUV commercials? Assuming there's no coverage out there.

I jest--there's coverage everywhere (right?). And as with all things, you can curse the changes or you can accept them, and I choose to say "thank you, Skyhook". The next time someone tells me to "Get lost," I can tell them that it's not very likely to happen.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.FoxTraxGPS.com

Some Records Don't Need to be Reported

2008-07-01T09:27:00.003-05:00

The national average price for gas broke another record today, rising to $4.087 per gallon from the previous record set yesterday, which was $4.086 per gallon.

Thank you CNN.com. It's not enough that we are all already thoroughly depressed by the rising gas prices, but you have to let us know about a record-shattering 1/10th of a cent increase in the average price. You know, on the off chance that someone had forgotten.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.FoxTraxGPS.com

LOL's and the DMV

2008-06-27T08:25:00.004-05:00

A friend of a friend of a friend is in the Missouri National Guard, and was having a hard time deciphering an acronym that showed up in an e-mail. He scoured the manuals trying to figure out what this new acronym "ROFL" might stand for until someone kindly clued him in:

"Rolling On the Floor Laughing"

Not so much a military term, just another product of the instant message culture. And ROFL is just the tip of the iceberg--whole sub-dialects of English have emerged, ushered into existence by text and instant messaging and the need to save time/characters by abbreviating common phrases. New "words" emerge regularly--indeed, half the fun seems to be in guessing what some of the new acronyms might mean, and sometimes they can get a little bawdy. The letter "F" shows up quite often, but unlike the above example, it typically doesn't stand for "Floor".

This is proving to be problematic for the DMV, who try to avoid issuing plates that say rude or potentially offensive things. It seems the North Carolina DMV issued several plates that began with WTF (a very popular acronym, not at all new, standing for "What", "the", and... use your imagination) before someone's teenager let them in on the joke.

Of course the real problem for the DMV is that the language of text messages is ever-evolving. Something innocuous today might turn out to be horribly obscene in two years. And it's not enough to know what things mean, you have to also keep track of how popular they are, because it should be no surprise that an overwhelming number of 3-4 letter combinations are acronyms for something, often for several things.

For example, NASA, which we know as the "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", also stands for "National Auto Sport Association" and "North American Saxophone Alliance", and Space-NASA has been ubiquitous for decades. What about the wealth of acronyms that serve as short-hand for, I dunno, skinheads or call-girls? Most people wouldn't recognize those acronyms, but some people would, and they can be truly, deeply offensive. It's not a huge feat to imagine that these might slip through and be issued (accidentally or otherwise), and it's not much more of a leap to think that maybe a few already have.

Part of me wants to believe that anyone old enough to drive a vehicle is old enough to behave sensibly and maturely about the accidental possibility of unintended and obli1que references to obscenity. But it doesn't last long.

So the DMV is probably going to have to let things slide and learn responses like "you didn't think WTF was offensive when we issued you the plate". In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if we got another form to fill out that shifts liability from the issuer to the issue-ee, something to the effect of "My name is John McCain and I approve this license plate."

Either that, or we're going to start seeing more license plates with their characters seated letter-number-letter-number-letter-number.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.FoxTraxGPS.com

How Many Hypermiles Are in a Lightyear?

2008-06-26T08:20:00.006-05:00

One of the things that I love about the English language is that it's a technical language, so new words can be created from old ones on an as-needed basis. For example, take "hyper" + "mile" and make it into a verb. The gerund form of it would be "hypermiling", which has recently entered the lexicon as "increasing your car's gas mileage by changing your driving habits".

Examples of hypermiling practices include accelerating and decelerating more slowly (0 to sixty in twenty seconds as opposed to, I dunno, 5) or turning your car all the way off if you're going to sit at a stoplight for more than thirty seconds, or finally cleaning all that junk out of your back seat.

The overall vibe of hypermiling websites seems to be that aggressive driving is inefficient. The farther down you push the pedal, the more gas you use. So telling people that they can save money by chilling out at the wheel is a good thing, right?

Mostly. Hypermiling is not without defect.

First, some of the things they tell you are slightly questionable. Run your engine filled up to the "low" oil mark. Fill your tires to their maximum pressure rather than their recommended pressure. These sort of things can't be good for the life of the car, and is it possible that you increase the risk of a blowout by running your tires to so high? Wouldn't that be more expensive than the gas you save?

Second, some of the hypermiling suggestions are extremely questionable. Drafting behind semi trucks, for example, is not safe, even though it allows you to go for miles and miles without actually using your accelerator. Turning the car off while coasting down hills--also dangerous (since steering wheels frequently lock if the car is turned off). In the interest of full disclosure, I'll add that most hypermiling sites don't list theses two, and the ones that do list them explain that they're less-than-ideal from a safety perspective.

Third, it's highly possible that the culture of hypermiling has only sprung up to sell MPG meters.

And finally, it's totally geared towards non-commercial driving. Okay, it's true, hypermiling.com offers training for commercial drivers (at $210 a pop), but you can't very well shut your diesel off at a stop light. The problem is that hypermiling requires a fair amount of individual effort, and it's a lot easier to justify that effort when the gas is coming from your own pocketbook. So you can train your drivers to hypermile, but will they actually do it? In my experience, it's hard enough to make your drivers drive their routes without taking creative detours, let alone micro-manage how far down they press the gas pedal.

If you're looking to save some gas money, or want another metric to out-elite your buddies who drive hybrids, then hypermile away. Just don't draft behind me or blow a tire next to me! If you have a fleet, and you want to save gas money, better to track routes using GPS.

I'm just sayin'.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.FoxTraxGPS.com

Only in America

2008-06-25T08:31:00.003-05:00

Here's a strange story coming out of New York City. The street performer known as the Naked Cowboy is suing M&M for trademark infringement. He plays his acoustic guitar in the Time Square wearing only a cowboy hat, boots, and underpants, and has become something of a New York icon.

Enough of an icon, in fact, that the Mars Corporation dressed a blue M&M up as him on a billboard and people got the joke. The problem is that the "Naked Cowboy" image has in fact been trademarked by Robert Burck, the street performer who created the persona. He's suing for $100 million in punitive damages.

That's a little steep, in my opinion. It's like, what, 400 gallons of gas (in New York)? In all seriousness, though, if M&M is going to use his likeness to sell their product, it stands to reason that he should be compensated, but if they had approached him about it and he had asked for $100 million, methinks that M&M would have gone a different route.

But I have one burning question. Actually, I have a lot of questions, but most of them are sarcasm and rhetoric. What I want to know is: how much money is he making as a street performer that he trademarked his appearance?

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.FoxtTaxGPS.com
888-779-8870

The Instinct

2008-06-23T09:10:00.004-05:00

So this weekend Samsung released their new "Instinct", their computer-in-your-pocket answer to Apple's iPhone. They've had some amusing mock-trailers that have been running in movie theaters (which, between that and Honda's Navi commercials in theaters, is GPS the new Coke?). It's an entertaining spot: lots of explosions, and it manages to poke fun at movies, movie trailers, and product placement, all while explaining its features and instilling some name-recognition.

Problem is, it kept comparing itself to the iPhone. Rather than let it stand on it's merits, it essentially billed itself as "the other iPhone", and while there's nothing inherently wrong with that, it just goes to show who really owns the market for these sort of devices. Maybe if they'd only said it once.

Either way, seeing this commercial over the weekend while waiting for Get Smart to start has led me to one inevitable conclusion about Apple's next product line.

The iShoe.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.FoxTraxGPS.com
866-686-2780

Up in the Sky, It's a Bird, It's a Plane...

2008-06-19T09:52:00.003-05:00

Today Kent Couch has announced that he will be taking to the skies again next month. Last July he flew 193 miles, no small feat when you consider the type of craft Couch pilots.

He flies a lawn chair.

He uses some amateur instruments to measure speed and altitude, five gallons of water for ballast, 105 large helium balloons for lift, and a parachute for landing. He'll be tracking his progress using a GPS device and you'll be able to track him as well in real time on his website: www.couchballoons.com.

Couch's original flight took him from Bend, Oregon to Union, just shy of the Idaho border. His launch is scheduled for July 5th.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.foxtrax-online.com
866-686-2780

I Approve This Message

2008-06-18T08:42:00.003-05:00

I have a fond memory of a commercial that used to run on local St. Louis stations. It featured 3 people in faux gypsy garb standing an area rug that had been blue-screened in front of a helicopter shot of the arch. It was supposed to look like a flying carpet. Instead, it looked like three mid-westerners dressed as pirates on a blue-screen stage. It was poorly acted, had that grainy shot-with-a-home-VHS-camera look, yet it had a certain charm, nonetheless.

Yesterday I was pointed to a site called Spot Runner that makes pre-fabricated, customizable TV advertisements and sells them for as little as $499 apiece (they do other things as well, but this is what caught my attention). They've been fairly successful, and their success in the small business advertising realm led them to branch out into another lucrative field.

Politics.

For $500, you can make a classy political ad. Fade from a statue of Thomas Jefferson into your face while you talk to police officers (about issues, of course, not your overdue parking tickets). They have lots to choose from, even attack ads ("A vote for Jon Doe is a vote against public education"). I don't know whether to be frightened or impressed. On the one hand, it gives less-well-funded (read as "third party") candidates a slightly more level playing field, since they are able to produce quality ads on a budget. On the other hand, it does point out the vapid, generic nature of political advertising.

Then again, maybe that's a good thing.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.foxtrax-online.com
866-686-2780

They're Not Monkeys

2008-06-17T08:49:00.003-05:00

So I ran across the following headline on CNN.com:

Apes Watch Iowa Floodwaters from on High

My first thought was, "that's not a very nice thing to say about Iowans", but I read on and learned that Iowa is actually the home of North America's lead orangutan and bonobo research centers. Research has been at a standstill with the rising water.

I don't mean to make light of an ongoing catastrophe, merely to comment that science and technology are wonderful things, but apparently we're still beholden to natural disasters. Decorah, Iowa, issued an order to its citizens to not flush their toilets for fear that the sanitary system might fail. And it got me to thinking. Today it is virtually impossible to get around in life without a cell phone. Ten years ago this wasn't the case, but today we take that technology for granted. My grandparents have a cellphone. It's considered a necessity.

And I imagine suddenly having to do without a flushing toilet might change one's perspective on that.

The good news is that, thanks to the experience with rising rivers in 1993, Iowans have been better-prepared for this flood and a lot of the potential damage has been averted (although a lot of damage has still occurred). The estimated death toll is between 1 and 6, which is pretty encouraging as disasters go. Also, the citizens of Decorah are allowed to flush their toilets again (albeit they're encouraged to do so carefully... whatever that might mean), and the apes, well, the apes are just fine.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.foxtrax-online.com
866-686-2780

Which GPS Reporting Strategy is Right for You?

2008-06-16T09:00:00.000-05:00

With all of the recent entrants to the GPS vehicle tracking business, I have seen a proliferation of location reporting strategies. Some are just not worth having when you consider what you can get by using newer technology. Here is a rundown of the reporting strategies I've seen lately.

Limited Pull Reporting – The device only reports its location
when asked by the customer. The customer is limited to a certain number of queries per month. Typically, these are legacy systems that report on a wireless network via SMS (text) message. The cost per report is very high because the wireless companies make a lot of money on text messaging.
- If you want to log into a system at 5:00PM and see where your
  vehicle has been during the day this system isn't for you.
- If you really, really need to know where the vehicle is right
  now this system is not for you. The unit might not be able to get a fix or wireless connection when you ask if it is in a metal building or parking garage. A "push" system with a good reporting strategy, discussed next, will leave a bread-crumb trail that ends at the entrance to the parking garage or other wireless dead spot. So you will be able to locate the tracker even if it can't currently get a fix.
- If you want to calculate stop and drive times for a vehicle's
  daily route this system is not for you.
- If you want to calculate daily mileage driven this system is
  not for you.
Fixed-Interval Push Reporting – The device pushes points out
at a regular interval and the providers system stores the points for later review. Generally, the intervals are 1-minute and up. These can be good systems, but the stone-ax simple reporting strategy still falls short in some respects. The customer pays a penalty in terms of cost vs. benefit because the provider has to pay the wireless provider for transmitting tons of useless data. Consider a fixed 1-minute reporting interval. Much of the time the reports are not interesting because the tracker is sitting still. But sometimes you need more frequent reporting data. As an example, try driving around the block in 60 seconds. It's not too hard to do. Now think about the distance that would be measured from report to report. It would fall far short of the actual distance driven. A smarter reporting strategy knows when to report and when not to.

Flexible-Interval Push Reporting – Here, we have nirvana. The
system reports based on multiple factors. Typically, these systems will have a minimum reporting interval -- report no more often than x seconds, a minimum reporting radius – do not report if the device hasn't moved at least x meters, and a maximum reporting interval – report at least once every x minutes. It might even report based on speed and direction changes. With these systems you get lots of interesting data and little uninteresting data, and you are not paying data transmission costs for useless, repetitive data.

Reporting interval isn't the only consideration in buying a tracker.
Some companies might need satellite-based systems for tracking in remote areas. Some very simple schemes might be very cost effective for other applications. Containers, for instance, can be tracked effectively with a once-daily fixed report. But as always, the motto is "Buyer beware." There are plenty of providers, particularly those who sell a year's worth of tracking in one payment, who will sell you a system that does not do what you need.

Patrick Brannan

President
FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.foxtrax-online.com
866-686-2780

Those Other GPS's

2008-06-13T08:00:00.004-05:00

GPS stands for Global Positioning System. But apparently it also stands for a lot of other things. So, courtesy of Wikipedia, here are a few of the other GPS's you might run across.

There's an Englsih Progressive Rock band GPS, which is derived from the last names of the three principal musicians: Govan, Payne, and Schellen.

A GPS could be a Gunner's Primary Sight on an M1 Tank

GPS also stands for GNAT Programming Studio, a programming development environment (IDE). Wait, GPS is a GNAT IDE? OMG!

Then there's Generalized Processor Sharing, a theoretical communications discipline that isn't actually possible. And speaking of not-quite-useful applications, there's the General Problem Solver GPS, a computer program designed to systematically solve puzzles like the Towers of Hanoi or find chess solutions. It turned out to be incapable to handling real world problems, but it eventually paved the way for future programs.

"gps" is a linux command, and GPs is often used to abbreviate "Gold Pieces" used as currency in some older video games.

Then there are a handful of schools that go by GPS. GPS Schools is an association of private boys' schools in New South Wales. Australia also has the Great Public Schools Association of Queensland Inc. There's the Greenvale Primary School, Arizona's Gilbert Public Schools, Chattanooga's Girls Preparatory School, and for you John Cusack fans out there: Michigan's Grosse Pointe South High School.

And lastly, GPS is the abbreviation for Fareed Zakaria's Global Public Square show on CNN.

Have a good weekend.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.foxtrax-online.com
866-686-2780

How Did I Ever Survive Without My GPS Jacket?

2008-06-12T08:17:00.002-05:00

A company in the UK called Bladerunner is offering a jacket with built-in GPS tracking. Originally intended for mountain climbers, their biggest customers now are actually parents worried about their children being lost or kidnapped.

While slightly macabre, it's indicative of an emerging world in which GPS is ubiquitous and we're getting used to the idea of always knowing where our loved ones and friends are. Echoes of this creep up in social networking sites, again, designed to let your friends know where you are and what you're doing at every moment.

How long will it be until we start to notice the pangs of withdrawal when we can't find our friends after being so used to having access to every last detail about their life? Like nowadays when we wonder how we ever got by without cell-phones. I remember the last time I was at an amusement park--when our group broke up into smaller pairs to go pursue various rides and activities, rather than arrange a rendezvous point/time, we knew to call each other when it was time to meet for dinner. We had grown so accustomed to the convenience of the phone that the idea of navigating an amusement park without one struck us as oddly foreign.

Strange.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking
Clever solutions for vehicle tracking
www.foxtrax-online.com
866-686-2780

Pat Responds: iPhone, Therefore iAm

2008-06-11T10:13:00.003-05:00

I think it’s hard to say whether the iPhone will kill traditional GPS.

First, this kind of application has been available on phones for a while. My phone has Google maps and Microsoft maps. Both work fine. Neither are anywhere near as good as my wife’s $250 Garmin Nuvi.

Second, there's the concept of “Ergonomic niches.” There is an ergonomic niche for a device with a big screen that sits in a suction-cup mount attached to the windshield and does nothing except find restaurants, find gas stations, show maps and deliver directions.

There's also the technical limitations of tracking on a phone. Battery life is one issue. And, oh, by the way, what do you do when you to make and receive calls while driving? I guess that he figures everyone will finally get on the Bluetooth bandwagon after 10 years of not doing it. But we know that won’t happen because nobody can keep track of the little headsets.

The price of dedicated GPS navigators continues to drop as well. Many people will look at the convenience and continue to decide that it is worth the price to have a reliable dedicated navigation device in the car.

So I think that there is an ergonomic niche for a navigation device that you don’t also hold up to your head and talk on. Mapping on smart-phones is great but will not replace dedicated units.

My guess is that Garmin’s stock is not dropping because of the iPhone. It’s dropping because they are in a competitive market in which the easy pickings have been taken.

iPhone, Therefore iAm

2008-06-10T10:10:00.004-05:00

Big tech news this week:

Apple has unveiled the new iPhone 3G, which will cost $199 and is poised to decimate the consumer GPS industry. We're not worried--we're more of a fleet-management service--but Garmin and TomTom are. Their responses to Apple are quite different.

Garmin has announced the Nuviphone, which will be GPS, internet and phone all in one. There's no word on pricing or carrier yet, but unless it's a popular (or open) carrier and unless it costs less than $200 (which is unlikely, given Garmin's other lines), then they're sole selling point is going to be that the Nuviphone speaks driving directions while the iPhone doesn't. Yet.

TomTom's reponse was a write an app for the iPhone that speaks driving directions.

More and more in the telecommunications industry, we're seeing formerly separated markets blur together--established players suddenly become competitors. Look at AT&T's U-Verse, poised to wreak havoc on Charter and Comcast. If you had told me that ten years ago cable companies were going to be seriously threatened by a phone company, I'd have given you a funny look.

And now we have the iPhone, an affordable mp3-player/computer/e-mail-client/GPS device with a longer battery life than the last generation and internet speed that's almost as fast as Wi-Fi, not to mention an army of brand-devotees. Retailers won't be able to keep them on the shelves. Personally, I don't think Garmin has a chance.

Of course, Google still hasn't shown their hand with Android yet, and I've heard rumors that we'll be getting some news to that effect sometime next week. Should be interesting.

Unemployment

2008-06-09T09:55:00.004-05:00

Wall Street seems to be recovering slowly from the 400 point drop at close of business Friday. Of course, it's only 10 am now, so the day's fire sale may be yet to come, but I'll be cautiously optimistic that prices will pick up at least a little throughout the day.

This has not been a good year for stocks in general, but last week's dip was triggered by the new jobless numbers, which were much higher than expected. To count d(i.e. to be counted) as "unemployed" a person must actively be seeking employment. A full-time homemaker, for example, doesn't count as unemployed because he/she isn't trying to find work. Analysts suggest that the numbers were high, not because people have been out of work, but because more people entered the workforce than was anticipated. You get a spike this time of year anyway, what with high school and college graduates suddenly throwing their names into the labor pool. So why were the numbers so high this time?

Well, there are a couple of possibilities. First of all, it could be that fewer high school grads are going to college (I have no numbers to support this, by the way, just a theory). In that case, the added spike now will eventually be offset by a reduced spike four to five years from now when those people would have left college.

But I've got an even better theory. One of my old econ profs told me that one of the shortcomings of only looking at those actively seeking employment was that it left out people for whom employment was only one viable option. For example, if someone found themselves out of work at the start of an economic downturn and reasoned that they would likely be out of work for a few years, then they might decide to go back to school and complete their masters or something like that. They would effectively be taking themselves out of the workforce and not be counted as unemployed, even though they would have been employed if the economy were stronger.

People in this situation are essentially under-reported by the current unemployment index. So here's my idea. The post-9-11 prolonged economic downturn (or stagnation, or recession--whatever you call it, it's not a boom) has steadily driven people into continuing their education and now, six years on, they've run out of schooling and are trying to re-enter the workforce. That caused (at least partially) the spike in unemployment which led to the surge in oil speculation, etc, etc, etc.

Just a theory.

Bonus rant: the other drawback to the unemployment index is that it doesn't count "underemployment", e.g., people who have a degree in meteorology and work at McDonald's. It is another sign of economic strength, but it isn't represented. That said, the unemployment index is quite useful in spite of its imperfections, so I don't mean to rag on it too much. Any metric is going to be a mix of uses and shortcomings.

FoxTrax GPS Fleet Tracking

2008-06-08T08:04:00.000-05:00

Who We Are:

FoxTrax GPS Vehicle Tracking provides affordable, real-time fleet management solutions for small to medium-sized businesses. We offer cost-effective ways for businesses to manage their employees by tracking routes, drive times and stops. With our tracking service, you can reduce maintenance and fuel costs and have a better picture of how your drivers are using your equipment.

We have trackers starting as low as $84.99 and offer service packages without contracts or hidden startup fees. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, FoxTrax operates all over the continental United States. We have the clever solution to your vehicle tracking needs!

www.foxtrax-online.com
866-686-2780