Dont trust AIS/Sat Nav
- Thread starter Sandyman
- Start date
Danny
Well-Known Member
I think that the current prediction is that the next maximum won't peak until halfway through 2013 and it's unlikely to be as severe as the 2000 peak.
pvb
Well-Known Member
As that story's a week old, you might have read it by now! Then you'd have seen that the scientists' guess is that there might be a 10 metre error in UK GPS positions. Is that such a big deal?
prv
Well-Known Member
pvb
Well-Known Member
macd
Well-Known Member
Here we go again.
Quotes from the article:
"The last time the Sun reached a peak in activity, satellite navigation was barely a consumer product."
The last peak was about 10 years ago.
"it [amount of GPS error] varies quite a lot across the Earth; looking at the UK it will be about 10-metre errors in the positioning."
We're all doomed.
"Ten metres out is probably going to be OK for a sat-nav system in a car, but if you're using the system for something safety-critical like ships coming into harbour... "
Didn't know sunspots also afflicted the Mk1 eyeball.
Quotes from the article:
"The last time the Sun reached a peak in activity, satellite navigation was barely a consumer product."
The last peak was about 10 years ago.
"it [amount of GPS error] varies quite a lot across the Earth; looking at the UK it will be about 10-metre errors in the positioning."
We're all doomed.
"Ten metres out is probably going to be OK for a sat-nav system in a car, but if you're using the system for something safety-critical like ships coming into harbour... "
Didn't know sunspots also afflicted the Mk1 eyeball.
Bilgediver
Well-Known Member
Twister_Ken
Well-Known Member
charles_reed
Well-Known Member
I for one have always been deeply suspicious of any of this new-fangled rubbish technology and still use my backstaff as being simple and unlikely to fail.
Mind you I'm having some difficulty with seeing things at all.
Danny
Well-Known Member
As we're emerging from a period of low solar activity it would seem a likely time to have a "...strongest flare in four years" (to quote the article).
Seakindly
Well-Known Member
Remember the 'millenium bug'? Billions chucked at it. Consultants made a fortune. Population cowed in fear of economic and technological melt-down. It's a sign of the times. We are no longer concerned about what's probable, but increasingly anxious about anything that's possible.
Searush
Well-Known Member
OOOhh, I'll keep an eye open for the Northern Lights then. It's years since I last saw them here in Staffordshire. Fabulous sight - especially when stood in one's own garden!
prv
Well-Known Member
Ever consider that it was that money and effort chucked at it that *made* it a non-event for most people? That was the desired result, and it was successfully achieved.
Yes, there was a lot of silly media exaggeration about your toaster exploding and gangs of post-apocalyptic zombies roaming the streets, but there were genuine problems in the computing infrastructure that needed to be fixed.
Pete
elton
Well-Known Member
The BBC are confusing a reduction in accuracy with errors. I don't think it's even possible for GPS to produce errors.
(And as prv suggest, hard work prevented the millenium bug causing problems - contrary to the ill-informed opinion of BBC's 'You and Yours' presenter, Winifred Robinson.)
(And as prv suggest, hard work prevented the millenium bug causing problems - contrary to the ill-informed opinion of BBC's 'You and Yours' presenter, Winifred Robinson.)
Seakindly
Well-Known Member
some of my best friends..
Now, no offence intended (some of my best friends are in IT...etc) but this point about 'possibilistic risk' and the paralyzing grip it has on western culture is worth getting a handle on. I don't know about Winnifred Robinson of the BBC but the Pentagon considered the millennium bug could reduce the US to a Balkan State. Lloyds of London refused to insure non-Y2K compliant ships. I have no doubt there were some software implications in some institutions -but aeroplanes falling out of the sky? You only have to do limited searching to find contemporary predictions of apocalyptic proportions by otherwise sober commentators and 'experts'. A detailed review of the policy and publicity showed that technical experts who had properly estimated the limited extent of the 'problem' just could not get a platform or opinion heard.
Seltzer has some useful insights on this:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Some-Perspective-5-Years-After-Y2K/
..but that's not point really - as Frank Farudi argues convincingly, the unknown was once an exciting challenge. Now it provokes anxiety and fear.
Thank goodness -everyone on this forum defies that by going to sea.
Farudi's piece is here:
http://www.frankfuredi.com/images/uploads/Furedi_-_issue_Pieterman_d.d._27_augustus1.pdf
Now, no offence intended (some of my best friends are in IT...etc) but this point about 'possibilistic risk' and the paralyzing grip it has on western culture is worth getting a handle on. I don't know about Winnifred Robinson of the BBC but the Pentagon considered the millennium bug could reduce the US to a Balkan State. Lloyds of London refused to insure non-Y2K compliant ships. I have no doubt there were some software implications in some institutions -but aeroplanes falling out of the sky? You only have to do limited searching to find contemporary predictions of apocalyptic proportions by otherwise sober commentators and 'experts'. A detailed review of the policy and publicity showed that technical experts who had properly estimated the limited extent of the 'problem' just could not get a platform or opinion heard.
Seltzer has some useful insights on this:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Some-Perspective-5-Years-After-Y2K/
..but that's not point really - as Frank Farudi argues convincingly, the unknown was once an exciting challenge. Now it provokes anxiety and fear.
Thank goodness -everyone on this forum defies that by going to sea.
Farudi's piece is here:
http://www.frankfuredi.com/images/uploads/Furedi_-_issue_Pieterman_d.d._27_augustus1.pdf
prv
Well-Known Member
geoid96
Well-Known Member
A recent authoritative article on the next solar cycle maximum and possible affects on GPS:
http://www.gpsworld.com/gnss-system/signal-processing/innovation-gnss-and-ionosphere-11036
http://www.gpsworld.com/gnss-system/signal-processing/innovation-gnss-and-ionosphere-11036
Slow_boat
Well-Known Member
I can't see any problem; plus or minus 10m is easily within eyesight and if you're in less than 20m visibility you shouldn't be straying near hazards anyway.
A non-story.
A non-story.
Beadle
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure that there is such a thing as "possiblistic risk" sounds vaguely oxymoronic.
But anyway - it doesn't matter because the flares from the sun are going to melt everything and destroy all electrical supply and generally shut down everything electrical.
But anyway - it doesn't matter because the flares from the sun are going to melt everything and destroy all electrical supply and generally shut down everything electrical.
Grumpybear
Well-Known Member
So, not as bad as the last peak, and at an individual level GPS users are much better protected. The biggest threat to our future (apart from the one we maust not name) is mass suicide resulting from hysteria resulting from or even provoked by the hype of journalists.