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> By far the biggest misconception about GPS is that the GPS satellites somehow know where you are, or that your device transmits something to the satellite. I
by mseebach 12y ago
> By far the biggest misconception about GPS is that the GPS satellites somehow know where you are, or that your device transmits something to the satellite.
I didn't think that was a common misconception, but then, in the article:
>> The military immediately — finally — [realized the spying benefits of GPS].
The bracketed piece is a link to http://www.army.mil/article/7457/gps-goes-to-war---the-global-positioning-system-in-operation-desert-storm/ http://www.army.mil/article/7457/gps-goes-to-war---the-globa... which talks about the military using GPS for straight forward positioning, not a word about spying.
That's really shoddy writing.
- hga 12y agoYeah, really bad. The "unwanted" strikes me as completely unjustified: that it had to compete for extremely scarce post-Vietnam War '70s defense dollars is hardly remarkable, and there seems to be little excuse, the author's bio says he's "been reporting, reviewing and ranting about consumer electronics for 30 years", which should make him about my age, i.e. if wasn't politically etc. aware in part of the '70s, they were very recent history. Even the time line as quoted in the work is inconsistent: "By the early 1970s, several competing GPS ideas emerged, and the battling projects caused military paralysis until a serendipitous four-hour weekend meeting in November 1972...." Now, maybe it's just because I definately lived through that period, but I kinda thought 1972 was part of "the early 1970s".... Very sloppy writing.
- chiph 12y agoIn the tin-foil-beanie community, it's not quite as common a belief as chemtrails, but more so than the deep-underground-military-base meme.