was an O wow for me

[woodmills1]

I was just done with a job at a customers today, tearing a drain pipe out of the end of a driveway and repairing the mess, when a truck from overhead door pulled in to tune up his garage doors.  I walked by the truck and noticed what looked like a large fuel filler cap right on the drivers side of the cowl.  Didn't have a clue what it was.  When the repair man came out I says, what's this.  GPS he says, they no where I am, when I arrive and leave and even how fast I am driving.

WOW   Big Brother for sure!

[Buzz-sawyer]

Yep,
Well even more amazing 2 years ago , I was contracting with nextel, and  thier cell phones could do all that and more .tell you how fast your employess were driving  
( if you buy nextel phones for employees) where they were at any moment and log it for you ......

[Quartlow]

Been doing satalite tracking for years with Semi's, Qualcomm is the biggest leader in that industry, Real time com systems and truck tracking. Big thing now is outfitting trailers with it so dispatchers know at a glance where trailers are all the time, also aids in reovering of stolen equipment,.

Yes big brother is watching

[DanG]

There are even systems now, that let parents know where their teenagers are with the family car, and how quickly they got there. ;D

[Murf]

We have a better system than that at the farm. The entire farm was soil sampled and 3-D surveyed (east x west x elevation) then fed into a computer in the office. It sends the info to a GPS system in the tractors and stuff.

The system also connects to the steering gear of the tractor, you barely even have to be there, the system knows where every row is and where the headlands begin & end. You could plow, plant, spray, cultivate or harvest in total darkness with no lights on if you wanted.

It took a little while to get used to rolling through a crop at 5 miles an hour turned around backwards watching the spray booms instead of steering the tractor.

It also knows, via the 'land base' in the computer, what areas of soil need how much fertilizer or not, as you roll along it starts, stops or adjusts the fertilizer delivery rate to suit the soil it's passin over at that moment.

The neat part is at harvest time, the computer tells the trucks where to be & when based on who's closest and how fast a combine is filling. No more waiting for someone to call and say the bin is full.

[CHARLIE]

I can understand having GPS tracking for businesses. Knowing where a vehicle is would be a huge advantage especially if the business was shipping or service related. I also think using GPS and computers to regulate the spreading herbicides and fertilizers for farming is super. It assures the right amount is put on the right place. I'm sure it saves a lot of money in the longrun.  But no way would I ever buy that "Onstar" for my private vehicles. Sure, there are cases for it, but I don't like the idea of a stranger knowing exactly where I am all the time....24/7.  Just like before I retired, I never carried a pager or a cell phone (except when we had a big software installation going on) because when I left work for the day......I left work.  There were workaholics and 2nd and 3rd shifts that would hunt you down if they could. I'm all for privacy.

[Timber_Framer]

And I thought it was a drag when my boss installed a Tattle Tail in my semi

The farming aplication sounds pretty cool

[TN_man]

Charlie, I am with you! ;) I like my privacy. Technolgies sure are convenient until a stranger starts telling you things about yourself that you don't know how in the world they found out. Especially if they are calling on the phone and have some funny accent. ???

[GF]

Heard this yesturday hadnt tried but the one sending it said they did and it worked.

If you have a remote door unlock for your car and lock in inside and the other is at home, you call call someone at your house on your cell phone and have them put the remote next to there phone and press the unlock button, your cell phone will need to be about a foot away from the door when they do this and they said it will unlock the door.   Dont know how true this is, hadnt tried it.

[Gilman]

GF,
That would probably work.  My friend got his credit cards stolen with a similar method while skiing.  He didn't know they were stolen for a couple of days when he went to use one.

The thiefs wait in a ski lot parking lot (or a mall) with a rf receiver and a laptop with a data acquistion program running.  When someone pulls into the parking lot they follow until you park your car.  Once you are parked and get out of the car they watch until they see you click the remote car lock on your key chain.  Once they see that, the know what part of the signal to keep off the data acquisition.  From there they have you code and wait for you to walk away.  They then unlock your vehicle, take what they want and then relock your vehicle.  This way they have more time before you know something was stolen.

This only works on some vehicles, ones where you can lock and unlock with the same button.  Some cars require two distinct signals for these two functions.

In large parking lots he now is back to using his key to lock the vehicle.

[Murf]

GF, a cell phone won't recieve and repeat a radio signal, in fact FCC rules say it's illegal to do it without a special license.

The scanner and signal capture would work, presuming they were within range, those little keyfob remotes put out a pretty feeble signal, especially after the batteries get a little weaker.

The wifes Bimmer has a two position keylock, if you turn the key halfway it only locks the door, when you turn it all the way it also deadbolts the doors and trunk and sets the alarm. If you fully lock it with the key, the remote control just toots the horn & flashes the lights when you hit the unlock button, it can't release the deadbolt, even the interior controls won't open it so crooks cant even use a slim-jim.

Now if they could come up with a GPS system that would tell me where the missus left the TV converter or cordless phone, then we'd have something to truly help mankind. :D

[GF]

Murf,
    It actually worked on there SUV they showed me, not sure what type lock/system they had.

[Bro. Noble]

 Lots of times, no one knows where I am or what I'm doing-----not even me :D :D

[rebocardo]

Most alarm systems work on infrared signals, so doing it over the phone will not work. Even doing it on tone freq. will not work because your phone uses a very limited bandwidth.