Steve Allen wrote: > I can't help but notice that these GPS navigation systems seem to have > much worse problems with human-computer interface issues than they do > with leap seconds. > > http://www.metronews.ca/story_local.aspx? > id=29004&searchtype=1&fragment=False
This seems to have been more of a human-human interface issue. Aubrey and Pullings would never have put up with it. They don't indicate how the GPS was being used at the time. When I've taken the B.C. ferries (from Seattle, Port Angeles and Tsawwassen, and return), being able to see the passage was a big draw and we never considered a nighttime crossing. (Well, the trip from PA is pretty dull until the end - but dull is safer.) Now that I think about it, though, the ferries were coming and going into the evening when we spent a couple of nights at the Edgewater in Seattle. Are the bridge personnel really solely responsible for not running the ferry onto a rock at midnight? Surely they should be paying as much or more attention to various lights and buoys marking the channel than to the instruments? The report doesn't indicate fog. Maybe this story will get some discussion in comp.risks. ...on the other hand, I hadn't realized piloting a ferry involved such similar challenges as face the astronaut corps. Rob _______________________________________________ LEAPSECS mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs
