RickCorey said:The software that interacts with Dave's is pretty smart, so it might handle some town names better than your ZIP code. I never tried a street address, because I don't want to post my home address publicly!

>> how to put my zip code in

There is a blue bar near the top of the main All Things Plants Home Page.
It has a button "Your Profile".
Next, under "Your Actions", click "Change your public profile"
Next, enter text to the right of "Your location".

You are right, wow, color me impressed ................ I'm just so used to stuff like this bein' 'off' that I don't pay much attention to it ( sadly, there are those that think it's 'gospel' and have paid with their life following mapquest, or tom tom in my neck of the woods )

I really love your town name.

I see you, tracerracer! South of Roseburg, NE of Grant's Pass, NW of Klamath Falls.
Near ScorpioAngel, Patti1957 and Doregone!

Cool!

>> paid with their life following mapquest, or tom tom

Usually I would agree with that, but once I was following some stupid suggestions from TomTom, getting more and more annoyed and sure I was being led down the Primrose Path. (Does Azalea Oregon have a Primrose Path? It should!)

So finally the dumb TomTom told me to turn into what looked like a dirt-covered private driveway and I resolved to start over with a paper map as soon as I had to back out of that cowpath.

Well, the cowpath dead-ended into the parking lot of the place I was looking for. If it were me, I would have approached it from the four-lane, brightly lighted road that the other parking lot exit led to, but probably TomTom, in it's infinite wisdom, traded a dozen turns and dark winding lanes to save me ten feet of distance.

Where did the term Tom Tom come from? The only time I've used a GPS is on our boat out in the San Juans and still got lost (I discovered one has to actually pay attention to the little screen, which clearly showed us going the wrong way...) My husband bought me one for Xmas several years ago -- one of those, 'Oh yeah, honey, that's exactly what I wanted...' moments. Ha ha. Definitely his toy.

We got a Garmen and I love it for when we travel some where we have never been. It has never steered us in the wrong direction, and very easy to use.
Last spring we took a trip through CA, AR, NM, CO, WY, UT, ID and back into OR. The desert is beautiful in the spring.
We were on a freeway in the Los Angeles area and got stuck because of an accident. No one was seriously injured, but it took a long time for them to clear the road. We sat, and creeped, and sat some more. After about 1/2 hour of this Mrs. Garmen spoke up and asked 'Would you like to switch to pedestrian mode?'. We laughed so hard.

Ha ha - that's pretty funny. I believe a Garmin is what we have as well, although I am pretty ignorant about how to use it. I've never thought to bring it on a road trip, must try that - perhaps I would learn how it works better.

It made it so easy to take side trips into nowhere, and not be worried we would get lost.

Well, if you are in S. Oregon, I HIGHLY recommend you do NOT 'rely' on it ( or figure in the 'end' it will be 'right') At the very least, use your brain.... a few yrs ago, a young family (the Kim family) out of San Francisco was on vacation and after being 'north' decided to go to the coast here in Oregon ( south coast)... Did they pay attention to all the exit sings as they headed south that state 'clearly' Oregon Coast? No their tom tom, garmin, mapquest ( whatever it was) 'showed' them the way to go, and THAT was all that mattered to them......... (hence, my use your own brain comment) It took them over Bear Creek, NOT an 'improved' road........... Can you get from here to there over that road? Yes........... ( BUT! NEVER in the fall, winter or early spring, and take Dramamine ) They ended up stuck in snow, the Dad took off, to 'find help' after a couple days and ended up dying from exposure... The Mom was still nursing the baby and kept her toddler alive by nursing him as well...... Days later and several hundred thousand dollars of search efforts found them........... Truly tragic, and terrible............... Several 'things seem to 'conspire against them'.. But, the one quote from the Mom that I can't get outta my head, was how the navigational 'thing' showed it to be a 'good route'.........................

I remember that. It was heart breaking to say the least.

I tend to argue with my computer-generated voice. It keeps telling me what to do!

Then I get really annoyed when it turns out to be right.

valleylynn said:I remember that. It was heart breaking to say the least.

Yes, and the 'local' around here remember it very well...... Please, if you have one of those things, don't let it 'override' common sense..... I think metro areas are probably MUCH more 'reliable' than here in the sticks

Tracy that's true, it even knows if there is construction (usually). I do remember that story and its sad! There was a story here in Seattle that is a happier funnier ending, but probably not to the people in the car...they were paying attention to their Garman, who told them to make a right turn as they were driving North along lake WA blvd. And so I guess they did, which put them right into the lake!! Really you couldn't see a lake in front of you?? The driver's excuse was their GPS

Once I was paying close attention to my TomTom with it's nagging about "stay in the right-most lane" etc,

I had not yet mounted it my dashboard (it would block the view). Well, thqat must be better than "lookin g down ", because a cop pulled over for "weaving". When he saw my TomTom NOT glued to the dashboard, he scolded me (and I have to agree).

If you look down at the little digital nagging box, you might swerve out of your lane, or in to a lake.

But it reminds me of someone's explanation : "I'm not nagging, I'm RIGHT!".

I also shared a cube briefly with a co-worker who posted a printed warning:
"I'm not bossy, you just need to be told what to do."

Yep! I've done a lot of self work on "not" trying to fix people!! Still get that little voice which has everyone else figured out!

gg5 said:Tracy that's true, it even knows if there is construction (usually). I do remember that story and its sad! There was a story here in Seattle that is a happier funnier ending, but probably not to the people in the car...they were paying attention to their Garman, who told them to make a right turn as they were driving North along lake WA blvd. And so I guess they did, which put them right into the lake!! Really you couldn't see a lake in front of you?? The driver's excuse was their GPS

( then again, common sense is a bit much to ask of some )

Haha! Yep!

Few things are as rare as 'common' sense!

On my last go-round with car buying, I specifically did NOT want a screen on my dashboard, wanted to be the boss of the seatbelts, and didn't want a car alarm. Only was able to get one out of three (no GPS). 2010 Forester. I rarely lock it so hopefully the alarm will never go off (I will not know how to turn it off). Does anyone know how to disable the seatbelt beep-beep annoyance? (I almost always do wear my seatbelt but there are occasions - driving across the street to the neighbor, down the hill on my own property - when I just let the ding-dang thing beep at me). Apologies...technology rant...

You tell 'em Deb !

Those SPECIFIC things aren't my hot buttons, but I grind my teeth about vendors who "know what I want".

I figure it's marketing VPs - they have to justify their 7-digit salaries SOMEHOW, and all the GOOD ideas were used up years ago.

In software, it's "feature creep". The product used to be usable, but they "improved" it until it's unusable. The sole USEFUL feature is hidden under a midden of obnoxious chatchkas.

"The opportunities were insurmountable."

Hello Everyone! I'm new to gardening and I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed I'm starting from scratch with a lumpy, messy, sloped, pie-wedge shaped, mostly shaded backyard that is currently only used by my dog I'm looking forward to getting my hands dirty and making it "mine". I will definitely be lurking around here for ideas and answers!