It wasn’t all smooth, but yesterday, I updated the map in my Garmin Nüvi 650 and realized that my Garmin now knows my home address! Living in a new house in a new subdivision, the various online map services have only just in the last 12-18 months begun to accept our home address as a valid location.

Of course, getting this map is never as easy as saying, “Update my map”, especially when you are trying to take advantage of a free offer. First I had to upgrade the system firmware. Then I had to get my Mac to talk to the GPS. Then I had to download the (2.16GB) map. But about an hour later I was done. So I thought.

I took the GPS out for a spin and realized it was no longer speaking the names of streets. After getting home and spending some time with Google, I found out that I needed a TTS (Text to Speech) voice for that feature. Except there wasn’t one listed.

Then I remembered during the system firmware update the note about “optional voices will be erased with the update, but you can download them again later.” I had ignored it because, hey, I had never added any optional voices. Apparently the TTS voice is optional, but happened to be loaded with my GPS.

As a further pain, I could not find anywhere on Garmin’s website how to update voices to the Mac. I found the PC installer, but no Mac information.

Frustrated, I loaded up the Garmin WebUpdater software to see if I could maybe revert back to the older version of firmware to get my TTS back. The second the WebUpdater software detected my GPS, it immediately offered to add optional voices, like my TTS back. Hey! Why didn’t they just say that in the first place!

So now, I’m happy. My GPS is back as it was with new maps. Now why couldn’t they have made that voice installation instruction a little more obvious? Hmmmph!

But everyone with a Garmin - if you want to come over and not have to punch in the address to the pool house to get here, get a map update!

Tags: Technology, Rants

Every year, parents all over the US go through this horrible experience called “Back to School Shopping”. I am happy to announce that this year, I’m done. Early. Now. Fini.

As schools begin to ask parents to supply more and more basic supplies, it becomes a bigger and bigger task to make sure your kids have all the right notebooks, pencils, tissues, etc., to do their work. You get a nice big list, and then head to the store where nothing is organized in remotely the same order as on your list.

I think I orbited the 4 aisles at least 4 times making sure I had all the necessary items. It probably took over half an hour. For someone like me who sets land speed records for getting in and out the doors at the grocery store, that’s an eternity.

It seems like if you were really good, you could make money shopping for people and delivering custom kits for your kids. But I’m not really good and the frustration isn’t worth the money to me. Can someone develop a standard for listing items, organizing items in the store, and then just put everything in one long aisle? Probably not.

All I can say is, I’m happy it’s over for this year.

I can’t wait until Andrew gets a little older and then we have to add on the pain of Back to School *clothes*.
Not.

Tags: Rants