Originally posted by Jeff Strubberg:
Hacked? I think you are confusing satellite control systems and the social security system or something. I guarantee you if it was easy to hack millitary satellite systems, our enemies would have shut those sats down long ago.
You know a ton more about map and compass than I do. I can find the road I parked my truck on and that's about it. There's no reason to demonize GPS to justify a personal decision, though.
I'm not trying to demonise something to justify a personal decision. I was born, brought up, and served in the British army and learned how to use a map and compass at a young age. It wasn't a personal decision, there wasn't anything else to use.
And now i have a choice i look at the choice fully.
The Pentagon have been trying to extradite an Autistic young man from the UK for years now for hacking into their systems and causing damage.
Luckily he wasn't actually doing it to cause mischief, he was only looking for evidence of UFO's, although the Pentagon claims he caused $millions of damage in doing that. But the point stands, if an amateur can do it then others certainly can. No system is completely safe from attack.
Then there's China. Blowing up satellites in orbit showering the hole place in high speed debris flying everywhere. One bit of that debris, or other space rubbish, hits a GPS satellite and then where will you be?
Then there's meteor showers - regular occurrences. Only a matter of time before one of those takes out an important satellite.
As i said, i'm not trying to demonise this. Just stating the facts as to the vulnerability of modern technology. Rely on it completely without any back up and you could find yourself in serious problems.
Play with your GPS by all means, fun toy, but please, learn to read a map and use a compass, it could really save your life.