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DavidW Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: 17/05/2003 02:26:21 Posts: 3747 Location: Bedfordshire, UK
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Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 10:00 pm Post subject: I've reached 1500 posts |
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Noticing that my post counter had reached 1499, I decided to use the 1500th post for a little retrospective.
I came to this site a year and five days ago as a newbie - considering the purchase of a navigation system to go with my iPAQ 3970. I was no novice to Pocket PCs, having bought my 3970 in September 2002. I bought the iPAQ and a Bluetooth mobile phone (Nokia 6310i) to replace my old Nokia 9110 Communicator. I've used the iPAQ very heavily ever since I bought it; just one problem from my various health problems is that I can hardly write, so having a Personal Digital Assistant is a real enabler for me.
I was no novice to computers in general. I'd been interested in computers since 1981 (at the age of six!), and was a software engineer until my deteriorating health forced me to stop work in 1994.
I had a background in things radio from amateur radio, as I have held a full licence for quite a few years. I was Class A until the distinction was abolished - I passed my 12wpm Morse test in 1996 if I remember rightly. For a while I instructed what was then called the Novice Amateur Radio Course (what was the Novice licence then is now the Intermediate licence), though my deteriorating health brought an end to that. I had heard one good lecture on professional GPS at my local amateur radio club.
I have a scientific background - at university I studied chemistry, though I took a lot of physics options.
Coming to these forums, I found a group of knowledgeable people who were willing to share their knowledge. My participation has often been fairly substantial, but there have been some enforced long breaks because of my poor health. I came back last around the time of CeBIT this year, and with the interest since that time, not least with the launch of TomTom Navigator 3, the forums seem busier than ever, as has my posting - I've gone from about 1009 posts to 1500 in the past two months (as well as another approximately 50 posts that were lost during the server move).
It's been my privilege to be able to offer what help I can here; there's a lot of problems that are easy to solve when you know how, but quite baffling when you're by yourself. It doesn't help that it's so often unclear which technical support number you should call, and often the support lines don't tell you anything useful anyway!
I've learnt a great deal as I've contributed - often my answers to people are based on information I picked up in the forums as well as using my own setup (currently an iPAQ 3970 running Pocket PC 2003, a 512MB Integral (Panasonic) SD card, TomTom Navigator 3, a Haicom HI-303MMF GPS in a Pretec PC Card / CompactFlash adapter and a HP PC Card Expansion Pack Plus - used with TomTom Navigator 3 and GPSAssist 2.1).
Thanks to everyone for making these forums a good-natured place to be. The irony of my participation here is that I can go as much as three weeks at a time without being well enough to leave the house, but at least I can do something useful by helping others here.
I can't see these forums getting quieter any time soon - there seems to be increasing interest in navigation systems, especially as the hardware gets increasingly inexpensive. For what I paid for my 3970 in 2002 (560 pounds), you could buy a complete navigation system these days! I'm sure there'll be plenty more questions to answer in the future.
With best wishes to you all,
David |
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ikd Occasional Visitor
Joined: May 13, 2004 Posts: 7
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Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 11:48 pm Post subject: |
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Congratulations on the 1500 posts and in a year 8O
I hope your health doesn't preclude you from posting in the future, or doing what you want to do . At this rate you will have reached 2000 by August 8O 8O |
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Tree Occasional Visitor
Joined: May 10, 2004 Posts: 21 Location: Doncaster. South Yorkshire. England
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Posted: Sun May 23, 2004 7:58 am Post subject: |
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Way to go David! Walking is also good in a Forest too m8! Yes, although there are quite alot of postings on here when one talks to the 'public' about G.P.S. Some know BUT lots don't know... I feel it going to boom soon! Also I wished I had my Garmin GPSMAP60C [with full Europe City Select ver.6] years ago. I would have saved quite a lot on petrol from getting 'kinda' lost as even in the UK some signs are 10-1! I also feel very safe with it somehow........
I have not been as excited over a 'gadget' since the ol' CB days in the 80's 10-4 Good Buddy! |
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Talkingbollox Frequent Visitor
Joined: 14/10/2002 15:11:34 Posts: 439 Location: United Kingdom
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Posted: Sun May 23, 2004 10:48 am Post subject: |
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David
Carry on the good work!
I don't believe the forum posting statistics. From your profile : posts 1507 [4.35% of total / 83.72 posts per day]
If that was true then you would be responsible for over 30,000 posts over 365 days!!
Wishing you good health
TB |
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DavidW Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: 17/05/2003 02:26:21 Posts: 3747 Location: Bedfordshire, UK
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Posted: Sun May 23, 2004 2:03 pm Post subject: |
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The stats are wrong as they run from the date the forum software was changed to the current PHP-Nuke. Both the number of posts and the posts themselves were carried over from the old to the new forums.
I shall have to enjoy memories of walking in forests. Still, I'm one that's grateful for the memories I have, and I've got a great line in vicarious tourism (I let others do the travelling, then they can tell me about it).
Unfortunately power chairs tend to get stuck pretty quickly once you go away from paths and other solid surfaces. You can manage some pretty frightening slides down hill on soggy fallen leaves though (me plus my chair is nearly 200kg, so there's a lot of energy involved).
David |
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BoPeep Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: 14/03/2003 22:46:42 Posts: 953 Location: Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom
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Posted: Mon May 24, 2004 3:53 pm Post subject: Congratulations! |
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Yes, congrats David!
1500 posts is most impressive, and I think I speak for most people when I say that you are one of the most trusted posters on the forum for accurate and helpful advice, which means a lot to people.
Thank you for sharing your extensive knowledge with the rest of us and long may it continue!
You certainly started your interest in computers early, and I noticed from the year you gave that you were getting into computers just as I was being born!
Take care,
Bo Peep. _________________ TomTom 730
HTC Desire - Co Pilot Live Premium (Europe) |
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Dave Frequent Visitor
Joined: Sep 10, 2003 Posts: 6460 Location: UK
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Posted: Mon May 24, 2004 6:27 pm Post subject: |
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Congrats on reaching the 1500 marker! Realistically you probably made that figure a month ago as we did lose around 7,000 posts when we migrated nearly a year ago from the old forum software to the new software, but we had to do a clear down prior to the migration of some of the older messages. |
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