Larry,
You make this stuff sound wonderful, but in fact it scares the hell out of
me. Navigation using uncertified charts? Since when is this progress? Sounds
like stupidity to me. Close your eyes and imagine the court ruling in an
accident liability case when you tell the court you were using uncertified
charts from the internet after causing massive property damage and or loss
of life.
Steve


"Larry" wrote in message
...
Have you guys been to:
http://demo.geogarage.com/noaa/
Where Google Maps and satellite views get the marine chart overlays?

Take a look....(c;

My little Nokia N800 Linux internet tablet has an open source freeware
app the Linux hacker geniuses wrote called Maemo Mapper that uses these
tiles and a little Bluetooth GPS receiver (12 channel, WAAS-corrected,
very sensitive, size of a matchbox) to put a fix, track your progress, do
waypoints and plan routes on a wide variety of map tile repositories it
downloads and stores from open internet repositories such as Google,
Virtual Earth, open source map repositories, NOAA weather radar LIVE,
Terraserver, Runway Finder (latest aviation charts!)....etc., etc., more
every week. On the road, it connects to Points of Interest databases so
detailed it even has the self-serve laundromat up the street, complete
with their phone numbers you can use while ashore in some strange port,
lost as usual trying to find that maritime museum in Tahiti. You'll
carry the tablet while ashore walking around with the little GPS in your
watch pocket of your jeans. That way you won't get lost in Key West,
again, next time and can find that special bar right on the map!

I'm in contact with the guys who wrote Maemo Mapper (open source
freeware) for the Maemo Linux tablets, and am trying to get them to do
what's necessary to get Marine Charts, with your boat's position tracking
on top of them.....no, no...not those OLD, OBSOLETE charts from 1989 on
the damned expensive chart plugs....straight off the internet with the
latest charts available for FREE! So, there you are cruising the ICW or
your favorite Chesapeake Bay, tracking your course on top of the latest
marine chart...or...Virtual Earth's latest satellite photo...or...any of
many land mapping sources...with the LATEST weather radar picture
directly from the NOAA doppler radar available by clicking the WX icon
over any picture/chart/map...all in relation to your course being plotted
by a $230 Linux internet tablet connected through your Bluetooth cellular
phone's internet service to shore.....if it can connect, of course. If
not, it'll use the STORED maps/charts/tile photos from your two 16GB SDHC
memory cards ($59 ea at buy.com when I got mine.)

Interested??.....(c;

http://www.nseries.com/n800
the tablet....

http://maemo.org/downloads/OS2008/
all the freeware for it.

http://maemo.org/downloads/product/OS2008/maemo-mapper/
the open source freeware mapper program
(installs on the tablet by coming to this page and clicking
that green arrow's .install program. Linux is easier than WinXP.)

http://www.youtube.com/results?
search_query=maemo+mapper&search_type=&aq=f
some older videos on using Maemo Mapper not related to a marine
environment....

Search Google for maemo mapper to get lots more info on this
fantastic little Linux program.....

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So, there I hope you'll be, crusing down the ICW plotted within a couple
of ft by the little GPS up under the bimini in a ziplock bag. Wherever
you are on the boat, not just tethered to wires at the helm, you can look
at your tablet and see where you are on the chart. Wondering what the
terrain looks like up ahead, you click up the menu button to the left of
the screen, click MAPS and pick VE Hybrid from the list of repositories.
Maemo mapper switches itself from the NOAA chart to Virtual Earth's
latest satellite photo with all the local streets and roads around you
nicely plotted and labeled...EXACTLY where the chart just was with your
little blue icon in the center. You look up around the bend from a real
picture and see some docks to look out for sticking out from shore and
the fork in the ICW not far beyond you need to take the left channel on
according to the chart you just left. You press the WX clicker and NOAA
weather radar's NEXRAD displays on the satphoto (or chart as selected)
showing you a nasty thunderstorm about 12 miles ahead you've heard
banging away in the distance but can't see where it is for the trees and
terrain, here. Now you know the storm's exact location on the chart and
can keep an eye on it to see if it is approaching your course of going
the other way.....

Lying comfortably in your aft cabin with the tablet on your pillow, you
decide you can snooze a little longer before being needed on deck. You
put the tablet in LOCK mode, shutting down the display, but the programs
keep tracking your movements and that weather cell for instant retrieval
without having to boot up. In standby with the display off, you don't
need to charge it for days....It runs for 6 hours at full brightness, not
45 minutes like the damned laptop battery hog at the chart table. It
charges in an hour, ready for a few more watches....

This is what I'm trying to get the Mapper hackers to do for you...(c;

Not $1500, Not $2400, Not $699.......$230 for the tablet, $0 for the
software and data off your cellphone, $100 for the tiny GPS box that
recharges in an hour and runs for 22 on its little cellphone battery
that's also user changeable as easy as your cellphone's.

Still interested??

You'll switch Maemo Mapper to the runwayfinders.com aviation charts next
week when you fly down to Miami....exactly like this, too....(c;

After you've docked, you'll connect the tablet to the marina's wifi (it's
5 times as sensitive as the most expensive laptop we can find) so you can
click up Streamtuner and pick one of its 15,000 radio stations across the
planet streaming on the internet....or watch any number of internet
videos from youtube on MyTube those hackers wrote for it free....or use
mplayer to play one of the DivX movies you loaded on its external card
off alt.binaries.movies.divx newsgroup. Who needs XM?? How silly....

iPhone my ass.........