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Is National Differential GPS Lost?

Nealix writes, "This article at GPSWorld reports that National Differential GPS (NDGPS) is endangered in the 2007 budget. This has ramifications for a variety of government programs such as the Intelligent Transportation System and Positive Train Control by the Department of Transportation. Blind people and robots also benefit from highly accurate GPS navigational capability provided by NDGPS, which appears to work better in the urban canyons. If NDGPS loses, the winner would appear to be the FAA-backed Wide Area Augmentation Service (WAAS). Of course, what would be really cool is to see more GPS sites around the country make DGPS data (RTCM) available over the Internet."

7 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Not wishing to flame by Sexy+Bern · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Please, when using terms like "national", make it clear which nation you're talking about.

    The internet is GLOBAL!

    1. Re:Not wishing to flame by skroz · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      The internet is GLOBAL!


      But contrary to what you may believe, Slashdot ISN'T.
      --
      -- Minds are like parachutes... they work best when open.
    2. Re:Not wishing to flame by Morphine007 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      I'm Canadian, so I share your desire to know which Nation is being talked about.... but the big ol' American Flag in the article stub should've probably given it away, eh?

  2. Re:Of Course! by Killshot · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    RIP KGB CIA JUD FDA LSD FBI DMT ROM PCP UDA FCC KKK MAD CNN BBC EMI THC ICI TNT DNR MDA SAS JFK RAM CND IRS LED HBO GHB YSL RIP RIP RIP I am godhead You are godhead We are godhead Use it (Higher, Higher, Higher, Higher) OTO ABC RPM CNC MIT IRA EEC HRH KFC IBM HIV VCR VAT PLF NBC MGM ANC MOR MTV AAA HRT ATM TAZ DAR XTC FAA VIP CBS CID RAF DDT DOM DAT TVC QED UFO GOD USA RIP RIP RIP RIP I am godhead You are godhead We are godhead Use it

  3. Mod parent down; stupid. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Thanks, Natalie.

  4. Netcraft confirms: *BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of .01 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along.

    FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dbblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

  5. Re:Budget Cuts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    If we cut military spending, then the terrorists have one. So what if the terrorists have one, you ask? Well, the terrorists are Arabs, and Arabs invented zero, so now they have binary. As in binary weapons. Come on people, do I have to spell it out for you?