dead ends and endless circles…

I gotta admit, the past couple weeks have often been more an exercise in frustration than in success or moving forward on projects I’ve been working on.

The effort to move the blogger florida ramblings to Google’s enforced custom domain has been one roadblock after another.  That process has been referenced in part in this blog, which has come to life out of said debacle.  After following Google/blogger’s instructions and meeting nothing but immovable walls, then discovering that to activate the necessary domain services I needed to make changes in my domain server’s services, I ran into a whole new set of problems.

In setting the domain to work with blogger, I lost not only visibility on the internet, but email access that was set up under the webhost.  The good news was that the blogger folders worked, the bad…everything else didn’t.

So, after frantic emails from the few people who are using email addresses under our domain, they could neither send nor receive email, I reset everything and have essentially given up on my original plan.

I hoped to at least merge the rss feeds for the two blogs, feedburner has no application to do this and Yahoo Pipes, which should, only picked up one of the feeds, not both.  Strike again.

I finally got out today to walk after about 10 days off due to tendinitis in my right Achilles tendon.  Slow going, but hopefully I”ll be able to return to full effort.  The “layoff” hasn’t been good for my physical self.

I spent several weeks on a friends computer and finally, after several halting starts, was able to get her back in business.  At least I hope so.  She hasn’t set it up and booted it since I returned it to her about two weeks ago.

My personal PC has been giving me a nagging problem ever since I reinstalled Window 7.  I opted for the 64-bit version for the benefits that come with that OS.  While the system operates very well, runs quickly and is mostly stable, when it goes to “sleep” wakes up then is in a situation where it will again go to “sleep” it ends up hanging and ends up with, in tech talk, a BSOD.  That’s “Blue Screen of Death” to those unfamiliar with the term.

If I try to do a normal shut down after either the first or second “sleep” cycle the computer will just hang in the shutdown mode and the only way to shut it off is to do a hard power off.  That’s not really all that good for it.

I thought it might be a memory problem, but after trying several options and diagnostics, and searching forums, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a Windows 7 64-bit problem that has a very elusive resolution.  The 32-bit version seems to be exempt from this.  I’ll keep after it, but it is going to be on again/off again.

So, for someone who is strongly task oriented, and generally successful in performing those tasks, I’m ready for some success without the extended frustrations of dead ends.  It seems like the best chance of that is turning on the TV, last time I tried that, it worked the first time.

Will new energy technology be defeated by old power?

Inventors: Solar Dish Could Revolutionize Energy Production

Just read this article on a new solar collector technology that is simple, inexpensive and efficient. American ingenuity is at work trying to find new, better ways of dealing with our energy needs.

Come on Washington, get out of the way and let the American people do what they do best, meet problems with innovative answers. We have some 300 million people in this nation and if turned loose, they can accomplish far more than 535 representatives in Washington who are so stricken with themselves they think only they have the answers.

Our leaders seemed to have forgotton that power corrupts, and truly, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Rarely attributed, the latter phrase is a quotation from Lord Acton, in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 1887.

That quote succinctly describes the political leadership in America 120 years later. And we the people will pay dearly for their corruption if we fail to take serious interest in and responsibility for our nation and return America to a Republic formed “for the people and by the people.”

“We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty.” – G. K. Chesterson

The charge of the light…uh…er…police!

CFLs, Compact Florescent Lights. One of the latest technologies in lighting is making a strong showing as the technology matures. I have a few around my home. In some ways I like them. Long life, low cost to use.

Though they are much more expensive, the 3-way I bought was about $9.75 compared to $2.85 for a comparable incandescent 3-way, the longer life and lower cost to operate make them a good buy in the long run.

Of course there are downsides. Due to their size, especially the base, not all lamp receptacles will accept them. I have one 3-way floor lamp that won’t. To use a 3-way CFL in that location I’ll have to buy a different lamp. But hey, it’s good for the economy, isn’t it?

They are also considered hazardous waste by the EPA and require special methods for cleanup and disposal, especially if broken. What about the long term “unintended” consequences. We Americans are good about that. Rush out to the latest, greatest, best thing, only to find out months or years later there’s something terribly wrong with it.

But wait, these things are made in China, only China. Let’s send more trade deficit to the nation that in 2007 brought us lead paint in children’s toys, industrial chemical poison in pet foods, antifreeze in toothpaste and more.

OK, all that aside, now comes along Congress and they want to tell us we “MUST” stop buying incandescent bulbs and switch everything over to CFLs. Looks like the CFL manufacturers lobby made some campaign contributions.

I’m all for conservative use of energy. After all, I AM a conservative. But what I don’t want is Congress telling me what I WILL do, especially in the privacy of my own home.

Liberals rail against those who have strong convictions on abortion and homosexuality. Their primary argument is no one should tell anyone what they should do in the privacy of their homes or even bedrooms.

But now this Liberal congress wants to invade the privacy of my home and mandate I use a technology that they dictate. Doesn’t this smack of hypocrisy?

Just for the record, I don’t want government telling me I have to wear a seat belt either. Should I wear one? Yes. Do I wear one? Of course. Do I wear it because the law requires it? Absolutely not!

I wear a seat belt because it’s stupid not to. Years of tests and studies have proven seat belts save lives. Two weeks ago I came upon a rollover accident moments after it happened where both occupants were thrown 10′s, perhaps 100′s of feet because they had no seat belts.

In the same way, CFL’s have benefits. But one thing they don’t have the benefit of is years of research. Do we really know how they will perform and what dangers they may impose years down the road?

So to Congress, get out of my personal life, quit telling me what I should buy to light up my life. CFL’s are OK and have many uses, but it’s not up to Congress to tell me to use them.

But, wait a second. I have a thought on how we can use them and maybe clean up Congress at the same time. Rep. Poe mentioned something that may help. Lets all grab a few CFL’s and toss them into Congress! According to the EPA, they will have to evacuate!

If we throw enough of ‘em, maybe the cleanup will take so long they’ll be out of session for several years and “we the people” will be able to take our country back from the career politicians and we can do something positive for this nation.

How ’bout it!

“We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty.” – G. K. Chesterson

Curing cancer…and our energy problems

I’ve been “covered up” the past few days with work obligations making it difficult to even think about posting. Not that there’s a lack of stuff to comment about.

One thing caught my attention though. As mentioned before, I listen to podcasts when I’m able to at work. I control what I listen to, it’s stuff that interests me, I’m not at the whim of some radio station and it’s more mentally engaging than just music.

On that note, I’ll have to post a list of my favorite podcasts sometime. But that’s for another time.

On my list of listening material is “Cranky Geeks,” a tech podcast that discusses all things technology.

On a recent podcast there was mentioned just in passing an item about an inventor, John Kanzius, who has discovered a way to attack cancer with radiowaves. It’s done by attaching minute metallic particles to the cancer cells and directing RF energy towards them, heating the metal and the cells, killing the cancer cells.

According to other researchers working in the next stage of the project, it holds great promise. The procedure has already been proven to work in animal subjects and the hope is to soon begin human trials. As it goes into further research and probably medical trials, Mr. Kanzius hopes he will be able to see the procedure used to help a cancer patient. Oh, he’s a cancer patient himself, he has leukemia.

But I said the mention on the podcast was in passing. The panel pretty much panned the idea, questioning if it could be done and how would they get the metal particles to the cells. If you weren’t paying attention you might have even missed the whole thing.

What really caught my attention though took place a few days later. A friend was over and she mentioned she had heard of a guy who had discovered a way to make fuel out of seawater. Huh! Like that’s been the “holy grail” for years! Making fuel out of water? Wow!!

While she was here I did a search and low and behold I found the article. It was a CBS news item, but the focus of the item wasn’t fuel from seawater, but killing cancer cells with RF waves.

It seems that in his RF/cancer research, Mr. Kanzius discovered that if he directed radio waves at seawater the chemical bonds of the seawater were weakened and the result was hydorgen. The same stuff others are wanting to use to make hydrogen fuel cells to power cars. Wow! Fuel from water!

To my knowledge, the energy angle to this has barely made a ripple in the news. The 5 and a half minute CBS broadcast of Mr. Kanzius’ cancer discovery didn’t mention it. It was the A/P print article along side that carried that part of the story.

Local Kentucky TV station, WKYC, produced a story on the energy angle that is heavily viewed on YouTube.

I’m just amazed that as big a story as energy has become in recent months, this discovery hasn’t received more air time. But then, hydrogen isn’t the “darling” of the environmental cartels. They are true believers in solar, wind, tidal. Anything that is even remotely linked to petroleum is anathama to them.

As I’ve mentioned before, to work our way out of this energy problem, we must employ all resources. We cannot depend on any single source. Hydrogen is a clean fuel. When it burns it gives off CO2 and H2O. That’s Carbon DiOxide and Water. For a fuel that’s as clean as it gets!

“We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty.” – G. K. Chesterson

A comprehensive solution needed

Finally, a major factor in the rising cost of crude oil and fuel is the decline of the dollar. Having lost about a third of its value since 2001, this loss of value has weighed heavily on the cost of foreign goods imported into the US. Taken another way, all else being equal, a barrel of oil that sells on the futures market for $133 would, with the dollar returned to its former strength, cost only about $90. That would result in a corresponding drop in the price of gasoline back to about $3.00 – $3.15 per gallon, just on the strength of the dollar.

Of course the question is, “how do we do this?” The short answer is, “we don’t.” The rise and fall of the dollar is a response to US monetary policy. In the US the Federal Reserve, a non-governmental group that wields huge control over the money supply, drives monetary policy.

In it’s attempts to thwart a slowing economy, fight inflation, stabilize the stock market and generally reassure everyone from Wall Street to Main Street, the Fed raises and lowers interest rates and increases and decreases the availability of money.

As it relates to the value of the US Dollar (USD), low interest rates, while good for business and consumers, decrease the investment potential of US currency, increase the investment potential and therefore demand of foreign currencies, and in the process lower the value of the dollar as it relates to the world currency market.

When the Fed increases the money supply, and the US Treasury increases the amount of dollars in the economy, the value of the dollar is diminished as well. The value of the dollar in your pocket is not fixed. It is based in the perceived value of that dollar as relates to the integrity of the US government to back it.

Many think the basis of the value of the dollar is the US Gold Reserves. They couldn’t be more wrong. The US total Gold Reserves is reported to be 8,133.5 tonnes valued at $256 billion, the largest in the world but a mere fraction of the total gold ever mined.

At the same time, the US M2 money supply as measured by the Federal Reserve is $7676.1 billion, or 30 times the total of US Gold Reserves. In practice this means that faith in the US government and economy are by far the driving factors in the value of this fiat currency called the US Dollar, not the objective value of an underlying treasury reserve.

Why does the value of gold go up in terms of US Dollars? In short it’s because the USD is seen as having less value. The same goes for the price of crude oil. Supply and demand being as they are, they affect the day-to-day price fluctuation of this commodity. The longer-term price is impacted by the value of the USD in the world.

The lower it goes, the less it buys and more of it is required to purchase a particular item of value.

To increase the value of the USD the Federal Reserve and US monetary policy should begin to take steps to normalize interest rates and money supply. While that may have a negative effect in the short term on the US economy, the short term pain would result in longer term gain.

Secondly, the US policy towards business should be less restrictive in terms of tax policy. As noted before, businesses do not pay taxes but merely collect them from consumers embedded in the cost of goods and services, from investors in lowered investment value and passes it on to government.

Corporate income taxes and such issues as the Lieberman-Warner “Cap and Trade” scheme currently before the US Senate saddle business with costs and expenses that strangle it in the world economy, often driving business and the attending jobs away from US shores to nation with more friendly tax policies.

Voters must demand that politicians get control of government spending, cutting back budgets and reducing spending to minimal levels and enact a transparent and balanced budget. The US has over $9 trillion in Public Debt having a devastating effect on the national economy, interest rates and exposure to the whims of overseas investors.

The Fair Tax put forth by Congressman John Warner would create a transparent US tax policy, replacing all federal taxes, Income, Social Security, Medicare ad infinitum, with a single sales tax. While there is plenty of discussion over this proposal, and it’s attendant misrepresentation, there remains difficulty in gaining traction in Washington.

So in summation, the problems facing the energy crisis are multifaceted in nature and require a comprehensive response. There is no one “magic bullet” solution. Rather, in the interests of long term solutions and national security, answers must be long thought out, deeply researched, span a variety of technologies and energy sources to protect against vulnerability to single source attacks like we’ve seen on crude oil.

As a nation we should:

Immediately begin using those resources and technologies we currently have including opening blocked areas for oil exploration and drilling and rapidly expand the use of nuclear power.

We should focus effort into development of proven resources and technologies like Hybrid cars, CSP and Shale Oil to bring these rapidly on line in providing diverse energy to the nation.

Third, we should encourage private research in a variety of way to expand research into new, exciting technologies needing further development. Wave power, wind power, battery technologies, fuel cell technologies and many others perhaps not even thought of should be fully vetted as to their feasibility and contribution to the energy needs of this nation without unintended consequences elsewhere.

Finally, we need to close down those technologies that, while begun with good intentions, have proven to have disastrous consequences. Ethanol is one of these.

It’s not a matter of finding answers to the current pain nor is it simple environmental, economic or security in nature. In the long term it’s a matter of providing a sustainable future for the nation and our children and grand children. To think less is nothing more than selfish.

This series:
1. Gas prices, taxes and politics
2. Crude, profits and big government
3. Dealing with petroleum production
4. Optimizing petroleum
5. Is there a single solution?
6. Monetary policy and energy

“We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty.” – G. K. Chesterson

Is there a single solution?

In my previous post on this topic I talked about the need to expand the development of petroleum-based answers to the energy problems facing America. Today I want to take a look at alternative solutions.

Certainly alternative fuel vehicles, including hybrid, electric and fuel cell, are important resources to develop. But transportation only accounts for about 28% of US energy consumption. A comprehensive plan will address energy consumption in industry (33%), residential housing (21%) and commercial buildings (18%) as well.

The greatest hurdle to overcome in electric car technology has to do with the batteries. For decades auto manufacturers have used the tried and true lead-acid battery. It’s rechargeable, relatively long lasting and inexpensive to produce. But the greatest downfall of lead-acid batteries is their weight.

One of the latest technologies on this front is the zinc-air battery. These use oxygen in the air to react with cathodes to produce electricity. They have a high power to weight ratio, are safe and environmentally responsible. Several companies are working on moving the technology to the automobile arena.

Fuel cell technology is rapidly improving. Used for some time in a variety of exotic, static and military applications, in recent years researchers have working hard to develop technologies for automotive application. The intent is to either fully replace the petroleum fueled vehicle or to replace batteries in hybrid vehicles.

Hybrid vehicles are coming on strong and while they are relatively new, the technology is rapidly improving. Combining improved battery technology with small, efficient gas engines and powerful electric motors, hybrid vehicles look to have great prospects for long range, fuel-efficient vehicles.

Just about everyone has heard of solar power or wind power. Both seem to have great potential for generating large amounts of electricity using the right technologies.

When we hear “solar,” most of us think of solar cells, i.e. photovoltaic, energy production. The technology with the greatest potential for producing electricity though is in Concentrating Solar Power (CSP). This technology produces electricity by concentrating the suns heat to generate huge amounts of steam that in turn is used to power electricity generating plants.

It’s estimated that arrays of these concentrating plants covering a combined area of only 100 by 100 miles square could generate enough electricity to supply the electrical power needs of the whole United States (Listen to an NPR story on this). One company, Arusa, is building a 177 megawatt plant in southern California to power 120,000 homes while Abengoa is building similar plants in Europe and South America.

Tidal generators are another up and coming technology using the action of waves and tides to generate electricity. While most of these have no direct application to transportation, they can relieve some of the environmental burden and produce electricity to charge electric vehicles.

Nuclear energy has been used around the world to produce electricity for decades. France, for one, has 59 nuclear plants producing 75% of its electricity, exporting much of that.

On the other hand, the US’s 100 nuclear plants produce only 20% of total electricity generated. After the Three Mile Island incident in 1979 plant construction came to a screeching halt. Now, nearly 30 years later, we are beginning to revisit nuclear energy. But the environmental lobby continues to roadblock plans along with the need to overcome lingering public fears whipped up by the media.

The technology has improved way beyond TMI and the US has never build any plants using the same technology as those in Chernobyl. Another recent development is the change in some of the leadership of the environmental lobby. Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace, is now promoting nuclear power as an important part of solving the climate problem.

These are only some of the better-known technologies under research and development. Anyone of them has potential to impact the US energy need, working together they can provide a comprehensive solution to our current and future energy needs. But they require time for further development and to explore their potential affects on our economy and society, both pro an con. When we rush new technologies out too often the impact of unintended consequences is missed. By taking time to fully vet the technology we can hopefully anticipate and discover ways to diminish those negatives.

The greatest asset we have as a nation is our ability to innovate and develop new answers to the problems that trouble us. Our greatest enemy is jumping to quickly to a quick fix without dealing with the root problem. That is the nature of politics and while it didn’t used to be, is becoming the cry of the American people.

As a society we must begin to again take the long view to the challenges that face us. The “microwave mentality” works fine for cooking, but for serious problems we need to put it in the oven and let it “slow cook.” We must find full, comprehensive solutions that use every asset and resource available to us. The stakes are too high to do otherwise.

My next and final post in this series will discuss the impact of economic policy on the price of crude oil fuel at the pump.

Further reading: A Blind Man’s Guide to Energy Policy

Interested in holding your politicians “feet to the fire?” Follow the link below to American Solutions where you can join others petitioning Congress to act now to expand use of our domestic resources.

“We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty.” – G. K. Chesterson

Optimizing petroleium

One of the more promising new energy sources being researched and even now coming into production is Oilage or growing algae and using it to produce a high-grade crude oil. PetroSun is now producing in Texas and though researchers don’t think they can produce enough to replace crude oil, the resulting product can be blended with low grade crude to where it can be processed without retooling refineries and extend our supply exponentially

The recent rush to ethanol has proved the error of moving too rapidly to embrace a supposed alternative without exploring all its consequences, intended and unintended. The demand corn ethanol has put on this food crop, taking 20-25% of last years production, has fueled the rise in all grain prices raising fears of food shortages and bread lines around the world. This in a year of record crop yields. What will happen during a low yield year.

Now the multi-million dollar commitment investors and industry has made to this failed plan has politicians wringing their hands and instead of doing the right thing, backtracking this policy, they blunder ahead.

A better source of biomass would be switchgrass, but that wasn’t immediately available and would have required a season to plant and grow the source. That small delay would have staved off the drain on the food supply and the rampant run up in grain prices. But in the rush to deal with this problem in a short-term political way, another long-term problem has resulted.

And don’t forget the powerful agricultural lobby. Their strangle hold on Congress continues to funnel tax dollars in the form of crop subsidies, loans and more to these large corporate farm operations.

We must, in addition to finding new economical, reliable energy sources, continue to discover new ways to conserve energy in socially and economically friendly ways. One of the big problems with the environmental lobby is the constant call for actions that will harm the economy of industrialized nations and in the process bring hardship to the citizens of those nations.

Truly at its core, the underlying philosophy of environmentalism is to return industrialized nations to agrarian societies like the third world. Technology, industry and development must go to make way for the forests, the snail darter and spotted owl, and the grassy plains. To their way of thinking there is blight on the face of the earth and Humanity is its name.

Next post, new and old technologies visited.

If you haven’t done so, visit American Solutions and sign the petition to let Congress know you want action on allowing exploration and production of our domestic resources. It’s a national security as well as an econonmic issue.

“We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty.” – G. K. Chesterson

Dealing with petroleum production

One of the most immediate and difficult predicaments facing the American people and their political and business leaders is the problem of energy. Where to get it, how to conserve it and how to use it effectively throughout our economy.

Please understand that I am not an expert on these matters. I’m simply a layman who looks at these things, is curious about the facts, and analyzes them with a basis in common sense. The latter part seems to be pretty scarce in American society, politics and the educational system.

To get the oil price, please enable Javascript.

Proceeding on the premise that the current energy troubles we face are at their root problems with supply and demand, both current and future, mitigated by geopolitics and certain economic realities as the decline of the dollar, there is no one simple solution to this problem.

Lets deal with the problem of supply first.

US proven reserves as of January 2007 totaled 21,757 million barrels or enough to fully replace foreign imports for just 10.8 years. So that alone isn’t the answer. But when you consider our largest trading partner for crude is Canada from which we import 15% of our need has reserves totaling 179,210 million barrels the situation doesn’t look quite so dire.

The problem with accessing the US reserves is one of political policy. The US Congress and the Administration, both past and present, Republican and Democrat, have gotten in bed with radical environmentalists who have convinced them that our crude oil reserves cannot be accessed without doing damage to the environment. That is patently wrong.

While it can be demonstrated that done improperly, oil production and transportation can cause harm, we have the technology and know how to do it right. ANWR and the continental shelf have huge untapped oil deposits that have been deemed politically inaccessible. That must change if America is to regain energy security.

Another huge source of petroleum for the US is found in shale oil. The US has reserves of 2 Trillion barrels of shale oil, nearly four times that of the rest of the world. Because of the difficulty in extracting and processing it, until now to do so hasn’t be profitable. But with crude prices in excess of $130 per barrel, it can now be a viable source of energy.

At current levels of consumption, that would provide crude oil for 280 years. Allowing plenty of breathing space for technology to develop and test alternative energy sources without rushing them out to unintended consequences.

The problem now is again, the environmental lobby who rail on about the potential damage that may be caused by extraction. Enter Raytheon Corp. which has developed a way to do this in a much more environmentally friendly way. Still, politicians and environmentalist will persist in blocking this resource that would provide a major foundation of US energy security.

Also, the US is an exporter of crude oil, 1,317,000 barrels every day. That amounts to fully a quarter, 25% or total US crude oil production. If we diverted that flow to domestic markets we could extend our total crude oil supply an additional 10%. To continue to export crude oil in the face to the energy security crisis we face is unthinkable.

If the US seriously committed to any of or preferably all the above the effect on the crude oil futures market and the petroleum producing nations would be immediate, even though it would take time to ramp up production.

Remember, it’s a futures market. The price is based on anticipated supply and demand. If the marketplace understands there is truly going to be substantially greater supply, traders will factor that in, producers will recognize the increased competition for their product and the price per barrel will shrink accordingly.

That will have a very quick impact at the pump. And it will be long lasting as opposed to quick fix fuel tax holidays and wrong-headed suspension of deposits into the SPR proposed by politicians who refuse to think out of the box.

House Republicans have already begun to answer the call with a proposal to increase production. But it needs to be more than merely a proposal and House Democrats need to join in.

OK, so is increased domestic production the answer. Not in and of itself. We need to actively pursue alternative energy sources. I’m not talking simply solar or wind technologies though they are a part of the matrix.

The next post will discuss some of the alternatives to petroleum.

Statistics taken from:
The Energy Information Administration-Dept. of Energy

Interested in holding your politicians “feet to the fire?” Follow the link below to American Solutions where you can join others petitioning Congress to act now to expand use of our domestic resources.

“We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty.” – G. K. Chesterson

On the road with the nuvi 350

We received a Garmin nüvi 350 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator this Christmas and took it on our trip to South Carolina. I’ve used a Garmin eTrex for several years and like a lot of the features and the huge amount of information available from it’s simple format. But its use on a trip was limited by it’s lack of internal memory and difficulty to route away from the computer.

The nüvi 350 solves those problems, automatically routing and having enough memory to load the full map and POI (Points of Interest) for the US and Canada. In practice it is easy to setup and use. When we deviated from it’s recommended route it would recalculated and offer alternative routing from our present location. When we needed to detour around Atlanta due to traffic tie-up, a press of the on screen button sent us on our way.

Preferring a more scenic return route, we selected the “shorter distance” option and came down US 441 from I-85 to I-10 north of Lake City, FL. On that route a few of the shortcomings make their appearance.

While the nüvi 350′s database is the 2008 map, it failed to have the changes in the roadbed due to fairly recent construction. Now that construction wasn’t totally new but had be opened, I’m guessing here, within the past year or so. In those areas the nüvi went off trying to route us back to a road that didn’t not exist. The same problem appeared in Greenville along a new stretch of road I know is over a year old. Getting past those areas, it recalculated and went on as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Additionally, some of the POIs were off or non-existent. Apparently these businesses closed or moved and the changes didn’t make the database. That kind of error is to be expected.

Another negative, at least for me, is the inability to pre-determine your route. I like sitting down at the computer with mapping software and plan my trip. This isn’t possible with the nüvi 350, any nüvi or Street Pilot that I’m aware of. You can determine a series of interim waypoints and insert them as you go along, but to completely preplan and setup you trip, nope.

Some of the nüvi 350′s weaknesses are common to most if not all mapping products, software and hardware. Most of these use the same map database, and this database is flawed in some areas. In Ocala we have a stretch of road that no matter what I use, Garmin, Mapquest, Google Maps, Streets and Trips; they all read this 2 mile strip off from as little as a block to as much as 2 miles. So, as the on screen disclaimer advises, be aware that it, like any other product is imperfect and don’t bet your life on it.

Just the same, the Garmin nüvi 350 was fun and easy to use, very helpful in getting around situations, and contains a very good POI database. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes to travel while appreciating the benefits of modern technology.