Talk:Global Positioning System/Archive 1

message: Wouldn't it be useful to have GPS coordinates in all Wikipedia articles that are about locations?
GPS links could be treated specially. For example, clicking on then could take the user to a map. --HelgeStenstrom 19:44, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: There's a project to do just that.  Have you checked out any of the Rambot articles (say, Autaugaville, Alabama) lately? --Carnildo 20:05, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)

text: The project is located at Wikipedia:WikiProject Geographical coordinates. Shawnc 02:19, 19 November 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I added a link to this in the See Also section of the article -- Michaelfavor 18:42, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wikipedia and GPS 

message: The article currently states the following:
:Civilian GPS receivers are required to have limits on the velocities and altitudes at which they will report coordinates; this is to prevent them from being used to create improvised missiles
I believe this is an incorrect understanding, and offer the following instead:
:Due to the potential for GPS receiver technology to be used in improvised weaponry, the US Government has classified civilian receivers for controlled export. This means that, in general, a US-based manufacturer can not export a receiver unless it has limits on the velocities and altitudes at which it will report position and speed information.
The same source can be cited; its just the arms control information. Davandron | Talk 19:19, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Correction for Military section

message: There should be a link to locative games. The current version only includes Geocaching which is undoubtedly the most prominent example of a locative game, but there exist many others as well, especially in research.  --Dendrolimus 19:57, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Locative games

message: The article that is the basis for this section, GPS users must plan for outages, is basically FUD in support of the competing Galileo system. There are currently at least 6 on-orbit spare SVs. As of late 2002, there were 14 IIR SVs ready for launch. Lockheed Martin is building another 7 IIR-Ms and the IIF block is under design. See http://www.agcc.gov.au/gnss/GNSS_Platforms.aspx, http://gps.faa.gov/FAQ/faq-gps.htm, http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/gps/modernization/default.htm, and http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/gpscurr.html. Amcfreely 02:20, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  System reliability 

message: According to this Public domain press release a WAAS satellite is relocating and might affect GPS/WAAS usage on the east coast of the US.
:The move of the AOR-W satellite to the west may have a significant impact on non-aviation users on the East Coast. In its new position, the AOR-W satellite will appear lower on the horizon to users situated at ground level. As a result, the satellite may be obstructed by mountains, buildings, trees, or other types of obstructions that sit to the west of the user.
Sounds like a temporary problem and they say it will be resolved by Fall of 2006. Is this something that merits mentioning in the WAAS or GPS articles? Even though it's temporary doesn't it say something about reliability? --Dual Freq 16:26, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: GPS / WAAS relocation

message: The history page for this article shows the oldest revision as being on 2001-02-19 ,
yet that revision does not identify the article as a new article as some other contributions by the same user to, but is marked by the user as a minor revision, without even an edit summary, and the article seems to be fairly well developed.  It seems unlikely to me that was actually the first edit of the article.
The "older version" link within that version of the article links to the 2002-08-02  version of the article.  Presumable, continued clicking on the "older version" link would eventually lead back to the 2001-02-19 version, and continue in an infinite loop. -- Michaelfavor 17:09, 13 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: See .  The policy of keeping the page history did not exist in the beginning of Wikipedia's existence, so the page history of that time is lost.  Pfalstad 17:54, 13 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bug in article history 

message: The external link section of this article is way overboard for this topic. Wikipedia:External links has some guidance, but I think 90% of the external links should be dumped as External link spamming. I'm not sure how controversial this removal would be, so I'm asking for input here. We're not trying to make a list page here or boost someone's hitcount. Right now the GPS article is 43kb in size, and 10kb of that is external links, over 100 lines. --Dual Freq 18:00, 14 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Since there was no response I removed all of the links that did not directly add to the topic or were not cited in the refs. People can use a search engine to find mfrs of GPS equipment/software. This is not a place to sell GPS equipment. --Dual Freq 00:54, 16 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with the deletion of the links, although I think if you're "asking for input" then 31 hours is a pretty short time to wait! I'm guilty of adding one of the software links, although not because I've got any stake in the software, just because I use it and saw the list of other GPS software in this page.  Maybe a new page would be useful, just about the receivers (including hardware and software)? 193.134.254.145 12:19, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

text: Thanks for responding, but I didn't wait very long mainly because I decided it was a defensible position to delete most of the external links. I based my decision on the above cited pages as well as other articles that had similar problems. For example, the Sudoku article has a warning message and fairly aggressive patrolling of the external links section. I think it was so bad they had to block IP's and restrict the page for a while due to the massive linkspam on that page. They have the warning NB: External links are being reviewed on the Discussion page ("Talk:Sudoku") at present. Please join in that discussion before adding new links here. posted in the external links section on that page and only 2 external links.--Dual Freq 22:51, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

text: As for the link page suggestion, I don't think an encyclopedia's role is to provide a list of external links beyond references. Any list would be very dynamic and could never list enough items to be unbiased. Its better to leave the reviews and lists to search engines. --Dual Freq 22:57, 16 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Totally agree with you.  I wasn't suggesting a page of external links, but a page specifically about the receivers - different types, manufacturers, software that you can use with them etc.  Not just a list of websites but for example links to Garmin, Magellan or TomTom and their ilk, plus (preferably internal) links to software, although there don't seem to be too many pages already (apart from GpsDrive). 193.134.254.145 08:41, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

text: I added the Powerpoint presentation the other day (wasn't logged in, my mistake), which you removed. You're probably right; it doesn't do a whole lot of good without a presentator, but it belongs with the PDF document and illustrates some of the techniques of GPS. Perhaps I will modify the page that links to the document to point to the presentation also. The external links list has been cleaned up nicely. Kudos! --Stimpy 12:58, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: External links

message: GPS seems to work even for (other) satellites to track their motions, such as GRACE. It would be great if this was also discussed, as I can guess this application has limitations (very high speeds, satellite outside GPS coverage). --Abdull 10:10, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I was thinking orbital usage was limited to spacecraft lower in altitude than GPS, However http://tco.gsfc.nasa.gov/ft-tech-GPS-NAVIGATOR.html says there are high Earth orbit (HEO), geostationary orbit, and other high altitude applications. --Dual Freq 02:12, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Satellites using GPS 

message: For large sections of new material it is recommended to cite sources per Wikipedia:Verifiability and Wikipedia:Citing sources. --Dual Freq 22:47, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: See also:Wikipedia:What is a featured article? and An article based on the knowledge in your head, even if you are the world's leading expert on your obscure Internet subculture, doesn't make it good reference document. The text has to be verifiable, and we can't fact-check your personal experience. - User:Jengod/Some common objections to featured status and how to avoid them. If this article is ever to become featured it must be sourced. Thanks. --Dual Freq 00:12, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Citation

message: Pulse per second links here, but the fact that some GPS receivers support PPS is not discussed in the GPS article.  Shouldn't this be mentioned and/or linked in the "Precise time reference" section?
:GPS recievers are very good PPS sources in the long term sense (the average over many pulses are correct) they are used for syncronising atomic clocks. I second that this should be mentioned in the article. Mossig 08:44, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: PPS