Morton Fox (mortonfox) wrote,
Morton Fox
mortonfox

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Mapblast

Okay, now MapBlast has gone and done it. No more map lookups by latitude and longitude. Why is this important? That's the easiest way to get a route map to a geocache. All you have to do is follow the MapBlast link from the cache webpage, click on directions and enter your address in the top panel. Then you get step-by-step driving directions to the cache or as close as possible. Now, after the site changes, you get driving directions to somewhere in Kansas. Grah!

What are the alternatives? Mapquest has map lookups by coordinates but the problem is you can't get directions if you don't have a street address for the destination. Yahoo! Maps and Mapsonus don't even do lookups by coordinates.

For now, I'll have to use Microsoft Streets and Trips 2001 albeit with several more steps because I'll have to convert the coordinates into decimal degrees and enter them into the software.

Unfortunately, this latest episode with Mapblast undermines the case for online services and doing everything on the Internet. At any time, the service provider could change a critical feature or just yank the whole site off the net. At least with software, once you have it installed, it should work pretty much the same way for as long as you keep it there.... unless, of course, Microsoft revokes your user license remotely. :)

I was driving home on the parkway yesterday evening when suddenly, a car came up from behind, swerved into my lane and nearly hit my side of the car. There were only a few inches to spare. I thought I'd have to replace the driver's side mirror yet again but luckily there was no contact. Since it was only 7pm, it was a little too early in the evening to be drunk... but then again, in New Jersey, you never know.
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