Gadgetopia

Haha, that’s awesome! I thought it had to be a gmaps api trick/exploit of some sort, but it seems to be legit. The return directions make you swim, too.

I found it interesting that it gives metric distances when your From is not in the USA. I was just talking to my son about metric vs. U.S. customary units, last night, as we played around with different languages on my GPS receiver. It sounds really silly hearing a lady with a british accent give distances in feet/miles.

But what’s equally bizarre is why it directs you to swim the 3462 miles to France, then drive through England and Wales to Dublin, rather than just swimming the few extra miles to Dublin directly!

“It sounds really silly hearing a lady with a british accent give distances in feet/miles.”

Why? The UK (not Ireland) still uses feet/miles on the roads. According to wikipedia:

The United Kingdom completed its legal transition to SI units in 1995, but a few such units are still in official use: draught beer must still be sold in pints, roadsign distances must be in yards and miles, and speed limits are in miles per hour.

Great to see that there can still be humour is such a great ‘serious’ tool. :P

Unfortunately its not programmed to handle swimming the pacific yet.

“These directions are for planning purposes only. You may find that construction projects, traffic, or other events may cause road conditions to differ from the map results.”