Street Atlas USA
25 messages in this thread
I just got a copy of DeLorme's Street Atlas USA and did the natural thing:
pulled up my address and started looking around my neighborhood.
When I pulled back to a 12X magnification view of Indianapolis, I noticed
some BIZARRE things…like place names of buildings and institutions that
have been gone from the landscape for 20-30 years or more. Our baseball
stadium (Bush) had its WWII-era name (Victory Field). Riverside Amusement
Park, torn down when I was a kid, is back. So's the Mallory Technical
Institute. St. Vincent Hospital is in the spot it occupied up until about
1974 on Fall Creek Parkway. Interstates and state roads all appear to be
in the right spots, but many of the place names around them are from the
wrong end of the time-space continuum.
DeLorme tech staff says they pulled their info from the 1980-85 TIGER
databank of the U.S. Census Department.
Is this just an Indianapolis phenomenon, or are other parts of the country
having similar problems?
–Bill
The map dating problems with DeLorme's Street Atlas are not just limited to
Indiana. Our firm has used the disc for CD-ROM demonstrations for hundreds
of people–and always hear that the local maps are from outer space. It
seems that they have street names and places chosen randomly from different
decades.
Glad to hear they weren't just ganging up on Hoosierland!
<G>
–Bill
I work for DeLorme. I also DEMO Street Atlas and other DeLorme products
around the country. While the data is not without flaws I challenge you to
find another product for your firm to demo like Street Atlas.
DeLorme is interested in correcting data and will be doing so in our
up-date next year. We would appreciate hearing from you. In any case we
appreciate your using our product for demos and for helping make
Street Atlas a Top Selling CD Title. Have you seen our latest product,
MapExpert??
Steve -I'm curious how these errors could've crept into the program — I
mean SERIOUSLY! 20-year-old place name errors? Streets changing and new
housing developments I can understand. Anybody will cut you some slack for
that kind of stuff with a new product. But you've got three "airports"
listed in the downtown Indianapolis area that just DON'T EXIST! And,
should anyone try to land a plane at one of these places and crash, I hope
they don't use the map to find their way to St. Vincent Hospital — which
is about a half hour's drive from where you've located it! It looks like
the program was put together by someone using VERY OLD maps…
When I called about it, someone on the tech staff said that the info was
taken from the U.S. Census TIGER data. If so, is TIGER really this far off
course? Maybe we ought to be complaining to them…?
I also noticed that Patoka Lake in Southern Indiana (near Paoli) isn't on
the map, though the town of Newton Stewart is shown. Newton Stewart's at
the BOTTOM of Patoka — the town was submerged when the lake was opened in
the late-1970s.
–Bill
Street Atlas is a bargain *at the price* — but when I've paid more (as I
probably will) for Map Expert, I'll start begrudging the errors more. Two
that I remember offhand: in Manhattan, the "Yorkville" label is way
downtown instead of on the upper East Side (roughly 3 Ave & 86th St) where
it should be… and in New Jersey, the "Maplewood" label is floating in
West Orange instead of two miles south, around the (correctly placed)
Maplewood train station.
On the other hand, I was pleasantly shocked to find even the logging roads
around my other home (Pockwockamus rapids, 17 mi WNW of Millinocket, ME)…
good grief, was TIGER set up to include moose and blackflies? 'cause there
are scarcely any other permanent residents *there*…
Best from S. Orange, NJ…
I agree that Delorme is the best product around although it seems
embarassing when the data is so off for many residential users.
Can you get the Mapsco data available in most cities–that is the most
accurate we've seen.
Our firm has probably sold a few hundred Street Atlas' purchased from our
dealer–is there a way we can buy directly from you? If you'll contact Mr.
Reed Bilbray (800-460-4623) we'd be happy to send you our new multimedia
CD-ROM titles (being released in December) and discuss how to bettter work
together.
THanks.
Paul Pilzer ZCI, Inc.
A curious thing… I left a note here a few days ago for the DeLorme rep
who logged on, asking about the abnormalities I'd noticed in the Street
Atlas disk (incorrect building locations on several major structures,
several places that were razed by wrecking balls more than 20 years ago,
three "airports" in downtown Indianapolis that don't exist, and a lake in
southern Indiana that's missing…).
Rather than reply to my question, he apparently decided to simply delete it
from the board!
Strange way to respond to customers' questions, don't you think…?
–Bill
p.s. — My unanswered question still stands: How did errors like these
find their way into a NEW program? From appearances, it would seem they
came from VERY old maps.
Hum, glad you mentioned that. I checked and my responce to his posting was
deleted also. I had assumed that it had just rolled off, but as it was a
responce to a message 30753 that has not rolled off, mine must have been
deleted also. Reinforces my viey of DeLorme.
John, I don't mean to jump into this in the middle, and I don't know
*what* is going on, but I can tell you that Delorme is a class act as a
company. It's quite possible one person made an error here, who knows? But
the company, and the individual who gave it his name and heads it, are
highly respected and quite incapable of intentionally mistreating a
customer!
-Bill
To the best of my knowledge, one person cannot delete another person's
message. The message scroll does not necessarily go in message # sequence:
are you sure your message was not a victim of the scroll?
I interject just because I would not want your addressee to get a bad rap
for something he cannot do. Can you re-post your message? He may simply
have been away long enough to miss it!
Let me know if the problem occurs again.
Rich Bowers
co-sysop
Don't you have all the powers in the world being a sysop? <grin>
If I did, things would be just a teeeeny bit different around here.
By the way, the FAQ file has been loaded and we're just waiting for the
great Master Merge to turn it on so it is visible. Then I'll make a
general announcement. It turned out to be 70K uncompressed, so I stripped
off the Table of Contents so that people could see what was covered before
they download the whole thing. I'll look forward to your comments when you
can get around to it. Your ideas helped a lot!
Cheers
Rich
I can't wait to see it myself. I'll probably be at Comdex tomorrow. This
will really help all the users of this forum tremendously. Thanks for your
support.
I hope you have the time to let us know what the important things were in
Vegas. At COMDEX, I mean. Have fun!
Rich
Rich,
You can only see so much in 8 hours … most of the time is just going from
hotel to hotel trying to find a booth. <grin> I just grabbed literature
mostly and I didn't see too much in detail though. Its been a long Comdex
day … maybe tomorrow won't be so bad.
Rich —
Forum software allows for either the sender OR the receiver to delete a
message. You just read the message as you normally would and then type
DEL. The system also provides a "Delete message? Y/N" prompt to doublecheck
for bad typing.
And, yes, I reset the age on my messages back to a few days BEFORE I posted
my original note, to make sure that it hadn't scrolled off elsewhere.
It was simply deleted — plain and simple.
A simple reply from DeLorme, even if it was nothing more than "We're
looking into the problems" was all that was really necessary.
–Bill
I'm sorry to hear that. I agree a response would have been, at minimum,
polite.
Rich Bowers
Using CIM to delete a message only deletes it from your board – not from
the system.
Rich,
Anyone can delete messages that they sent, or that are addressed
_to_ them. And I'm pretty sure that scrolling does happen in numeric order.
(Unless they're held by a W flag or forwarded by a B flag.)
It does indeed take your B flag to zap or move third party
messages. Albert of the 7-triple-0 number can doubtless tell you of the
mystic powers that accrue with a W flag<grin>.
Frank
Frank:
Yes, I'm learning about some of those mystical features. The other time
scrolling doen't work numerically (directly) is when the oldest message is
part of a still-active thread. But apparently the problem was indeed just
as the member described it. It's ashame. The Foru is supposed to be
information exchange – and you gotta take the bad with the good!
Thanks for the input!
Rich
Bill,
I don't know about the lake, but I'll bet that the "nonexistent" airports
are actually helicopter pads – they show up as airports. I've seen several
oddly placed airports that turned out to be right!
Dave
Helipads makes some sense at least…
Although, in that case, they've missed the Indianapolis Heliport, the
city's largest helicopter airport.
I was reading the fine print in their license agreement last night and
noticed that it specifically prohibits you from using their maps for
navigating by land, sea, or air.
Given these various points, that could be a very good thing.
–Bill
Did you zoom in to 15/16 power? Look at the Hawaiian Islands at 6 and then
go to 14/15. Also check what you think is missing or wrong with a USGS
topo which can be bought at most good sporting goods stores.
I saw a reply from DeLorme explaining why some differences show up. I
thought he expressed a willingnes to collect problem reports. Remember,
they don't go to every town and draw maps. The data comes mostly from Gov.
Maps and info. and from some towns.
I know some of people in Freeport and think highly of them. Worked with
several for several years in the computer industry and visit once in a
while. It is a small and highly dynamic company.
Also if it were possible for a member to delete messages these forums would
have very few. Visit some of the areas where contriversial subjects are
being discussed.