The year is 2008 and I am driving from Maryland to Norfolk. I have a class that I am taking at the Little Creek Amphib Base (NAB) and it is late at night. I program into my nav unit the street name of the Bachelor’s Quarters and I end up in the middle of the hood. I am totally lost. In an unsafe part of town. The street name I programmed was on-base and my nav unit (a Magellan) may not have carried it. And it sent me to another street across town with an identical name.

If I only had this app:

Microsoft has been granted a patent for its “avoid ghetto” feature for GPS devices.

A GPS device is used to find shortcuts and avoid traffic, but Microsoft’s patent states that a route can be plotted for pedestrians to avoid an “unsafe neighborhood or being in an open area that is subject to harsh temperatures.”

I woulda been fine. . .