4/18/17 Programming Problems

I knew from the start of this process that coding/programming was going to be the hardest part. I had ran into various problems and solved them, but perhaps the most frustrating involved the GPS. For some reason, despite everything else working smoothly, the GPS antenna would be unable to "fix" my specific location. I read and reread the instructions I found online, I perused online forums for people with the same problem, and I even angrily yelled at my computer a couple of times (that one was less effective).

Ultimately though, it was the advice of entrepreneur Mark Cuban to, "RTFM" or, "Read the ... Manual" that led to a series of breakthroughs. His book preaches the concept of knowing as much as you possibly can about the technology you're working with, and more extensive reading of both the online website and forums that were there, as well as the source code and comments on it, taught me that the GPS function (on the Adafruit) was relatively slow to fix location from a cold start-up. This was compounded by the fact that I was inside, so much so that it was virtually useless.

However, I also learned about GPRS, which is the used for location services on mobile phones. When I used this function instead, I quickly and easily found my exact location.