Gps

Sunset Strip bookie Charlie Katz suspected the feds had bugged his apartment, so he would amble over to a pay phone outside where Carney's hot dog joint now stands to call in his bets to Boston and Miami. It was 1965, a time when phone booths had four glass walls and a folding door, allowing Katz to seal himself off from eavesdroppers. Or so he thought. FBI agents planted a recording device at the booth and taped his dealings, leading to his conviction on eight illegal wagering charges.

The Federal Communications Commission announced this week that it would seek to block a promising new wireless venture by the Virginia company LightSquared because of the interference it caused with Global Positioning System signals. The commission's hands may have been tied; GPS plays a crucial role in navigation, and a Commerce Department report found "no practical way to mitigate the potential interference at this time. " But the FCC shouldn't leave future start-ups sidelined by the apparent shortcomings of GPS equipment.

The increase in fugitive sex offenders in California since the state changed key prison policies is more than double that previously believed, according to data released Wednesday by corrections officials. The data show a 65% rise from October 2011 to Jan. 1 of this year in warrants issued for paroled sex offenders who were tracked by GPS units and went missing. Previous state reports showed about a 30% climb for that period. Almost 5,000 warrants were issued during that time, according to the new figures, far more than the 3,251 the department reported in March.

The GPS car navigator is yet another tech gadget facing competition from the device that wants to be all things to all people -- the cellphone. "Even fairly inexpensive phones are offering turn-by-turn GPS directions now," said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for NPD Group. There are even windshield brackets made specifically for some phones, including Apple's iPhone and Motorola's Droid. (Just remember, in California the only legal spots to stick the device on windshields are in the lower left or right corners.

The clue that cracked the case of Bogota's vanishing manhole covers came from a GPS chip embedded in one of the strangely coveted items. Thieves steal a stunning 10,000 manhole covers a year from the streets of the Colombian capital, lured by their value as scrap or as contraband resold to sewer systems elsewhere in the country. Normally the thefts of the iron or composite plastic covers go unchallenged in the face of weak law enforcement and the menacing mafias who control the lucrative trade.

You think it’s costing you a bundle to fill up your car? The $4.28 a gallon price is nothing — at least, not when you compare it with the $9 a gallon that some rental car agencies are charging when you forget to return the car with a full tank. Think of it this way: If you have a car with a 13.8-gallon tank, you’ll owe the car rental company $124.20 if you return it empty. Ouch. Hertz is charging an eye-popping $9.29 a gallon for customers who forgot to fill up before dropping off the car at its Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)

You check in on Foursquare, post geotagged photos on Facebook and tweet every mundane detail of your life. You overshare. But do you really want the cops tracking your cellphone without your knowledge? A recent review of law-enforcement practices by the American Civil Liberties Union revealed that it's not uncommon for cellphones to be virtually tailed using either the phone's own GPS or cellular triangulation -- without obtaining a warrant or subpoena. "The overwhelming majority of the over 200 law enforcement agencies that provided documents engaged in at least some cellphone tracking - and many track cellphones quite frequently," the ACLU found.

The first buyers of Google Glass are starting to get the smartglasses in the mail, letting them shoot hands-free video, pull up GPS directions in the corner of their eye and even hold video chats with their friends while they walk. But they won't be allowed to let anyone else enjoy the device and its features. In its terms of service for the early "Explorer Edition" of the device, Google says it has the right to deactivate any device if it has been sold or lent to someone else.

Los Angeles firefighter Greg Pascola spotted a column of smoke from the corner of his eye - a fire burning on a distant hillside. He looked east from his vantage point on a mountaintop road near Mulholland Drive and felt wind at his back. It was 3 p.m. on a September Friday that would see record-breaking heat, and cars choked every lane of the 405 Freeway for miles. He and his partner gunned their motorcycles. They are part of the Los Angeles Fire Department's pilot motorcycle response team, a five-man unit that can speed to the side of an injured victim, provide information to dispatchers and skirt traffic to scout fires and other problems.

So where is Southern California headed? They know at the the Southern California Integrated GPS Network home page-- http://milhouse.jpl.nasa.gov/ --where researchers are using the Global Positioning System (GPS) to study the motion of the Earth's tectonic plates to evaluate earthquake hazards in the Los Angeles area.