When you’re climbing outdoors, you inevitably end up facing some of your biggest fears, whether it’s heights, dirt, or pooing in the wild. Here are some tips and tools on how I dealt with three of my phobias. 1. Mosquitoes Yes, there are mosquitoes in the wild! Tons at Lover’s Leap, where I went to test my climbing gear, especially near the little stream of water that runs along the path to the crags in the early evening. Outdoor Research has gaiters &mdash durable leg warmers that go over and strap under your shoes &mdash that are treated with insect repellent. Gaiters also help keep dirt and pebbles out of your shoes. Mosquitoes are often at the campsite, too. Since a lot of climbers ditch the tent in an effort to minimize weight, taking a bug bivy with you is also a good idea. 2. Heights I’m not normally scared of heights, but I have to admit that hanging out on the edge of a 400-foot-tall cliff and trying to look down to see how my climbing buddy was doing whilst being held in place by one flimsy rope was a little freaky at times. Since positive self-talk (it’s ok, breathe, you’re not gonna fall) was not really working, I thought of my own calming down method &mdash I found tiny flowers and leaves in the rock’s cracks and pretended they were my dog Ruby. “Hi Ruby,” I’d say, and suddenly my fear was replaced by a warm, fuzzy feeling. “What are you doing here?” I know it sounds crazy, but try it. It works. 3. Getting lost This may not be a realistic fear unless you’re going way into back country, but the thought of not being able to head straight back to base camp after a long day of hiking and climbing is pretty daunting. I was with a trustworthy leader who knew his way around the Leap, but if you’re trekking out on your own, you could take the Bushnell Backtrack &mdash it records your starting point and then constantly directs you back to it with arrows and mileage. Of course, this could be totally futile if roads are windy and sparse, or if there are rivers and bears and stuff that get in the way of a direct path home. But it hooks easily onto a carabiner and for $80, it’s not bad. (I also recommend this product, by the way, to people who can’t locate their cars in mall parking lots.) 4. Pooing in the wild The only thing I have to say about pooing in nature is that it’s fun! Try it. Just remember to wipe, and take your dirty paper with you after you’re done.

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Common outdoor climbing phobias and how to combat them

I used to never get lost in San Francisco. I was a safe driver who obeyed traffic rules. Then I got a GPS, and everything changed. I’m a closet road geek. I love thinking about how cities are built and how roads interconnect. When the new Octavia exit to the 101 opened up, I gawked at the pure genius that was highway construction for a month before I finally shut up about it. When I first moved to Bay area, I rode the pee-stained bus up and down the veins and arteries of San Francisco with a foldable city map and learned the names of all the side streets that crossed 19th Avenue, Geary Boulevard, and Market Street. By the time I got a car two years later, I had a map of the city imprinted in my geography geek brain. At first, the GPS (I have an old Garmin) was a novelty–a tool for experimentation. It was fun to see how long the thing thought it would take to get from point A to point B. I was just the receiving end of a network of commands relayed through the voice of a nice British lady. But then it became a habit, and weird things started happening to me. I started to forget how to get places without it. The map in my brain became a distorted blur. And then my driving became more reckless. I invented this game where I tried to beat the estimated arrival time that the GPS gave me. Often, that entailed running yellow lights and exceeding the speed limit. Sometimes, the GPS fell off of its suction cup on the windshield and onto the floor, and I would have to fumble around with my right hand while steering the wheel and shifting gears with my left. The worst was when it couldn’t locate an address or a satellite signal. I would drive around in circles bouncing between rage and confusion. Why am I relying on this dumb machine? Why is this machine that is supposed to help me get places screwing with my innate sense of direction? Ultimately, I think the GPS just made me lazier, stupider, angrier, and a worse driver. I wish I could say I’d rather be without one, but a part of me is dependent on it. I’m a recovering GPS addict who has been clean for several weeks, but it’s still sitting in my glove compartment beckoning to be used. Advisor is a new weekly column about how to juggle technology, relationships, and common sense. Got a story to tell? Email it to mango [at] tokyomango [dot] com.

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Advisor: Why my GPS is bad for my brain

Matt Westervelt is an avid user of Foursquare , the social service that lets friends check in to specific places, gain special merit badges, and even become “Mayor” of a location if they’re its most frequent visitor among other Foursquare players. Westervelt often takes his son to Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill in Seattle, dutifully checking in to Foursquare. He’s the park’s mayor. That’s why it was so disturbing to him to see his own picture plastered on trash cans and light poles in the park on small signs captioned “Meet The Mayor”. Strangely, it doesn’t appear to have been done by Foursquare . (I’ve contacted them for a response.) Update : Foursquare had nothing to do with it, they say! [via David Gallagher ]

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"Meet The Mayor": When it feels like the internet is stalking you

Pharos’ Traveler 137, touted as “the first phone to provide 3G speeds on both T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless’ network,” is out now. Specs after the jump. Traveler 137 Specifications Operating System: Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, updateable to Windows Mobile 6.5 Processor: Qualcomm MSM 7201A 528MHz Memory: 256MB DDR SDRAM, 512MB Flash ROM Phone: unlocked GSM quad band 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, EDGE / GPRS, Tri-band 3G, 1700/1900/2100 MHz, UMTS 384Kb/s, HSDPA 7.2Mb/s, HSUPA 2Mb/s Talk time: up to 7 hours on GSM, 5 hours on 3G and 200 hours standby Display: 3.5″ TFT LCD with touch panel, 480 x 800 Wide-VGA with 65K colors Wireless: GPS aGPS compatible, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR , FM tuner Camera: 3 megapixel for picture or video, 0.3 megapixel on the front for video conference Expansion: USB 2.0, micro SD slot support SDHC, stereo audio jack Battery: 1380 mAh Li-Ion, rechargeable/replaceable Size: 4.60in (L) x 2.40in (W) x 0.51in (H) Weight: 4.9 ounces Heavy-duty GPS capabilities are the other big bullet point, and it’s $350 with a 2-year contract, or $600 unlocked. Product Page [Pharos]

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Pharos Traveler 137 out now

GPS navigation tech is now small enough to fit into a key fob, resulting in this little trinket that can help those of us who are profoundly absent-minded. Mark your spot after you park your car in a giant parking lot, and when you return, this intelligent digital compass will lead you right back to your vehicle. Sure beats putting a ping-pong ball on the old antenna, like we used to do back in the old days. This kind of convenience is not cheap, though — the IDC Ecco Intelligent Digital Compass Personal Pocket GPS Locator will set you back $90, available later this month. Now all we have to do is hope the GPS satellite network keeps working .

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GPS keyring helps you find your car in a giant parking lot

View Larger Map Band of Brothers , the best WW2 series ever made, was shot primarily at the airfield outside of Hatfield, England . The sets are still standing and are visible on Google Maps. I know where I’m when I’m next in the UK. (Which should be soonish; my pop just moved over there.)

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Map: Band of Brothers set, Hatfield, UK

There’s no shortage of retro clocks using those gorgeous nixie tubes , but this one’s different. It mixes the 60s-era Eastern European IN-14 time-telling tubes with a serial GPS receiver that keeps its accuracy rock-solid. In addition to that modern wizardry, it also incorporates clever tube-saving features, such as programmable on-and-off times, along with a routine that displays a scrolling date across the tubes to prevent burn-in. Its acrylic case is pretty swank-looking too, making us think its $400 cost is probably just about right.

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Nixie Clock adds GPS for astonishing accuracy

Filed under: Gadgets , CES , I.C.E. , Ford Click the image above to view a video of the new SYNC system after the jump At the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show ( CES ) Ford announced that three new features would be included on the next iteration of the SYNC system: traffic data, GPS-guided directions and the ability to snag information from the web through the user’s data/GPS/Bluetooth-enabled smartphone to display or read weather conditions, sports scores and other information through the stereo. On May 26th, the upgrade will be made available to all current 2010 Ford, Lincoln and Mercury owners (you download the update to your PC, then transfer it to the SYNC system through a thumb drive) and all new 2010 models will be equipped with the upgrade from the factory. But as Ford CEO Alan Mulally promised, there’s more on the way. Ford and Microsoft plan to continually update SYNC, and according to Charlotte Fisher from Ford’s Design and Technology team, “every six to eight to twelve months we’ll be delivering new services.” One of the possible features Ford could include on future iterations of SYNC is streaming internet radio, and Fisher confirmed that Ford is currently “talking with Pandora .” Can you say XM-killer? Hit the jump to watch a video of the new system in action. Continue reading Future Ford SYNC upgrade could include Pandora streaming Future Ford SYNC upgrade could include Pandora streaming originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 18 May 2009 19:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink ?|? Email this ?|? Comments

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Future Ford SYNC upgrade could include Pandora streaming

If I am to presume that the “8″ in the ” Garmin GolfLogix GPS-8 ” is a model number, implying that there have been seven previous GolfLogix models, I must then refrain from making fun of a device that is designed to golfers the distance to the next hole or how far they have to go to get over that sand trap—clearly people have been buying enough for a new model. Over 23,000 golf courses are inside the $300 device, which as far as I can tell cannot be used as a hiking or driving GPS.

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GolfLogix GPS-8, a navigator for golfers