So while the Global Positioning System (GPS) definately was born of military applications; GPS applications in the civilian sector has expanded beyond anyones wildest imagination. Heck, I normally have a GPS navigation system when I travel and have consistently able to cut several hours off driving time when making my way around an unfamilier city. In most cases I'm no longer afraid to cut it a bit close on app So while the Global Positioning System (GPS) definately was born of military applications; GPS applications in the civilian sector has expanded beyond anyones wildest imagination. Heck, I normally have a GPS navigation system when I travel and have consistently able to cut several hours off driving time when making my way around an unfamilier city. In most cases I’m no longer afraid to cut it a bit close on appointments since I’m confident I won’t be spending hours lost.The folks at TeleAtlas have had a long list of milestones on their way to becoming one of the most popular map sources for consumer GPS & GIS products. Through the combination of using inertial navigation in combination with GPS data, TeleAtlas vans have been crisscrossing the world to create maps accurate within 5 meters in some key urban areas. Interestingly enough this accuracy is apparently being used for some E911 (enhanced 911 emergency services) in parts of the US.Another big change in the world of GPS is how long older GPS’s take to find enough sattelites to get a position fix and that while radio signals penetrate buildings just fine (just like AM or FM radio) the weakend signal isn’t always enough to get a position lock. Sirf Technology tackled the weak signal problem and has become one of the most popular GPS engines on the market today. Last year I got confused stares when I asked around about SIRF based GPS systems, but this year all the major GPS vendors has SIRF based systems. On a geeky note, I’m hoping to get my hands on a Sirf development kit to see if I can get the open source NTP server software running with the new Sirf GPS engine so that I could possible provide super accurate NTP sync indoors. Brian Chee is a Senior Contributing Editor with InfoWorld Magazine and is a researcher with the University of Hawaii’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST). Technology Industry