Normal GPS (like from a TomTom) has a chip that picks up radio signals from the costellation of sats and does triangulation from them to determine position. When doing this for the first time since turning the device on it can sometimes take several minutes to perform (but usually is very quick afterwards), and can usually get fixes to within 10 meters or so.

AGPS (assisted) which is what the 3G iPhone does, will use a combination of the cell tower/Wifi location detection (like the older iPhone uses) to get a initial general fix while the GPS receiver chip is doing that initial long signal retrieval from the Sats. After the GPS chip gets the fix, it will update what’s coming from the Cell/Wifi fix and get you much much more accurate position info.

The advantage of having a dual system like this is that GPS doesn’t work in-doors, where the cell/wifi method does, and the GPS can take longer initially, but once it’s got it’s fix it will be much more accurate.
So, the older iPhone’s cell/wifi-only positioning might get you a fix within a city block… the 3G will get you within 30 ft, it’ll just take longer to refine the position.

And remember, MAPPING and POSITIONING are 2 different things… the iPhone does positioning (Lat/Long info), but it needs the network in order to push that info into Google Maps and pull back down a map of that area. Unless somethign like the announced TomTom app allows you to pre-download and store maps of the area yoou plan to be in, you’ll have no way to display your AGPS determined position on a map without the network.

In a situation like this you become the responsible party, you see what is happening and for some reason, be it lack of knowledge, money, or she just does not care these animals are suffering, so please be responsible and make the call. You can ask that your name not be named.

Something is wrong. First of all, guinea pigs should NOT be kept in buckets. Here is a very helpful link that explains how much living space a guinea pig should have:
http://www.guineapigcages.com/

A guinea pigs average lifespan is about 5-8 years old, so Butters could have died from old age, although the weight loss is most likely due to a lack of food. The “shrinking disease” is just serious malnourishment. The eye condition should be seen by a vet.

There is no way that a guinea pig should be expected to live off of just lettuce and carrots. Guinea pigs should have an unlimited supply of Timothy Hay, pellets that are specifically for guinea pigs, and a variety of both fruits and vegetables. Fresh water needs to be available at all times. The miserable diet that you described could definitely be a contributing factor to the declining health of the guinea pigs.

How often does she breed her guinea pigs? Any female guinea over 6-8 months of age that gives birth is at a serious risk of dying. This person should NOT be breeding guinea pigs if she can’t provide proper care for the babies OR the mother.

I’m very concerned for the well-being of these guinea pigs, they are such sweet little animals that should never be neglected like this. I hope you can help/convince your friend to take better care of her pets!

It sounds like they are getting ill and dying from all sorts of different infections. One I see more common in them would be an Upper Respiratory Infection. This infection is the most deadly for guinea pigs. Guinea pigs are masters at hiding their illnesses and just when they can’t hold it in any longer, that’s when their owners notice. They hold it in because years ago, they used to be prey animals, so they had to hide their illnesses to stop predators from picking them out.

Signs of illnesses are-

• Lying down
•Not moving much
•Not eating or drinking
•Wheeking a lot (like sounds of pain)
•Boffed up fur like their cold
•Discharge in eyes
•Fur not as shiny as usual
•And the most important is weight loss! Be sure to weigh weekly!

If you notice anything like this, then get them to the vet as soon as possible for treatment. Obviously your friend has not been doing this.

I highly recommend you have a long chat to your friend about caring for her guinea pigs. She needs to understand that they CAN NOT live in a bucket. They need heaps more space than that.
See http://www.guinespigcages.com to learn more about this topic.

Also see http://www.guinealynx.info for more information on illnesses and sicknesses.

Radio waves don’t go through rocks. Enough said. So GPS receiver will not receive anything from underground. Thus, no location signal, no GPS.

You can use inertial guidance / dead reckoning but it’s obviously not that reliable.

Subways now allow cell phones because they actually installed cell signal repeaters in the tunnels.

Once you have the location, transmitting that location to someone is a different problem, since the same transmission problem still applies.

Some suggested using VLF ground conduction, but that’s very experimental and transmission bitrate is horribly slow.

So to answer your question, no, and no.

—
Kasey C, PC guru since Apple II days
Better to understand a little than to misunderstand a lot.