It is part of the Man's Sacred Code of Honor to never stop the car, get out, go into the gas station, and (shudder) ask for directions.

For this reason, the man's ultimate secret weapon has been invented. It has cost billions of dollars, and required launching multiple satellites into Earth orbit. But the work has been worth it. The result: GPS.

There's several types of GPS units: ones dedicated for use in a car, handheld ones (good for hiking), ones that work with PDAs like Palm Pilots and ones that work with laptop computers.

For car use, there's a range of models from simple ones that will give you directions (about $200) to fancy ones (about $600-$1000) with color screens with voice turn by turn directions. As you drive, your GPS unit receives signals from the GPS satellites, knows within feet exactly where you are, and a spoken voice tells you when to turn. Pretty cool.

You generally need to load software that's on a CD-ROM by connecting your GPS unit to a computer to transfer the map info for your area. If you travel over a wide area, you may need to load multiple map data sets. These are typically stored on memory cards. Some (like Garmin) may use proprietary cards; others may use generic memory cards like the ones used in digital cameras.

So when it's time for gift-giving, please, have pity on that poor hapless man who's been driving around in circles his whole life, silently cursing that "I know that turn's right around here somewhere". Get him a GPS.