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OT - What3words: The app that can save your life
Police have urged everyone to download a smartphone app they say has
already saved several lives. What is it and how does it work? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49319760 |
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#2
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OT - What3words: The app that can save your life
In article , David wrote:
Police have urged everyone to download a smartphone app they say has already saved several lives. What is it and how does it work? Yes. What is it and how does it work? -- Reading any post by Fred Hodgin, you're always faced with the choice of: lunatic, moron, or troll. I always try to be generous and give benefit of the doubt, by assuming troll. |
#3
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OT - What3words: The app that can save your life
In article , Kenny McCormack
wrote: Yes. What is it and how does it work? https://what3words.com/about-us/ We have assigned each 3m square in the world a unique 3 word address that will never change. For example ///filled.count.soap marks the exact entrance to what3words London headquarters. 3 word addresses are easy to say and share, and are as accurate as GPS coordinates. |
#4
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OT - What3words: The app that can save your life
On 15/11/2019 15:47, Kenny McCormack wrote:
In article , David wrote: Police have urged everyone to download a smartphone app they say has already saved several lives. What is it and how does it work? Yes. What is it and how does it work? It ascertains your location, gives it the 3words code, offers various options to 'send' the code, the sent code (ie,email) gives a URL that will then show the 'codes' location. https://what3words.com/ |
#5
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OT - What3words: The app that can save your life
On 15/11/2019 16:09, Patrick wrote:
On 15/11/2019 15:47, Kenny McCormack wrote: In article , DavidÂ* wrote: Police have urged everyone to download a smartphone app they say has already saved several lives. What is it and how does it work? Yes. What is it and how does it work? It ascertains your location, gives it the 3words code, offers various options to 'send' the code, the sent code (ie,email) gives a URL that will then show the 'codes' location. https://what3words.com/ That is correct, Patrick :-) What is what3words? Let me quote:- "what3words is a really simple way to talk about location. We have assigned each 3m square in the world a unique 3 word address that will never change. For example ///filled.count.soap marks the exact entrance to what3wordsâ London headquarters. 3 word addresses are easy to say and share, and are as accurate as GPS coordinates. 51.520847, -0.19552100 ââ /// filled.count.soap Our vision is to become a global standard for communicating location. People use what3words to find their tents at festivals, navigate to B&Bs, and to direct emergency services to the right place." See: https://what3words.com/products/what3words-app/ |
#6
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OT - What3words: The app that can save your life
Anti-shill x-post
However, it is not necessary to turn your location into human recognizable words; the phone device can be used to 'simply' send the coordinates. (And) The what3words proprietary strategy has been criticized by those supporters of open standards*. https://techwiser.com/send-location-someone/ 7 Ways to Send your Location (GPS coordinates) to Someone The 3 words business has to be done in multiple different languages. The strategy of sending the numerical coordinates is more universal and can be done by SMS so that even dumb or legacy phones can do it. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What3words#Criticism The company has pursued an assertive policy of issuing copyright claims against individuals and organisations that have hosted or published details of the what3words algorithm or reverse-engineered code that replicates the service's functionality, such as WhatFreeWords.[31] This has extended to removing comments on social media which refer to unauthorised versions.[32] -- Mike Easter |
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OT - What3words: The app that can save your life
"David" wrote:
Police have urged everyone to download a smartphone app they say has already saved several lives. What is it and how does it work? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49319760 And in later BBC news there's some criticism... What3words: 'Life-saving app' divides opinion https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49754820 |
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OT - What3words: The app that can save your life
Apd wrote:
"David" wrote: Police have urged everyone to download a smartphone app they say has already saved several lives. What is it and how does it work? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49319760 And in later BBC news there's some criticism... What3words: 'Life-saving app' divides opinion https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49754820 I think it's a great app. My first proper experience of it was at a German parkrun - the start was somewhere in the middle of a big park - What3words took us straight to the start line - yes, it could have been done with co-ords, but we just typed in 3 easy words from a website without worrying about getting digits wrong. -- Steve H |
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OT - What3words: The app that can save your life
On 11/15/19 8:59 AM, David wrote:
Police have urged everyone to download a smartphone app they say has already saved several lives. What is it and how does it work? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49319760 I see issues with things like ///bear.their.plane and relaying it to someone to run down the hill and they get it wrong ///bare.there.plain And then there are words that as good as my vocabulary is, are obscure to me and I doubt I could say but more so correctly type it if I heard it. So their choice of 40,000 words for the database should be very well thought out. I just don't see why a simple app, if it's needed on the phone, to send GPS to someone isn't as good. Granted the example of someone running down the hill to give the location to rescue workers isn't friendly with GPS, that would be the one upside of this product. Al |
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OT - What3words: The app that can save your life
In article , Big Al
wrote: I see issues with things like ///bear.their.plane and relaying it to someone to run down the hill and they get it wrong ///bare.there.plain they intentionally limited the selection words so that won't happen. And then there are words that as good as my vocabulary is, are obscure to me and I doubt I could say but more so correctly type it if I heard it. So their choice of 40,000 words for the database should be very well thought out. it is. I just don't see why a simple app, if it's needed on the phone, to send GPS to someone isn't as good. Granted the example of someone running down the hill to give the location to rescue workers isn't friendly with GPS, that would be the one upside of this product. it's just as good, if not better, since there's far less chance of getting a digit wrong. |
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OT - What3words: The app that can save your life
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Fri, 15 Nov 2019 17:14:54 -0000, "Apd"
wrote: "David" wrote: Police have urged everyone to download a smartphone app they say has already saved several lives. What is it and how does it work? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49319760 And in later BBC news there's some criticism... What3words: 'Life-saving app' divides opinion https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49754820 So if I'm traveling and I use it and the police there don't have the app installed, can I make up my own 3 words? ///Need.help.now Or if there are several of us lost in the woods, ///help.me.first . And of course, the police have their own address, ///dont.bother.me . |
#12
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OT - What3words: The app that can save your life
micky wrote:
So if I'm traveling and I use it and the police there don't have the app installed, can I make up my own 3 words? ///Need.help.now Ha. Send the police your coordinates. nospam is WRONG that the transmission of your coordinates will somehow result in an error. That is not the way it works; you don't have to 'memorize' or 'write down' your coordinates. Your device can transmit them for you precisely. -- Mike Easter |
#13
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OT - What3words: The app that can save your life
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Fri, 15 Nov 2019 20:18:16 -0800, Mike
Easter wrote: micky wrote: So if I'm traveling and I use it and the police there don't have the app installed, can I make up my own 3 words? ///Need.help.now Ha. Send the police your coordinates. nospam is WRONG that the transmission of your coordinates will somehow result in an error. That is not the way it works; you don't have to 'memorize' or 'write down' your coordinates. Your device can transmit them for you precisely. I think a lot of people, including me, don't know where to find coordinates, let alone send them. This reminds me of early days when I had little money and tried not to buy software, but I still bought PrintScreen, which had a couple extra features I didnt need, and which I later learned I could do with the PrntScrn key, paste, and print, while spending no money. I think it was only $10 or 15 but they were still wasted. |
#14
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OT - What3words: The app that can save your life
In article , Mike Easter
wrote: Send the police your coordinates. nospam is WRONG that the transmission of your coordinates will somehow result in an error. That is not the way it works; you don't have to 'memorize' or 'write down' your coordinates. Your device can transmit them for you precisely. it's not *just* for the police and the device does not always transmit gps coordinates. what3words is much easier than two long numbers. |
#15
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OT - What3words: The app that can save your life
Steve H wrote:
I think it's a great app. Just make sure you don't confuse for example parents.appeal.form with parent.appeal.forms, one's in London, the other near Sacramento. |
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