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

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.

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.

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/

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 what3words’
London headquarters.

3 word addresses are easy to say and share, and are as accurate as GPS
coordinates.
51.520847, -0.19552100 �→ /// 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/

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

"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

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

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

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.

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 .

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

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.

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.

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.