3 ms·

I have some doubts. a) suppose I am in Apt #312 in Bellevue Mansion, Whatever Street 23, San Jose, California. Apt. #311 is on a wildly different set, so how

by Pamar 10y ago

I have some doubts. a) suppose I am in Apt #312 in Bellevue Mansion, Whatever Street 23, San Jose, California. Apt. #311 is on a wildly different set, so how can I find out we are neighbours? Or how can I explain to someone where Whatever Street #21 is? b) what if I have the same 3-words square, but you are on floor #7 and I am on floor #11?

qihqi 10y ago
the 3-words replaces Number+Street name, not anything else. So you can just append the other information. hellow.world.hola Floor 7 Apt 781 City, Zip, ST, Country
- jessriedel 10y ago
  No it replaces city, state, country too. (Yes, you might need to include some of those to be backwards compatible with the current mailing system, but that's not how this system would work.)
secstate 10y ago
I would add to the other comment that there are plenty of ways this doesn't improve your life in San Jose. But the Vox article points out those 70K people who live in a slum of Rio do have the benefit of a working system.
- x1798DE 10y ago
  I feel like it could definitely be made more user-friendly, though. Like instead of a random assortment of 3-word combinations, is there no way to assign them in an ordered fashion, so that "hill.stevedore.borg" is west of "hall.stevedore.bar". Or use a larger grid with an inset numeric system, like instead of blocking in 3 square meter chunks, use 30 square meter chunks with a 2-digit number next to it, like "hambone.impish.doorframe-3,3". I kinda feel like any arbitrarily-ordered locational identifier will always feel clunky compared to an ordered grid system.
jessriedel 10y ago
Address is pretty separate from directions in both the old and new system. The fact that I'm on Maple st. doesn't tell me anything about how close I am to Pine st., except in a small number of cities that have a useful naming system. So I say "Turn left on Maple, then right on Pine, then...". Likewise, here you say "turn right at maple.big.grumpy, then left at green.thick.rat". This system is an improvement for locations with no road names (so it's not any harder to give directions) or with ubiquitous GPS (where you can directly convert). The number of places with road names but not ubiquitous GPS is on the fast decline.
- Pamar 10y ago
  Maybe I am just dumb but I cannot really understand the "Address is pretty separate from directions in both the old and new system". You usually know where you live (i.e. how to get there) so the only reason you need to have some kind of coordinate system (be it "conventional" or the one we are discussing) is to tell someone other, including the postman, how to get to you. I.e. - I really do not understand why "Hi Ibrahim, I live at Alpha-Unicorn-Honey, just drop here when you are in the area" would beat "The train stops at Nadira, from there you walk 2 miles in the direction of the sunset, when you reach a rock looking like a kneeling woman you turn in the direction of the face and walk anoter mile - and there is my hut". So far the only place where I believe this system would help is in large Japanese cities (Tokyo) etc. because they don't have "named" streets, most of the time, and at the same time most people can be expected to have access to technology. (Maybe it's the same in China, but never been there so I don't know how it is) I sincerely doubt that people living on the outskirts of the Gobi desert will routinely exchange their three-words coordinates over whatsapp and then get Google Maps or whatever to guide them to the desired destination.
  - jessriedel 10y ago
    > I really do not understand why "Hi Ibrahim, I live at Alpha-Unicorn-Honey, just drop here when you are in the area" would beat "The train stops at Nadira, from there you walk 2 miles in the direction of the sunset, when you reach a rock looking like a kneeling woman you turn in the direction of the face and walk anoter mile - and there is my hut". You misunderstand. It's not trying to be better at directions, it's trying to be better at unambiguously specifying a location. If you're mailing something to someone where there are no roads, then this gives you a way to address them with more precision than you could do before. You just need a postman with a $40 smart phone with GPS (or a look-up-table). You should really think about this as "easy to remember and communicate GPS coordinates".

by Pamar 10y ago

qihqi 10y ago

the 3-words replaces Number+Street name, not anything else. So you can just append the other information. hellow.world.hola Floor 7 Apt 781 City, Zip, ST, Country

jessriedel 10y ago
No it replaces city, state, country too. (Yes, you might need to include some of those to be backwards compatible with the current mailing system, but that's not how this system would work.)

secstate 10y ago

I would add to the other comment that there are plenty of ways this doesn't improve your life in San Jose. But the Vox article points out those 70K people who live in a slum of Rio do have the benefit of a working system.

x1798DE 10y ago
I feel like it could definitely be made more user-friendly, though. Like instead of a random assortment of 3-word combinations, is there no way to assign them in an ordered fashion, so that "hill.stevedore.borg" is west of "hall.stevedore.bar". Or use a larger grid with an inset numeric system, like instead of blocking in 3 square meter chunks, use 30 square meter chunks with a 2-digit number next to it, like "hambone.impish.doorframe-3,3". I kinda feel like any arbitrarily-ordered locational identifier will always feel clunky compared to an ordered grid system.

jessriedel 10y ago

Address is pretty separate from directions in both the old and new system. The fact that I'm on Maple st. doesn't tell me anything about how close I am to Pine st., except in a small number of cities that have a useful naming system. So I say "Turn left on Maple, then right on Pine, then...". Likewise, here you say "turn right at maple.big.grumpy, then left at green.thick.rat". This system is an improvement for locations with no road names (so it's not any harder to give directions) or with ubiquitous GPS (where you can directly convert). The number of places with road names but not ubiquitous GPS is on the fast decline.

Pamar 10y ago
Maybe I am just dumb but I cannot really understand the "Address is pretty separate from directions in both the old and new system". You usually know where you live (i.e. how to get there) so the only reason you need to have some kind of coordinate system (be it "conventional" or the one we are discussing) is to tell someone other, including the postman, how to get to you. I.e. - I really do not understand why "Hi Ibrahim, I live at Alpha-Unicorn-Honey, just drop here when you are in the area" would beat "The train stops at Nadira, from there you walk 2 miles in the direction of the sunset, when you reach a rock looking like a kneeling woman you turn in the direction of the face and walk anoter mile - and there is my hut". So far the only place where I believe this system would help is in large Japanese cities (Tokyo) etc. because they don't have "named" streets, most of the time, and at the same time most people can be expected to have access to technology. (Maybe it's the same in China, but never been there so I don't know how it is) I sincerely doubt that people living on the outskirts of the Gobi desert will routinely exchange their three-words coordinates over whatsapp and then get Google Maps or whatever to guide them to the desired destination.
- jessriedel 10y ago
  > I really do not understand why "Hi Ibrahim, I live at Alpha-Unicorn-Honey, just drop here when you are in the area" would beat "The train stops at Nadira, from there you walk 2 miles in the direction of the sunset, when you reach a rock looking like a kneeling woman you turn in the direction of the face and walk anoter mile - and there is my hut". You misunderstand. It's not trying to be better at directions, it's trying to be better at unambiguously specifying a location. If you're mailing something to someone where there are no roads, then this gives you a way to address them with more precision than you could do before. You just need a postman with a $40 smart phone with GPS (or a look-up-table). You should really think about this as "easy to remember and communicate GPS coordinates".