4 ms·

Uhh, okay. This is already a solved problem, it’s called GPS. I can see this would be useful as an address system, but using it for the police to find you? Does

by mruts 7y ago

Uhh, okay. This is already a solved problem, it’s called GPS. I can see this would be useful as an address system, but using it for the police to find you? Doesn’t make much sense.

Piskvorrr 7y ago
This is based on GPS. The three words are a hash of the coordinates; this seems more user-friendly and less error-prone than "14.1234567,50.35466, wait, no, 50.53466, or is it -50.53466,14.1234567?". As opposed to e.g. the Maidenhead locator, this has the properties of a hash - in other words, isn't trivially reversible, and you need the w3w company to provide you with the location, each and every time (jackpot!).
- Freak_NL 7y ago
  > "14.1234567,50.35466, wait, no, 50.53466, or is it -50.53466,14.1234567?". All of which are fine for someone lost in X mountain range. The operator on the other side will know whether -50.* or 14.* is latitude or longitude. Also, you would just read the numbers from your screen, no ambiguity there.
  - Piskvorrr 7y ago
    Thank you, thank you. You have demonstrated the flaw perfectly: didn't even notice the swapped digits, which would send SAR to someplace plausible yet far away.
    - jjeaff 7y ago
      I'm at steeple, bound, force... People? No steeple ... S as in Sam, steeple. Was that mound or found? B as in boy, o as in Oscar, u as in unit.... Ok, steeple, boy, Oscar... There is a reason the military alphabet exists and all numbers are pronounced as is (except for the occasional Niner to avoid confusing nine with 5)
- IshKebab 7y ago
  I'm pretty sure long-pressing your location in Google Maps and reading out two numbers is a fair bit easier than downloading a new app that you've never heard of.
  - Piskvorrr 7y ago
    Sure, network effect and all that. OTOH, I distinctly recall being told of a new search engine I've never heard of, I think it was called "Google". Everything was new and unknown once ;)
    - Piskvorrr 7y ago
      @IshKebab: Okay, I went ahead and tried. GMaps gives you both the GPS coordinates and the Open Location Code. That's significantly better than complaint above "it's popular because it's popular". Fair point.
julienreszka 7y ago
It's faster to read than long lat and it probably uses gps. The innovation is in the user friendly hash table of Geo locations
- pgeorgi 7y ago
  And apparently it has to feed 100 employees (what are they even doing?) I doubt that's true for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Location_Code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Location_Code and so I'd be less concerned about incentives changing over time (also, it doesn't need a central maintainer for the hash map).
  - jjeaff 7y ago
    3 employees to maintain the system. 97 employees doing sales, marketing, and PR.
  - julienreszka 7y ago
    Olc Isn't as user friendly as three words
    - pgeorgi 7y ago
      It's the same letters around the globe though. If you have a bunch of folks exchanging the following 3 Word Addresses, you better hope they get it textual in a medium that allows copy & paste - in which case OLC is no worse off. 语焉不详.思潮.眼球 (962CWVRJ+9X) ज्ञात.महाकाय.भौहों (9G4729FC+39) (58H58WHV+GX) القول.تفريق.لأهتم เคี้ยว.สมุนไพร.ผัก (9F4MG95X+7M) штанишки.вытер.разбавлять (8GW3XJP2+RV) And then there's terms of use: - For 3 Word Addresses you (hopefully) get "a non-assignable, non-transferable, non-exclusive and revocable licence". (note: revocable) - And worse, with the list above I might have violated their ToS: "Further, you must not publish (yourself or via a third party) any list or database of 3 Word Addresses with 3 Word Address Locations". - It's also not allowed to provide a service that translates a 3 Word Address into something else (such as OLC or GPS coordinates) so they could be used with software or devices that happen to use different schemes: "you may use any 3 Word Address in any way that you wish, provided ... you in no way use 3 Word Addresses or 3 Word Address Locations to provide or seek to provide a product or service the same as or similar to any product or service provided by us" - Finally, if they ever decide to shut down their server, all your 3 Word Address are gone as "any copying, re-utilisation, extraction, reproduction or redistribution of the what3words Materials ... is expressly prohibited".
j_4 7y ago
"You can build such a system quite trivially", etc. Turning a long numeric sequence into a memorable phrase easy to input with both text and speech solves a real problem.

by mruts 7y ago

Uhh, okay. This is already a solved problem, it’s called GPS. I can see this would be useful as an address system, but using it for the police to find you? Doesn’t make much sense.

Piskvorrr 7y ago

This is based on GPS. The three words are a hash of the coordinates; this seems more user-friendly and less error-prone than "14.1234567,50.35466, wait, no, 50.53466, or is it -50.53466,14.1234567?". As opposed to e.g. the Maidenhead locator, this has the properties of a hash - in other words, isn't trivially reversible, and you need the w3w company to provide you with the location, each and every time (jackpot!).

Freak_NL 7y ago
> "14.1234567,50.35466, wait, no, 50.53466, or is it -50.53466,14.1234567?". All of which are fine for someone lost in X mountain range. The operator on the other side will know whether -50.* or 14.* is latitude or longitude. Also, you would just read the numbers from your screen, no ambiguity there.
- Piskvorrr 7y ago
  Thank you, thank you. You have demonstrated the flaw perfectly: didn't even notice the swapped digits, which would send SAR to someplace plausible yet far away.
  - jjeaff 7y ago
    I'm at steeple, bound, force... People? No steeple ... S as in Sam, steeple. Was that mound or found? B as in boy, o as in Oscar, u as in unit.... Ok, steeple, boy, Oscar... There is a reason the military alphabet exists and all numbers are pronounced as is (except for the occasional Niner to avoid confusing nine with 5)
IshKebab 7y ago
I'm pretty sure long-pressing your location in Google Maps and reading out two numbers is a fair bit easier than downloading a new app that you've never heard of.
- Piskvorrr 7y ago
  Sure, network effect and all that. OTOH, I distinctly recall being told of a new search engine I've never heard of, I think it was called "Google". Everything was new and unknown once ;)
  - Piskvorrr 7y ago
    @IshKebab: Okay, I went ahead and tried. GMaps gives you both the GPS coordinates and the Open Location Code. That's significantly better than complaint above "it's popular because it's popular". Fair point.

julienreszka 7y ago

It's faster to read than long lat and it probably uses gps. The innovation is in the user friendly hash table of Geo locations

pgeorgi 7y ago
And apparently it has to feed 100 employees (what are they even doing?) I doubt that's true for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Location_Code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Location_Code and so I'd be less concerned about incentives changing over time (also, it doesn't need a central maintainer for the hash map).
- jjeaff 7y ago
  3 employees to maintain the system. 97 employees doing sales, marketing, and PR.
- julienreszka 7y ago
  Olc Isn't as user friendly as three words
  - pgeorgi 7y ago
    It's the same letters around the globe though. If you have a bunch of folks exchanging the following 3 Word Addresses, you better hope they get it textual in a medium that allows copy & paste - in which case OLC is no worse off. 语焉不详.思潮.眼球 (962CWVRJ+9X) ज्ञात.महाकाय.भौहों (9G4729FC+39) (58H58WHV+GX) القول.تفريق.لأهتم เคี้ยว.สมุนไพร.ผัก (9F4MG95X+7M) штанишки.вытер.разбавлять (8GW3XJP2+RV) And then there's terms of use: - For 3 Word Addresses you (hopefully) get "a non-assignable, non-transferable, non-exclusive and revocable licence". (note: revocable) - And worse, with the list above I might have violated their ToS: "Further, you must not publish (yourself or via a third party) any list or database of 3 Word Addresses with 3 Word Address Locations". - It's also not allowed to provide a service that translates a 3 Word Address into something else (such as OLC or GPS coordinates) so they could be used with software or devices that happen to use different schemes: "you may use any 3 Word Address in any way that you wish, provided ... you in no way use 3 Word Addresses or 3 Word Address Locations to provide or seek to provide a product or service the same as or similar to any product or service provided by us" - Finally, if they ever decide to shut down their server, all your 3 Word Address are gone as "any copying, re-utilisation, extraction, reproduction or redistribution of the what3words Materials ... is expressly prohibited".

j_4 7y ago

"You can build such a system quite trivially", etc. Turning a long numeric sequence into a memorable phrase easy to input with both text and speech solves a real problem.