What3Words: The App That Can Save Your Life (bbc.com) 229
Police have urged everyone to download a smartphone app they say has already saved several lives. What is it and how does it work? From a report: Kicked. Converged. Soccer. These three randomly chosen words saved Jess Tinsley and her friends after they got lost in a forest on a dark, wet night. They had planned a five-mile circular stroll through the 4,900 acre (2,000 hectare) woodland Hamsterley Forest, in County Durham, on Sunday evening, but after three hours they were hopelessly lost. "We were in a field and had no idea where we were," the 24-year-old care worker from Newton Aycliffe said. "It was absolutely horrendous. I was joking about it and trying to laugh because I knew if I didn't laugh I would cry."
At 22:30 BST they found a spot with phone signal and dialled 999. "One of the first things the call-handler told us to do was download the what3words app," Ms Tinsley said. "I had never heard of it." Within a minute of its download, the police said they knew where the group was and the soaked and freezing walkers were swiftly found by the Teesdale and Weardale Search and Mountain Rescue Team. "I have told everyone I know to download this app," Ms Tinsley said. "You never know when you are going to get lost and need it." What3words essentially points to a very specific location. Its developers divided the world into 57 trillion squares, each measuring 3m by 3m (10ft by 10ft) and each having a unique, randomly assigned three-word address. For example, the door of 10 Downing Street is slurs.this.shark, while the area across the road where the press congregate is stage.pushy.nuns.
At 22:30 BST they found a spot with phone signal and dialled 999. "One of the first things the call-handler told us to do was download the what3words app," Ms Tinsley said. "I had never heard of it." Within a minute of its download, the police said they knew where the group was and the soaked and freezing walkers were swiftly found by the Teesdale and Weardale Search and Mountain Rescue Team. "I have told everyone I know to download this app," Ms Tinsley said. "You never know when you are going to get lost and need it." What3words essentially points to a very specific location. Its developers divided the world into 57 trillion squares, each measuring 3m by 3m (10ft by 10ft) and each having a unique, randomly assigned three-word address. For example, the door of 10 Downing Street is slurs.this.shark, while the area across the road where the press congregate is stage.pushy.nuns.
GPS (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:GPS (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:GPS (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:GPS (Score:5, Insightful)
Try the map application...
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Google Plus Codes [was: GPS] (Score:2)
Google Maps gives something called a “Plus Code”. Is that trying to solve the same thing that 3 words is?
This is my understanding. Google tout a number of benefits on their plus codes website https://plus.codes/ [plus.codes] which I think is trying to claim superiority over alternatives like What3Words. Not mentioned on the site is the benefit that it's part of Google Maps, so most people won't need to install yet another app if they want to have an easier way to refer to a location.
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yes that too is a compact, easily, typed unique identifier for 1 meter areas, except for the part about making it easy to recall and speak over a phone and recognizable to a non-expert, child or granny.
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I tried the Apple map app on my iPhone and I saw no latitude/longitude coordinates.
Use the compass app, and make sure that you've set location services to share your location with the app.
Re:GPS (Score:4, Insightful)
Use the compass app
If they had a compass app, they wouldn't have gotten lost in the first place.
These are people that, despite having powerful technology in their pockets and access to a worldwide grid of navigation satellites, managed to get lost in a tiny forest surrounded by civilization.
With a compass app, they could have picked any random direction and walked out in 20 minutes. Even without a compass, they could have just picked "downhill" and done the same.
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Luckily they had the what3words app ... oh wait!
Or off a cliff, or into a lake, but sure it's only 7.72 Miles wide, so assuming they pick any old direction and pick the worst case 20 minutes is a very reasonable estimate of how long it takes to cover 7 or so miles at night through the woods ... you're so smart!!!!
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This whole story is ridiculous. Not only did they have a compass app, they had a GPS. What3Words isn't magic, it uses the GPS. They could have popped open Google Maps and walked out. You can even do that without a cell signal!
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I think the biggest issue is that technology has prevented the idiocy being removed from the gene pool.
I mean, shit, I went walking through wild woodland on a mountain in Morocco and even without a map, compass, tracks or a GPS in my pocket I knew exactly how to get back to my car.
That I also had a map, compass and GPS available merely reflects that I'm not an utter fucking imbecile.
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Re:GPS (Score:4, Informative)
I tried the Apple map app on my iPhone and I saw no latitude/longitude coordinates. I tried the Google map app and didn't see it there either. Maybe I missed something on each but it was not obvious.
I just clicked on my current location in the Apple Maps and Google Maps apps, and both gave me my latitude and longitude. Apple Maps even literally uses the words, “latitude” and “longitude.”
So I suppose that, yes, you’re missing something, because it was really quite simple and obvious on both.
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I just clicked on my current location in the Apple Maps and Google Maps apps, and both gave me my latitude and longitude. Apple Maps even literally uses the words, “latitude” and “longitude.”
So I suppose that, yes, you’re missing something, because it was really quite simple and obvious on both.
Most people are morons unable to do the most simple things competently. At the same time, they are so full of themselves they are unable to learn or even to look a bit harder when they not immediately find what they are looking for. This thread nicely illustrates that. Why on earth would a map applications _not_ give you your coordinates?
Re:GPS (Score:5, Insightful)
You must be kidding. Or you think that all civilians can speak english words. 57 trillion into three words, let's say order matters. That's 13'000 english words.
First, most native english speakers use only 5'000. Most fluent (non-native) use only 2'000. Most adults need only 2'000. Most scenarios/situations deal with fewer than 500. Let's say you can triple those for things like conjugations.
Most of my country doesn't speak english natively. "converged" likely isn't known by half of the adults in my country of 33 million diverse people. And for the 75% who do, or can read it anyway, you wouldn't understand their accent in person, let alone over the phone.
A two-year old can read digits. Most one-year olds around me can read digits.
Contrast that to numbers -- which are:
a) the same across most languages and cultures in this world.
b) can be counted out with grunts, barks, hooves, or apples
c) easily communicated by machines, be they computers or smoke signals
d) are taught to children long before reading
In this case, the really easy solutions would have been:
a) a checksum to verify understanding of communicated numbers -- you know, like each and every credit card number ever.
b) the phone just sending the data, numbers words whatever, across the voice call
c) 911 around here can already pull that information from a cellphone. we've been paying for it for decades because we got pissed off in the '80s when someone wasn't found fast enough.
d) education enough to understand that maybe you shouldn't walk into a dark forest without knowing how to get out
e) education enough to find north (sun, moon, stars, nose, landmarks, birds, plants) and know which way home is
f) knowing that your phone does show gps coordinates, it's under the is-my-gps-working section, and that means you know which way north is, and that means you can use it like a compass too. Or you can just know the gps coordinates of home, and walk that way.
The miraculous thing here is that someone with a smart phone and an internet connection and a voice call, still needed a brand new app in order to do something that humans have been doing for millennia! Animals have been doing it even longer.
Tell me again why they couldn't just pull up google maps, and get directions home?
A few corrections. (Score:3, Informative)
Most of my country doesn't speak english natively.
The app lets you select a language to use when you start, so it has accounted for that.
"converged" likely isn't known by half of the adults in my country of 33 million diverse people.
You don't have to knew what it means, just how to read it.
I am more disturbed it includes plural forms of words which I can see being easy to mix up.
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I thought this was an app to give you the three most important words to get help in tourist situations in foreign countries. Like:
a) bathroom, toilet, shower
b) food, water, alcohol
c) medicine, hospital, doctor
d) sleep, hotel, bed
e) car, fuel, bus
f) plane, boat, train
g) danger, poison, death
h) animal, human, plant
i) phone, battery, broken
So, with my lexicon of maybe 100 words, obviously in 33 groups under maybe 5 situational categories, each in a dozen languages/cultures -- that's pretty much one piece of p
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Words in your post: 396
Words to get your life saved by this synergistic, disruptive, market driven, rainbow-farting unicorn technology: 3
Do the math, numbers guy.
(Or just look at the permissions for the app, and what third parties it gives permission to.)
Re:GPS (Score:4)
Didn't need 3 words for the app to work. It just needed to transmit the coordinates.
And you're wrong. The app needed internet access to be downloaded, and a working phone to be used, and a 911 operator willing and able to use it within a secure facility, and two humans able to read, pronounce, hear, understand, and type the same language.
Stop doing math, start counting. That's a shit-tonne of dependencies.
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So, I guess, you spell the words you don't know. Or describe the characters if it's not in a language you're familiar with. Because that's not fraught with potential for misunderstanding.
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Or you think that all civilians can speak english words.
The app lets you choose a language on install.
a) the same across most languages and cultures in this world.
Oh really? I say the word "six". Someone speaking Spanish says "seis". Someone speaking Russian says "" (according to Google Translate)
b) can be counted out with grunts, barks, hooves, or apples
What's the bark for "decimal point"? Or "negative" 'Cause that's really important if you're talking about relaying a latitude and longitude.
d) are taught to children long before reading
I'm having trouble coming up with a situation where a child too young to be literate 1) wanders off, 2) brings a smartphone, 3) knows how to start an "emergency" call, 4) knows to launch
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Because they likely didn't have an internet signal until they finally found a sweet spot. Tell me you knew that every phone doesn't magically know what the entire map of planet Earth looks like without having to access that data over a network, at least until one chooses to "make available locally" a particular subset.
FTA: "At 22:30 BST they found a spot with phone signal and dialled 999" Presumably the 999 operator thought
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Three words that can be prone to mispronunciation causing you to look like you are located in road-less land above the polar circle while you are actually in a forest in New England.
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I'd like to agree with you, but I just downloaded the What Three Words app on my iPhone and it took 5 minutes to download and install on a strong LTE connection. I can only imagine how long it would take if it was stranded in the woods with poor cell reception.
Seriously... I could have repeated my latitude and longitude about a dozen times over the phone in the amount of time it took me to download this app!
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This system seems a little better for most people. (Score:5, Interesting)
Lots of people may not know how to get GPS coordinates from their phones...
However I also question how many 911 centers are yet set up to understand the three words system either.
As far as comprehensibility over a poor connection, the three words thing may have an advantage there.
Maybe it would be better though to just have an app that clearly gave you GPS coordinates with only two digits after the decimal point, easy to read over a phone and any rescue group can make easy use of. Since we are talking about everyone having to download an app anyway....
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Hold your finger down on the screen for a dropped pin. Tap on that for details about that pin location, including lat and long.
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Long-press the blue dot which represents your location on Google Maps. GPS coords will be put into the search bar. (on Android, at least)
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> GPS coordinates with only two digits after the decimal point
0.01 degrees of Lat/Lon translates to about 3600 feet, so that would only get rescue crews to within half a mile of your actual location. Better than nothing, but not nearly as good as the system described.
=Smidge=
Re: This system seems a little better for most peo (Score:3)
Three decimals then
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Half a mile is probably good enough for an emergency responder to use an air horn for you to get directionality while still on the phone with the emergency operator, and have them relay over radio.
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Hopefully the emergency operator that is on the phone with you knows how to get GPS coords out of your phone?
iPhone: open the Compass app
Android: open Google Maps, long press on blue dot
That's a problem that is solved with a post-it on the emergency operator's monitor.
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Probably because there's a higher risk of near miss.
What 3 Words will give huge misses if heard wrong (for example missing the "s" at the end of a plural).
https://what3words.com/wounds.... [what3words.com] vs https://what3words.com/wound.c... [what3words.com]
But with coordinates, you can get a digit wrong and think you're right (the location will pass a sanity check) but actually be many yards (or depending the specifics, miles) away.
The location is presumably passed multiple times via telephone game, so having an easy sanity check to get t
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Re: GPS (Score:2)
I enter credit card numbers over the phone maybe 3 times a day.
I get it wrong about once a week. That's 16 digits.
Coordinates are about 14 digits. An error in the last 3 of either (so 6 out of 14?) Would not fail a sanity check.
And with credit cards there's a pattern (0000 0000 0000 0000), people aren't used to reading GPS coordinates.
This is obviously a slashvertisement, but this is an example of w3w being an obviously better method. Though honestly, with working GPS and internet, the emergency system shou
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Nein. Niner is used in the ICAO alphabet because the Germans use a similar sounding word for 'no'.
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Also, something
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Words are only less likely to be miscommunicated than numbers if there is sufficient redundant context around the words to resolve any ambiguity.
Since the words are being used here in isolation of any meaningful context that relates to how the words might normally be used in conversation, the chance of miscommunication is probably just as high as it would be using numbers instead.
But it does bear some validity that consumer map applications which might utilize GPS should have a way to quickly and easil
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I think most people may not know how to find GPS coordinates. Words are also less likely to be miscommunicated. I do wonder, though, why you'd be lost if you have a phone.
I recall of a case of someone lost with his phone. He was on a small plane that crashed in the woods. He had his phone and it was able to give his location by E911. He knew where he was but that wasn't necessarily helpful in that he lacked enough information on how to navigate out. There was also the matter of a lack of a vehicle, a considerable distance needed to travel to find aid, and an injured passenger that was unable to travel with much speed.
Unfortunately people get lost all the time with their
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That's what I was thinking. But then I wondered where I would find my GPS coordinates on my phone. Maybe in one of the maps apps but it's not obvious. Another nice thing about What3words is that it's easier to say 3 words than relay a bunch of numeric coordinates without messing it up.
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Re:GPS (Score:5, Interesting)
It's been my experience that nontechnical people are notoriously awful at communicating the full extent of the necessary information.
Back when beige-box PCs were commonplace in corporate environments, we would put stickers on the cases that described the motherboard inside so that when the user called in with a problem the helpdesk could accurately document the model, so we'd know what parts to get. The problem came about when we had a new person come up with nomenclature for the next model. That model had a motherboard from Biostar, so he simply put stickers that said, "BIOSTAR" on them onto these builds.
The next model of computer also had a Biostar motherboard but with an entirely different architecture. Old one was IDE with SDRAM and a 20pin power supply, new ones were SATA with DDR and a 24-pin power supply. He labeled the new ones "BIOSTAR II" or "BIOSTAR 2". Problem is, the users and the helpdesk would only note "BIOSTAR", and the internally-assigned asset tag ranges were close enough that one couldn't readily identify which model a user would have. This was aggravating.
So while in theory a user should be able to open a GPS application and read off latitude and longitude, it's extremely possible that the user is stupid and will transpose digits, omit some section, or simply get the numbers wrong, sending rescue personnel on a wild goose chase trying to find them. As much as I abhor dumbing-down to "rutabaga,mollusk,cheese" at least it'll be harder for an end user to get the words themselves entirely wrong, especially if some thought was put into the words used for the grid system, such that no similar words are anywhere near each other.
Re: GPS (Score:2)
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An existing map application might not do the job in a no-Internet situation. Of course, one can't download an app then, either, but one could pre-download the app.
I just put my Android 8.0 phone in airplane mode (but with location on) and cleared data and cache for Google Maps, and started Google Maps to simulate what would happen if I had traveled to an area where there were no cached maps. I got a not very responsive blank screen. The usual blue dot did not show up at all on the screen. The only way I had
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Then somebody that is apparently paying the police would not make a profit off you.
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Mostly, they'd have them already. All cellphones sold in 'merica have to be capable of providing location data somehow. It's called E911 [wikipedia.org], although in the EU there is also E112/eCall. GPS, AOA, TDOA, and/or location fingerprinting will be used to provide a typically fairly accurate location if an emergency call is made from a cellular phone.
"In the US, the Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act of 1999, also known as the 911 Act, mandated the use of E911" (see above link) but GSM carriers got a deferm
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The problem is the resolution. E911 is an accuracy of about a city block. Which is going to be good enough for a "lost in the woods" scenario (assuming you can shout) but not good enough for an urban area.
Yes, the phone can do better, but the low-bid contractors building the equipment and software for the E911 center didn't spend the money to handle that.
Also, your 911 call from a cell phone is often routed to a center that doesn't actually cover your area. In most states it's routed to a state-level cen
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Or the Maidenhead Grid Locator? Like JO57WQ21IX [k7fry.com].
Re:GPS (Score:5, Informative)
I can't tell you how many data sets I have looked through that are chock full of badly transcribed GPS coordinates. People are lousy at accurately reading and transcribing long strings of numbers. So, yeah, if I'm relying on voice communication to get a location, three words works a hell of a lot better.
In the US this is not an issue because by law emergency cell phone calls to 911 must relay the location of the handset to the dispatcher, either by sending GPS coordinates or by triangulating cell phone towers. Triangulation is less accurate, but in practice all recent US smartphones are going to be automatically relaying GPS coordinates if available.
Similar technology is available in the UK's 999 system, but it may not be mandated yet.
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E911 only requires the resolution of about a city block. And the low-bid contractors outfitting 911 centers didn't spend the money to do better.
That's probably good enough for a lost-in-the-woods scenario (assuming you can shout), but causes problems in an urban area.
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Add to that that GPS coordinates convey additional information.
For example, if my GPS latitude increased by about 0.01 degree - I am now about 1km-ish north of where I previously was.
What information can be derived from an arbitrary set of words?
Learn how to use a map and compass (Score:2)
Correct horse battery staple (Score:5, Funny)
...oh, wait....
dialed 999 (Score:2)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWc3WY3fuZU
English? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ok, so English-speakers are safe. How does it work for the rest of the world?
Numbers, on the other hand, are pretty universal (in that everyone uses the same decimal system now), and all you need to learn, at most, is 10 things to pronounce/translate.
Re:English? (Score:5, Informative)
The first thing it does when you install the app is which of several screens of languages you want to use for the word bank.
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So these words are not the same in all languages? How does that aid communication? Instead of learning 10 (common, probably well known) numeric values you need to be able to understand/pronounce an arbitrary extensive vocabulary of words that don't actually have any meaning together?
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Instead of learning 10 (common, probably well known) numeric values
I say the word "six".
Someone speaking Spanish says "seis".
Someone speaking Chinese says "liu" (according to Google translate, and mangled by Slashdot's poor unicode).
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Oh good, so I only need to learn to read and pronounce Thai if I get lost in Thailand. Or Chinese if lost in China. Or Japanese if lost in Japan.
How is that helpful?
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IIRC, this app started out in Africa. I presume that there it used the languages common around wherever it was being used.
That said, it's just a map coordinate program. It was originally designed to allow mail to be delivered to placed that didn't have any official address.
BBC Advert (Score:4, Interesting)
Never post AMP links (Score:5, Insightful)
Saved? (Score:2)
Your life isn't in danger if you're lost for 3 hours. 3 days maybe. 3 weeks certainly. But 3 hours?
Re:Saved? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, and they have enough bandwidth to download an app, but apparently not enough to open their mapping application, take a look at where they are, and start walking?
It is appallingly pathetic to get lost on a 5 mile hike. Even more so if you have a cell phone with even occasional signal with you!
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5 mile CIRCULAR "hike".
It was 4900 acres. If it were a square, it would be 2.767 miles on each side.
PICK ONE DIRECTION AND WALK FOR 1 HOUR. YOU'RE OUT.
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This is what offline map applications are for. I've got all of Europe in my pocket with no need for any connection.
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Don't be so smug. Anyone can break an ankle and know the way out just not know how to get there. I've also known very smart people with PhDs who couldn't navigate their way out of a supermarket parking lot. That doesn't mean they need to be culled from the human race, just that they know how to drop a current location pin in their map app and then share it.
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Depends on the local weather conditions.
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Your life isn't in danger if you're lost for 3 hours. 3 days maybe. 3 weeks certainly. But 3 hours?
Hypothermia can kill you that quickly. Blood loss much more quickly than that.
(Not to be construed as an endorsement for this product.)
Re:Saved? (Score:5, Funny)
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Haven't checked out the story, but I'm a tad suspicious. A 911 responder calling for some random app instead of GPS coordinates? Really? Mmmmmmaaaaaaayyyybe.
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Here is something to remember if you live in the United States I once heard. I've not verified it but here is what I heard. In the US if you walk east to west or west to east you are always within 6 hours of major highway. That seems unlikely in places west of the Mississippi but east it's pretty much guaranteed
If your on the west cost just scream at the top of your lungs "Trump 2020" or "Make America Great Again" and a pack of protesters is bound to show up. :)
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If your on the west cost just scream at the top of your lungs "Trump 2020" or "Make America Great Again" and a pack of protesters is bound to show up. :)
Would probably work on a large part of the East Cost as well.
For the rest of the country, just yell "I want an abortion" or literally anything in a foreign language.
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I suppose that depends on your definition of "major highway" - I know of at least one town in SW Colorado that is several hours of driving away from the closest interstate - this would be days of walking.
Add in the US highway system and you're probably closer.
This fucking article is an ad (Score:3, Interesting)
Help! I'm lost in (Score:5, Funny)
Come save me!
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Disable Advertising (Score:3)
Can download an app that uses GPS to locate them and then generates a 3 word phrase.
Can not use the builtin maps app to locate them and use it to figure out a way home.
More competency may safe their life later on, but I would not bet a cent on them.
A reliance on closed source systems is a horrific (Score:5, Informative)
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Their about page states that in event that they go under the source code and datasets will be released as open source. If that is properly held in escrow or is at the whims and honor of who ever gets to sell off the assets will be seen in time.
It also states that they have >100 employees. Doing what exactly? What is their business model that can support such a large salary base for a write in an afternoon and basically done tool? Are they selling access to first responders, guilting them into buying into
Seriously? (Score:4, Insightful)
Good enough connection for downloading apps?! (Score:2)
Well, what about "share your location" from Google Maps (I presume most phones that have apps and GPS come with Google Maps since quite a while)? Never mind how you'll get lost in England, of all places; I mean really a (very) few km forest is now the jungle you need to be rescued from because you'll never find your way out by yourself... and with a working phone with a GPS that can get the location and can download apps (and presumably show you Google Maps too, even if you didn't have cached any chunk from
Previous What3Words stories (Score:5, Informative)
Previously on Slashdot:
This comment [slashdot.org] points out that the November 2018 article "talks about the other issue with what3words - it is not continuous. You cannot tell by looking at two W3W addresses how rhey relate to each other geographically," unlike with street addresses and latitude and longitude.
Better use case than their initial one (Score:3)
What3Words is being pushed as an addressing system for places that don't have rigorous postal addresses. But for that purpose, it stinks: what3words has no sense of context. Postal addresses go from coarse-grained (country, city) to fine-grained (street, house number) so you can tell when you're getting closer.
w3w addresses are random, so 'correct battery horse' might be next to 'lemon tree fancy' and 1000 km away from 'correct battery staple'.
The emergency service operator instructed the caller to download the w3w app? Surely instructing to open Compass and read the coordinates would have been much quicker, and does not rely on a data connection.
As an experiment, I tried getting lat/long info on my phone. I can find them in my third-party navigation app, but I had to do an internet search to find where lat/long are shown on the iPhone's default apps (they're in Compass).
How do they survive life? (Score:3)
They had enough signal to call, download an app, and then relay the words to the dispatcher... but nobody bothered to see where they were on a map? Or download the trail map of the forest?
I actually looked up exactly where they were (although I had to figure out that what3words stupid website didn't like spaces between the periods at the end of each word. Great search system, guys!). They were on a main trail less than 1 mile from the nearest parking lot, 2 miles from a main road/home, and about 2.5 miles from another parking lot. They could have been to the nearest parking lot before the download/install of the app finished.
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Download an app? (Score:4, Insightful)
homo.phones (Score:2)
too.their.read
I think this app is completely unnecessary. There are apps where you can send your gps location to someone else in your contacts with one tap. No need to mis-transcribe them or say them over the phone. Just because there is a scenario where this three words thing may have worked means nothing (and it seems like an ad to me anyway)
uh (Score:2)
If I have my smartphone... how am I getting lost?