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Writing Messages In Empty Space With GPS

Posted by timothy on from the idea-whose-time-has-come dept.

meiocyte writes: "This New Scientist story about leaving messages in empty space seems very cool. You upload a message (or perhaps a picture, audio clip, etc.), it gets tagged with your GPS coordinates, and then anyone else who goes there gets to see/hear it. Every GPS-resolvable parcel of empty space will have its own web site!" Combine this with user-forums, and restaurant ratings could take on a whole new dimension. Update: 01/20 23:28 GMT by T : Oops -- looks like I duped Michael. Sorry.

5 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. I don't like it... by JanneM · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Great - we can get spammed on GPS as well... Just imagine someone like a soda manufacturer buying a stretch of highway for a month, for example. If you use GPS navigation in your car, you'll get incessant harping about how thirsty you are, and how that particular brand of soda apparently makes your life better in one way or another.

    /Janne

    --
    Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
    1. Re:I don't like it... by H310iSe · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Why be so negative, I've been waiting for this since I first heard the idea (it was somehow related to Douglas Adam's website, I think he was talking about actually making a hitchhiker's guide to the earth w/ this type of technology)

      The solution to your objection is simple, you create competing services - a BLOG-style service will leave personal notes ("I was looking up right here when I notice the tree limb above me was 1/2 sawed through. you might want to hurry along"), adverts (I really do want to know where the nearest beer is sometimes), etc. You'd 'subscribe' to the sites that interest you.

      I can't WAIT to write impressions, all the weird things I see when I walk through my day and read what other people are thinking about/seeing standing wherever I am. Architecture and history tutorials / commentary (think if the guy from the movie "cruising" got one of these, I'd *subscribe* to his channel!). And truely helpful tourist tips, imagine Lonely Planet's offerings?!?

      Come on, this is Amazing Technology We Want, don't dismiss it as another method for delivering advirtisements.

      --
      closed minded is as closed minded does
  2. This will never happen by JoeShmoe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You think the web is already litigious? Wait until you see companies claiming they "own" the rights to certain property.

    Like Disneyowning all comment space in/around/driving to Disneyland and using that to squelch any warnings about, say, a child getting his foot caught in a ride.

    And food-lovers could post messages outside a restaurant door, giving subsequent visitors an instant endorsement-or a warning to take their custom elsewhere.

    Does anyone really think this has a chance? Or isn't it more likely the restaurant owner will sue anyone who posts disparaging messages for libel and slander while at the same time posting 1000 comments extolling the virtues of the food.

    The FBI will scream bloody murder about terrorists arranging targets or drug dealers arranding drop off points.

    As useful as this idea is, I can't see any possiblility of it existing in the US of A. After all, the Internet is non-coporial and there are still giant bitch-slap fights over companies thinking that some completely unrelated (but similarly named) website in on their turf, when the Internet is actually linked with turf it'll open up Pandora's legal retainer.

    - JoeShmoe

    .

    --
    -- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
  3. Re:Here's hoping they make a nice API for this! by protonman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you'd use ints we'd all be very lucky.

    That would be one post every quite a lot kilometers... Some karma whore -> do the math.

    --
    The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.
  4. What planet are you on? by Performer+Guy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That should be:

    for(lat = -90; lat 90; lat++) {

    I'll excuse the longitude, although I'd suggest -180 to 180.