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GPS Trackers Find Novel Applications
Pickens writes "Inexpensive GPS devices like the Zoombak (which costs just $200 plus $10 a month) have becomes so prevalent that some people are using them routinely to keep tabs on their most precious possessions. Kathy Besa has a Zoombak attached to the collar of her 5-year-old beagle, Buddy. If Buddy wanders more than 20 feet from the house, she gets a text message on her phone that says, 'Buddy has left the premises.' The small size made possible by chip advances over the last two or three years is enabling many novel uses of GPS tracking. An art collector in New York uses one when he transports million-dollar pieces, a home builder is putting them on expensive appliances to track them if they disappear from construction sites, a drug company is using them after millions of dollars in inventory turned up missing, and a mobile phone company is hiding them in some cellphone boxes to catch thieves."
... no potential for abuse whatsoever!
I caught the Mountain Wumpus! He gave me his treasure chest ($100) to let him go free again.
to their employees. If any of them get to close to things like OSCON, Ballmer comes after them with a chair.
Need one for my mind, I feel like I am loosing that all the time.
Life moves pretty fast; if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. -FB
How come there is no first post? I'm confused.
Mahalik: She told me that she heard a zombie going through her trash the other day. The next morning, she turned up missing.
C. J.: What? Okay, back up. How in the hell do you "turn up missing"?
Mahalik: 'Cause nobody knows where you are when they realize you ain't there!
C. J.: So you telling me that you can appear and disappear at the same time.
Mahalik: No, man. You can't appear and disappear at the same time. The bitch ain't David Copperfield!
C. J.: Mmm. No, no. But you can't be gone from one place and show up somewhere else entirely. So when you turn up, you're never missing. And when you're missing, you never turn up.
Mahalik: Unless... you a zombie.
C. J.: Damn! Hey, that's some plausible shit right there. You should blog about that.
Mahalik: I'm gonna put that on MySpace.
C. J.: You do that!
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Yeah, and that's dog dollars. So that's like what, over $800 a year?
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
For $200 I will sell you a really nice leash. That will stop that pesky beagle from getting away.
It's funny how the Times' editors felt it necessary to punctuate each letter in "G.P.S.". What is this, the Man from U.N.C.L.E.? Maybe some year they'll realize that GPS is regular everyday stuff. You know, like A.T.M. machines and D.V.D. players.
Anyway, I read the article to our beagle and asked her opinion. She points out that beagles do not run away, they are called away on urgent tracking business. She feels that any human that hangs out with beagles and wants to attach tracking boxes to them is a distrustful person who possibly lacks the right spiritual qualities. She also reminds me that she can detect a beagle treat coming out of the bag across three fields, and that in any case anyone who has trouble with beagles taking off is simply not taking them for sufficiently long walks. She thinks I should notify the ASPCA before relations completely break down between this unfortunate beagle and its lazy, distrustful owner.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
I feel really terrible about your lost cat, and have a card that may help you.
http://www.someecards.com/upload/flirting/owning_a_cat_lowers.html
Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
Dog has left the premisses.
Dog is traveling north bound on Cedar Street.
Dog crossing st##$#$@@$$%
Dog no longer moving.
How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say "what is a global positioning satellite?"
I'll take "ridiculously easy questions" for 400, Alex.
I'm not sure that using GPS to locate the ruined corpse of your beloved pet would really be that satisfying.
Beagles, incidentally, are notorious (bred, actually) for running off to hunt something down they find interesting, and then expecting you to catch up.
It's even better when you have a dog like the one I grew up with. He was half beagle and half border collie. He'd run off, track and chase down whatever it was he was after and then herd the damn thing(s) until you got there.
It didn't even seem to matter what it was - cows, chickens, my little cousin...
Everything I need to know I learned by killing smart people and eating their brains.
There's a perfect xkcd for my sig but I'm too lazy to look it up. sudo someone go find it.
My GPS Tracker sent me this, about Buddy:
"Buddy has left the preferences"
"Buddy is in the neighbor's trash"
"Buddy is running into the street"
"Buddy is in the same position as a Chevy Suburban"
"Buddy is stopped on the street"
"A google satellite photo is attached with a picture of Buddy"
"Google Adwords has selected "Shovel" as something that you might need with Buddy."
This is my sig.
"Chair has moved 20 feet outside conference room window"
12:50 - press return.