BS: any experience with what3words?

Subject: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Mr Red
Date: 26 Oct 17 - 05:06 AM

basically the system is a geolocator.
it uses 3 words to triangulate anywhere on this planet to within a 3 metre square.
More memorable than a zip code, or PostCode as used by UK, Canada et al.
Intended for simplicity and memorability. For a single location anyway.
And there are places in India, Africa etc that don't have a street name system.
And As I found out yesterday, a PostCode is fine for existing locations, but a new build (the guy has lived there a year) the internet and SatNavs are useless. What if it was a Folk Festival in a field,? LatLong coordinates suit you?
How many times do I tell people when I am on duty and am asked where PigsFoot Morris are ensconced in the mass of tents?
I say text the coords next time, but a verbal stuck.prune.fictional might be memorised.
Try the link above - & zoom in - it points to the entrance doorway of the sports pavilion used for late sessions and breakfast at the Upton Folk Festival 4th - 7th May 2018.

there are phone apps, and at the last count 14 languages (40,000 word lexicons congruent)

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Mr Red
Date: 26 Oct 17 - 05:21 AM

just been playing because I know a folkie who lives on a boat in Upton.

Just one boat could be described as swimmer.owned.beginning amidships or you could be stern and sprouts.shallower.lookout both somewhat memorable for a narrowboat.
And at the prow trump.bookmark.skyrocket - you can have fun with this!

As I found when using what3words on canal locations, I got curious coincidences like wharf.

So where where is your library or doctors practice, or police headquarters? And what do they spell out?

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Nick
Date: 26 Oct 17 - 08:31 AM

I tried it and used it when it first came out in 2013 but I don't think (until now) that I have used or thought about it more than once since (and that was to wonder what happened to it). They seem to have been able to raise a lot of money but it doesn't really seem to have taken off as being at all useful/necessary

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Mr Red
Date: 26 Oct 17 - 10:56 AM

Think Nigeria, and India. Where road names don't exist. Let alone numbers.
Goggle will tell you the same. Goggle Earth found that all countries said "we do things differently here". LongLat should suffice but you try explaining that on a phone call to a pizza delivery guy when you are in the middle of a favela. (which don't have roads per se). There first has to be a need, a system then evolves. Like in Haiti after an earthquake - road signs? What road! That was the genesis of the system.

In molly-coddled UK - you try finding a Village Hall (that never gets post). Chances are, they list the PC of the caretaker, trust me I drove past one 3 times and that involved adding a mile and asking twice! The Royal Mail won't tell you. Goggle Earth will show you where it is if you have 1/2 an hour to peruse. And I do. I take the PostCode from the nearest house. But it ain't easy and quick, which is why when events expire on dance.mister.red I keep a record. The effort is then saved for next time!

But in rural Africa - they need a system, and Nigerian Post has adopted one - guess which. Once they use something, it spreads. Which is why we use PostCodes on SatNavs. Is the US ZipCode that useful on its own? When I first looked it lacked the reslution of even a post code (which is as big as the postman's post bag - er - big in the rural UK areas and we is a small Island).

Meanwhile there is nothing to stop us re-purposing it for finding quirky if not humourus phrases allied to a familiar location.
Eg a reasonably busy bus stop I use - mission.responded.plenty

Where do you live? Aproximately.

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: leeneia
Date: 26 Oct 17 - 11:11 AM

I went to their site and watched their video, and I still don't understand how I would use their system. And that's whether I am a retired homeowner or a business owner.

I see the value, though. My brother could have used this when he was trying to make deliveries in downtown Chicago and the customer's receptionist didn't know where the loading dock was.

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Oct 17 - 11:29 AM

So far, I see nothing that explains how to choose 3 words and how they are related to the proper coordinates. I can see that it is very clever, but I learn by having a specific procedure to follow, then extrapolating the rules & description from it.

I use G.E. a lot and would love to explore this system....but....what does one actually DO to begin?

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Nick
Date: 26 Oct 17 - 11:51 AM

completely.utterly.lost

It is a good idea but...

There are 16 different combinations that specify different bits of the house. Then another hundred and something that specify the garden. Don't need all those. For the postman I guess you could say "if we are not in please leave it at deliver.parcel.difficulty" if that happened to be on the property (it would get rather wet at the actual address)

And indeed in Nigeria the address system probably isn't great. But then you would need a connection to the web to make it practical OR a device to download it so that you can use it offline AND have planned to do that beofre. But it might have been easier just to ask for directions.

It's an ok idea but not sure it has enough whoomph to make it commonplace.

Would you use it if your three words were desperately.seeking.gentleman? (Russia is a bit far). Could things be misinterpreted if you lived at lovely.rubbery.experiences? Does Donald Trump live with Sarah Palin at trump.trump.trump?

I'll get back to planning my holiday at trumps.unlikely.hairstyle

Here's a VERY strange thing...

If you type in the single word 'trump' in the search box and press return look where you end up. You can see that it might be an attraction but who on earth is she?

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Nick
Date: 26 Oct 17 - 12:02 PM

Looking a little further at things...

trumps extremely dangerous is strategically placed

and I thought that

trumps extreme lunatics might be in America but they turn out to be near Moscow.

Hmmm. None of this is coincidence.

I'm off now to invent my Xmas three words game

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: BanjoRay
Date: 26 Oct 17 - 01:33 PM

If you don't have an address to put into your satnav but you could find it on a map, the What.Three.Words app will give you a map you can use to pinpoint your target and then use your phone satnav to get there - anywhere in the world. Very Handy.

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: BanjoRay
Date: 26 Oct 17 - 01:37 PM

If you're stuck up a mountain somewhere and need rescuing, you get the three words from your app and tell the rescue team. They'll know EXACTLY where to find you.

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Nick
Date: 26 Oct 17 - 02:13 PM

Shoulder dislocation snowdon...

And bingo! the rescue team are on their way to the Gobi Desert

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Nick
Date: 26 Oct 17 - 02:21 PM

I thought I was joking. Only about the location...

Mountain shoulder broken is not an unreasonable thing to text. Between Papua New Guinea and Northern Australia

Just in case you thought...

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: leeneia
Date: 26 Oct 17 - 07:53 PM

But first I buy some kind of software from them, right? And then I put it on an electronic device that I own. Then somebody else also has to have the software so they can see where I am. Is that it?

This would have been nice when our GPS couldn't find the town of Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, which is about one mile square.

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Mr Red
Date: 27 Oct 17 - 07:05 PM

but....what does one actually DO to begin?

use their map on your PC, zoom in to a location you know, maybe switch to satllite view. and the move the map to put the pointer on the location. Then look at the URL (web address). Then tell the pizza guy verbally.

They have smart phone apps, so I guess the person in the place you are going to tells you the three words. And the app guides you. GPS translated into a language you can speak, in effect.

In the UK we do that with a PostCode and a house number. Which for a rural village hall gets you within a mile.

Running along my road there are consecutive squares
trump.hiding.units
weds.freely.various
prone.mastering.loser

What is that telling me?

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: robomatic
Date: 28 Oct 17 - 12:01 AM

thela hun ginjeet

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Mr Red
Date: 28 Oct 17 - 03:13 AM

thela hun ginjeet -? wot plannit r u on?

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 28 Oct 17 - 03:31 AM

It needs some way to give a position with less resolution. Sometimes you just need to give an approximate location.

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Oct 17 - 10:36 AM

"
They have smart phone apps, so I guess the person in the place you are going to tells you the three words.

Ummm... so **someone** has to have a smart phone and an 'app' in this process? It sure won't be me, as I have neither. There are too many requirements for everyone involved to share certain information, understanding and software/hardware. (Like Cockney rhyming slang needing previous sharing of connection.)

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Iains
Date: 28 Oct 17 - 02:08 PM

Seems a bit long winded to me. Why not take a photo of your location and extract the lat/long. co-ordinates from the photo properties. Or am I mi
ssing something?
Even easier let your phone locate you on a mapping spp and again just read off the co-ordinates.
If you have no coverage tough sh*t.

I once worked in a place where the mobile company put up a temporary mast with a diesel gennny. It was a cheaper option than satellite bandwidth. The only drawback was the locals kept nicking the diesel.

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Mr Red
Date: 29 Oct 17 - 04:07 AM

Ummm... so **someone** has to have a smart phone and an 'app' in this process?

No it just has to be known.

In Nigeria and India - if you are affluent or needy enough to have something delivered to your house - you will have found out your lexicographical coordinates. Your local post office will look it up for you.

If you are a hill walker and you slip and injure yourself, you will wish you had taken a SatNav or smart phone with an app. This is one method, and it is easy to say three words over and over, and those three words, presumably are from a set chosen to not be easy to be misread for similar words. Saying a load of numbers is slower and harder, especially if you are in pain. Plus is it LongLat, LatLong, OSGR letter-number, 4 digit, 6 digit. The receiver hopefully is recording/writing down. But in emergency things aren't always that orderly.

And after an earthquake?

what3words has its uses, and very good ones where there is no adequate alternative in place. Nigeria Postal service ie.
The UK already has an established system, it will be the one of choice but it is far from perfect.

for my OS Bench Marks in my locale website - I use OSGR letter/4+4 digit visible with a 6+6 digit in the URL. And have added what3words as alternative. Post code would not help with a canal bridge in a field with no visible canal channel (Lottery bid may change that.)

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: BobL
Date: 30 Oct 17 - 03:53 AM

Should come in handy for pinpointing a particular stall in a market, say, or a tent on a campsite or a grave in a churchyard.

Endless possibilities, too, for imaginative people with too much time on their hands. Come the next election, will the losing.party.leader be sent to the wilds of Alaska? Should the brainless.financial.misfits responsible for our banks be dumped collectively in the Sahara Desert, or individually in the Atlantic off the coast of Florida? Actually, most of the earth's surface is ocean and most of the rest wilderness, so random choices are likely to yield one or the other.

N.B. Be careful to get the references right: yarn.jazzy.exact takes you to a location familiar to some of us, but yarn.jazzy.exactly dumps you in a Saudi Arabian city.

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Mr Red
Date: 01 Nov 17 - 04:55 AM

I was wondering about ambiguities. - exact and exactly are not easy to distinguish over a bad phone line. But the mistake could easily be resolved IMNSHO.

But then: box tickers beware!

yarn.jazzy.exact ? Anchor, Sidmouth - I will be in the car park dancing - from: jumps.plus.scared to energetic.knee.expect or if eat a sandwich there dining.august.sheep

yarn.jazzy.exactly ? looks like Buraydah, Saudi Arabia, just off the Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz Highway.

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 01 Nov 17 - 08:27 AM

ummmm, Mr red, did you notice who was camped here ...

https://map.what3words.com/creeps.riddle.violinist

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: BobL
Date: 02 Nov 17 - 04:39 AM

Actually, locations with similar what3words references are deliberately set far apart, as a form of error detection.

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Mr Red
Date: 02 Nov 17 - 05:42 AM

I know the words are far apart, but I wondered if there were enough words in the English language to afford less ambiguity.

But then the average person has maybe 3,000 on tap. A journalist maybe 5,000 (add songwriters). So the choice of 40,000 out of maybe 500,000 (Concise OED ie) is quite a big chunk.
Considering all the Englishes there are (see Micro$oft Word for instance) and they wanted it to be fairly universal, I guess the pool of useful words was considerably less than 500,000.

Faucet would be out because Brits (me!) would struggle with the spelling. Which begs the question - does the system have a spell correction feature, and how is it applied?

FreddyHeadey - quite! But I bet they don't have bodhran in their lexicon. So I am safe!

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 02 Nov 17 - 07:55 AM

I've used it seriously once, a couple of years ago, to locate the exact short stretch of a drystone wall where a mate had left a bottle of whisky stashed under a loose stone. He'd been on a day walk and I was on a long weekend wild camping with heavy pack, so it was very nice of him to pre-stash for me, and easier to find with W3W than it would have been with OS grids.

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: Thompson
Date: 04 Nov 17 - 12:42 AM

Klaatu barada niktu?

Subject: RE: BS: any experience with what3words?
From: leeneia
Date: 04 Nov 17 - 09:45 AM

thanks for the info, Rob.   

When I looked at the website for what3words, it didn't address three questions I had:

1. What does it cost?
2. How much memory does it take?
3. Will it affect existing programs on my device?

I think these things should be dealt with on the homepage.