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Schroder
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PostSat Aug 17, 2019 12:12 pm 
Interesting article in BBC News: What3words: The app that can save your life
Quote:
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. ... "I was speaking to a mathematician and we found there were enough combinations of three words for every location in the world." In fact, 40,000 words was enough.

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Tom
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PostSat Aug 17, 2019 12:28 pm 
"I just cannot see a downside." I suppose that depends on whether any of the 3 words sound like other words, although faster than other methods to vocally communicate location.

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Slugman
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PostSat Aug 17, 2019 12:51 pm 
I always wondered why my US Topo maps pro app will show three nonsense words whenever a point on the map is opened or displayed. Now I know.

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ejain
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PostSat Aug 17, 2019 5:26 pm 
Somewhat controversial, because instead of being an open standard, the scheme is patented and copyrighted, and the company behind it has a record of going after anyone trying to use it without paying license fees...

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Jaberwock
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PostSat Aug 17, 2019 5:47 pm 
I bet this works great in countries where english is not the first language.

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Cyclopath
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PostSat Aug 17, 2019 8:31 pm 
Tom wrote:
"I just cannot see a downside."
I wonder what two places that refers to?

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Randito
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PostSat Aug 17, 2019 11:16 pm 
Jaberwock wrote:
I bet this works great in countries where english is not the first language.
I downloaded and installed the app, 1st configuration question was choosing the language, it then downloaded the dictionary for the choosen language 30+ languages supported. Interestingly Spanish offered in a Spain version and a Mesoamerican version, Portuguese in Portugal and Brazil and English in US, Canadian and British.

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Randito
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PostSat Aug 17, 2019 11:26 pm 
ejain wrote:
Somewhat controversial, because instead of being an open standard, the scheme is patented and copyrighted, and the company behind it has a record of going after anyone trying to use it without paying license fees...
It would be counter productive to have multiple competing standards for this type of application. Patents and patent enforcement make sense here to ensure adoption of a single standard. Here is info on their pricing. -- it looks reasonable https://what3words.com/pricing/ Reading the link you provided it looks like a religious rant by open source aficionados, because w3w are adopting the open source philosophy.

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Ski
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PostSat Aug 17, 2019 11:35 pm 
RandyHiker wrote:
"Interestingly Spanish offered in a Spain version and a Mesoamerican version, Portuguese in Portugal and Brazil..."
Spanish in Spain is not the same as Spanish in Mexico or South America, and Portuguese in Brazil is definitely not the same as what's spoken in Portugal. This looks like one more reason for me to not own a "smart phone". dizzy.gif

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."
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Randito
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PostSat Aug 17, 2019 11:59 pm 
Ski wrote:
Spanish in Spain is not the same as Spanish in Mexico
Yep, but silly me I thought this was mostly a pronunciation issue with folks on the Iberian Peninsula emulating the lisp of a Spanish king in the 15th century.

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Ski
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PostSun Aug 18, 2019 12:18 am 
Spanish in Mexico varies regionally as well. Pork can be "cerdo" or "puerco" depending upon where you're from. Go figure. dizzy.gif

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."
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Schroder
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PostSun Aug 18, 2019 8:05 am 
Here's an opposition view Why bother with What Three Words?
Quote:
So, if I want to tell a French speaker where ///mile.crazy.shade is, I have to use ///embouchure.adjuger.saladier Loosely translated back as ///mouth.award.bowl an entirely different location!

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DadFly
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PostSun Aug 18, 2019 8:42 am 
I can think of so many three word combos that are not appropriate but express how I feel about this. 40K to memorize vs. Lat long to understand. Its a graph. X,Y coordinates. It just doesn't get any simpler. Yes you can get into datums and the Magruder system but the basic user does not need to. Show me the X,Y coordinates for 6,13. Easypeasy. Now increase the numbers. Need a license for that? No. Required to have a specific device? No. Every SAR orginization knows it? Yup. Cost for retraining the world? Gazzillions. Chance for things to go wrong with a world wide change? Infinite. dizzy.gif

"May you live in interesting times"
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Ski
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PostSun Aug 18, 2019 8:48 am 
Terence Eden @edent, in the blog Schroder cited above wrote:
Humans can't remember long strings of numbers, and reading them out is difficult.
Nonsense. False Assumption. I can still remember the VIN code of the Opel I rolled in 1981 - 313319696 (assembled in Bochum, Germany, not Antwerp, Belgium.) I spent years dealing with multiple long strings of numbers in the parts business. Some people can deal with numbers, some can not. The ability (or inability) to pronounce letters and numbers is the fault of the speaker, not the language being used.

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."
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Seventy2002
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PostSun Aug 18, 2019 9:04 am 
Tom wrote:
depends on whether any of the 3 words sound like other words
There are too many homonyms in the English language to recommend this for emergency use.

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