Ron Obvious

Ron Obvious's Journal

June 28, 2018

Posted without comment.

June 23, 2018

The GPS app that can find anyone anywhere

This is a way to translate your latitude+longitude coordinates into three easily-remembered dictionary words by dividing the world into roughly 10' by 10' squares and matching them to dictionary words. Interesting idea, and pretty useful in parts of the world that don't have addresses or even streets.

Go to the what3words website to see what your address is in this system.

Google Maps will only bring help to the edge of the village. “We tried to do something by triangulating between three cell phone towers,” he says, which proved predictably unreliable. Searching for other solutions, Louw came across what3words, the innovative British technology that, among many other things, neatly solves the question of how an ambulance might find Eunice Sewaphe.

Five years ago, the founders of what3words divided the entire surface of the planet into a grid of squares, each one measuring 3 metres by 3 metres. There are 57tn of these squares, and each one of them has been assigned a unique three-word address. My own front door in London has the three-word address “span.brave.tree”.

The front door of Eunice’s house in Relela might be “irrigates.joyful.zipper” (or, in Zulu, “phephani.khuluma.bubhaka”). To test the system, I have driven up here with one of Gateway Health’s drivers, Mandla Maluleke. Maluleke has keyed the three-word code into his phone app, which has dropped a pin on a conventional mapping system. Once we leave the main highway, the GPS immediately signals “unknown road”, but even so, after many twists and turns it takes us precisely to “irrigates.joyful.zipper”, and Eunice’s front door.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/23/the-gps-app-that-can-find-anyone-anywhere#comments

June 17, 2018

Today's Dear Abby

I enjoy reading Dear Abby because I enjoy irritating myself.

DEAR ABBY: I am in high school and I'm an atheist. My parents are Catholic. Over the past couple of years, for various reasons, I have realized I don't believe what my parents and priest were telling me. I haven't told my parents because I'm afraid of what they'll say. Mom will probably think she failed as a parent, my grandma would never talk to me again and I'll be forced to go to church every Sunday, do the sacraments and go to religion class.

I've been silent for a while, but I'm going to make my confirmation soon and I feel terrible. When I go to confirmation classes, I feel like a hypocrite. I want to tell everyone the truth, but I don't know if it's a good idea. Should I? -- NEW ENGLAND HERETIC

DEAR "HERETIC": Although this may seem counterintuitive, consider talking to your priest about your feelings. I am positive that it won't be the first time he has heard something like this. Keep in mind that as you grow older, your feelings about atheism may moderate. People have been known to return to -- and find comfort from -- the church after a long absence.

https://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/2018/6/17/1/teen-feels-out-of-touch-with

Grrrrr..... "Don't worry, dearrie; you'll grow out of this awful phase of your life." Also, notice "feelings", not "ideas", or "views."

At least the comments are positive for a change.

June 10, 2018

Yeah, answer me this, atheists!

Profile Information

Name: Ron
Gender: Male
Home country: Middle Earth
Current location: Seattle
Member since: Tue Dec 13, 2011, 11:37 PM
Number of posts: 6,261

About Ron Obvious

I got the nickname Ron Obvious because -- in addition to being a huge Python fan -- my name really is Ron and I used to start sentences with \"Obviously\" a lot. Obviously, that\'s no longer a problem.