For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
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By PaulB
#1748722
Joe Dell wrote:I don't have a smart 'phone. Am I living dangerously?


Obviously.....

(I thought only drug dealers didn't use smart phones)
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By kanga
#1748756
rdfb wrote:
Boxkite wrote:...but I can't see a downside to W3W...


..

I'd prefer to see an open system be the ubiquitous one ... I find it quite offensive that despite there already being an open standard, W3W are trying to "take ownership" of location data in this way.


a bit harsh ? The 'open standard' (Lat/Long) was developed for sailors with sextants, chronographs and almanacs. Most users of smartphones (unlike most Forumites) may well not know what these are, and may not be used to seeing and using maps and charts (I learnt about such things as an Air Cadet, not as part of the school curriculum); and they may even be in an undermapped area when/if they get into trouble (but may have a 'phone, and receive a signal for it). I don't see W3W as trying to 'take ownership' of anything. But they have developed an App which (I gather) is easy to use, anywhere in the world, in a wide and widening variety of language vocabularies, and has greater granularity than any precision which I've ever achieved in flight. Such granularity may be important to someone whose lying in a ditch invisible from the road from which their car rolled and to any ambulance or helicopter crew trying to spot it. Where ambulance and other emergency services have adopted W3W, in UK and elsewhere, there have been convincing tales in impressive numbers to show it has been useful.

I can even recall when such granularity would have been very useful in an actual combat zone.. [deliberate imprecision follows.. ] .. A patrol of friendly military (with only a speech radio, albeit a secure one) reported their position as a particular spot height in a fairly featureless and uninhabited terrain identified from a relatively empty topographical map. HQ had to warn them that a (real) enemy unit was probably 'at' the 'same' position, but it took a bit of effort to persuade them. Actually, both were using the same map, but were serendipitously on opposite sides of the same hill. Fortunately, the 'friendly' force was thus more ready for the ensuing encounter than were the opposition. This was before the GPS era, but even with GPS the potential either not to read off coordinates to the second, or for those digits to be misheard on reception, would have been great.

Of course, it is entirely possible that in today's battlefield such details can be and are sent by garbleproof data channels with the necessary precision, but this may not be practical for what the typical civilian carries in the pocket.

[I do have a smartphone, a gift some years ago from one of my children who was astonished that I did not have one nor felt the need to, so now ageing. It does have a barely used PAYG SIM in it. I used actually to carry it outside the house only when flying. Now I do so almost only at JAM, and using the WiFi there, or when I expect that I might need to be contacted by someone also on the move. I suppose it would be prudent to do so when walking the dog, in case I slip and fall somewhere invisible, but I've never got into the habit. If I do, I might further be prudent to load W3W]
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By rdfb
#1748773
kanga wrote:a bit harsh ? The 'open standard' (Lat/Long)...


No, you misunderstand. I'm referring to Google Plus codes when I refer to the open standard, not lat/long. Already integrated into Google Maps. See https://plus.codes/individuals for example to see how similar W3W is to it. Not exactly the same, I grant you, but you'll find that most of the benefits that W3W promoters cite already existed in Google Plus codes.

See also https://github.com/google/open-location ... ng-Systems which was an analysis of all the other various systems that existed before Google Plus codes was invented, dated December 2018.
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By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1748775
What Three Words have been around since 2013 though as I understand. Did google get there late again? How long has the google thing been going?
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By Rob P
#1850426
Most of the issues highlighted appear to be human error. I'd probably stand more chance of getting three words correct than a traditional map reference.

I use W3W quite a lot, both in my off-road cycling and my CWGC stuff.

Rob P
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By HedgeSparrow
#1850434
I was talking to someone who'd flipped his aircraft (no injuries) in a forced landing in the middle of a field. He'd called the emergency services and the operator insisted in asking for his post code. "I'm in the middle of a field about 2-3 miles southwest of xxxx" didn't seem to help the situation.

I've a free app on my phone that gives the OS 6 digit reference for my location - SD375748 anybody?

Do other countries have an equivalent?
Last edited by HedgeSparrow on Tue Jun 01, 2021 1:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By Rob P
#1850435
^^^^. Accurate to 100 metres, should be good enough for the responders to locate the smoking wreckage

Rob P
By Boxkite
#1850521
Examples included:

jump.legend.warblers which was in Vietnam
duties.factory.person was located in China
dignitary.fake.view turned out to be in India
refuse.housework.housebound was in Australia
middle.plugged.nourished was in the US
demand.heave.surprise was actually in Canada
flesh.unzip.whirlwind was in Russia

"It's a tool, and a tool is better than no tool, but people are being sent to the wrong location," he told the BBC.

Really? They sent a helicopter to India or Vietnam?
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By Irv Lee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1850652
no surprise. I must admit my very first thought on trying it out a couple of years ago was:
“wot? Wivver way people speak A’d av fought itadtobe difficult for UK services to find anyone wivaht mobile phone signal trackers checking too... errr... innit”

Ackshully, I suppose it should be "Wo" not "Wot" and "Diffucull" not "Difficult" as Ts are no longer used in most words
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