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Truss now favourite to be PM after next election – politicalbetting.com

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  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 3,853
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    Nope, becuase:

    1. In 2017, I didn’t have two beans to rub together, trying to get my own business off the ground.

    2. Like so many of the last decade’s VC-funded tech startups, it’s difficult to see how they ever plan to turn a profit, nor what is their business model, beyond hoping the next sucker buys in at a higher price and the wages keep getting paid.
    Their VC investors will be hoping they are bought by Google or other tech giant. That will almost certainly happen, hence the crazy valuation sans profits, unless there is some kind of technical or intellectual property problem between now and then.
    Yes, they’ll be hoping that Google and Apple get in a bidding war to make their open system proprietary.

    Sadly, that point may have passed, at least for the next year or two. The only tech M&A activity happing now is distress sales, as the VC investors can’t bear to see writedowns on their valuations.

    How would you make an open system proprietary, though? There is no patent protection you can get and there are no trade secrets you can rely on.

    Uber cannot patent its genius idea - ridesharing with GPS on smartphones (as we can see from competitors like Bolt, Lyft and so on)

    Yet Uber is worth $17B

    There is value in simply being first with a great idea, even if people then copy it

    W3W will be hoping this applies to them. If they continue with rapid growth then they will soon become the default global model for this (2-3 years?) and it will be very difficult to challenge (indeed harder than challenging Uber, maybe)

    Yep, I guess that makes sense. But they need to keep finding the cash to burn.
    They recently did a crowdfund asking for £1m. They got £4m after 24 hours and now have £8m. You cannot invest any more, it is oversubscribed. They are drowning in money
    Why would you crowdfund if you are definitely going to make millions?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,237

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    Nope, becuase:

    1. In 2017, I didn’t have two beans to rub together, trying to get my own business off the ground.

    2. Like so many of the last decade’s VC-funded tech startups, it’s difficult to see how they ever plan to turn a profit, nor what is their business model, beyond hoping the next sucker buys in at a higher price and the wages keep getting paid.
    Their VC investors will be hoping they are bought by Google or other tech giant. That will almost certainly happen, hence the crazy valuation sans profits, unless there is some kind of technical or intellectual property problem between now and then.
    Yes, they’ll be hoping that Google and Apple get in a bidding war to make their open system proprietary.

    Sadly, that point may have passed, at least for the next year or two. The only tech M&A activity happing now is distress sales, as the VC investors can’t bear to see writedowns on their valuations.

    How would you make an open system proprietary, though? There is no patent protection you can get and there are no trade secrets you can rely on.

    Uber cannot patent its genius idea - ridesharing with GPS on smartphones (as we can see from competitors like Bolt, Lyft and so on)

    Yet Uber is worth $17B

    There is value in simply being first with a great idea, even if people then copy it

    W3W will be hoping this applies to them. If they continue with rapid growth then they will soon become the default global model for this (2-3 years?) and it will be very difficult to challenge (indeed harder than challenging Uber, maybe)

    Yep, I guess that makes sense. But they need to keep finding the cash to burn.
    They recently did a crowdfund asking for £1m. They got £4m after 24 hours and now have £8m. You cannot invest any more, it is oversubscribed. They are drowning in money

    Right, that makes sense. What were they offering in return for the cash?

    The chance to buy shares later

    https://www.crowdcube.com/companies/what3words2/pitches/Z5k8Aq
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614
    eek said:

    Two takeaways from the first three minutes of the R4 6 o' clock news.

    a) Zahawi has an "oven ready" programme for the CoL crisis. "Oven ready", what could possibly go wrong?

    b) Truss "I didn't say that!" With reference to "no hand outs". Didn't she?

    Is the oven, electric, gas or oil fired?

    has enough fuel been purchased for it to be switched on in September or will we have run out before then?
    Also bear in mind that most mains gas ovens (and quite a few gas hobs) won’t work if there’s no power. They have electric safety valves, designed to stop gas leaks or suicide by gas.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614
    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Eabhal said:

    A

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    You've been fighting ghosts for about 6 hours now.

    I think it's great, especially for meeting up with a date in a crowd (it's like that train station clock in London everyone meets at). And, if I'd been smart,100% would've invested in it.

    But the company is a bit shit cos they advertise it as a mountain rescue tool. And the selfless, handsome, fit bastards who risk their lives to rescue people like me (but more likely, you) from hills have made it crystal clear they want a grid reference. #trusttheexperts

    Otoh, I just use WhatsApped shared location function. Which has the benefit of being spatial, follows you moving around, and can have multiple people on it. Did earlier finding gf at the fringe

    They're really not marketing it as a rescue tool - at least not now, AFAICS. This is sensible, as multiple news stories are doing all the marketing they need in that area

    "UK emergency services encourage public to download life-saving app What3Words"

    https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/news/app-helps-you-knowexactlywhere-283367/


    https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/lifeboat-saves-bacton-paddleboarder-mile-off-shore-9191448


    https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/20592922.essex-fire-service-advise-public-download-what3words-app/

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/what3words-app-paramedic-rescue-scotland-b2131176.html

    They are mainly marketing it to car companies for on-board navigation, and also courier and delivery companies

    And yes, when I next - fool that I am - get lost in the Cairngorms I will be sure to have an Ordnance Survey map to hand, and a magnifying glass, so I can give the rescue services a proper grid reference with 38 digits, not some silly three word thingy that I can easily remember which gives them my location to the nearest tree
    It's actually two letters and six digits ... and I learned how to read a NGR off a map when I was about 11.

    This three word thingy, does it really work in the far glens of Scotland? And to what accuracy?
    Yes, it really works

    "Here is a precise what3words address, made of 3 random words. Every 3 metre square in the world has its own unique what3words address.

    ///bland.cowering.spots
    https://w3w.co/bland.cowering.spots "


    ///bland.cowering.spots is inside the public bar of Eilean Iarmain, by the slot machine: that's a brilliant pub in Isle Ornsay on the Sleat peninsula in Skye, which looks out to Knoydart

    Note the specificity. It isn't a bit of road, or a section of village, or a house number, it is a 3sq m space inside that bar, by the crisps
    Okay.

    So I live at alpha.bravo.charlie, and you live at x-ray.yankee.zulu - how do I get from your house to mine, using only w3w technology?
  • eekeek Posts: 24,797

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    Nope, becuase:

    1. In 2017, I didn’t have two beans to rub together, trying to get my own business off the ground.

    2. Like so many of the last decade’s VC-funded tech startups, it’s difficult to see how they ever plan to turn a profit, nor what is their business model, beyond hoping the next sucker buys in at a higher price and the wages keep getting paid.
    Their VC investors will be hoping they are bought by Google or other tech giant. That will almost certainly happen, hence the crazy valuation sans profits, unless there is some kind of technical or intellectual property problem between now and then.
    Yes, they’ll be hoping that Google and Apple get in a bidding war to make their open system proprietary.

    Sadly, that point may have passed, at least for the next year or two. The only tech M&A activity happing now is distress sales, as the VC investors can’t bear to see writedowns on their valuations.

    How would you make an open system proprietary, though? There is no patent protection you can get and there are no trade secrets you can rely on.

    Uber cannot patent its genius idea - ridesharing with GPS on smartphones (as we can see from competitors like Bolt, Lyft and so on)

    Yet Uber is worth $17B

    There is value in simply being first with a great idea, even if people then copy it

    W3W will be hoping this applies to them. If they continue with rapid growth then they will soon become the default global model for this (2-3 years?) and it will be very difficult to challenge (indeed harder than challenging Uber, maybe)

    Yep, I guess that makes sense. But they need to keep finding the cash to burn.
    They recently did a crowdfund asking for £1m. They got £4m after 24 hours and now have £8m. You cannot invest any more, it is oversubscribed. They are drowning in money
    Why would you crowdfund if you are definitely going to make millions?
    Additional Working capital to allow them to expand quicker?
  • EPGEPG Posts: 5,996
    I humbly suggest that if three-word addresses were going to conquer the world, they would have done so by now. It's not like it's relying on future advances in AI, regulatory capture, or a network that's costly to defect from, like the really big tech firms.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,393

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    Nope, becuase:

    1. In 2017, I didn’t have two beans to rub together, trying to get my own business off the ground.

    2. Like so many of the last decade’s VC-funded tech startups, it’s difficult to see how they ever plan to turn a profit, nor what is their business model, beyond hoping the next sucker buys in at a higher price and the wages keep getting paid.
    Their VC investors will be hoping they are bought by Google or other tech giant. That will almost certainly happen, hence the crazy valuation sans profits, unless there is some kind of technical or intellectual property problem between now and then.
    Yes, they’ll be hoping that Google and Apple get in a bidding war to make their open system proprietary.

    Sadly, that point may have passed, at least for the next year or two. The only tech M&A activity happing now is distress sales, as the VC investors can’t bear to see writedowns on their valuations.

    How would you make an open system proprietary, though? There is no patent protection you can get and there are no trade secrets you can rely on.

    Uber cannot patent its genius idea - ridesharing with GPS on smartphones (as we can see from competitors like Bolt, Lyft and so on)

    Yet Uber is worth $17B

    There is value in simply being first with a great idea, even if people then copy it

    W3W will be hoping this applies to them. If they continue with rapid growth then they will soon become the default global model for this (2-3 years?) and it will be very difficult to challenge (indeed harder than challenging Uber, maybe)

    Yep, I guess that makes sense. But they need to keep finding the cash to burn.
    They recently did a crowdfund asking for £1m. They got £4m after 24 hours and now have £8m. You cannot invest any more, it is oversubscribed. They are drowning in money

    Right, that makes sense. What were they offering in return for the cash?

    A free Ordnance Survey map of your local area.
  • eekeek Posts: 24,797
    Leon said:

    Alistair said:

    Leon said:

    Alistair said:

    460k of turnover, 16 million costs in 2020

    In 2017 91k turnover, 3 million costs.


    W3W downloads, in millions:

    2018 1.4
    2019 4.8
    2020 11.8
    2021 30.2


    You have now bitterly criticised What 3 Words for multiple entirely different rationales, 1. that it is only doing something Google Maps already does., or 2. because it is rubbish and no better than a folding map, compass and protactor and pencil, and monocle, or 3. That it is a brutally litigious company and evil, or 4. That they stole the original idea ANYWAY, and now we have 5. That it is tiny and failing and makes no profit so nurr


    This is not a logical response, some of these are contradictory. This is pure emotion

    I can only conclude you are a Jealous Tech Bro, consumed with envy that you didn't think of this, and lashing out thereby
    Ignoring fact I never mentioned anything about physical maps let me make it clear what my objections are:
    It is a bad implementation of an OK idea.
    Their PR is dangerously deceptive and to compensate for their bombastic PR and poor implementation they use their VC money to squash dissent via lawyer threats.
    "OK idea"


    lol
    Let's look at your issue

    A delivery firm can't find you - but who pays to get the W3W for the exact location - you when you tell the delivery firm where to go or the delivery firm when they translate W3W back to an actual location?

  • stodgestodge Posts: 12,741
    Evening all :)

    Vaguely on topic - I don't discount a Conservative-SNP coalition after the next election.

    Before all the partisans on both sides start venting - this is politics, remember. Do the SNP really think they can force Starmer to offer them an independence referendum as a condition for their support? Let's assume they can - the problem for the SNP is it's a risk - what happens if they lose again? What happens if they win?

    Here's an alternative scenario - the SNP offer a minority Conservative administration at Westminster but the quid pro quo is further and extended devolution - what could be called IINO - Independence In Name Only. Everything up to Independence without actual Independence - complete and unrestricted tax-raising powers for Holyrood, autonomy on all matters and a guarantee from the Conservatives the money will keep on flowing (essentially it's the deal the DUP got from May).

    The Conservatives get to govern the UK and keep the integrity of the Union while the SNP get all the benefits of running their own country without any of the actual problems or issues.

    Starmer has the same problem as Sturgeon - what happens if the Independence vote passes? What happens if it doesn't?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,237
    Alistair said:

    Leon said:

    Alistair said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    Nope, becuase:

    1. In 2017, I didn’t have two beans to rub together, trying to get my own business off the ground.

    2. Like so many of the last decade’s VC-funded tech startups, it’s difficult to see how they ever plan to turn a profit, nor what is their business model, beyond hoping the next sucker buys in at a higher price and the wages keep getting paid.
    Their VC investors will be hoping they are bought by Google or other tech giant. That will almost certainly happen, hence the crazy valuation sans profits, unless there is some kind of technical or intellectual property problem between now and then.
    Yes, they’ll be hoping that Google and Apple get in a bidding war to make their open system proprietary.

    Sadly, that point may have passed, at least for the next year or two. The only tech M&A activity happing now is distress sales, as the VC investors can’t bear to see writedowns on their valuations.

    How would you make an open system proprietary, though? There is no patent protection you can get and there are no trade secrets you can rely on.

    Uber cannot patent its genius idea - ridesharing with GPS on smartphones (as we can see from competitors like Bolt, Lyft and so on)

    Yet Uber is worth $17B

    There is value in simply being first with a great idea, even if people then copy it

    W3W will be hoping this applies to them. If they continue with rapid growth then they will soon become the default global model for this (2-3 years?) and it will be very difficult to challenge (indeed harder than challenging Uber, maybe)

    Yep, I guess that makes sense. But they need to keep finding the cash to burn.
    They recently did a crowdfund asking for £1m. They got £4m after 24 hours and now have £8m. You cannot invest any more, it is oversubscribed. They are drowning in money
    They have a year and a half of cash in hand at current burn rate at the latest accounts
    You have some personal, bitter hatred for them. I suggest we desist as it's not good for your blood pressure
    I'm sorry factual statements about their financials hurt you so much.
    You what? I'm not "personally hurt" that they are burning money as they initially grow, this is what every successful tech company has done for three decades. If I am hurt, it is that I failed to invest in them myself!

    My excuse is that I was distracted by Covid and aliens, so I only heard about them yesterday, like a boomer twit

  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,237
    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Eabhal said:

    A

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    You've been fighting ghosts for about 6 hours now.

    I think it's great, especially for meeting up with a date in a crowd (it's like that train station clock in London everyone meets at). And, if I'd been smart,100% would've invested in it.

    But the company is a bit shit cos they advertise it as a mountain rescue tool. And the selfless, handsome, fit bastards who risk their lives to rescue people like me (but more likely, you) from hills have made it crystal clear they want a grid reference. #trusttheexperts

    Otoh, I just use WhatsApped shared location function. Which has the benefit of being spatial, follows you moving around, and can have multiple people on it. Did earlier finding gf at the fringe

    They're really not marketing it as a rescue tool - at least not now, AFAICS. This is sensible, as multiple news stories are doing all the marketing they need in that area

    "UK emergency services encourage public to download life-saving app What3Words"

    https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/news/app-helps-you-knowexactlywhere-283367/


    https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/lifeboat-saves-bacton-paddleboarder-mile-off-shore-9191448


    https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/20592922.essex-fire-service-advise-public-download-what3words-app/

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/what3words-app-paramedic-rescue-scotland-b2131176.html

    They are mainly marketing it to car companies for on-board navigation, and also courier and delivery companies

    And yes, when I next - fool that I am - get lost in the Cairngorms I will be sure to have an Ordnance Survey map to hand, and a magnifying glass, so I can give the rescue services a proper grid reference with 38 digits, not some silly three word thingy that I can easily remember which gives them my location to the nearest tree
    It's actually two letters and six digits ... and I learned how to read a NGR off a map when I was about 11.

    This three word thingy, does it really work in the far glens of Scotland? And to what accuracy?
    Yes, it really works

    "Here is a precise what3words address, made of 3 random words. Every 3 metre square in the world has its own unique what3words address.

    ///bland.cowering.spots
    https://w3w.co/bland.cowering.spots "


    ///bland.cowering.spots is inside the public bar of Eilean Iarmain, by the slot machine: that's a brilliant pub in Isle Ornsay on the Sleat peninsula in Skye, which looks out to Knoydart

    Note the specificity. It isn't a bit of road, or a section of village, or a house number, it is a 3sq m space inside that bar, by the crisps
    Okay.

    So I live at alpha.bravo.charlie, and you live at x-ray.yankee.zulu - how do I get from your house to mine, using only w3w technology?
    The app automatically links through to Apple Maps, Google Maps, Waze, and others

    But this is not its primary purpose. It is not trying to BE Google Maps. It is trying to find things and people exactly, anywhere on the globe, down to a precise tiny spot, in seconds - making life much easier in multiple ways
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Eabhal said:

    A

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    You've been fighting ghosts for about 6 hours now.

    I think it's great, especially for meeting up with a date in a crowd (it's like that train station clock in London everyone meets at). And, if I'd been smart,100% would've invested in it.

    But the company is a bit shit cos they advertise it as a mountain rescue tool. And the selfless, handsome, fit bastards who risk their lives to rescue people like me (but more likely, you) from hills have made it crystal clear they want a grid reference. #trusttheexperts

    Otoh, I just use WhatsApped shared location function. Which has the benefit of being spatial, follows you moving around, and can have multiple people on it. Did earlier finding gf at the fringe

    They're really not marketing it as a rescue tool - at least not now, AFAICS. This is sensible, as multiple news stories are doing all the marketing they need in that area

    "UK emergency services encourage public to download life-saving app What3Words"

    https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/news/app-helps-you-knowexactlywhere-283367/


    https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/lifeboat-saves-bacton-paddleboarder-mile-off-shore-9191448


    https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/20592922.essex-fire-service-advise-public-download-what3words-app/

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/what3words-app-paramedic-rescue-scotland-b2131176.html

    They are mainly marketing it to car companies for on-board navigation, and also courier and delivery companies

    And yes, when I next - fool that I am - get lost in the Cairngorms I will be sure to have an Ordnance Survey map to hand, and a magnifying glass, so I can give the rescue services a proper grid reference with 38 digits, not some silly three word thingy that I can easily remember which gives them my location to the nearest tree
    It's actually two letters and six digits ... and I learned how to read a NGR off a map when I was about 11.

    This three word thingy, does it really work in the far glens of Scotland? And to what accuracy?
    you don't have to go to each 3 m square of glen to check, because you are just putting your own very simple 3m lattice overlay on the grid by which GPS has jointly decided to look at the world - WGS 84 I think it's called. Your 6 fig GR is much less accurate at 100 m squares AND has no error correction:453697 makes neither more nor less sense to look at than any of the 6! or whatever combinations it is possible to make of those digits, whereas if the message is trouser.fart.octopus there's only 3 or 4 possible variants outside of which you know you are getting it wrong.
  • Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    Nope, becuase:

    1. In 2017, I didn’t have two beans to rub together, trying to get my own business off the ground.

    2. Like so many of the last decade’s VC-funded tech startups, it’s difficult to see how they ever plan to turn a profit, nor what is their business model, beyond hoping the next sucker buys in at a higher price and the wages keep getting paid.
    Their VC investors will be hoping they are bought by Google or other tech giant. That will almost certainly happen, hence the crazy valuation sans profits, unless there is some kind of technical or intellectual property problem between now and then.
    Yes, they’ll be hoping that Google and Apple get in a bidding war to make their open system proprietary.

    Sadly, that point may have passed, at least for the next year or two. The only tech M&A activity happing now is distress sales, as the VC investors can’t bear to see writedowns on their valuations.

    How would you make an open system proprietary, though? There is no patent protection you can get and there are no trade secrets you can rely on.

    Uber cannot patent its genius idea - ridesharing with GPS on smartphones (as we can see from competitors like Bolt, Lyft and so on)

    Yet Uber is worth $17B

    There is value in simply being first with a great idea, even if people then copy it

    W3W will be hoping this applies to them. If they continue with rapid growth then they will soon become the default global model for this (2-3 years?) and it will be very difficult to challenge (indeed harder than challenging Uber, maybe)

    Yep, I guess that makes sense. But they need to keep finding the cash to burn.
    They recently did a crowdfund asking for £1m. They got £4m after 24 hours and now have £8m. You cannot invest any more, it is oversubscribed. They are drowning in money

    Right, that makes sense. What were they offering in return for the cash?

    The chance to buy shares later

    https://www.crowdcube.com/companies/what3words2/pitches/Z5k8Aq

    I genuinely wish them the best of luck. I hope they make it. They must be aiming for an industry buyer - or just to grow organically into something huge. It is a very interesting idea. I had never heard of them before today.

  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    Hands up who thinks what3words is better than a postal address for locating a house?
  • Sorry to bore on about music (though not sorry enough to have any plan to stop soon!)

    But..

    I want to know if anyone knows some better soul music than this from the last, say, forty years

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptpcNHC40o8

    This is Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings in the studio doing the final take of a song called Answer Me (awesome ringtone BTW!), mostly featuring Sharon and bassist/head of the label Gabe Roth

    They made an old Brooklyn townhouse into an amazing analogue recording studio

    They call it "The House Of Soul", and there's a few youtube videos about it. I like this one
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK81HgOpbuM

    It might be my favourite soul music thing since Aretha recording "You're All I Need To Get By" with Jerry Wexler in 1971
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MfsylN5Kw Take 1
    and
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5AmvQu7hd4 Take 2
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,138
    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Eabhal said:

    A

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    You've been fighting ghosts for about 6 hours now.

    I think it's great, especially for meeting up with a date in a crowd (it's like that train station clock in London everyone meets at). And, if I'd been smart,100% would've invested in it.

    But the company is a bit shit cos they advertise it as a mountain rescue tool. And the selfless, handsome, fit bastards who risk their lives to rescue people like me (but more likely, you) from hills have made it crystal clear they want a grid reference. #trusttheexperts

    Otoh, I just use WhatsApped shared location function. Which has the benefit of being spatial, follows you moving around, and can have multiple people on it. Did earlier finding gf at the fringe

    They're really not marketing it as a rescue tool - at least not now, AFAICS. This is sensible, as multiple news stories are doing all the marketing they need in that area

    "UK emergency services encourage public to download life-saving app What3Words"

    https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/news/app-helps-you-knowexactlywhere-283367/


    https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/lifeboat-saves-bacton-paddleboarder-mile-off-shore-9191448


    https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/20592922.essex-fire-service-advise-public-download-what3words-app/

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/what3words-app-paramedic-rescue-scotland-b2131176.html

    They are mainly marketing it to car companies for on-board navigation, and also courier and delivery companies

    And yes, when I next - fool that I am - get lost in the Cairngorms I will be sure to have an Ordnance Survey map to hand, and a magnifying glass, so I can give the rescue services a proper grid reference with 38 digits, not some silly three word thingy that I can easily remember which gives them my location to the nearest tree
    It's actually two letters and six digits ... and I learned how to read a NGR off a map when I was about 11.

    This three word thingy, does it really work in the far glens of Scotland? And to what accuracy?
    Yes, it really works

    "Here is a precise what3words address, made of 3 random words. Every 3 metre square in the world has its own unique what3words address.

    ///bland.cowering.spots
    https://w3w.co/bland.cowering.spots "


    ///bland.cowering.spots is inside the public bar of Eilean Iarmain, by the slot machine: that's a brilliant pub in Isle Ornsay on the Sleat peninsula in Skye, which looks out to Knoydart

    Note the specificity. It isn't a bit of road, or a section of village, or a house number, it is a 3sq m space inside that bar, by the crisps
    I don't doubt it is allocated: but if I am some idiot in shorts, t-shirt and plimsolls, out on the Lairig Ghru or the path over from Loch Scresort to the road, and I fall and break a leg, how do I know what three words to give the rescue services if the signal is crap? And is the crapness of the signal directly in proportion to that needed to ring 999 and ask for the mountain rescue? Obviously, if there is no signal at all, then it doesn't matter whether three-words app is working. But is there a nimbus or rather halo where one could phone the rescue services but the app doesn't work?
  • EPGEPG Posts: 5,996
    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Vaguely on topic - I don't discount a Conservative-SNP coalition after the next election.

    Before all the partisans on both sides start venting - this is politics, remember. Do the SNP really think they can force Starmer to offer them an independence referendum as a condition for their support? Let's assume they can - the problem for the SNP is it's a risk - what happens if they lose again? What happens if they win?

    Here's an alternative scenario - the SNP offer a minority Conservative administration at Westminster but the quid pro quo is further and extended devolution - what could be called IINO - Independence In Name Only. Everything up to Independence without actual Independence - complete and unrestricted tax-raising powers for Holyrood, autonomy on all matters and a guarantee from the Conservatives the money will keep on flowing (essentially it's the deal the DUP got from May).

    The Conservatives get to govern the UK and keep the integrity of the Union while the SNP get all the benefits of running their own country without any of the actual problems or issues.

    Starmer has the same problem as Sturgeon - what happens if the Independence vote passes? What happens if it doesn't?

    I think it would revive SLAB and guarantee a unionist majority in Holyrood forever. Even worse than losing a referendum - giving up the moral claim to have one.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,237
    Alistair said:

    Hands up who thinks what3words is better than a postal address for locating a house?

    Jesus Christ. Me. Because it is
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,138
    IshmaelZ said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Eabhal said:

    A

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    You've been fighting ghosts for about 6 hours now.

    I think it's great, especially for meeting up with a date in a crowd (it's like that train station clock in London everyone meets at). And, if I'd been smart,100% would've invested in it.

    But the company is a bit shit cos they advertise it as a mountain rescue tool. And the selfless, handsome, fit bastards who risk their lives to rescue people like me (but more likely, you) from hills have made it crystal clear they want a grid reference. #trusttheexperts

    Otoh, I just use WhatsApped shared location function. Which has the benefit of being spatial, follows you moving around, and can have multiple people on it. Did earlier finding gf at the fringe

    They're really not marketing it as a rescue tool - at least not now, AFAICS. This is sensible, as multiple news stories are doing all the marketing they need in that area

    "UK emergency services encourage public to download life-saving app What3Words"

    https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/news/app-helps-you-knowexactlywhere-283367/


    https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/lifeboat-saves-bacton-paddleboarder-mile-off-shore-9191448


    https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/20592922.essex-fire-service-advise-public-download-what3words-app/

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/what3words-app-paramedic-rescue-scotland-b2131176.html

    They are mainly marketing it to car companies for on-board navigation, and also courier and delivery companies

    And yes, when I next - fool that I am - get lost in the Cairngorms I will be sure to have an Ordnance Survey map to hand, and a magnifying glass, so I can give the rescue services a proper grid reference with 38 digits, not some silly three word thingy that I can easily remember which gives them my location to the nearest tree
    It's actually two letters and six digits ... and I learned how to read a NGR off a map when I was about 11.

    This three word thingy, does it really work in the far glens of Scotland? And to what accuracy?
    you don't have to go to each 3 m square of glen to check, because you are just putting your own very simple 3m lattice overlay on the grid by which GPS has jointly decided to look at the world - WGS 84 I think it's called. Your 6 fig GR is much less accurate at 100 m squares AND has no error correction:453697 makes neither more nor less sense to look at than any of the 6! or whatever combinations it is possible to make of those digits, whereas if the message is trouser.fart.octopus there's only 3 or 4 possible variants outside of which you know you are getting it wrong.
    I get that - but how does one get the right code? Seee point made to Leon.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 3,853
    edited August 2022
    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Eabhal said:

    A

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    You've been fighting ghosts for about 6 hours now.

    I think it's great, especially for meeting up with a date in a crowd (it's like that train station clock in London everyone meets at). And, if I'd been smart,100% would've invested in it.

    But the company is a bit shit cos they advertise it as a mountain rescue tool. And the selfless, handsome, fit bastards who risk their lives to rescue people like me (but more likely, you) from hills have made it crystal clear they want a grid reference. #trusttheexperts

    Otoh, I just use WhatsApped shared location function. Which has the benefit of being spatial, follows you moving around, and can have multiple people on it. Did earlier finding gf at the fringe

    They're really not marketing it as a rescue tool - at least not now, AFAICS. This is sensible, as multiple news stories are doing all the marketing they need in that area

    "UK emergency services encourage public to download life-saving app What3Words"

    https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/news/app-helps-you-knowexactlywhere-283367/


    https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/lifeboat-saves-bacton-paddleboarder-mile-off-shore-9191448


    https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/20592922.essex-fire-service-advise-public-download-what3words-app/

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/what3words-app-paramedic-rescue-scotland-b2131176.html

    They are mainly marketing it to car companies for on-board navigation, and also courier and delivery companies

    And yes, when I next - fool that I am - get lost in the Cairngorms I will be sure to have an Ordnance Survey map to hand, and a magnifying glass, so I can give the rescue services a proper grid reference with 38 digits, not some silly three word thingy that I can easily remember which gives them my location to the nearest tree
    It's actually two letters and six digits ... and I learned how to read a NGR off a map when I was about 11.

    This three word thingy, does it really work in the far glens of Scotland? And to what accuracy?
    Yes, it really works

    "Here is a precise what3words address, made of 3 random words. Every 3 metre square in the world has its own unique what3words address.

    ///bland.cowering.spots
    https://w3w.co/bland.cowering.spots "


    ///bland.cowering.spots is inside the public bar of Eilean Iarmain, by the slot machine: that's a brilliant pub in Isle Ornsay on the Sleat peninsula in Skye, which looks out to Knoydart

    Note the specificity. It isn't a bit of road, or a section of village, or a house number, it is a 3sq m space inside that bar, by the crisps
    How about Hotel.Eilean.Iarmain.Isleornsay

    That tells me what it is as well as where it is. I could get there from the Flatlands without an app or paper map of any kind, albeit my it would take about 10 hours (my guess, not Google's).
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,237
    Carnyx said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Eabhal said:

    A

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    You've been fighting ghosts for about 6 hours now.

    I think it's great, especially for meeting up with a date in a crowd (it's like that train station clock in London everyone meets at). And, if I'd been smart,100% would've invested in it.

    But the company is a bit shit cos they advertise it as a mountain rescue tool. And the selfless, handsome, fit bastards who risk their lives to rescue people like me (but more likely, you) from hills have made it crystal clear they want a grid reference. #trusttheexperts

    Otoh, I just use WhatsApped shared location function. Which has the benefit of being spatial, follows you moving around, and can have multiple people on it. Did earlier finding gf at the fringe

    They're really not marketing it as a rescue tool - at least not now, AFAICS. This is sensible, as multiple news stories are doing all the marketing they need in that area

    "UK emergency services encourage public to download life-saving app What3Words"

    https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/news/app-helps-you-knowexactlywhere-283367/


    https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/lifeboat-saves-bacton-paddleboarder-mile-off-shore-9191448


    https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/20592922.essex-fire-service-advise-public-download-what3words-app/

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/what3words-app-paramedic-rescue-scotland-b2131176.html

    They are mainly marketing it to car companies for on-board navigation, and also courier and delivery companies

    And yes, when I next - fool that I am - get lost in the Cairngorms I will be sure to have an Ordnance Survey map to hand, and a magnifying glass, so I can give the rescue services a proper grid reference with 38 digits, not some silly three word thingy that I can easily remember which gives them my location to the nearest tree
    It's actually two letters and six digits ... and I learned how to read a NGR off a map when I was about 11.

    This three word thingy, does it really work in the far glens of Scotland? And to what accuracy?
    you don't have to go to each 3 m square of glen to check, because you are just putting your own very simple 3m lattice overlay on the grid by which GPS has jointly decided to look at the world - WGS 84 I think it's called. Your 6 fig GR is much less accurate at 100 m squares AND has no error correction:453697 makes neither more nor less sense to look at than any of the 6! or whatever combinations it is possible to make of those digits, whereas if the message is trouser.fart.octopus there's only 3 or 4 possible variants outside of which you know you are getting it wrong.
    I get that - but how does one get the right code? Seee point made to Leon.
    Mate, download the app. You'll be able to work it out

    I see that the iOS app has 155,000 reviews and 4.8 stars. People love it

    https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/what3words/id657878530



  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,835
    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Vaguely on topic - I don't discount a Conservative-SNP coalition after the next election.

    Before all the partisans on both sides start venting - this is politics, remember. Do the SNP really think they can force Starmer to offer them an independence referendum as a condition for their support? Let's assume they can - the problem for the SNP is it's a risk - what happens if they lose again? What happens if they win?

    Here's an alternative scenario - the SNP offer a minority Conservative administration at Westminster but the quid pro quo is further and extended devolution - what could be called IINO - Independence In Name Only. Everything up to Independence without actual Independence - complete and unrestricted tax-raising powers for Holyrood, autonomy on all matters and a guarantee from the Conservatives the money will keep on flowing (essentially it's the deal the DUP got from May).

    The Conservatives get to govern the UK and keep the integrity of the Union while the SNP get all the benefits of running their own country without any of the actual problems or issues.

    Starmer has the same problem as Sturgeon - what happens if the Independence vote passes? What happens if it doesn't?

    Why couldn't Starmer offer precisely the same?
    And, I too don't discount a Tory/SNP deal.
    Puts PR off the table for the foreseeable.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,138
    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Vaguely on topic - I don't discount a Conservative-SNP coalition after the next election.

    Before all the partisans on both sides start venting - this is politics, remember. Do the SNP really think they can force Starmer to offer them an independence referendum as a condition for their support? Let's assume they can - the problem for the SNP is it's a risk - what happens if they lose again? What happens if they win?

    Here's an alternative scenario - the SNP offer a minority Conservative administration at Westminster but the quid pro quo is further and extended devolution - what could be called IINO - Independence In Name Only. Everything up to Independence without actual Independence - complete and unrestricted tax-raising powers for Holyrood, autonomy on all matters and a guarantee from the Conservatives the money will keep on flowing (essentially it's the deal the DUP got from May).

    The Conservatives get to govern the UK and keep the integrity of the Union while the SNP get all the benefits of running their own country without any of the actual problems or issues.

    Starmer has the same problem as Sturgeon - what happens if the Independence vote passes? What happens if it doesn't?

    As often in these hypotheticals, the problem to my mind is not what happens in Scotland but what happens in England *immediately* on those MP figures. Given SNP policy of not intervening in English politics, English politics would be deadlocked already before anyone had time to worry about Scotland, with a Lab-LD coalition outvoting the Tories in England.
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 6,831
    Evening all. Its urgent but not Keir coming back from holiday urgent. Its urgent but not shorten the pointlessly long leadership campaign urgent.
    So September we will see one of the most important budgets of recent times. I anticipate the right wing press are already planning a 'here comes the cavalry' campaign and the left a 'too little too late' one.
    Im increasingly of the opinion some sort of nationalisation of the energy industry and energy production will be required, Truss has slready made noises on agriculture that leads me to suspect she will go down a self sufficiency 'for Britain' style economic route. Maybe globalisation is a busted flush, corporate futures always get portrayed as dystopian after all.
    Then again, maybe im hopecasting. My vote is going to the closest offer to the above. Unless its labour, lol.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614
    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Eabhal said:

    A

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    You've been fighting ghosts for about 6 hours now.

    I think it's great, especially for meeting up with a date in a crowd (it's like that train station clock in London everyone meets at). And, if I'd been smart,100% would've invested in it.

    But the company is a bit shit cos they advertise it as a mountain rescue tool. And the selfless, handsome, fit bastards who risk their lives to rescue people like me (but more likely, you) from hills have made it crystal clear they want a grid reference. #trusttheexperts

    Otoh, I just use WhatsApped shared location function. Which has the benefit of being spatial, follows you moving around, and can have multiple people on it. Did earlier finding gf at the fringe

    They're really not marketing it as a rescue tool - at least not now, AFAICS. This is sensible, as multiple news stories are doing all the marketing they need in that area

    "UK emergency services encourage public to download life-saving app What3Words"

    https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/news/app-helps-you-knowexactlywhere-283367/


    https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/lifeboat-saves-bacton-paddleboarder-mile-off-shore-9191448


    https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/20592922.essex-fire-service-advise-public-download-what3words-app/

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/what3words-app-paramedic-rescue-scotland-b2131176.html

    They are mainly marketing it to car companies for on-board navigation, and also courier and delivery companies

    And yes, when I next - fool that I am - get lost in the Cairngorms I will be sure to have an Ordnance Survey map to hand, and a magnifying glass, so I can give the rescue services a proper grid reference with 38 digits, not some silly three word thingy that I can easily remember which gives them my location to the nearest tree
    It's actually two letters and six digits ... and I learned how to read a NGR off a map when I was about 11.

    This three word thingy, does it really work in the far glens of Scotland? And to what accuracy?
    Yes, it really works

    "Here is a precise what3words address, made of 3 random words. Every 3 metre square in the world has its own unique what3words address.

    ///bland.cowering.spots
    https://w3w.co/bland.cowering.spots "


    ///bland.cowering.spots is inside the public bar of Eilean Iarmain, by the slot machine: that's a brilliant pub in Isle Ornsay on the Sleat peninsula in Skye, which looks out to Knoydart

    Note the specificity. It isn't a bit of road, or a section of village, or a house number, it is a 3sq m space inside that bar, by the crisps
    Okay.

    So I live at alpha.bravo.charlie, and you live at x-ray.yankee.zulu - how do I get from your house to mine, using only w3w technology?
    The app automatically links through to Apple Maps, Google Maps, Waze, and others

    But this is not its primary purpose. It is not trying to BE Google Maps. It is trying to find things and people exactly, anywhere on the globe, down to a precise tiny spot, in seconds - making life much easier in multiple ways
    So there’s no actual technology behind the company, merely a database of co-ordinates.

    Any value they might have, is in getting Google and Apple in a bidding war to deny their users to the other.

    Meanwhile, Google and Apple have their own short codes for locations, and w3w is a sometimes-useful curio.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,237
    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Eabhal said:

    A

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    You've been fighting ghosts for about 6 hours now.

    I think it's great, especially for meeting up with a date in a crowd (it's like that train station clock in London everyone meets at). And, if I'd been smart,100% would've invested in it.

    But the company is a bit shit cos they advertise it as a mountain rescue tool. And the selfless, handsome, fit bastards who risk their lives to rescue people like me (but more likely, you) from hills have made it crystal clear they want a grid reference. #trusttheexperts

    Otoh, I just use WhatsApped shared location function. Which has the benefit of being spatial, follows you moving around, and can have multiple people on it. Did earlier finding gf at the fringe

    They're really not marketing it as a rescue tool - at least not now, AFAICS. This is sensible, as multiple news stories are doing all the marketing they need in that area

    "UK emergency services encourage public to download life-saving app What3Words"

    https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/news/app-helps-you-knowexactlywhere-283367/


    https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/lifeboat-saves-bacton-paddleboarder-mile-off-shore-9191448


    https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/20592922.essex-fire-service-advise-public-download-what3words-app/

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/what3words-app-paramedic-rescue-scotland-b2131176.html

    They are mainly marketing it to car companies for on-board navigation, and also courier and delivery companies

    And yes, when I next - fool that I am - get lost in the Cairngorms I will be sure to have an Ordnance Survey map to hand, and a magnifying glass, so I can give the rescue services a proper grid reference with 38 digits, not some silly three word thingy that I can easily remember which gives them my location to the nearest tree
    It's actually two letters and six digits ... and I learned how to read a NGR off a map when I was about 11.

    This three word thingy, does it really work in the far glens of Scotland? And to what accuracy?
    Yes, it really works

    "Here is a precise what3words address, made of 3 random words. Every 3 metre square in the world has its own unique what3words address.

    ///bland.cowering.spots
    https://w3w.co/bland.cowering.spots "


    ///bland.cowering.spots is inside the public bar of Eilean Iarmain, by the slot machine: that's a brilliant pub in Isle Ornsay on the Sleat peninsula in Skye, which looks out to Knoydart

    Note the specificity. It isn't a bit of road, or a section of village, or a house number, it is a 3sq m space inside that bar, by the crisps
    I don't doubt it is allocated: but if I am some idiot in shorts, t-shirt and plimsolls, out on the Lairig Ghru or the path over from Loch Scresort to the road, and I fall and break a leg, how do I know what three words to give the rescue services if the signal is crap? And is the crapness of the signal directly in proportion to that needed to ring 999 and ask for the mountain rescue? Obviously, if there is no signal at all, then it doesn't matter whether three-words app is working. But is there a nimbus or rather halo where one could phone the rescue services but the app doesn't work?
    It relies on GPS not signal

    "What if I don’t have signal or data?

    You will need phone signal to call 999 – what3words cannot pass location information directly to the emergency services.

    You can find your current location on the what3words app, even if you don’t have phone signal or a data connection. Bear in mind that without data, the map won’t load, but your location will still update when you tap the ‘Locate me’ icon."


    https://support.what3words.com/en/articles/4498978-how-do-i-use-what3words-in-an-emergency-uk-only
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,709
    edited August 2022
    dixiedean said:

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Vaguely on topic - I don't discount a Conservative-SNP coalition after the next election.

    Before all the partisans on both sides start venting - this is politics, remember. Do the SNP really think they can force Starmer to offer them an independence referendum as a condition for their support? Let's assume they can - the problem for the SNP is it's a risk - what happens if they lose again? What happens if they win?

    Here's an alternative scenario - the SNP offer a minority Conservative administration at Westminster but the quid pro quo is further and extended devolution - what could be called IINO - Independence In Name Only. Everything up to Independence without actual Independence - complete and unrestricted tax-raising powers for Holyrood, autonomy on all matters and a guarantee from the Conservatives the money will keep on flowing (essentially it's the deal the DUP got from May).

    The Conservatives get to govern the UK and keep the integrity of the Union while the SNP get all the benefits of running their own country without any of the actual problems or issues.

    Starmer has the same problem as Sturgeon - what happens if the Independence vote passes? What happens if it doesn't?

    Why couldn't Starmer offer precisely the same?
    And, I too don't discount a Tory/SNP deal.
    Puts PR off the table for the foreseeable.
    Though a Tory/SNP deal would be a wet dream for Starmer and Labour and the LDs it will rightly never happen
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,842
    Where on earth is Starmer ?
  • boulayboulay Posts: 3,773
    Alistair said:

    Hands up who thinks what3words is better than a postal address for locating a house?

    I’m not a Post office techie or anything but surely there is scope that the Post Office or similar licence it and use it along with addresses for more accurate sorting than postcodes.

    If the scanning machines just have to read the three words to sort then the Postie picks up his bag of post for houses in this.argument’s.stale and reads the addresses on his round.

    It’s just increasing accuracy and parcelling up (pun not intended) of post for specific areas.

    Little improvements can end up making big differences.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,043
    edited August 2022
    kle4 said:

    Getting your official spokesperson to describe Rishi Sunak as a socialist does nothing except demonstrate that you are unhinged.

    So Sunak is a remainer socialist...... Guessing we are not getting truth back post Boris then!

    Truss is going to try to be like Johnson but can't be because only he can do it. What comes naturally to him will just seem demented coming from her. He didn't care if no-one believed him. She will. When she seeks to explain her inevitable energy payments u-turn by saying she didn't u-turn it is going to be almost unbearable to watch.

    An underrated but very useful talent for leaders is to u-turn and bend in the wind whilst presenting as being strong and unyielding. The lady that is not for turning probably turned quite a bit.

    Truss may naturally find that harder to manage with her personal style, but also faces the problem of making really extravagant promises in a period which will make delivering very difficult, and u-turning very obvious.
    But that's precisely what she hasn't done. She hasn't got into a handout bidding war with Sunak over energy bills, she has stated firmly that her instincts are against handouts and in favour of tax cuts, but left the option of targeted handouts on the table. I see that as the responsible thing to do.

    There's a very peculiar set of circumstances whereby the energy companies are set to make higher profits (Why? When your raw material increases vastly in price, how do your profits rise?) by vastly increasing bills having consolidated the industry so there's very little competitiveness in the market. Windfall taxes don't address this, they only encourage more profit taking by the industry to sheild itself from them. I am not sure what the answer is, but I don't think Rishi has it.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Eabhal said:

    A

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    You've been fighting ghosts for about 6 hours now.

    I think it's great, especially for meeting up with a date in a crowd (it's like that train station clock in London everyone meets at). And, if I'd been smart,100% would've invested in it.

    But the company is a bit shit cos they advertise it as a mountain rescue tool. And the selfless, handsome, fit bastards who risk their lives to rescue people like me (but more likely, you) from hills have made it crystal clear they want a grid reference. #trusttheexperts

    Otoh, I just use WhatsApped shared location function. Which has the benefit of being spatial, follows you moving around, and can have multiple people on it. Did earlier finding gf at the fringe

    They're really not marketing it as a rescue tool - at least not now, AFAICS. This is sensible, as multiple news stories are doing all the marketing they need in that area

    "UK emergency services encourage public to download life-saving app What3Words"

    https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/news/app-helps-you-knowexactlywhere-283367/


    https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/lifeboat-saves-bacton-paddleboarder-mile-off-shore-9191448


    https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/20592922.essex-fire-service-advise-public-download-what3words-app/

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/what3words-app-paramedic-rescue-scotland-b2131176.html

    They are mainly marketing it to car companies for on-board navigation, and also courier and delivery companies

    And yes, when I next - fool that I am - get lost in the Cairngorms I will be sure to have an Ordnance Survey map to hand, and a magnifying glass, so I can give the rescue services a proper grid reference with 38 digits, not some silly three word thingy that I can easily remember which gives them my location to the nearest tree
    It's actually two letters and six digits ... and I learned how to read a NGR off a map when I was about 11.

    This three word thingy, does it really work in the far glens of Scotland? And to what accuracy?
    Yes, it really works

    "Here is a precise what3words address, made of 3 random words. Every 3 metre square in the world has its own unique what3words address.

    ///bland.cowering.spots
    https://w3w.co/bland.cowering.spots "


    ///bland.cowering.spots is inside the public bar of Eilean Iarmain, by the slot machine: that's a brilliant pub in Isle Ornsay on the Sleat peninsula in Skye, which looks out to Knoydart

    Note the specificity. It isn't a bit of road, or a section of village, or a house number, it is a 3sq m space inside that bar, by the crisps
    I don't doubt it is allocated: but if I am some idiot in shorts, t-shirt and plimsolls, out on the Lairig Ghru or the path over from Loch Scresort to the road, and I fall and break a leg, how do I know what three words to give the rescue services if the signal is crap? And is the crapness of the signal directly in proportion to that needed to ring 999 and ask for the mountain rescue? Obviously, if there is no signal at all, then it doesn't matter whether three-words app is working. But is there a nimbus or rather halo where one could phone the rescue services but the app doesn't work?
    Yes of course there is, cellphone coverage differs wildly from 4G coverage, especially in marginal (mountainous/uninhabited) areas and it is very realistically possible that you have enough intermittent 4G to get a w3w location which you can then commit to memory for when you revert to phone coverage only. Your hypothetical idiot is more likely to do that than fish out a paper OS map, realise vis is too poor to take a bearing, work out where he is by dead reckoning from last known good position, remember whether it is up first or across, and relay the resulting 6 numbers to mountain rescue, I'd have thought.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,237
    Today I learned that a surprising number of people on PB are really fucking dumb
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,138
    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Eabhal said:

    A

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    You've been fighting ghosts for about 6 hours now.

    I think it's great, especially for meeting up with a date in a crowd (it's like that train station clock in London everyone meets at). And, if I'd been smart,100% would've invested in it.

    But the company is a bit shit cos they advertise it as a mountain rescue tool. And the selfless, handsome, fit bastards who risk their lives to rescue people like me (but more likely, you) from hills have made it crystal clear they want a grid reference. #trusttheexperts

    Otoh, I just use WhatsApped shared location function. Which has the benefit of being spatial, follows you moving around, and can have multiple people on it. Did earlier finding gf at the fringe

    They're really not marketing it as a rescue tool - at least not now, AFAICS. This is sensible, as multiple news stories are doing all the marketing they need in that area

    "UK emergency services encourage public to download life-saving app What3Words"

    https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/news/app-helps-you-knowexactlywhere-283367/


    https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/lifeboat-saves-bacton-paddleboarder-mile-off-shore-9191448


    https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/20592922.essex-fire-service-advise-public-download-what3words-app/

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/what3words-app-paramedic-rescue-scotland-b2131176.html

    They are mainly marketing it to car companies for on-board navigation, and also courier and delivery companies

    And yes, when I next - fool that I am - get lost in the Cairngorms I will be sure to have an Ordnance Survey map to hand, and a magnifying glass, so I can give the rescue services a proper grid reference with 38 digits, not some silly three word thingy that I can easily remember which gives them my location to the nearest tree
    It's actually two letters and six digits ... and I learned how to read a NGR off a map when I was about 11.

    This three word thingy, does it really work in the far glens of Scotland? And to what accuracy?
    Yes, it really works

    "Here is a precise what3words address, made of 3 random words. Every 3 metre square in the world has its own unique what3words address.

    ///bland.cowering.spots
    https://w3w.co/bland.cowering.spots "


    ///bland.cowering.spots is inside the public bar of Eilean Iarmain, by the slot machine: that's a brilliant pub in Isle Ornsay on the Sleat peninsula in Skye, which looks out to Knoydart

    Note the specificity. It isn't a bit of road, or a section of village, or a house number, it is a 3sq m space inside that bar, by the crisps
    I don't doubt it is allocated: but if I am some idiot in shorts, t-shirt and plimsolls, out on the Lairig Ghru or the path over from Loch Scresort to the road, and I fall and break a leg, how do I know what three words to give the rescue services if the signal is crap? And is the crapness of the signal directly in proportion to that needed to ring 999 and ask for the mountain rescue? Obviously, if there is no signal at all, then it doesn't matter whether three-words app is working. But is there a nimbus or rather halo where one could phone the rescue services but the app doesn't work?
    It relies on GPS not signal

    "What if I don’t have signal or data?

    You will need phone signal to call 999 – what3words cannot pass location information directly to the emergency services.

    You can find your current location on the what3words app, even if you don’t have phone signal or a data connection. Bear in mind that without data, the map won’t load, but your location will still update when you tap the ‘Locate me’ icon."


    https://support.what3words.com/en/articles/4498978-how-do-i-use-what3words-in-an-emergency-uk-only
    Thanks. That's it. GPS makes a difference. Though I'd always have an OS map - and a paper one - rather than rely on anything with a battery that could be dropped or get wet.
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    Leon said:

    Alistair said:

    Hands up who thinks what3words is better than a postal address for locating a house?

    Jesus Christ. Me. Because it is
    Wrong.

    Due to things like earthquakes and continental drift the what3word square of people's homes has already shifted in just a few years.

    There's a reason we don't use GPS coordinates over semantically meaningful names already.
  • I just love the fact that whoever it was decided to divide the entire world into three metre squared parcels and then devised a way to give each one of them a unique three word name. That shows a bigness of mind and thought that deserves some kind of success! I don't know if it will make them a fortune, but it is a great idea and one that other smart people will surely find interesting ways to use. Crowdfunding looks to be exactly the way to generate the cash required to keep it going until the Eureka moment drops. I really hope it does.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,237
    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Eabhal said:

    A

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    You've been fighting ghosts for about 6 hours now.

    I think it's great, especially for meeting up with a date in a crowd (it's like that train station clock in London everyone meets at). And, if I'd been smart,100% would've invested in it.

    But the company is a bit shit cos they advertise it as a mountain rescue tool. And the selfless, handsome, fit bastards who risk their lives to rescue people like me (but more likely, you) from hills have made it crystal clear they want a grid reference. #trusttheexperts

    Otoh, I just use WhatsApped shared location function. Which has the benefit of being spatial, follows you moving around, and can have multiple people on it. Did earlier finding gf at the fringe

    They're really not marketing it as a rescue tool - at least not now, AFAICS. This is sensible, as multiple news stories are doing all the marketing they need in that area

    "UK emergency services encourage public to download life-saving app What3Words"

    https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/news/app-helps-you-knowexactlywhere-283367/


    https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/lifeboat-saves-bacton-paddleboarder-mile-off-shore-9191448


    https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/20592922.essex-fire-service-advise-public-download-what3words-app/

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/what3words-app-paramedic-rescue-scotland-b2131176.html

    They are mainly marketing it to car companies for on-board navigation, and also courier and delivery companies

    And yes, when I next - fool that I am - get lost in the Cairngorms I will be sure to have an Ordnance Survey map to hand, and a magnifying glass, so I can give the rescue services a proper grid reference with 38 digits, not some silly three word thingy that I can easily remember which gives them my location to the nearest tree
    It's actually two letters and six digits ... and I learned how to read a NGR off a map when I was about 11.

    This three word thingy, does it really work in the far glens of Scotland? And to what accuracy?
    Yes, it really works

    "Here is a precise what3words address, made of 3 random words. Every 3 metre square in the world has its own unique what3words address.

    ///bland.cowering.spots
    https://w3w.co/bland.cowering.spots "


    ///bland.cowering.spots is inside the public bar of Eilean Iarmain, by the slot machine: that's a brilliant pub in Isle Ornsay on the Sleat peninsula in Skye, which looks out to Knoydart

    Note the specificity. It isn't a bit of road, or a section of village, or a house number, it is a 3sq m space inside that bar, by the crisps
    I don't doubt it is allocated: but if I am some idiot in shorts, t-shirt and plimsolls, out on the Lairig Ghru or the path over from Loch Scresort to the road, and I fall and break a leg, how do I know what three words to give the rescue services if the signal is crap? And is the crapness of the signal directly in proportion to that needed to ring 999 and ask for the mountain rescue? Obviously, if there is no signal at all, then it doesn't matter whether three-words app is working. But is there a nimbus or rather halo where one could phone the rescue services but the app doesn't work?
    It relies on GPS not signal

    "What if I don’t have signal or data?

    You will need phone signal to call 999 – what3words cannot pass location information directly to the emergency services.

    You can find your current location on the what3words app, even if you don’t have phone signal or a data connection. Bear in mind that without data, the map won’t load, but your location will still update when you tap the ‘Locate me’ icon."


    https://support.what3words.com/en/articles/4498978-how-do-i-use-what3words-in-an-emergency-uk-only
    Thanks. That's it. GPS makes a difference. Though I'd always have an OS map - and a paper one - rather than rely on anything with a battery that could be dropped or get wet.
    Best stay home, really
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Pulpstar said:

    Where on earth is Starmer ?

    You want w3w, lat and long or a grid reference?

    He is neck and neck with Lizzie n Rich in the Most Useless Twat in the Country stakes. But I am sure his position on Nandy is being refined by the hour.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614
    edited August 2022
    Pulpstar said:

    Where on earth is Starmer ?

    Still on holiday. Doing an interview on Saturday IIRC.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,237
    Alistair said:

    Leon said:

    Alistair said:

    Hands up who thinks what3words is better than a postal address for locating a house?

    Jesus Christ. Me. Because it is
    Wrong.

    Due to things like earthquakes and continental drift the what3word square of people's homes has already shifted in just a few years.

    There's a reason we don't use GPS coordinates over semantically meaningful names already.
    OK. Reason number 6 that What3Words is useless

    BECAUSE CONTINENTAL DRIFT IS MOVING THE WORLD
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 6,831
    Pulpstar said:

    Where on earth is Starmer ?

    Hes on holiday till Monday
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,138
    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Eabhal said:

    A

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    You've been fighting ghosts for about 6 hours now.

    I think it's great, especially for meeting up with a date in a crowd (it's like that train station clock in London everyone meets at). And, if I'd been smart,100% would've invested in it.

    But the company is a bit shit cos they advertise it as a mountain rescue tool. And the selfless, handsome, fit bastards who risk their lives to rescue people like me (but more likely, you) from hills have made it crystal clear they want a grid reference. #trusttheexperts

    Otoh, I just use WhatsApped shared location function. Which has the benefit of being spatial, follows you moving around, and can have multiple people on it. Did earlier finding gf at the fringe

    They're really not marketing it as a rescue tool - at least not now, AFAICS. This is sensible, as multiple news stories are doing all the marketing they need in that area

    "UK emergency services encourage public to download life-saving app What3Words"

    https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/news/app-helps-you-knowexactlywhere-283367/


    https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/lifeboat-saves-bacton-paddleboarder-mile-off-shore-9191448


    https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/20592922.essex-fire-service-advise-public-download-what3words-app/

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/what3words-app-paramedic-rescue-scotland-b2131176.html

    They are mainly marketing it to car companies for on-board navigation, and also courier and delivery companies

    And yes, when I next - fool that I am - get lost in the Cairngorms I will be sure to have an Ordnance Survey map to hand, and a magnifying glass, so I can give the rescue services a proper grid reference with 38 digits, not some silly three word thingy that I can easily remember which gives them my location to the nearest tree
    It's actually two letters and six digits ... and I learned how to read a NGR off a map when I was about 11.

    This three word thingy, does it really work in the far glens of Scotland? And to what accuracy?
    Yes, it really works

    "Here is a precise what3words address, made of 3 random words. Every 3 metre square in the world has its own unique what3words address.

    ///bland.cowering.spots
    https://w3w.co/bland.cowering.spots "


    ///bland.cowering.spots is inside the public bar of Eilean Iarmain, by the slot machine: that's a brilliant pub in Isle Ornsay on the Sleat peninsula in Skye, which looks out to Knoydart

    Note the specificity. It isn't a bit of road, or a section of village, or a house number, it is a 3sq m space inside that bar, by the crisps
    I don't doubt it is allocated: but if I am some idiot in shorts, t-shirt and plimsolls, out on the Lairig Ghru or the path over from Loch Scresort to the road, and I fall and break a leg, how do I know what three words to give the rescue services if the signal is crap? And is the crapness of the signal directly in proportion to that needed to ring 999 and ask for the mountain rescue? Obviously, if there is no signal at all, then it doesn't matter whether three-words app is working. But is there a nimbus or rather halo where one could phone the rescue services but the app doesn't work?
    It relies on GPS not signal

    "What if I don’t have signal or data?

    You will need phone signal to call 999 – what3words cannot pass location information directly to the emergency services.

    You can find your current location on the what3words app, even if you don’t have phone signal or a data connection. Bear in mind that without data, the map won’t load, but your location will still update when you tap the ‘Locate me’ icon."


    https://support.what3words.com/en/articles/4498978-how-do-i-use-what3words-in-an-emergency-uk-only
    Thanks. That's it. GPS makes a difference. Though I'd always have an OS map - and a paper one - rather than rely on anything with a battery that could be dropped or get wet.
    Best stay home, really
    You misunderstand. Quite happy to have a mobey on outings as well, but woiuld never go without a proper paper map, that's all.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,138
    Leon said:

    Alistair said:

    Leon said:

    Alistair said:

    Hands up who thinks what3words is better than a postal address for locating a house?

    Jesus Christ. Me. Because it is
    Wrong.

    Due to things like earthquakes and continental drift the what3word square of people's homes has already shifted in just a few years.

    There's a reason we don't use GPS coordinates over semantically meaningful names already.
    OK. Reason number 6 that What3Words is useless

    BECAUSE CONTINENTAL DRIFT IS MOVING THE WORLD
    Plate tectonics. Continental drift is so passe.
  • RandallFlaggRandallFlagg Posts: 1,151
    dixiedean said:

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Vaguely on topic - I don't discount a Conservative-SNP coalition after the next election.

    Before all the partisans on both sides start venting - this is politics, remember. Do the SNP really think they can force Starmer to offer them an independence referendum as a condition for their support? Let's assume they can - the problem for the SNP is it's a risk - what happens if they lose again? What happens if they win?

    Here's an alternative scenario - the SNP offer a minority Conservative administration at Westminster but the quid pro quo is further and extended devolution - what could be called IINO - Independence In Name Only. Everything up to Independence without actual Independence - complete and unrestricted tax-raising powers for Holyrood, autonomy on all matters and a guarantee from the Conservatives the money will keep on flowing (essentially it's the deal the DUP got from May).

    The Conservatives get to govern the UK and keep the integrity of the Union while the SNP get all the benefits of running their own country without any of the actual problems or issues.

    Starmer has the same problem as Sturgeon - what happens if the Independence vote passes? What happens if it doesn't?

    Why couldn't Starmer offer precisely the same?
    And, I too don't discount a Tory/SNP deal.
    Puts PR off the table for the foreseeable.
    Well, Labour (or to be more precise the centre-left unionist wing of the Labour Party) and the SNP loathe each other more than the SNP and the Tories do. So on that basis I suppose a Tory-SNP deal is more probable.
  • EPGEPG Posts: 5,996
    Not a lot of money in mountain rescue, and usually the remote areas attract people who have local expertise and knowledge that obviates techy hacks. It's not exactly Deliveroo relying on a mass market and expendable low-information porters.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,709
    Leon said:

    Today I learned that a surprising number of people on PB are really fucking dumb

    Unfortunately some of the brightest posters like Charles have left
  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    Never had @stodge down as a troll.

    You live and learn.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,237

    I just love the fact that whoever it was decided to divide the entire world into three metre squared parcels and then devised a way to give each one of them a unique three word name. That shows a bigness of mind and thought that deserves some kind of success! I don't know if it will make them a fortune, but it is a great idea and one that other smart people will surely find interesting ways to use. Crowdfunding looks to be exactly the way to generate the cash required to keep it going until the Eureka moment drops. I really hope it does.

    This is a really excellent interview with the genius bloke behind it (paywall, tho)

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/can-what3words-revolutionise-the-way-we-navigate-the-world-tt0706nnv

    He and his mates had the fantastic idea, alpha to omega, in about an hour, but then they needed loooong months of hard graft to realise it

    As you say, the idea is so cool and clever it deserves to succeed by itself. And it will be a genuine boon to people in poorer countries where "postal addresses" are an aspiration or a fiction

    So God speed to them
  • EPGEPG Posts: 5,996

    Never had @stodge down as a troll.

    You live and learn.

    There must be some room for being a provocateur without being a troll.
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 6,831
    Leon said:

    Alistair said:

    Leon said:

    Alistair said:

    Hands up who thinks what3words is better than a postal address for locating a house?

    Jesus Christ. Me. Because it is
    Wrong.

    Due to things like earthquakes and continental drift the what3word square of people's homes has already shifted in just a few years.

    There's a reason we don't use GPS coordinates over semantically meaningful names already.
    OK. Reason number 6 that What3Words is useless

    BECAUSE CONTINENTAL DRIFT IS MOVING THE WORLD
    Charles Hapgood, Crust Displacement.
    The sworn nemesis of w3w
  • stodgestodge Posts: 12,741
    edited August 2022
    EPG said:

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Vaguely on topic - I don't discount a Conservative-SNP coalition after the next election.

    Before all the partisans on both sides start venting - this is politics, remember. Do the SNP really think they can force Starmer to offer them an independence referendum as a condition for their support? Let's assume they can - the problem for the SNP is it's a risk - what happens if they lose again? What happens if they win?

    Here's an alternative scenario - the SNP offer a minority Conservative administration at Westminster but the quid pro quo is further and extended devolution - what could be called IINO - Independence In Name Only. Everything up to Independence without actual Independence - complete and unrestricted tax-raising powers for Holyrood, autonomy on all matters and a guarantee from the Conservatives the money will keep on flowing (essentially it's the deal the DUP got from May).

    The Conservatives get to govern the UK and keep the integrity of the Union while the SNP get all the benefits of running their own country without any of the actual problems or issues.

    Starmer has the same problem as Sturgeon - what happens if the Independence vote passes? What happens if it doesn't?

    I think it would revive SLAB and guarantee a unionist majority in Holyrood forever. Even worse than losing a referendum - giving up the moral claim to have one.
    "Moral claim" - I have no clue what that means, in politics it means absolutely nothing. Let's not forget - the defeat in 2014 didn't break the power of the SNP - it enhanced it. What will the political impact of a referendum victory - whither (or indeed wither) the SNP? UKIP achieved its purpose and ceased to exist - the SNP might do the same.

    Conversely, losing again will politically strengthen the SNP but it's dominant now so why rock the boat? As I've argued on here, the status quo suits all sides.

    IF we get a Hung Parliament, Sturgeon will go into any negotiations with (presumably) Truss and Starmer publicly arguing for another referendum but privately, I think, her support will be contingent on what Holyrood can get in terms of money and power.

    Let me put Davey in Sturgeon's place. IF the LDs do well enough to be the kingmakers again, Davey may well want STV for all elections without a referendum but he knows he won't get it. Sturgeon knows she doesn't need promises of a referendum to get what she wants in terms of governing.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 14,878
    Leon said:

    Today I learned that a surprising number of people on PB are really fucking dumb

    You’ve done this before. Just because people look at evidence and come to a different conclusion to you, doesn’t make them stupid, or idiots etc. At least you’ve moved on from calling us idiots for not believing the UAP flap is anything more than the latest Flying Saucers, UFO, little green men flap.
  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    Sandpit said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Where on earth is Starmer ?

    Still on holiday. Doing an interview on Saturday IIRC.
    Drakeford and Sturgeon the only ones at work.
  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    EPG said:

    Never had @stodge down as a troll.

    You live and learn.

    There must be some room for being a provocateur without being a troll.
    Fine line.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614

    Sandpit said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Where on earth is Starmer ?

    Still on holiday. Doing an interview on Saturday IIRC.
    Drakeford and Sturgeon the only ones at work.
    This week. I’m sure they will take their own holidays.
  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    Leon said:

    Today I learned that a surprising number of people on PB are really fucking dumb

    You’re a slow learner.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,709

    Sandpit said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Where on earth is Starmer ?

    Still on holiday. Doing an interview on Saturday IIRC.
    Drakeford and Sturgeon the only ones at work.
    Sturgeon was at the Edinburgh Festival today being interviewed by Iain Dale. Bit of a stretch to call that 'work'
    https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1557385735443021829?s=20&t=W1smPvsmtX36UvtHdiRk5w
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 47,787

    Never had @stodge down as a troll.

    You live and learn.

    I see from your avatar that you’ve officially anointed the new leader of the English.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,237
    edited August 2022

    Leon said:

    Today I learned that a surprising number of people on PB are really fucking dumb

    You’ve done this before. Just because people look at evidence and come to a different conclusion to you, doesn’t make them stupid, or idiots etc. At least you’ve moved on from calling us idiots for not believing the UAP flap is anything more than the latest Flying Saucers, UFO, little green men flap.
    No, there is honest debate and then there are people who cannot understand a new idea out of stupidity; or because they don't WANT to understand it - because they dislike it, fear it, envy it, whatever? - which is another kind of stupid, to my mind

    However, you are correct to spot that I am being rude, perhaps unnecessarily. So I shall go to the gym and work off my appetite for argument. Good day to all PB-ers
  • nico679nico679 Posts: 4,530
    Truss has been all over the news and the right wing press have proclaimed her the next Mother Theresa so it’s not surprising she’s doing okay in the polling against Starmer .

  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Where on earth is Starmer ?

    Still on holiday. Doing an interview on Saturday IIRC.
    Drakeford and Sturgeon the only ones at work.
    This week. I’m sure they will take their own holidays.
    Not so sure. Sturgeon has no children. Drakeford has three.
  • stodgestodge Posts: 12,741

    Never had @stodge down as a troll.

    You live and learn.

    I'm putting up an alternative political scenario which doesn't fit into your universe so you deride it and have a pop at the messenger.

    Fair enough - you're a one-dimensional hack who, apart from posting Scottish sub-samples ad infinitum and ad nauseam for years has only demonstrated your complete lack of understanding of how politics actually works.

    As a self-avowed member of the centre right, why not think this through a little before sounding off?
  • EPGEPG Posts: 5,996
    stodge said:

    EPG said:

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Vaguely on topic - I don't discount a Conservative-SNP coalition after the next election.

    Before all the partisans on both sides start venting - this is politics, remember. Do the SNP really think they can force Starmer to offer them an independence referendum as a condition for their support? Let's assume they can - the problem for the SNP is it's a risk - what happens if they lose again? What happens if they win?

    Here's an alternative scenario - the SNP offer a minority Conservative administration at Westminster but the quid pro quo is further and extended devolution - what could be called IINO - Independence In Name Only. Everything up to Independence without actual Independence - complete and unrestricted tax-raising powers for Holyrood, autonomy on all matters and a guarantee from the Conservatives the money will keep on flowing (essentially it's the deal the DUP got from May).

    The Conservatives get to govern the UK and keep the integrity of the Union while the SNP get all the benefits of running their own country without any of the actual problems or issues.

    Starmer has the same problem as Sturgeon - what happens if the Independence vote passes? What happens if it doesn't?

    I think it would revive SLAB and guarantee a unionist majority in Holyrood forever. Even worse than losing a referendum - giving up the moral claim to have one.
    "Moral claim" - I have no clue what that means, in politics it means absolutely nothing. Let's not forget - the defeat in 2014 didn't break the power of the SNP - it enhanced it. What will the political impact of a referendum victory - whither (or indeed wither) the SNP? UKIP achieved its purpose and ceased to exist - the SNP might do the same.

    Conversely, losing again will politically strengthen the SNP but it's dominant now so why rock the boat? As I've argued on here, the status quo suits all sides.

    IF we get a Hung Parliament, Sturgeon will go into any negotiations with (presumably) Truss and Starmer publicly arguing for another referendum but privately, I think, her support will be contingent on what Holyrood can get in terms of money and power.

    Let me put Davey in Sturgeon's place. IF the LDs do well enough to be the kingmakers again, Davey may well meant STV for all elections without a referendum but he knows he won't get it. Sturgeon knows she doesn't need promises of a referendum to get what she wants in terms of governing.
    The moral claim begins with being able to count to 65. If you don't have that, no referendum. I suggest that walking into Conservative Noe lobbies on a dozen Labour amendments every autumn will send the SNP down to 30-40 seats for the foreseeable, even if it's just rUK benefits they are voting to cut.

    My mental model is that the SNP wants independence, a good deal, and then whatever. Hegemony is new to them and I don't think they care except that it gives them opportunities for independence. Many rUK people don't seem to share that mental model. I wonder why.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,138
    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Where on earth is Starmer ?

    Still on holiday. Doing an interview on Saturday IIRC.
    Drakeford and Sturgeon the only ones at work.
    Sturgeon was at the Edinburgh Festival today being interviewed by Iain Dale. Bit of a stretch to call that 'work'
    https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1557385735443021829?s=20&t=W1smPvsmtX36UvtHdiRk5w
    Politician being interviewed with mostly "serious discussion" isn't doing politics? Aristotle would be astounded at the notion.
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 9,688
    nico679 said:

    Truss has been all over the news and the right wing press have proclaimed her the next Mother Theresa so it’s not surprising she’s doing okay in the polling against Starmer .

    Nobody believes that though. She's a bit crap, but possibly less so than Sunak. (For the avoidance of doubt Starmer is a bit crap too, and Davey quite considerably so)
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Alistair said:

    Leon said:

    Alistair said:

    Hands up who thinks what3words is better than a postal address for locating a house?

    Jesus Christ. Me. Because it is
    Wrong.

    Due to things like earthquakes and continental drift the what3word square of people's homes has already shifted in just a few years.

    There's a reason we don't use GPS coordinates over semantically meaningful names already.
    don't be utterly bloody silly. Where does most navigation take place (etymological clue in name)? do we say "North Atlantic" or "Indian Ocean" because that's semantically meaningful, and ignore all that lat n long shit?

    It is just an overlay on WGS 84 anyway, so the earthquake problem in your head affects all of GPS as much as it affects w3w; that is, not at all.

    I have climbed almost all the munros North of the Great Glen, many of them in bad vis and before GPS was invented, and have accurately caused helicopters to land on Dartmoor in the right place to pick up injured riders, and yachts to proceed out of sight of land and then to their intended destinations. Not a fan of Appeals to Authority, esp one's own, but there's an awful lot of ill informed theory in the air tonight.
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 20,451
    Pulpstar said:

    Where on earth is Starmer ?

    Just checked his itinerary. Today he is at durham.police.investigated and tomorrow will be heading to fans.please.explain.
  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146

    Never had @stodge down as a troll.

    You live and learn.

    I see from your avatar that you’ve officially anointed the new leader of the English.
    I acknowledge key figures contributing to the movement for Scottish self-governance. FM Truss has already earned her place.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,138
    EPG said:

    stodge said:

    EPG said:

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Vaguely on topic - I don't discount a Conservative-SNP coalition after the next election.

    Before all the partisans on both sides start venting - this is politics, remember. Do the SNP really think they can force Starmer to offer them an independence referendum as a condition for their support? Let's assume they can - the problem for the SNP is it's a risk - what happens if they lose again? What happens if they win?

    Here's an alternative scenario - the SNP offer a minority Conservative administration at Westminster but the quid pro quo is further and extended devolution - what could be called IINO - Independence In Name Only. Everything up to Independence without actual Independence - complete and unrestricted tax-raising powers for Holyrood, autonomy on all matters and a guarantee from the Conservatives the money will keep on flowing (essentially it's the deal the DUP got from May).

    The Conservatives get to govern the UK and keep the integrity of the Union while the SNP get all the benefits of running their own country without any of the actual problems or issues.

    Starmer has the same problem as Sturgeon - what happens if the Independence vote passes? What happens if it doesn't?

    I think it would revive SLAB and guarantee a unionist majority in Holyrood forever. Even worse than losing a referendum - giving up the moral claim to have one.
    "Moral claim" - I have no clue what that means, in politics it means absolutely nothing. Let's not forget - the defeat in 2014 didn't break the power of the SNP - it enhanced it. What will the political impact of a referendum victory - whither (or indeed wither) the SNP? UKIP achieved its purpose and ceased to exist - the SNP might do the same.

    Conversely, losing again will politically strengthen the SNP but it's dominant now so why rock the boat? As I've argued on here, the status quo suits all sides.

    IF we get a Hung Parliament, Sturgeon will go into any negotiations with (presumably) Truss and Starmer publicly arguing for another referendum but privately, I think, her support will be contingent on what Holyrood can get in terms of money and power.

    Let me put Davey in Sturgeon's place. IF the LDs do well enough to be the kingmakers again, Davey may well meant STV for all elections without a referendum but he knows he won't get it. Sturgeon knows she doesn't need promises of a referendum to get what she wants in terms of governing.
    The moral claim begins with being able to count to 65. If you don't have that, no referendum. I suggest that walking into Conservative Noe lobbies on a dozen Labour amendments every autumn will send the SNP down to 30-40 seats for the foreseeable, even if it's just rUK benefits they are voting to cut.

    My mental model is that the SNP wants independence, a good deal, and then whatever. Hegemony is new to them and I don't think they care except that it gives them opportunities for independence. Many rUK people don't seem to share that mental model. I wonder why.
    Don't forget there will be a Holyrood election along in 2026, too (in theory earlier if certain things happened). So the SNP, and the Scottish branch offices of the Unionist parties, will have an eye to that as well. The SNP don't need to worry about what voters in rUK constituencies think, at least as a first approximation.
  • pm215pm215 Posts: 926
    boulay said:


    I’m not a Post office techie or anything but surely there is scope that the Post Office or similar licence it and use it along with addresses for more accurate sorting than postcodes.

    If the scanning machines just have to read the three words to sort then the Postie picks up his bag of post for houses in this.argument’s.stale and reads the addresses on his round.

    It’s just increasing accuracy and parcelling up (pun not intended) of post for specific areas.

    Little improvements can end up making big differences.

    The Post Office already have a code system designed to work for their use case -- it's the post code. If they wanted improved efficiency or narrower addressing accuracy they could easily extend it (eg optional extra letter on the end). Half the issues with post codes are because everybody *else* uses them, not because of what the Post Office does with them.

    "3m square" is massively over-precise for addressing post, and "nearby areas are totally unrelated codes" is a disadvantage if you're trying to make it easy to sort for a single post round (obviously machines don't care, but humans end up looking at these things too from time to time).
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Where on earth is Starmer ?

    Still on holiday. Doing an interview on Saturday IIRC.
    Drakeford and Sturgeon the only ones at work.
    Sturgeon was at the Edinburgh Festival today being interviewed by Iain Dale. Bit of a stretch to call that 'work'
    https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1557385735443021829?s=20&t=W1smPvsmtX36UvtHdiRk5w
    Serious political discourse at a massive capital city civic event, at a time when parliament is not sitting anyway, is not "work" for the FM?

    OK
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,056
    edited August 2022
    IshmaelZ said:

    Alistair said:

    Leon said:

    Alistair said:

    Hands up who thinks what3words is better than a postal address for locating a house?

    Jesus Christ. Me. Because it is
    Wrong.

    Due to things like earthquakes and continental drift the what3word square of people's homes has already shifted in just a few years.

    There's a reason we don't use GPS coordinates over semantically meaningful names already.
    don't be utterly bloody silly. Where does most navigation take place (etymological clue in name)? do we say "North Atlantic" or "Indian Ocean" because that's semantically meaningful, and ignore all that lat n long shit?

    It is just an overlay on WGS 84 anyway, so the earthquake problem in your head affects all of GPS as much as it affects w3w; that is, not at all.

    I have climbed almost all the munros North of the Great Glen, many of them in bad vis and before GPS was invented, and have accurately caused helicopters to land on Dartmoor in the right place to pick up injured riders, and yachts to proceed out of sight of land and then to their intended destinations. Not a fan of Appeals to Authority, esp one's own, but there's an awful lot of ill informed theory in the air tonight.
    W3W is good for other things too, I have my father in laws grave in my index now. It took me and Mrs Foxy 2 hours to find it last time. The problem is that woodland cemeteries grow.

    Useful too for addresses out in the country, where houses are not numbered and postcodes can be very large areas. Also for meeting up at large festivals etc.

  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Where on earth is Starmer ?

    Still on holiday. Doing an interview on Saturday IIRC.
    Drakeford and Sturgeon the only ones at work.
    This week. I’m sure they will take their own holidays.
    Not so sure. Sturgeon has no children. Drakeford has three.
    She’ll still take a holiday. We all sh!t on politicians enough, they’re allowed a week or two away somewhere in the summer. Those currently in office will be reachable in an emergency.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 14,772
    .

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    As for how W3W makes money, that's an interesting question

    But one obvious way is advertising on the app. If everyone in the world downloads the app then that's 8bn pairs of eyes on one app, and tiny fleeting ads will still make huge money

    And of course you could tailor the ads to where people are going

    Are you looking for ///octupus.scarlet.bra ? You know there's a lovely restaurant 3 yards from here that just got a rave review? Here's a new cheaper supermarket. This bar next door has a happy hour

    You could even direct info to people inside buildings

    "Yes, it's nice in that corner of the bar (///fake.dildo.knapper) but we also have a beer garden, which is empty right now"

    I remember when I first saw Vivino I thought "wow, this is so clever, but how on earth do they make cash?" - of course a couple of years later they started selling their own recommended wines. Easy, really

    The W3W business model is to license the tech to everyone for very low rates, and to get everyone hooked on it. Later, when it is ubiquitous, they raise the cost per lookup from 0.1c to 3c (or whatever).

    I don't foresee any likelihood they will be able to dethrone Google Maps, nor would they want to try. That's absurdly expensive, people will only use one mapping app, and traffic info is more useful than the three word thing.
    They expressly say they are trying to complement Google Maps, not compete with it

    Another part of its genius (I'll stop in a minute) is the way it sells itself. There are endless news stories like this (from Canada, four days ago):


    "A woman was belaying with a group of climbers at the base of a 70-foot cliff near the Buffalo Crag Lookout when a falling rock struck her. Early reports indicate the rock caused an injury to her arm, ribs and head.



    "The area is in a remote section of the park, along a dirt trail more than one kilometre away from the nearest road and the resulting rescue took an estimated two hours. Police, firefighters and EMS all responded, and were able to locate the injured woman using the newly rolled out what3words app."

    https://www.thestar.com/local-milton/news/2022/08/05/milton-rock-climbing-incident-leaves-woman-with-serious-injuries.html

    Everyone will want this app. Literally, everyone. Just in case. It *could* become as ubiquitous as Uber, or even bigger (if Google doesn't try to crush them)
    You do know know that this has been around for years, even though you’ve just discovered it today?

    You’re like the 13-year-old boy who just found out there’s porn on the internet.
    I presume you invested heavily back in 2017, then, and you are now sitting on a profit of several million quid?
    Nope, becuase:

    1. In 2017, I didn’t have two beans to rub together, trying to get my own business off the ground.

    2. Like so many of the last decade’s VC-funded tech startups, it’s difficult to see how they ever plan to turn a profit, nor what is their business model, beyond hoping the next sucker buys in at a higher price and the wages keep getting paid.
    Their VC investors will be hoping they are bought by Google or other tech giant. That will almost certainly happen, hence the crazy valuation sans profits, unless there is some kind of technical or intellectual property problem between now and then.
    Yes, they’ll be hoping that Google and Apple get in a bidding war to make their open system proprietary.

    Sadly, that point may have passed, at least for the next year or two. The only tech M&A activity happing now is distress sales, as the VC investors can’t bear to see writedowns on their valuations.

    How would you make an open system proprietary, though? There is no patent protection you can get and there are no trade secrets you can rely on.

    Uber cannot patent its genius idea - ridesharing with GPS on smartphones (as we can see from competitors like Bolt, Lyft and so on)

    Yet Uber is worth $17B

    There is value in simply being first with a great idea, even if people then copy it

    W3W will be hoping this applies to them. If they continue with rapid growth then they will soon become the default global model for this (2-3 years?) and it will be very difficult to challenge (indeed harder than challenging Uber, maybe)

    Yep, I guess that makes sense. But they need to keep finding the cash to burn.
    They recently did a crowdfund asking for £1m. They got £4m after 24 hours and now have £8m. You cannot invest any more, it is oversubscribed. They are drowning in money

    Right, that makes sense. What were they offering in return for the cash?

    Appears to be something called a convertible loan, to be converted into shares at a later date. I think that means they get to pay you zero interest and then convert the loan into shares at a later date, when they hope the company will be valued more, and so they effectively sell you shares at a premium to their current value. But I'm just guessing based on what I found on the web.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,056
    IshmaelZ said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Where on earth is Starmer ?

    Still on holiday. Doing an interview on Saturday IIRC.
    Drakeford and Sturgeon the only ones at work.
    Sturgeon was at the Edinburgh Festival today being interviewed by Iain Dale. Bit of a stretch to call that 'work'
    https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1557385735443021829?s=20&t=W1smPvsmtX36UvtHdiRk5w
    Serious political discourse at a massive capital city civic event, at a time when parliament is not sitting anyway, is not "work" for the FM?

    OK
    Was beer and curry or a cake involved? That is the only way to know.
  • RandallFlaggRandallFlagg Posts: 1,151
    stodge said:

    EPG said:

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Vaguely on topic - I don't discount a Conservative-SNP coalition after the next election.

    Before all the partisans on both sides start venting - this is politics, remember. Do the SNP really think they can force Starmer to offer them an independence referendum as a condition for their support? Let's assume they can - the problem for the SNP is it's a risk - what happens if they lose again? What happens if they win?

    Here's an alternative scenario - the SNP offer a minority Conservative administration at Westminster but the quid pro quo is further and extended devolution - what could be called IINO - Independence In Name Only. Everything up to Independence without actual Independence - complete and unrestricted tax-raising powers for Holyrood, autonomy on all matters and a guarantee from the Conservatives the money will keep on flowing (essentially it's the deal the DUP got from May).

    The Conservatives get to govern the UK and keep the integrity of the Union while the SNP get all the benefits of running their own country without any of the actual problems or issues.

    Starmer has the same problem as Sturgeon - what happens if the Independence vote passes? What happens if it doesn't?

    I think it would revive SLAB and guarantee a unionist majority in Holyrood forever. Even worse than losing a referendum - giving up the moral claim to have one.
    "Moral claim" - I have no clue what that means, in politics it means absolutely nothing. Let's not forget - the defeat in 2014 didn't break the power of the SNP - it enhanced it. What will the political impact of a referendum victory - whither (or indeed wither) the SNP? UKIP achieved its purpose and ceased to exist - the SNP might do the same.

    Conversely, losing again will politically strengthen the SNP but it's dominant now so why rock the boat? As I've argued on here, the status quo suits all sides.

    IF we get a Hung Parliament, Sturgeon will go into any negotiations with (presumably) Truss and Starmer publicly arguing for another referendum but privately, I think, her support will be contingent on what Holyrood can get in terms of money and power.

    Let me put Davey in Sturgeon's place. IF the LDs do well enough to be the kingmakers again, Davey may well want STV for all elections without a referendum but he knows he won't get it. Sturgeon knows she doesn't need promises of a referendum to get what she wants in terms of governing.
    If there's a referendum on the back of a Tory-SNP deal, No will win by an landslide and the SNP will get dumped out of office by SLAB at the following Scottish Parliament elections. Much of the reason SLAB collapsed to begin with was because 'Labour got into bed with the Tories' in 2014.
    If Sturgeon signals she'd be willing to a deal with the Tories if Labour won't, then I think they'll just tell her to go ahead and do it if she dare. Labour would win a landslide at the next general election (while recovering both in Scotland and in the Red Wall), so it works out really nicely for them.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,709
    IshmaelZ said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Where on earth is Starmer ?

    Still on holiday. Doing an interview on Saturday IIRC.
    Drakeford and Sturgeon the only ones at work.
    Sturgeon was at the Edinburgh Festival today being interviewed by Iain Dale. Bit of a stretch to call that 'work'
    https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1557385735443021829?s=20&t=W1smPvsmtX36UvtHdiRk5w
    Serious political discourse at a massive capital city civic event, at a time when parliament is not sitting anyway, is not "work" for the FM?

    OK
    Going off to a festival to chat, probably for a fee rather than being in the office or doing an official visit or meeting does not count as work no
  • I bet Leon is invested in Nio, Nikola, Palantir, ARK
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,709

    Never had @stodge down as a troll.

    You live and learn.

    I see from your avatar that you’ve officially anointed the new leader of the English.
    I acknowledge key figures contributing to the movement for Scottish self-governance. FM Truss has already earned her place.
    The opposite, she has made clear she will never allow indyref2 on her watch as PM
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 9,688

    Never had @stodge down as a troll.

    You live and learn.

    I see from your avatar that you’ve officially anointed the new leader of the English.
    I acknowledge key figures contributing to the movement for Scottish self-governance. FM Truss has already earned her place.
    PM
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,138
    HYUFD said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Where on earth is Starmer ?

    Still on holiday. Doing an interview on Saturday IIRC.
    Drakeford and Sturgeon the only ones at work.
    Sturgeon was at the Edinburgh Festival today being interviewed by Iain Dale. Bit of a stretch to call that 'work'
    https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1557385735443021829?s=20&t=W1smPvsmtX36UvtHdiRk5w
    Serious political discourse at a massive capital city civic event, at a time when parliament is not sitting anyway, is not "work" for the FM?

    OK
    Going off to a festival to chat, probably for a fee rather than being in the office or doing an official visit or meeting does not count as work no
    Of course, you don't know anything about Scotland. 'Going off to a festival' for what IS an official visit seen to support a major programme of events means less than a quarter of an hour's walking from the official residence to the venue in question.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614

    stodge said:

    EPG said:

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Vaguely on topic - I don't discount a Conservative-SNP coalition after the next election.

    Before all the partisans on both sides start venting - this is politics, remember. Do the SNP really think they can force Starmer to offer them an independence referendum as a condition for their support? Let's assume they can - the problem for the SNP is it's a risk - what happens if they lose again? What happens if they win?

    Here's an alternative scenario - the SNP offer a minority Conservative administration at Westminster but the quid pro quo is further and extended devolution - what could be called IINO - Independence In Name Only. Everything up to Independence without actual Independence - complete and unrestricted tax-raising powers for Holyrood, autonomy on all matters and a guarantee from the Conservatives the money will keep on flowing (essentially it's the deal the DUP got from May).

    The Conservatives get to govern the UK and keep the integrity of the Union while the SNP get all the benefits of running their own country without any of the actual problems or issues.

    Starmer has the same problem as Sturgeon - what happens if the Independence vote passes? What happens if it doesn't?

    I think it would revive SLAB and guarantee a unionist majority in Holyrood forever. Even worse than losing a referendum - giving up the moral claim to have one.
    "Moral claim" - I have no clue what that means, in politics it means absolutely nothing. Let's not forget - the defeat in 2014 didn't break the power of the SNP - it enhanced it. What will the political impact of a referendum victory - whither (or indeed wither) the SNP? UKIP achieved its purpose and ceased to exist - the SNP might do the same.

    Conversely, losing again will politically strengthen the SNP but it's dominant now so why rock the boat? As I've argued on here, the status quo suits all sides.

    IF we get a Hung Parliament, Sturgeon will go into any negotiations with (presumably) Truss and Starmer publicly arguing for another referendum but privately, I think, her support will be contingent on what Holyrood can get in terms of money and power.

    Let me put Davey in Sturgeon's place. IF the LDs do well enough to be the kingmakers again, Davey may well want STV for all elections without a referendum but he knows he won't get it. Sturgeon knows she doesn't need promises of a referendum to get what she wants in terms of governing.
    If there's a referendum on the back of a Tory-SNP deal, No will win by an landslide and the SNP will get dumped out of office by SLAB at the following Scottish Parliament elections. Much of the reason SLAB collapsed to begin with was because 'Labour got into bed with the Tories' in 2014.
    If Sturgeon signals she'd be willing to a deal with the Tories if Labour won't, then I think they'll just tell her to go ahead and do it if she dare. Labour would win a landslide at the next general election (while recovering both in Scotland and in the Red Wall), so it works out really nicely for them.
    At the risk of channeling @HYUFD, there’s no way the Tory backbenchers support an independence referendum for Scotland.

    The possibilities are that no-one will work with the SNP, the DUP will support the Tories, and the LDs might go with confidence-and-supply with Labour, but not a formal coalition. There’s quite a big landing zone of no possible government, which leads to a second election with a likely Lab majority or Lab/LD arrangement.
  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    HYUFD said:

    Never had @stodge down as a troll.

    You live and learn.

    I see from your avatar that you’ve officially anointed the new leader of the English.
    I acknowledge key figures contributing to the movement for Scottish self-governance. FM Truss has already earned her place.
    The opposite, she has made clear she will never allow indyref2 on her watch as PM
    One of the reasons that Liz Truss is a key figure contributing to the movement for Scottish independence is that she has made clear she will never allow indyref2.

  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,138
    HYUFD said:

    Never had @stodge down as a troll.

    You live and learn.

    I see from your avatar that you’ve officially anointed the new leader of the English.
    I acknowledge key figures contributing to the movement for Scottish self-governance. FM Truss has already earned her place.
    The opposite, she has made clear she will never allow indyref2 on her watch as PM
    I think someone ought to sit down with you and explain we have got the message, that you think the Tories would never allow indyref under the current or likely next incumbent. Why don't you post on somethijng more novel such as the engineering design and merits thereof of Warship diesel-electrics?
  • Rishi being grilled by Nick Robinson now (7-7.30) BBC1.
  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    Omnium said:

    Never had @stodge down as a troll.

    You live and learn.

    I see from your avatar that you’ve officially anointed the new leader of the English.
    I acknowledge key figures contributing to the movement for Scottish self-governance. FM Truss has already earned her place.
    PM
    FM/PM

    Approx ratio 80:20
  • RandallFlaggRandallFlagg Posts: 1,151

    Never had @stodge down as a troll.

    You live and learn.

    I see from your avatar that you’ve officially anointed the new leader of the English.
    I acknowledge key figures contributing to the movement for Scottish self-governance. FM Truss has already earned her place.
    As I said, hardcore Scottish Nationalists much prefer the Tories to Labour. The prospect of a Labour government maintains support for the union, while the Tories are just useful idiots.
  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Never had @stodge down as a troll.

    You live and learn.

    I see from your avatar that you’ve officially anointed the new leader of the English.
    I acknowledge key figures contributing to the movement for Scottish self-governance. FM Truss has already earned her place.
    The opposite, she has made clear she will never allow indyref2 on her watch as PM
    I think someone ought to sit down with you and explain we have got the message, that you think the Tories would never allow indyref under the current or likely next incumbent. Why don't you post on somethijng more novel such as the engineering design and merits thereof of Warship diesel-electrics?
    Franco is a one-trick pony.
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    Leon said:

    Alistair said:

    Leon said:

    Alistair said:

    Hands up who thinks what3words is better than a postal address for locating a house?

    Jesus Christ. Me. Because it is
    Wrong.

    Due to things like earthquakes and continental drift the what3word square of people's homes has already shifted in just a few years.

    There's a reason we don't use GPS coordinates over semantically meaningful names already.
    OK. Reason number 6 that What3Words is useless

    BECAUSE CONTINENTAL DRIFT IS MOVING THE WORLD
    Yes, it is indeed a well known and longstanding problem for GPS based addressing systems (what3words is a GPS based addressing system)

    If what3words were offering a solution then that would be super novel and cool.

    They aren't.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,138

    stodge said:

    EPG said:

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Vaguely on topic - I don't discount a Conservative-SNP coalition after the next election.

    Before all the partisans on both sides start venting - this is politics, remember. Do the SNP really think they can force Starmer to offer them an independence referendum as a condition for their support? Let's assume they can - the problem for the SNP is it's a risk - what happens if they lose again? What happens if they win?

    Here's an alternative scenario - the SNP offer a minority Conservative administration at Westminster but the quid pro quo is further and extended devolution - what could be called IINO - Independence In Name Only. Everything up to Independence without actual Independence - complete and unrestricted tax-raising powers for Holyrood, autonomy on all matters and a guarantee from the Conservatives the money will keep on flowing (essentially it's the deal the DUP got from May).

    The Conservatives get to govern the UK and keep the integrity of the Union while the SNP get all the benefits of running their own country without any of the actual problems or issues.

    Starmer has the same problem as Sturgeon - what happens if the Independence vote passes? What happens if it doesn't?

    I think it would revive SLAB and guarantee a unionist majority in Holyrood forever. Even worse than losing a referendum - giving up the moral claim to have one.
    "Moral claim" - I have no clue what that means, in politics it means absolutely nothing. Let's not forget - the defeat in 2014 didn't break the power of the SNP - it enhanced it. What will the political impact of a referendum victory - whither (or indeed wither) the SNP? UKIP achieved its purpose and ceased to exist - the SNP might do the same.

    Conversely, losing again will politically strengthen the SNP but it's dominant now so why rock the boat? As I've argued on here, the status quo suits all sides.

    IF we get a Hung Parliament, Sturgeon will go into any negotiations with (presumably) Truss and Starmer publicly arguing for another referendum but privately, I think, her support will be contingent on what Holyrood can get in terms of money and power.

    Let me put Davey in Sturgeon's place. IF the LDs do well enough to be the kingmakers again, Davey may well want STV for all elections without a referendum but he knows he won't get it. Sturgeon knows she doesn't need promises of a referendum to get what she wants in terms of governing.
    If there's a referendum on the back of a Tory-SNP deal, No will win by an landslide and the SNP will get dumped out of office by SLAB at the following Scottish Parliament elections. Much of the reason SLAB collapsed to begin with was because 'Labour got into bed with the Tories' in 2014.
    If Sturgeon signals she'd be willing to a deal with the Tories if Labour won't, then I think they'll just tell her to go ahead and do it if she dare. Labour would win a landslide at the next general election (while recovering both in Scotland and in the Red Wall), so it works out really nicely for them.
    Er, you're completely forgetting the Scottish Greens. Markedly larger than the LDs and a very likely repository for dissatisfied pro-indy votes. Slab are very firmly Unionist, anyway. And the next Holyrood election would be along soon, anyway.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614
    edited August 2022
    HYUFD said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Where on earth is Starmer ?

    Still on holiday. Doing an interview on Saturday IIRC.
    Drakeford and Sturgeon the only ones at work.
    Sturgeon was at the Edinburgh Festival today being interviewed by Iain Dale. Bit of a stretch to call that 'work'
    https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1557385735443021829?s=20&t=W1smPvsmtX36UvtHdiRk5w
    Serious political discourse at a massive capital city civic event, at a time when parliament is not sitting anyway, is not "work" for the FM?

    OK
    Going off to a festival to chat, probably for a fee rather than being in the office or doing an official visit or meeting does not count as work no
    The FM is allowed to receive a fee for an interview?

    Presumably, if that were the case, it would need to be declared somewhere?

    I’d have assumed that Dale was getting the ‘gate’ for his interviews in Edinburgh, otherwise why would he be there?
  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    IshmaelZ said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Where on earth is Starmer ?

    Still on holiday. Doing an interview on Saturday IIRC.
    Drakeford and Sturgeon the only ones at work.
    Sturgeon was at the Edinburgh Festival today being interviewed by Iain Dale. Bit of a stretch to call that 'work'
    https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1557385735443021829?s=20&t=W1smPvsmtX36UvtHdiRk5w
    Serious political discourse at a massive capital city civic event, at a time when parliament is not sitting anyway, is not "work" for the FM?

    OK
    FUDHY thinks that copying and pasting bollocks on an obscure blog is a noble métier.
  • I bet she also puts pineapples on her pizza.

    Important news: woman opposite me on the train has just poured a pack of Maltesers into a full packet of salt and vinegar Discos.

    M/F


    https://twitter.com/jimconey/status/1557428068771307522

    I'll never get his out of my mind. Prepare for a letter from my lawyers

    https://twitter.com/stephenpollard/status/1557428528366362630
  • boulayboulay Posts: 3,773
    edited August 2022
    pm215 said:

    boulay said:


    I’m not a Post office techie or anything but surely there is scope that the Post Office or similar licence it and use it along with addresses for more accurate sorting than postcodes.

    If the scanning machines just have to read the three words to sort then the Postie picks up his bag of post for houses in this.argument’s.stale and reads the addresses on his round.

    It’s just increasing accuracy and parcelling up (pun not intended) of post for specific areas.

    Little improvements can end up making big differences.

    The Post Office already have a code system designed to work for their use case -- it's the post code. If they wanted improved efficiency or narrower addressing accuracy they could easily extend it (eg optional extra letter on the end). Half the issues with post codes are because everybody *else* uses them, not because of what the Post Office does with them.

    "3m square" is massively over-precise for addressing post, and "nearby areas are totally unrelated codes" is a disadvantage if you're trying to make it easy to sort for a single post round (obviously machines don't care, but humans end up looking at these things too from time to time).

    Fair enough - I’m sure in some way a more accurate system could and probably will be used, just as everyone stops sending letters, but my quick and unthought out point was that a lot of these small things ,which people deride as pointless initially, sometimes end up being applied to an existing situation and improving it massively.

    Tiny changes in factory equipment that people say “don’t need that, there’s a human watching the line” and then they find that the scanner that detects the bad nuts and arranges a jet of air to blow it off the line.

    It can work in hand with other things - we didn’t get rid of texts when WhatsApp arrived etc - people use different things for different things.

    Leon can use bring.a.bottle to identify his party location.

    Carnyx can use other systems to get Prince William to swoop down in a helicopter to rescue him.

    Everyone’s happy.

    Edit - sorry, it might not have been Carnyx using it for mountain trekking - maybe Eabhal?
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 49,958
    Special Kherson Cat on twitter reporting from his sources on the Russian losses yesterday: bit more than ten!

    "7m
    One of the largest 🇺🇦 telegram media, referring to its internal sources, writes about such 🇷🇺 losses at Saky airport in Crimea. https://t.me/UAonlii/34939

    📍8 SU-27
    📍6 Mi-8,
    📍5 SU-24
    📍4 SU-30M
    📍1 ІL-20RT
    📍4 ammunition depots"

    https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1557429484080570368?cxt=HHwWgIC9laf3jJ0rAAAA
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,237
    edited August 2022
    Alistair said:

    Leon said:

    Alistair said:

    Leon said:

    Alistair said:

    Hands up who thinks what3words is better than a postal address for locating a house?

    Jesus Christ. Me. Because it is
    Wrong.

    Due to things like earthquakes and continental drift the what3word square of people's homes has already shifted in just a few years.

    There's a reason we don't use GPS coordinates over semantically meaningful names already.
    OK. Reason number 6 that What3Words is useless

    BECAUSE CONTINENTAL DRIFT IS MOVING THE WORLD
    Yes, it is indeed a well known and longstanding problem for GPS based addressing systems (what3words is a GPS based addressing system)

    If what3words were offering a solution then that would be super novel and cool.

    They aren't.
    I can’t believe we’re all relying on GPS to get around, given that the continents are literally whizzing about the place, rendering GPS useless
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Alistair said:

    Leon said:

    Alistair said:

    Leon said:

    Alistair said:

    Hands up who thinks what3words is better than a postal address for locating a house?

    Jesus Christ. Me. Because it is
    Wrong.

    Due to things like earthquakes and continental drift the what3word square of people's homes has already shifted in just a few years.

    There's a reason we don't use GPS coordinates over semantically meaningful names already.
    OK. Reason number 6 that What3Words is useless

    BECAUSE CONTINENTAL DRIFT IS MOVING THE WORLD
    Yes, it is indeed a well known and longstanding problem for GPS based addressing systems (what3words is a GPS based addressing system)

    If what3words were offering a solution then that would be super novel and cool.

    They aren't.
    OK, in your own time:

    please estimate to the nearest millennium

    1. how long it will take for the w3w for the front door of 23 Railway Cuttings to refer to the front door of 21 or 25 RC, assuming an orientation of RC which minimises the length of this time;

    2. how many further millennia will be required before the confusion potentially caused afte the period in the answer to 1. above is not resolved by marking 21, 23 and 25 as 21, 23 and 25 respectively?

    In your own time.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,138
    boulay said:

    pm215 said:

    boulay said:


    I’m not a Post office techie or anything but surely there is scope that the Post Office or similar licence it and use it along with addresses for more accurate sorting than postcodes.

    If the scanning machines just have to read the three words to sort then the Postie picks up his bag of post for houses in this.argument’s.stale and reads the addresses on his round.

    It’s just increasing accuracy and parcelling up (pun not intended) of post for specific areas.

    Little improvements can end up making big differences.

    The Post Office already have a code system designed to work for their use case -- it's the post code. If they wanted improved efficiency or narrower addressing accuracy they could easily extend it (eg optional extra letter on the end). Half the issues with post codes are because everybody *else* uses them, not because of what the Post Office does with them.

    "3m square" is massively over-precise for addressing post, and "nearby areas are totally unrelated codes" is a disadvantage if you're trying to make it easy to sort for a single post round (obviously machines don't care, but humans end up looking at these things too from time to time).

    Fair enough - I’m sure in some way a more accurate system could and probably will be used, just as everyone stops sending letters, but my quick and unthought out point was that a lot of these small things ,which people deride as pointless initially, sometimes end up being applied to an existing situation and improving it massively.

    Tiny changes in factory equipment that people say “don’t need that, there’s a human watching the line” and then they find that the scanner that detects the bad nuts and arranges a jet of air to blow it off the line.

    It can work in hand with other things - we didn’t get rid of texts when WhatsApp arrived etc - people use different things for different things.

    Leon can use bring.a.bottle to identify his party location.

    Carnyx can use other systems to get Prince William to swoop down in a helicopter to rescue him.

    Everyone’s happy.

    Edit - sorry, it might not have been Carnyx using it for mountain trekking - maybe Eabhal?
    No, I was indeed concerned about relying solely on it. But the discussion has been illuminating.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,613

    Sandpit said:

    Uber has burned through a quite astonishing $26bn of cash in the past few years.
    https://moneytransfers.com/news/content/ubers-cumulative-losses-since-2014-are-approaching-26b

    That’s the best-case scenario, using all the accounting tricks in the book.

    The only people buying and selling are the retail investors (you and I), the institutional investors and VCs can’t bear to have to crystallise their losses.

    How on earth has Uber spent $26 billion? It's an app that runs a minicab office, scaled up a bit.
    By running the Minicabs at a loss so that they were cheapest to get everyone using them. The oldest gag in the minivan game.

    Then when they got Full Self Driving* working, they dump the drivers, keep the prices and make infinite profit.

    *Yes, LOL
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,138
    edited August 2022

    I bet she also puts pineapples on her pizza.

    Important news: woman opposite me on the train has just poured a pack of Maltesers into a full packet of salt and vinegar Discos.

    M/F


    https://twitter.com/jimconey/status/1557428068771307522

    I'll never get his out of my mind. Prepare for a letter from my lawyers

    https://twitter.com/stephenpollard/status/1557428528366362630

    Presumably a cheapo version of this:

    https://www.lindt.co.uk/lindt-excellence-dark-sea-salt-bar-100g
This discussion has been closed.