My GPS software pegs you about 6 miles off the coast of Oakville in Lake Ontario? Do you live on a boat ;)
TB ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2002 8:06 PM Subject: [REBOL] Re: Serial Communications - GPS Sings! > Dear Steve, > > Yes it's Jim. > I am in Canada, just west of Toronto. > Somewhere near N43 39.015 W79 53.247 according to My Garmin > Not exactly your neighbourhood, but close enough in global terms. > I have a Garmin II+ by the way. Super reliable machine even after it > drops off your car roof at 60mph. > I basically have this interest in putting this technology to some higher > use beyond the single user concept that an un-networked gps traps us in. > Essentially, I would like to see the evolution of a "resource discovery" > mechanism tied to location. > In real terms I would expect people to take their antiquated phone > directories and maps to the recycling depot and forget they existed. In > their place we would have a location aware system that could be > interrogated for specific resources based upon user input. The emphasis > is on the individual controlling his "view" based upon his needs and or > preferences. > Imagine that we have thematic data layers that have a geographic > location component. Without limiting my description you could have all > manner of things whether they are stores, restaurants, gas stations, > recreation areas, etc. Beyond that you would have other elements that > have a limited temporal existence. These could be seasonal sports > venues, parks, garage sales, virtual car lots, auctions, specific movies > and theatrical presentations, etc. You get the idea? "Data" would have > a lifespan and a geographical sphere of influence. In this context > "data" would become invisible beyond the temporal as well as geographic > extent of these elements. The data would be distributed based upon > geography. Servers would have an index of active themes so that they > could resolve requests with a nul response or the results of a search. > > So we would have these imaginary users either stationary or mobile > creating these geographic "clouds" around themselves that contain their > needs and or requests. A fixed location user may have an interst in > antique cars and anti-globalization rallies within 100 miles of his > defined location (home perhaps). So he creates his cloud and populates > it with his preferences and fowards it to the server which then decides > that this is a low frequency request and processes it accordingly. On > the other hand we have Billy Bob who knows that Valentines Day is coming > and his wife who is a large lady likes bon bons and lingerie. So Billy > Bob turns on his gps enabled wireles PDA and builds his cloud and makes > it active for the period while he is driving home. The server sees that > Billy Bob is moving and processes his request based upon his ground > speed and direction in real time to build a reciprocal response that > lists confectioners and lingerie stores for big girls along his path. > > Naturally there are many ways to organize the data. I was leaning > towards the concept of interleaving the longitude and lattitude and > storing the elements in that order. The data would have a nested raster > layout that could be examined by traversing the data along the boundries > of the cells formed by lat/long pairs at various resolutions. Where no > date exists there is no expense in storage as well as the data being > self organizing. I am familiar with other methods of structuring the > data, including Voronoi indexes and whatnot but this seems to be a quick > and dirty solution, not to mention the fact that "Terra Server" uses > this method. > > > Well that is a crude and general view of what interests me and why I am > hovering around Rebol as a solution. On a phylisophical level I would > like to see a more rational use of the resources that exit in the "wild" > and encourage the public at large to drive less to find what it is that > they really need. Searching for things on a scale of 1:1 with a car in > traffic is not my idea of a progressive future. By giving people a birds > eye view of the world with 20:20 vision would in my estimation turn the > whole concept of premium road front property on its' ear and with luck > make billboards and vulgar displays of road signage obsolete. I keep > wishing... > > > Sincerely, > > Jim > > -- > To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" in the > subject, without the quotes. > -- To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" in the subject, without the quotes.
