Categories: uncategorized
Date: 28 May 2008 22:39:58
The problem with facebook isn't the fact of it's ludicrous product placement, nor is it the result of the way in which it turns an abstract concept such as stalking into a commodity item. It's that it's so damn easy to waste time playing Scrabble against people several time zones away.
With this in mind I firmly intend to blog more often than I do, about anything and everything that passes through my curiousity duct and into my quizzical gland.
Recently I came across two concepts in the space of a week that illustrate the vast power of GPS (global positioning systems). The first of these is Geohashing:
http://irc.peeron.com/xkcd/map/
The concept is this - find your location on the map provided (you can be anywhere in the world for it to work) and the randomising algorithm will provide you and anyone else in your geographical vicinity with a different goal everyday (expressed through a map reference). This means that you and all the people who use the web site in your locality can meet up, for example in a godforsaken location halfway up mount Snowden. It could be a great way to meet new friends whilst hiking.
The second concept I came across was locative art. Art that exists virtually but is tagged with GPS coordinates so that a properly equipped individual (with the aid of a head set) can view computer art overlaid across the real world in 3 Dimensions
see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLikgptMD98&feature=related
the latter forms a plot point of William Gibson's latest novel Spook Country which I might review in the near future.