On Being Location Aware

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I walk slowly, but I never walk backward. -Abraham Lincoln

There are any number of stories about people misusing technology, but the one I like the most is the missuses of GPS and being location aware. You can Google the misuse yourself, but you’ll find people driving off bridges, into glass cases and all manner of silliness as they follow the lovely mechanical voice and “turn here.” But GPS will change your life if used correctly, specifically being location aware will change your life. Make that, Google and location aware will change your life.

One of my favorites is Google MAPs. It has a Faux GPS (triangulation on 3 cell towers) have saved me from concert traffic. – I looked up the map and found a main street 2 blocks down no one was using.- and was home before my friends even made the highway. Any number of times i’ve just picked up my cell, called up the map and then scanned to a location and looked around, noting the various routes to and away. I don’t need to know what shop or restaurant is there, just what street helps me to escape.

But speaking of which, it’s good to know where your pictures are taken – marked by your GPS camera. Or for your kids, knowing where they are (screw privacy. I’d want to know where my kids are!). What about the ability (if you turn it on) to know where your friends are when you go to meet them? no more “i’m at the red taco stand, near the guy in the blue shirt.”

Technology also now is location aware. Many laptop programs will broadcast their IP address, but better yet, some are now using the extensive info in IP6 to broadcast their GPS location too. Cars have been doing it for years, but ONstar is the best at it at the moment. No getting lost there.

There are bad things with consumer GPs of course, like stalkers finding you and the governments looking for you, but the ability to turn these things off (with a code, after all, if someone stole your phone or laptop you want to know where it is). With a little extra thought, the bad things can be mitigated but at this point the benefits far outweigh the problem.

BTW, i see you.

OceansOfThought @ June 6, 2008