As more mobile phones tap into the Internet, people increasingly turn to them for location-centric services like getting directions and finding nearby restaurants. While Global Positioning System (GPS) technology provides excellent accuracy, only a fraction of phones have this capability. What's more, GPS coverage is spotty in dense urban environments, and in-phone receivers can be slow and drain a phone's battery.

To sidestep this problem, last week Google added a new feature, called My Location, to its Web-based mapping service. My Location collects information from the nearest cell-phone tower to estimate a person's location within a distance of about 1,000 meters. This resolution is obviously not sufficient for driving directions, but it can be fine for searching for a restaurant or a store. "A common use of Google Maps is to search nearby," says Steve Lee, product manager for Google Maps, who likened the approach to searching for something within an urban zip code, but without knowing that code. "In a new city, you might not know the zip code, or even if you know it, it takes time to enter it and then to zoom in and pan around the map."

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Please see the Google thread that is immediately below this one. LOL

Damn, and I even posted there.

This is a good example of what I mean between the difference in Sci Fi and Lit.

An article like this, about current technology would be like a sci-fi novel to my mind.

Whereas speaking about how ebing able to triangulate one's physical body at any giving time comprises a strange connectivity whcih belies and simulataneuosly confirms individual identity would be like literature.

Cory Doctorow would choose the former, Philip K. Dick would choose the latter.

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
This is a good example of what I mean between the difference in Sci Fi and Lit.

An article like this, about current technology would be like a sci-fi novel to my mind.

Whereas speaking about how ebing able to triangulate one's physical body at any giving time comprises a strange connectivity whcih belies and simulataneuosly confirms individual identity would be like literature.

Cory Doctorow would choose the former, Philip K. Dick would choose the latter.

I agree, but there are many SF followers who would argue that what you call SF is bad SF. Here is a question: is there bad LIT or, by definition, something is good if and only if it is LIT (in which case, there is no point in discussing, since one can redefine terms whichever one wants)?

quote:

Originally posted by psyclone:

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
This is a good example of what I mean between the difference in Sci Fi and Lit.

An article like this, about current technology would be like a sci-fi novel to my mind.

Whereas speaking about how ebing able to triangulate one's physical body at any giving time comprises a strange connectivity whcih belies and simulataneuosly confirms individual identity would be like literature.

Cory Doctorow would choose the former, Philip K. Dick would choose the latter.

I agree, but there are many SF followers who would argue that what you call SF is bad SF. Here is a question: is there bad LIT or, by definition, something is good if and only if it is LIT (in which case, there is no point in discussing, since one can redefine terms whichever one wants)?

Yes. Terrible, inexcusable lit would include Mitch Albom and Nicholas Sparks.

Bad lit might include Hermann Hesse whose "metaphysics" seem trite and over indulged. The same goes for Paul Coelho.

Passable lit would include, I've heard, Khaled Housseni, though he might also go under bad lit.

I'm drawing a blank for exaples right now, I don't know why.

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:

quote:

Originally posted by psyclone:

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
This is a good example of what I mean between the difference in Sci Fi and Lit.

An article like this, about current technology would be like a sci-fi novel to my mind.

Whereas speaking about how ebing able to triangulate one's physical body at any giving time comprises a strange connectivity whcih belies and simulataneuosly confirms individual identity would be like literature.

Cory Doctorow would choose the former, Philip K. Dick would choose the latter.

I agree, but there are many SF followers who would argue that what you call SF is bad SF. Here is a question: is there bad LIT or, by definition, something is good if and only if it is LIT (in which case, there is no point in discussing, since one can redefine terms whichever one wants)?

Yes. Terrible, inexcusable lit would include Mitch Albom and Nicholas Sparks.

Bad lit might include Hermann Hesse whose "metaphysics" seem trite and over indulged. The same goes for Paul Coelho.

Passable lit would include, I've heard, Khaled Housseni, though he might also go under bad lit.

I'm drawing a blank for exaples right now, I don't know why.

No problem, I draw blanks all the time.
Tommaso Landolfi , one of my favorite Italian authors, used to say that literature begins where literature ends (implying a different meaning for the two instances of the term).

That Autumn Story sounds interesting.

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
That Autumn Story sounds interesting.

I really like Autumn Story. In terms of prose, I find that English translations don't convey some of the subtleties. He intentionally used many archaic Italian words to try to avoid cheap associations and distortions that overused words are subject to, and to generate in the reader a feeling that this is a timeless story. But this is probably the case for every translation of good literature.

"Litost is an untranslatable Czech word. Its first syllable, which is long and stressed, sounds like the wail of an abandoned dog. As for the meaning of this word, I have looked in vain in other languages for an equivalent, though I find it difficult to imagine how anyone can understand the human soul without it."
- Milan Kundera, The Book Of Laughter And Forgetting

Litost is a state of torment brought upon by the realization of one's inadequacy or misery.

Thales develops Indoor Positioning System based on UWB.