Why did Bobby construct a virtual wireframe container, as seen by Hollis inside the squid?

Dunno. Because he could? Because he didn't know what was in it, but he could make a virtual model of it, for contemplation's sake?

My impression was that it had been in that
location when he started to model that location
but was wireframe because it was no longer there.

Maybe he was trying to figure how many squid it could hold?

That's a damn good question.

I would attribute it to his OCD.

I'm thinking of Richard Dreyfuss with the potatoes in Close Encounters:

"This means something...."

This is an aspect of the book that I was disappointed with. I had expected the whole Locative Art angle to tie in with the plot a little more. As it ended up it was just a bit of cool info that was thrown in the book.

I was thinking it would have been a nice tie in if they had to use the VR headset tied in with Bobby's ability to track the container and his wireframe construct to identify the container among the thousands of other identical containers in the stack. But that never happened. I can't even remember now, how did they know which one was the correct container?

Easy: Bobby's "Chombo" software knew exactly where it was. That's all.

quote:

Originally posted by Justy:
Easy: Bobby's "Chombo" software knew exactly where it was. That's all.

You can pinpoint where it is using GPS software, but doing that, and actually physicly spotting the container are two different things. If I gave you the latitude and longitude of my car parked in a parkinglot and asked you to get ontop of a building across the street and point out my car to me, you'd have a hard time doing so with just that information. Even matching up a satelite image with the real 3d stack of containers would be difficult. Bobby would probably be good enough to be able to do it without any visual aids, but I don't recall him ever pointing the container out to them.

quote:

Originally posted by Clark Nova:
You can pinpoint where it is using GPS software, but doing that, and actually physicly spotting the container are two different things. If I gave you the latitude and longitude of my car parked in a parkinglot and asked you to get ontop of a building across the street and point out my car to me, you'd have a hard time doing so with just that information. Even matching up a satelite image with the real 3d stack of containers would be difficult. Bobby would probably be good enough to be able to do it without any visual aids, but I don't recall him ever pointing the container out to them.

Yes, but it is the obsessive, the artistic, the ntoioanl who would construct a wireframe around a Dutchman they had yet to collect. It would be an act of invocation, of subission and of manifestation. Bobby's art is not merely that of the locative, but the precise ability to LOCATE.

quote:

Yes, but it is the obsessive, the artistic, the ntoioanl who would construct a wireframe around a Dutchman they had yet to collect. It would be an act of invocation, of subission and of manifestation. Bobby's art is not merely that of the locative, but the precise ability to LOCATE.

This makes sense in the context of the story given to us by WG, I'm just stating my disappointment that there wasn't more of a connection with locative art, Bobby's virtual container, and finding the real container.

Maybe he was extrapolating from a real system, Skyloc, developed in Canada that works out what floor you are on as well as your location from triangulating between mobile phone towers. It's also mentioned in this week's "New Scientist" (8 September 2007).

Surely a wiregrid is what you write in software when you are in a hurry and have a limited number of data points anyway .... the pretty graphics of locative software come later, from artists with months of time on their hands...

quote:

Clark Nova sayeth: You can pinpoint where it is using GPS software, but doing that, and actually physicly spotting the container are two different things. If I gave you the latitude and longitude of my car parked in a parkinglot and asked you to get ontop of a building across the street and point out my car to me, you'd have a hard time doing so with just that information. Even matching up a satelite image with the real 3d stack of containers would be difficult. Bobby would probably be good enough to be able to do it without any visual aids, but I don't recall him ever pointing the container out to them.

Wonder if it was the only Turquoise container on the ship?
The Old Man and Gareth had pictures clear enough to select paint color for the magnets.

**edit**
Looks like Turquoise is a popular color for containers though

It is.




DSC009.jpg (145 Kb, 274 downloads)

quote:

Looks like Turquoise is a popular color for containers though

About 10% of shipping containers are turquoise 'round these parts. Dirty turquoise.

quote:

Originally posted by Clark Nova:

quote:

Originally posted by Justy:
Easy: Bobby's "Chombo" software knew exactly where it was. That's all.

You can pinpoint where it is using GPS software, but doing that, and actually physicly spotting the container are two different things. If I gave you the latitude and longitude of my car parked in a parkinglot and asked you to get ontop of a building across the street and point out my car to me, you'd have a hard time doing so with just that information. Even matching up a satelite image with the real 3d stack of containers would be difficult. Bobby would probably be good enough to be able to do it without any visual aids, but I don't recall him ever pointing the container out to them.

Duh. Easy. We know from a conversation between Gareth and the old man that they have all the markings from the container.

First, using those markings, and with greater ease than breaking the encrypted bursts from the container, you can determine the container's origins. Who used it first. And when you determine that, most of the time, you determine what color it is. So now they know it's turquoise, or once was. Given that it likely hasn't had a chance to be repainted, as doing so would require taking it out of circulation as a normal container, it's probably still turquoise.

Second, GPS digits would be more than enough to pinpoint the ship when it's in transit. Merchant vessels maintain quite a bit of distance between each other whenever they can, for safety reasons. So you're not going to be struggling to pick out which ship it is, even after it clears the Straits of Juan de Fuca.

Third, numerous agencies of the Canadian government keep tabs on merchant vessels on all paths approaching Van and other ports upriver. Lots of smuggling issues there. Contacts within those agencies could easily provide updates on the ship's location.

Fourth, every container ship maintains a "load plan." The load plan is a map, aboard the vessel, of where each and every container is in the stacks. The plan is most often used to allow the crew to remain aware of where containers bearing hazardous or flammable materials are on the vessel. It can also come into use when you hit the port and the cranes start pulling cans off. These plans are mostly digital now, even on the most primitive of container ships. It is quite conceivable that a contact within the destination port could contact the vessel and request a copy of the load plan, either for customs reasons or to plan the offload. We already know that Gareth and the old man have such a contact. So now they know where it is on the ship.

Fifth, the contact inside the port arranged for the container to land where it did in the port. So they would be told exactly where it was once it hit the stacks dockside.

Once you know the ship it's coming off, knowing where it is on the ship and in the port is the easiest part of the whole plot.

quote:

Fifth, the contact inside the port arranged for the container to land where it did in the port. So they would be told exactly where it was once it hit the stacks dockside.

Thank you, heartily, Splitcoil for that explanation. I liked the above quoted paragraph because it reminded me of Brown's shock that the container was even put in an observable position in the stack.

Yup, very nice, thanks for that explaination SC.

quote:

Originally posted by Splitcoil:

Duh. Easy. We know from a conversation between Gareth and the old man that they have all the markings from the container.

*snip*

Once you know the ship it's coming off, knowing where it is on the ship and in the port is the easiest part of the whole plot.

Ok, that satisfies my question as to how they pinpointed their container, thanks. I guess I didn't think on it enough and should have figured The Old Man would be resourceful enough to get all that information.

You're all welcome. I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but I have a little more knowledge on the matter than your average layman. Container shipping is one of the most thoroughly monitored and planned human activities. When you consider how much money is at stake, how much coordination is required, and the fact that you're dealing with international commerce necessitating a very direct interface between government and industry, it's a sure thing that lots of databases, tracking systems, and paperwork will be required.

Maybe it is just the way Bobby works, you know, because he can.

I once saw a guy modeling textures in a cave. He could have done the same on a normal workstation, and probably even faster, but then, he could do it with the cave. So he did, because it was kind of cool in a geeky way, and because he could.