407: Cheap GPS
| Cheap GPS |
 Title text: In lieu of mapping software, I once wrote a Perl program which, given a USB GPS receiver and a destination, printed 'LEFT' 'RIGHT' OR 'STRAIGHT' based on my heading. |
Explanation
GPS is a satellite navigation system used to determine the location of a receiver based on its distance from at least three satellites, theoretical, in practice the receiver requests more satellites for calculating an accurate result. While the system was invented by the U.S. military it is now common used in planes, ships, or cars to provide the current location and the directions to a specified location.
Cueball just has a "cheap GPS", which is only capable of telling him whether or not he is on the correct path using a cold to hot scale. "Hot and Cold" refers to many child games, "Hot" is a correct direction, "Cold" is just wrong.
The series of instructions spoken ("cold", "warm", "hot", then "cold" again) suggests that Cueball either missed a turn and his GPS receiver now has to find a new route, or that he just passed his destination.
The title text describes a "cheap GPS" written in Perl, that only shows whether to turn left, right or not turn at all. A joke about many annoying phrases modern navigation systems do spell, still in bad computer languages.
Transcript
- [Cueball driving down the road, with a GPS reading "COLD".]
- GPS: COLD... WARM... HOT! COLD...
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In an inversion of Title-text, I did actually make a Perl script for Geohashing which (for a given target) gave a bearing and distance to target from the interogated GPS USB dongle's idea of my current location... But the bearing was absolute, with no way of determining which relative direction I (or at least the laptop/dongle) was facing. (I had decided that direction of travel could not be reliably worked out from the last pair or trio of locations, given that when it mattered most I was probably tramping quickly back and forth over moorland looking for some specific feature of vegetation or drainage matching up with the aerial photos). Examination of moss on stones or trees (or satellite TV dishes on houses, for the urban environment) was occasionally needed to narrow down orientation. Or approximating the old analogue watch-hands trick with the sun, in my head (having only the digital time). 178.107.249.215 00:13, 18 June 2013 (UTC)
Hey, look at this: https://xkcd.com/cyborg.txt 162.158.26.52 06:39, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
Hit the pot
Is the game Topfschlagen known outside Germany? There is only a German entry on wikipedia (as of today). For me this kind of game is actually also the first thing that came to mind. Usually besides hot/cold ("heiß", "warm"/"kalt") comparative forms of these adjectives are used to indicate the current direction: e.g. warmer ("wärmer") if the seeker currently gets closer to the goal. --Chtz (talk) 21:39, 15 July 2013 (UTC)
- I actually don't know, but this forum entry on the leo.org dictionary site confirms that the cold/hot scale is used in games in English, too, so I thought it was worth mentioning at least one of them. If someone knows another such game that is better known internationally, feel free to substitute that. --Das-g (talk) 20:48, 29 July 2013 (UTC)
- The concept comes up in various games, although I can't quite pinpoint exactly where it came from. My earliest memory of anything of that sort is an Easter egg hunt. --Quicksilver (talk) 04:29, 21 August 2013 (UTC)
First (only?) comic where the number is the date (407 = 4/07 = April 7th). Misterblue28 (talk) 15:59, 29 May 2018 (UTC)misterblue28
a bit unrelated but in a village in tenerife there's a sign that reads "caution: gps error! road isn't through this street!" An user who has no account yet (talk) 02:14, 6 September 2023 (UTC)
