{"id":1840530,"date":"2025-05-11T17:19:56","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T21:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1840530"},"modified":"2025-05-11T17:19:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T21:19:58","slug":"adventures-in-unpreparedness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/05\/adventures-in-unpreparedness\/","title":{"rendered":"Adventures in Unpreparedness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two recent cautionary tales about the risks of going forth without proper navigational tools. First, I\u2019m a bit confused about this BBC News report<\/a>, which cites what3words as coming through when a boat broke down in the Channel Islands area: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

[The rescue service] said although the vessel had no working on board GPS and an inoperative VHS radio, crews were able to establish a position using the location app “what3words”. […]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coastguard said an operator was able to translate the vessel’s what3words location from a mobile phone into latitude and longitude.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Now hold on: if you\u2019re able to use what3words on a mobile phone to get a fix on your location, it\u2019s because your phone has a built-in GPS<\/em>, so it\u2019s not like they didn\u2019t have access to GPS. More likely is that they couldn\u2019t figure out how to get lat\/long coordinates to rescue services in any other way. (It\u2019s a long press on your location in either Apple Maps and Google Maps, but to be fair, that might not be obvious or easy to figure out for the first time in the middle of a crisis.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, an unprepared hiker without a map who got lost in New Hampshire will likely be billed for the cost of his rescue<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two recent cautionary tales about the risks of going forth without proper navigational tools. First, I\u2019m a bit confused about this BBC News report, which cites what3words as coming through when a boat broke down… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[254,752,342],"tags":[522,315,1515],"class_list":["post-1840530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-gps","category-navigation","category-sport-recreation","tag-hiking","tag-lost","tag-what3words","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1791196,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/06\/what3words-hasnt-had-the-greatest-couple-of-months-a-roundup\/","url_meta":{"origin":1840530,"position":0},"title":"What3Words Hasn\u2019t Had the Greatest Couple of Months: A Roundup","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"3 June 2021","format":"link","excerpt":"The proprietary geocoding system What3words, which assigns a three-word mapcode to each three-square-metre point on the planet, has been getting some grief lately. It\u2019s always been somewhat controversial because it\u2019s a closed system, and because of the steps What3words has taken to protect its proprietary database and algorithms: it\u2019s issued\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Web Mapping"","block_context":{"text":"Web Mapping","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/web-mapping\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1818301,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2023\/09\/what3words-confusion-rate-under-scrutiny\/","url_meta":{"origin":1840530,"position":1},"title":"What3Words Confusion Rate Under Scrutiny","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"5 September 2023","format":"link","excerpt":"The What3Words geocoding service assigns a three-word mapcode to every three-square-metre patch on the planet, the premise being that three words are easier to remember and share than longitude and latitude to the equivalent decimal places. But the main complaint about What3Words (apart from the proprietary nature of its algorithm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Map Errors"","block_context":{"text":"Map Errors","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/map-errors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2612,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/08\/mapping-the-rio-olympics\/","url_meta":{"origin":1840530,"position":2},"title":"Mapping the Rio Olympics","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"11 August 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"Fiasco Design's Rio 2016 Interactive Map (screencap above) is a cheeky game-style enviroment that mixes Olympic venues with local controversies. This Esri Story Map looks at the Olympic venues in detail. [Glenn Letham] What3words, a company that assigns a three-word mapcode to every location in the world\u2014useful in places like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sport & Recreation"","block_context":{"text":"Sport & Recreation","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/sport-recreation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"rio-interactive-screenshot","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/rio-interactive-screenshot-1024x552.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/rio-interactive-screenshot-1024x552.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/rio-interactive-screenshot-1024x552.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/rio-interactive-screenshot-1024x552.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1788035,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/11\/gps-units-still-a-thing\/","url_meta":{"origin":1840530,"position":3},"title":"GPS Units: Still a Thing","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"4 November 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"Wirecutter\u2019s Medea Giordano argues that even in the age of smartphones with built-in map apps, there\u2019s still a place in your car for a dedicated GPS device: \u201cthere are cases when a phone just doesn\u2019t cut it\u2014say, in rural areas where coverage is questionable, or if you simply don\u2019t want\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GPS"","block_context":{"text":"GPS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1806660,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/04\/clock-and-compass\/","url_meta":{"origin":1840530,"position":4},"title":"Review: Clock and Compass","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"12 April 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Mark Monmonier\u2019s latest book, Clock and Compass: How John Byron Plato Gave Farmers a Real Address\u2014out today from the University of Iowa Press\u2014is a spinoff of sorts. This relatively slim volume does a deep dive on one of the inventions featured in his previous book, Patents and Cartographic Inventions: the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Book Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/book-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Book cover: Clock and Compass","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/clock-and-compass-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1809201,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/09\/india-pushing-phone-makers-to-adopt-navic\/","url_meta":{"origin":1840530,"position":5},"title":"India Pushing Phone Makers to Adopt NavIC","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"27 September 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"Reuters reports that the Indian government is pushing mobile phone makers to include support for NavIC, the Indian-government owned satellite navigation system. (At the moment NavIC provides regional coverage from a seven-satellite constellation, but the plan is for 24-satellite global coverage.) Phone makers are resisting the request, citing the additional\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GPS"","block_context":{"text":"GPS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1840530"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1840534,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840530\/revisions\/1840534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1840530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1840530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1840530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}