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0 pointsmirimir7y ago0 comments

Ummm. That's what latitude and longitude are. Angles. Or equivalently, radians.

And what's magic about one meter? Latitude and longitude can be arbitrarily precise. But whatever. You want 40 million? Well, 360 degrees / 40 million ~ 10^-5. That's easily handled by "43.63872, -116.24135".

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notfed7y ago

Here's why you'd need three words:

- Circumference of earth = 40,075 km

- Granularity needed = 3 meters

- Number of common words in dictionary (generous) = 60,000

- Number of bits needed for single axis = log((40075 km)/(3 meters))/log(2) = 24 bits

- Number of bits needed for two axis = 48 bits

- Number of bits given by a single word = log(60000)/log(2) = 15.8

- Number of words required for two axis = ceil(48/15.8) = 3

Also, keep in mind, 60,000 words is generous; this many words would probably include lots of archaisms. For comparison, 1password uses 18,000 words in its dictionary. You could probably shave off some bits by getting rid of slices from the north/south poles. You might also save space by ignoring parts of the ocean, but then it starts getting non-trivial.

maxerickson7y ago

Yes, it seemed you were arguing those two numbers could easily be encoded using existing words.

If you want to make gibberish word like objects it's probably possible.

mirimirOP7y ago

But what's the point of that?

If they were always the same two (or three) words, fine.

But if there are multiple such encoding systems, any set of three words (foo.bar.baz) is ambiguous. Because it depends on the system being used.

So sure, someone might remember "foo.bar.baz". But "foo.bar.baz" in W3W might be in SF. But in Hanoi by some other system.

And then we get to the need to pay W3W to generate those codes. That's crazy bullshit.

NikkiA7y ago

TBF The maidenhead system (which is a worldwide standard) IS, IMO fairly easy to remember.

And because it's pairs are increasing in area, I can state that I live in IO93 and it narrows it to:

https://www.karhukoti.com/maidenhead-grid-square-locator/?gr...

or I could give the next 2 characters to narrow it to a 1km x 1km (roughly) area that covers my town, or the 2 letters and 2 numbers that give a small area that pinpoints 2-3 houses on my street.

It's not really any more complex or hard to remember than a standard postal code or zip code.

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maxerickson7y ago

Yes, W3W is stupid, but each address is a pointer to lots o bits.

mirimirOP7y ago

Words in one language are very often ~gibberish words in other languages. And worse, because of false homonyms. And people with heavy accents.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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notfed7y ago

Here's why you'd need three words:

- Circumference of earth = 40,075 km

- Granularity needed = 3 meters

- Number of common words in dictionary (generous) = 60,000

- Number of bits needed for single axis = log((40075 km)/(3 meters))/log(2) = 24 bits

- Number of bits needed for two axis = 48 bits

- Number of bits given by a single word = log(60000)/log(2) = 15.8

- Number of words required for two axis = ceil(48/15.8) = 3

maxerickson7y ago

Yes, it seemed you were arguing those two numbers could easily be encoded using existing words.

If you want to make gibberish word like objects it's probably possible.

mirimirOP7y ago

But what's the point of that?

If they were always the same two (or three) words, fine.

But if there are multiple such encoding systems, any set of three words (foo.bar.baz) is ambiguous. Because it depends on the system being used.

So sure, someone might remember "foo.bar.baz". But "foo.bar.baz" in W3W might be in SF. But in Hanoi by some other system.

And then we get to the need to pay W3W to generate those codes. That's crazy bullshit.

NikkiA7y ago

TBF The maidenhead system (which is a worldwide standard) IS, IMO fairly easy to remember.

And because it's pairs are increasing in area, I can state that I live in IO93 and it narrows it to:

https://www.karhukoti.com/maidenhead-grid-square-locator/?gr...

or I could give the next 2 characters to narrow it to a 1km x 1km (roughly) area that covers my town, or the 2 letters and 2 numbers that give a small area that pinpoints 2-3 houses on my street.

It's not really any more complex or hard to remember than a standard postal code or zip code.

1 more reply

maxerickson7y ago

Yes, W3W is stupid, but each address is a pointer to lots o bits.

mirimirOP7y ago

Words in one language are very often ~gibberish words in other languages. And worse, because of false homonyms. And people with heavy accents.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse