There are few things that I would truly call awesome – the birth of a child, the wonders of nature, God, lasagne – but over the past week I've come across two more I think could make it onto the list.
I'd only just picked myself up off the floor after witnessing Shazam (the iPhone app that identifies almost any song just by "listening" to it), when along stomps Google Maps Street View in its size 12s to bundle me down again.
Street View is astounding, and absolutely unbelievable. Of course there's the usual handful of desperately cool killjoys scoffing and pretending they're unimpressed, but just ignore them because their hearts are cold and shriveled. And, look, let's deal with any murky privacy concerns another day. For now, let's simply marvel with a sense of childlike wonder at the magic being performed before our very eyes.
UPDATE
A legion mechanical eyes head out, up, down and over, recording, charting, cataloguing the streets and byways of this world, so that a million human eyes can scan through the results to find... funny stuff. And then more funny stuff. Well, what else could you possibly use this new technology for? Oh, what we humans are capable of. And oh, what we humans are capable of. :)
UPDATE 2
Um, in fairness I should probably warn you about "Ryan Germick, web specialist at Google," who features in the Street View introduction I've linked to above. Um, proceed with caution.
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Yes, the Street View killjoys need to be exposed. The great unwashed seem to be playing up the big brother aspect. Privacy concerns? Excepting those who dwell in those new-fangled enclaves, I'd reckon most of us are in houses that front... public roads! So I fail to account for the sins of those Google folk who have been travelling down... public roads. And allowing us to view from same. Onya Google!
ReplyDeleteYou do realise, don't you, that some of the most famous and important streets in Melbourne - the ones where we grew up on - have been excluded from Google View?
ReplyDeleteWho knew that we grew up around celebrities? Or maybe the hilly terrain of Templestowe defeated the intrepid Google explorers.
I confidently predict that were I - to take an extreme case - to drive slowly along "public roads" while wearing black clothing and with a toolbox visible on the front seat, the police would not be sympathetic.
ReplyDeleteThey would remain unsympathetic even if I pointed out that the roads were public, and that black clothing, gloves, balaclavas and toolboxes were all perfectly legal items to possess.
This is because public roads are public to enable people to travel along them; not to allow them to case houses for burglary.
More generally, the fact that data is public does not mean that absolutely any use of said data is acceptable. A very disturbing website (hosted offshore and currently the target of legal action by Telstra to shut it down) illustrates this principle, and makes me very glad that one of my phone numbers is unlisted, and that the other is still listed at a very old address.
Murt, I think the main concern is that now thanks to Google you can scout down those public roads unseen. Sure, the images aren't real-time, so it's not like you can really stalk someone, but it does provide a layer of anonymity to any possible snooping that wasn't there before.
ReplyDeleteAnd who knows where it might all lead, but I'll tell you what I think the killer app is at the moment: house-hunting! No longer are you constrained by the edges of the estate agent's hero shot on their website! Now you can spin around to see what's across the street (a crackhouse?!) or exactly how close the train actually is (so close you won't even notice it's there). You don't need to drive there to get a feel for what the rest of the street/neighbourhood is like.
"...some of the most famous and important streets in Melbourne ... have been excluded..."
ReplyDeleteI know! I couldn't believe it, and I couldn't understand why. Especially my street which you could whip round in a minute and be back on track in no time at all. You wouldn't even need to turn the car around. Maybe... no, I actually can't think of a reason!
"Who knew that we grew up around celebrities?"
Was Carmen Chan a celebrity? I guess so. And that underworld guy who lived in Elvallie. Didn't all the big wigs live over by Serpell Road though?
"A very disturbing website..."
Oh... wow! That's an interesting one. Um, go Telstra! Do you know who it's run by and to what end?