Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Marauders' Map for Muggles

Google Latitude, of which I was reminded because of a recent comment in one of my posts, is a remarkable piece of software that allows you to see where all your friends are. It assumes that you all have locational software on your phones (wireless or cell towers for rough estimates, GPS for more precise tagging). Then once you enable Google Latitude on your phones, and allow your friends to see your location, each one can see the others' location on a google map on your mobile. If you are on the move, your friends will see a little blue dot tracing your movements around the city or wherever else (exactly as in the marauders' map). If you find your friends are nearby, you could SMS them to meet you for a coffee at the nearest Starbucks, or in Chennai, the nearest Udipi restaurant!

As Mr Weasley often says, it's amazing how many things Muggles can do without magic :-)

Update: Some pedants, for such creatures, I regret to say, do exist, have pointed out that the marauders' map shows up all marauders whereas in Google Latitude, you have to allow the software and your friends to tag your position. You have the option of hiding your location. Indeed, I bow to superior wisdom -- Google Latitude is not quite the Marauders' Map. What would we do without these nitpickers....

10 comments:

Kapil Paranjape said...

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
-- Arthur C. Clarke

Rahul Basu said...

Yes, true but gps technology is even older than mobile communications. It's just that now it is becoming available to the general populace, so it can be used in innovative ways.

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vbalki said...

All in all, it's going to get extremely difficult for the coming generations (poor things) to resort to the good old strategem of LYING to cover up procrastination or inaction! "My phone was out of order" is no longer tenable. "I was in bed with a fever" is soon going to be impossible to maintain. And as the blue dot gets more precise, having somebody fob off unwelcome visitors at the door with "He's just gone in to shave and take a shower, it's going to take a while" will go the same way!

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AmOK said...

Oh Prolific One, is there a drought of ideas? Does the fountain not play, the pressure a astray?
Your Humble Servants (YHS) long at the drying Billa"Bong"....

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AmOK said...

我完全同意!