“For the first time in history, more people die today from eating too much than from eating too little.”
Yuval Noah Harari
(in Homo Deus)
Local Guide Best Practice: Get rid of legal names
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[This is one of a series of articles originally published on Local Guides Connect]
Google Maps has been around much longer than there have been local guides, so I think it safe to assume that most of the points of interest (POI) did not appear on the map because a local guide added it. My best guess is that there has been some kind of original import to populate the map with POIs. And it would then make sense that, for a lot of countries, this was an import of databases coming from official government or chamber of commerce listings.
That would explain the fact that so many businesses are listed on the map with a name that looks like it comes from such a database. One clue pointing in this direction is the addition of legal terms as part of the business name: ‘LLC’ in English, ‘GmbH’ in German, etc. The format of the name can be another telltale sign, which is something you typically Continue reading
Quote of the day #116
“The strength of a movement lies in her ability to articulate a positive cause. Agreeing on what you are opposed to is the easy part.”
Alain Badiou
Song of the day: AIR – All I Need
If Versailles makes you think of Louis XIV and nothing else, let me introduce you to AIR, a French band from that very city near Paris. They have released quite a few albums since the late 90’s, but my favorite is still their debut album Moon Safari, which also contains All I Need.
Should you decide to check out other songs by AIR, make sure to also catch Playground Love, from the soundtrack of Sofia Copolla’s film debut The Virgin Suicides.
Quote of the day #115
“Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned, and the last fish has been caught will we finally realize we cannot eat money.”
Cree Proverb
How badly targeted “personalized” ads can be
Picture by geralt on Pixabay
One of the main reasons – and quite possibly thé main reason – why the big platform players, such as Facebook, Google and Amazon are collecting data by the bucket load on everyone (obviously including you, dear reader) using their platforms, product and services is the belief that this enables them to serve “better” a.k.a. “more personalized” ads, and thereby deliver you a better user experience.
An important element during this data collection effort is keeping track of all the websites you have visited, the underlying logic being “if you have visited that website, it is very likely that you Continue reading
Quote of the day #114
“We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.”
Roy Amara
Local Guide Best Practice: Attempts to add bus stop or train station
Picture by AndyLeungHK on Pixabay
[This is one of a series of articles originally published on Local Guides Connect]
Did you ever try to add a bus stop to Google Maps? Or suggest an edit to an existing train station? If so, here is my prediction for what happened to your submission: it was ‘Pending’ for a while, and then later on was labeled ‘Not applied’. Correct, isn’t it? Well, in fact that wasn’t very hard to predict, as local guides are simply not allowed to Continue reading
Quote of the day #113
“Life is too short to be normal. Stay weird.”
Unknown
Song of the day: Aztec Camera – Walk Out To Winter
Should you stumble, somewhere in the deep, dark crevices of your cupboard, upon a can labeled Legendary 80’s Tracks, and decide to open it, it’s nearly impossible that it would not contain this Walk Out to Winter by Aztec Camera, a Scottish band which was modestly successful in that particular decade.
This song is one of the seldom cases where the extended version (referred to at the time as the maxi-single) not only meant twice the amount of minutes, but also extended quality and enjoyment for the audience – so, if you don’t like it right away (which would utterly surprise me) please put up with the 4 minute intro and stick around for the gorgeous guitar solo that starts around 5:43.
