Superhub : GPS via Wi-Fi?

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

You're clearly very knowledgable about how Google Location Services works, but I have to strongly disagree. I don't think it's being pedantic. GPS and WiFi are completely unrelated technologies that have nothing to do with each other.

Saying you can get GPS via WiFi because anything that gets your location is a GPS is like saying you can stream Youtube from a DVD, because to some people, anything that plays videos is Youtube.

I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just pointing out that yes some people will (incorrectly) use one term to mean another. I still hear people saying they need to "tape" a show when they're using TiVo or similar. Or when they Hoover their house using a Dyson. And don't get me started on how CPU is sometimes interchanged with the entire PC. "My CPU has crashed!" is a phrase that makes me grit my teeth and I hear it on a weekly basis.

[JPAC]

Well yes, I did mean location but wrote GPS. The explanation about traffic reporting is interesting and explains why the traffic info is more detailed in the daytime rather than at night.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Kushan

I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just pointing out that yes some people will (incorrectly) use one term to mean another. I still hear people saying they need to "tape" a show when they're using TiVo or similar. Or when they Hoover their house using a Dyson. And don't get me started on how CPU is sometimes interchanged with the entire PC. "My CPU has crashed!" is a phrase that makes me grit my teeth and I hear it on a weekly basis.

To be fair, various dictionaries do acknowledge the verb 'to hoover' as meaning 'to clean with a vacuum cleaner' and 'CPU' as 'the key component of a computer system'. The top example on dictionary.com is in fact "The department secretary called our equipment guy to come install some software on my CPU." Though surprisingly 'to tape' is what I'd most expect to have been accepted as a 'genericised' term yet it's the only one that is not.

---------- Post added at 23:43 ---------- Previous post was at 23:43 ----------

Originally Posted by JPAC

Well yes, I did mean location but wrote GPS. The explanation about traffic reporting is interesting and explains why the traffic info is more detailed in the daytime rather than at night.

That, and the lack of actual... traffic... at night

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

To be fair, various dictionaries do acknowledge the verb 'to hoover' as meaning 'to clean with a vacuum cleaner' and 'CPU' as 'the key component of a computer system'. The top example on dictionary.com is in fact "The department secretary called our equipment guy to come install some software on my CPU." Though surprisingly 'to tape' is what I'd most expect to have been accepted as a 'genericised' term yet it's the only one that is not.

I suppose another good one is a "Film". We go to watch a Film that's actually on a Blu-ray CD rather than a film.

[qasdfdsaq]

Well, the OED thinks the term 'film' doesn't refer to the physical medium anyway:

c. A cinematographic representation of a story, drama, episode, event, etc.; a cinema performance; pl. the cinema, the ‘pictures’, the movies.

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Well, the OED thinks the term 'film' doesn't refer to the physical medium anyway:

No?

b. Photogr. A thin pellicle or coating of collodion, gelatin, etc. spread on photographic paper or plates, or used by itself instead of a plate. Now esp. a thin, flexible, transparent material consisting essentially of a plastic base or support (formerly of celluloid, now commonly of cellulose acetate) coated on one side with one or more layers of emulsion and sold as a rolled strip and as separate sheets; also, a single roll of this material, allowing a small number of exposures for use in still photography or a large number for use in cinematography.

[qasdfdsaq]

Read what I quoted. People don't go to the cinema to watch a thin pellicle or coating of collodion.

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Read what I quoted. People don't go to the cinema to watch a thin pellicle or coating of collodion.

Well if we're being pedantic, then yes, yes they do. Sure these days it's mostly digital, but 35mm film is still incredibly common and is obviously where the term "To watch a film" comes from.

And that's the sum of all that I'm saying, as technology changes and evolves, we have a tendency to keep using the older terms because that's what we're familiar with. Language is supposed to evolve so it's really not a huge surprise that someone has used "GPS" to mean "location" rather than the satellite system. Hell, people will be using GPS when they're actually using GLONASS or similar - in fact, there's a reasonable chance that the screenshot above is from a device that has GLONASS support.

[qasdfdsaq]

See to me there's a key difference. 'Film' was generic to begin with, referring to an entire class of technology, not one specific type of film. 'GPS' refers to one specific constellation of positioning satellites operated by one specific entity - the US government.

Since 'Film' refers to a technology in general, not a specific instance of it, the real equivalent would be 'watching a Kodak 7248 EXR 100T' or 'going to see a Technicolor process 4'

The equivalent usage of 'film' as a generic technology with regard to location would be 'satellite positioning' not 'GPS'. Kodachrome, Technicolor, Polaroid, are all types of film. GLONASS, Galileo, and GPS are all types of satellite positioning system. They are not all types of 'GPS' just like 35mm, medium format, and Super 8 are not all types of 'Polaroid'. If/when some authoritative English dictionary redefines the term as such, I'll put up and shut up, until then, it's just plain wrong.

And yes it bugs me just as much when someone refers to any type of portable music player as an 'iPod'.

[Hom3r]

Wi-Fi will give your location (my android devices do.) but this is only as accurate to within the maximum range of the Wi-Fi, GPS will then use that to get a fix quicker.

Oh yeah I worked for a company that made Mil Spec GPS.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Hom3r

this is only as accurate to within the maximum range of the Wi-Fi

Incorrect as usual. Perhaps you meant it is only accurate as long as there is WiFi in range.

The accuracy of WiFi based positioning many times better than the maximum range of WiFi.

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

See to me there's a key difference. 'Film' was generic to begin with, referring to an entire class of technology, not one specific type of film. 'GPS' refers to one specific constellation of positioning satellites operated by one specific entity - the US government.

Since 'Film' refers to a technology in general, not a specific instance of it, the real equivalent would be 'watching a Kodak 7248 EXR 100T' or 'going to see a Technicolor process 4'

The equivalent usage of 'film' as a generic technology with regard to location would be 'satellite positioning' not 'GPS'. Kodachrome, Technicolor, Polaroid, are all types of film. GLONASS, Galileo, and GPS are all types of satellite positioning system. They are not all types of 'GPS' just like 35mm, medium format, and Super 8 are not all types of 'Polaroid'. If/when some authoritative English dictionary redefines the term as such, I'll put up and shut up, until then, it's just plain wrong.

And yes it bugs me just as much when someone refers to any type of portable music player as an 'iPod'.

It doesn't really matter that a term was generic to begin with or not. The point is that usage ultimately dictates the true meaning of that term, regardless of it's true original meaning (generic or not). If enough people decide to use "GPS" as a generic term for any location providing service, then that's what GPS will mean, despite its historical significance as the US owned satellite system. I agree that GLONASS is not a type of GPS, in the literal sense, but even today a lot of people will use the term interchangeably to mean any satellite location system and some people will use "GPS" to mean any kind of location system, satellite or not. Right now you're correct in what you're saying, I don't think anyone is disagreeing with that, but give it a couple of years and who knows.

At one point, film referred specifically to the medium that pictures were recorded on but we now use it to mean Movie, bet it on 35mm film, a disk or streamed.

[qasdfdsaq]

I think we'll agree to disagree on this one. Yes, language does evolve as people use it in new ways but not all changes are good. Just cause there are entire classes of 17 year-old school kids these days that use 'your' in place of 'you're' doesn't mean we should just accept the terms to be interchangeable unopposed.

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

. Just cause there are entire classes of 17 year-old school kids these days that use 'your' in place of 'you're' doesn't mean we should just accept the terms to be interchangeable unopposed.

Ugh. I literally can't even.