The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Re:The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine by theoh on Monday October 06, 2014 @10:03AM (#8415872)

Better to avoid the gripe... GPS satellites are not in fixed locations, and triangulation is not used to determine position (it is calculated based on time of flight to 4+ satellites.)

Sadly the ship has sailed on the use of GPS as a metaphor for "internal map". Since people don't know how it works there seems to be no possibility of correcting this trend. Another example is in the endorsement for this book: http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Just-Freedom/

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Re:The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine by bl on Monday October 06, 2014 @12:51PM (#8416855)

Drat! I committed an error similar to the one I was griping against: being technically sloppy.

Believe it or not, I paused for half a heartbeat while typing fixed and triangulation while I was typing and thought to myself "Should I go double-check this on some hard-to-access reference, say Wikipedia? Nah. Better blurt this out before I head out the door for the day".

I ought to be careful how I phrase my gripes so that they convey my intention: keeping discussions accurate about subjects which I know a bit. Poor metaphors seem to aggravate me more than most.

Thanks for setting me straight.

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