[thechat] Windows Phone Dialer help required

[Bob Davis]

At 8:02 PM +0100 9/20/02, Martin Burns wrote:
>
>(who's wondering why, with a broadband cable connection and a mobile, he
>has a land line at home)

Because in the US at least*, your land line is hooked up to a very
sophisticated system that tells emergency services where and who you
are - just dial 911. If you can't speak because the spy has a garrote
around your neck, but badly need the police/firemen/medics the
operators know where you are! If they don't hear anything - or even
if there's a hang up - they'll send someone to investigate.

It's pretty cool. It's all hooked into a massive (terrabytes)
database of GIS data that tells the services where you are, how to
get there, where the closest fire hydrant is, what roads are one-way,
even how long it should take them to drive. The information is very
cool. It's also very useful for businesses. Let's say that you
removed all of the information pertaining to people and their phone
numbers - it's not part of the GIS data anyway - and sold it to some
kind of delivery business. They'd know exactly how to get from their
depot to your house the shortest/quickest/most cost effective way and
they'd be able to figure out exactly how long it would/should take
(speed limits, stop signs, signals, etc. are all part of the data).
Groovy, eh?

The whole USGS and 911 systems are providing some very good
information that maximize efficiency for lots of businesses.

bob
  (who used to work for one of the companies that maintains and
develops this data)

*(for most everywhere but the most remote areas)

--
bob davis
bob at bobdavis.org
http://www.bobdavis.org/