Tripping on a Confluence |
Give
your GPS app a real challenge: Visit
a spot for the Degree Confluence Project.
GPS
applications are popping up everywhere,
but if you want more thrills than a
trip to your local coffeehouse can provide,check
out the Degree Confluence Project
(http://www.confluence.org).
The project’s website has developed
a cultlike following due to its sheer
hipness: Creator Alex Jarrett’s
ambitious project aims to nail
degree confluences—the
points at which each latitude and longitude
integer degree intersect—throughout
the world. Although there are 64,442
degree confluences on Earth, the project
recognizes only 16,143 primary points
that meet its goals; most of these (14,027),
fortunately, are on land.
Confluence
Trivia
•
All land-based confluences for
United Arab Emirates, Sweden and
Albania have been visited.
• The highest confluence:
28ºN 88ºE in China (about
6,000 meters above sea level).
• The lowest confluence:
30ºN 27ºE in Egypt (about
60 meters below sea level).
• Most visited confluence:
37ºN 122ºW in the United
States (2.3 miles or 3.7 km northeast
of Santa Cruz, California).
• Most visitors at a confluence
at one time: 39 people assembled
at 48ºN 9ºE in Germany
(8.5 miles or 13.7 km east of
Tuttlingen in Baden-Würt,
Germany).
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This
“organized sampling of the world”
kicked off in February 1996, when, armed
with a GPS, Jarrett and a friend set
out on a 10-mile bicycle trip to an
unknown destination and walked another
mile through the woods, ending up in
a nondescript spot by a swamp. His destination?
43°00'00"N 72°00'00"W.
“It was an exciting trip, plagued
with GPS problems due to cheap batteries.
We kept expecting a monument at the
location saying ‘43N/72W’,
but no such luck,” Jarrett recalls.
Motivated by altruism and an adventurous spirit,
Jarrett aims to document each integer
latitude and longitude intersection
with photos and a short narrative describing
the area. “The amount of interest
in this project has far exceeded any
expectations I ever had,” he crows,
attributing the buzz to a combination
of a sense of adventure and the ability
to share that adventure with thousands
of others.
Visits
that document environmental changes
due to natural or artificial alteration
are also encouraged: A significant example
took place in January 2003, when three
travelers visited and photographed the
31°N 111°E confluence in Yichang,
Hubei Province, to document the area
prior to the filling of the Three Gorges
Dam. The photographs and story make
for an incredible read
(http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=6436).
The
website also lists antipodes (pairs
of points directly opposite each other
on the globe) that have been visited —most notable among them, the
North and South Poles.
At
Your Own Risk
The mechanics of travel to the confluences
have incurred a panoply of challenges,
including impenetrably thick scrub forest
in a New Zealand trek, gusting winds
in Chile, prohibited access to military
bases in Australia, and steep grades
and rough vegetation in South Africa.
Would-be volunteers for the project
are advised to exercise caution in evaluating
potential risks and damage to body and
limbs.
Feeling
adventurous? Some rules for visiting
a confluence: Select a site and let
the Degree Confluence know of your proposed
visit; get a good map and permissions
if the confluence is located on private
land; take a copy of the Letter to Landowners
provided on the website; take pictures
of the confluence spot when you arrive,
and submit the photos, with a narrative,
to the website. You may not be Thor
Heyerdahl, but you can contribute your
very own piece to the global puzzle.
Rosalyn
Lum
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Watch Your Head |
Software Development's
2003 Salary Survey
is on its way.
Last year's salary survey found that
job-hopping, big bonuses and inflated
paycheck comparisons were a thing of
the past: Post-boom, experienced developers
were merely focusing on the job at hand.
However, our data revealed some good
news: Throughout the year, base pay
continued to rise, Web services picked
up steam, and software architects were
definitely in demand.
What
will the 2003 Salary Survey reveal?
The U.S. economy remains sluggish, and,
according to press reports, outsourcing
is taking hold as IT jobs shove off
for foreign shores.
Since
1998, we've been tracking salary, skill
and job satisfaction ratings among experienced
developers and managers, and we can't
wait to divulge the changes this year's
survey reveals.
Our
November 2003 issue hits the newsstand
in mid-October. Stay tuned to discover
the current state of the high-tech economy.
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Talk and Toss |
Invented by a toy
designer, the Phone-Card-Phone’s
a perfect tool for our disposable society.
These
days, the one-year guarantee on electronic
gadgets is the norm, and perhaps for
good reason—these products rarely
function longer than that, nor do
you really want them to: There’s
always something newer or slicker
to separate you from your wallet.
To satisfy this urge for innovation,
43-year-old Jersey inventor and toy
designer Randice-Lisa Altschul has
developed a disposable phone. “We
live in a disposable society,”
says Altschul. “Use it and toss
it—no one wants commitments
to anything.”
Created
by Altschul’s Dieceland Technologies,
the Phone-Card-Phone has a 2x3-inch
footprint and is based on Altschul
and co-inventor Lee Volpe’s patented
super-thin flex technology (STT), which
prints circuits on Mylar or paper substrates
using conductive links. Sandwiching
cell-phone circuitry, printed onto recycled
paper substrates with metallic links
in lieu of wires, the whole shebang,
complete with number pads and connectors,
is sealed into a laminated structure
the thickness of three credit cards.
After
60 minutes of use, you can recharge
for extended talk time or toss it away—unless
you want to pocket the rebate that encourages
you to return the phone instead of trashing
it. Plans for an added magnetic strip
will morph the phone into a credit card.
Altschul
and Volpe own an extensive array of
patents covering the disposable phone
concept from substrate to antenna design,
which also encompasses a disposable
computer with Internet access projected
to sell for $20.
Many
other disposable phones have popped
up since Dieceland’s 1999 announcement,
but Altschul is confident of the validity
of her patent. “There have been
many knock-off artists trying to imitate
us,” she says. “We notified
all would-be disposable makers of infringement
early on.”
Due
to a rocky road rife with consultant
scams, bankruptcy and would-be infringement—detailed
in Altschul’s book, Financiers,
Lawyers and other Assorted Snakes
(Survivor Warehouse Club, printed in
partnership with Kinko’s and available
only through
http://www.assortedsnakes.com)
—the Phone-Card-Phone has yet to
hit the market, still lingering in prototype.
Altschul hopes to launch the product
in 2004.
Rosalyn
Lum |
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