Today I Learned

TIL, 2018-06-17, Resting/Reading about Tech

Why are so many people afraid of technology? Is this fear a good thing?

Reference

  • The uninformed or the uneducated can run from the whirlwinds of technology.
  • Tech is superior to people. Ex: calculating change in a McDonalds when the power is out.
  • Fearing progress, automation. They are also scared that the things can be broken. Insecurity.
  • Each tech advance brings both blessings and curses.

Musings

  • Rethinking GPS: Engineering Next-Gen Location at Uber
    • GPS is inaccurate (50m or more) in densely populated and highly built-up urban areas.
    • GPS: a network of more than 30 satellites operated by the US government.
    • GLONASS: Russian satellites.
    • Why this sucks in urban environments: buildings often block the lines of sight to satellites, so the receiver processes signals corresponding to strong reflections off of other buildings.
    • We use a likelihood surface/heat map from probabilistic shadow matching to figure out information from satellite SNR measurements.

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