Nanaimo, The Google Capital of the World 227
eldavojohn writes "Time.com has up a story on Nanaimo, a British Columbia coal mining town of about 78,000 that has had everything conceivable mapped into a Google database. Citizens can track fire trucks real time. The results also include Google Earth data for Nanaimo. 'The Google fire service allows people to avoid accident sites by tuning electronic devices to automatic updates from the city's RSS news feed, says fire captain Dean Ford. Eventually, Nanaimo plans to equip its grass-cutting machines with GPS devices, so residents piqued by the apparent shabbiness of a particular park or grass verge can use Google to find out when last it was groomed by the city's gardening staff. And the city's cemeteries will soon be mapped to allow Internet users to find out who is buried in each plot, says Kristensen. A new multi-million-dollar conference center, opening in June, will have 72 wireless access points to allow out-of-towners to use their laptops to navigate the Google Earth version of the city.'"
And I suppose next (Score:5, Funny)
Re:And I suppose next (Score:5, Funny)
Let's start with the elected officials. How about using Eliot Spitzer as our first test case? I know. He isn't Canadian, but I bet the results would be interesting.
Re:This is cool (Score:5, Funny)
Agreed. That slippery slope argument really pisses me off. A few months back I was hiking in the woods and, thanks to my GPS device, I was alerted moments before stepping onto a slippery slope and sliding to my doom.
The more people we can save from slippery slopes the better. Surely any privacy advocates who say that such technology is a slippery slope simply have never had a near-death-from-slippery-slope experience themselves. They really need to STFU.
Re:This is cool (Score:2, Funny)
Ah yes, but have you tried out some of them slippery slopes recently? Some of them are really, really slippery.
Perhaps we need to be told WHY this is so cool without being told it's new and shiny.
Scientist: We can now graft a human ear onto a mouse.
Concerned public: Pardon?
Scientist: Well, at least the mouse heard me.
Re:Police tracking... (Score:1, Funny)
I can tell you the answer to that question without Google technology. They are at the Dunkin Donut Shop.
Re:What about the bars? (Score:3, Funny)
Do you know what's in a Nanaimo bar? (Score:-1, Funny)
Re:why they chose nanaimo (Score:2, Funny)
This just in... (Score:5, Funny)
"I got a call from my brother Earl in Nanaimo," said Harry Wacker of Fresno, California. "He was babbling on about how they may have gone too far in connecting the town up to the intertoobs, and some sort of hogs pizzle about a 'singularity' or something. Utter nonsense, but that's Earl- loonier than a sack of weasels. You'd have to be to move to gol-damned Canada. Broke his mother's heart, he did."
Other relatives and friends have reported hearing the voices of former Nanaimo residents coming from their game consoles, computers and other Internet connected devices, but these reports are unconfirmed.
Re:And I suppose next (Score:5, Funny)
I was on vacation in Toronto (I know, weak place for vacation) with the old man and my grandpa. We had rented a car and got a GPS reciever to navagate the Toronto area. Our first stop was my Uncle George's house, so I programmed the address into the GPS and we were on our way.
As we were getting closer to our destination, I was showing the GPS to grandpa and explaining how it worked. We make the final turn and were rolling down the street, when gramps says "Can you see George on that thing"
Naturally, I replied "Of course I can, he's taking a shit!"
We got out of the car, knocked on the door, 2-3 mins later the door opens. Turns out I was right, he was on the can. The rest of the vacation though, my grandpa thought that GPS could track people.
Re:And I suppose next (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh sure (Score:3, Funny)
Re:And I suppose next (Score:3, Funny)
No need for RFID (Score:3, Funny)