Comments on: Finding oneself, lost, in plain sight: Distress calls for satellite imagery http://techoped.com/2009/03/04/finding-oneself-lost-in-plain-sight-distress-calls-for-satellite-imagery/ Like I always say, it takes confidence to quote yourself. - j.ello Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:55:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Scott http://techoped.com/2009/03/04/finding-oneself-lost-in-plain-sight-distress-calls-for-satellite-imagery/comment-page-1/#comment-340 Scott Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:54:49 +0000 http://techoped.com/2009/03/04/finding-oneself-lost-in-plain-sight-distress-calls-for-satellite-imagery/#comment-340 My first thought is that there's a standard of 3. Any good scout knows to create three piles of stones, preferably with 3 stones in each pile on a small scale. This is supposedly why SOS was chosen in the days of Morse code, the short, three long, three short. My second thought is that 3 dots may not be enough, so I suggest three connected triangles (also viewed as one large triangle, with a smaller inverted triangle in the middle). And then only do the graphical analysis on pictures/tiles that have had substantial updates to their appearance. In any case, people lost at sea without a signal device (new & improved, or not) are screwed no matter what. 3rd thought is cost-benefit analysis. You could spend 40Billion on this project, and save maybe 100 people a year, or spend 40billion and wipe out malaria, saving tens of millions of lives. Not nearly as cool to watch from space, but a better investment. As for earth-directed lasers, Real Genius drove me away from supporting that a long time ago. My first thought is that there’s a standard of 3.

Any good scout knows to create three piles of stones, preferably with 3 stones in each pile on a small scale. This is supposedly why SOS was chosen in the days of Morse code, the short, three long, three short.

My second thought is that 3 dots may not be enough, so I suggest three connected triangles (also viewed as one large triangle, with a smaller inverted triangle in the middle). And then only do the graphical analysis on pictures/tiles that have had substantial updates to their appearance.

In any case, people lost at sea without a signal device (new & improved, or not) are screwed no matter what.

3rd thought is cost-benefit analysis. You could spend 40Billion on this project, and save maybe 100 people a year, or spend 40billion and wipe out malaria, saving tens of millions of lives. Not nearly as cool to watch from space, but a better investment.

As for earth-directed lasers, Real Genius drove me away from supporting that a long time ago.

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