XKCD: It's more than a comic

I use OSM whenever it's practical, otherwise I use Google Maps when some feature is missing. Specifically, Street View and satellite view. Also, Google Maps has better search and POI coverage.

My Android phone takes me to some version of Apple maps when I try to look something up via Duck Duck Go, which still sucks.

I like some features of Apple’s navigation, especially the “this is how people really navigate” tidbits like “go though this light, then at the next one, turn left.” I’d like to go to it full-time if I wasn’t worried about some of the other things Google does better for long journeys. Does Apple suggest an alternate route if there’s a newly developed traffic jam ahead? And Google’s new emphasis on fuel-efficient routes is nice; I’ll save 15% fuel by driving 3 more minutes tomorrow, or so it claims.

I like that there are are at least two genuinely competing products in this market. That kind of competition drives innovation and delivers more and better features to consumers.

I pretty much always use Waze, which I understand is now built off Google Maps, but has a much nicer interface and I think more crowdsourced information such as traffic.

Waze is owned by Alphabet, who of course owns Google (varying opinions on how much the tail wags the dog here). A number of details from Waze, including crowd-sourcing, are now integrated into Google Maps. As I understand it, the primary difference between the two has to do with caching of results. Google Maps build a database of routes, indexed by traffic, that get served and interpreted during usage. Waze requests that a new navigation be calculated more often, which may result in more up-to-date times, but also means more load on the servers, and sometimes a more delayed response.

Personally, I tend to use Waze for driving, and Google Maps for walking and public transit.

I considered installing Waze, but after reading their privacy policy I decided against it. It says that I can turn off personalized ads, but it does not say that they would stop collecting data if I do so, from which I assumed they won't.

Selection Bias

If that were told as a joke, it'd be pretty good. If it were said seriously, I'd ask for my money back.

I think that Waze crowdsourced alerts get rolled into Google Maps after they've reached some threshold of community approval that they're real.

Crepe.

Boooooo. Puns. Boooooo.

Health Data

There's no easy way for me to say this... You're going to die.

...Oh, not, like, anytime soon. Just, it's gonna happen at some point.

That brought to mind a certain author blurb: "A lifelong resident, he now divides his time and is currently at work."

Edited by Twiddler on May 16th 2022 at 6:39:17 AM

This was a good one. I may be influenced by the many hours I have spent being asked questions for medical professionals. I have been asked very vague/wide "family history" questions before, almost feels like just "in general".

I never would have taken Randall for the type to say "things happen for a reason."

Edited by TwinBird on May 17th 2022 at 5:23:26 AM

No, he is the type who would parody saying this by saying it much more elaborately.

New comic from that guy who made robots at NASA.

I feel this in my soul. My wife makes fun of me for it all the time.

I can't say this has never happened to me either.

I feel like when this happens to me, I'm at least aware that what I know the person from is not the same thing as what most people would think of.

The Alt Text is too obscure for me. Billie Lourd's mom is Carrie Fisher, who was known for her script doctoring work, besides the famous stuff. But unless this is a really roundabout way of talking about Star Wars (Keira Knightley was Amidala's decoy in The Phantom Menace, which by some measures is the "first movie"), I'm lost on which franchise it is without digging through IMDB. Edit: Well, maybe it is Star Wars, since Fisher's page mentions that she did script work on the prequels.

Edited by HeraldAlberich on May 19th 2022 at 11:05:31 AM

Yes, it's Star Wars.

Yeah, a Facebook comment clued me in. Samuel L. Jackson was in Ghostwriter as well as the prequels and Jurassic Park. Should have remembered that he’s like the most prolific actor ever.

Some actors make it really easy too.

Angular Diameter Turnaround