Keeping an eye on the moving world
Rather a pity that some of the great visionaries of the science fiction world aren’t around to see how gadgets have evolved. Can you imagine how the likes of Verne would “trip” to see a population of cellphone carrying citizens. Ok, maybe not. But there are other neat things out there, for anyone that enjoys the marriage of maps and transportation.
In the Maritimes (and elsewhere, I’m sure) the beautiful homes with widow’s walks on the roof have always seemed perfectly designed for the curious. Standing up there, spyglass and a squint, hoping to catch sight of a familiar inbound sail; enough to make me wish for time travel. Well, now we have even more efficient tools for tracking the progress of your fortune (Shakespeare might never have written The Merchant of Venice). Here’s a link to an AIS site. Automatic Identification System (AIS) involves a marriage of GPS and radio; the large cargo vessels of the world have to be tracked, for logistical reasons. For the “shipspotters” of the coastal world, now you can be sure about what ships just passed by your window.
CN rail used to have an online public system for tracking the rambling boxcars of North America. Unfortunately, in the paranoia following a certain mixup south of here, that was closed to the public. Maybe, in a saner future, the site will be made public again.
For those living near major airports, you can check on incoming and outgoing flights here. Hardly as interesting as tramp steamers, but worth a looksee.
City rapid transit systems are starting to put real time bus tracking systems into place. We might even get one of those “wow, that’s cool” systems here before I retire. C’mon Supermayor – finally, a promise you could actually keep!
And finally, for anyone that dreams of tracking themselves, all you need is an amateur radio license and an extra GPS receiver. Oh, and a radio, and a transponder, but those things are part and parcel of a ham’s existence. Here’s a look at APRS traffic. My personal Automatic Position Reporting System is currently in a state of disassembly, but sometime soon…
