On Fri, 19 Dec 2025, ant wrote:
pnegbtencure
Correct!
As a child, I loved pretending to be one.
What a shame that I have not preserved the fruit of my work in this vein.
On that note, several years ago I used to be an amateur one,
on that one well-known global collaborative project of this sort;
and I was responsible of very-detailed in-person survey effort
with sub-4 meter charting [1] of various local areas near my residence
or I visited.
I only left that project as a contributor because of corporate capture;
which led to them allowing companies to make wholesale destructive changes
to the data of my local area merely because they "saw it that way"
from aerial photographs; and I would have to re-visit the field to audit individual suspect data point and revert *each* of them manually to fix;
all unpaid.
This doesn't even count the fact that they removed the old Flash-based
editing interface that I preferred to use (leaving new "modern" one
that make my setup ground to a near-halt every time I lauched it),
replaced the contributors' discussion palor with JavaS'creep-infected abomination, as well as removing support for any browsers
but latest-and-worst ones on their main interface;
requiring me to summon the 128-tailed Firefox just to view it
(including the data/area I have personally contributed) as a _user_.
It incense me every time I have to visit their site today.
Grumbly yours,
~xwindows
[1] Detailed to the point that someone could _walk_ there with a physical
printout, then count the alleyways, turns, shophouses he's supposed
to walk pass, and reach the correct target place he intended to visit;
without having to use any cellular/satellite-based aid.
I made sure of that, because I navigate my city in a low-tech way too.
[2] I charted all of them _exhaustively_; including personally going
into each shop to ask for contact and misc info like opening time.
That's what I call "survey".
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