an "EVDO application" - findwhatslocal

schoff · EVDO Newbie Joined: 11 Mar 2006 Posts: 1

I travel extensively for business and pleasure, including a ton of RV'ing, once upon a time I had a two way satellite connection but gave it up for my EVDO card for my laptop and shortly for the Kyocera Router when it is out of backorder.

Having Internet "on the go" is obviously not an issue, so I began to think about problems I'd like to solve with extensive EVDO and WiFi coverage. So a friend and I decided to build realtime geolocation service without a GPS for our laptops, build a couple of applications and then provide a simple interface to any programmer who wants to write an app.

The first application is available on www.findwhatslocal.com, it requires XP and a WiFi capability, it is a mashup of our database+interface and yahoo local.

I keep my WiFi interface enabled, but use my EVDO connection, the WiFi acts as a virtual GPS receiver. While we haven't mapped the known universe yet, a big chunk of DC, Baltimore, Northern Virginia, Harrisburg, Philly is, with I81, I83, I95, I70 mapped as well.

When I was in South Carolina for the evening, I used the application to find barbeque, it gave me info, number and a map. Very practical if you like SC ribs. you can add whatever search you want.

One last thing, if it doesn't know where you are it will prompt you for your street address, and never ask you again, so you can fill in the blank spots of our coverage yourself.