My Geekdom

It seems that Google maps are a bit broken right now. In the "Screen Shot 1" you can see that I got two hits for the same store, differing only that one has the word "The" in the name. Excluding abbreviations, their addresses are the same although one has the unit # while the other just the address. One also lists a local number while the other an 800 number. These are a few minor problems. But the major problem is first that only one of the items is selectable. If you look at the "B" entry you can see that it is a red circle and not a push-pin shape it should be. But even worse, the "B" entry is shown about a dozen blocks away from correctly placed "A" entry.

Screen Shot 1
(Click for full Size Map)

The second picture shows a bigger problem. First, if you look at the listings, you'll notice that "A" and "E" are the same addresses and appear to differ only in the phone number and the exact name ("Walgreens" vs. "Walgreen Drug Store"). A similar problem exists for listings "B" and "F" except that they have the same phone number and address but a name and a different city. You might also notice on the map that "B" and "F" are shown over 10 miles apart. Furthermore "B" is a push-pin on the list and on the map but "F" is a circle on both the list and the map.

Screen Shot 2
(Click for full Size Map)

Perhaps the strangest problem is that in Screen Shot 2 I have selected the "A" entry. You see the familiar pop-up from the red push-pin for "A". But if you look at Screen Shot 3 where I have selected the "E" store with the same address, you'll notice that the "E" push-pin appears directly on top of the "A". So, at any zoom level, only the "A" or "E" can be viewed.

Screen Shot 3
(Click for full Size Map)

I'm sure Google will get this straightened out soon (you can reproduce

My previous posting on broken Google maps has been republished byGoogle Developer's Journal. You can read it "here". At least for awhile, it was listed as a "Google Developer's Top Story" and presented on the front page.

My family has a long and, when you include my great-grandfather I must add, impressive lineage of patents on my paternal side.

My patents:

• US Patent application pending # 20,070,266,442, System and Method for Protecting APIs from Untrusted or Less Trusted Applications and US Patent application pending 20,070,265,835, Method and System for Securing Execution of Untrusted Applications: Two extensions to J2EE (a.k.a: JEE) security for protecting allowing trusted and untrusted code within the same virtual environment.
  
• US Patent application pending #20,050,268,108, “Servlet Authentication Filters”: An extension of J2EE (a.k.a: JEE) that provides an integrated and pluggable model for authentication for Servlets. JSR-196 has extended and standardized the concepts introduced in this patent.
• US Patent application pending #20,060,031,855, “System and Method for Runtime Interface Versioning”, approx. December 2005 : A strategy for providing an SPI with evolving versions, in Java, while maximizing backwards compatibility.
• "US Patent #7,051,069, “System for managing logical process flow in an online environment”, May, 2006 : An invention regarding the use of deterministic finite automata as a means of controlling navigation within a web site.
• US Patent #5,787,447, "Memory allocation maintaining ordering across multiple heaps", July 1998 : A memory allocation algorithm that provided extremely fast and near-optimal memory allocation for an incremental linker.

My paternal uncle, Stewart Smithline's patents:

• US Patent #5734336, "Collision Avoidance System"

My father, Edward Smithline, Edward Smithline's patents:

• US Patent #5,390,320, Automatically converting structured analysis tool database outputs into an integrated simulation model via transportable standardized metafile.
  
• US Patent #3315229, Blood Cell Recognizer

My paternal³ great-grandfather, Dr. Jacob Smithline has basically invented the modern stethoscope with these two patents. Perhaps more impressively, he did this without making any serious money on them:

• US Patent #2,271,467: Describes how to get two different types of stethoscope heads onto a single stethoscope. This is rarely if ever used. More importantly, although considered secondary in the patent, the basic tubing of the stethoscope used to be "V" shaped and went to a "Y" shape. Virtually every modern sthethoscope uses the "Y" shaped tubing.
  
• US Patent #2719594: Describes how putting a small hole in the back of the stethoscope allows hearing different frequencies. While you probably have never noticed, there are hardly any stethescopes that do not have this hole. Look next time you are at the doctor's office.