Editing 596: Latitude

{{comic
| number    = 596
| date      = June 12, 2009
| title     = Latitude
| image     = latitude.png
| titletext = The G1, especially with the new Android upgrade, is way better than I originally thought.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Black Hat]] shows his friend (presumably Robert [aka [[Rob]] from the chart]), that he has made a mobile phone application to log and find addresses and business names for the locations of his "friends" using data from {{w|Google Latitude}} which was a location-aware feature of Google Maps that allowed a mobile phone user to allow certain people to view their current location. 

The reason it is worth doing so for him, is that most of those that use Google Latitude, haven't learned the habit to turn it off when engaging in "discreet" activities. And then Black Hat can access their whereabout which he then uses in his app.

The second panel shows the screen of Black Hat's smartphone with the logs for his two friends in table form showing activity for [[Megan]] and Robert (Rob), the latter log is partially cut off. (Regarding the use of these names see the [[#Trivia|trivia section]]).

Robert's log is fairly innocuous: home at 12:30 PM, school at 2:00 PM, and riding a {{w|Rapid transit|subway}} (or possibly in a {{w|Subway (restaurant)|Subway restaurant}}) at 3:30 PM. This log shows that Robert did nothing interesting for Black Hat. There are also several holes in the table compared to the other column. This could either indicate that he stayed this long time those three places, but it could also indicate that Robert has already learned to switch off Latitude when he is not actively using it. This would fit with Black Hat's comment about a narrow window in which people haven't learned this. His friend Robert (the Rob version of Cueball shown here, see the [[#Trivia|trivia section]]), may already have thought of this himself, or maybe Black Hat has mentioned it to him before getting the idea for the app thus warning him about the problem (without meaning to). 

The reason Black Hat states that there only is a ''narrow window of time that people forget to turn Google Latitude off'', is because people like him will make other people, who forget this, miserable. And then everyone will soon learn to turn the feature off making Black Hat's app useless.

Megan's log appears to prove Black Hat's point: She was home at 11:00 AM, at a {{w|sex toy}} store at 12:30 PM, home again at 1:30 PM, at another sex toy store at 2:00 PM, home again at 2:30 PM, then at {{w|Fry's Electronics}} at 3:00 PM, and at a {{w|power tool}} store at 3:30 PM, finally home again at 4:00 PM only to be at the hospital burn ward at 4:10 PM. The last entry is the only one where the interval is not half an hour indicating how fast Megan had to get to the hospital after getting home with her new power tools and electronics.

This suggests that Megan first tried the sex toy(s) from the first store, found them insufficiently satisfying, purchased additional sex toys from another store, was still unsatisfied, and then purchased some electronic devices and power tools (either to improve the performance of her sex toys or to apply directly for additional stimulation). The results were apparently more painful than pleasurable, necessitating a quick visit to the hospital burn ward. Overall, Megan has had an at first unsatisfying day and then finally a rather bad day, considering where the burn is most likely to be... She would almost certainly not be pleased to learn that Black Hat has been tracking her whereabouts and sharing this with their mutual friend Rob.

The title text shows that [[Randall]] liked the T-Mobile G1, also known as the {{w|HTC Dream}}, especially with the upgrade to {{w|Android Cupcake}}, more than he previously thought because it allows for more capabilities and the interface is clean and easy-to-use when compared to other "smartphones" of that time period (because the G1 was the first phone to introduce the {{w|Android (operating system)|Android operating system}}) and it allows for special Google networking, allowing for apps like Maps to run better (making it easier to run apps like Latitude). From what able to be gathered in the comic, it is [[Black Hat]] who says this, because he is the one who uses the app and shows it off. He would be the most likely one to benefit from this kind of phone running this kind of OS/app.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat is holding a phone up to Cueball.]
:Black Hat: We're in a narrow window in which people are using Google Latitude, but haven't learned the habit of turning it off when they're doing something discreetly.
:Black Hat: I wrote an app to log friends' locations and work out addresses and business names.
 
:[A timetable is visible. The first column gives the time and splits the day in the half hour intervals starting at 11:00 AM, except for the last entry at 4:10 PM, where the time only jumps 10 minutes. The next two columns represents two persons activities during this time period. In the second column the last letter shown in the comic is partly cut off more or less. This last partly shown letter is written in the transcript, but no guess is made here. See the explanation. Above the table, over the two names, there is a caption:]
:::::<big>Locations</big>
:{| class="wikitable"
|-
|Time ||Megan ||Robert
|-
|11:00 AM || Home ||
|-
|12:30 PM || Eastview Adult<br>Toy Store || Home
|-
|1:30 PM || Home || 
|-
|2:00 PM || Laketown Sex<br>Toy Shop || School
|-
|2:30 PM ||Home ||
|-
|3:00 PM || Fry's Electronics ||
|-
|3:30 PM || Ed's Power<br>Tool Emporium || Subway
|-
|4:00 PM || Home || 
|-
|4:10 PM || Hospital<br>Burn Ward || 
|}

==Trivia==
*This is one of the handful of times that the [[Megan#Name|name Megan]] has been used in xkcd, the first time being in [[159: Boombox]].
**In this comic, though, without actually showing Megan, so there is actually no indication in this comic how she looks. But that has been shown in several others.
**Despite her not being shown, this comic should be listed as featuring Megan, as her name is used.
*Given that Black Hat has sometimes interacted with the Cueball called [[Rob]], it seems likely that the Cueball in this comic is actually Rob (for Robert)
**It turns out that he has also either forgotten to turn off his Google Latitude, or only has it turned on when he actually uses it. 
***He has in either case only used it in inconspicuous places, or would not be alarmed at seeing the table of his own activities.
***Maybe this is why Black Hat shows it to him, so he can share Megan's event log which is much more interesting. 
**That Rob has been at a school could mean he was a teacher or for some other reason needed to go there. It is such a short time span in the afternoon that it does not seem like something a school kid would do. 
***Also since it's the afternoon the school would be empty except for maybe the janitor if there was an huge mess later on, meaning that Rob likes to visit empty schools. 
***Some have, using the school as argument, suggested that this Robert is actually [[Robert'); DROP TABLE Students;--]]. 
***But Black Hat has never interacted with the [[Mrs. Roberts|Roberts family]] so this seems unlikely, and he has never been called Robert, but he has been drawn like a kid looking like Cueball. 
*As of 2021, both Google Latitude and Fry's Electronics have shut down.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Rob]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Google]]