I understand early drafts of Treasure Island involved a “yard toilet” instead of the eventual “black spot.”
Makes me think of the Motel at the Center of America from Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.
“That,” said Czernobog, “is why we are meeting at the center. Is…”
He frowned. “What is the word for it? The opposite of sacred?”
“Profane,” said Shadow, without thinking.
“No,” said Czernobog. “I mean, when a place is less sacred than any other place. Of negative sacredness. Places where they can build no temples. Places where people will not come, and will leave as soon as they can. Places where gods only walk if they are forced to.”
“I don’t know,” said Shadow. “I don’t think there is a word for it.”
“All of America has it, a little,” said Czernobog. “That is why we are not welcome here. But the center,” said Czernobog. “The center is worst. Is like a minefield. We all tread too carefully there to dare break the truce.”
A suitable act of atonement would be for the CEO of MaxMind to point the null IP location to his own house for a few years, just to experience what he’s wreaked upon unsuspecting innocents.
Just make the default the middle of the ocean.
Or the North Pole.
The stupid thing is, even if MaxMind gets the IP address location right, it’s never going to show some farmhouse - even if you really are looking up the current IP address of that farm, the MaxMind database will show the head office of the farmers’ ISP.
No matter what location MaxMind gives you, the villains you seek are almost guaranteed to be at a different location. At most they give you a place to send a subpoena to find out the actual location of the IP address.
I’m amazed that anyone thought that IPs can be looked up to a definite location (Without getting the info from the ISP). I’ve checked my home connection with a static IP and the closest guess is 25 miles away in a different country, and all the services suggest wildly different locations up to 100 miles away.
In the minds of non-Internet-creating people, the Internet was created by very smart, scientific people, so whatever it gives you for an address is correct by definition.
A modest proposal: if your company provides bad data, you should be held responsible for fixing that bad data. Failure to fix the glitch upon first learning of it makes you financially liable for any and all damages or harms caused by your providing bad data.
The software seems to work as programmed, maybe the documentation isn’t making this obvious, but hey.
Ok. Now where’s the mapping glitch?
Isn’t this the very definition of libel? Person prints falsehoods about someone else which causes them material harm.
Is there still such a thing as a pro bono lawyer? One should take this company for everything it’s got.
I don’t understand why at the least they don’t make VERY clear when they are using a “default” location.
And better yet, move the default location to something NOT private property.
Programmers aren’t lawyers. They don’t often think about the legal ramifications of using a particular number.
I don’t understand why they’re even using - much less returning - a default location. The default should be “location unknown.”
Now it’s been on every website everywhere, it’s just gonna get worse. It’s a fascinating story though.
Oh, I am quite aware how the mind of an engineer works. Which is why they don’t run companies by themselves.
Yes, this.
Further, I went here - https://www.iplocation.net
Every answer is at a minimum a couple miles away.
Maybe they programmed it to return the most accurate info they have, and they know the IP address is int he US, so it returns “US” defined by its geographic center? Still awful, of course.
Would an unknown IP address in Canada return the geographic center of Canada, etc.?
Nobody should live at the centre of any country. It’s just asking for trouble, drawing attention to yourself like that. Positively immodest.
“Glitch” is a euphemism for Programmer Malpractice.
