I’ve just knocked up a little geouri helper for Safari that launches geouris in Google Earth. You can download it here. You may need to use the More Internet preference pane to associate the geo: URI scheme with the GeoHelper application.

It’s rough and ready and writing it reminded me just what a comprehensively awful language Applescript is. Let me know if you improve it.

If you get it working here’s where I live.

A couple of years ago I floated the idea of a geo: URI scheme. You give each physical location on the planet an address and then leave it up to individual users to define what happens when they click on a geo: URI. One person might have their browser configured to open Google Earth at the appropriate spot while someone else might prefer to use whatever mapping is available from Open Streetmap.

True to form I didn’t do much with the idea but Alex Mayrhofer and Christian Spanring (who I’m certain came up with the idea absolutely independently) have written a draft specification for a geo: URI scheme and implemented a FireFox extension to handle geouris.

My original proposal involved a packed representation of latitude and longitude. My thinking was that if you could encode, say, someone’s home address as a reasonably short string then people might have a reasonable chance of remembering it. On reflection though Alex and Christian’s daring use of conventional latitude and longitude makes much more sense…

Tony Blair has posted his response to the Let’s Ban DRM petition that’s been running on the Number 10 site. Here’s what he has to say (my italics):

Digital rights issues have been gaining increasing prominence as innovation accelerates, more and more digital media products and services come onto the market and the consumer wants to get access to digital content over different platforms. Many content providers have been embedding access and management tools to protect their rights and, for example, prevent illegal copying. We believe that they should be able to continue to protect their content in this way. However, DRM does not only act as a policeman through technical protection measures, it also enables content companies to offer the consumer unprecedented choice in terms of how they consume content, and the corresponding price they wish to pay.

Bullshit. I wonder, can the PM name even one instance when the use of DRM has benefited consumers? We’ve come to expect this doublespeak nonsense from the entertainment industry but it’s disappointing that the government swallows the industry’s line on DRM so uncritically.

Nick says:

I was wondering when you’re going to comment on Steve Jobs latest outporings on DRM.

Surely the only interoperable DRM is no DRM.

He’s an opportunistic hypocrite. DRM allowed Apple to create the iPod monopoly. Just a few months ago he was vocally pro-DRM. So what? The fact that he’s one of the most prominent rats leaving the sinking DRM ship doesn’t disguise the fact that it’s sinking.

You have to feel sorry for Microsoft. Vista is lumbered with an onerous cargo of DRM badness (See Vista’s suicide note). If, as seems likely, DRM falls out of favour during its lifetime that’s a hell of a lot of useless baggage to be carrying.

More on Jobs’ flip-flopping here:

techdirt: Steve Jobs Says Record Labels Should Ditch Their DRM
BoingBoing: Will Steve Jobs drop iTunes DRM in a heartbeat?
Scobleizer: Why not turn off DRM on Disney movies?
the INQUIRER: Jobs’ cry against DRM is a sham

You just can’t keep a good company down, can you? I’m pretty sure that the inclusion of an analogue security hole in Vista is a first.

It just goes to show: all the DRM in the world can’t plug up the analogue hole.