2011-05-01 38 -84

Location

This hashpoint is right near the exit ramps of I-64 to Kentucky State Highway 859 (Haley Road). More specifically, it's on the westbound side of the highway.

Participants

Just myself, CaptainSpam.

Plans

One day last week, I got a Geohash Droid group posting from a user by the name of Jevanyn. Apparently, writes Jevanyn, there's an issue with the app where it seems to give Incorrect Password errors when posting. That's odd, I thought. It never did that for me. Therefore, I needed to investigate. Not just on my development test wiki, but on the REAL wiki, where there's a bunch of options and such I don't know about.

And, as luck would have it, that very Sunday (today), there was a hashpoint a mere 5.6mi from my home! Right on I-64, in fact! The perfect opportunity to figure out just what's going on without dumping garbage posts on the wiki! With nothing accompanying me except my car, my phone, and a head cold, I set out for a quick test run.

Since I knew this point was effectively ON the highway itself, and there was no place nearby I could stop (welcome to rural Kentucky, pal!), and the Kentucky State Highway Patrol are pretty vigilant about cars stopped on the side of the road (good if your car's broken down, bad if you need to explain why you're taking pictures of a seemingly random spot on the side of a highway in the middle of nowhere), I decided right away this would only be a drive-by picture-taking expedition. Good thing I happen to have another app I'm developing which automatically snaps pictures while driving so I don't have to!

Expedition

Time for another Hashing expedition through Central Kentucky! -- CaptainSpam @38.0198,-84.4189 14:20, 1 May 2011 (EDT)

Well, that IS disturbing. Got bad password errors out in the field. Hence the lack of updates. Though if this goes through, it works from home. Odd... -- CaptainSpam 15:00, 1 May 2011 (EDT)

The first of those two posts was made from the parking lot of a nearby Meijer gas station. Once I post the video, that's also the first frame and starting point of the pictures. That one was directly posted over a 3G connection, and it worked perfectly. Fair enough.

A short drive later, I passed by the point going eastbound and decided to pull off the road to make another post. A bit of aimless driving looking for someplace to park later (don't try this in rural Kentucky unless you're comfortable with disappointment), I tried making a post. Sure enough, that one failed with an Incorrect Password error. Very disturbing. I went back on the road to return home and made the second of the two posts above. That one worked. Most odd.

Jevanyn posted the theory that the wiki is now using a CAPTCHA service which may be disturbing the posting API. However, that doesn't explain why I'm explicitly getting bad password responses (that response is different from the "CAPTACHA needed" response), nor does it explain why the post DID work from 3G near a gas station but didn't work from what I believe is EDGE in the boonies. Unless there's IP blocking in effect and that area just happens to fall in the block range? Maybe? That doesn't make too much sense either, but I'm rather a bit lost.

I might need to talk with the wiki admins about this. I obviously can't just keep driving out to the middle of nowhere every time I need test logs.

Photos

(pictures coming soon)

Video

Via YouTube: A distance-lapse video of driving past the point, as close as I could get.

Achievements

Land Geohash


Sun 1 May 2011 in 38,-84: 38.0469730, -84.3310002 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox