Cambridge, United Kingdom/2008

2008 was the year that Geohashing kicked off, and as a result many graticules around the world experienced a spurt of activity throughout May and June, then fell rather quiet. Cambridge was no exception, so here's what happened during 2008.

Expeditions

2008-06-17

• 2008-08-05 52 0: Not really an expedition, but Darcy ran within 50 feet of the hashpoint (at the back of the Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge) early in the morning, but was unaware of its presence at the time.

• 2008-06-17 52 0: Today's hash was in Cottenham, the closest it's been (so far) to Cambridge. Although it was a Tuesday, JPD and Stephen Turner met at the nearest accessible point at 1pm. Stephen Turner went again at 7pm, in an attempt to meet lilac, but failed to meet up. Lilac arrived at 7.30pm with gw280.

• 2008-06-07 52 0: Today's location was in a field just off Manea Road (B1093) near March. Granularman and his sidekicks were in the vicinity from about 16:45 to 17:15. Spanky was there from 17.30, thus failing to meet up with the other group.

2008-05-31

• 2008-05-31 52 0: On the second Saturday of the project, the location was in a field near Saffron Walden, 15 miles from Cambridge. Seven people managed to meet up there.

• 2008-05-24 52 0: On the first Saturday of the project, the hash was on the verge of the B1063, northeast of Haverhill. Youpi and Spanky went, but failed to meet each other.

Active geohashers

These people were active during 2008, but are probably now 'retired':

• AndyM
• Ax has a new bike and might try a long distance cycle ride if the weather is nice any time soon... and is occasionally car powered.
• Granularman will most likely put in an appearance on 7 June, before he disappears to far-off graticules. He is powered by car and determination.
• gw280
• JPD is bike powered as well. 16:00 is usually Not A Good Time, but will occasionally get there before that and leave a mark.
• Keeper is powered by caffeine and petrol; therefore, he can get most places.
• lilac is also bike powered, but might be prepared to cycle up to about ten miles from Cambridge for a Saturday location.
• Spanky is also bike powered from Cambridge, and generally will try to go on a Saturday. Limit of about 15 miles and prepared to take a train to get in range.
• youpi is bike powered.

These people indicated an interest, but have not been heard from since:

• jamespjh is bike powered and generally active in Cambridge only on weekdays. (Weekends I'm in London West graticule.)
• katrielalex is bike powered and willing to cycle about 25 miles around Cambridge on a good day. He unfortunately doesn't have access to any other method of transportation.
• MooUK is just beyond the southern boundary but might be convinced to make nearby meets, probably by four-wheeled infernal combusting methods.
• murphy is bike powered until his more petrol based bike is fixed, after which he can get most places.
• Slainveteran is bike powered, so will only be able to make it when the coordinates lie nearby Cambridge itself.
• TheCoop is bike powered from cambridge.

Graticule talk page

And just because it's nice to keep things for posterity, the rest of this page is the contents of the graticule talk page at the end of 2008. Both topics raised have been generally cleared up now -- one suggested 'destination finder' is Ekorren's small hash inquiry tool. Using the link here will show the four closest destinations to Cambridge, as Sarah wanted. Also, 'mini-geohashing', or using an alternative algorithm has been suggested many times in various places, but has generally been decided against due to it either being too much effort, or causing the sport to become too easy or insular.

Prime Meridian

Strangely enough, if the meetup location actually was in Cambridge then there would be 2 meetups in cycling range. Well, one would be quite a long cycle... but still, we're only 5 miles from the prime meridian and everything is reflected the other side so it's possible to get 2 meetups arbitrarily close together. 131.111.202.214 09:33, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

Challenge: anyone like to write a modified destination finder that shows the four closest destinations to Cambridge? - Sarah

Mini Geohashing

A new idea for the bike-powered. To get a location always close to the centre of Cambridge, try mini-geohashing over an area 1% of a standard graticule.

Method: find your current coordinates and remove everything after the first decimal place. In Cambridge, that's going to be either 52.1 or 52.2 north and 0.0 or 0.1 east. Then add the standard string of digits to the end of the number.

E.g. the geohash coordinates for Sunday 25th May 2008 in the standard graticule are 52.941774°, 0.182873°. That makes the mini-geohash location closest to the centre of Cambridge 52.1941774°, 0.1182873° - much more convenient

What do you think? - Sarah

I like it in principle, but I think we risk diluting an already-small number of people. A good coverage of Cambridge would seem to be 52.15° + 0.1 x, 0.1° + 0.1 y. Also, if there's a convenient hash every day, it would make it significantly less special when the numbers happen to work out. Perhaps only on Saturdays (and maybe only when the usual hash lands outside of the (52.15, 0.1) - (52.25, 0.2) box)? What do other people think? - Richard