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Alternatively, when the coordinates fall within a body of water, you can rent a boat and win the [[Water Geohash]] achievement. | Alternatively, when the coordinates fall within a body of water, you can rent a boat and win the [[Water Geohash]] achievement. | ||
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== Implementations == | == Implementations == | ||
Revision as of 23:18, 23 May 2008
Welcome to the Geohashing Community Wiki. Geohashing is a Spontaneous Adventure Generator, brought to you by xkcd. If you are already familiar with GPS and xkcd, then proceed onwards!
Contents
What is this?
xkcd comic #426 contains an algorithm that generates random coordinates across the country1 every day.
These coordinates can be used as destinations for adventures, à la Geocaching. They can also be used for local meetups.
For a little more interactive discussion consider joining the #geohashing IRC channel on Foonetic.
1. Europe/Africa/Asia date handling still under discussion, see the talk page for discussion on the proposed standard.
How it works
Play with the coordinate calculator here: http://xkcd.com/geohashing
Every day, the algorithm generates a new set of coordinates for every region. They are randomly placed -- they could be in the forest, in a city, or on a mountain. You can use this wiki to document the coordinates (geohashes) you've been to.
Unless you can accurately predict the stock market, you can't figure out what the coordinates will be ahead of time. You can first calculate a weekday's coordinates at about 9:30am (US Eastern Time), and on Friday morning you can calculate the coordinates for each day that weekend (sometimes even through Monday when there is a US holiday).
All coordinates are given in the WGS84 datum.
Official meetup
The official xkcd meetups happen every Saturday afternoon at 4:00pm (local destination time). If you go at these times, you might encounter other readers of xkcd. Bring games! ...or you might not. Bring books!
Absolutely do not litter. However, creating some kind of a marker out of nearby materials (i.e. cairn of stones, blair-witch-style 'stick figures', etc) is acceptable/encouraged.
Disclaimer
When the coordinates fall within a dangerous area, are inaccessible, or would require illegal trespass, do not attempt to reach them. You are expected to use proper judgment in all cases and are solely responsible for your own actions. In such cases, the Saturday meetup is postponed until a day which yields better coordinates.
Alternatively, when the coordinates fall within a body of water, you can rent a boat and win the Water Geohash achievement.
Implementations
A full list of reference and practical implementations can be found on the Implementations page.
Active Graticules
See Active Graticules for a list of graticules with active users in them.
Recent Expeditions
- 2008-05-26 -- The coordinates for Monday, May 26th are available (no trading -- Memorial Day2).
- 2008-05-25 -- The coordinates for Sunday, May 25th are available.
- 2008-05-24 -- The coordinates for Saturday, May 24th are available. Convenient city graticules in the U.S. include: San Antonio, Cleveland, Portland, and Baltimore.
- 2008-05-23 -- The coordinates for Friday, May 23rd are available.
- 2008-05-22 -- The coordinates for Thursday, May 22nd are available.
- 2008-05-22 39 -105 -- This geohash has been reached in the very active Denver graticule.
- 2008-05-22 32 -117 -- This coordinate in the San Diego, California area was reached by Somnivore.
- 2008-05-22 42 -89 -- This geohash was reached in the Stoughton, Wisconsin graticule by Alric.
- 2008-05-22 40 -96 -- This geohash was reached in the Lincoln, NE graticule by Spike and crew.
- 2008-05-22 44 -93 -- This geohash was reached in the Southern Minneapolis, MN graticule by Chris and Abi.
- 2008-05-21 -- The coordinates for Wednesday, May 21st are available.
- 2008-05-21 42 -71 -- Randall and cousin Annuska reached the Boston coordinates and photographed a spider.
- 2008-05-21 54 -2 -- Nick reached the Carlisle coordinates.
- 2008-05-17
- 2008-05-17 37 -122 -- Dan, Emad, and Randall reached the San Francisco coordinates in a successful test.
- 2008-02-24
- 2008-02-24 45 -122 -- NoTerminal and Drache reached this point as part of an early test while coming up with the algorithm.
See the Expedition Archives for older events.
Today's Sites
2008-05-23 -- The coordinates for Friday, May 23rd are available.
Next Saturday
2008-05-24 -- The coordinates for Saturday, May 24th has been published
See TimeandDate.com for Dow opening time in local time zones.
Note that complications may arise due to timezones - not to mention both spatial and temporal abnormalities. (I.e. Individual results may vary.)
Known Issues
Several known issues are presented at Known Issues. There is an ongoing discussion on these and other issues at Talk:Main Page.
