User talk:Robyn/2008Talk

Copied over from User talk:Robyn, newest at the bottom.

Cover Stories

I know what you mean on the border crossings, especially when I forgot the name of Canadian counterpart to Surrey. I just told them I had (was going to) met up with some friends.
Its not like you are doing something Illegal. Anyways, best of luck on future crossings, and Ill see you at one of these hashes soon. Garyuuko 17:27, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Whoops, I had meant the Canadian side of Sumas, i.e. Abbotsford. Of course use my name if you want (Warren if you prefer), and maybe give me a heads up. I'm usually up for a ride. Garyuuko 21:57, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Not exactly. While biking is fine and all, I prefer to ride my motorcycle. Garyuuko 18:47, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Grouse Mountain Access

I would really love to attempt it, but unfortunately I’m busy tomorrow. Too bad, it looks like it could be really awesome! Let me know if you make it! Thepiguy 01:45, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

ASG

Ah, yes, the a/s/g graphic is sublime; I just wish I could take credit for scheming it up! I saw it on some other user's page, had a good chortle, then noticed that it was derived from the ASG template and quietly co-opted it for my own personal use.  :) --Youhas 08:33, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

haha. Yeah it started from a funny IRC conversation and things just kept going until eventually we had an ASG template and a graphic to go along with it... Oh the wonders of IRC... That air achievement is pretty impressive btw! Chrisinajar 14:02, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

North Cascades

Missed you (and Wade and a flying dinosaur) by around 10 minutes. Looking forward to meeting another multi-graticule hasher - perhaps in Bellingham in the future. Loved the rock art! --Thomcat 05:03, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Virgin graticule

Thanks for the template work; I was meaning to dig into that myself. Here's my art proposal, from the xkcd strip YouTube -- User:Thomcat

Oh, I get it, it's a cherry. That's wrongness and wrongocity in all it's wronguousness. -- Jevanyn 19:10, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Opinion sought - I'm working on categorizing all expedition pages (success or failure, along with failure reasons). Once categorized, it will be (relatively) trivial to determine the first Geohasher for each graticule. Should I throw a Template:Virgin_graticule on the graticule page for that user or users, or should we design a new ribbon or banner for this special purpose? --Thomcat 18:39, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

What You Found

Working on an achievement category for things found at the geohash site.

xkcd People, Other People, Pets, Livestock, Wildlife, Building, Tree (specify species), Money (specify amount, nationality of currency), Flower, Paved, Electronic Device, Explosive Device (shell casings, cores where they blasted a freeway through rock, bomb craters), Firearm

Richmond, Va != Siege Engine?

This may sound nitpicky, especially since I do enjoy people visiting our humble graticule or even its wiki page, but I didn't follow your logic. While the graticule has certainly been host to more siege engines than I care to count, the wiki page only mentions one, and that particular engine is a Trebuchet, which is seperate category contained within the Siege Engine category. So, in short, I would not personally categorize Richmond, Va. as a siege engine.

You are absolutely right, and I realized it after I had done it but something shiny distracted me. I knew I could count on the power of wiki to put it right. - Robyn 01:35, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

The category is temporarily removed until someone converts the entire graticule into a siege engine. -- Moose Hole 19:00, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

BC Grat Chart

Flattened, but the links work... Would this be better for you, Robyn? Other than the fact that you finished the part that I just left as ranges, I don't really see the difference. Except that Surrey is green.

Some of the links are blue and work is all; Surrey, Vancouver and Kelowna, I think.-Wmcduff 17:23, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Progress towards Regional Geohash for British Columbia

Chart in progress. I don't really intend to do this. I just want to show how ridiculous it is.

59,-139	59,-138	59,-137	59,-136	59,-135	59,-134	59,-133	59,-132	59,-131	59,-130	59,-129	59,-128	59.-127	59,-126	59,-125	59,-124	59,-123	59,-122	59,-121	59,-120
		58,-137			58,-134	58,-133	58,-132	58,-131	58,-130	58,-129	58,-128	58,-127	58,-126	58,-125	58,-124	58,-123	58,-122	58,-121	58,-120
						57,-133	57,-132	57,-131	57,-130	57,-129	57,-128	57,-127	57,-126	57,-125	57,-124	57,-123	57,-122	57,-121	57,-120
							56,-132	56,-131	56,-130	56,-129	56,-128	56,-127	56,-126	56,-125	56,-124	56,-123	56,-122	56,-121	56,-120
									55,-130	55,-129	55,-128	55,-127	55,-126	55,-125	55,-124	55,-123	55,-122	55,-121	55,-120
						54,-133	54,-132	54,-131	54,-130	54,-129	54,-128	54,-127	54,-126	54,-125	54,-124	54,-123	54,-122	54,-121	54,-120
						53,-133	53,-132	53,-131	53,-130	53,-129	53,-128	53,-127	53,-126	53,-125	53,-124	53,-123	53,-122	53,-121	53,-120	53,-119	53,-118
							52,-132	52,-131	52,-130	52,-129	52,-128	52,-127	52,-126	52,-125	52,-124	52,-123	52,-122	52,-121	52,-120	52,-119	52,-118	52,-117
								51,-131	51,-130		51,-128	51,-127	51,-126	51,-125	51,-124	51,-123	51,-122	51,-121	51,-120	51,-119	51,-118	51,-117	51,-116	51,-115
											50,-128	50,-127	50,-126	50,-125	50,-124	50,-123	50,-122	50,-121	50,-120	50,-119	50,-118	50,-117	50,-116	50,-115	50,-114
												49,-127	49,-126	49,-125	49,-124	49,-123	49,-122	49,-121	49,-120	49,-119	49,-118	49,-117	49,-116	49,-115	49,-114
												48,-127	48,-126	48,-125	48,-124	48,-123

Easy Geohash

Thanks for putting me on the Easy Geohash Achievement page! I'm still a little new to the whole wiki thing, and have no idea how a template would work, but http://xkcd.com/142/ has a nice image to convey a "Piece of Cake." It's a little small though.

I love the image template! You do wonderful work. Thank you so much for choosing it! And to think, I wanted to use a picture of cake...

Finally figuring out what you username meant did inspire me. As the first holder of the title, it was your due.

Most Irritating Thing About Geohashing Algorithm

I thought I saw a "service" on here that would instant message (or email) you the coordinates once available. If not, one could be created easily enough... Of course, you would have to have a device to receive messages turned on, not stowed for takeoff and landing :-) --Thomcat 01:25, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for the "My Kingdom for a Boat" ribbon. Good job. The email service is found at http://www.geohash.info

I can send and receive e-mail from the aircraft but not SMS. And I don't know if I can send punctuation other than .

Categories, etc.

I like the category tree, all the way to root. Well done!

Dear Abby,

Most expeditions that get within 25 feet or so I am judging as "success" - that is within the tolerance of a good GPS. My present conflict - one of my expeditions 2008-06-19 47 -121 was 7.7 meters away - within my car! Before it started to rain, I walked over to the fence and leaned on it, AND chatted with the homeowner who's driveway I was parked on. Do I re-calculate my hash total and call this a success? --Thomcat 04:10, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

I say success is in the mind of the succeeder. In fact, if I were you I would write a treatise about it right on the Category:Expedition outcomes (I don't know how to make a link to it without categorizing my user page there!) page, letting people know that if they feel their expedition was a success, they can change the category. I think you need to be wary of setting yourself up as the arbitrator of Success and Failure. But if you felt the sting of failure in that driveway, then you failed, but if you felt the glow of success, then you succeeded. I hope you're using that information from people's descriptions to categorize expeditions, as well.

I shall write said treatise. To put your category here, put it in square brackets with a colon in front of it. In fact, just edit this and see how I changed yours ;) --Thomcat 04:32, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, that will come in handy. And really good job on that treatise. I think you will prevent any hurt feelings with that, and get people to cooperate. -Robyn 04:52, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

And thank You for the idea! Incidentally, I changed that expedition to a success, with a clean conscience. --Thomcat

Virgin - we talked about putting a banner on the graticule page with the qualifying party or parties. I tested this out with Seattle. However, this makes the category page a mish-mash. See Category:Virgin_graticule_achievement. Acceptable, or another alternative? --Thomcat 18:00, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

I thought it was a little weird when I saw it listed in the Category last night, but then shrugged and said, "If Seattle wants to declare its maturity with that banner, so be it." But NOW I understand what you were asking before about the Virgin Graticule banner and I almost wrote here that you should design a new banner for that purpose. But then I realized it would still get mixed up. There are other graticules who like to display what I thought of as personal achievements on their graticule pages and, well I'm just proud the banners are being happily used. The effect of the banners will to automatically generate a list of expeditions, users and graticules who care enough about the achievements to display a banner. It's easy to distinguish among them, so no harm done. -Robyn 18:56, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Re: Templates

Thanks. I've just inverted the Land hash icon actually. :) Night hashing must be fun.. I definitely plan to do these achievements soon. We've done some night caching the other day which gave me the idea.. it's really special to scramble through unknown territory in the dark. -- Relet 09:51, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

"Actually" cold...

I'll have you know that we nearly froze to death that day...!  ;) Ted 14:28, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

8,9,10...

No, it was just nine hashes, and eight of them which I count as reached. In that one case, I didn't even bother to get out of the car, as it was clearly in a fenced sheep pasture. The other points on the map (in Berlin) is where I started from, and how I have returned. You'll see that they are not aligned with the other hashes.

Thanks for the ribbon offer, but I am not certain which one you are referring to? I think I got all the ribbons I need (for that trip). :D

Oh, unless you mean the expensive geohash - I'm not too keen on that one. And I'm sure you'll beat me there if you do the MONSTER air geohash which you are alluding to. I'd love to see you do this one. Even though I think it's a bit more rewarding to actually put your foot on the spot and leave a few hash marks.

I still feel a bit disappointed for still not having met any other geohashers, which I did not bring myself in the first place.. seems to be our common curse. :] -- Relet 10:23, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

---

Re: Air Multihash - If you prefer to leave the graticules' virginity to us landlubbers, we can make you a special ribbon for the flyover. How about Petting the Graticule. ;} --Relet 13:54, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

ROTFL! I don't want to take away the opportunity for virgin hashes from other pilots, but perhaps one for the first LAND hash in a graticule that has already been sniped from the air would be appropriate. -Robyn 14:04, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

A harsh marsh...

...deserves a ribbon. :D Feel free to move it to your user page. -- Relet 12:01, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Wow

And I thought I had been busy the last few days! You put the rest of us to shame (in a good way of course!) I particularly enjoyed your accounts of the Wal-mart bike. Good luck to you, I'm sure you'll make it to another hash point soon! Thepiguy 07:48, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

As long as you keep writing stuff, I'll keep reading it! And don't let mother nature get you down! As long as you keep trying (and as long as you don't buy a $100 Wal-mart boat to attempt a water hash in the middle of the lake!) I'm sure you'll conqueror that graticule! On a side note, if Vancouver keeps treating me as well as it has been, I may catch up to you yet! =) Thepiguy 19:53, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Re: most active

As soon as we upgrade to the next version of Mediawiki, there'll be the automatic variable {{PAGESINCATEGORY:...}}, which should automate a lot of statistics. Then you'll only have to add new candidate cities to the page, and maybe change their order from time to time.

Yeah, wikis are great.. you just browse around and fiddle and do. I just happened to search for "active" (as I had your page in mind) and found two of the same name. -- Relet 21:44, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

This works fairly well for tracking graticules (though not successful geohashes - we need something that can parse multiple categories I think). I'm currently contemplating a scorecard template of some sort. Similar to the A/S/G, you can update your scorecard for hashes attempted, success, etc. Then the template can use categories (please suggest for me, Robyn!) to count those scores, and we can then visit the category page to see the overall scorecard. Or maybe I'm just full of beans...

I thought the categories "Coordinates reached" and "..not reached" would be the ones we count. Same goes for "Category:Meetup in LON,LAT" Why would it not work?

If there's anything that could relate to several categories, we just need a meta-category to contain it. I am thinking for example of "Failed - Mother Nature" and "Failed - No Trespassing" which (should) require the category "Coordinates not reached". -- Relet 21:47, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Boy am I spacey - I was referring to individuals! Our graticule categories work well for comparing graticules, but the only thing that works for individual geohashers is a manual compare. While I can't currently think of a good automated method for counting individual expeditions and successes, I am thinking of a manual method that would allow us to compare easily - a scorecard template. We then add categories to that template to keep score (something like Category:Count expeditions 20 or Count successes 10 or Count no public access 3). --Thomcat 03:56, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

I didn't quite follow, so I just kept quiet. I guess that's why. I see the benefit of the template, but not everyone counts them the same way. Some people don't list their geohashes on their user pages, being content to have their names on the expedition pages. But that's okay. The wildly active people would probably participate, and I guess you're most interested in that. Curiously I hit success #10 on my 20th hash. If you'd asked me I would have said my success rate was one in three or four, not one in two. I guess I notice the dry streaks more than the win streaks. -Robyn 04:04, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Congratulations

On beating the Slave Lake. :D -- Relet 21:47, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Now if I could just get Utikuma Lake ... -Robyn 05:50, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

We all knew you'd get it done! Congratulations again! I also can't decide how I feel about your bike. On one hand, the picture of the mud made me want to cry, but on the other hand, I'm sure this is the most use anyone has gotten out of a Wal-mart bike in a looooong time! And thanks for helping with my categories! Thepiguy 16:31, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

I'd say you've already gotten far more than your monies worth out of that bike! I read somewhere that the average department store bike never gets ridden more than 12km. And I'm sure not many people have ever patched a tire on any of them too! Have you decided what your going to do with it once you leave? I think there should definitely be some sort of shrine. Thepiguy 16:49, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Wow, that's like people ride it home and forget it. I'm planning on passing it on to the co-workers who will replace me and/or finding a local who is willing to garage it for the winter. There is a good chance I'll be back in next summer for more work in the area.

I've noticed a distinct lack of a sense of urgency in my desire to gt totoday's hash. It's pretty near an access road about 30 km down the highway. But I'm still basking in yesterday's success. Plus I need to do laundry and might still get called to work in the next two hours. -Robyn 17:00, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Keep those airport geohash alerts coming. Someday they'll pay off. - Robyn 02:06, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

Trying to make a Template

I'm going to try to figure out how to make a template. It will be the Template:Achievement Description.

More Icons

Thanks for the input on the icons. Here are some more for your perusal.

• 

  Golf Geohash

• 

  Regional Geohashing

• 

  Time-Traveller Geohash

• 

  Trail of Blood

• 

  Youngest Geohasher

• 

  Endurance Geohashing

• 

  The rest of these

• 

  might be useful

• 

  for something.

• 

  I liked the images

• 

  while I was going through

• 

  all the comics,

• 

  so I saved them

• 

  and put them here.

I like the impala. Gallop! Gallop! What would make a good Impala Achievement? "You had to flee from the geohash."? -- Relet 10:17, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

I thought someone might just want it on their user page. One thing I was toying with was achievements for what you see (and succeed in photographing) at the geohash: ungulate, insect, reptile, bird etcetera. I was also thinking of a Moon Landing geohash, like the Origin Geohash except for the date of the first human moon landing. But that would make wild splintering into commemorative dates for everything. -Robyn 13:57, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks (again!)

[Re-inserting. Please be careful not to stomp others' talk!]

Hey, Robyn -- you're really kicking ass keeping this wiki up to date with all your categorizing, achievement and other work. It's really great -- thanks! Ted 15:05, 22 August 2008 (UTC) Ted 15:14, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, Ted! I thought to be editing the section, not the page. -- Relet 17:05, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Regarding Crisco Twister badge

None at all, please go right ahead. I put this reply on my talk page as well. Ironiridis 20:04, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Northern Geohash

You know that your Slave Lake geohash would place #10 on the northern geohash list, right? Might be worth putting in there. -Wmcduff 00:13, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

Most active graticules

I had just merged the two pages Most Active Graticules (created by you in August) and Most active graticules (note the capitalization) created by Jevanyn in July. T'wasn't even me keeping the scorecards. -- Relet 12:53, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

Ack. I wonder why Jevanyn's wasn't linked to the achievememnts page. -Robyn 12:59, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

Regional Geohash

First, were you meaning Robyn/Regional Geohash to be User:Robyn/Regional Geohash?

Second, well done, and I had no idea BC was so big. Mind you, the east-west variance near the northernmost BC graticule is much smaller, but BC is huge compared to my Washington or Aperfectring's Florida. --Thomcat 17:43, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

You are quite right about the page name. I've just moved it. And I never noticed how big my provine was until I did that, either. Mind you, there are a lot of graticules with just slivers, making it look bigger, but I've never been to so much of it. I'm thinking of making the bits I've been to, but not geohashed, some other colour. -Robyn 18:12, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

hmmm, echo also first question for Robyn/Graticule Hopper (1,423 bytes) and Robyn/Incredibly Crappy Walmart Bicycle (3,659 bytes). --Thomcat 18:06, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Ayup, I'll do them, too. -Robyn 18:12, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Airport geohash alert

This is pretty short notice, but Newark Liberty Airport has the geohash for Friday, 7/25. Any chance you can get to the east coast? -- Jevanyn 13:48, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

You'll really appreciate this.

Minesweeper Geohash Ribbon

Hey! I'm the guy currently sitting beside thepiguy who suggested the idea to him. Would you rather I leave the ribbon to you? I didn't hear back from here, so I decided to go ahead and start anyways, though I've not progressed too far yet. If you'd like to work on it, I'll gladly leave it to you.

Ah, no problem. It was just weird to see someone who wasn't part of the original discussion suddenly doing what I had just saved. Check out Template:Minesweeper geohash and I'll check out yours and we'll keep the best of both. Parsing does work on the number in the image name, so it's easy. -Robyn 23:23, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Hmm, I never even noticed the lower case version. Whoops! Thanks for the heads up regarding parsing! -Srs0 23:27, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Mine's not done yet, and not even close to as far along as you. This is my first template, so I've spent a while reading through wikipedia's instructions regarding them. However, you've basically done what I was trying to figure out how to do. I'll take a good look at your page and make any suggestions I can think of. -Srs0 23:33, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Discussion has moved to Template talk:Minesweeper geohash.

Re: My ribbons

Haha! Yeah, I'll take any ribbon I can get! I love the colours!!! Thepiguy 05:01, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure if I like it though... they're so squished together! Thepiguy 16:26, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

An Idea for a Tool

This would help hardcore geohashers, and increase participation from casual geohashers.

Purpose

This is a tool for:

• someone who doesn't check the wiki every day, but wants to know when there's a geohash near him
• someone working on a Regional Geohash who wants an alert when today's coordinates fall in the right province
• someone who wants to introduce her brother to geohashing, but is waiting for a day when the coordinates are near his house
• a mountainous/coastal graticule that wants an alert when coordinates fall on accessible land

Description

For each graticule of interest the geohasher specifies the graticule and the area she wants to know if the coordinates fall in. The simplest implementation would be to specify a point and a radius. A more complex implementation might have an interface allowing you to specify a polygon. You should be able to specify multiple points per graticule, effectively building up a polygon, anyway. When one of your requested areas matched, the program would send you an alert telling you that "[Today's|Saturday's|Sunday's] coordinates in the [graticule] may fall within your area of interest." It would include a link to the appropriate map lookup, so you can see for yourself.

Implementation

Ha ha, this would be something I don't know how to do. Do you?

I have some ideas about doing this. I will think about it some more when I get home from work. --aperfectring 20:03, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Awesome!

Aperfectring is working on some implementation of this here. Please discuss it there if you have something useful to add, or leave a comment here if you just need to tell me how ignorant I am. :-) -Robyn 22:05, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

I have a functional prototype (for testing) for the program, and have moved information about it to its own page: User:Aperfectring/Notification Included on the page is information about subscribing. --aperfectring 21:28, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

What's this "job"-thing good for anyway? It prevents me from geohashing!

No, currently I don't have a job. I might have one again next week. The last 2 hashes I did were very possible after work anyway. Today I have 4 possible hashes at 70-85km distance. And an appointment for a new job just after noon. There goes my consecutive hash... No time to cycle that much after the appointment. I will only work for 3 days a week though(since that earns me just enough to get by), trying to finish my Bachelor's degree in the other days (and geohash, of course).

You know the period of 11 days in August where I didn't hash? That was because of 1 week fulltime work (well, and a camping weekend). I did cycle to work though, 56km/day.--Arvid 06:18, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

I'm kind of glad to hear that, beause otherwise there would be someone in the office wondering where you were all this time. Too bad you can't get a job as a professional geohasher. You're clearly very qualified. -Robyn 05:17, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

I am amazed how much effort you put into geohashing; I just read the stories of some of your adventures and find them as entertaining as some other writing I enjoy and think is authored by you. (Shhhhh ;) I wish my life would provide infinite time since there's just too many nice/interesting/fun things to do. Do you have any good advice about how I could put 300 hours worth of activities I'd like to do each day into the 24 hours I have and still get enough sleep? On some days, the best part about this "job"-thing seems to be the bike commute, which for me is 25 km one way. Fall makes it harder, though, with the earlier darkness and the rain. I do find the words in these lyrics by some friends of mine to be of relevance, especially the thing about jobs on days where the job gets tough and the thing about the nice weather and bikes. Might qualify as the official geohashing hymn. -zb

So that's how you were doing it! You almost doubled my total distance in 3 days! Good luck with your appointment this afternoon! (Although, I honestly have no idea what time it is over there. As long as it isn't tomorrow yet...) Thepiguy 18:06, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Meeting Other Geohashers

I find it amazing that you are yet to run into any other Geohashers on all of your adventures (especially the Sat Edmonton one!) I haven't done anywhere nearly as many expeditions as you, and keep running into other geohashers (even on the mid-week ones when I expect there to be no one else there!). In fact I'm yet to achieve a solo geohash! I guess you'll just have to come down to Australia some day... :P --CJ 02:16, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

I think Australians must have some special affinity for geohashing. I will definitely geohash when I make it down there. -Robyn 02:21, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Port Renfrew -> Lake Cowichan

Just a larger town in the grat, and besides, if I didn't, I would have never noticed you missed one of the 'e's in Ucluelet. :D - Wmcduff 02:55, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Home at last

I got home at around 9:45. Everything was going great until it started absolutely pouring rain. At one point, on the dike, the rain and the wind were so bad, it hurt to keep my eyes open.

Hope you made it home before the storm hit! Thepiguy 05:25, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

You motored! I got in at 9:15, and was only rained on for nine blocks. I added my bit to the raft expedition and am just starting on the second part. -Robyn 05:33, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Biking fun

So I think there is definitely something wrong with my back tire. I got a flat going through Stanley park on the way to the ferry terminal on Friday, replaced the tube with a brand new one, and got another flat this morning at the ferry terminal in Langale. I went less than 50km on it. Also, all of the flats so far have been in the same spot, right opposite valve, so there must be something stuck in there.

And also on Friday, my front tire got a flat riding down the giant hill into Horseshoe Bay, but that one was a legitimate, unlike the back two. Isn't biking fun? Thepiguy 20:47, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

I got those new tires I promised, but they aren't the same quality as the old ones. I couldn't find a match for weight and size and quality, so I went with some light cheap ones and I'll go heavier if I need to. I've ridden these just 100 km or so, but that included the so-called bike route through Surrey next to the railroad tracks and they took what the trail dished out. I hope your amp goes wel, and that your services are not needed. -Robyn 00:53, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Hey Robyn, does the ICWB count as a beast of burden geohash? It's alive, isn't it? - UnwiseOwl 02:26, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

No, no matter how much of a personality your bicycle has, it does not qualify for the Beast of Burden geohash achievement! -Robyn 02:34, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

But, but, the ICWB is no mere bicycle! It is a demon made flesh, an abomination of nature, a metallic creation of such technological horror that no mere mortal, other than a geohasher of the first rank, could ever tame such a wild, canny, and finicky beast! Truly, other mere vehicles are mere metal mounts, but the ICWB? It can only be called by it's initials because at the merest mention of its full and horrible name, strong men weep, women faint away, and children have nightmares, screaming in their beds of the seat, the horrible, horrible seat that won't stay flat! Surely attempting to not only ride such a monstrosity, but to geohash upon it's leaky tires, torturous seat, and flimsy unsecured handlebars pedals, surely this deserves a greater achievement? - Wmcduff 03:12, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

I can't think that there was any particular problem with the handlebars, except that the grips were very uncomfortable without gloves. But the pedal did fall off. -Robyn 04:11, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

There. I try to be accurate in my over-dramatic diatribes. :) - Wmcduff 05:04, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

Wedding Achievement

Thanks for visiting my pages and for the nice comments. Because you mentioned you enjoy making ribbons, I decided to try and find a good image for the Wedding Anniversary Geohash achievement. Here's my attempt at an icon. Hope it is acceptable and you can make a good ribbon from it. --Bishop_Wash 04:56, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

Statistics and Categories

I'm not tracking Planning, in fact I usually do what you've been doing - put it where nothing seems to have happened. Incidentally, thanks - the more this stuff is nailed down, the more accurate the statistics.

Creating a Graticule Page would have the same category as Expedition - and not expeditions. Maybe Category:Wiki Stuff?

Finally, good luck in Alberta. Time for a geohash this weekend if any are favorable? --Thomcat 00:11, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

"Wiki Stuff" is awfully vague. I'd like it to be a little more self-explanatory. I think I'll wait a while and figure out what else turns up that belongs there. There are a number of ancillary pages not yet categorized, falling in the rough theme of "things you should know".

I don't have weekends on rotation, I just work flat out until either the airplane or the weather goes bad, and then wait for it to be fixed. So I get to geohash here on snow days. It's really rough here, so I probably shouldn't be going in the woods without a gun, or at least a truck. We shall see. -Robyn 00:29, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Category:Administration is described to be what I want, but that's an awful name. I suppose I could tag it for deletion and create a new one with a new name. -Robyn 01:30, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Ironically, Lyx just asked me for the page (below), and was looking for it in Help, so I'll link it there. -Robyn 14:33, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Manual for creating an expedition page

Hey Robyn, yesterday I stumbled across your manual for writing an expedition page, including useful information on uploading pictures and the like, and today I cannot find it anymore. Do you know what I mean and can you tell me the link? Maybe you would like to put the link on the still pityful looking Help page, too? --Lyx

It's Thomcat's page, although I may have edited it a tiny bit, and it's called Expedition. Thomcat and I were just discussing where to organize such pages. I'll take your suggestion and put them on the help page for now. -Robyn 14:31, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Your infinite pool of wisdom

I'm thinking of trying the [[1]] hash, but google won't give me directions. Is it not a public-access road? I couldn't find the GVRD's watershed maps either.

Hope you're having fun in... wherever it is you are!

The watershed map was at here, it's linked in the Description section of the Vancouver graticule page, but I see now that it won't open. I'm going to guess without looking that if it looks like it might be in the watetshed, it's in the watershed. And here is where they moved the map to. Yep, it's in the watershed. -Robyn 15:39, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the map! Darn watershed. Upon closer look, the base of the lake actually has a dam on it! Definitely out of bounds.

Victoria is 200 m of Young Lake Road, about 50 km from the ferry terminal. -Robyn 17:44, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

I'm going to give this biking-in-the-snow thing a try. Do you have any experience with this particular activity? Would a knobby tired mountain bike do much better than Josephine's 1 1/4 inch hybrid tires? They have an inverted tread pattern that these people seem to think is enough...

I used to bike in the snow when I lived in Waterloo, Ontario. I did okay with a road bike, mainly on multi-use trails that were packed down. Later I had a cheap mountain bike. It did quite well and I don't think I needed its super knobby tires. I wouldn't buy special tires unless you've determined that the ones you have aren't doing the job. I remember wiping out sometimes when the snow was laid over ice, but no tires would have helped that, and I also remember slamming into the back of a parked car in a white-out. Both times I was glad of heavy winter clothing for padding. You have to allow for poor braking and a lot of extra time. Like in a car, really. You might have to walk up 10th. Waterloo is a lot flatter than Vancouver. Also I can't remember if Josephine has fenders or just deflector shields, but fenders get clogged with snow.

Don't forget that the Vancouver streets will be salted and that that stuff is bad for your new bike. I was in Montreal recently after an ice storm and people were still biking the next morning but on what were clearly their beater bikes, not their "real" bikes. -Robyn 09:48, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

graticule naming..

The big mountain graticule could be named after the districts or mountains it encompasses. Anything "largest". I've been looking at topographical maps at mytopo.com, and if I scrolled to the right area, I'd suggest "Peace River Land District". -- Relet 19:05, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

I very much doubt that the Peace River land district covers that area. The town of Peace River is several graticules away at 56, -117, and even if that land district is very large, the Nameless graticule is in a different province. -Robyn 19:10, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Ok, I guess I scrolled somewhere else then. It wasn't easy to tell mytopo to give me a map of an area where I couldn't specify any settlement to be contained.

Oh, and lots of thanks for cleaning up Category:Europe! Europeans are so lazy these days. :D -- Relet 16:12, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

I agree with you (I'm assuming it was you that commented on my talk page) about not creating graticule pages for the middle of nowhere, unless it adjoins an area that I'm in or have geohashed in. It's been interesting to map the whole of Australia though. Makes you realise just how insanely huge our country, and even states are... --CJ 00:40, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Yes, it was me. I keep getting logged out without noticing. I don't know how that happens. And yes, your country is insanely huge. You're going to need several sections to yourself in the All Graticules page. -Robyn 00:44, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Hey, Robyn! I'm a (at this point: potential) new geohasher in Michigan. I've been looking all around this wiki and it looks like a good time. I've started making the graticule pages for some of the graticules in Michigan I think I'd like to get to. A few needed to be renamed, though. For example, I renamed the former Cadillac graticule to Traverse City since Traverse City is a fair amount bigger and is more of a hub for the region, let alone that graticule. I updated that page, the neighbors' pages, and the All Graticules page. Is there anything else I would need to update? The only other thing I can see is changing the link in the bottom left of the peeron map page, but I can't find how to do that. Sorry for the long message, but nice to meet you! --excellentdude 21:58, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Hey Robyn, the most recent change in All Graticules (http://wiki.xkcd.com/wgh/index.php?title=All_Graticules&curid=485&diff=64725&oldid=64724&rcid=64573) seems to have renamed an existing grat. The claimed new grat (Powell River) is 49 -12 anyway, not 50 -125. Given I don't know the area, I don't want to change it. Can you sort it out? Thanks :) --joannac 04:47, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

That was a weird one. The graticule was already named, and the Powell River name was right underneath it. Maybe the person is from Powell River and wondered why they didn't have a graticule. If they'd changed the name of the Port Alberni grat to Powell River I'd have probably left it. -Robyn 05:08, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Ninja hunting

I've been quite busy lately, between work and resume prep and ground-pounding geohashing. If you feel up to it, you could always go find expeditions on graticule pages and create expedition pages for them - aka hunt for ninjas. --Thomcat 20:36, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, I'll keep it on my list. Right now I'm keeping busy making gratiule pages for all the graticules my company sends me to, and their neighbours. It takes me fifteen minutes just to name these things. You know you have a remote area when the entire graticule is named after one town with 25 people in it. -Robyn 22:44, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Random Thought

If the geohash falls in the Massey Tunnel (a highway tunnel that goes under a major river) and we do it, do we get underground, underwater, or both? I promise that if it DOES fall in the tunnel, on a day with suitable weather when I am in town, I will take everyone who comes to the geohash up in an airplane so they can get an underwater/underground/airhash. Note that I will not fly the airplane through the tunnel, although being simultaneously underground, underwater and in an airborne vehicle would qualify for something very special, in addition to the Transport Canada violation and/or Darwin Award.

If it ever does fall in this tunnel of which you speak, I think I'd almost fly to your side of the world in order to claim the underwater/underground/air triple-combo. Oh and I truly hope no-one ever earns themselves a Darwin Award Geohash achievement...--CJ 13:35, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

I'll pick you up at the airport if it does. -Robyn 03:47, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

Small World

Wow, you're Qov! The Internet is a strange place.

Yup, that's me. I want one of those t-shirts that says, "Famous on the Internet." And I went to UW. -Robyn 23:05, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Now I'm curious. Who's Qov? --Ilpadre 06:28, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

Robyn == QoV :P --joannac 06:30, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

Air geohash

I made a proposal for the Air Geohash, could you add your opinion as a very active airhasher? How high are you usually flying? I don't want to lower your 100% probability for reaching the hashpoint during work. - Danatar 12:16, 9 November 2008 (UTC)

Geohash Thursday Friday!

All I can say is WOOT! Be sure to post roughly what time - we'll figure out where and which graticule on Thursday morning. --Thomcat 18:01, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

I'm volunteering for the Girl Scouts on Thursday evening, then will have Friday free to explore, visit and drive back. Yay for my nexus pass. -Robyn 18:05, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

Hope you like Hood Canal - the last three in a row have been far west. Girl scouts - cool! We are considering that for our 5 year old. --Thomcat 14:54, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Make that four in a row. If you go a little out of your way, Snoqualmie is achievable, and North Cascades *might* be. I can probably do neither today, but look forward to meeting up tomorrow. --Thomcat 15:00, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Heh, I'd just reached that conclusion. I have to meet someone in Kirkland at one, so I think I'll try Snoqualmie around noon, depending on how traffic and border goes, and hope the geohash gets unstuck by Friday. -Robyn 15:34, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Not sure what time you are headed north, but there's a meetup possibility on the way - 2008-05-25 47 -122. Unless you *really* like Hood Canal. I need to be in Seattle at 1pm, but could meet around noon in this location. If you are around for the weekend, both days are great spots here - and less so in Vancouver.

All I can say is that this would be a great week for the geohash endurance challenge. You could do it on foot. C'mon you stupid point, MOVE! I was planning on going home today. I'm in Kirkland right now, but probably won't be leaving until close to noon, so let me look up those points and get back to you. -Robyn

Nope, it's not going to work with my schedule. Besides I'd rather meet you at a "real" geohash. It will happen eventually. I'll be back down next weekend, I think.

Next Weekend

... which is this weekend. Already back in the Great White North, or do you plan to hit a Sunday geohash? --Thomcat 06:37, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Ah, yeah, I came down Friday, didn't make it out to the Seattle one on Friday, tried on Saturday, a little late, because there was a mycologist and an eight-year-old involved, and am going to Montreal tomorrow morning. - Robyn 07:37, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

How long you going to be in Montreal, Robyn? I'm going to be there mid-month... -Wmcduff 09:01, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Dunno, but probably not that long. -Robyn 14:38, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Quotations

Hmm, if I'd known I was going to be quoted on the front page, I'd have been more eloquent. But thankyou for the great honour. -- UnwiseOwl 05:28, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

I started out by just pulling it out of your text, then I was going to put it on the help page under "Understanding Geohashing" then I was going to put it under "Amazingly Cool" and then I just dropped it there. It really does explain geohashing.

Custom messages

Do you know how the custom message about categorising images (that appears at the bottom every time you're editing a page) got there? I want to add a note about using the preview button. --joannac 01:37, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

It's in MediaWiki:Edittools, which isn't editable by me, but perhaps your elite powers will let you edit it. -Robyn 04:26, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

2008-12-03

So, your last geohash says something about Quebec... so there's a good chance you're out of town. But, if you are still here, I'm going to head out on my bike later for another easy Vancouver hash!

Yeah, I'm away until after New Year's for work. I don't think I'll have much freedom to geohash at home until March. I expected today's location would be easy in Vancouver. I resisted looking, because I can't go. I doubt I'm going to be able to get to many here. The public transit system is a mess of multiple bus companies. -Robyn

Hashcard achievement‎

Hi Robyn, may I please have your address? Kate 20:39, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Yes, done. -Robyn 20:52, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Expedition naming

Hey Robyn, can you provide your wisdom on Talk:Origin Geohash please? --joannac 22:32, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads up. Done. -Robyn 04:15, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Deletion of old expedition planning pages

Hi Robyn! I hope this is the right place to ask (if not, please move it to where you think it should be). I recently started tagging old "yyyy-mm-dd nn ee" expedition pages for deletion, where they contained only very preliminary planning or no useful content, such as "point is in a field, i might go there if the rain stops" or "the algorithm sucks, this point is in the ocean"; pages that were created in May or June last year when rules for doing that sort of thing had not yet been established. I had asked about it in #geohashing, and we decided those pages weren't really needed anymore and merely clutter up the wiki. A few others joined in the delete-tagging frenzy and now we have a lot of these pages tagged. Joannac is (understandably) reluctant to delete so many pages (which she thinks may someday be interesting to look back to), and is asking for your expert opinion on the issue. What should we do with those one-line, single-user expedition pages that never even really deserved the "Expedition planning" category? --dawidi 23:36, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

I must admit to being a little dismayed when I returned from my vacation to see the frenzy of planning deletions. I think the failures and planning are part of the process, and I wouldn't have voted to delete any page that consisted of someone considering a location and how to get there, or simply cursing their fate at not having a boat. I have seen a few that look like automated page creation with no thought, and wouldn't mind discouraging the people who seem to sit and compile lists of geohashes but never try to reach any. But "clutter up the wiki"? If we're running out of room, we haven't left enough space for a growing sport. I think I have created a few "planning" pages that I knew at creation were for expeditions that would never happen, but they reflected days when all I could do was look. I wouldn't want them to be deleted. Good on Joannec for showing the stuff a moderator should show. I wouldn't delete anything unless its presence was actually posing a problem, e.g. causing confusion by being a duplicate page or a wrong name graticule page. -Robyn 00:04, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I actually have to admit that I'm one of those who would prefer to see a cleanup. Anyway, Not so much on the pages themselves but in the categories - I don't think it's appropriate to have dozens of "It's a field, does anyone go?" pages in a Category:Meetup in X Y and Category:Meetup on YYYY-MM-DD. Because there neither was a meetup/expedition in that place nor on that date. Currently the template puts the pages into these categories automatically, and some of these categories leave the impression that a graticule has been very active in the past although the only activity was creating the pages. So if we want to keep these pages, I'd at least vote to take them out of the regular expedition categories, similar to the retro expeditions. --Ekorren 00:26, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Hmm. I think the cause of Ekorren's discomfort was in the original decision to name the categories "Meetup" when often no meetup is involved. I am never entirely happy with those tags, either, but I do support creation of such pages early in the planning process, so that people clicking through from the peeron page see that others might be going. The Expedition tag distinguishes between the "hey, it's a road" and "I went and no one else came" submissions. One argument is that it is appropriate for a planning page to have the proper meetup tags, and it isn't reasonable for the system to require people to go back and edit planning pages when they don't make the meet. -Robyn 00:51, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I too have been deleting the odd early page so perhaps I'd better take an interest in this discussion. I think I agree with Ekorren. To me, the "Meetup" tags indicate a successful mission (no matter how many people showed up) -- either to the hashpoint itself or to an alternative Saturday location. And for unsuccessful missions, the "Expedition" and "Failed: reason" tags are useful. That rather seems to me to be what they are for, taking the "Meetup" tag away from a planning page seems reasonable. (The slight problem then is that it can't show a meetup location map any more.) I am unsure about whether I think that it's better to keep the "Expedition Planning" category for those which are being currently planned, or whether to leave it on all old expedition planning pages. I would still support the deletion of one-line planning pages, though, which are the result of two seconds' tapping at a computer and not any actual planning. -- Benjw 06:23, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

People's levels of verbosity range. What if some of those planning pages you delete are both the initial planning and the placeholder for expeditions that actually happened, but whose expeditioners haven't written them up. They went but didn't meet anyone, so didn't see the point. They haven't finished the roll so haven't developed the film (not everyone has digital already) and intend to ome back and finish it, but you deleted it! Anyway, I don't see what harm the patheti planning pages do. The Meetup tags don't indicate a successful expedition. They indiate the time and place of the geohash being disussed. I don't think it's a good idea to change the system that is ore to identifying the things. And maybe my tomorrow's geohash will be achievable. -Robyn 06:40, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I tend to agree with Robyn here (and you are always welcome to come south and expedite, er, geohash with us, okay, me). Deleting a "this sucks" page from a many moons ago and from a user who hasn't made a wiki edit in as many months is probably okay, but anything else should be left. Active users can (of course, and arguably should) mark their own planning pages for deletion - I have a few times. --Thomcat 06:54, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

January 22nd Multihash

First glance at the map put the hashpoint on I-5, but satellite examination has it off E Lake Samish drive. Been by that lake many times, but only on the interstate. Good luck! --Thomcat 18:08, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I've been there. I won a ribbon in a triathlon along that road. I wonder if I can summon proof of the deja vu! -Robyn 18:12, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

2009-01-24

I'm doing Bowen Island! Want to come? Thepiguy 04:08, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I dooo. I was supposed to go to motorcycle show in Abbotsford, but I've just persuaded the person I'm supposed to go with that Sunday is a much better day for attending motorcycle shows. Target: Bowen! -Robyn 04:29, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Bill Gates

Since I trust you, and wouldn't want to miss a Gates achievement, I'm getting on a plane now...I'll see you in a few hours at your place... -- UnwiseOwl 05:00, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Excellent. See you here in 14 hours or so. I'll send the butler to get you at the airport. -Robyn 05:07, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

It's snowing today so I have to decide if I'm going to bike 100 km in the snow or not. -- I'll vote for "no"! -- Benjw 16:35, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

For the record, I vote yes. -- UnwiseOwl 22:48, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Eat Poop You Owls

Of course you like me, Robyn. -- ummmwhat

Ha ha! I love the internet. It's funny how I had a different mental image for "each" of you, though. -Robyn 19:42, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

After all, unwiseowl is a jerk, and ummmwhat is a nery, poetic type..., anyway, well met. - UnwiseOwl 04:14, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, while I'm here, I saw you mention a while back that you had a collection of favourite geohashing quotes...I think, my memory is a bit odd. If so, have you any to add to my little collection here? -- UnwiseOwl 02:49, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Um, didn't I start that page? If not, then there's a very similarly named page somewhere that I did start. -Robyn 03:08, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, I started that one, I think...I couldn't find yours, but I did look. Hmm, maybe I'm getting old and my memory is broken.-- UnwiseOwl 03:09, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Found and integrated. And then did weird things to the formatting. You think maybe every second one should be a different colour or something? -Robyn 03:18, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

How about we put them all in quotes boxes, then see waht it looks like? You wanna do it, or want me to? -- UnwiseOwl 03:23, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure all quotes would look a bit lopsided. Maybe a few more, but not more than every second one. -Robyn 03:27, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Ugh, formatting this is nasty...I might leave it to someone who understands, as mine keeps being...weird. Another one for joannac's list, I guess... -- UnwiseOwl 04:05, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Sumas

I will do my best to take some good photos and have a half-decent summary... ;) Twilightcity 20:38, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Hashcard

Whoo Hoo! Thankyou very much! I was very, very excited to be the hashcard's lucky recipricant. Kate 09:00, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. It was almost as exciting to log on and have the award as it is to turn up at a geohash and have there be a stranger there. -Robyn 18:07, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Birthday Party

Geohashers are invited to my birthday party.

Thanks!

Thanks for the well-wishes, and I will definitely keep the Formal attire acheivement in mind. I also wanted to thank you for all the great work on the Help and How-to pages... they are a HUGE help! Meghan 22:41, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Move

Thanks for that! I really am not particularly good at this stuff! Ah well, have to go, am meeting CJ for a consecutive meet up! Kate 06:56, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Categories

Sorry for messing up a few of the categories. -- relet 22:24, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Ah no problem. I didn't look closely, but I think you were improving ribbon templates. Seems like a worthy cause. -Robyn 07:27, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Hi Robyn! I understand that it doesn't count when we don't reach the actual coordinates, but shouldn't there be a bit of a celebration when we get as close to them as possible? I feel a bit deflated when two out of the three categories on my page go FAIL. And we had such a nice time! --virgletati (how do I get the timestamp?)

What do you think about just replacing "Failed" with "Thwarted"? I think that gets the point across without the rancor. Virgletati 20:26, 24 March 2009 (UTC) (!)

That's pretty much what I said on your page already, isn't it? There are simply too many pages to change if there is no shortcut, however. Have a look at the Category:Failed - No public access and then multiply that by all the "failed" categories.

Turns out it is a nice thing to do, actually :). I am asking Thomcat right now about a new category, Not Reached - Got lost, or something like that. And I was glad that the first TC category I got was yours. Oh, and... I'm a girl :). --Virgletati 20:55, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Ah, thanks for the correction. I was thinking "Virgil" and not thinking beyond it. I would vote against "got lost" and here's why. If the person is writing up the expedition, then they clearly got unlost again. So why didn't they complete the expedition from there? Wouldn't it always be classifiable under an existing category? If they got so lost they required emergency rescue then there's still a reason they got lost. Fewer reasons seems better to me.

On the other hand, if I go geohashing one day and never come back, I want you to lobby really had for a Not reached - Died category, even though that is Mother Nature. You must, however, check my GPS to ensure that I wasn't on the way back from a successful geohash. -Robyn 21:04, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi

I'm no good at how to use a wiki. I'm way confused right now. I just wanted to thank you for welcoming me.... THANKS *waves and runs off into the distance* --Avarice 00:19, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

Re: Ninja hunting

I just saw your comment on Talk:2009-02-22_32_-90. I just wanted to point out that there is also a handy E-mail this user function on the left of every user page. This one should work even if the user disabled monitoring of his user talk page (but not if she disabled emailing altogether). I don't know if you knew, but I hope to increase your ninja uncovering odds this way. :) -- relet 09:56, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Re: Last Man Standing Ribbon

Yeah, I was just using it to figure out how the ribbon templates work. I was working on implementing the Back from the Grave honorary achievement and wanted to make sure I didn't break the existing functionality before I edited the real last man standing template.

Ugh. I dislike that one because it fractures the possibilities for any given day, and there's no chance of meeting someone there. But it's not always about me, is it? -Robyn 04:32, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Not always about you, Robyn, no. Just most of the time ;). In reality, no-one is going to go for a retro hash if the actual hash is even the barest possibility, so it probably doesn't have such an effect as you might think. -- UnwiseOwl 04:35, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

I'll allow the warm fuzziness of that rationalization to protect me from the retro hash. -Robyn 04:44, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

This weekend in Surrey

Wow, what great wilderness hashes for Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately I have little free time this weekend, and they don't look like quick trips. In these locations, would you expect shallow compacted snow, deep snow, a mud pit, or just a little damp? Also, do you think they're fenced off from the closest road? Be my guide! Juventas 00:51, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

I don't have knowledge of that specific area, but I see that Saturday is in a park, so you should have access. I suspect that the "Private Road" is parksboard access and will be gated with one of those swing bar gates that stops cars and trucks but not bikes and pedestrians. I also suspect there may be trails leading close to the geohash from 128th.

The terrain I predict is steep, heavily treed, with wet debris underfoot, maybe a little bit of snow but not much. Bear in mind that I have been out of town for a month, so I'm a little out of touch with what the weather has been up to.

Sunday: oh my, that's quite the spot. I expect it to be treacherously steep, heavily treed, with no artificial barriers to access, but very difficult going. Were I to try it, I might try to go up along the bank of the creek.

Both spots are at about 300-400 m elevation, so some snow, but I think the forest canopy is sufficient that there will not be much depth on the ground. I await your report to find out how wrong I am! -Robyn 02:12, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Turns out I won't have transportation today, and tomorrow is too far when you combine the driving and the hike. Alas. Juventas 19:02, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Canada grat name

Hi Robyn, your opinion is wanted at Talk:Lloydminster‎. --joannac 00:44, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

etrex tracklogs

Just saw your note...

Do I understand right that the point you fail at is splicing the long tracklog into several parts? If they are saved as GPX, and everything else fails, you could edit them manually in any kind of text editor. GPX actually is a XML variant, i.e. a pure text format which is more or less human-readable. That's what I'm currently doing myself (I have no idea what the software supplied by garmin does - it's windows software, after all, so it probably won't work here anyway - and haven't taken the time to search for decent track processing software yet). Also mind that if you save a track internally in the etrex (as opposed to downloading it from the freshly recorded data), timestamps are removed, which will confuse some programs and make the log less interesting. --Ekorren 01:30, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

The Garmin software is called MapSource, and I have heard it works with Wine. With some extra tricks you can even transfer data from and to the GPS with Linux.

When you download the data from the GPS, you get all data. My GPS starts a new tracklog every time I turn it on, or after it lost reception. What I do is save that as "all20090307.gdb" and then I delete everything except the tracklog I want, usually the most recent one. Same for the waypoints. I save that again as "geohash20090307.gdb" and *that* is the file I put in gpsvisualizer. You can delete the tracks individually.

Oh well, I also rightclick on the track and go to the properties of it, where I can see all logged points. I delete the very first and last bit, so it isn't very obvious where this man lives that leaves his house every saturday.--Arvid 07:06, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

Mine is mapsource, too. It came with either the GPS or a heart rate monitor I bought from Garmin. I tried to save the tracks for just the expeditions, but yes, the device contains every track for every time I've ever turned it on. I'll experiment with deleting parts of it. -Robyn 07:17, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't know. I saved what I thought was the track from my February 25th expedition as the default, a gdb file and then uploaded it using this website but the result had tracks from everywhere I'd ever been since I bought the GPS. Can you talk me through it? Can I mail it to you? Is there another way I can take the data off the GPS?-Robyn 01:34, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

The etrex records everything into an internal memory of 10.000 points (1.500 on very old models, probably more on better models - I own the low end etrex H). When the memory is full, it starts to overwrite the oldest parts. So, unless you manually delete the tracks in the GPS unit from time to time, you will always get a full 10.000 points worth of past logs. Depending on what you were doing, and what recording accuracy you set, that may be a few hours or a few weeks. For an example, on highest compressed accuracy, the 1000 km/19 hours trip to 2009-02-22_51_10 yielded about 8.000 points. The default setting seems to range around 40-50% of that.

I fear I can't "talk you through it" because you probably have to use totally different software I don't know at all. You may send me the file, though, and I'm quite sure I'll be able to cut out the interesting parts (give time range in UTC, please). However, I'm sure there is some good solution for your problem out there, and I hope someone will come up with it. (And now I'm off to bed, anyway - past 3 am here). --Ekorren 02:06, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

This is the website I used. If the files work (they display temporarily) just send them to me by email and I'll put them up for you!

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/map_input?form=googleearth

Thepiguy 20:32, 11 March 2009 (UTC)