User talk:Robyn

Make a new category at the bottom and add your comments, or add them into an existing category that makes sense. I'd really appreciate a good summary, too, as I might not get to the wiki for a week, but I'll get the notification e-mail. Old comments are on User talk:Robyn/OldTalk. Feel free to move a section back here if you want to talk about it more.

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)

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)