2008-11-19 47 8

Expeditions

Photo uploaded on the main page, details pending I presume. Looks like fun! --Thomcat 14:48, 20 November 2008 (UTC) (fellow latitude 47 geohasher)

I presume that one was part of the Swiss radio campaign for geohashing. Reports from participants are strongly encouraged. :) -- Relet 18:01, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

The photo is copied from the radio station's homepage (I just hope it was someone of the radio guys who did that, so there won't be a copyright issue with that). My hopes for a decent description here are rather low but I'd like being wrong in that case.

Maybe we should, for the time being, just link to their [radio report]. For those who won't understand anything of it because they don't speak german, it may be a consolidation that you wouldn't understand anything either if you did speak german, as it's entirely in swiss german which isn't simply a funny dialect but almost another language. --Ekorren 22:42, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

You're totally exaggerating. ;) But if you have some spare time (I know you do) maybe you'd like to begin a transcript/translation? -- Relet 23:13, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Seconded. I demand a translation :) -- UnwiseOwl 00:14, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

Refused. I gave up listening after the first part, for mostly two reasons (I am repeating myself): One, it's in swiss german (which actually doesn't make it impossible to understand but only difficult, I admit), two, I feel a bit ambivalent about this radio appearance. I think the fact that not even one of the listeners showed up in the wiki by now somehow proves they missed a vital part. And that someone who took part should write that report. If they offered a transcription somewhere, I may volunteer for translation or summary. --Ekorren 08:08, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

Transcription

source (all parts): DRS Drü website

I shall try to translate a bit of what I understand. Any help from native Swiss German or English speakers is welcome.

Part 1

source: rtsp://audio.drs.ch/drs3/geohashing.mp3

M: Good morning! And this - [snoring] - this sounds like work colleague Reto Widmer(?). Are you snoring?
Reto: Apparently, when I'm lying on my back, yes.
M: But, the good news for everyone sharing their bedroom with Reto: Tomorrow(?) he will not be snoring. Just as little as his two colleagues from the "DRS-3 Digital" editorial staff, because you will probably not be sleeping at all tonight. It's rather particular, and he will have no idea what is going to happen and where he will end up. We need some details.
Reto: Yes, the first thing we do tomorrow is to go on a website and this will tell us where we will have to go.
M: Ok, that wasn't really an explanation now. That means, you really have to ...
Reto: More exactly, the website will indicate the exact coordinates of a point on the map - it says for example "you go to the Metzgerhüsli, in the Emmental", but it could just as well be somewhere in the forest or in the rocks. The point is that the location is being calculated anew every day, namely using the current date and the current Dow Jones Index, the chart index. And that's why we cannot say today where we will have to go tomorrow.
M: Sounds like James Bond. But how does that work technically? How do you come from an American chart index to a point on the map of Switzerland?
Reto: There's a complicated, complex formula behind, the details of which I am also not fully aware. And then it's that Switzerland is divided into eight rectangles, and in every of these rectangles one of these points is determined. So we have eight points in Switzerland every day.
M: And to one of these you would be going tomorrow. So now... we're used to lots of things from our IT editorial staff, but the one or other will ask himself: "Yes, hello?! What's that supposed to be?"
Reto: Well, we didn't cook that up ourselves. It's a new GPS sport, for fans of navigation devices. The whole thing is called "Geohashing". You can enter the determined coordinates in the navigation device or look them up on a map and let you navigate to that point. Now, the point is that you will be looking if other people arrive at that point, leading to spontaneous meetings. And in our case that would be our DRS-3 listeners, where we had the idea that they would also arrive at that point. Let's have a look: Today for example, in the Bern region would be close to "Grand Chateau D'Oex", somewhere near Gstaad - let's hope that we won't have to talk French tomorrow.
M: Oh, so it can be anywhere in all of Switzerland?
Reto: That's now just for the region of Bern, and Guido goes to the Zurich region, and Luzi in the region of Basel. That means we have covered half of Switzerland already.
M: And then you can hike (...?)
Reto: Yes, right.
M: Ah, so, it's a GPS scavenger hunt with the DRS-3 IT editorials. It starts tomorrow morning. We'll be curious how many of you will show up at the same location as these three. How it all works in detail, we will tell you tonight at ten, and you can look it up on DRS3.ch.

Part 2

source: rtsp://audio.drs.ch/drs3/heute/geohashing_2.mp3

M: Now in the studio: Two work colleagues from the DRS-3 IT editorial staff. Reto Widmer and Guido Berger - and the IT staff has some plans with you. Tomorrow - it is, if I understood correctly some kind of scavenger hunt, but not with sticks and stones and chalk marks on the ground, but with real technology: GPS navigation devices. The whole thing is called "Geohashing" - and now I am wondering: What kind of scavenger hunt is it and where are you going?
Reto: We don't know yet either - that's the point of this "geohashing", that you only know on the day itself where you have to go.
M: Totally clueless today - who is telling you where it goes?
Reto: Totally clueless, yes. The location where it goes is being calculated anew every day from the current date and the Dow Jones Index, the chart index, which you cannot predict. Hence it is totally spontaneous. And behind it is a formula, which I must admit, I did not fully get behind either.
M: Ok, so it is being calculated day per day, and you will try tomorrow if it is going to work. The point lies anywhere - what happens when the point lies for example on the other side of the world?
Reto: That can't happen, because the world is divided into rectangles. Switzerland has got eight of these rectangles, and every rectangle has got its own geohash, one of these unique points. Tomorrow what will happen is that Guido will visit the rectangle Zurich/Inner Switzerland, Luzi will do Basel/Jura/Elsaß and I will go to Bern, Berner Oberland, Wallis. Maybe up the glacier, let's see.
M: Oookay - so three people on the road, three regions, Guido, you'll also be there, (...) could be that you'll have to take a bath in the Vierwaldstädter See(?)
Guido: Yes, that could really happen, because in my graticule there's many lakes: The Vierwaldstädter See, the Zuger See, the Zürisee, so it could really happen that I'll have to get somewhere on the lake and I have no idea how I would manage that. Today for example would have been easy - today I would just have to get to some farm west of Bruck, where I would have been within an hour. Luzi would have had to go somewhere on the Jura, that also would have been feasible, Reto would have had a more difficult task: He'd have to climb a mountain near Gstaad.
M: Guido and Reto, we have told a bit about that earlier, tomorrow then you will be headed to some place which you don't know today where it is. How will you get there?
Guido: In the ideal case, with the car. We're also a bit lazy. I fear that we'll just have to get as far as possible with the car and probably we'll have to get out our hiking boots to get somewhere up a mountain. (...) The chance that the car won't suffice is high. For me today, it would have been easy with the car, today I would have to get to Bruck which takes not more than an hour, that wouldn't be fun. In such a case I would raise the stakes and take the public transport to see if it's possible.
M: In any case you have to be well prepared, the weather tomorrow is not so great (...) what will you take?
Guido: Not that much, actually. The mobile certainly, mainly for the photos which we will send to the studio, to put them on the DRS 3 website. Then each of us brings a navigation device so that we can find the spot exactly, and that we don't get lost.
Reto: I will certainly take a raincoat - while it does not look that bad currently, but we won't want to freeze either. And then, because maybe it gets boring when I have to wait until my colleagues reach their mountaintops, and that's why I would be really happy if some other people came, some of our listeners, if you'd like to join in and choose one of the points and find us there.
M: So, it's extremely interactive! You can look up where the three are venturing and what there is to see from them, and what difficulties they have to surmount; if maybe they need help - at our site drs3.ch.

Part 3

source: rtsp://audio.drs.ch/drs3/digital/schnitzeljagd.mp3

M: The traditional scavenger hunt gets a rival: The new spare time fun is called "geohashing" and we will not only talk about it, but we'll participate actively. We need for that a GPS device and Internet. The experimental rabbits are our three IT editorial members. They will travel this morning - namely to a point that has been randomly chosen and hope to encounter a bunch of you people there. That's the main idea, Guido Berger will be with me for a few minutes in the studio. He is armed with a raincoat and lots of other things and - you really only know since a few minutes where you will be going-?
Guido: That's correct. I'll be starting from Zurich, and I'll have to go to a point which lies in the north-west of Bruck in the Aargau canton. There's a hill and it lies somewhere in the middle of the forest. My two colleagues, Luzi Müller and Reto Widmer from the IT editorial staff are also going, Luzi is starting from Basel, and their target is in the Elsaß today, not far behind the frontier. He said he will be travelling via the Jura, across the border to Elsaß, to a hamlet called "Pfefferhus" - very nice - also somewhere in the forest, as far as the satellite image tells, it looks a bit mountaineous. And Reto originally was supposed to start from Bern, but his point is a little difficult. It's at the southern flank of a mountain called "Vanille Noire"..
M: But Reto is a big hiker, no?
Guido: Well, yes, but it's on 1800m and you're right, he is an experienced man, and when he tells me that it's not reachable then I will respect that. We can't expect that from him. And that's why we have changed plans, and he will be going to the same point as I do, that is also to the north west of Bruck. But we won't travel together. He'll be coming from Solothurn and me from Zurich, and we'll see if we really meet each other at the location.
M: So, that's what you know since only this morning, and - from your estimation: Who will be lucky, who not?
Guido: Well, Reto has been a bit unfortunate, and that's why we have redirected him - Luzi could also encounter some difficulties as you can't just walk through the mountains, and to really find the actual point. What's also important to say: We haven't been able to plan this in advance, the point is being calculated as follows: For once it depends on the date, then from the area - so for example everyone in the region of Zurich have to reach the same point, and then there's the chart index in it, and that's what we couldn't know yesterday, what it would read today. That means we have really only been informed this morning, and we have all had a bad sleep tonight.
M: I can imagine. So, when will you start? Or when will be hear from you again?
Guido: I will be leaving right now, the other two as well, we will be taking our mobiles and the GPS device, to really find the exact point, and then we'll report in at a few minutes to ten, when we will probably all still be travelling, and take a quick break on the roadside. Then, we will report past eleven, when maybe the first ones will have reached their point. And then in the afternoon, about two o'clock, when we all should have been able to reach our coordinates. And now for one more request: To you out there, listeners. It would really be great if you didn't just let us stand out there alone in the forest, but if you also came. If you'd like, you can go on our website drs3.ch and there you will find the exact point where we will be going. And then you'll also be able to come, and -yes- maybe bring some hot drinks or the like.
M: And then you have planned something really special...
Guido: Right, we will be bringing the DRS 3 flag, and will be marking our claim in the forest, so that you'll be able to recognize us well.
M: Like on the moon - so let's not leave our IT people alone, and they're really three handsome young guys. If you find them, or how to find them, and how it all works -it's a bit complicated- you'll find it all on drs3.ch.

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6


Wed 19 Nov 2008 in Zürich: 47.5198710, 8.1615679 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox