Pinecone is a Boston based conifer.
2008-06-14
Today's Boston Decihash (see the Immodest Proposal below) is being hosted by decicule (42.3,-71.0). 42.406746,-71.038886 is under water, but the directions to it end on the coast at University Dr S on the campus of the University of Massachusetts.
Boston0: Always at the graticule hash of course Boston1: 42.306746,-71.038886 42.3,-71.0 4.3 m Boston2: 42.406746,-71.038886 6.6 m Boston3: 42.306746,-71.138886 7.0 Boston4: 42.406746,-71.138886 8.0
This meet up would be at ????? at 4pm. Post on the Boston graticule page if you would intend to go there.
An Immodest Proposal
The Issue
A typical hash is about 25 miles away from you. Ramifications of this:
- An long drive each way for those with car.
- Somewhat more problematic for those without.
- On the social front, you meet a lot of nice people but they live far away from you.
- Nobody is ever going to get the damn Couch Potato ribbon.
- You usually get sent to less populated areas:
- Ironic to burn a lot of oil to go see greenery.
- You don't often get to play with cities.
- In populated graticules you have to find a park to hang out in. This is nice for frisbee but less handy for table games.
- In unpopulated graticules most expeditions are less social club and more hiking trip.
- It's a bigger problem for everyone in the winter.
Reasons I might like something nearer at hand:
- Lacking transport
- Want a local group to socialize with
- Want to play with cities
- The regular hash is someplace god-awful
- I am feeling lazy
Obviously we could just divide up the graticules into smaller pieces, but this would scatter the children of XKCD far and wide. I present a solution here that I think can address these issues.
Decicules and Driving Directions
- Divide each graticule into tenths called decicules. For example, if I live in graticule (42,-71) then some decicules near me are
| (42.0,-71.0) | (42.0,-71.1) | (42.0,-71.2) | ... | |
| (42.1,-71.0) | (42.1,-71.1) | (42.1,-71.2) | ... | |
| (42.2,-71.0) | (42.2,-71.1) | (42.2,-71.2) | ... | |
| etc. |
- The day's hash for your graticule will define 10x10 = 100 decihashes which match the hash coordinates except for varying in their tenths digits. For example, if the hash is (42.1357,-71.2468) then some of the decihashes are
| (42.0357,-71.0468) | (42.0357,-71.1468) | (42.0357,-71.2468) | ... | |
| (42.1357,-71.0468) | (42.1357,-71.1468) | (42.1357,-71.2468) | ... | |
| (42.2357,-71.0468) | (42.2357,-71.1468) | (42.2357,-71.2468) | ... | |
| etc. |
- Pick the urban center you are closest to. There will be four decihashes surrounding that location. For example, if I am near Boston the layout for the above hash would be
| (42.4357,-71.1468) | (42.4357,-71.0468) | |
| Boston | ||
|---|---|---|
| (42.3357,-71.1468) | (42.3357,-71.0468) | |
- Use Google Directions to find which of these decihashes has the shortest driving distance from the name of your urban center. E.g. "Boston".
- The end point for that set of driving directions is the "Boston decihash" for the day.
The reason for that last point is to solve one additional problem. When a hash location is inaccessible, there can be confusion about where to meet up. But when you give Google Directions an inaccessible destination, it gets as close as it can using public roads. That endpoint will always be accessible and unique.
The chosen decihash will usually be within 6 miles of the city center. It doesn't matter where Google Maps thinks "Boston" is, or that you won't be driving the route it finds. What matters is that it's consistent for everyone who checks it.
An Example
| On 5-24-08 the (42,-71) meet up was at 42.126648,-71.547534: | Meanwhile, back in Boston: |
So in this case, those who are able go to the graticule hash in Hopedale, MA while those more local could meet up at 695 William J Day Blvd, Boston which is where the driving directions for the winning decihash end up. If you have plans to visit a decihash on a given day, best to mention it on the graticule wiki page ahead of time.
In a graticule with high population there might be several active decicules. Around here one would expect Boston, Worcester, and Nashua to have their own contingents. These decihash meet ups would likely be overridden if the graticule hash itself were nearby.
Honest, this is less complicated than it sounds and an implementation will make it all clear. And you really only need this for urban areas were population density makes sub-meet ups feasible.
Notes
Naming conventions: Boston graticule vs. Boston decicule. Decicule vs. decihash.
You can use any location to define the origin from which to define a decihash. The Boston decicule would sometimes go to then same location as a Brookline decicule, sometimes not. You would only define a local center if there were a high enough concentration of Our Kind to make it worth while.
If the decihash is going to suck, you can pick the location with the 2nd shortest driving distance instead of the shortest. You would name the decihashes in order as: Boston1, Boston2, Boston3, etc. Boston0 would probably mean the actual hash for the graticule that Boston is in.
A decihash can be used as a fall-back for everyone if the graticule hash is going to suck. Hence "Today's graticule hash is in the middle of a swamp but Boston3 is in the hardware department at Sears. Let's go there!"
During weekdays I'm unlikely to be able to road trip to a graticule hash, but it would be great to have a convention to meet up at Boston1 at say, 8pm.
An in town location is likely to pick up some more people just because some can't get out to the hash and because there are just more people in those areas. I'm certainly more willing to meet on a street corner in winter than in the forest.
All this is not meant to detract from the preeminence of the original meet up system. Long live the mighty graticule!
Issues
Boundary question: is it allowed to sometimes use a neighboring graticule to get the closest decihash?
The "dangerous part of town" problem.
