2008-11-19 47 8

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

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 Berne region would be close to "Grand Chateau D'Oex", somewhere near Gstaad - let's hope that we won't have to talk French tomorrow.

...