
Geohashing - sant0sk1
http://xkcd.com/426/
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jpeterson
Am I the only geek who just doesn't get xkcd? I mean it's clever and all, but
I've never been able to see why so many people have become so attached to it
(and post every issue to reddit and news.yc).

~~~
TFrancis
They post it because it resonates with them. Personally, I'm always happy to
XKCD pop up on HN or reddit.

~~~
icey
It's irritating that they _all_ pop up. If it was somewhat noteworthy, it'd be
different. In the meantime, I assume most of us have RSS readers.

~~~
sant0sk1
I posted this one because it wasn't your average xkcd comic. Its an
interesting idea that is backed up by actual working code at
<http://xkcd.com/geohashing>.

Yes we all have RSS readers, but I was happy the first time somebody posted an
xkcd comic on Digg (back when I used it) because I didn't have that feed in my
reader yet. I'm willing to accept multiple exposures on behalf of the guy who
is having his first exposure right now.

~~~
Tichy
I must admit I totally didn't get it. What is the purpose of that algorithm?
And why the dow-number, looks like snake oil to me?

~~~
tectonic
The Dow provides an unpredictable (if you can predict it, you probably have
other things to deal with) random seed that determines a location inside of a
consistent geographic region. For example, here is today's location in the
East Bay area:
[http://irc.peeron.com/xkcd/map/map.html?date=2008-05-21&...](http://irc.peeron.com/xkcd/map/map.html?date=2008-05-21&lat=37&long=-122&zoom=9&abs=1)

This allows for unpredictable, spontaneous meet ups of like minded folks.

