geohash

Dave Troy presented a neat way of encoding location data called geohash.

WhereCamp 2008 « Dyepot, Teapot 2008

Successful geohash in Canberra during my recent visit.

Kieran Bennett 2009

Geohashing Last night saw my second successful geohash in -36 (latitude) ...

Kieran Bennett 2009

So wherever you are, there is a geohash point within a few hundred kilometres - a new and different point each day, effectively random, and - because of the use of the most recent Dow Jones value - unknown until shortly before the actual date.

Irregular Webcomic! 2008

So, with approximately 24 hours notice, the idea is to go to your local geohash point at a pre-determined time (4pm being the canonical time), use a GPS receiver to locate it to within a few metres, and hang out and have fun with all the other geohashers who have shown up at the same point at the same time.

Irregular Webcomic! 2008

Geohash house harriers — running from geohash to geohash, as the timestamp advances, knowing that there’s beer at the next geohash.

Waldo Jaquith - XKCD NYT. 2008