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Re: Google maps
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #156777 by Maude
Nov 25, 2007 9:12am
Thread (disabled) Board
Maude said:

I don't think I'm capable of doing what's described above with the coordinates


This is certainly not true. If you are capable of posting to this board, you are capable of finding the coordinates on maps.google.com. The list below may look daunting, but it is really easy. The list is long just to try to spell it out completely since one never knows what another person knows. We were getting ready to write this up for the Help section anyway, so here goes:

  • 1. Go to maps.google.com.
  • 2. Start with a rough approximation of where the box is using either of the following methods: 1)Type your city name or a nearby location in the box to the left of the Search Maps button or 2)Double-click on the general location of the box on the map again and again (it will zoom in a little each time).
  • 3. When you are zoomed in fairly close to the area of the parking lot, click on the Hybrid button in the upper corner of the map itself. This will show you the satellite view with the street names overlaid on it.
  • 4. Now that you can see the satellite view, continue double-clicking on the area where the parking lot is. Do this until you cannot zoom in any further. In most cases, you will be able to clearly see cars parked in the lot from when the picture was taken.
  • 5. Just above the Hybrid button, is a link that says Link to this page. You want the information from that link because it contains the magic coordinates you are looking for. Click the Link to this page button.
  • 6. Normally (depending on your computer) a box will pop up that says "Paste link in email or IM" with some text automatically highlighted (if this doesn't happen on your computer, see the bullet below). Go to the Edit menu and choose Copy. Note: If the box referred to above didn't pop up on your computer, right click (on Macs, control click) on the Link to this page link and then choose Copy link location.
  • 7. Now we have the coordinates, we just need to make them usable. Paste this information into any text editor (you can use Word, NotePad, WordPad, TextEdit, etc.).
  • 8. The Latitude & Longitude are buried in this line of text just after the ll=. So, if you started with the line:

http:/ /maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=29.765259,-95.445001&spn=0.000497,0.000912&t=h&z=20&om=1

then the only part you want is the set of numbers that are 2 or 3 numbers to the left of a decimal and probably 6 numbers to the right of the decimal. For example, if you see ll=29.765259,-95.445001 in the line, then delete everything except the numbers (minus signs are very important so do NOT delete them). In the above example, you should end up with:

29.765259,-95.445001

  • 9. The next step is super easy but very important. Brace yourself... Now replace the comma with a space. In the above example, you should end up with:

29.765259 -95.445001

  • 10. On the "Location" page of the "Add Planted Letterbox" section of the website, there are boxes for typing in Location, City, State, and Country. In the Location box, type a description of the location, like "Memorial Park", then a comma and then the exact coordinates from above (which are separated by a space and not a comma). Use Copy/Paste to make sure the coordinates don't get transposed. An example would be:

Memorial Park, 29.765259 -95.445001

  • 11. LAST step (Finally!!!). Click on the Save button on the Atlas Quest web page just to the right of the "Change to Mystery" button.

It only takes doing this ONE time to see how REALLY EASY it is. Please try it, it will make the results much more accurate in Atlas Quest.

Hope this helps a few people. If you have questions, or if some of this doesn't make sense, please ask.

Key Note Sneakers
Re: Google maps
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #156825 by Key Note Sneakers
Nov 25, 2007 9:19am
Thread (disabled) Board
The whole google thing where it pinpoints the spot and you hit hybrid and the real landscape comes up. Freakin awesome, I tell you. I can see the places where my boxes are hidden almost exactly. Well almost. At least the general area. Thanks for the info on the google map. :)

-HG
Re: Google maps
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #156825 by Key Note Sneakers
Nov 25, 2007 9:36am
Thread (disabled) Board
Oops!

(if this doesn't happen on your computer, see the bullet below)


In my editing, I missed that I deleted the bullet and just included the information after "Note:".

Sorry for any confusion.

Key Note Sneakers
Re: Google maps
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #156825 by Key Note Sneakers
Nov 25, 2007 9:56am
Thread (disabled) Board
Memorial Park, 29.765259 -95.445001


At the moment, that only works for locations that Google reports as being "unknown" and hasn't already been stored in Atlas Quest. I need to fix that, but in any case, if a location is incorrect, I have to go into the database and fix it manually.

So add new locations that way, but contact me if you need to fix existing locations.

-- Ryan
Re: Google maps
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #156763 by Wildcats
Nov 25, 2007 10:00am
Thread (disabled) Board
The only time it listed town was when the placer did not use an address


That was the old behavior, before the last Big Update. Since then, it's only been mapping to the city center. Trust me, I know--I've seen the code. ;o)

-- Ryan
Re: Google maps
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #156843 by Green Tortuga
Nov 25, 2007 11:50am
Thread (disabled) Board
Ryan,

Any thoughts on adding a "Parking Lot Coordinates" box on the Location page?

If so, it seems that this should always override the information in the "Location" box allowing the "Location" box to be primarily human readable content.

If you wanted to get fancy, the box could accept the "Link to this page" link from google and parse out the coordinates automatically for the user.

This seems vaguely familiar... I may have mentioned this somewhere before?! *shrug* If so, I don't mean to sound like a nag.

We'd be happy to help people get those coordinates updated (at least in the Houston area) if there was some reasonable way to do that.

Key Note Sneakers
Re: Google maps
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #156825 by Key Note Sneakers
Nov 25, 2007 12:15pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Quote The list below may look daunting, but it is really easy.


Would you please post this entire thing over again in the Help Wiki? Thanks!
Re: Google maps
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #156864 by Kirbert
Nov 25, 2007 12:22pm
Thread (disabled) Board
We're ready to do this. Just want to make sure it is "you can bank on it" information. As you can see the Green Man himself is already making changes. Notice the "Google" maps link on the boxes again?

Just want to get it right - then we'll be *happy* to post to the help wiki.

Key Note Sneakers
Re: Google maps
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #156859 by Key Note Sneakers
Nov 25, 2007 12:24pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Any thoughts on adding a "Parking Lot Coordinates" box on the Location page?


Perhaps at some point, I will. I don't think most people want to enter coordinates or spend the effort looking through Google Maps trying to get exactly coordinates of a location, though, and I'd hate to add stuff that would confuse more people than it would help.

I figure if people can go through all that effort to look up a couple of coordinates, they shouldn't have any trouble using the "hint" feature to make their own human readable content with the correct location. =)

-- Ryan
Re: Google maps
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #156867 by Key Note Sneakers
Nov 25, 2007 12:26pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Notice the "Google" maps link on the boxes again?


Notice how ugly it is, though? There's no "human readable" description of the location--I can't figure out how to make that part work.

But hey, if people like Google and want to see the ugly stuff, I'll let them. =)

-- Ryan
Re: Google maps
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #156870 by Green Tortuga
Nov 25, 2007 1:16pm
Thread (disabled) Board
There's no "human readable" description of the location--I can't figure out how to make that part work


Engadget shows how it can be done in XML, I don't know if that would help or is possible in your implementation.

GmapEZ is another resource that might be helpful.

Regards,

Key Note Sneakers
Re: Google maps
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #156869 by Green Tortuga
Nov 25, 2007 1:44pm
Thread (disabled) Board
I don't think most people want to enter coordinates


It could be an optional field :-) If present, it would override the basic "Location" box, otherwise the "Location" box is used.

Then I could, slowly, meticulously, provide coordinates for the parking lots for boxes in the Houston area, one by one.

I think of it as job security -- though the pay isn't great.

Key Note Sneakers
Re: Google maps
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #156898 by Key Note Sneakers
Nov 25, 2007 3:17pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Quote Then I could, slowly, meticulously, provide coordinates for the parking lots for boxes in the Houston area, one by one.


Excluding, of course, any mystery box or any box that requires you to solve a puzzle in order to determine the parking lot location, right?
Re: Google maps
Board: Atlas Quest Announcements
Reply to: #156916 by SandiBox
Nov 25, 2007 6:32pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Ummm....

We're pretty new to all this, but what is it they say? "We didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday!"

Yes, of course. We don't want to spoil puzzles or mysteries. In fact, I got really mad at a co-worker who was looking over my shoulder at a puzzle I had printed out and was studying on a break. He took one look and said, "I don't know why you think that's so hard. The answer is blaa blaa blaa". That didn't sit well with me.

If the clue start location is intended to be known, we'd just love to see it accurately known. We constantly run into the situation where we drive across town to find all the boxes in a particular area. Then a few days later, we happen to stumble upon another listing that was in the same area, in fact accessible from the same parking lot, but we didn't know it because it didn't show up on our search since in Google, it was showing 8 or 10 miles from where it should have been.

It just gets a little frustrating. So if we can contribute in some little way to make things better in our little corner of the world, that would be wonderful.

Key Note Sneakers