cache density map?

[+capn-jack]

I was touring a few places I have lived, might want to visit, or have to go to for some reason. The Google map page is mighty handy for getting an overview for what is in a region, and great for planning.

 

But, I had a thought. Just a weak, scraggly little thing, not one of those brain inflaming world changing affairs.

 

It might be fun to have a map of some region of the world (pick the USA if you like) and then divide that map into squares a mile on a side (I know, I know, Earth is curved. But you get the idea) Now, if people stick to the 1/10-mile separation, there should oughta be no more than about 100 caches in that square mile.

 

So, fill in the square on your lovely interactive electronic map with a color to indicate how many caches are actually in that square. Voila' another brag point. "Nyah Nyah, my township has more caches per square mile than yours! You slackers!!!"

 

If it were possible to download all the coords without all the other guck, I could whip up such a map pretty quickly. If it were live online, it'd be even more better.

 

What d'ya all think?

[+FireRef]

I agree with this idea - I think it would make a very nice addition.

 

Maybe instead of square miles, do counties, since some programs are already set up to measure number of things per county...

 

caches/square mile, but by county... just another idea.

[+stepshep]

Have you looked at this map? http://www.geocaching.com/map/

 

Not exactly the most user friendly, but kind of neat.

 

These too: Just edit the state abbr. http://www.geocaching.com/map/OH.asp

Edited August 15, 2007 by stepshep

[+40]

Something like this

 

Yamar has a program that can do this - you can get it here: Geoqo

 

-40-

[+vonRichthofen]

Something like this

Yamar has a program that can do this - you can get it here: Geoqo

 

-40-

 

Great!

[+London Rain]

Hm... if I follow the Windows Install Instructions at some point it doesn't work out.

 

E:\geoqo-0.71\geoqo-0.71>nmake install

 

Microsoft ® Program Maintenance Utility Version 1.50

Copyright © Microsoft Corp 1988-94. All rights reserved.

 

Das System kann den angegebenen Pfad nicht finden.

NMAKE : fatal error U1077: 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe' : return code '0xff'

Stop.

 

Any ideas?

[+vonRichthofen]

 

Das System kann den angegebenen Pfad nicht finden.

NMAKE : fatal error U1077: 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe' : return code '0xff'

Stop.

 

Any ideas?

 

Maybe you missed this?

The installation should go smoothly, the only really important thing to make sure is the box that says something like "Add to path" is CHECKED.

Edited August 15, 2007 by vonRichthofen

[+London Rain]

Hm no. Active Perl was already installed and included in the path variables. nmake (without install) worked fine. I wonder if it has sth to do with my perl being installed in a different folder than the standard one.

[+capn-jack]

...that's what I'm lookin for! The colored overly on a satellite photo is extremely cool. The GC.com/map is just a dot for each cache, I think, and doesn't really show density over a wide area. (when you zoom back all you see is that there are caches, not how many)

 

If the Yamar map covered a big huge swath of the world (say, for example, the whole thing) with each square mile being one pixel, it would be stunning.

 

Imagine having such a map (the Yamar) while you are driving down the highway. OOOhhh, let's stop there! we can spend a whole week caching!

 

cool stuff.

[+Yamar]

Glenn just pointed to me to this thread, and I obviously might know something about this geoqo program ;-)

 

The windows install is a pain in the neck right now (and I'm sorry). But it can be made to work because people have done it. However, the next release will have a significantly improved windows install script that should automate things greatly (you need to install activestate perl by hand though).

 

The cache density maps are really cool to play with, but I do recommend you use them to help you decide where to go by filtering what you want to look for as well. To see my long rant on the subject of good/bad geocaching, see:

 

http://geoqo.org/wiki/index.php/How_to_find_good_geocaches

 

And then think about *what* you want to put into the density plot, rather than just putting everything in it.

Edited August 19, 2007 by Yamar

[+vonRichthofen]

Hm... if I follow the Windows Install Instructions at some point it doesn't work out.

 

E:\geoqo-0.71\geoqo-0.71>nmake install

 

Microsoft ® Program Maintenance Utility Version 1.50

Copyright © Microsoft Corp 1988-94. All rights reserved.

 

Das System kann den angegebenen Pfad nicht finden.

NMAKE : fatal error U1077: 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe' : return code '0xff'

Stop.

 

Any ideas?

 

I get the same error when using "nmake" ... path is set correctly, the modules are installed.

"Das System kann den angegebenen Pfad nicht finden." means "The system cannot find the specified path"

Any solutions?

Edited August 19, 2007 by vonRichthofen

[+...The Girl]

A thread about density? Awesome!

 

George McFly: Lorraine, my density has bought me to you.

Lorraine Baines: What?

George McFly: Oh, what I meant to say was...

Lorraine Baines: Wait a minute, don't I know you from somewhere?

George McFly: Yes. Yes. I'm George, George McFly. I'm your density. I mean... your destiny.

 

 

Oh, and BTW Yamar, VERY cool program.

[+Yamar]

I get the same error when using "nmake" ... path is set correctly, the modules are installed.

"Das System kann den angegebenen Pfad nicht finden." means "The system cannot find the specified path"

Any solutions?

 

I've fixed the installation instructions for nmake... The nmake you put in place is actually an expanding archive, which you need to run to get the real nmake.exe (and nmake.err too) and put them in C:\perl\bin

 

Now... I think you may run into other ploblems as well. I'll try to get a new release out this week that should work much easier out of the box on windows.

[+Team Cotati]

Great idea. Go for it.

[+vonRichthofen]

I get the same error when using "nmake" ... path is set correctly, the modules are installed.

"Das System kann den angegebenen Pfad nicht finden." means "The system cannot find the specified path"

Any solutions?

 

I've fixed the installation instructions for nmake... The nmake you put in place is actually an expanding archive, which you need to run to get the real nmake.exe (and nmake.err too) and put them in C:\perl\bin

 

Now... I think you may run into other ploblems as well. I'll try to get a new release out this week that should work much easier out of the box on windows.

 

I noticed that on my first try and expanded the archive. nmake.exe is in c:\perl\bin but i still get the error message.

[+Yamar]

I get the same error when using "nmake" ... path is set correctly, the modules are installed.

"Das System kann den angegebenen Pfad nicht finden." means "The system cannot find the specified path"

Any solutions?

 

I've fixed the installation instructions for nmake... The nmake you put in place is actually an expanding archive, which you need to run to get the real nmake.exe (and nmake.err too) and put them in C:\perl\bin

 

Now... I think you may run into other ploblems as well. I'll try to get a new release out this week that should work much easier out of the box on windows.

 

I noticed that on my first try and expanded the archive. nmake.exe is in c:\perl\bin but i still get the error message.

 

Did you happen to install the nmake.err file too? You need to run the nmake15.exe (or whatever it's called), then take the nmake.exe and the nmake.err file that it produces and put them in C:\perl\bin

[+vonRichthofen]

Did you happen to install the nmake.err file too? You need to run the nmake15.exe (or whatever it's called), then take the nmake.exe and the nmake.err file that it produces and put them in C:\perl\bin

 

NMAKE.EXE

NMAKE.ERR

are in c:\perl\bin

 

In fact the error comes from nmake.exe so the file is working - somehow it seems that it cannot handle the makefile.

[+London Rain]

Yep.

 

My linux tries were a bit more successful but I can only use it via command line and it asks me for a whole load of parameters and there is no documentation on the format they have to be in. All I got was an empty .kml file.

Edited August 20, 2007 by London Rain

[+Yamar]

Yep.

 

My linux tries were a bit more successful but I can only use it via command line and it asks me for a whole load of parameters and there is no documentation on the format they have to be in. All I got was an empty .kml file.

 

For command line, don't have it prompt you for stuff... You do this by feeding it extra arguments. Long story, but #2 below should help.

 

1) get help for that plugin: geoqo -d help:export/kml

 

2) just try this and it should work: geoqo -s "any:" -e "kml:size=300:test.kml"

 

(more improvements in the next release)

[+Yamar]

Finally did get a new copy of geoqo posted, by the way, that has a much improved install script for windows folks.

 

See:

 

http://www.geoqo.org/

 

for details. (It's free)