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Interactive Map


Pharisee

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quote:
Just one question - how did they get permission from the ordnance survey - or did they have to pay?

Coastline and county outlines are available free of charge from the OS website. The only requirement is to include the 'reproduced by permission' blurb. Unfortunately, only GB is available so Ireland (by any definition!) is not shown. I know that Fourwinds from TMA, digitised the coastline of Ireland for the TMA map. I'll ask, but I doubt they'd let us have it.

 

The town locations are the same ones as used on the cache search form, and I went through flagging up the larger ones to avoid clutter at low zooms. Not sure where Mark originally found them, but there are a number of free collections of town locations out there.

 

[This message was edited by Teasel on February 21, 2003 at 01:53 AM.]

 

[This message was edited by Teasel on February 21, 2003 at 01:57 AM.]

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I can see that being most useful in planning future cache trips.

 

One thing - the centre function isn't very intuitive. How difficult would it be to have it so that clicking on the map centres it at that location? (obviously not clicking on a cache as that pops up the page for that cache)

 

Only a minor niggle, though! icon_smile.gif

 

--

Seek and ye shall find (tupperware, ammo boxes, bears, free ISP CDs...)

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It sounds like I'm the only one who can't get it to work :-(

 

The progress bar shows "Loading caches" for a few minutes (but the bar doesn't go up) then a dialog box pops up saying "a script in this movie is causing Macromedia Player 6 to run slowly. If it continues to run, your computer may become unresponsive. Do you want to abort the script?" If I press no it waits a second or two then pops up the same dialog. If I press no the progress bar shows "processing caches", the bar sits at about 25%, the map is covered with blue and a few red dots and the "Please Wait" sign is still displayed.

 

I hope this feedback is of use to you.

 

Martin

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Thanks for the feedback! You're not the only one having problems and your description is very useful, as it seems that the problems are not limited to a specific bit of the program (the 'loading caches' code is very separate from the 'processing caches' code).

 

If you keep persevering, you should get there in the end, albeit slowly. After processing caches (which results in the blue and red dots) comes 'loading towns', then 'processing towns', then finally the 'please wait' disappears and you're ready to rumble!

 

The browser needs to download about 350kb of data and create about 2500 'dots' on the map. On my machine (Athlon 850MHz, ADSL broadband), the whole process takes less than 45s. It will take proportionately longer on slower CPUs / modems, but I'm confused as these warning boxes are appearing. Any Flash experts out there?

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quote:
Originally posted by Wronskian:

One thing - the centre function isn't very intuitive. How difficult would it be to have it so that clicking on the map centres it at that location? (obviously not clicking on a cache as that pops up the page for that cache)


The centre function is next to useless when all the caches in the UK are shown. It's really only there for when you're viewing the results of a query, so that you can centre and zoom, rather than zoom a bit... pan a bit... zoom a bit... pan a bit... Maybe I should remove the button when all UK caches are being displayed?

 

The mouse is also used for dragging the map around, so I think that making a click so very different from a click-and-drag would be a recipe for frustration (even assuming I could distinguish the two in the code!).

 

Being able to centre on the pointer sounds too good an idea to ignore, though. What about if, say, pressing 'C' on the keyboard centred the map on wherever the mouse was pointing at the time?

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Very, very impressive.

 

A couple of cosmetic suggestions, if you don't mind:

 

1) Move the scale ("200 km") indicator to top-right of map (and make the bar less bold). It will be less obtrusive there.

 

2) The fly-over hints for the cache names are less than readable in black (and possibly in that font). Might it be helpful to use a different colour (perhaps G:UK green - or even white) plus a non-serif font?

 

Other than that, what can I say? You're a wizard! icon_smile.gif

 

=====

There's no such thing as a free lunchbox!

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Superb job Teasle icon_wink.gif

Extra welcome as the geocaching map doesn't show my caches at present!

I realy like the extra link to streetmap on the cache page when you click from the map! nice little touch. icon_smile.gificon_smile.gif

 

Any chance of getting Darlington on the map????

 

(Every one needs a bigger letterbox!)

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quote:
Originally posted by Postie:

I realy like the extra link to streetmap on the cache page when you click from the map! nice little touch. icon_smile.gificon_smile.gif


Works for eg parking coordinates in the cache description, too!

 

quote:
Any chance of getting Darlington on the map????

It's there, but it's so insignificant that you have to zoom right in before you can see it! icon_wink.gif

 

Seriously though, we currently divide towns up into group 1 (~25 towns) eg Manchester, group 2 (~80 towns) eg Middlesborough and Others (~1000 towns). Darlington's a bit too close to Middlesborough to be in group 2 (the text would overlap at small zooms), but I agree it's somewhat more significant than, say, Guisborough. What we need is a third group with a couple of hundred towns, so that you don't have to zoom in so far before towns like Darlington appear. Problem is finding the time to do it properly...

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1. I see you're considering introducing another group of towns for medium Darlington-sized ones. Are there any plans to get a group of smaller places? At high zoom levels, it'd be nice to have more towns on there. Although I guess that'd be a databse of 10,000 towns...eep!

Or perhaps each cacher could submit a list of towns (with co-ords) they'd like to see on the map, in a file format that's useful to Teasel for inclusion into his database? That way, we'd rapidly have a database of towns that are useful to us, and if the file format is easily importable to Teasel's database, it'd be easy for him.

 

2) Is it possible to make the county boundaries narrower when zooming in? At present they seem to be the same ground-width, so that at high zoom, they're really huge on-screen. ?

And I second the idea for moving and smallening the scale bar icon_smile.gif

 

Other than that, a FABULOUS job, Teasel!

 

--

**Mother is the name of God on the lips of all children**

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From what everyone else has described, the map does sound pretty funky... But...

 

When I try to load it up, it gets about as far as loading caches, then hangs. Eventually, when I get bored of looking at the same screen, I hit ctrl-alt-delete and task manager lets me know that the page is not responding.

 

My computer is as slow as a Lorry Driver on the M6, granted, so the problem might well be my end. I will try again on a Uni PC to see if that works. But just to let you know...

 

------

An it harm none, do what ye will

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quote:
Originally posted by Freak Enterprises:

It sounds like I'm the only one who can't get it to work :-(

 

The progress bar shows "Loading caches" for a few minutes (but the bar doesn't go up) then a dialog box pops up saying "a script in this movie is causing Macromedia Player 6 to run slowly. If it continues to run, your computer may become unresponsive. Do you want to abort the script?" If I press no it waits a second or two then pops up the same dialog. If I press no the progress bar shows "processing caches", the bar sits at about 25%, the map is covered with blue and a few red dots and the "Please Wait" sign is still displayed.

 

I hope this feedback is of use to you.

 

Martin


 

I get something similar on my pc just before it freezes. I have to a ctrl alt del to close down the window before I can do anything with my pc.

 

Hear about the 2 blondes that walked into a bar?

You would of thought at least one of them would of seen it!!

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I followed Teasel's advice and just kept pressing "N" to the "do you want to abort" message and it came up in the end.

 

And it was well worth the wait !

 

If the reason it is slow to start up is because there is so much data to transfer, can you return the data from the server as a compressed zipped data stream ? I have ADSL so I don't have a slow conection.

 

Martin

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quote:
Originally posted by washboy:

Move the scale ("200 km") indicator to top-right of map (and make the bar less bold). It will be less obtrusive there.


Done, by popular request. Guess I was a bit over-proud of it (first time in about 15 years I've actually used logarithms!).

quote:
Originally posted by washboy:

The fly-over hints for the cache names are less than readable in black (and possibly in that font).


White seems to work better than green (which was even worse than the black). Using a sans-serif font helps somewhat, too. It's still not perfect, but it's a bit better.

quote:
Originally posted by Huga:

Are there any plans to get a group of smaller places?


Considering the problems people are having getting even the current incarnation to work, I don't think a large increase in town names would be sensible, even if it were possible. If the input files are to get any bigger, I'd rather add more details about the caches (so you could have a button to show/remove virtuals, for example), than add thousands more towns.

quote:
Originally posted by Huga:

Or perhaps each cacher could submit a list of towns (with co-ords) they'd like to see on the map


I'm happy to add the odd dozen here or there, but I don't want to be adding too many more. I'd need files in csv format with three fields: name in caps, osgb eastings & osgb northings. Eg BUXTON,405000,372998

quote:
Originally posted by Huga:

Is it possible to make the county boundaries narrower when zooming in?


I can't think of any way to do this, though this is my first ever Flash program, so there's quite possibly a way I don't know about. You can always switch them off!

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Isn't it interesting how there's always something better to do?

 

Today, my something better was seeing if I could get Teasel's map to run on my computer.

 

And it does! Huzzah!

 

Albeit slowly, and it takes a loooong time to get there, but that's entirely my comp's fault.

 

Anyway, had a fun few minutes playing around on it, and it will most definately come in useful on future cache trips. All praises to Ian Harris! Huzzah! icon_biggrin.gif

 

------

An it harm none, do what ye will

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I go away for a weekend and come back to this.

 

It is utterly utterly utterly utterly..

 

UTTERLY,

 

wow-ifying, and fantasticle.

 

I'm gobless and speechsmacked.

 

No trees were harmed during the production of this posting, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced....

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On the cache/cacher stats pages, especially the ones accessible from the little groups of stars on "my profile page", some extra options would be nice. Most of the lists of "Top 50 placed per found" or "Top 50 found per trip" are next to useless, as the stats are swamped by people that have only found 1 or two caches, or have done 8 caches in only 2 trips.

 

It would be nice to have an option (possibly permanent with cookies) to switch off display of any useer with fewer than 10 finds or 10 trips.

 

These people should never featuer in the lists of "Top 50 XXX", so there ought to be an option to remove them.

 

Thoughts?

 

--

**Mother is the name of God on the lips of all children**

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quote:
Originally posted by Huga:

These people should never featuer in the lists of "Top 50 XXX", so there ought to be an option to remove them.


Its an age-old problem with creating top-n lists based on ratio measures.

The solution is, as you point out, to disregard the top and bottom parts of the distribution. Deciding how much to disregard is a task in itself. Better ask a statistician icon_biggrin.gif

 

Rich

mobilis in mobili

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Just before I make my very minor complaint, may I first say that I think that the map is fantastic and a landmark in British Geocaching.

 

My tiny little moan is that at low levels of zoom, the town of Blackpool is visible, whilst two or three increments of zoom are required to see the City of Preston.

 

Surely this needs looking at!

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quote:
Originally posted by Team Galaxy:

My tiny little moan is that at low levels of zoom, the town of Blackpool is visible, whilst two or three increments of zoom are required to see the _City of Preston._!


I chose to show Blackpool, rather than the more populous Preston, because more people know where it is. This is in common with most small scale maps I've seen (I mainly used the 2003 AA road atlas, but here's another).

 

If you could arrange for Preston to be moved to an area with nicer beaches, I'd be happy to include it on the small scale map icon_wink.gif

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quote:
Originally posted by el10t:

Its an age-old problem with creating top-n lists based on ratio measures.

The solution is, as you point out, to disregard the top and bottom parts of the distribution. Deciding how much to disregard is a task in itself. Better ask a statistician icon_biggrin.gif


Something needs to be done, but what? Is there an accepted 'best practice' for this problem, or do I just play around until I see what I want to see?

 

Currently I just remove the zeros, then rank the remainder (1 star = 20th percentile). I was thinking of applying an arbitrary skewing factor to the percentiles (gamma correct them!), but this would only change the stars, not the ranked listings. Removing points from one end would be an option, as would removing cachers from one rank, based on their performance in others (eg <10 trips or, perhaps, < nth percentile in trips).

 

My stats knowledge is limited to what I learnt at A-level half a lifetime ago, so if any real statisticians could give me some advice, please drop me an email!

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I agree that the one hit wonders (500+) ect, make the top 50s a bit daft.

 

There are about 1500 cachers in the UK and only 300 of them are in double figures.

 

IMHO

do not include any cacher with less than 10 (total finds and placed) whos last find was over 3 months ago.

 

This will mean all NEW caches will still be included.

 

Tech-no notice

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Originally posted by Teasel:

This is in common with mostscale maps I've seen (I mainly used the 2003 AA road atlas, but http://www.alltraveluk.com/Travel/images/destin_map.gif another).

 

QUOTE]

Just had a look at that link, the lickle yellow dot shows Newcastle as 40 miles North of where it used to be, is this more boundary changes thats been made?it should show it at the bottom of the T in Tyne, Hope I dont get a property tax bill from Alnwick this year, and moss seems to have moved to RAF Boulmer area, Wonder if he knows about the move yet icon_smile.gif

But apart from that, your interactive map as well as the rest of the guk site is excellent.

Now I'm off up to the Forth road bridge to check on a cache that seems to have gone missing 250 miles round trip, if it has gone , then I wont be placing another up , its a bit of hike for maintence.

Nige

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quote:
Originally posted by SimonG:

It doesn't seem to work for me. I say No to a couple of "Do you want to abort the script?" messages and it seems to load. I get to the point where I can zoom in and out and scroll around, but no caches are displayed. Which makes it a bit pointless really. icon_frown.gif

 

http://www.SimonG.org

 

Yes, I get the same problem. Judging by the number of very positive replies I suspect it's something I'm doing wrong.

 

Help!! I'd love to be able to play with what sounds like a fantastic toy.

 

_________________________________________________________

 

It is better to regret something you did, rather than to regret something you didn't do.

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quote:
Originally posted by Teasel:

... so if any real statisticians could give me some advice, please drop me an email!


Some might argue otherwise but I consider myself a "real statitician" (at least that's what my job title is!)

I'll drop you an email with some suggestions.

 

Rich

mobilis in mobili

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quote:
Originally posted by Lost in Space:

It may be me, but when doing a search for the nearest 10x caches from the mouse pointer by pressing 1-9, this only works for 1-9 from the main keyboard, not the numeric pad.

 

Is it me?????????

icon_cool.gificon_cool.gificon_cool.gif


Nope, it's not you, it's a bug! Thanks for letting me know!

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quote:
Originally posted by SimonG:

It doesn't seem to work for me. I say No to a couple of "Do you want to abort the script?" messages and it seems to load. I get to the point where I can zoom in and out and scroll around, but no caches are displayed. Which makes it a bit pointless really. icon_frown.gif


I really wish I could reproduce this problem - lots of people seem to be suffering from it!

 

I presume that the "Please Wait" banner is still displayed, but that you don't get any further messages asking you if you want to abort? How long have you tried waiting for something to happen (some people have to wait about 5 mins for everything to load), and can you tell if there's any network traffic after you've dismissed the final abort message?

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Just a thought about the problems people are having with this.

 

Is it possible the latest flash runtime may need to be installed to view this correctly ? this is freely downloadable from Macromedia and is probably worth a try for those of you having difficulties.

 

Somedays you are a pigeon and others you are a statue !

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Great I thought. Downloaded the latest Flash (and Shockwave for good measure) but the map still doesn't show any caches. I can zoom and pan and all that sort of stuff and all I see counties & towns but no caches.

 

I tried re-running a cache selection but no joy. I can see them on the old (non-interactive map) but not the new one.

 

_________________________________________________________

 

It is better to regret something you did, rather than to regret something you didn't do.

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Hi Hornet I wonder what browser version you are using again it is best to use the latest which is IE6 freely downloadable from MS I can't gaurantee this will fix it but I if it is working in older browsers other people here can verify it.

 

Hope this helps

 

Somedays you are a pigeon and others you are a statue !

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Sorry - I run IE6.028 and still no joy. However (don't you love that word :}) if I log on to another PC on my network through a remote desktop connection it works perfectly! Wow what a great tool.

 

Obviously there's a problem with my IE6 and I'll work on it. Interestingly I can't get at a couple of secure websites on this PC but I can on the other one. I'm guessing the problem is related.

 

So - I can now say 'Many thanks for a wonderfull tool!'

 

_________________________________________________________

 

It is better to regret something you did, rather than to regret something you didn't do.

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Originally posted by The Hornet:

Sorry - I run IE6.028 and still no joy.

Obviously there's a problem with my IE6 and I'll work on it. Interestingly I can't get at a couple of secure websites on this PC but I can on the other one. I'm guessing the problem is related.

 

_________________________________________________________

I upgraded to IE6 some time ago and had so many conflicts that I returned to IE5.5, perhaps IE6 is the problem??

 

(Every one needs a bigger letterbox!)

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Don't know if this is any help but I'm running IE6.0.2800.1106 on a Pentium III / 500MHz

I've not had to download any Flash things and I'm working with an ordinary dial-up modem

With all caches selected, the map appears after 35 seconds, the caches appear 15 seconds later and the Please Wait message disappears at 60 seconds. No problem.

 

John

 

Age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

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