Benchmark Queries

[+planetrobert]

in a previous topic I got Off Topic and was discusing the idea of pocket querries for benchmarks.

 

any chance a pocket querry for benchmarks could be added to the agenda Jeremy?

 

I know new ones arent addded but it would be nice if a person could grab on say a day or two before thy intend it BM hunt grab a listin of all the benchmarks that they have NOT found in the area they plan to visit based on zipcode or lat/lon.

 

The pocket queries for benchmarks should be moved to its own thread, but since they do not change often we'll probably do some kind of zip feature for regions. Of course this data is already free from the NGS if anyone wanted to grab them.

 

Yes Jeremy, i realize that they are available from the NGS and i got them from there but it means i am having to do several things... the first isnt bad, it involves converting then to gpx files but the BAD part is that you have to manualy go through and remove any that you have already found as well as remove ay that are reported as missing by the NGS, which the GC site removes from the listings. 

 

I just see the zip files as being a blah solution cause you still have all your found bm's listed as well if it is a generic file for all users

 

I hear ya. Just looking at the bandwidth and CPU consumption of a 5,000 benchmark pocketquery. Maybe a changelog version which only sends you updates since the same file generation would work.

 

Now that I have rehashed the chronology of posts and what was said... here we go...

 

 

cpu and bandwidth are a premium. In my county there are about 800 BM's and in a neighboring and rather large county there are about 1200. This would be a huge task to proscess andthat is NOT what I'm wanting, exactly.

 

I really would like to see the ability to have the ability to run a BM PQ just like a cache PQ, nothing different. But as a solution to not having the same BM PQ generate day after day after week after week I think that if we could have an option in the PQ page to have a PQ Credit where we are allowed 5 a day as we are now. If you have a free space you would then be able to click a 'create one time PQ' button and generate a BM or cache querry and have it sent out as soon as the server is able to.

 

I WOULD NOT have benchmarks be an option in a normal PQ though.

 

What are your ideas and what do you think of this idea?

[+arrowroot]

I'll second your desire for a PQ for Benches. I also really like the idea of one-time PQs too: I create PQs for one-time use more often than anything else anyway, but I've got to delete them myself too: a business trip or vacation where I'm going to download once, and then never again.

 

Dealing with distributed databases, such as this, where some of the data is local, some remote, and figuring out how to update the remotes with the 'deltas' is always trouble. In some ways, Groundspeak might spend more CPU/bandwidth figuring out what's changed for each user, than in generating the GPXs on demand.

 

A library of GPXs by, maybe, county would probably be worthwhile.

 

But how to screen out what you've already seen? Hmm... if the GPXs have all logs, a program should be able to detect that you've been there. But it's all going to require a client-side program to do the job.

[+parkrrrr]

But it's all going to require a client-side program to do the job.

It's not a perfect solution, but it's most of the way to one: Watcher can keep track of and filter out the benchmarks you've found, though you have to tell it about them as you find them, and it'll work with the GPX files from bmgpx.

[+gnbrotz]

I periodically download the list of benchmarks I have found, pull it through Excel to strip out all the info not needed for the gpx2html "ignore list" format, then just paste it into any standard text editor. Then gpx2html screens out the ones I've already found.

 

*edited to change "bmgpx" to "gpx2html"

Edited December 8, 2003 by gnbrotz

[+parkrrrr]

I periodically download the list of benchmarks I have found, pull it through Excel to strip out all the info not needed for the bmgpx "ignore list" format, then just paste it into any standard text editor. Then bmgpx screens out the ones I've already found.

It does? Mine doesn't. Where can I get that version of bmgpx?

[+gnbrotz]

My mistake!! I meant to say gpx2html, not bmgpx

[+GeckoGeek]

Put me down as someone else waiting for Benchmark PQ.

 

Also I agree it would be nice to have a "one time" PQ. I think if the "one time" option is made available to all (cache and BM) that it could result in CPU and bandwith savings.

[+planetrobert]

Also I agree it would be nice to have a "one time" PQ. I think if the "one time" option is made available to all (cache and BM) that it could result in CPU and bandwith savings.

true, i would only get PQs when i wanted them, not all the days i find i dont need them as it is with the automated systym