Chris's dashboard

Chris asked a question in Skyhook Wireless on October 16, 2008 01:10:

Using a Geode/Loki-enabled browser to increase database accuracy

I spend a lot of time in Anchorage, Alaska, and despite it being a very wifi-rich environment that Skyhook has scanned, I find that wifi locating there is often pretty inaccurate. When I use Loki or Geode or my iPhone in the hotel where I stay, for example, my location is usually shown about two blocks away. I've found the position to be inaccurate in a number of places where I spend time in Anchorage.

I know there's a place on the Skyhook web site to submit access point locations, but I don't have access to that information. What I could do, however, is pinpoint my exact location on a map, and it would seem that my exact location along with what wifi signals my computer can see at that location would be useful data for Skyhook to use to repair or improve the database.

On the My Loki page, I can drag a marker to my exact location. Could this be used as I've described above? Is it already used that way? (If so, I'll make sure to do it anywhere I go.)

Chris replied on October 13, 2008 23:44 to the question "Fire Eagle and changes in the way lat/long placemarks are defined" in Brightkite:

I'm replying to myself again both to bump the message up and to add some more information. When I check in at a place defined by lat/long coordinates, Fire Eagle either is not updated at all, or it's updated with a very non-specific geolocation (for example, Philippines when I check in anywhere in the Philippines). Can't you just update Fire Eagle with the lat/long, even if it's something you can't very accurately reverse geocode?

A comment on the idea "Can brightkite support Mozilla Geode?" in Brightkite:

Try submitting your access point's MAC address at <http://www.skyhookwireless.com/howitw...>. It'll take a while to get into the system, but it'll get there eventually. – Chris, on October 13, 2008 23:40

Chris replied on October 05, 2008 07:55 to the question "Fire Eagle and changes in the way lat/long placemarks are defined" in Brightkite:

On another probably related note, I checked in a while ago at <http://brightkite.com/places/b3581dcb...>, and Fire Eagle wasn't updated at all.

Chris replied on October 04, 2008 04:19 to the question "Will more invites be available soon?" in Brightkite:

You can get one by going to http://fireeagle.yahoo.net/gallery and clicking on the Brightkite link.

Chris replied on October 04, 2008 04:17 to the question "Fire Eagle and changes in the way lat/long placemarks are defined" in Brightkite:

On a (probably) related note, if I check in at a U.S. airport by searching for the airport code, Brightkite will update my Fire Eagle location to "USA," rather than the actual location of the airport. For example, I just tried checking in at DFW, and when I went to Fire Eagle, they had my location as "somewhere in the USA."

Chris asked a question in Brightkite on October 04, 2008 04:10:

Fire Eagle and changes in the way lat/long placemarks are defined

I've defined some locations for hotels outside the U.S. where I frequently stay, using lat/long coordinates. Here's one:

http://brightkite.com/places/3af038ec...

And here's another that I defined a number of weeks later:

http://brightkite.com/places/9788c228...

Note that in the first case, the location shows the name I defined, along with the lat/long coordinates in parentheses. The second shows the name I defined, but in parentheses it shows only the country code of the location (PH). The latter behavior (country code only) seems to occur with all the new locations I've created this way.

One problem is that when Brightkite updates Fire Eagle with one of these new locations, it updates the location not with the lat/long coordinates but with the country only, as if I'd gone to Fire Eagle and simply typed in "Philippines" as my location. This puts me at a considerable distance from my actual location.

Is this a bug, or is something else happening that I don't understand?

Chris replied on September 21, 2008 20:03 to the problem "Rate limiting on non-authenticated requests" in Twitter:

So it appears that I can't write an application on Google App Engine that accesses the Twitter API. The very first request I made put me over the limit, so presumably other people on Google App Engine and the same IP address are also making Twitter API requests. Is there a way around this?

A comment on the question "Did location naming break?" in Brightkite:

You're right, though as it's documented in this thread there's no whitespace either. And I've created them without using whitespace before. In any case, it works with the whitespace, so I'll do it that way. Thanks. – Chris, on September 21, 2008 13:52

Chris asked a question in Brightkite on September 21, 2008 12:47:

Did location naming break?

I wanted to create a named location, so I did a search for "25.033215,121.559365[The Tavern, Taipei]." I've done this before with the expected result, but this time the bracketed name seems to have been ignored. Did something change, or am I spacing out and doing something wrong?

Chris replied on August 24, 2008 18:44 to the question "WAY off" in Loki:

Are you selecting FindMe from the Loki plugin menu? If you look at the URL that comes up in your URL bar when you do that, you'll probably see that the lat/long coordinates are correct, but there's some kind of bug in the map that makes it always display you at N00W000. If you click the Find Me link that's on that page, does the result look correct?

Chris asked a question in Loopt on August 24, 2008 00:59:

Fire Eagle integration

Are there any plans to integrate Fire Eagle into Loopt? There are times when I'm unable for one reason or another to run the iPhone application, and I'd like to set my location with, say, Brightkite or Loki and have it update my Loopt location. I'd also like to have it work the other way around, i.e. use Loopt to set my Fire Eagle location. From looking at the Fire Eagle site, it doesn't seem like integration should be difficult.

What's the deal with Loopt not working outside the U.S. anyway? I'm a U.S. Loopt user, but I spend about half my time out of the country, and updating Loopt is a royal pain (I have to use the Facebook application and try to point at my location, if I can find it. And that doesn't always seem to take). It's almost like you went out of your way to disable functionality for people traveling outside the U.S. If I could update via Fire Eagle, I could use a more friendly program to set my location when I'm out of the U.S.

Chris started following the idea "Giving titles to addresses" in Brightkite.

Chris replied on August 20, 2008 15:50 to the idea "Update Twitter's profile location attribute instead of tweeting" in Brightkite:

I like the fact that the Twitter location attribute gets updated by Brightkite, but is there a way to make it set just the city, rather than the exact location? For example, right now my location on Twitter is "Starbucks," which isn't too useful, given that someone looking at my Twitter profile has no idea where on the planet I am. I'd rather it just set the city/state/country.

A comment on the question "GPS/WiFi location fails at times" in Skyhook Wireless:

I'm sorry you had to redact all the useful information you offered. I wasn't trying to pry into trade secrets--I was just trying to find out why I was having location problems and learn more about how the system works. – Chris, on August 19, 2008 11:24

A comment on the question "GPS/WiFi location fails at times" in Skyhook Wireless:

Thanks again. I turned on the cell part of my phone and was able to get a GPS position (which, incidentally, was less accurate than the WPS position). I'm looking forward to full XPS capability. – Chris, on August 11, 2008 02:35

A comment on the question "GPS/WiFi location fails at times" in Skyhook Wireless:

Thanks very much for your quick response (on a Sunday night, no less!).

So the iPhone doesn't actually use your XPS 2.0 for positioning, but instead makes a choice itself whether to use cell, wifi, or A-GPS, and A-GPS depends on cell data? I had assumed that with any kind of network connectivity and with a wifi position, it'd be able to get a GPS position pretty quickly, and it would seem to be unnecessary to tie it to cell data at all. Also, I have gotten GPS positions in Germany when I had the cell part of my phone turned off and only had wifi connectivity, but I had earlier turned on the phone part, so maybe it was able to learn whatever it needed to learn at that time. I really wish I had access to technical documentation, so that I wouldn't have to do so much detective work to figure out how this stuff works ;)

I'm glad to hear that you're still working to hone the system. These mysterious times when I'm unable to get a wifi position at all are the most bothersome, since I'm left wondering if my hardware is to blame or whether there's some fault in the software. – Chris, on August 11, 2008 02:23

Chris asked a question in Skyhook Wireless on August 11, 2008 01:21:

GPS/WiFi location fails at times

I've found that at times wifi location on my 3G iPhone just stops working, in urban areas of dense wifi that have been scanned by Skyhook and at which I've always been able to get a position before, and at times when I have good wifi connectivity on the phone itself (like in my own apartment). Then it suddenly starts working again, and all is back to normal.

I've been in Seoul, South Korea for the past couple of days. For the first day I was here my phone was unable to locate me at all, and then wifi positioning magically started working again. But I haven't been able to get a GPS position since I've been here, even when standing for long periods of time with a clear view of the sky and good network connectivity and a good wifi position. When I'm at home in the U.S., I'll get a GPS position within seconds after stepping out of my building (which is quite impressive), so I'd think that if my phone were going to give me a GPS position it would have been able to do so by now.

Can someone tell me what's going on here? Is it possible for wifi or GPS positioning to be temporarily disabled on the server end for periods of time or in certain areas of the world? I wouldn't think that this was a problem with my iPhone, but I don't know enough about how this system is put together to say for sure.

A comment on the question "Added Mac address to database but still inacurate..." in Skyhook Wireless:

I've thought a lot about this, and I wonder if it's not already happening. The Skyhook people say that the network is self-healing, and that even without rescanning an area the database can learn from users using the system. I don't know why they wouldn't take the GPS and wifi input from users to fine-tune their data. – Chris, on August 10, 2008 04:26

Chris replied on August 03, 2008 16:41 to the problem "Twinkle duplicating names in @ replies?" in Tapulous:

It's two weeks later, and it happened to me yesterday. I might be wrong, but it appears to happen when I @reply a Twitter user who isn't also a Twinkle user.