This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen. It's not a comic, first of all. I'm noticing this more and more - XKCD isn't a comic. It might be a series of drawings and words online, but a comic implies at least an attempt at humor, and this is not an attempt at humor.This is a way of randomly generating coordinates. Ok. That's all it is. You could easily do this without basing it on the dow jones, though it would not be as self-important that way (Randall, I've found, likes to fancy himself a follower of current events). It's a very complicated way of generating random coordinates, meaning that to "geohash" you need, at a minimum, a knowledge of MD5 or you have go to his website.
And for what? To find a random location every day? Which maybe other people will visit? Hooray, I have a computer telling me where to visit. Yay.
I hope to god this doesn't become popular. I will kill myself.
Hi! I can get that you don't like the concept or anything, that's cool. But I think xkcd is really about whimsy and finding adventure, etc. So why not make a somewhat-standardized way of generating coordinates. You can visit places you never would have otherwise, and maybe find some other people with a similar interest in adventure.
ReplyDeleteI dunno, but I've been to a few in the Boston area, and they've been fun. You should try one someday (although judging by your attitude in this post, it doesn't look good, does it?)
I feel like there are better ways to find adventures and people who are interested in what you are that don't revolve around reading the same nerdy webcomic.
ReplyDeleteIf you like it, that's cool, and maybe I will try it sometime. I dunno, the whole thing has a sort of creepy "look at this AWESOME way to meet people I made up" feel to it. Too self-important. I am fully aware that most people probably don't see this.
Your worst fears have come true. Don't kill yourself, though...
ReplyDeleteGeohashing Wiki
Lame :(
Mm, thoughts of this site going unupdated due to your suicide... titilate me.
ReplyDeleteI've got a group together of people who've never read XKCD but think this idea is awesome. Soon we will be going on a road trip of awesome, enjpying ourselves and meeting new people.
noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ReplyDeleteWithout the Dow Jones index? Well... assuming this is an idea one wants to implement, the algorithm needs something that's not predictable the previous day. A random number generator. What else could be as simple and logical a choice as the stock market?
ReplyDeleteBTW nice blog! ;)