Watch the Footage archive

eyebones wrote:The Earth is a globe. You can't lay directions out on a Mercator projection like that. You have to draw a great circle on a globe. Also remember that great circles can go over the poles and the shortest distance just might do that. Something 'North' of Moscow might actually be in Canada.

Oh, hey. That makes sense. Hrm.

eyebones wrote:The Earth is a globe. You can't lay directions out on a Mercator projection like that. You have to draw a great circle on a globe. Also remember that great circles can go over the poles and the shortest distance just might do that. Something 'North' of Moscow might actually be in Canada.

That makes sense, but it requires different software. Any suggestions?
(That would also mean I won't be able to do for at least 2 more days)

I think we need some database in raw format for easier convertations. I'll use a google doc for that. Check the OP post. If there's no link yet, there will be soon. It should be available for public editing, so PM me if there is a problem with that (I think the editing is still limited to those with a google account, though).

There. I've included everyone from this thread and my PMs. I can assure you that the document will be deleted when we are done. As I said, don't hesitate to add yourself or PM me if you can't.

I can't add myself because I can't get tracked from where I am now.

Now, about the map software. I need it to have the following features:

1. Globe view
2. Drawing points, lines and polygons
3. Ability to show/hide arbitrary lines

I'm open to suggestions.

There is, of course, a wiki. www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/virtualglobe

You can get a suitable add-in for NASA World Wind.

Is Google Earth available, or is that shot down?

Hey, locator's working for me again. Cool. PMing co-ordinates etc now.

Sooo... has anyone tried the globe thing yet?

Ok. With the recent events, it's probably not the time, but nevertheless.
I'll get on it tomorrow, when I have a good sleep. In the meantime, post your coordinates. In the document, in the attachments, in PMs. We'll need a lot of data to pinpoint whatever it is, as the compasses are too incaccurate.

Yes, I'm talking to you. Go and post your data.

Guys. Seriously.
There are two freaking hundreds of us, and we still only have 12 records, including me. We'll need much more than that to pinpoint the target. I'm not asking you to go meta-knighting - adding yourself would only take a couple of minutes. And now that the coordinates are rounded to 1 digit after the point, it's not even breaches your privacy... too much.

I've added my directions in the doc, but I can't add them in the map.

Edit: Nevermind, I've found how to do it.

Dryunya wrote:Guys. Seriously.
There are two freaking hundreds of us, and we still only have 12 records, including me. We'll need much more than that to pinpoint the target. I'm not asking you to go meta-knighting - adding yourself would only take a couple of minutes. And now that the coordinates are rounded to 1 digit after the point, it's not even breaches your privacy... too much.

Well, over 180, if you minus the spam bots.

Dryunya wrote:Guys. Seriously.
There are two freaking hundreds of us, and we still only have 12 records, including me. We'll need much more than that to pinpoint the target. I'm not asking you to go meta-knighting - adding yourself would only take a couple of minutes. And now that the coordinates are rounded to 1 digit after the point, it's not even breaches your privacy... too much.

Has somebody already added me? I think I sent you my co-ords because I was being a useless noob and couldn't work out how to do it. :/

Reading left to right:
My latitude is 38.7
My first arrow is pointing NE
My ion is -90.5
NEW LINE
My 1st arrow is pointing E
My 2nd arrow is pointing NE
My 3rd arrow is pointing W
NEW LINE
My 1st arrow is pointing ENE.
My 2nd arrow is pointing NE.
My 3rd arrow is pointing NE.

That's my locator readings. Let them help you on your way!

Scarab wrote:Has somebody already added me? I think I sent you my co-ords because I was being a useless noob and couldn't work out how to do it. :/

You were added to the map, but now I can't get your exact coordinates... because I can't figure out how it's done on google maps.
If you were to check your location again, I'd be very grateful.

If they were able to make the coordinates vaguer, I feel like the map/coordinates might be a red herring. I just tried looking for patterns in people's strings of directions, and while I have no clue what I'm looking for or what to do with it when I find it, I did notice that a whole bunch of people with totally different coordinates have the same or almost the same direction sets exactly. There might be something to this. Needs more investigation.

Why don't you put the points on the map, create lines and then check for any points of intersection. Maybe that will help.

The Finch wrote:Why don't you put the points on the map, create lines and then check for any points of intersection. Maybe that will help.

Directions without a start or end point don't correspond to points, they just... something. A code. Some other sort of hidden information. What I mean is, I don't think the coordinates are actually a useful piece of information here. Maybe we should try something else with the direction-sets?

Brainwave: People were talking earlier about trying to "connect the dots" on the echo locations to find a pattern. Maybe these direction sets can be applied to the echo locations?
Except it would be a drag to try every one against every other one... We could try stripping them for the "same" information in each, but that risks stripping out too much; we could try one that two people have already got dead on...
here's an idea: try direction-sets on the echoes closest to the coordinates that got those sets. Maybe we'll get something interesting. (I'd do it, but I have NO CLUE how to use the maps.)

Edit: Damn, we still don't have vector lengths. Not sure what to do with this. But there are my thoughts, for what they're worth.

Ok. There was a theory that we should find a sum of the direction vectors, and so I did.
Basically, I assumed every direction to be a vector with length of 1, and I summed them all in an excel sheet. The result is...
Nonsense. Sorry, guys.

This is that version of the map. I didn't place everyone there - just enough to make sure it didn't work. Note that I'll eventually delete this map.
I'll keep the raw data, just in case. PM if you need it.

We need another approach. Considering that Mr. A said it may point to an echo, you know it is important. Any theories are appreciated.

Is it possible that we shouldn't be taking the sum vector?
By which I mean, maybe if we plot out the directions as 7 tail-to-tail vectors, they... I don't know. Make a shape? Circle something?
Just random crazy thoughts.

I think there should be a way for us to find a vector length, though, and until we find out what that is, we're probably not going to be getting anywhere.

Did you add mine yet?

Yes, I did. (You could check the file instead of asking )

Qara-Xuan Zenith wrote:Is it possible that we shouldn't be taking the sum vector?
By which I mean, maybe if we plot out the directions as 7 tail-to-tail vectors, they... I don't know. Make a shape? Circle something?
Just random crazy thoughts.

First, tail-to-tail vectors is exactly what I did, mathematically.
Second, I tried to check for shapes, and no, there aren't any. That makes sense - the directions are made by some algorithm, based on the entry point, and there's no way they could foresee all possible points.

Sorry, I should have assumed you'd have already tried it.

I still think we're missing a piece, though. Mr A was pretty vague about it-- "might point to an echo but need more information".
I don't want to just recommend we sit tight and wait, but....... I think we're missing a piece.

Qara-Xuan Zenith wrote:Sorry, I should have assumed you'd have already tried it.

I still think we're missing a piece, though. Mr A was pretty vague about it-- "might point to an echo but need more information".
I don't want to just recommend we sit tight and wait, but....... I think we're missing a piece.

What are we missing?

Well, it was mailed to Pan as a standalone link. I think it should at least somehow point us in the general direction, and that's when we try to use his riddle to pinpoint the location.
I'm still out of ideas, though.