One of those things you just have to pass along
 

http://threering.net:3/

It's safe, fast and painless, no advertising, no nonsense. All it does is try to guess where you are.

I got 92% likely to be in Philadelphia. I'm not exactly, so it's wrong. But it's *interestingly* close; my ISP is in Wilmington, but has a Philly office, and my connection routes through that office.

And the map it paints is pretty sparse right now... which is why I pass the link along. How'd it do for you?

Cool.. it is 84% sure that I am from Fayetteville, Arkansas. Correctamundo!

I am 74% sure that you are from San Jose, California, United States (Lat: 37 / Long: -121).

not even close. but i dont really understand how out network works here (hewlett-compaqard in colorado) so i guess maybe this explains why the network here is so freakin slow.

~james

"I am 99% sure that you are from Newark, Delaware, United States (Lat: 39 / Long: -75)."

Not a bad guess. Not an *accurate* one, but not bad. I'm actually at 40N 8' 6" 75W 21' 58". Quite possible that my ISP gates to their upstream in Newark, though.

"I am 86% sure that you are from Long Pond, Pennsylvania, United States (Lat: 41 / Long: -75)." The latitude is right but I don't remember my longitude. Hmmm.. never heard of Long Pond.

(edit: looks like I'm closer to Lat:42 [which I shoulda remembered from locating my house for solar gain] / Long: 76 pretty close, thx Maggie)

I am 98% sure that you are from Reno, Nevada, United States (Lat: 39 / Long: -119).

Close, very close. I'm just a few miles east in Sparks.

One of the radio repeaters on my weather spotter network is in Long Pond. It's along I-80, northeast of Jim Thorpe, southeast of Scranton, northwest of Stroudsburg.

75W longitude happens almost exactly at Northeast Philadelphia airport..

"I am 96% sure that you are from Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Lat: 43 / Long: -79)."

Pretty good, eh?

I am 99% sure that you are from Washington, District of Columbia, United States (Lat: 38 / Long: -77).

Eh, not really. 15 miles west.

I am 94% sure that you are from Enola, Pennsylvania, United States (Lat: 40 / Long: -76).

What the hell is in enola? nothing! which is why im not there! :D

But thats cool anyways.

whoopsie, it was a *little* inaacurate, guessing at the wrong country and all....

Well, whats 300 miles between friends?

Fascinating.

Now, 40 N / 75 W is a number I'm quite familiar with, as 40 N latitude is the "average" value used to make a lot of astronomical charts for use in the United States. And 75 W latitude is the "standard meridian" for the Eastern Standard time zone, which means charts that are time related (e.g. what time a particular star will be occulted by the moon) are usually calculated off of that, and you have to add a correction factor if you need the value timed precisely for your location. Since my house, according to MapBlast, is at 39.97 N / 75.28 W, I can almost always use these charts without correction--the adjustment facotrs are usually far less than my margin of error.

Boy, that was boring, sorry.

Anyway, what's fascinating is that they consider this long/lat location to be in Allentown, PA. My house is just west of the Philadelphia city line, which is close to Allentown only in the sense that it's closer to Allentown than to New York City or Chicago. the real location of 40 N /75 W is actually over in New Jersey, near Cinnaminson I believe.

By those coordinates, MS Streets and Trips puts you smack dab in the middle of the PECO Country Club. How'd I do?

40N 75W is a pretty good approximation of Philadelphia, not Allentown. City Hall is at 39.95N 75.16W

The link placed me in New York. (Sorry, guys, I'm in King of Prussia, PA, very near 40 04' N 75 24' W)

Probably at home I'd get Philadelphia... hmm, let's try it:

99% sure I'm in Philadelphia, Lat 39 Long -75

My home is in Trappe, sorry I don't have the lat/long for there available. But Lat 39N is way too far south for Philadelphia; the Mason-Dixon line (MD northern border) is 39 43', after all.

"The goal of the Degree Confluence Project ( http://www.confluence.org ) is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location. The pictures and stories will then be posted."

1.1 miles (1.8 km) SE of Riverton, Burlington, NJ, USA
Approx. altitude: 15 m (49 ft)

http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?lat=40&lon=-75

...and yes, Tony, it *is* on a golfcourse. See pix at site.


Kind of related to Geocaching ( http://www.geocaching.com ). Technology sure has changed things since I used to seek out the geodetic survey benchmark monuments with map and compass...:-)