I know what you are thinking: Why is there a Jack Spade manbag on this gadget blog; what do manbags have to do with gadgets? Or perhaps: This guest blogger stinks like an old fishshack full of dead woodchucks, when will he go away?*
I wrote a story on location awareness in the February issue of Wired. I’ve been writing about GPS for about nine years (I think my first piece was for Macworld in 2000) and I haven’t gotten bored with it yet for one simple reason: it’s hella fun. Location awareness can do all sorts of neat things for you—help you find your way home, locate your friends, find traffic cameras, get you a taxi get you laid—but at its heart it’s just about adding location data to things that are already familiar to make them more useful. Which brings us back to the photo above.
What’s interesting about this picture isn’t the bag itself; it’s what’s in the bag. And moreover, it’s what’s in the photo, which reveals where the bag is. You’ve likely heard of geocaching, but if not, think of it as a sport (in the broadest sense of the word) where nerds leave things for other nerds to find them, using only coordinates. The photo above has GPS data embedded in it, because I took it with an iPhone. What’s in the bag is a prize. It’s not a great prize, but it’s a prize that some people might really like. The prize is wrapped in an American Apparel bag (to keep it from getting wet) and has one of my cards stuck down inside it, so you know you found the right thing. What’s it worth? I have no idea. It’s a collectible, given to me as a gift (thanks Mom!), but it was something I did not particularly want. Yes, it has been opened and re-sealed, which may thwart its eBay value, but really, if that’s a concern you’re being too pedantic. It’s a prize, dude! A major award!
To find the prize, click on the photo above to download the man-sized version. Since it has GPS data embedded within, you can use that to figure out where I stashed said prize (which, as we’ve established, is in an American Apparel bag). And you’d better hurry because if you don’t get it, the homeless army that lives closeby will. Make sense? Go find it.
Oh, and in case you need a hint, you can find one here.
UPDATE: Some people are finding the bag in the water close to North Korea. It is not close to North Korea. If it appears to be in North Korea, you need to be more negative (hint-hint).
*Friday.
Oh, and if you find it; let us know here, por favor. Proof, proof, we need proof!
For the record: manbags are definitely on topic. Where else do we put our gadgets? Actually, don’t answer that.
Wish I was close to [that area]. Cool idea, Mat!
Incidentally: the Jack Spade manbag went with me. It was just the prize that was left behind, hidden.
Also, awesome competition!
Yeah, I’d be on my way over to check the bag right now if I didn’t live several thousand kilometers away.
Aww, Mat, some of us are way up in the city and can’t run down to [message redacted] and retrieve our prize. Some of us also refer to ourselves in the third person.
I know I have technological catching up to do when my interpretation of the coordinates has this prize at the bottom of the sea 120 miles from Pyongyang, North Korea.
I truly do wish that I could have stashed things in every city all over the world. If only I was Santa!
I’ve got the prize location pegged on Google Maps, and I’m looking around with Street View, but I don’t see the bag. Someone claim the prize already or something?
/Hey, it’s as close as I can get here in [city], 1800 miles away.
@Reverend Loki
I guess I should point out that the prize is hidden. You’ll have to scout around for it a bit.
Also, to sweeten the pot, the prize is STAR TREK RELATED. Oh man. Scifi.
Curse your empty void of a heart-space, Mat Honan. First was the lust-inspiring vac pot, then the lust-inspiring ramune, now the lust-worthy and mysterious unknown prize that is not obtainable.
@Mat Honan
Well, then a pox upon the Google team for not driving their street view photo cars up the paths and walkways, and for driving their vehicles only upon lawfully regulated public roadways.
Er, and for not taking their photos this afternoon…
ARG! CAN’T. LEAVE. WORK. RIGHT. NOW.
As a followup to my previous comment: WTF‽‽‽
@Portk Musket I’m sorry. I can’t help being cruel. It’s just my nature.
And in case somebody gets to the getting place, but still can’t find it, be sure to see the hint (above) which also has a link to a total spoiler.
boo leaving on Friday
Huhm … too far from me. But I think someone tried a similar thing in Seattle this morning
Cool idea, though!
I’m guessing that being in Atlanta GA with no way to get there (I know where, because the photo in Google Maps matches your spoiler image quite well), this prize is going to a local…
Great idea, but it should be hidden somewhere in Portland (orygun), not where it is… so I can get it.
Nailed it! Photo evidence forthcoming. You rock for putting this together!
@TheMadCreator No way, and in the rainy darkness no less, impressive!
This is an excellent competition! Anyone feeling like setting up one in Melbourne? Perhaps I should.
@Itsumishi & anyone else who likes this idea –
There are lots of these competitions already set up – try waymarking.com
or
geochaching.com
or
a meet-up group
All these years & I still can’t spell caching!
Doh!
I ran the original image through Imagemagick’s “identify -verbose”, and the only GPS-related thing it comes up with is Exif:GPSInfo: 305. Anyone have suggestions on how to make Imagemagick cough up the embedded data?
I like the park in the background ^^
Nice idea btw. to show what geotagging could be for
I like the Park in the background ^^
Nice catch on geotagging btw.
Buena Vista!!
But i tend to say, the park is left of the photo, since there are a lot of leaves aside the sidewalk ;P
ARGH! Too. Far. Away!
Sadly, this would never fly here in DC. If I tried to secretly plant a “technological device” in a park in my neighborhood I’d either be whisked off to Gitmo or shot on sight.
@ 26 Blackwell – it’s easier to do it in-browser – I use Firefox add-on exif Viewer – it lets you right click on any image and see the details very easily.
The latest version of IRFANVIEW not only shows the geotagging info in the EXIF information, but it has a button to fire up Google Earth and zoom in to where the geotag says. Too easy. (Pity I’m 2/3s of the way across the country.)
OMG! I had no idea my iPhone was embedding coordinates in my photos! That’s so bloody awesome! And so bloody incriminating…damn I have some anonymous photos to retrieve ASAP…
So TheMadCreator, do you really have it? I’m not too far away and just might go search at lunch time if it’s still there.
@Mappo Believe it or not, there are quite a few caches in DC listed on Geocaching. Most are “virtual” but there are at least a few with logbooks.
@Hank I can go double check on it and make sure it was really found (and I’ll reveal what it was, too). Who knows, @themadcreater may be buried in work this morning, or may have been attacked by crows. You know what the crows in these parts are like.
Don’t go looking for it, it’s definitely been grabbed. Since he went to so much trouble to get it (rain, darkness) I’d like to give @themadcreater time to reveal what it was.
But don’t worry, I won’t leave the rest of you hanging. I’ll post an image of what was inside if we don’t hear anything back.
Step 1: Open Image with Irfanview.
Step 2: Click on Image/Information/EXIF Info.
Step 3: Say aloud: “Ooo! What’s this ‘Show in Google Earth’ button do?” Click said button.
Step 4: Shake fist: “Damn you, Buena Vista Park in Haight-Ashbury!”
Well then I don’t feel too bad about not finding it.
Do you drive a white pickup? I may have pulled into your spot as you were leaving.
@30 – While I’m with you on the sentiment, I am happy to report that there are lots of geocaches around here. In fact, there’s one in the park just outside my home office, and I love love watching people come up (maybe one every couple/few days?) and try to find it. I didn’t start the cache myself, and want to thank whoever did for the regular entertainment that it’s provided (the “find” is kind of hard to get to, in that you have to dig into a fence post . . .).
@HANK
Yeah, I have it. I just emailed the photo proof to Mat, so hopefully he posts it.
@TheMadCreator
Would you mind shooting it to me again? I didn’t get anything. (Just double checked my spam folder.) Try me at mhonan at gmail
comin at ya
got it; post on the way