Subject: Silly way to waste bits.
To: None <netbsd-users@netbsd.org>
From: Richard Rauch <rkr@olib.org>
List: netbsd-users
Date: 08/03/2003 21:00:52
(I waffled whether this should go on -advocacy or -users...)

It occurred to me that it would be nice to have a database of locations
for NetBSD users.  (E.g., I really don't know if there are any users
in Houston, other than myself...last I asked, the closest anyone
volunteered was Baytown, and another up in, I think, Dallas---or maybe
Austin?)

I'd like to suggest a database be publicly maintained with the following
pieces of information:

date-of-submission, count, longitude, lattitude, optional-email, optional-name

(Submissions more than a certain age would be rolled out, so one old entries
would automatically be purged.  If an email contact is provided, the person
could be queried a week before the entry expires to see if it should be
kept/removed/updated.)

"Count" is the number of machines with NetBSD installed.


One way to get your current longitude/lattitude is to go to:

  http://www.mapsonus.com/

...and under "General Options" turn on display of long./latt.  You may
have to click on the map to get coordinate data (for the center of
the map).

(The first number should be your longitude, the second your lattitude...)


Why would this be nice?  So that the database could be massaged into
something that xworld could use, say, so you could look and see how
dense the NetBSD users were in your area of the world.

The email & name wouldn't be essential, if the person didn't want to provide
it.  (Alternatively, "installed machines" might be interesting, perhaps with
a count of installed machines (so one location is given...)


Like I said, it's a silly waste of bits (see subject line), but I thought
that I'd see anyone else liked the idea, and whether there might already
be something similar.  (I know that someone has/had a list of NetBSD
*developers* along these lines...)

If no such thing exists, would there be interest in it (people willing
to give such info, and people interested in using it)?  Or am I just
being silly?  (^&


-- 
  "I probably don't know what I'm talking about."  http://www.olib.org/~rkr/