Make Search Results Spit out KML (for Google Earth)

[rasqual]

I'm not too sure WiGLE would hold up to doing this. Plus, their plugin doesn't even view all the networks - it would be way too many...

If WiGLE's TOS was a little less restrictive (someone else could mirror the db and provide this service), this may be a little easier... but that just opens a whole new box of cans of worms...

Well, it's just a thought -- but one alternative to defaulting to skepticism would be for someone to try it and see. It's not like it couldn't be pulled if it didn't work.

[themacuser]

I'm not too sure WiGLE would hold up to doing this. Plus, their plugin doesn't even view all the networks - it would be way too many...

If WiGLE's TOS was a little less restrictive (someone else could mirror the db and provide this service), this may be a little easier... but that just opens a whole new box of cans of worms...

Well, it's just a thought -- but one alternative to defaulting to skepticism would be for someone to try it and see. It's not like it couldn't be pulled if it didn't work.

I'm not going to risk giving WiGLE something that could amount to basically a DDOS attack just to see if it happens without the permission of the people who run it.

[rasqual]

I'm not going to risk giving WiGLE something that could amount to basically a DDOS attack just to see if it happens without the permission of the people who run it.

As far as I know, doing this properly wouldn't work unless the wigle people did it themselves -- or let someone code for that kind of dynamic access to the back end.

A couple posts above indicated a concern about the amount of data points served on a dynamic data layer via Google Earth. If the coding were naive, sure. Big problem. But that's not how anyone codes for Google Earth. You code so that zooming out will NOT return all visible data points.

Furthermore, Google Earth is moving on. There's even more potential for making the tags interesting. How old is that data? Just timestamp the record and use the timeline in GE4 to look at only recent data -- or play back a neighborhood for 5 years to see how things have changed (or how the reporting of networks has changed).

I realize the wigle folk might not have enough time to do much more development -- with that situation I entirely sympathize and it's certainly a respectable reason for not doing anything with Google Earth. On the other hand, a decent test version of this could be coded by one guy in a single day.

:-\

[themacuser]

I'm not going to risk giving WiGLE something that could amount to basically a DDOS attack just to see if it happens without the permission of the people who run it.

As far as I know, doing this properly wouldn't work unless the wigle people did it themselves -- or let someone code for that kind of dynamic access to the back end.

It IS possible to query the search function for the APs in a certain area. It's possible to code something like this, but it's not a good idea.

[rasqual]

It IS possible to query the search function for the APs in a certain area. It's possible to code something like this, but it's not a good idea.

Well all I can say, then, is that the growing corpus of data that's queried exactly this way in more and more areas of interest, with growing datasets, is being implemented by hundreds of private and commercial interests witlessly pursuing bad ideas.

It's just discouraging to hear this kind of vague angst about the very notion of attempting what others are so successfully doing -- and this for such a worthy corpus of data.

Unchecking notify. Some inertia simply can't be overcome.

[themacuser]

It IS possible to query the search function for the APs in a certain area. It's possible to code something like this, but it's not a good idea.

Well all I can say, then, is that the growing corpus of data that's queried exactly this way in more and more areas of interest, with growing datasets, is being implemented by hundreds of private and commercial interests witlessly pursuing bad ideas.

It's just discouraging to hear this kind of vague angst about the very notion of attempting what others are so successfully doing -- and this for such a worthy corpus of data.

Unchecking notify. Some inertia simply can't be overcome.

I don't understand what you are saying. I'm saying that me implementing a third party solution to do this is NOT a good idea because it would flood the server. I don't run WiGLE and am only a user of the service. If I was running WiGLE or had some kind of authority inside it, I would give this a fuller consideration, and maybe make this officially supported. But I'm not, I'm only a coder who is a user of WiGLE, and I'm trying to respect their best interests, even if it means you miss out on something interesting.

The vague angst is the fact that it may kill WiGLE's servers by swamping them with requests when it's done in this inefficient manner. Which is more than a vague angst... it's a genuine issue.

[whitedice]

I have a KML file with around 150,000 points plotted, and it's 65MB. It would take GBs of bandwidth per user to make this idea happen. Let alone, you would need an excellent connection and a really really nice computer with a LOT of RAM to process all the data. It's just not a feasible idea based on economical issues, and the fact that I alone would be so curious at looking at all of the US that my browsing alone would probably kill the server.