Hiking in Canada with the Pocket PC

bezerker · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 16, 2004 Posts: 2

Thanks for the Otter Box Lutz it arrived today. Thumbs Up

berniejconnors · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 24, 2007 Posts: 3

Lutz,

It has been a while since your article "Hiking in Canada with the Pocket PC" was published at pocketgpsworld.com but I just read it last week (very good article by the way). I attempted to solve your quiz about the time capsule even though I was sure the answer was probably already posted in the comments. Being a GIS professional I took the coordinates from the photo of the time capsule and I formed a URL for Google Maps:

http://local.google.com/local?f=q&ie=UTF8&q=51.081944+-114.09555+(Time+Capsule+here?)&z=12&hl=en&t=h&iwloc=A&om=1

I figured the coordinates would show me exactly which building housed the time capsule. But when I looked at the hi-res satellite image the location was in the middle of a sports field and none of the nearby buildings looked "grand" enough to have such an elaborate time capsule.

Then I read the comments for your article and found that the time capsule was in the Chinook Centre. I quickly found the Chinook Centre and discovered that the CORRECT coordinates for the time capsule are approximately:

N 50-59-53, W 114-04-25

That is a whopping error of 9.5 kilometres. I found this error so incredible that I e-mailed the administration of the Chinook Centre. The Chinook Centre is owned by a company called Cadillac-Fairview. I received a reply from Cadillac-Fairview and they told me they were unaware of the error and they were quite embarrassed and they were looking into correcting the time capsule.

I was surprised that nobody else had reported this problem to Cadillac-Fairview. Are you aware of other readers like me who have noticed the error?

Thanks,
Bernie.

tchart · Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 9:23 pm Post subject:

Hey Bernie

Good catch! I wonder how they will rectify the time capsule? It looks pretty rock solid to me.

Wikipedia lists the co-ordinates of the Chinook centre as 50°59′53.8″N, 114°04′26.1″W

Being a GIS professional like yourself I can only laugh at this blunder Laughing

I would have thought some one would have double checked the co-ordinates! Hopefully a surveyor didnt do it!

One thing I thought could be the issue is whether the lat/long is in a datum other than WGS84. Since the capsule was for the year 2000 this is probably unlikley.

Another theory is that they located it with a GPS when selective availability was still on but if it is 9.5km out thats probably unlikey too.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

Trevor
_________________
Tchart Development
www.tchartdev.com

berniejconnors · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 24, 2007 Posts: 3

Maybe the time capsule designer just grabbed some coordinates from a database such as the Canadian Geographic Names Data Base?

Bernie.

tchart · Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 9:27 pm Post subject:

Indeed, those databases are notorious for being wrong!

In New Zealand our digital "Place Names Database" came from digitising the bottom left of the place name text from a 1:50000 map series.

While they server their purpose in a GIS map they arent any good for navigation!

Trevor
_________________
Tchart Development
www.tchartdev.com

lbendlin · Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 4:52 am Post subject:

I should have thought of trying my GPS receiver when looking at the capsule. Well, will do it next time when I am in Calgary. You never know, tectonic movement and stuff.
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Lutz

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berniejconnors · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 24, 2007 Posts: 3

Here is a quote from the Chinook Centre website:

" While the idea belongs to Russell Zied, the actual creator of the various elements of the time capsule was Canadian artist, Ludzer Vandermolen.

A digital clock set in the capsule's cover plate (also created by Vandermolen) displays the current time and Chinook Centre's precise position on the planet as it winds its way up to the next millennium and its opening on December 31st, 2999."

I wonder if the Chinook Centre will get a refund from Ludzer Vandermolen? Maybe next time they will hire a local artist to design their time capsule. The tiny bit of information I was able to find with Google indicates that Ludzer Vandermolen lives in Toronto, about 2700 km from Calgary.

Bernie.
Bernie Connors, P. Eng.
45°58'41"N, 66°35'21"W

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