Subject: Re: Off topic : world database
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 20:33:21 -0500
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Thread-Topic: [SQL] Off topic : world database
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From: "Tamir Halperin" <tamir@brobus.net>
To: "Michael A Nachbaur" <mike@nachbaur.com>,
	"Ryan" <pgsql-sql@seahat.com>, <rudi@oasis.net.au>
Cc: <pgsql-sql@postgresql.org>

I would imagine that since neither the size of the earth, nor the laws of m=
athematics and geometry have any scheduled changes pending for their source=
 code any time in the near future, it's reasonable to rely on the long/lat =
information and extrapolate the distances using basic planet earth dimensio=
ns.

There are only so many degrees along the arc of any given sphere (360) and =
there are only so many minutes in a degree.

The size of the earth represents only one number that needs to be looked up=
 unless you care to include miles in addition to the international standard=
 of km. If so, then you have an additional factor to consider in your calcu=
alations.

Am I making any sense?

Tamir

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael A Nachbaur [mailto:mike@nachbaur.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 11:55 AM
> To: Ryan; rudi@oasis.net.au
> Cc: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
> Subject: Re: [SQL] Off topic : world database
>=20
>=20
> On March 26, 2003 10:56 pm, Ryan wrote:
> > Your best bet is buying a good zipcode database that has=20
> lat/long, but
> > would only really help you in the USA.  This kind of data=20
> tends not to be
> > cheap...
>=20
> Either that, or web scrape mapquest.com or some other site=20
> that provides=20
> lat/long for returned results, but that probably violates the=20
> acceptable use=20
> policy of those sites.
>=20
> I for one would be very interested in such a web service (I'd=20
> really like a=20
> address / street lookup to find lat/longs for addresses, but=20
> thats not likely=20
> to happen).
>=20
>=20
> ---------------------------(end of=20
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>=20