Snails - Response on Threads Part 4
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Didn't mess with it anymore today...
(typing more response to explain. One Moment Please...as they say)
(typing more response to explain. One Moment Please...as they say)
The NEW web standards (HTML5) has a new API for GeoLocation.
All that is just fancy talk for ...there's a way websites can ask for the browser to give them a location.
Most use a google geolocation routine. Anyway, FF is one that uses it. That add on was created to provide geolocation data and override the default google location routines that go by IP address (which is probably less than 80% accurate and dropping fast).
Add to that, the fact that Windows 8 doesn't let you specify a proper location, just a country, and it's not a real good combo...
The add in doesn't see to work now. It's 2 years old. Anyway, the modern FF probably doesn't do it the same way. The add in has been updated a few times, but basically I think the web is sort of off-base on all this stuff.
People have been using add ins to "fake" their locations for a long time. So now google API and HTML5 geolocation API's are not allowing that "fake" stuff...so it isn't user settable. Which doesn't work for me, since I'm like 10 states away from where it thinks I am due to being assigned a weird IP address by Comcast. And I called Comcast and the evil basteds won't change it. They more or less lied to me and said they can't (well, actually the guy said HE can't and he's in the network support group). They CAN, but they won't.
Maybe it will "fix itself" over time. There's lots of people having this issue. Many end up being in NJ or somewhere on the East Coast. Another common one is Kansas somewhere in the center of the country.
Bottom line is that I have the add in active but it doesn't override anything and I still end up with the new API as looking like I'm on the East coast. And I'm not. But that doesn't matter too awful much, it's just annoying. There's no guarantee of where an IP address is located. Locating by IP address was a bad idea when it began and is a worse idea now. But the OS and browser makers aren't helping much. And what really ticks me off is that they won't let me override it, because they think they are smarter about the location of my desktop than I am, or they are worried that people will fake the location, but so what? They could still fall back to IP locating if they want a trace or something.
So Grrr.
I'll probably try something different when I'm in a better mood. Today was shopping day with mom.
All that is just fancy talk for ...there's a way websites can ask for the browser to give them a location.
Most use a google geolocation routine. Anyway, FF is one that uses it. That add on was created to provide geolocation data and override the default google location routines that go by IP address (which is probably less than 80% accurate and dropping fast).
Add to that, the fact that Windows 8 doesn't let you specify a proper location, just a country, and it's not a real good combo...
The add in doesn't see to work now. It's 2 years old. Anyway, the modern FF probably doesn't do it the same way. The add in has been updated a few times, but basically I think the web is sort of off-base on all this stuff.
People have been using add ins to "fake" their locations for a long time. So now google API and HTML5 geolocation API's are not allowing that "fake" stuff...so it isn't user settable. Which doesn't work for me, since I'm like 10 states away from where it thinks I am due to being assigned a weird IP address by Comcast. And I called Comcast and the evil basteds won't change it. They more or less lied to me and said they can't (well, actually the guy said HE can't and he's in the network support group). They CAN, but they won't.
Maybe it will "fix itself" over time. There's lots of people having this issue. Many end up being in NJ or somewhere on the East Coast. Another common one is Kansas somewhere in the center of the country.
Bottom line is that I have the add in active but it doesn't override anything and I still end up with the new API as looking like I'm on the East coast. And I'm not. But that doesn't matter too awful much, it's just annoying. There's no guarantee of where an IP address is located. Locating by IP address was a bad idea when it began and is a worse idea now. But the OS and browser makers aren't helping much. And what really ticks me off is that they won't let me override it, because they think they are smarter about the location of my desktop than I am, or they are worried that people will fake the location, but so what? They could still fall back to IP locating if they want a trace or something.
So Grrr.
I'll probably try something different when I'm in a better mood. Today was shopping day with mom.
Humph! Fran. Who can sleep with geolocation not working? 
That Tibs got me all going on geolocation.
@Tibs, it does work. Sort of. The website has to be using it properly.
I went here:
http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/HTML5/Geolocation/Default.html
and there was a popup asking if I wanted to share location, and I could select my CORRECT location. However, for google it isn't working right now. I think there's a way to clear that on a site-by-site basis. So I'm checking into it to see if I can clear it for google and reset and start over and see if google will honor it.
So, it at least works sometimes.
More later.
That Tibs got me all going on geolocation.
@Tibs, it does work. Sort of. The website has to be using it properly.
I went here:
http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/HTML5/Geolocation/Default.html
and there was a popup asking if I wanted to share location, and I could select my CORRECT location. However, for google it isn't working right now. I think there's a way to clear that on a site-by-site basis. So I'm checking into it to see if I can clear it for google and reset and start over and see if google will honor it.
So, it at least works sometimes.
More later.
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P.S.
Google won't so far. Not sure I've exhausted all options though.
With Google, YOU are the commodity. So it wants you to sign up for a google account, then, of course, it will let you customize the location.
And of course, I hate that stuff and know that it's all B.S. They could do it all "normally" without me having to sign up.
On the plus side, BING lets you at least type in a location for yourself for the session without an account. Google is flakier from what I can tell so far.
Google won't so far. Not sure I've exhausted all options though.
With Google, YOU are the commodity. So it wants you to sign up for a google account, then, of course, it will let you customize the location.
And of course, I hate that stuff and know that it's all B.S. They could do it all "normally" without me having to sign up.
On the plus side, BING lets you at least type in a location for yourself for the session without an account. Google is flakier from what I can tell so far.
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