FAQ for Thematic Attic Geography Program Version 1.0
Actually, this (as as many FAQs on the internet) should probably be more like "Anticipated Frequently Asked Questions". If we just waited around for questions to roll in, how would we be able to share what we want to share here. Either way though, if you have questions feel free to contact us through the contact form and we'll be happy to respond.

Anticipated Question #1: So what's the point of this program?

Good question . This whole program started as an internal report, but then we realized (or at least hoped) that it might be useful to some Geography teacher or someone else out there. So we gave the interface an electronic "spit-shine" and added a couple of new features. We do sincerely hope that some of you will find this useful.

Anticipated Question #2: Where did you get your data?

From you. Almost since the inception of thematicattic.com we've had a counter which tells us how busy our website is. But that's not all it told us. Our counter is custom-designed to feed us information like what browsers our visitors use and what screen resolution their computer is set to. That way we can ensure that your visit is as error-free as possible.

While we were at it we added information that helps us figure out what city your computer is in. Don't worry, we don't know where you live and even the city location is only approximated. If you look at the statistics you'll see that the majority of hits from Southern California come from Los Angeles when in fact a large number of those hits are probably not coming from downtown or Los Angeles proper. But what we do get from our statistics helps us understand how far our website is reaching. We've even been spotted from Russia (if that hit wasn't a spoof) and Taiwan. Both of these are more likely spambots that we couldn't otherwise filter out from these statistics. But we here at thematicattic.com still find all this data interesting to crunch to discover new things about our visitors. Ultimately it makes for a better website. If we didn't care about this stuff, our website would probably look like so many others.

Anticipated Question #3: How accurate is your data?

Distances are probably the most accurate of all, but you have take into account how the geographical center of the indiviual cities is calculated. In short, a common practice for this type of thing is to draw the borders of a city as polygon (that's geometry not geography now) and locate the mathematical center. But even that method is flawed because the latitude and longitude of the coordinates of each vertex in the polygon are based on some reference point somewhere in the world and different sets of data may use different reference points. The only point in our mapping that can be considered really accurate is the front door of Thematic Attic in Covina, California. Even that is up to whatever level of accuracy Google.com, who's data we use for geolocation, wishes to provide. If you zoom in our map to street level, you can see that we've carefully adjusted the coordinates to match the Google Maps system we are using for the maps themselves.

Next is probably the population numbers. At least as far as the 1990 and 2000 counts as we are using data directly from the respective Census polls. The U.S. government takes Census polling quite seriously. I know because I've been through the training. Still, those numbers can only be as accurate as the public is willing to share. If a house with five residents only claims four, there's no real way of disputing it.

Finally, come the hit counts. These are actually counts of how many pages within thematicattic.com were requested from computers residing in a particular city. Unfortunately, there are some people out there (spammers, etc.) that troll the internet, using tools to visit websites (or only portions of them), in hopes of finding personal information or email addresses to collect and exploit. This is why we don't publish our email addresses but use forms to send email on thematicattic.com. Spotting some of those tools is easy, especially if they go right to the "contact us" page and then leave, but some are more carefully crafted to fool the webmaster into thinking he or she is seeing a legitimate visit. We've done our best to filter these out of the results you see, but some may have slipped by. In general though the popularity of our site from one city to the next is fairly accurate.

Anticipated Question #4: What time period does the data cover?

From Mid (Rougly July) 2005 through the end of September 2006 for version 1.0 of this program. We may or may not add to this data, that depends on how popular this program is with all of you.

Anticipated Question #5: How do I use this program?

That's a broad question, but we'll try to answer.

On the left is a map. On the right are the controls to add data to that map.

Navigating with the map itself is the same as using Google maps (because it uses the same technology) or pretty much any other mapping program.
  • There is a vertical line terminated by plus and minus signs on the left of the map. You can use these to zoom in and out. You can also point your mouse anywhere on the map and double-click. The left mouse button will zoom in around where the mouse is pointing. The right mouse button will similarly zoom out.
  • There are arrows on the upper left of the map. You can click these to move the map left, right, up or down within the viewing area. You may also "drag" the map with your mouse.
  • There are buttons on the upper right of the map with labels "Map", "Satellite" and "Hybrid". "Map" is just like a road map. "Satellite" is images taken from satellites. "Hybrid" Combines the best of both "Map" and "Satellite". When zoomed out "Hybrid" can be quite helpful, but when zoomed in near city level the city names may get in the way of markers placed by our program. In that case, the view may be cleared up by clicking on teh "Satellite" option.

Now on to the right side data controls. Probably the simplest way to view these is by section. Each section operates similarly with the exception the the population section is missing the country controls. The reason for that boils down to us using the U.S. Census for population data and that didn't include data for cities outside of the U.S. That said, the following should apply to each of the three sections:
  • Select a state or a country. Not all states or countries are available, only those from which we've been visited. To pick a "region" click on the button with a downward pointing arrow which is located to the left of the button that says "Go!". A list will drop down from which you can choose. Once you've made your choice, click on the "Go!" button just to the right of that list. A series of "pins" will then appear in the map. For some states, especially California, this may take a few seconds as we load the data.
  • You can then compare the color of the pins to the key for that section. In the case of the "Distance" section the colors repeat but not until you pass 256 miles from Thematic Attic.
  • You can also move your mouse over individual pins to see details for the different cities.
  • If the pins are clumped to close together, try zooming in (see above) or moving the map to get it where you need it.
  • If you are in "Hybrid" mode (again, see map controls above) and the city names are getting in the way of the pins, you can switch to "Satellite" or "Map" mode. The city names are included in the data shown when you move your mouse over the respective pin.
  • Finally, if you've been playing with the program for a while and there are too many pins in the map, you can hit the "Reset" button at the bottom and the map will be cleared, recentered around Thematic Attic and zoomed back out to it's initial position.

Anticipated Question #6: Can I make the map any larger?

Not at the moment. We designed the entire program to fit on a screen with a resolution of 1024x768. If we get enough requests though, we might consider changing that in a later version. In the meantime, you CAN zoom in, down to street level, on just about anywhere in the world. If a location won't zoom in that far, check back later. Google is always updating the images on which this technology is based, and that is independant of our programming, so things will generally just keep getting more and more detailed.