here's a real bonehead question

[Bertha Venation]

I want to know the longitude and latitude of where my house is. How can I find out?

[XNASA]

1. Do you own a sextant?

[matcom]

18. Locking

no sextant threads

[southerngirlwriter]

2. look yourself up on Yahoo's Driving Directions thing

try whoever's name the phone is in first.

[Bertha Venation]

12. we're unlisted

:tinfoilhat:

[liberal72]

3. Email John Ashcroft or Tom Ridge, I'm sure they already know.

n/t

[grannylib]

4. lmao hee hee! too bad it's probably true, OMG...

[jean]

5. this is a good source

http://www.zipinfo.com/search/zipcode.htm

put your zip code in and check the box for lat/long

[GOPisEvil]

6. That's a neat site!

:-)

[Bertha Venation]

8. Great source.

Now I'm curious: what's an FIPS code? What's MSA/PMSA? And what's the precise long/lat of my house?

Not asking you, Jean... just... gawd, curiosity just keeps multiplying when we get a little info, doesn't it?!

Thanks a bunch. :hi:

[jean]

13. phew - thank goodness you're not asking me, who has no clue!

[Bertha Venation]

14. I should've been a cartographer.

I love to read maps. I can spend hours poring over map books.

Yet I don't know how to find things by longitude & latitude. I guess I would if I were a cartographer -- ya think? ;)

[Shrek]

7. Here's a link

Maps a street address.

Geocode test drive.

[Bertha Venation]

10. that's it exactly!

Thank you!!

[Nihil]

9. Not sure about other coverage

... but MultiMap will give you the lat/long for the UK and US at least.

(http://www.multimap.com/)

Nihil

[Bertha Venation]

11. woo hoo!

thanks!

[jean]

15. here are FIPS, MSA/PMSA links

FIPS code
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/fips/fips.html


MSA/PMSN
http://www.zipinfo.com/products/z5msa/z5msaoi.htm

ANd to find your house at that other link (lat/long) I think you could just enter your Nine digit zipcode - that one is your exact house code.

[Spider Jerusalem]

16. If you download and install IP trace software...

such as NeoTrace, for instance, it will tell you your latitude and longitude to tenths of a second.

http://download.com.com/3000-2648-7139158.html?tag=lst-0-1

[Ready4Change]

17. Borrow a GPS unit.

Ask around. They are cheap enough now that it's possible some friends of your's already own one.

Or you might check a store like REI and see if they rent hiking GPS's. I don't know if they do, but it's worth a shot.

If you know any pilots it's a good bet they have a portable unit. If there is a private airport nearby you might go there and hang around the lounge. You might luck out and find a bored pilot who'd bring his GPS to your place on a lark. If you lived near me (Maryland) I'd do it for ya. My GPS is ancien, but it would do the trick.

Finally, I think low end hiking GPS's are available for around $99. If that's too rich you could do the awful thing of buying it, using it to get your coordinates, then returning it. (Or re-sell it on eBay?)

Lots of options there.