You’ve probably noticed the ClustrMaps hitmap I set up on Crossed Wires — that’s it on the left of the page. It’s nice to see hits on your web page from all over the world, but since most of them are me and will never grow in size… 🙂 Anyway, some of the dots have appeared in unexpected locations, or have appeared when dots weren’t expected, or have some other interesting story associated. So here’s a different version of our travelogue: by hit map!
The dot in Brisbane is obviously home. It’s the only one I expect will continue to grow in size over time. The dot in Sydney appeared at the same time as the Brisbane dot (first) because I hit the website from work on the day I set up the map (I might also be getting hits from workmates and colleagues, but it’s more likely my own hits).
The trip started after that, and after getting to Seattle I saw the dots in LA (Southern California) and Alaska. Now neither Rog or I accessed any ISP when we were waiting for our SEA connection in LAX, and the only Internet we used in Seattle was the free wireless access from SHARE and the kiosks at the conference (which presumably used the same ISP as the wireless). Perhaps these dots are dodgy entries in ClustrMaps’ database — I’d say that the Alaska dot is definitely in that category!
The Holiday Inn in Vancouver gave free wireless Internet, which both Rog and I hit pretty hard while we were there. So the NW USA / SW Canada dot is very likely our access in Vancouver. There is a tiny Seattle dot hidden under the Vancouver dot; it’s barely visible when the “map with smaller clustrs” enlargement is selected.
The big dot at New Orleans is a bit of a mystery. We did not access Internet in Washington DC (free Internet is obviously not provided in all Holiday Inns), but we did in Boston. The New Orleans dot appeared while we were in Boston, so it’s possible that the ISP that the hotel in Boston used has it’s gateway in New Orleans, or it’s just another ClustrMaps database glitch.
One little dot in London for the update I made from the British Airways lounge at Heathrow.
I got free Internet access at the hotel in Amsterdam, so a larger-than-usual dot there for the higher number of accesses I made. On the “smaller clustrs” enlargement map, there actually appears to be more than one Amsterdam dot; possibly the different computers we used came up in different locations.
One unexpected dot is the one in Dublin: I can’t recall successfully connecting to any ISP there, or hitting the page from any online computer. We both tried to connect to some dodgy wireless networks, and the only thing I can think is that one of us got connected long enough for the HTTP request for the ClustrMaps image on the page to hit their server.
One dot that doesn’t seem to show up is Frankfurt. I bought an hour’s ‘Net access in the Delta lounge in Frankfurt to do a blog update and buy-a-dot, but it doesn’t look like the dot came up. Maybe that’s the extra Amsterdam dot, which due to the resolution of the map only looks like it’s in Amsterdam. Or, the Frankfurt dot really is there, as the half-shadow edge-of-a-dot I can just see underneath the big Amsterdam dot on the “smaller clustrs” enlargement.
No such ambiguity for Singapore: a couple of hits from the one day’s worth of access I paid for in the hotel and the updates from the Qantas/BA lounge before departing.
Then home again, and updates from the NT: Rog’s Darwin dot appeared, and another dot in Adelaide which is very likely another database error (although I think Rog might have family in Adelaide at the moment: hi if you’re watching :). The dot in central Australia has me beaten though — maybe my globetrotting activities have interested the authorities at Pine Gap 😀 (If so, you had your chance when I was Stateside bozos! Only joking.)
So there you have it. Around the world by ClustrMap (and I can account personally for almost all the dots on the map — sad, really).
Crossed Wires 