LIMITED TIME OFFER: Your chance to be NLS MacGyver, right here in this very blog!

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2012/10/04 06:51 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2012/10/04/10355814.aspx

A question was asked the other day.

A question about the Win32 API.

More specifically, about the GEOID API.

You know, the one exposed in Regional and Language Options in Vista/Windows 7 and Regional Options in Windows 8:

I wonder at the remote picture of my Windows 7 machine show it to be in the Fiji Islands (perhaps bitter about how much more I'm using Windows 8?) while the remote picture of my Windows 8 machine shows it be in the United Kingdom (with a partial localization into Cherokee despite the fact that it decided to not go to anywhere all that Cherokee.

Jan -- why do my machines appear to have a bigger travel budget than I do?!?

Anyway, the question:

If you can

set your region in setup, and
get the value later in the Location tab, and
retrieve the GEOID of the location with a call to GetUserGeoID, and
set a new location by setting the right GEOID via a call to SetUserGeoID, and
retrieve interesting attributes of that GEOID by calling GetGeoInfo with SYSGEOTYPE enumeration members like GEO_LATITUDE and GEO_LONGITUDE, and
use cool mapping/location/GPS features in other parts of the system

then couldn't you build some amazing feature for mobile users who travel a lot?

The answer is....

Does anyone know the answer about integrating GEOID support here?

Pretend it is an interview question, and the best answerer will have a job as my paid intern.

Disclaimer: I have neither budget nor headcount at my disposal for any such internship (thus the prepended pretend "suspension of disbelief" directive. I just want to get some fun responses!

Can you take some or all of these pieces, and maybe some chickenwire and duct tape, and build a solution?

What is the answer?

Answering comments moderated until tomorrow, when I'll answer it and/or point to the answerers!

no comments

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referenced by

2012/10/08 The feature that never happened (probably because it wasn't needed!)

2012/10/05 We'll give it until Monday!

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