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		<title><![CDATA[Latest posts for the topic "Yikes! Noob has lots of questions..."]]></title>
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				<title>Yikes! Noob has lots of questions...</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Hi All!

I have a number of questions that I hope someone can help me with...

I get a series of "notices" that I have to pass along to specific areas of the country.  The notices, can be quite specific and say Las Angeles County or give a circle like this:
<area>
<circle>32.9525,-115.5527 0</circle>
</area>

OR give FIPS along with Polygon info like this:

<area>
 <areaDesc>EXTREME NORTH CENTRAL TUOLUMNE COUNTY IN CALIFORNIA, EXTREME NORTHEASTERN 517 CALAVERAS COUNTY IN CALIFORNIA, SOUTHWESTERN ALPINE COUNTY IN CALIFORNIA</areaDesc>
 <polygon>38.47,-120.14 38.34,-119.95 38.52,-119.74 38.62,-119.89 38.47,-120.14</polygon>
 <geocode>
   <valueName>FIPS6</valueName>
   <value>006109</value>
 </geocode>
 <geocode>
   <valueName>FIPS6</valueName>
   <value>006009</value>
 </geocode>
 <geocode>
   <valueName>FIPS6</valueName>
   <value>006003</value>
 </geocode>
</area>

What I currently have is two database tables:
1) User table which has a geocoded address for each user
2) Zip code table that has the zip, city, state, county, x_axis, y_axis and z_axis.

Right now, I'm passing along all messages that go to 'x' miles of lat/lon but I've been asked to enhance the system to support spatials, FIPS etc. and I've no idea where to start,

So, my question is... where do I start?

Thanks,

Pete
P.S. We're in a LAMP enviornment.]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/2890.page#10079</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/2890.page#10079</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 12 Jul 2011 07:41:14]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ ppetree]]></author>
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