DamOTclese

Many years ago I placed the "Never Find The Body" game piece, and I marked it at 4.5 in Terrain because it heads across the North Fork of the San Gabriel River and then it heads up a very steep ravine which is fairly dangerous, not recommended for children. Recently I marked it with 15 attributes underscoring the potential dangers. QUESTION: Are there general guidelines for designating Terrain difficulty? What constitutes 1 star? What constitutes 5 stars? From what I've been able to find, every game placer basically decides what the Terrain difficulty is based upon their own opinions, I don't see any basic guidelines for codifying how best to alert people about potential hazards bagging a game piece other than in the entry's text. Are there any general guidelines published anywhere?

Does anyone know where I might find down-loadable fliers (preferably in Microsoft Word format) which can be printed so that I might stock them at a U. S. Forest Service office? If none exist, I'll have to create one though I imagine I would need to contact the Geocaching web site admins to determine what legal restrictions there are in utilizing the trademarked logo for such fliers. Thanks!

Thank you for doing that, if you do. It may be that the marker is on BLM land, and the BLM would conceivably come out and clean it up if you report it.

My son and I were able to get his Onix 200 working with the Bushnell web site to load 39 waypoints however it took 2 hours, then when we went to load the next set of waypoints, the Bushnell web site was no longer responding after clicking on "download maps" -- with either FireFox or IE, an EtherReal sniff showed that the Bushnell server simply stopped pushing data across the TCP connection. I agree with the comment someone else posted: Cheaper is not better. The Garmin that I played with for a couple of months was expensive however it had a rotating wheel and easy, friendly user interface options that allowed quick operation. The Bushnell method of entering alphanumeric waypoint names is *exhausting* and hard on the fingers, least it was on the new, stuff buttons on my son's Bushnell. He regrets purchasing it. I'm going to buy him a Garmin to swap it out and maybe give the Bushnell to my worse enemy as a gift.

A good set of instructions howevere I always get "Service error: There was an error processing the request." when I click on "Upload." What's interesting is that the "My WayPoints" shows the waypoints I upload successfully even when the thing gives an error message. Note to self: Never purchase a Bushnell. I do Foresdtry work using a Garmin which does not force its users to go through such hoops.

Okay, that's the last time; it's pointless to remain here. It seems the "moderators" of this forum are rude control freaks. If they don't like a subject they shut it down. Bye!

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/8768 This article (and the links provided within it) are about the use of a frequency counter being used to locate hidden radio transmitters around Groom Lake in Nevada which were then logged using a hand-held GPS unit. The devices that were logged and plotted were modified by the government to make frequency counters locating them more difficult however simple RDF propcedures would be enough to locate the buried devices by making two passes past the devices. What's interesting is the off-hand use of the term "geocaching" in the Security Focus article. More and more people seem to know what it is and what it's about without news sources like this feeling the need to provide background into the term. I was at Indian Springs Air Force Base for many years and we used to get flying saucer kooks coming into town looking for aliens or whatever else they could see to try to confirm their conspiracy beliefs (look at a map; Groom Lake is north of Indian Springs Air Force Base.) Sensors were placed to keep people from walking out onto the bombing range were there's considerable unexploded ordanance. I mention it because the GPS locating and publishing of coordinates of these sensors could constitute a hazard is someone were to get the list -- like from off of the Internet -- and go out there and retrieve the sensors. (Hell, the GPS logging and publishing of the coordinates for unexploded ordanance would also constitute a considerable hazard.) Yet 25 or 30 miles from ISAFB is Mercury Test Site, an underground (mostly) nuclear test site. (I say "mostly" because at times when I was there the yield was greater enough to cause significant breeches of radiation and at least two tests have resulted in cattle, goats, and sheep needing to be destroyed in large numbers.) These areas are ringed by such sensors as were detected and then logged by GPS hand-helds. The article makes me wonder about the legality of using GPS hand helds to locate devices the government wants to pretend are "matters of national security." Before the fascification of the United States, the use of GPS to locate government equipment was not in itself an actionable act. The _publication_ of such information could be actionable if there were allegations of malice or other such intentions. The damage done by the publication of GPS coordibates of such equipment could be easily enough rectified simply by digging up the equipment and relocating them. Now with "PATRIOT Act" and other fascist, unconstitutional Acts and policies, it appears that even using a GPS unit is a federal offense, as would be using a frequency counter or RDF to locate government equipment anyone anywhere indiscriminately labels a "matter of national security." But aside from the legal aspects of using GPS to locate government equipment, the article prompted wonder at the publication of coordinates. The possibilities for stupidity are legion: a web site could be created that offers the locations of geocaches one has to tresspass on to in such dangerous locations as bombing ranges and nuclear test sites. A percentage of the populace _is_ stupid enough that I expect that some day geocaching will include a segment of cachers that travel their countries hiding and seeking in dangerous places with no regard for safety just for the putative thrill of it.

Yes.

http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/23.36.html#subj11 This is from the latest issue of RISKs Digest. The only thing I could think to ask is why the company that logs GPS tracks from their taxi fleet were logging GPS readings for a city over one thousand klicks away. I at first thought that the GPS readings were incorrect; that the GPS log right before the homicide was an error caused by an electrical short, the human operator resetting the computer, or maybe even caused during the crash. But from the note it looks like the taxi fleet HQ was logging GPS during a test or something. Bizarre.

How about a '48 Willys? That was my first 'jeep' and where I learned to drive stick. When we hit a bump in the road in the Willys, the doors fell off. -E Someone in Glendora has one of those in a restoration show room for sale -- and if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it. }:-} It looks like it was the first military Jeep rolled off the assembly line.

I've always wanted one of those but owners never seem to want to give them up and I'll never be rich enough to purchase a new one. Many times I've wanted one while sweating in the desert sun digging my own Jeep's tires loose.

That's the puppy! Bare bones also is very good for parking one's vehicle out in the middle of the Mojave desert in 110 degrees heat for a week while knocking around the hills. Less hoses, plastic, rubber and what else to get soft and spongy in the heat. I spend a _lot_ of time as far from civilization as I can get -- by mutual agreement between myself and civilization. and many has been the time I or my brother Desertphile (see http://www.desertphile.org/ ) have rescued someone in new cars that couldn't take it for one reason or another. Older Jeeps are the way to go.

At five bucks each it's too much. Wooden tokens seem a better choice.

I've been driving Jeeps for some 30 years and could never bring myself to purchase foreign vehicles that are crammed packed with electronic and plastic components that really aren't needed. With the older Jeeps you get the feel for the road and the firebreak dirt road; today's stuff and even stuff built over the past 15 years or more have the feel of the road engineered out of them. It's like sitting in an easy chair in front of the television, it's too smooth and controlled. Who needs power steering, breaks, windows, DVD player, windshield washers, air bags, adaptive suspension, air conditioning, motorized seating, fog lamps and what else? It all adds to the weight of the car, adds to the number of movable and electronic components that can break down or are designed to break down, costs more, and only provide riders with additional excuses to be lazy. If you're looking at newer cars, not a one of them offer a bare-bones, feel-the-road committment to simplicity and requirement of the operator to actually work a little. An older Jeep Cherokee square hatch back with roof rack does all anybody needs.

Well, at least _some_ people responded rationally. It's amazing the lengths of irrationality some people will devolve to when it comes to their hobbies.

The Los Angeles Times has two archived articles about GeoCaching. They cost money to read but the extracts are free: http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/685666...ure+in+the+wild. The Sporting Life Goes Techno; There's new adventure in using the Web and global positioning systems to track down treasure in the wild. Text Word Count 2479 Abstract (Article Summary) On the cache hunt, [Holly Hirzel] will use her lemon-yellow Garmin eTrex GPS, which is the size of a cell phone. The $120 GPS device was a Christmas gift from her parents. Her dad, an amateur pilot, will use his outdated Sony GPS, which he bought 10 years ago to help him when he flies. His GPS unit is the size of a telephone answering http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/914842...eek+and+plunder. OUT THERE; Today's Treasure Hunt Gets a High-Tech Twist; Geocaching seems to tap into some primal urge, burbling within the breasts of Spanish conquistadors and Wall Street raiders alike, to seek and plunder. Text Word Count 1326 [Dean Portman] is a "geocacher," one of a new breed of explorers --part pirate, part computer geek--prowling the Earth on a high-tech treasure hunt. Using hand-held electronic devices known as global positioning systems to track their steps, they hide small items outdoors and then post the coordinates on the Internet for others to find. So far, according to a Web site devoted to the game, players ...

Where can these types of wooden tokens be purchased? I've always wanted to get a couple of hundred with something on them and pass them around the geocaches in Southern California.

Yep, I remember; I was on DARPA in the late 1970's and the issue came to a roiling boil when Prodigy, Geni, World Connect, and other companies started to offer dialup access outside of universities. The commercialization of the Internet contributed greatly to the imposition of standards and cheap access and arguably kept the DARPA project from expireing what with the budgetary cuts. Commercialization of hobbies -- and of geocaching -- is unstopable, true. The question of whether it's desireable or not remains, though.

Thanks for a good response. Your points are completely valid -- I've never disputed that others undeniably find it a worthwhile endeavor. It may very well be that as time progresses and the articles become fleshed out with more experience I'll get to await the release of each issue, too. Time will tell. I note that most responses have been what could be expected from hobbiest who have a certain , um, well, zeal for their hobby. Advertisements: That's at least not as annoying as paid-for subscription magazines which also contain advertisements. I'd have to wonder what kind of advertisements would be acceptable; whether they're all going to be GPS/Geocaching related or whether we'll see vitamin suppliments and what advertised. That would _really_ be ugly. Any way, thanks. It's a major plus that you responded with reason. I'm going to continue to download the PDF version and put it to paper, as always. Incidentally, a photograph of me is available at: http://www.skeptictank.org/mine006.jpg You can see the dirt, grime, and ragged clothes that result from my desert hobbies -- which include geocaching. I mention it because I'm not some newbie complaining without basis.

You are kidding right? Did you read the same one, I did, Cause, yes, I like it. If you dont like it, why gritch-n-moan? Of course I've read them. Fact is that the points I covered are valid criticisms -- not only for this particular effort but would be valid for anything else attempted along the same lines. Is there some reason you couldn't address the issues? Right.

Speaking only for myself and as my opinion only, I thought it was stupid and a waste of time. There was nothing the least bit interesting in the issue I downloaded and reviewed, it was just "more of the same" kind of stuff one reads in this forum. I'll continue to review the next coupld of issues, though, since perhaps the first few I reviewed were artifacts of inexperience. I can see how some people might think it's neat, though. And if you're getting ready to respond with "I suppose you could do better?" my response would be, "There's no point in such a magazine in the first place -- other than for someone to try to win advertising dollars." Which brings up another point: Any such magazine that solicits advertising dollars is a commercial concern even if it only breaks even. Do GeoCachers really want to have commercialism introduced into our games even beyond the traditional commercialism of discussing products? I suggested it before: Any geocaching magazine should not contain advertisements. But even beyond that why bother to produce a magazine when there's enough new and fresh stuff about the subject in this forum? This forum is far fresher and provides instant discussion than any such magazine. Finally there's always the possibility that endless magazines will start being produced, all of which would almost certainly contain such poor quality stuff as this particular one has shown in the past. And eventually they'll start calling themselves the "official geocaching magazine," I would expect given human nature. Any way it just sounds rather stupid. No offense intended.

How amusing. And stupid. What's _REALLY_ needed is a way to use geocaching to get rid of unwanted nuclear waste.

trip + wire = tripwire I don't know what kind of climate you live in, but a word like tripwire in any "climate" would scare the bejeesus out of me. Okay, granted. "Trip wire" would instill reasonable fear in any climate. I'll accept that. It lead me to wonder if there are others out there.

I believe that tresspass into wetlands BLM property would not be allowed -- for geocaching or otherwise.

Why would someone be banned?