Rich in NEPA

quote:Originally posted by Growley:Rich, since you posted your question a few weeks ago I have played around with my GPSMAP76 at vertical and horizontal positions. Dave, thanks for relating your experiences. You seem to get different results with your Map76 than I do. With mine, it doesn't seem to make much difference how it's oriented. When I'm in the field I am usually holding the unit near vertical and out in front of me as opposed holding it flat and close to me. As far as the electronic compass, the ones I've seen had to be held parallel to the ground. I believe some of the newer ones have some sort of tilt compensation, but I don't know if the new Garmin unit possesses this feature. It's a good question! Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

quote:Originally posted by Team Shibby:... how far will you travel for the purpose of geocaching? Ummm ... are these crow miles or road miles you're asking about, and do you mean one-way or round-trip for the whole day? Makes a big difference. The most I've traveled in one day, total road miles was 220. The farthest cache distance, one way as the crow flies, was 66.5 miles. Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

quote:Originally posted by Team Shibby:... how far will you travel for the purpose of geocaching? Ummm ... are these crow miles or road miles you're asking about, and do you mean one-way or round-trip for the whole day? Makes a big difference. The most I've traveled in one day, total road miles was 220. The farthest cache distance, one way as the crow flies, was 66.5 miles. Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

quote:Originally posted by RAD Dad:I have a problem with my pictures looking bad when I click on them, but if I then click on the picture itself, it opens it in a new window and it looks just perfect. RAD, if you're referring to the "new & improved" individual cache log pages, then welcome to the club! Personally, I preferred the old system a lot more, where you clicked on each of the picture links from the main cache page and were given a new window with the entire original image displayed. The routine that Jeremy uses to create the scaled down view on the new page really degrades the image. I don't follow how this whole system saves bandwidth for the Website because I know that I end up going through all these extra steps and downloads just to see the unadulterated images. Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

quote:Originally posted by MissJenn:I'd like to place a cache at the top of a climb myself, but need to see how others have written the description. MissJenn, this is the only one that I know of that is reasonably close: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=6707 Also, this one involves climbing but may not be very technical: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=17741 Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

quote:Originally posted by MissJenn:I'd like to place a cache at the top of a climb myself, but need to see how others have written the description. MissJenn, this is the only one that I know of that is reasonably close: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=6707 Also, this one involves climbing but may not be very technical: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=17741 Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

quote:Originally posted by RDVH: I am curious to the average age of fellow geocahers ... Well, let's see ... since I'm 53 years old, feel like I'm still 29, and act like I'm 12, that would make my average age: 31.33!!! Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

quote:Originally posted by RDVH: I am curious to the average age of fellow geocahers ... Well, let's see ... since I'm 53 years old, feel like I'm still 29, and act like I'm 12, that would make my average age: 31.33!!! Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

quote:Originally posted by Geoffrey:Antenna is a problem on the GPS Map76, it has to be as close to vertical as possible. Geoffrey, I seriously doubt that this is the situation with the GPSmap76. I've tried to bring up the following point in previous threads, but I don't think anyone really knows the answer ... so let me just mention it again. I believe that the quad-helix antenna in the GPS76/GPSmap76 series is oriented on its side. Observe the shape of the case at top of the unit. The antenna is situated above the battery holder. It is definitely NOT vertical! You would have to place the unit on its side the get the antenna pointing upward. So, whether you hold the case verical or flat out in front of you, shouldn't matter at all. (At least in theory!) I speak from experience when I say that my older GPS12XL (patch antenna) seems to provide consistently better signal reception in poor coverage areas than my GPSmap76. Most of the time I can't get satellite lock with the GPSmap76 when placed on the dashboard in my car (either laying flat or tipped to the vertical), yet the GPS12XL (in any position) gets a 3D fix almost instantly!!! Don't get me wrong ... I like the map76, it is very responsive in the field, has a better display, and has great features, including the mapping. I'd like to hear the experiences of others with regard to signal reception. Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

quote:Originally posted by Shylock & Fiona: What would the seasoned Geocacher do???? You might want to check out this thread. If it was my cache, I would weed out what I considered to be truly crap. Of course, this is a judgement call on my part. If it was someone else's cache that I was visiting, I would leave everything as it was and let the owner decide, except that I would "trade out" any food and matches or other inflammables. Invariably I take a photo of the cache contents and post it with my found logs, so the cache owner gets the chance to see what I saw. Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

quote:Originally posted by Cachemere: Can anyone out there help me or point me in a direction where I can help myself? Cachemere, this is a complicated subject to attempt explaining in a single reply. I'm sure you will get other advice as this thread evolves. However, let me start with this much: The first thing you want to do is forget about PPI and DPI since it is counterproductive to understanding how it all really works. These are essentially publishing terms and not really relevant to video monitors (although you are likely to be told otherwise by authoritative sources, no less). Train yourself to only think of image resolution in pixel dimensions. Computer video displays come in different resolutions, such as VGA (640 pixels wide by 480 pixels high -- 640x480 for short) and SVGA (800x600 pixels). Other video display resolutions, for example, include XGA (1024x768 pixels), SXGA (1280x1024 pixels), and UXGA (1600x1200 pixels). A "pixel" is a picture element. It is a single one of those discrete, tiny colored dots that make up your images, just like a mosaic of tiles. If your camera has a 2.1 megapixel sensor, the images it produces will be a maximum of 1600x1200 pixels. Obviously, you can't display the full image from your camera in it's entirety unless your monitor is capable of displaying UXGA resolution or higher. In addition, these images when saved in JPEG format can be anywhere from 500KB to 1.5MB in file size. This is too big for uploading to the Geocaching website because of the 100KB limit that is imposed on image files. The thing you will need to do is resize your images to fit the most common monitor sizes (VGA or SVGA) or even smaller, so that everyone can view them without having to scroll left/right and up/down. Unfortunately, when you resize any image you will throw away important details—you simply cannot represent all of the information contained in a 1600x1200 image in one that only has 640x480 pixels. You need to save your original image as it came from the camera by not writing over it, but resize it in an image editor (you mentioned that you have Picture Publisher) and save it using a different filename. Generally, you will save it in the JPEG format, which will also allow you to "compress" the image to make the file size even smaller. In this way you can produce a VGA-size image that is still under to 100KB limit. Please note that there is a serious tradeoff that goes along with JPEG compression: it causes a further deterioration of image quality. This is where you have to find a happy medium between image dimensions (pixels) and file size. Remember, the less manipulation you do to your images while getting them to the appropriate dimensions, the better they will look. Your software will typically have a menu selection for resizing (sometimes called resampling, but if you have both options, select "resize."). Choose either the "pixel size" or the "percentage of original size" option instead of using actual dimensions such as inches or millimeters, and you will avoid the PPI/DPI hassles. There are any number of good websites which can help explain digital image editing, and you may want to check out a few of them. Hope this helps. Cheers .... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. === [This message was edited by Rich in NEPA on March 24, 2002 at 12:46 PM.]

quote:Originally posted by LarsThorwald: ... yet I'm only seeing half of the icons. I've tried dagging the edges of the window as well, but no go... Charlie, I know this might seem a little too simple, but did you try changing your Text Size (making it smaller) before you open the Icon window? Just a thought. Cheers .... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

quote:Originally posted by The Yellow Dog Project: Even if I open the Gif gversion in Paint Shop Pro, it doesn't animate. am I doing something wrong? Keith Keith, I don't know which version of Paint Shop Pro you have, but I'm using a registered PSP v7.0 which comes with Animation Shop v3.0, and this is what you need to work with animated GIF's. You can still use the GIF image you've created in your forum signature, but only JPEG's will be accepted as your avatar image. Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

quote:Originally posted by TheBeans: Same thing goes for "band-aid" or "q-tip" or "jello." And Xerox, too. "I'm going down to the mailroom the Xerox these!" You can bet that Xerox isn't happy that their trademark has become a generic term (and a verb, as well)! Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. === [This message was edited by Rich in NEPA on March 23, 2002 at 07:23 AM.]

quote:Originally posted by TheBeans: Same thing goes for "band-aid" or "q-tip" or "jello." And Xerox, too. "I'm going down to the mailroom the Xerox these!" You can bet that Xerox isn't happy that their trademark has become a generic term (and a verb, as well)! Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. === [This message was edited by Rich in NEPA on March 23, 2002 at 07:23 AM.]

quote:Originally posted by Wow!: Where can you purchase plain old clear vinyl Try a local sign shop or silk-screening shop. They use the static-cling types. I have some of the clear static-cling vinyl that I've used in my sign business, and I tried it myself on some LCD displays. The problem is that it tends to lift off too easily, especially in the cold and damp. You really need a film with an adhesive. If you don't care for the clear mailing tape idea, you might want to get some clear premium sign vinyl. I still think you'd be happy with the clear mailing tape. It's inexpensive and you get more than enough to replace it as often as necessary. No matter what you use, you will get some tiny air bubbles trapped underneath unless you are very careful laying it in place. Let it contact at the center first, and slowly work toward the edges. Most air bubbles will dissipate on their own in a few days or so. Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

Here in NEPA we have a small local State Park comprising a mere 1400 acres, 200 of which is a lake, and it currently holds four Geocaches that are essentially spaced out in different corners. Lee Hill Cache Cozy Squirrel Lookout Riddler's Revenge Hemlock Woods Cache Although it's possible to visit all of them from the same parking spot, it would require hiking 6 to 8 or more miles over hilly terrain. But, for as close as they all may seem to each other, I believe this particular Park can reasonably sustain perhaps two more caches, and still allow enough separation to keep them challenging. So, come and visit NEPA, and check out a fine variety of Geocaches!!! We've got several dozen within a 20-mile radius. ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

quote:Originally posted by Geo-Vamp: I got my signture in my profile but ... I can't get it to show when I post a reply. G-V, if this was the first time after you added or modified your signature, you will need to log out and log back in again for the changes to take effect in the forums. Try this and see what happens. Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

quote:Originally posted by hoodeedo: Does anyone out there know of anything else like this? Actually, yes. Also found at Officemax, you can get a roll (2" x 30 yards) of "Crystal Clear" Super Strength Mailing Tape for just a couple bucks. It works extremely well for protecting small LCD displays. I've used it on my cell phone and digital cameras. Since it has a high-gloss surface it does not affect the image. It's very durable and peels off cleanly, too. Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

quote:Originally posted by BrownMule: ... Just what I wanted. BM, I believe there is a character limit for the text entry boxes in the Account Information page. I'm not sure how many characters are allowed, but if you get an "Internal Server Error -- ASP Error" you might want to try trimming your signature message until it is accepted. Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

quote:Originally posted by BrownMule: ... but I wanted to put this in my signature which does not accept HTML. I can do it in the message body but not in the Signature. I wanted to know if this could be done with UBB code. BM, the above code was not HTML, it was done with UBB. Now I modified my signature to do exactly what you wanted. If you click on the image in this post you will get my profile. Does this help? ~Rich in NEPA~

quote:Originally posted by BrownMule: I want someone to be able to click on my signature image and go to one of my cache pages. This will work: Click the image... ...to see BrownMule's profile! The UBB code looks like this: http://img.Groundspeak.com/cache/15777_1100.gif where: < = [ and > = ]. ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. === [This message was edited by Rich in NEPA on March 22, 2002 at 03:56 PM.]

Absolutely!!! It's a major part of the experience. That's one of the downsides of being a First Finder or one of the early ones. I'm in no hurry during my cache hunts, and I typically spend a lot of time poking around the site, taking photos and enjoying the views (if any). Some of these places I many never visit again. I've found that most people write something entirely different in the logbook than in thier logs on the cache page, and the logbook comments are more spontaneous. Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

quote:Originally posted by DARC:If we agree on the results of the techniques. Then can we agree on what minimum resolution/quality of an image is appropiate for GEOCACHING.COM ? DARC, I've seen your posted pictures. I'm afraid there's not much we are going to agree on. Cheers ... ~Rich in NEPA~ === A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. === [This message was edited by Rich in NEPA on March 20, 2002 at 04:22 AM.]