Dan_Edwards

quote:Originally posted by CO Admin:I have a request. When submitting caches for approval please do not set the terrain at a "1" unless it is wheel chair accessable. if it is not please use "1.5" The Frog is my friend Sounds like a good idea, still a stop gap because the site really needs a checkbox just for that. Until that time I think this is a good backup. And I think one of the icons available from the texas cachers web pages is handicap accessable one. That would be even better. I am off to edit a couple of my caches... Dan A = A

Ok, I went to the Cobra GPS web page and read the manual and as far as I can tell the 100 looks really good for a sub-$100 unit. But as far as I can tell it can't talk to a computer. I found the GPS 500 available in the store, and it talks about a PC interface for that model, but I can't find the manual for it to see if you can upload maps. Sounds like they are just releasing these things. I sure do love the SD card on my meridian, but I want something with a sharper screen. A = A

quote:Originally posted by Jamie Z:That's how it is. Large maps take an exceptionally long time to create. Two suggestions to help you: Make smaller maps. Maps are very simple to switch if you have the newer firmware. A few button presses and you can switch between maps. Buy a SD card reader. You can transfer extremely large files to an SD card in a very short time. Jamie Sounds like he already has a reader, but he is running into the problem while tring to create the file to upload. This is a known issue with large maps. It is common issue talked about in the Yahoo Magellan Group if you go there you will find lots of discussion about it. Not having experianced myself I only kinda remember the solutions. I think the main one was turn on Virus Scanning on the fly. The virus checker trys to scan the file as it is being created and causes the hard drive grief as it tries to process several things at once. The other being add memory because if you end up having to use virtual memory the same thing happens. A = A

I got to use one of these for a few hours during a Playtime event. I had never used a Garmin for more then a few minutes before that and I really liked it... Except for that click stick. Drove me nuts, but I was starting to get the hang of it after a couple of hours. Other then Geocaching one of my main GPS uses is Snowshoeing. I can't think of any way to get that click stick to work with gloves on. Does someone make gloves that with a grip that would work? Is there any way to access menus and functions without the stick and just using the other buttons? I thought the small screen would really bug me, but I found it to be very easy to read. A big surprise but a good one. The other limitation, the 8mb memory, is a annoyance but not a show stopper. I must admit after having a memory card in my Meridian I really like that feature a lot more then I thought I would. The fast USB map uploads are easy to get used to. Not having used Garmins map software before, how much topo data can you fit in 8mb? If I could fit everything in a 30-80 mile radius of where I was staying I would be happy enough for the most part. Can you put more then one map in that 8mb so that if I knew I would be at a specific spot off-map I could dedicate a meg or so to that area. Now I have to make up my mind if I want to go this route or maybe a iQue. Since I did a small crack on the screen of my Visor Pro I am leaning that way, but a few of the Geocachers in Colorado have Rino's and it would be nice to be able to use them at Geocaching parties. Maybe I should just get a job that would allow me to have both :-) Dan A = A

Well I never did get to the puzzel cache except to find a very interesting location for it. I needed three things to come together for it to work and I found a location where they did. It will require some more work then I had intended, but might be very interesting. Wish I could say more. Wish I had more time to work on it. On the plus side the crib is now together and I have my last Lamaze class on Sunday. Maybe I should make a diaper event cache with the enterance fee being a package of NEW diapers :-) A = A

I was walking down the street in downtown Fort Collins and noticed a guy with a interesting contraption in his hand. It was hand grip leading to a "T". On the left side at the end of the "T" was a Garmin (Vista?) with magnetic compass, in the middle in line with the handle was a digital camera, and on the left side was a Pocket PC (iPaq I think). Anyway the GPS was tied to the PocketPC and it would take the memory card from the camera and modify the JPEG's using the GPS log to compare to the time stored with the JPEG the camera wrote. Not only would it record the location of the photo, but it would also record the direction he was facing as well. I asked if he had tried Geocaching and he had thought about trying it, and then I asked if he knew Rick from Geospacial experts (since he is from Fort Collins) and he said that his script was a modified version of the script available there. I really wish I had more time to chat with him, should have gotten his name because that was one cool setup. Dan A = A

quote:Originally posted by Snoogans:GEOCACHING & CHICK-FIL-A!!!! I've lost just over 40 lbs. and those are the only changes I have made to my routine!! YAY!!!! Sngans http://www.texasgeocaching.com Sacred cows make the best hamburger....Mark Twain. If it works and you like it go with that! It's simple and inexpensive too. That usually does enter any sentence of a person trying to lose weight! Heck just cutting the fry's out of a burger and frys meal and replacing them with a salad will save you a LOT of calories (well unless you smoother it in calorie laden stuff). I love CHICK-FIL-A myself, but the only one in town that I know of is in the local mall, and since there is no stores there I like much I just don't hang out there much, but I did notice that I had a easy time finding stuff to eat there. About the malls here in Colorado, let me just say this... If your looking for Outdoor gear Colorado is THE place to go shopping. If your a geek and love electronics you need to avoid Colorado! God what I would not give to have a Fry's here!!! A = A

quote:Originally posted by Tahosa:Dan I've heard your new diet will include bottles of Gerbers pre mashed vegetables. Washed down with lil bottles of applesauce. Tahosa - Dweller of Mountain Tops. Well my diet will only include small portions of such things because I have already told myself that I will taste any food I buy for my soon-to-be son. Should be a interesting way to try new things! My wife is due October 22nd and her last day at work will be October 9th. Personally I am hoping for a Halloween baby. I wonder how long I could convince my son that everyone dresses up for his birthday and "Trick or Treat" is just a different way of saying "Happy Birthday". Actually food is one of the things I have been thinking about. I want to instill healthy food habits, but I don't want to be anal-retentive about it either. From what I have been talking to the doctor about it is that if they are hungry feed them, and if they are not don't make them eat. Kids have not had time to develop bad habits about eating so they are probably just responding to what their bodies are telling them. Something I have had to relearn all over again A = A

Tell me about it! I don't feel like the same person! Lets see... I was just starting to get a twinge of carpel tunnel, really having trouble breathing while sleeping on my back, my blood pressure was high and my cholestoral was not that great either. All those things are fixed with out any money spent on medical stuff. But my favorite new thing... I can sit with my knees up to my chin. The simple things are the coolest The first 20lbs were the hardest till I was able to find all new stuff to eat that I liked. That is the key in my mind. You have to find foods to eat that you like, not just non-fat stuff that tastes like ****. Once you have found a quantity of food you like and is within a calorie budget the rest is easy. Whatever you do, eat if your hungry! There are plenty of foods that are very low cal you can have. And if you blow it one day... Oh well. I have a few days logged where I sucked down 4-5 times what I was supposed to that day, it happens. What I currently do is eat pretty low-cal during the week and whatever I want on the weekend with other people. But I have noticed my tastes have changed over time. I can't stand a large McD's cheeseburger and fries anymore. I can have one or the other, but both just make me feel like crap. This did not happen overnight, it was a very gradual taste change. The first foods that I bought for my diet were replacements for my diet of hamburgers, fries & pizza. Then I started to move to new foods. This from the person who would go to McD's and order four double cheeseburgers after a long hike. The other secret was program called WWCalc for the palm pilot. I could use that to easily keep track of what I was taking in. Best of all it has available all the Weight Watchers point values for all the major resturant chains, so I know whats on the menu before the waitress/er gets there. Which is good because sometimes it takes me fricken forever to find something remotly healthy and sounds good on the menu. Sometimes I just end up ordering what sounds good, screw the points. quote:Originally posted by Renegade Knight:No weight but I can do hills a lot better than I used too. Dan Edwards. I'm sorry but that other person in the photo is not you. Definitaly a different person! A = A

If so, then put me at the lead so far... Well I don't think I will be losing to much more since I am about where I want to be. I am right around 90lbs lost right now. Check out my profile for a before after pic. Man I love geocaching a lot more when you can fly up trails in the rocky mountains and not doing that "Huff, Huff, Wheezzz, Wheezzz" thing! quote:Originally posted by Doc-Dean:We need a _weight loss leaderboard!_ --------------------------------------------------- Free your mind and the rest will follow http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung/aktion/action-smiley-076.gif A = A

Well I have been thinking of putting togther a puzzle cache... And this is my long weekend... I guess I have no real excuse as long as I make sure I start putting together the babies crib first. How long could that take Dan A = A

Dude nock that off! Now I want one of those... That screen could really show a fantastic topo map and the games with the ATI graphics should rock... Curse you for telling me about it! You know now that I think about it. I wonder if the ATI graphics chip they are talking about could render a 3D topo for you... THAT would be cool. quote:Originally posted by Team Lightfoot:http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=5898 will be my next Palm OS pda if I can sneek the purchase past my wife. It's got built in blue tooth so you could use one of those new blue tooth GPS'rs with it. A = A

Having owned both I think it comes down to this... PPC OS is better for now, but I don't see that lasting long now that Palm has caught onto the fact that people really need faster processors and hi-res screens (about time, that should have happened a year earlier). One of the things I really hated about owning a PPC device was feeling so "tied" to Microsoft products. I like most MS products but I like the feeling I can dump someone in a heartbeat if I feel they now suck, or I see something I like better. If I were buying today I would either get a Palm Zire, Sony Clie, or Garmin iQue. If I were to get a Palm I would want one that could upgrade the OS unlike the Handsprings. It's the only thing I really hate about my Visor. A = A

Very interesting. At first I was going to agree that it probably should have been posted in a local forum, but considering the cool stuff involved, I think this one qualifies to be kicked up a level. I am very tempted to do this one and I am a state away and don't own a 4 wheel drive. Dan A = A

Searching around the accessories page I found that the new National Parks West Topowill work the iQue. The detail looks great, probably as good as TopoUSA4 or better. Looks like it has trailheads and trails on there as well. Now this is the kind of power I am looking for in a GPS! Now I just need to find some way to make this thing waterproof, float, shock protection, and provide at least 12 hours running time... quote:Originally posted by Dan Edwards:When I was using my Visor GPS combo I really, really liked using Xmap and Delorme TopoUSA together for recording my tracks and seeing where I am. The XMap topo maps are more detailed then a handhelds maps. The only downside being is that for all other functions XMap is useless. So does the programs from Garmin for the iQue support Topo information. If not are any other programs plan either from Garmin or 3rd party? Dan A = A A = A

When I was using my Visor GPS combo I really, really liked using Xmap and Delorme TopoUSA together for recording my tracks and seeing where I am. The XMap topo maps are more detailed then a handhelds maps. The only downside being is that for all other functions XMap is useless. So does the programs from Garmin for the iQue support Topo information. If not are any other programs plan either from Garmin or 3rd party? Dan A = A

Before I lost my GPS for my Visor... Yea I know I lost the one thing that keeps me from getting lost... Anyway I found this place located just up the street in a magazine and website. I was going to see if they would be willing to make a case or help me mod one so that the GPS module would fit. If anyone is seriously interested I would be willing to talk to them about such a thing. Heck I might do it anyway because I still use my Visor outside quite a bit. Otterstore Cases A = A

Well I am not sure if the lack of NMEA support is a good thing. I like options available, but if they just made it have NMEA out of the box no one would re-write software to use the API. Since access the GPS though the API might allow more then one program to access the GPS at the same time, that would be a much better way. I was going to register as a developer so I can get a look at the API details. I just really need to know how this thing works before I put down that kinda cash (cache:groan in a new PDA. I also want to know if I can rig up a extended battery and protection case since I would really want to use this while snowshoeing. I would really like to be able to use the maps from TopoUSA with it. They are much more detailed then the maps for handheld units and the new version includes trails that you have added to the database on the handheld. Neat features in theory, but to be blunt Delorme programming is poor, so I would doubt they would make good use of the API on the Ique. Actually I am shocked that Garmin did not include a Palm Program that basicly emulated a handheld unit as well the other stuff. A = A

This is one thing I wanted to check into before getting a Ique. Can't you just use one one of the many GPS programs out for the PalmOS on it like Geoniche? If the GPS on it provides NEMA that should work fine, but I am guess you already tried that. If that worked you could load waypoints and descriptions directly. A = A

quote:Originally posted by JamesJM: True....my point, which I failed to make, was that most PDA's support Windows CE while Palm does not....therefore, according to some people who have advised me...MORE stuff is available for the Windows CE. NOTE: "I DID NOT SAY THAT"....it's just what I heard. Your explanation clarifies things greatly. Thank you. - JamesJM I will sum up my message like this... PalmOS may have problems, BUT number of programs available is *not* one of them. That is the only problem with the PocketPC, and its not that much a problem these days. Now for the details... Ok started on a Windows CE device and at that time found several problems. I loved the power of the processors and the OS, but the user interface was way too "Windows", it would have worked fine with a mouse, but with a stylus it sucked. Then the the number of programs available was awful! The ones that did work with my processor were usually crap. So I got rid of that and went with a Palm. The PalmOS was better organized and the number of programs is beyond amazing. I still find the PalmOS very limiting when I am really trying to do online stuff. Until just recently the processors were still too slow for todays online applications like web browsers and spell checking. I have not made up my mind about what PDA I will upgrade to when I do. The iQue is really looking nice, but so does the Clie and iPaq. I have seen the new PocketPC stuff and the programs no longer suck, but the numbers are still a little low and the OS has improved a LOT. The number of programs available is relative, but I am used to on the Palm being able to find the weirdest stuff. If you have a interest on it, someone has made a Palm program dedicated to it. But my searches of late on PocketPC sites shows that I would not be that unhappy with a PocketPC, just a little frustrated at times that there was only one program for a odd topic instead of six. A = A

What I love its something you can go find in National Parks other then Virtuals. I enjoy the hunt, the trading does little for me most of the time. A = A

A few notes about the comments. About the "hack". Well since I was planning on using a Palm web browser to get the co-ords on the road, I was planning on sitting with my Handspring Visor and SprintPCS module to update the web page. Since Blazer won't do the popup windows I was going to see if I could figure out what the link would be and bookmark that in Blazer so that I could load the map the second it popped up. In the end I figured I would be much better off turning off graphics so the page would load faster. So I was about 2 secs from stumbling across the Denver map myself and if Wireless internet were faster I would have What would I have done if I had found it... Probably told no-one and went to look for the cache. Or I would have told Magellan, but most likely I would have went to look for the cache. About the contest in general. I think it was a great idea. It has a lot of people excited. Considering its a very different contest then most they are doing ok. The web link hole is a huge blunder. Depends on how they handle the mistakes. Any company can make mistakes, but the true colors will come out in how they handle them. One of my proudest moments when I worked for Hewlett-Packard was when they discovered a drive roller problem with DeskJets and activly sought out a fix before most people knew there was problem. Then making it really easy to get that fix by taking out ads telling people about the problem and how they could get a free kit to fix it. It's easy to fault everything that went wrong with the contest, but I was amazed with what they got right. They got the fact that people love to tell the story of the adventure they had finding the cache and made that part of the contest. Using you brains as much as your GPS. Posting clues so that you could be in right place when the coords were posted. Putting up some pretty cool prizes. Nothing gets people excited like the chance to win something, but not just by luck. It's part luck and part skill. I think Magellans heart is in the right place. They were really trying to run a cool contest and have done great work in the past supporting Cache-In Trash-Out. They also support more then just the Geocaching.com website. The execution could have been better, but this is pretty new ground and I would have been shocked if mistakes had not been made. I give them big points for trying something like this. Most companies would not have even tried something as adventurous as a Geocaching contest, to much that could go wrong. Most would have done something bland but safe. I am tired of bland and safe! Will it affect my GPS purchases... Not much. I have only owned Magellans in the past, but that had to do with the fact they offered products that I felt were the best for what I wanted. I started with a Handspring add on. When I went to a handheld I almost got Garmin Rhino, but when I tested that clickstick with my snowshoe gloves I found it less then useless. So I went with a Magellan Meridian because with the big buttons I could easily use it with my gloves on. I have very little brand loyality. One of the biggest problems I find is that few outdoor store carry Magellan products and I think this will get people talkling about Magellan in the stores and will lead to choice. Which is a good thing. While I really wish the execution were better I still think this is a great idea and very adventurous for a corporation. Wish more were this brave. A = A

I was doing a search on something GPS releated and stubled on this web site that will take a tracklog from your GPS and then give you a complete activity profile including how many calories you burnt and so on. Considering I use hiking to keep my weight down (I have now lost over 90lbs) I found it very useful so far. If you have a heart rate monitor it will use that data as well. You can also use the site to rate a hike/trail/Mt Bike ride and publish it for others. You can also see a topo view and sat view of your tracklog. Considering all of this is free for one log at time (if you pay you can do more) looks like a lot of data for free. Great for those who can't afford something like TopoUSA or ExpertGPS right away. A = A

quote:Originally posted by Thompson Family: Now the downsides. The speaker isn't really loud enough to clearly hear the voice prompts as you are driving. I understand that the charging cradle for use in a vehicle includes an output connection intended to connect into the car stereo so this isn't a huge issue. What is a show stopper for me for GeoCaching is the battery life. From a full charge, with the backlight off and the battery saving features enabled I was able to get 3 hours use before low-battery shutdown. If used with the in-car charger then that's less of an issue unless you are planning to go on a longer hike. The battery pack does not use standard batteries, so when they die you're stuck. To be fair to Garmin, GeoCaching/hiking is not what they designed this unit for. It was designed for use in vehicles as a navigation aid, then as a handheld PDA but not primarily as a handheld GPS. It's more of a PDA with a GPS added on rather than the other way around. When used in the targetted manner I think it does a nice job, when taken out of its target niche it doesn't do as well I'm afraid. Personally, I've resurrected my old Palm Vx and Magellan StreetFinder GPS. This combination gives me several days of battery life for the Vx and 10-12 hours use from NiMH AAAs on the GPS. The downside with this combo is storage space. A newer device with an expansion slot with a clip on does a very nice job. Not as rugged as a proper handheld GPS but very nice nonetheless. Cheers, Bruce. Thank you so much for the info. I was really thinking about getting this for on-road and off road use. I still might get one though, but that battery life thing is a show stopper at the moment. Does anyone know if you can buy more battery packs for it. When I lost my GPS module for my Visor (I know I lost the one thing that was to keep me from getting lost...) I replaced it with a Magellan Meridian GPS (Merigreen) and I am pretty much in love with it for hiking. I no longer have to fear water or dropping, but sometimes I do mis the power of my Visor, because I could use so many different programs to talk to my GPS I had a lot of info available that I don't have on the Magellan. For one XMap's TopoUSA maps are much more detailed then Mapsend's for terrain detail and trail routing. I think what I will do is save myself some money for now and just replace the GPS module from a used one on eBay and take a wait and see with the iQue for now until I hear more about the battery situation. A = A

While there is a lot of crap software out there, and for that reason I like Shareware, I have to disagree. All software should be required to be paid for, period. When you are not willing to pay good money for something you find usefull just shows that you don't have any respect for hard work. It does not hurt that Geoniche is a bargin at $25 in my opinion. A = A