Dan_Edwards

While I don't think the idea is that hot, and there should be some mention of it in the FAQ, I don't think there should be a rule saying absolutly NO. Someone might come up with a interesting twist and the best way to vote against a cache is to simply not do it. If someone wants to say, "In order to claim this cache you must get a picture of yourself standing on one foot while waving the flag of Mexico." Well that is in that persons right, just don't expect me to applauld your cache. A = A

Been a long while since I was in IRC on my Amiga. Never had used it since I started using a PC. Since Trillian had the option to add IRC, I finaly got around to chatting on #Geocache. Pretty cool group. Most of who seam to log off when I log in, but I keep telling myself that is because I work nights and not some kind of cyber BO A = A

Don't know if this will work any better but here is a link to the GPS directory on your personal web space. What is missing is the HTML to make your links into web pages. Netscape and some other browsers store links in HTML. I think that is what you were trying to do here, but IE, in true Microsoft fasion throws out a really neat standard for a less compatible one. I think the topic is a cool idea though, when I get home I will have to look up all my links and post them here. A = A

I have no system loyalty at all. I started as a avid Commodore user but after they went belly up I started building my own PC systems. I look at Macs but I was a bit of a hardware tweeker. After years of dealing with IRQ conflicts and other PC crap I am really thinking hard about going to the Mac. You get a real nice stable UNIX based OS with a lot of power and stability. Now I used MacOS 9, and that OS series should have been dumped by System 8. If Apple were to go out of business... SO WHAT! Just go out and buy a PC. I say you should buy one and if it sucks sell it. Dan A = A

quote:Originally posted by Gwho: In other words, it's not about the sport any more, it's all rules, regulations and legal stuff that has nothing to do with the core sport itself. Is that your problem? Yea if that is the question that is a tough one to answer. Basically I would say no, because considering just how HUGE this sport has become there are very few true limits to Geocaching. There are some etiquette issues, but these are pretty much policed within the community. There are exceptions here and there. Such as I am totally in favor of completely commercial caches that would be for profit, but I know as a community that is an unpopular idea so I don't try to place anything like that at all. Anything that involves this many people trying to complete anything with some kind of order needs rules, and I think this place does a good balance between iron handedness and complete chaos. Dan A = A

It's right there in the URL, this is a commercial site. Jeremy can run the show how he feels. I think in the end he does a pretty good job trying to manage the balance of protecting a copyright and letting lawyers rule the show. If we did not have such silly copyright rules, life would be a lot simpler. But in the end, its his site. He built it, he made the copyrighted material and it's his to do with as he wishes. Don't like it, make your own web site. If it ends up being better then this site I will be there in a heartbeat. A = A

That all your smurf thing had me laughing coke out my nose! Sorry for the visual. And if it is done with a travel bug tag I would be in for a few of them. Dan A = A

That all your smurf thing had me laughing coke out my nose! Sorry for the visual. And if it is done with a travel bug tag I would be in for a few of them. Dan A = A

Had a lot of trouble finding the cache. Luckily fractal was the last person to visit the cache, so I pulled my geiger counter and found the cache in short order. To me it looks like all the Portland-Vancouver area caches just got a lot easier to find Dan A = A

Had a lot of trouble finding the cache. Luckily fractal was the last person to visit the cache, so I pulled my geiger counter and found the cache in short order. To me it looks like all the Portland-Vancouver area caches just got a lot easier to find Dan A = A

I will have to go and read the latest adventures, it has been a while... Dan A = A

Be sure to check out the other threads about XMap (Delorme) and PalmOS programs. There are several, but I will sum up my feelings Advantages: All your Geocaching data and Waypoint info in one place. Great for when your drive and just want to think about a cache to do on the fly. The new Palms have easily exandable memory, and you will need it. Maps and Geocaching data can get large. Lots of different programs that will use your GPS, if one does not do what you want there are hundreds of GPS utilites out there, one is bound to do what you need. USB map download much faster then serial. Disavantages: No one program does everything I need, and for the most part they are incompatible with each other. For doing caches on the fly, I have all the data I need but it is difficult to find the closest cache to me. Palms are fragile, but it is possible to make them useable and protected, and it sounds like you have thought of this in advance. Also note that XMap does not support the clie's hi-res mode. In order to use it you must tell the Clie to use 160X160 emulation mode. If you do get one, make sure you check out GeoNiche it is by far the best "Outdoor" GPS program out there in my opinon. Most programs for the Palm on based on City/Driving problems. Or research issues. A = A

Be sure to check out the other threads about XMap (Delorme) and PalmOS programs. There are several, but I will sum up my feelings Advantages: All your Geocaching data and Waypoint info in one place. Great for when your drive and just want to think about a cache to do on the fly. The new Palms have easily exandable memory, and you will need it. Maps and Geocaching data can get large. Lots of different programs that will use your GPS, if one does not do what you want there are hundreds of GPS utilites out there, one is bound to do what you need. USB map download much faster then serial. Disavantages: No one program does everything I need, and for the most part they are incompatible with each other. For doing caches on the fly, I have all the data I need but it is difficult to find the closest cache to me. Palms are fragile, but it is possible to make them useable and protected, and it sounds like you have thought of this in advance. Also note that XMap does not support the clie's hi-res mode. In order to use it you must tell the Clie to use 160X160 emulation mode. If you do get one, make sure you check out GeoNiche it is by far the best "Outdoor" GPS program out there in my opinon. Most programs for the Palm on based on City/Driving problems. Or research issues. A = A

Just a FYI... Robert has been helping me and he created a version of GPSBabel that will create the files that work with the XMap - Topo USA conduit directly saving me from having to manually edit the CSV output. He also stamped a small bug that would sometime mess up the long cache names with the "-s" option. Made my weekend! A = A

Just a FYI... Robert has been helping me and he created a version of GPSBabel that will create the files that work with the XMap - Topo USA conduit directly saving me from having to manually edit the CSV output. He also stamped a small bug that would sometime mess up the long cache names with the "-s" option. Made my weekend! A = A

quote:Originally posted by SR & dboggny: i tried to follow the examples in the doc... but not understanding root directories and things i could not get the program to execute.... it was due to my lack of knowledge. i tried typing in different combinations as best i could from the examples but if you just dont have the knowledge, its kinda hard... i think the program is great, its just for me, i couldnt get it. SR and dboggny. my mother in law rides a broom! Get ahold of me sometime on Yahoo IM and I will talk you thru how to use command line and directories and stuff. A = A

I left out the most useful command for GPSBabel. GPSBabel -? That will show a list of available formats it can convert. A = A

I have found a way to get Geocaching.com .loc files to import into TopoUSA 4 and XMap. There are two files that Topo USA 4 uses when sending waypoints back and forth to XMap. If you look inside the "Mobile Maps/WptsTransfer directory you will find two files, one called "XMAPHHWptsRcv" and "XMAPHHWptsSend". These files are your basic standard CSV file with just the words "BEGIN SYMBOL" and "END" tacked onto the start and end of the file. Today I found a program called GPSBabel on sourceforge that translates a lot of formats. So I had it translate the .loc file from my Geocaching query to a CSV file. I then used Notepad to add "BEGIN SYMBOL" at the start and "END" to the end of the data. I then replaced the "XMAPHHWptsRcv" with the new file. I loaded Topo USA and went to the exchange wizard and told it to import the waypoints from the Palm into a new layer and I was done. Not the most user friendly method, but it works. Took me a little while to find the FAQ for GPS Babel so I thought I would show a example command line. gpsbabel -s -i geo -f 10322.loc -o csv -F overgrade2.csv -s tells it to use the long name rather then the "GCxxxx" name from the geocaching .loc file. If you like the GCxxxx name, leave that off. -i geo tells it your inputing a geocaching.com .loc file. -f 10322.loc is the name of the input file name. -o csv tells it that the output format will be csv -F overgrade2.csv tells it to output the data to the file overgrade2.csv. A = A

From what I remember of Topo USA 3, it is not much different from 4 in the file import area. But if you can get the waypoints into your GPS you could then download them from the GPS. A = A

From what I remember of Topo USA 3, it is not much different from 4 in the file import area. But if you can get the waypoints into your GPS you could then download them from the GPS. A = A

Easy fix for the speeding thing. Everyone who enters must submit the tracklog from their GPS. If at anytime they went over the speed limit for the road they were on they are disqualified. If you plot them all on different layers of TOPO USA then you can have both entertainment watching wrong turns and such, and creative ideas on how to get from point a to b. A = A

To get even a little more weird, here is a idea. I don't know how the Rhinos would work, but it would be cool if you could set it up so that if a Geocacher were to be within range with a Rhino that person would show up as a waypoint on your Rhino. A = A

I have not found that battery level makes a difference on my unit, but the time of day does. Since the sats are in the same location every 12 hours, if your having trouble at a spot try a different time of day. The sats will probably move to a location that works better. Of course I have noticed that my unit (Magellan for Visor PDA) is pretty conservative about when to shut down. Dan A = A

quote:Originally posted by CacheAndCarry:Layers are cool! Make lots for different things, waypoints, tracks etc. Then you can turn different layers on and off by selecting their checkbox. I was playing with this a little this weekend. I also noticed there is anouther section where you can make draw layers "active", this was different then the section with the checkboxes. This one was radio buttons. If I had to guess this would do something like locking a layer in Photoshop. You can still see it, but can't affect the stuff on it. quote:When you setup layers in Topo4 there is a predefined layer called "WaypointLayer", use this draw layer when exchanging waypoints. When you cut a map by selecting quads, be aware what layers are visible. What you see when you cut the map is what will be on the map on the handheld. Be careful not the have the layer that contains your waypoints visible. If you do the waypoints will show up on the palm map, but as images on the map, not routable objects. Instead, exchange waypoints separately by using the exchange wizard and select "Send to Device" with object type select "User Map Data - Waypoints". This way the waypoints will show up in the routable waypoints list. Thanks, that does help clear up what is happening a bit. So I am little confused. If I want both the object to appear on the map AND I want a waypoint so it can be routeable, how do I do that? quote:I wouldn't recommend putting more than 100 or so waypoints as performance viewing and selecting waypoints will suffer. Yea after I downloaded a entire search of all level two or higher terrian rated Geocaches within 100 miles of me, I found that out the hard way. Glad I got the Visor Pro, I don't think I could have waited for my Deluxe to do it! A = A

quote:Originally posted by CacheAndCarry:Waypoints that are going to be exchanged are in text file in a folder C:Program FilesDelorme XMap DocsMobile MapsWpts Transfer. This location may vary based on what you select at install. Don't get confused, Topo4 hands waypoints, routes and tracks off to XMap for the actual exchange. There should be 2 files in this folder: XMapHHWptsRcv.txt - waypoints newly created on palm. XMapHHWptsSend.txt - waypoints to be sent to palm. The format for each is the same. BEGIN SYMBOL 43.5639184713,-73.6121053696,14MI 43.8689500093,-74.4320030212,ADMUSM 43.5886377096,-73.5696084499,BLKM11 END Check these files before actually doing a hotsync, sometimes Topo4 will create duplicates if you click the Prepare for Sync button more than once without actually performing a sync with the palm. Feel free to edit the file before sync just maintain the structure. CacheAndCarry Tennessee Tuxedo will not fail. I stumbled across these files this weekend when I was working with dboggny on transfering .loc files around. He had figured out that if you upload the waypoints to a standalone GPS, then you could download them to TopoUSA. Since the format of the .loc file is very close to the format of the it should be pretty simple edit .loc into the import file on TopoUSA. Then just import them into a new layer and POW you can have layers for each Geocaching Query you do! SWEET! Dan A = A