drfred

I'll beat my drum again - "nano" needs it's own separate category, and many of these problems will be...well, not solved, but better... A few points of perspective (as voiced by Anton Ego) 1) being a "radius whore" I feel compelled to find anything and everything within 20 miles of my house, although I think I'm getting better... That means no filtering and finding whatever is out there. I was up to 28.8 miles at one point... anyway, I see every kind of cache... 2) without micros I wouldn't be geocaching. I tried a few geocaches in 2002 and 2003 and found huge pickle buckets in the woods with piles of sticks on them. (mostly junk in there back then too, BTW, although people will tell you otherwise) At the first one I said "cool" - second "pretty cool" - third "oh, there it is (from 100 feet away) - fourth "is this all there is to this game?". After a few more I didn't search much for a while. I decided to try one out on a greenway near my house one day a year later - no luck. Searched again - no luck. Got a hint - no luck. Finally found the thing after about 5 trips and countless hours - it was an evil micro - a black bison tube about 15 feet up in a tree in the woods. Very obvious (if you know where to look) but almost impossible to find. I was hooked... 3) Now I have kids and #2 does not fit very well any more. The beauty of this game is that all sorts can play. With young kids my worst nightmare is spending an hour looking for a nano which is bound to disappoint them when found. (and if not found the kids can't understand it at all...) I've changed my hiding a bit to recognize that bigger caches are better for lots of people. 4) I was the first to hide a bison tube in Alabama and the first to hide a nano here. I regret the second now... While I'm pretty good at finding nanos they really aren't as fun as bison tubes. Hide-a-keys and film cans are downright spacious and should be in a different category - that's why they are listed as "small" by a lot of people. If you can put a coin in there it must be "small". Again, a deficiency of categories... Enough of my "perspective" for now...

All I know is that is was hell getting it to my car in the shopping cart!

I found this one at Target.

Thanks, ashnikes. Are you still in "Ithica"?

I just print out pictures of Team Cotati's avatar and stick that into the caches. They go like hotcackes.

Not many essential programs for me: Firefox is it! Actually I'm not sure where I'll go next with the Colorado being axed - it has been so nice not to need ANY additional software - just load the PQ and go. Perhaps GSAK and Garmin have a kickback deal... Anyway, .gpx files are just XML files, so you can get all the info out with some simple programming. You can even import them directly into Excel and get all you want out of them. GSAK is a beast when you compare it to any simple spreadsheet tool available (even from Microsoft!) Others: Google Earth is great GPSMapEdit is a nice tool cGPSmapper is a really nice tool

Sounds like a great idea, i think Some ideas translate well to description, others, well...not so much. I think I get what you are trying to do and I like it. It all depends on the implementation. Bottom line: go for it! You may want to employ a beta-tester...

I'll say it again...Any reviewer who wants to look at my multis is welcome. Actually I would love for them (or anyone) to come hunt them. I think they would find that they are perfectly within the spirit of the rules. I have never lied to my reviewers, but sometimes they just do not need to be overburdened with information. Actually I think we have great reviewers here (AL). They are fast and generally do things right. This is probably true just about everywhere despite the complaints you hear in these forums from time to time. All I am saying is that if, for example, stage 4 of a say, 10 stage multi, is a little bit too close to another cache, give me a break. Also, the rules say that if people are gathering information off fixed signs throughout a park that happen to be 200 feet apart that is fine, but if I stick a piece of tape or magnet on the back side of the same signs with a number on it that is not OK. Huh?

Some card readers support SDHC, many only support SD. Don't worry that your computer can't see the SDHC - you can get an adapter at tigerdirect or newegg for less than $20 that should read the SDHC. I had the same problem when I bought a new camera. While waiting for my new card reader I just depended on the old fashioned USB cable to the camera - even though that is about 10 times slower from downloading pictures... Good luck!

Wow. That's where we used to hide these...

Just remember, reviewers are cachers (finders) also. When they see a blatant rule violation they can (and will) archive that cache.l Any reviewer who wants to look at my multis is welcome. Actually I would love for them (or anyone) to come hunt them. I think they would find that they are perfectly within the spirit of the rules. If they want to nitpick over distances for a few stages they would probably have a point, but looking at a map from a few states away is not quite the same as being there. I'll say it again - the rules as they apply for STAGES of a multi are BOGUS! Who cares if stage 4 of a 10 stage multi is 300 feet away from an existing cache - do you really think that the two will be confused? And if so, one of the two is poorly hidden and/or you must be desperate for a find! A well constructed multi in a small park is nearly impossible with exact distance requirements but shouldn't stop people from hiding them.

Defacement of currency in such a way that it is made unfit for circulation comes under the jurisdiction of the United States Secret Service: United States Code TITLE 18 PART I CHAPTER 17 331. Mutilation, diminution, and falsification of coins Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the mints of the United States, or any foreign coins which are by law made current or are in actual use or circulation as money within the United States; or whoever fraudulently possesses, passes, utters, publishes, or sells, or attempts to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or brings into the United States, any such coin, knowing the same to be altered, defaced, mutilated, impaired, diminished, falsified, scaled, or lightened Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. ___________________________________________________________ The current wording effectively gives the court the authority to impose a fine at its discretion. Of course the imprisonment terms mentioned in the statute speaks for itself. So wachit you hooligans - and you know who ye are! Obama and pals are watchin ya!

A strict interpretation of the rules would say that's a no-no. I think the rules regarding stages of a multi are entirely bogus, however. It's not like people are running out looking for multis anyway - mine get a tenth of the traffic of the traditionals. On multis,my belief - and you can flame me for this but it is true - the best advise is "don't ask, don't tell". Mark the first stage. Mark the final. Tell the reviewer the finder gets from the first stage to the final. Whatever happens between the two is between you and the finder. You can slam me if you want but multis are underrated. If people got a smiley for each stage of a multi they would be everywhere. However, spending all day on a 10 stage multi gets you ONE find. Since that is the case, the reviewers should give multi hiders a break!

What is a lamp pole skirt? if you're in a parking lot go up to the lamp posts that are all over the place and you lift the little black metal looking box that covers the bolts the attach the pole to the concrete Huh? Those are bolted down, aren't they?

Probably movie promo material. Actually this stuff can be really fun. I'm looking forward to the new Tron movie after looking at the ARG - Tron Legacy

Voice activated. "Open Sesame"

Always like it. Bison tubes with camo tape are great!

"A Smattering of Geeks" - that's a winner, it sounds like a great sequel to "A Confederacy of Dunces." It would be great to have a best-selling novel where the geek became an international hero because of geocaching. +1 exactly the same thought I had. Did you know that a statue of the author is a virtual cache? We now return you to your regularly scheduled Deep Thought discussion. My OT thought-online logging is important to the growth of the game, but has had a negative effect on the written logs. Actually it is a statue of the main character, not the author. (of course, once you get into a work like this it is difficult to separate how much the experiences of the author and the main character are identical or somewhat similar. I guess we'll never know since the author killed himself...) As for the cache - logged 11/08/2004. Thanks for the memories!

Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation - at least that's how I use the term every day...

Yes. I find it great fun to plan out my milestones and usually try to pick caches that are quite difficult or that I am not likely to try otherwise. For #100 (this was back in the days that 100 was a big step, not a day's caching): drfred #100 For 500 and 1000 I did caches at Oak Mountain State Park with associated 10 mile hikes. #2000 was in Mexico, because I thought that would be fun. #3000 happened while at GWVII, so I made the event 3000 - I know, kinda hokey, but it's how it happened and I don't think that is bad... (I had really been planning to make Key to the Cryptonomicon 3000 because it is DEFINITELY worthy as a milestone - it was 3100 for me...

Another such message also went unanswered.

It is actually quite straightforward and I agree that the difficulty should not be that high. Being a "puzzle guy" and in the area, I'll have to head up and log it soon. Many people in our area were driven off by frodo13 and just don't solve puzzles anymore - they just filter them out and don't even try them. This one just fell outside of my usual radius and I didn't see it. I don't get up north of Hayden much these days. If you want to generate puzzle traffic in AL, post a note to dixiecachers.com - most of the cachers in AL don't come on these forums. Not to give the answer but try 44-80...

I used a Vista for years and found ~2000 caches with it. Unfortunately, no log information with the Vista. You get coords only. You can get a PDA on ebay for next to nothing to do paperless caching. Otherwise upgrade to a GPS with cache info like the Colorado or Oregon. Good luck!

Holy schinkes! Just have to say that every time I see your name... Anyway, many reviewers cache under a different name. I'm not sure I support the idea of sock puppet reviewers, although the arguments can be made either way, (and have been done so) So, anyone watching the world cup?

You are kidding, I hope. Or did you major in humanities? Any engineer can tell you that the terms "micro" and "nano", while being misunderstood and misused by many people, have specific definitions. Micro is a prefix meaning 10^-6. Nano is a prefix meaning 10^-9. I have also heard of picocaches, which some people have used to refer to caches smaller than a "blinky". I have thought about hiding a femtocache but doubt that even if someone has the tools to find the cache that they could sign the log...