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malak

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Everything posted by malak

  1. Wow, I have no idea where that error is coming from. How odd (cause normally I'd know!) That's at the command line in a shell (terminal) window? Yes at a command line in a terminal. At the time I happened to be at "the base of the tree" so to speak, but that has nothing to do with it. The install is fairly fresh install with no real tweaking, you know the usual remove evolution from the laptop since the desktop is using it, etc. Using gnome, of course. Yes it was a standard repo install as in "yum install geoqo". Hmmm, maybe this is as much a fedora forum issue then as one for here.
  2. I used to use CentOS 4.4-4.6 on my desk and lap exclusively ... funny, having a windows machine in the house by and large meant that I could ignore it. After pulling teeth, nails and hair to unsucessfully get the printer working again under CentOS 5.2, I moved to Ubuntu this summer on both to get my printer working on the desk and wireless working again on the lap. (other topic, Ubuntu just works, but I hate it ... how frustrating!!!) I nuked ubuntu on my laptop and installed F9 and was relieved. Interestingly and pleasantly the wireless worked out of the box on the laptop. Laziness and "it just works" vs. the work I'll have to do to get F9 to work properly while I'm still working on the laptop is what is currently keeping ubuntu on the desktop. Right now I'm trying to get GeoQo working on the Fedora laptop. I installed it from the repo, but no menu item shows up. Typing "geoqo" at the command line and it says "No package gui available." Any suggestions?
  3. one of the moulded buttons on my garmin etrex came off. The local service centre won't seel me the individual piece -- the rubber moulding that goes around my yellow etrex -- and will only include it as part of an $80 service package (and he was so insistant on the guaranteed part of the work, sounds like a marketing thing. ) I expect a number of the other models use the same piece. Anyone in Canada, preferably eastern Ontario or Quebec, have a gps junkpile?
  4. one of the moulded buttons on my garmin etrex came off. The local service centre won't seel me the individual piece -- the rubber moulding that goes around my yellow etrex -- and will only include it as part of an $80 service package (and he was so insistant on the guaranteed part of the work, sonuds like a marketing thing. ) Anyone in Canada, preferably eastern Ontario or Quebec, have a gps junkpile?
  5. That you should set up a CITO cache in such a park. No trading items, just go in, sign the logbook, and take a CITO cannister, whose bag you should fill with garbage. Then put a new bag in and place the cannister in your next cache. <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=82878">Iced Tea 29</a>
  6. quote:Originally posted by dasein:Speaking of nasty stuff, one thing that really bugs us is people leaving apparently used syringes/needles near--or even on--trails. We have run across this several times in the year (almost) that we have been geocaching. We would like to remove the offending item, but we also don't want to risk getting poked by it while removing it for disposal. Bring wine corks with you, pick up the syringes, and jab the needle completely into the cork and then break it off. Dispose of the punger and needle cork at the gate garbage.
  7. Yes, I take 10 readings at a cache site, add them up, and divide by ten. And yes, I do carry a small dollarstore calculator with me. I also weed out the really wonky readings, and if my readings work out to be: 12.3456 78.9012 then the posted coords I list are 12.346 78.901
  8. quote:Originally posted by Thompson Family:I'm just making up a bunch of 35mm film canisters with grocery bags stuffed into them. I made up a label for them, please feel free to use it: http://www.otherother.com/~bruce/CITO.jpg The original is in an OpenOffice drawing, repeated across and down the page to fill it up. I'd be happy to email it to anyone who uses OpenOffice. What I'm doing is cutting out the label (it's exactly an inch tall, 3 7/8" wide the exact width of a film canister. I take 2 inch packing tape and place the label on it with about 1/4" clearance on each side then wrap that around the canister. They look great! Cheers, Bruce. I've taken the .jpg and pasted it 16 times into a word document. So far I've made about 100 cannisters, have released about 4 in caches I've found, another in a cache I set, and even 12 in a CITO cache I set just this week (Iced Tea 29 in the Montreal, Qc, Can area). I also am carrying them around for all my caching and will throw in one or two per cache.
  9. will be there. Veggie please. Will bring Death by Chocolate.
  10. quote:Originally posted by Runaround:Sorry georgeandmary, I saw this and had to steal your idea. http://users.adelphia.net/~ebruder/cache.jpg Now where did I park my car??????? http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/monkes.gif Clear the way! I've gotta get to the bomb squad! ... wait, why is that guy with a gps and a McToy coming toward me?
  11. malak

    Ammo Cans

    quote:Originally posted by Coupar-Angus:Colour me frugal, but I've had great success with those $1 Tupperware knock-offs from the Dollar Store! I remember one Geocache where it took all my strength just to open the frozen ammo box lid. Subsequent seekers couldn't get it open at all - now that would be frustrating! Colour me frugaler, but I've had great success with all sorts of FREE containers I've gotten from work (a commercial lab, the containers for bulk assay chemicals are usually waterproof) or, better yet, 2kg peanut butter jars that have been *very* well cleaned. Binthair in Ottawa appears to have had enough success with painted frozen yoghurt and ice cream tubs to keep on using them 25+ caches later. Mind you, I have been impressed by ammo cans, but my second reaction, after "What, pay $14.95 for a container that I hope won't go missing to some fascinated 12 year old?" is "Yeah, right, mister, tell me again what you were doing in the woods talking to satellites holding an ammunition can someone on the internet told you about ..."
  12. quote:Originally posted by bigredmed:Some of the puzzles involving linear equations and counting light fixtures for your coordinates get to be a severe brain cramp and turn me off from the cache. I just set up another cache this week, Iced Tea 24, and was asking myself this very thing. I was wondering about what has now for me become bland -- looking for signposts and counting numbers -- and at the same time wanted to balance a desire for people to go to another waypoint first with a desire not to overshadow the true point of the cache, the parlour trick. Maybe what I should do from now on is figure out a way of impressing people with the puzzle while posting the parking coordinates. Flip side is that, with Iced Tea 22 an astute cacher can figure out how to forgo the first step required to get the offset ... oops, if you plan on hunting this cache, don't read this.
  13. quote:Originally posted by Buttons Brigade:Maybe there's something I'm not getting: Why would you purposely put the wrong coordinates of a cache, who's sole purpose is to be located by people using a device to help them home in on a set of coordinates you gave them? If you're gonna put the wrong coords then why not just let me leave my GPSr at home and walk around blindly? Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista... Take listed bogus coordinates, bear Xdegrees Ykm, where X and Y can be found ... A little contrived, but doable. Usually, my "bogus" coordinates are very relevant. Take IT22. As mentionned, the listed coordinates are not needed to finding the cache, but are related to its location by being 1.02km from another related site one must find in a picture using a trick similar to that which is used to deriving the cache coordinates from the picture location coordinates. Admittedly, I do wonder why you would want to use bogus coords that are so far away from your cache that no one in the area would know to look for it. As for keeping its existance secret as part of a bonus cache for finding one or more regular cache(s) but allowing people to register a find ... people are going to find out about it by logs in other caches, by looking at people's find lists, local email lists, personal emails, etc. Better to just keep the cache as a "no-credit" bonus, or to list bogus coordinates that are local (such as the Town Hall or famous local landmark.)
  14. quote:Originally posted by Sparrowhawk:I've been messing with how I can improve it or add additional twists... and so I added a typical-looking little cache container to the site... it has a note inside that says "THIS AIN"T IT! Keep trying!" with smileys all over it. Oh, Balls! (@#$%!) This cache is well placed as a "revenge cache" and "consolation cache" by another cacher for a particularly ornery cache. The logbook says that while you have found that cache, you should keep on looking for the cache you set out to look for.
  15. quote:_What is your opinion of multi-caches?_ I actually like 'em alongside regular caches, and will often choose a regular cache over a multi. But I think that a number of the multis I've done were memorable while the overwhelming majority of caches I've done, singles, while individually memorable, are not the first ones that come to mind. I like to make offsets more than multis. Things like simple tricks, a choice of two or three potential locations based on statistical oddities, "find the pic and you'll find the cache", etc.
  16. quote:Originally posted by Ramness570:Do some people not understand that GPS is not exact? Anyone else get logs on their caches from people saying the cords were off by X number of feet? I have noticed on some of my caches as well as others in the area. Now I could understand if they were getting readings of 50 70 90 or 100+ feet away that maybe the owner should go out and check. I’m talking about people that say the cords are off by 10, 20, or 30 feet or so. I’ve had a Cacher actually say that my cords are off then proceed to post the “correct” cords according to their super perfect GPS (can you read my sarcasm here?) and when you type in these “correct” cords they are a whole 5’ from the posted ones. Do these people not understand that these thing are not exact and depending on you GPS’s capabilities (WAAS and such) we are all not going to get the same reading every time? If I find a cache and its between 1-50’ on my non WAAS GPS, I consider the cords to be good cords. Second cache I found was off by 30 metres -- about 35 yards, about 100feet. It was hidden beside a rockface beside an open area, and my gps was showing quite well into the open area. A find pic from a previous finder was what helped me when I said "hmmm, that rock looks familiar, I'll sit down for a minute." Voila, la cache. Another was an outright irresponsible set of coordinates -- 450metres off! the cache is supposed to be hidden just off a parking spot at the top of a mountain as per the hint, but the coordinates are 450m away in an area I almost killed myself. Still haven't found that 1/1 cache after three attempts, but it is a two hour drive away ... Worst part of this last cache is that I think it was set by vacationers -- they say they had difficulty with getting good coords (never had such terrible readings) due to the mountains, and applied the standard deviation to their readings (Don't really know how you do that properly, but from my field experience on this cache it probably aggravated the problem.) Even worse is that despite the dozens of people who have found the cache and posted better coordinates, all of which are well within gps error of each other and meet the specs, major hints and pictures rather well when I tested them out another time I tried again but still failed, the owners haven't bothered to check and update the coordinates.
  17. quote:Originally posted by Cache Canucks:...what (if any) periodic confirmation is done with Canadian benchmarks. A Herculean task, to say the least, but surely the GC makes *some* effort to determine that benchmarks being shown on new topo editions are still valid (both in location and elevation). I've done some inspections of benchmarks (two only, actually) and sent in inspection reports. The report in one case was updated to the current year. I just sent in pictures but they haven't been added yet.
  18. malak

    caches

    quote:Originally posted by 300mag:What kind of caches do you like most? regular caches are the easiest bang for the buck if you can do them on your lunch breack, or there's a good walk. But, inspired by Binthair, I have been trying to set mystery caches with clues.
  19. quote:Originally posted by malak:I will be in Bytown late November 1 and on November 2 visiting and caching with Cliffy. I'd still like to meet many of you, so email me at malak@pobox.com if you'd like to join us. Perhaps an informal meet at Wally's for supper on Saturday, November 2?
  20. quote:Originally posted by Tick & Nammie:We are currently planning another get together, but have not posted it yet as we are finalizing details. However, I thought I would give you a heads up so that you could mark your calanders. The event will take place Saturday, November 16th and will run all day and into the evening, it will be similar to the last event, 'Go and Get em', since it was so successful, but will have some new twists and a new end location. Love to, but I've been booked for months for something else that Saturday. I will be in Bytown late November 1 and on November 2 visiting and caching with Cliffy. I'd still like to meet many of you, so email me at malak@pobox.com if you'd like to join us.
  21. quote:Originally posted by The Intrepid Lemmings:Is it safe to assume that this is still a perfectly good functioning cache despite the departure of the quilt squares? I'm hopeful, 'cos it looks like a pleasant trek... --Intrepid Lemming, one of 'em. Iced Tea 17 (Montreal site of the CDN Geoquilt) is still active. All I did was remove the squares.
  22. quote:Originally posted by The Intrepid Lemmings:Is it safe to assume that this is still a perfectly good functioning cache despite the departure of the quilt squares? I'm hopeful, 'cos it looks like a pleasant trek... --Intrepid Lemming, one of 'em. Iced Tea 17 (Montreal site of the CDN Geoquilt) is still active. All I did was remove the squares.
  23. I own an eTrex and religiously practice the "10 sample average" technique for setting a cache. I have found it to be fairly accurate, though I have found that using a "4 sample average" of the same spot compared to the "10 sample average" taken at another time provided -- in that experiment -- about 1.5metre accuracy in 4 out of 5 coordinates, and the last had about 10 metres difference. As for the maggies with averaging, I did the "10 sample average" with my eTrex on a cache, and a friend with a maggy held his unit at the spot for a moment or two. We compared the coordinates and determined that they were both within acceptable gps error -- easily less than 5 metres from each other. We opted for my coordinates as being as good as any, but we could have just as easily decided on his. Might as well have been decided by coin toss. Bottom line: hold your unit in the spot for a couple of moments, and the coords will stabilize. Use those, and consider them accurate.
  24. malak

    Cache Not Found

    I have gone out within a couple of weeks if not way sooner on most of my cache's no finds. I take it seriously since I once had a devastating multi-hundred kilometer trip looking for two caches and failed miserably on both. I have attempted each cache twice since with no finds, and on one I was convinced it went MIA third time around, but it was found a couple of weeks later ... go figure. Each time on my caches though it was still there. In one case it became obvious it was the finder, not the cache, that had encountered trouble. Funny, once he upgraded the firmware his success rate shot up!
  25. GPS accuracy relies on extremely precise timing -- the gps knows where it is since it takes a reading from several satellites whose positions are known and the exact time of signal transmission is known. From that the gps calculates the time the signal from each satellite took to get to the unit based on the speed of light, the speed at which the signals were travelling. There's a problem involved. The satellites have atomic clocks in them, so they know precisely what the time it is down to you don't want to know how many gazilionths of a millionth of a second. Your gps, on the other hand, doesn't have an atomic clock, so the time calculation is less precise. You wouldn't be able to afford a gps with an atomic clock, nor would you want to bring it along with you geocaching both due to its high value and cumbersomeness. Hence the inaccuracy in calculating position. 8 metre inaccuracy is actually pretty good, unless you're a cartographer or land surveyor. So you want to get a good reading for determining your cache's location? Take ten readings at the location you want. Between each one walk at least three or four metres away and come back to take your next reading. Then take an average. Beyond that you'll still never know whether or not your value is the location of your cache or some other tree 8 metres away. For what it's worth: A) I get a number of "your coordinates were dead on", though of course I also get the occasional "My readings were off by 20 metres". I did a little test the other day on one of my multipoint caches. After a few problems deciding on some coordinates I decided to go out checking each and every one; taking only four samples this time at every waypoint, I averaged them. Of this second set, one of the five coordinates had an accuracy of about 12 metres from the original, and the other four each had an accuracy of about 2 metres. YMMV but it demonstrates how accurate a handheld commercial gps can be if used properly.
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