GeckoGeek

quote:Originally posted by Thompson Family:I'm gonna have to find a way into the fence (possibly in the dead of night...) to confirm this one. It's really bugging me now! Keep in mind that given the state of the world right now that the water department may be keeping a careful eye on that site. Now a camera with a self-timer on a pole....

quote: I'll probably stick with my non-annotating ThumbsPlus for photo work. What version? I've got 4.5 on this machine and I found the function on the toolbar under Image | Stamp in the image viewer.

quote:Originally posted by ArtMan:One other thing that bears mentioning. Check on the photography policy. ... I was about to take a photo of a completely benign object (a pole that had signs indicating the distances to Bosnia, Okinawa, etc.) when the MPs arrived and stopped me, citing the comprehensive policy against photos. I noticed 68-Eldo found away around it. Pencil rubbings. Check TU1419

quote:Originally posted by Colorado Papa:It has become obvious to me that some benchmark hunters are not logging "Not Found". Is it because they don't want to admit they didn't find the marker? What indications are they leaving? I may not log anything until I finally give up permently on finding it. What indications are they leaving? I may not log anything until I finally give up permanently on finding it. Some will leave notes until they give up. I do agree that hunters should leave information if they fail to find something.

quote:Originally posted by wiredcur:GeckoGeek.... What did you use to recover that data? ThumbsPlus. You can download an evaluation version at http://www.thumbsplus.com/ I think most image manipulation software tends to destroy the data. I'm not sure if ThumbsPlus preserves it or not. But at least the original photos from the camera will have the information and it won't ruin a photo for other uses.

quote:Originally posted by ClayJar:The answer is Pocket Queries, I'm unable to download the free sample on http://www.geocaching.com/subscribe/ I'm getting Error 404

I agree that notes are generally meaningless. From other discussions it usually indicates that the person hasn't given up yet and changed it to a Not Found. Or it might be just someone's 2¢ about the BM but they haven't bothered to do any hunting. But I also like the break down in categories.

I keep noticing in the logs that a station is "recovered". I used to think this meant that a station's location was verified by measurement (don't ask me why I thought that.) Now I suspect it just means someone drove by and saw it was still there. How is the accuracy of a station's location verified? Some stations are rather small and may be re-located a few feet away over time. (See TU1284) How would anyone know it moved unless it was measured against a true benchmark? Is this ever done? Is there a different phrase used in the logs to indicate this? Given what we have, I don't see myself or most hobbiest being able to confirm much more then "it's there".

One way to tell is to get the GPS coordinates for it and go to www.geochaching.com/mark and plug in the coordinates and see what come in that area. Then read the description and see if it's a match. (Careful, you might get hooked. ) But this is just NGS benchmarks. There are a number of other benchmarks out there. Without being able to read the writing, I'm not sure there's a way to tell what it is for sure.

I guess I should have explained, I live in a city. It's more like how many cars a minute, not how many in a day. I may be able to find a lull to run out and shoot a photo of the cover, but to open it up and clean it out would require closing a lane - maybe two lanes of traffic for safety. I'm not sure the police would appreciate that. I figure the answer is 'forget it" or "leave it to the pros" but I wanted to see what others do.

When I was a kid some people used to tell me to go play in traffic. Little did they know that if they just gave me a GPS I just might ....... How do you guys deal with BM set in the road? Just wondering. If you try it in the day, traffic is a bit heavy. You try it at night and it looks suspicious as well as being harder motorists to see you. Is finding the mini-manhole good enough for a "find"?

Re: metal detector. Radio Shack seems to have one at the same price. (Cat # 63-3005 $39.99) The nice thing about RS is if you don't like it you have 30 days to return it. And no S/H price.

quote:Originally posted by ArtMan:Black Dog Trackers wrote: For example, reading the datasheet for http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.asp?PID=HV8625 led me to post the following note: _Note this is a rooftop station and will likely not be accessible unless you live at or know someone at this apartment building._ Any thoughts? Two thoughts: 1) The roof MAY be accessible. You don't know unless you visit. But I agree one must be reasonable about trying to get access. 2) The building may be gone. What I would do is at least verify the existence of the building and see if it matches the description as well as taking GPS readings from the outside to see of the location is reasonable (description isn't for something 1/2 mile away from logged reading. In this case you've expressed a viewpoint but no additional information nor set a "status" icon to help others. I don't see the addition of the note being much help. If by your personal knowledge of the area or a different log from which have information to add, or updating some points mentioned in the description, then my all means make a note.

OK, comments from a newbie. Gripe: I look at the list of BMs in my area with no visits. But when I look they official record says it was destroyed around 1964 or so. So why is it even listed in geocache.com? If nothing else I'd like to see an icon in the list that indicates at least the probable status. If someone really wants a challenge, they can look and find it anyway. I'm not sure if "note" is quite strong enough a hint in the broad listing to convey the status. I tend to be very careful about coming to any conclusions, but if I know the history of the area and reasonable certain the building is gone (I'm talking buildings, not little disks here.) then I plan to mark it as destroyed on the geocache.com site. I need to find out about NGS site. They may have already declared it gone. Flame away, I've got my asbestos underwear on. Just do it with class. <g>