pjmorse

Sorry to drag this thread back up, but two months ago I posted: ...and today I clicked a link in my weekly update, and voila! A pretty page explaining that this was a PMO cache, with a glossy presentation explaining the difference between PMO caches and regular caches, etc. etc. That's exactly what was needed, Groundspeak, well done. Maybe that was already in the works but it addressed my issue perfectly.

Here's a 2010 topic: Why, when logged in as not a premium member, do PMO caches show up on my screen as "errors"? When I get the weekly update, and I click on nearby caches, if one of them is a PMO cache, the title bar of my browser is "error occurred" and the title of the cache page is "An Error Has Occurred". Neither of these are true; I've followed (what appeared to be) a legitimate link from the email. Can we either clearly mark PMO caches in the weekly emails, so I know I needn't bother clicking the links, or change the resulting page to actually explain what's going on, rather than waving "error" flags? It would be a nice usability improvement to the site.

I regret to announce that, while my Misty Bottom Cache and Bub's Cache are still in good shape and occasionally serving visitors, my graduate studies are barely allowing time for me to get out and find caches here in Medford, let alone maintain Misty Bottom and Bub's should they need it. If there's anyone in Western Massachusetts, particularly in the Amherst area, who would like to adopt these two, I'm entertaining offers. I should note that Pat Delaney has expressed interest some months ago (like four or five,) so if he wants one or both, he's first in line. These are solid traditional caches with ammo-can containers. It's been a while since I've been to them myself, so I can't speak to whether they've got good stuff in the box, but they both did when I last visited them.

Yep. It happens that I don't have a card reader; I'm essentially using the camera as one instead. MacGPSBabel was the only software needed.

I've been largely frustrated in trying to upload waypoints directly to my Meridian Gold from my Macintosh. Specifically, with the Meridian plugged in to the Mac (using a serial-to-USB converter,) none of the software on the Mac would see the GPS and talk to it. Mainly, what I wanted was to be able to upload pocket query results directly to the Meridian. I use NG Topo! and print out the resulting maps with waypoints plotted, if I have enough prep time before setting out on a hunt, but my workaround for bulk waypoint uploads has been to bring the Meridian to work and use EasyGPS on my Windows box there to upload waypoints. The key this past weekend's breakthrough was my digital camera, which uses SD cards for image storage. When plugged in via USB cable, the camera appears as an external read/write volume (USB Mass Storage) on the Mac desktop. I was able to use MacGPSBabel (thanks Robert!) to take the PQ .gpx file and write it to that volume in the Magellan card format. Then I disconnect the camera, swap the card into the Meridian, and load card data. Voila, several hundred waypoints. This is probably old hat to the experienced waypoint hackers here, but it made me quite happy. When I leave my job (and associated Windows box) behind in August, I'll still be able to load hundreds of waypoints on my Meridian! Woohoo!

You're all describing workarounds (and good ones, I'll admit) for a problem which shouldn't require working around. But I can see I won't get anyone to agree with me on this, so thanks anyway.

That's certainly a necessary function, but can't it be done silently as the user is linked through to the forums?

Is there any way the link from the main site (currently "Forums", which links to http://www.geocaching.com/forums/register.aspx) could be a more direct link to the root of the forums, at http://forums.Groundspeak.com/gc/ ? At least for registered users who know about the whole software shift, howeverlongago that was, having to click twice to get in to the forums seems unneccessary to me. If there's something that actually happens on that intermediate page, is there any way it can happen in the background and then forward us along automatically? Thanks.

Very cool idea. I wonder why nobody has done that in Buxton, Maine yet, since the original Stephen King story was (of course) set in Maine...

Setting the stage: I picked up "Gone Fishing" in Western MA (on the Miller's River, actually) in early November. When I was in Iowa for the NCAA cross-country meet a week or two later, I left it in Waterloo. I picked up "Surfin' to Hawaii" at Sanderson Vista (also in Western MA) on New Year's Day. Due to some interesting winter problems involving my having to send my GPS back to Thales for a fix, I held on to it until early March (but, in my defense, I checked it in and out of a cache in Bermuda, so it racked up some serious miles in my hands.) In Fayetteville, Arkansas for the NCAA indoor track meet, I left it in a cache there. Both bugs have made a few hops since I had them. Earlier today, at a cache in Arkansas, a cacher visited "Ready, Set, Go?," picked up "Surfin' to Hawaii," and left off "Gone Fishing." My jaw is on the floor...

I was caching in the "jurisdiction" of this "jail" just last weekend. See for example: Nonipoppy's log for "Finger Park" TB Finds for the "IFS and BUTS caching club" I had Surfing to Hawaii with me, and since I'd had it for two and a half months (my GPSr had to go to Magellan for repair! and I saved it from a mountaintop where it had sat for four months, in a cache which hasn't been visited since I was there...) I really wanted to get it moving toward Hawaii again. So I dropped it in Smelling Fries, but with a note asking the finder to email me before logging the bug. Then I didn't log that I'd dropped it. I got an email from the finder today, so I've logged the drop and they will log the find later. So the bug can keep moving. As Nonipoppy wrote... "We are not sure how the game is played up here in NW Arkansas but down in the river valley it is considered rude to revisit a cache to take Travel Bugs."

My Magellan Meridian Gold is having problems with battery power. It works just fine with external power (car adapter) but won't respond with just batteries. I have checked that the batteries are fresh. I have checked that they've got the polarities correct. There's no visible corrosion in the battery compartment. However, the positive contact for the lower battery (lower right contact when viewed from the back of the unit) is a little off - the tiny plastic hook holding the wire appears to be busted, so the contact is a bit out of alignment. I've tried monkeying with it but can't make it hang on. Any ideas? Can I (should I) shim it somehow (how?) to make it work, or should I try for professional repair? It's a bit over a year old, so I doubt it's still under warrantee.

Of course. Aren't we just better all-around?

OK. He got even closer - within a mile of my apartment. So I picked him up. I've been planning a vacation to a warm island in January. I emailed the owners to ask if they were OK with me hanging on to the bug and taking him there, if I could find an appropriate cache. Only problem: they're marked "unverified" and haven't logged in since, uh, March '02. Is this a bug free-for-all?

Edit - I just looked a bit longer at the encrypted "dedication" on the Uncle Elwyn page and realized I'd given things away a bit much.

I thought so too, but when I posted a note for "Fly South for the Winter" I got credited with the bug find. Go figure. Maybe it's putting in the tag number which gets you the credit - since you can't post a note without the tag number, you must have "found" the bug?

I hadn't seen a geocoin in months of caching, then I found two within a week. Moved one a few miles and the other a few thousand. Great hitchikers.

I've found that if one goes to the cache and gets the tag number of the bug, and then posts a note (not an "I have it") for the bug, one gets credit for the find, without having to actually remove the bug from the cache (and only needing one step online.)

I was down at Van Cortlandt Park for the cross-country meet, doing the AJ Cache and logging a DNF on the Vanny Cache. On my way out, I spotted a Jeep parked by the Burger King with the NY plates "GEOCACHE." Guess I wasn't the only one caching in Vanny today?

I missed the chance; I was in Iowa last weekend, when he got placed in Springfield. I'm not going west again until February. Good thought, though. Maybe a field trip to Albany is in order.

I don't have a personal TB, but I'm getting ready to release my cat's TB.

Given the earlier discussion of how the tags cost less when you buy a larger batch, maybe someone here who's buying some could double their order and use the savings to mail a chunk of the order to Germany? Seems like the heaviest part is the chain, so if you just sent the tags it wouldn't be very expensive.

I'm in Western Massachusetts. Late this summer, I picked up Lightning Bob at a cache out here. I dropped him in Rhode Island on a weekend trip down there. A few weeks later, he turned up back out here, in a cache I had driven past on the way to the one I picked him up at the first time. So I picked him up again, and this time I took him to Maine. I'm responsible for about a third of the little guy's mileage to date. Now he's back within twenty or thirty miles of me, in Springfield. I'm tempted to pick him up and try to find out where he can go that he won't come back to Western MA. Bermuda?

I bagged a Beanie bug I just picked up last weekend. The little guy is all plush and sitting out exposed in a damp cache... heck yeah, I'll bag him. On the other hand, an all-plastic action figure like the Rocky the Flying Squirrel I moved a few months ago, he didn't have a bag and I didn't feel the need to give him one. Print out the cache page? Probably not, but that may be more a factor of my laziness than any kind of morals on my part. I figure if the owner wanted the page with him, they'd have printed it.

I'm headed to the Cedar Falls/Waterloo area this coming weekend for the NCAA cross-country championships. I'm bringing a pair of TBs looking for states and mileage out from MA, I'll have a little time to do some caching. It looks, based on the course maps, that theGreenbelt Lake GOTO Cache is pretty close to the course. Are there one (or two or three) other caches in the nearby area that I shouldn't miss in my brief time in the area? Caveat: while I enjoy lengthy expeditions and challenges, caching on this trip will probably be squeezed in with an otherwise busy schedule - indulging a compulsion, not a primary motivation.