Team Chevelle

Doh! Almost a tie -- but you were first. heh. - John...

quote:Next movie quote: "And the monkey pushes the button" "Lost In Space", I believe. - John...

Somewhere along the way, I remember seeing a "loneliest caches in Michigan" list -- a list of the caches that hadn't been visited in the longest amount of time. Now I can't seem to remember where I saw it. I thought it was the MiGO site, but I've looked all over and don't see it there any more. Anyone know where it is/was? - John...

Is there a way to see the current EPE once WAAS is detected/enabled on a Magellan unit (such as the MAP330 running v2.0x or v4.0)? The only screen that I know of to see EPE is the Nav Coords screen. However, as soon as WAAS goes enabled, it just says "WAAS" on the line that normally shows the EPE! So, I'm out getting a good signal, I'm at "13ft EPE", and then it suddenly just says "WAAS" and I have no idea what the EPE might be changing to as I continue to travel. Also, is there a way to get the EPE while standing still? Once I stop moving, those lines just say "Averaging" and the amount of time it has been doing that. It's rather annoying to not be able to see the EPE once I stop moving around -- since that is the time I'm the most interested in it! :-) - John...

I've seen the MapSend Land software going for cheap no EBay. I've got a MAP330. I'm too cheap to spring for MapSend Topo right now (much as I'd like to, I just can't afford it at this point). Anyone know if MapSend Land will work with the MAP330? I see some EBay sellers saying that it will -- but their picture is clearly the same product as the people selling ones that say it will ONLY work with the 410... - John...

Has anyone ever been to or created a cache that was out in plain site with obvious public access -- and then done something like put a combination lock on it (with the combination clearly listed here, of course)? My wife just thought of that today as we were trying to come up with places to put a cache and I wondered if (or, more likely, how often) this was being done... - John...

I saw a new cache the other day with 2 new fifty dollar bills as the First Finder's prize. Unfortunately, I didn't make it there before someone else found it... - John...

So, then, is it proper ettiquette to leave them in the cache -- and the owner/maintainer of the cache can just take them when the cache is retired/archived? Or is it fine to take an interesting card and/or signature item if you happen to go to the cache? I was under the impression that they were intended by the original person to be left in the cache to show that they were there -- but maybe I am mistaken on that and they would like people to collect their item? - John...

Thanks, antonym -- that seemed to do it. It was the "adjust the zoom" that fixed it. For me, it isn't even a matter of the downloading overwriting a waypoint. It basically only shows me one waypoint at a time regardless of the GPX file that I load -- unless I adjust the zoom a bit -- THEN they all show up. I thought that it was a limitation of the program to only show me one point from the file at a time (when I did "goto"). Now I see that it is just a problem with it not always drawing them all, apparently. In any case, that seems to work for me now. Thanks! - John...

quote:Originally posted by junglehair:I would check to see if there is an option to import a CSV file in which ever free mapping software you go with. I would think that would be the easiest way to bring all the points over. Well, I'm happy to do that if someone has any suggestions for any free mapping software that will do it. I don't mind converting LOC or GPX to something such as CSV. I just haven't found a free app that will take any of them yet... quote:If USAPhotoMaps opens GPX files as General Bracket suggested, why won't that work for you to be able to plot all the points at once? Because, as I explained above, it doesn't appear to have a way to plot all the points at once. Unless I'm missing something. It opens up a GPX file and gives me a list of all of the points. I then have to pick one to plot it. This doesn't help me much with what I want to be able to do: open a GPX file with dozens or even hundreds of points and have them all plotted so that I can look for clusters and such... Thanks. - John...

quote:The only potential difficulty is that the TB tracking program doesn't allow for geocacher to geocacher transfer of TB's. The bug would have to be "dropped of" by the first geocacher in a cache, then "grabbed" by the second geocacher. Actually, that's not true. The system does support it. Once in a while, someone will pick up a Bug, log it, drop it off, and forget to log that drop. Then someone else finds it. If they do it by bug number, it will let them say that they have it. It'll give it to them. I've seen a couple like this recently when reading some bug logs. It'll go from one person to another without a drop-off in between just fine, I believe. - John...

quote:It's a traditional scheduling technique used by computer guys familiar with timesharing: interactive tasks get prioritized over bulk/rote tasks. Yes, I'm quite familiar with that process. However, I still think that, here, the current system is actually creating MORE load instead of less. Granted, by prioritizing it some, it may be able to offset the load to a different time a bit, but I'm not sure that is really worth it (as opposed to allowing real on-the-fly generation). Especially, as I said, if it was limited to a specific size -- or even number of times per day... - John...

quote:Originally posted by General Bracket:http://www.jdmcox.com/ will give you aerial photos and open GPX files, placing points on the photos where the caches are. And it's free. This seems very close to what I want, except that I can't get it to do more than one point at a time. Am I missing something? If I do them as lines, then I can get more than one on, but I have to do each one manually -- which is a pain. Is there some way to just feed it the GPX file and have it plot ALL of the points within it? Thanks to the others who answered too -- Unfortunately, I don't own Streets & Trips or any other non-free mapping software really -- I was hoping to do it on-the-cheap... - John...

Is there anything out there that I can feed a LOC or GPX file into and get a quick map of all of the locations? Basically, I currently hand-feed them into a mapping program on my PDA by log/lat coords. I'd really like to be able to dump a big list into something so that I can look for clusters of caches. That way, if my wife and I decide to take a Saturday and go geocaching, I can look at a map and decide the best direction to head to hit the most caches in one area... - John...

Indeed. I actually created a query just before posting -- and had set it for today -- it came through a bit later, so I am all set for tomorrow... I still think on-demand for smaller searches, at least, makes a lot of sense. Possibly even MORE sense. I get the feeling that a lot of people do like logscaler just mentioned: have it send them weekly or more even though they have no plans of going out -- "just in case." If you didn't HAVE to do that, and could always generate one on-demand, I think people would stop having to do that -- and the overall demand would actually decrease as far as the load goes... Granted, there may be some busier times and such, but it could still work -- especially if the output was more limited in size... But, again, I'm set for tomorrow. Thanks! - John...

Thanks everyone. I ended up finding the GPXView demo map -- which showed me enough that I signed up for a month, at least. That'll do for now... - John...

I just paid to be a Premium member because I'd like to do some geocaching with my wife tomorrow -- we just decided a few minutes ago that we might have time. I was hoping that I could just generate a GPX file of the spots around here that we might hit (we're not sure how far we'll drive yet -- I just thought I'd grab everything within 20 miles or so). I was a bit disappointed to discover that it doesn't look like that is possible. From what I understand now, the only way to get GPX files is to do the Pocket Queries -- and they only run "sometime" during the next day or so at the soonest, right? In other words, there really isn't any way to get GPX files "right now", is there? Is this due to a bandwidth or server load issue, I assume? Would there be a way to generate them on-the-fly by forcing smaller constraints (i.e. only allow maybe 25 points or a small mile distance or something) so that people could get them right away? Either that, or just modify the "Hide & Seek" page so that all of the checked caches could easily be sent as a GPS to Premium Members -- instead of just the LOC file option? Would that really be too much more of a load. I get the impression, after reading, that people that want to do this are just grabbing each web page anyway -- so it can't be that much more of a load to generate the GPX file then it is to have them pull each individual page (which consists of multiple requests/hits on the server), right? Or is there some option to do on-demand GPX files that I'm missing, by chance? Making all of this moot? :-) - John...

Is there a sample GPX file available somewhere? Or, if not, would someone be willing to send me one (I don't care if it is old and not for my area, of course). I'd like to try out some PocketPC software (such as GPXView and CacheDragon) and would like to see how they do with the GPX file before I become a paid geocaching.com member and buy CacheDragon, for example). There is a "sample download" of the Pocket Query stuff, but it is only the PRC eBook file with no GPX, which is what I'd be using mainly. Thanks! - John...