bitmap

An interesting point, however, I like to use years of (premium) membership _in conjunction_ with the number of finds when reading logs. With the popularity of power trails, you can have first year premium members with thousands of nearly identical finds within their first few months. Would you consider them more "seasoned" than a 5 or 10 year premium member with the same number of finds? In your case, with 8 years of experience and almost 2500 finds, if you wrote a DNF I'd weigh that more heavily than a first year member with 2500 finds. By the way, this is not intended as a diss to new cachers at all! Obviously I realize the wealth of information available on the cacher's profile page, but that's not the point. Why show "premium member" or their find count on each log next to their avatar? That information is just a "simple click" away as well. I think it is shown to give you a quick sense of the cacher that wrote the log, who they are and their experience level without having to dig for it. Thanks for expressing your opinion! -Tony

Apologies if this topic has been already discussed; I searched the forum and didn't see anything. I think it would be useful to show a badge or indicator of the number of years one has been a premium member next to the "premium member" tag currently shown by the avatar in each log. (Xbox Live does this in profile views showing the number of years of membership.) In conjunction with seeing how many finds somebody has, I think it also reflects a cacher's experience level as well. Perhaps it might even drive paid membership numbers as people take pride in the number of years they've been a premium member and want to show it off, which helps all the users of the website. Thanks for the consideration, Tony

That looks like the ticket! So, I created an account and uploaded the picture into the folder. When I view the picture the URL ends with /nameofpic.jpg?w=e694b824. How do I get rid of everything after the jpg? It doesn't work if I just delete the remainder, but your does! David Hmmmm...so you placed a file in the "public" folder? In the "files" tab, when you are viewing a directory listing, to the right of the file there is a blue down arrow, or I think you can right click on the uploaded file name (either one) and select "create public link". Did you do that? When I do, I get a link like I listed above. -Tony

David, You might want to consider dropbox (www.dropbox.com). They offer 2GB of hosting for free, and you can create links to files you store there to use for image hosting. Like you, MobileMe is transitioning to iCloud next year, and I'm losing my web hosting services as a result as well. I'm preparing for this change and have moved some of the hikeNcache files to dropbox like this one: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/48959673/geocaching/hikeNcache/list.jpg As you can see, it preserves the path I've set up, and deleting the "list.jpg" part of the URL returns a 404 error. So, I think it would work for your application. Additionally, dropbox offers apps for iOS and Android devices to access files on the go. It's all very nicely put together. Good Luck, Tony

RIP Cegrube. Thanks for all your contributions to the hobby! You'll be missed. Thinking a bit about MTRP when I saw an article in the UT today about a geocacher and a rattlesnake: "A 41-year-old man called 911 on his cellphone at 3:30 p.m., saying he’d been bitten on one lower leg by a large rattler while geo-caching, a scavenger hunt for hidden trinkets using a GPS. A sheriff’s helicopter crew found him on a Fortuna Mountain, south of state Route 52 and directed in a San Diego Fire-Rescue Department helicopter. Firefighter/paramedic Barry Links said the hiker, in considerable pain, was hoisted aboard flown to Sharp Memorial Hospital about 40 minutes after the bite." Ouch. Hope he's feeling better! Anybody know who it is? -Tony

http://wap.geocaching.com/ Many wesbites offer mobile versions of their sites for phones that don't have full featured browsers. Here is a good aggregate site for them: http://cantoni.mobi/ -Tony

Yes, I am talking about the Geocaching application for the iPhone/iPod Touch. "Offline GPX" access means that you can load a PQ while you have internet access (via wi-fi on the iPod Touch), but can then access that GPX data when you don't have internet access since it has been saved locally to your device. -Tony

The Itouch needs internet to use the app and you can only wireless on. I tride to buy internet and you can't. There may be a way to view GPX files offline on your iTouch, check this thread Good luck! iPhone only. No, it isn't iPhone only, not at least for use as a PDA replacement. You can view offline GPX files with the geocaching application on an iPod Touch. Unfortunately, the v2.2 version of the geocaching app has a bug that breaks this functionality for some users, and not others. It will likely be resolved shortly. Here is a thread about it: iPod Touch Thread With a proper case, I think the iPod Touch would be really useful as a field PDA. The Mac/PC issue isn't a problem, as iTunes is crossplatform. By the way, have you been trying out the beta SW versions for the Oregon? The latest beta version is 3.01, and I've found the overall accuracy has been steadily improving with each release. I'm very happy with my Oregon lately running 3.01. Maybe you don't even need a companion PDA afterall? Oregon Wiki Good Luck! Tony

Update We are ironing out some placement issues with the reviewers, and it is going to take a little time. Therefore, this series will not be going live tomorrow as planned. We are shooting for next weekend, but we'll have to see. I'll post again later in the week with another update. Thanks for the interest! -Tony Bummer...we were all excited. Itsounds like you have some puzzles to solve...need any help? Hey, next Sunday is Mother's Day. What a great way to celebrate it! Thanks J&J, but it's just some proximity issues (overall density and existing/other pending placements) that we still need to figure out. It really is like a puzzle in some cases, though! We're going to end up removing some of the 40 caches we've already put down to fix the problems and satisfy the reviewers, and I don't know how many caches we'll end up with when we are through. We are hoping to go live on 5/9, next Saturday, as a few cachers had made the request instead of next Sunday, but Linda can still have her nice Mother's Day hike. I have a real appreciation now for cachers like Ritzcrackers who have placed and activated a large quantity of caches as the same time. It's a lot of work! -Tony

Update We are ironing out some placement issues with the reviewers, and it is going to take a little time. Therefore, this series will not be going live tomorrow as planned. We are shooting for next weekend, but we'll have to see. I'll post again later in the week with another update. Thanks for the interest! -Tony

Hoping lostguy finds himself back on the trail soon! For those cachers up for a challenge this weekend, just a heads up that dtn92129 and I are finishing up a new caching series called hikeNcache. It's a 10 mile hike around the Black Mountain area that should go active next Sunday morning, May 3rd, around 7AM. It's a loop hike, so you don't have to stage transportation at the far end of the trail if you do all 10 miles in one go. We are placing 40 new caches along the route, and there are some other existing caches along the way that you may or may not have already logged. It's possible to bike it as well, but you'll likely be pushing your bike on some sections. We'll be keeping track on each cache page which cachers meet the 10 mile challenge in one day. Have fun! -Tony

For those cachers that don't browse the main forums, thought I'd mention that they have altered some requirements/guidelines for cache placements on Monday and outlawed mandatory ALR (additional logging requirements). You can request cachers to perform an additional task (like taking a photo, for example), but you can't enforce the requirement or delete non compliant logs. There is no grandfathering allowed either, so ALR's are effectively removed from all caches immediately (even if descriptions are not updated to say so). Typically, caches with ALR's were mystery caches. They want everybody that has ALR caches now to update their descriptions to make them optional and then have the reviewers change the cache type from mystery to traditional (probably in most cases). This will alter the find count for those folks who track their mystery finds, for example. Just wanted to pass the info along. There is a massive thread about the topic in the "Geocaching Topics" forum. -Tony

Blah, blah, blah? Yeah, real nice. Sorry to bore you with feature details. Anyway, Trimble Navigator is different and doesn't run on the iPhone. Although they may share similar features, as Boysnbarrie pointed out, the Groundspeak iPhone application doesn't have a monthly subscription fee to use. -Tony

I have the application for my iPhone, and I've found it very useful and easily worth the $10. Concur with Showstop that it really isn't good as a dedicated GPS, but great for those times when you find yourself in a new area with a few minutes to spare for caching. It's also nice to pull up recent logs if your GPX file is a little stale. The program is still in development, and new features are added with every new release, like fieldnote logging recently was. Updates are free, BTW. On a recent puppy hunt in an unfamiliar area to me with dtn, BE1 and PQGT, using my iPhone I was able to get the cache info for a puppy not in my GPX file, find and route to the best trailhead access using google maps satellite view, and then after switching to google street view, determine the trailhead was behind an AM/PM. All from the backseat. -Tony

Anybody know why Yeshua's Girls did a mass archive on their caches this morning? She had a new one go active in Poway this morning, then archived it along with over 100 other caches a short time later. I hope Carol's okay. -Tony

Concur with that. It's a courtesy to log an FTF as soon as possible to let others know. The tactic is that they find all 100, come online and log 100 "TNLNSL" in 5 minutes, then immediately go and find Rolly. Others "competing" for FTF on Rolly have no idea how close others are to completing the quest, and might have a false sense of security that they are leading the find count for puppies when they aren't. No rules preventing that, but probably not the way I'd play it. It will likely leave a sour taste with some cachers once it's played out. -Tony

I can't see the problem with it either. So, hopefully Keystone isn't aware of the recent programming changes to iGeoCacher that no longer require third party sharing of the GPX files for it to work, or there is another TOU issue that I'm (nor the developer of iGeoCacher) is aware of. Hopefully Keystone will enlighten us. -Tony

Keystone, If the iGeoCacher TOU issue is with the sharing of GPX files to third parties (which is forbidden by Groundspeak), please know that the application being discussed is a stand alone iPhone application that works differently than the web based application of a few months ago. To use the iGeoCacher application, one doesn't have to transmit their GPX data to a website, it is all self contained on the computer. It's like Cachemate (for the most part, local viewing of your GPX data) on your handheld. Just wanted to let you know if there was confusion about the new functionality. Thanks, Tony

Please be aware that we were discussing accuracy problems with the Colorado. g-o-cashers has yet to report in depth about accuracy with the Oregon. (I keep going to type Oregano). Perhaps there hasn't been an in-depth analysis yet, but g-o-cashers did provide a track log on the blog that is concerning to me: http://garminoregon.wikispaces.com/space/s...16_OR_60csx.png I look forward to seeing more accuracy tests comparing the OR to both the CO and other GPSr's like BTBAM is planning on. Keep them coming and thanks! -Tony

I don't know where you got the idea that Groundspeak "owns" the GPX format, but it's incorrect. It was originally developed by Topografix, but it is an open format, and is "owned" by no one. Thanks for that. I can see that now: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPX_(data_transfer) What gave me the idea about Groundspeak "owning" it is from their licensing requirements that I previously quoted: "Licensee shall not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Groundspeak-compatible data format(s) in an attempt to duplicate the proprietary and copyright-protected Groundspeak data model(s) and/or export format(s)." Assuming that the "Groundspeak-compatible data format" is in fact GPX, how do you interpret the above? Could the Groundspeak data models contained within a GPX file be protected? Maybe the above is not referring to GPX at all? I don't know. -Tony

Until an OR user hides a cache, and the finder searches with an OR...the error can quickly get out of hand. Anybody ever tried to find a cache in a rockpile in a 40' radius? Yikes. This accuracy issue has completely stalled my interest in the OR for now. Thanks for all the reviews so far! -Tony

I was thinking about this more, and there might be more to being "authorized". Groundspeak owns the GPX format and the license agreement states: "Licensee shall not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Groundspeak-compatible data format(s) in an attempt to duplicate the proprietary and copyright-protected Groundspeak data model(s) and/or export format(s)." IANAL, so perhaps programs that use the GPX data format require Groundspeak's permission to be legally legit? Do the "authorized" apps pay some royalties to Groundspeak for the usage of the GPX format? I don't know. -Tony

What Keystone is referring to is that in order to use the current iGeoCacher webapp, you have to upload your GPX file to a third party. This is forbidden by the licensing agreement: "Licensee shall not sell, rent, lease, sublicense, lend, assign, time-share, or transfer, in whole or in part, or provide access to the Data, Related Materials, any updates, or Licensee's rights under this Agreement to any third party whatsoever." They've approved some applications for use with GPX files shown here. http://www.geocaching.com/waypoints/ Like it or not, when you create a geocache and upload it to geocaching.com, they own the information and you are technically bound to the T&C's though I can't see them enforcing this. There would be a revolt. But all this doesn't really matter as in the near future there will be native iPhone 2.0 apps that will let you store GPX files locally on the phone (like Cachemate for the Palm) be it a new iGeoCacher or other native program (there will likely be many to choose from). It wont matter if these apps are "authorized" or not. They'll never know what you are using locally. -Tony

Article about Dan-Oh in this week's Reader as an urban explorer. Interesting read: Reader Article -Tony

Ah, here comes the heavy hand again. The post was about moving the discussion to a different, non-Groundspeak location. Isn't that what you wanted? Anybody that wants to talk about this program offsite, just search yahoo groups for "igeocacher". -bitmap