Happy Landins

I get an email notiication that there is a message, but when I click the message centre, link the message centre opens, but no meggages are showing. At the top right the envlope says I have over 90 messages,. It doesn't always happen - sometimes I do see the messages, but it has happened a lot recently. I've tried two different browsers - Chrome and Firefox.

I've been using my Nuvi 300 for a while now and I've just found how to get the thing to behave more like a handheld GPS with accuracy down to 2 feet. 1. I use the "go to coordinates" option [Where to - down arrow - Coordinates (enter coords) then GO] 2. When I am getting close I change the settings to pedestrian [settings - Navigation - Route preference=off road - Vehicle=Pedestrian] This gives the familiar purple line which is sort of like the arrow on a regular GPS Now this is the clever bit. . . . 3. Tap on the bar across the top of the screen. A step by step navigation screen appears at the bottom of the screen 4. Tap on the step by step screen and another screen appears with a vertical division 5. As soon as you get close - say 500ft - (may be a bit closer) a circle appears with an arrow. It may be a bit closer than 500 feet - - try it till you see the circle appear at the bottom of the screen. The arrow is really like the arrow on the regular GPS. It points at the cache location. And the countdown changes to show a 10 foot countdown (100 - 90 - 80 - 70 - 60 ) when you are less than 100 feet away, and then single foot counting (like 6 feet) when you are close (20-19-18 - -- 6-5-4-3-2) . the arrow point to the cache location. This gives you as much accuracy as you would get on any GPS.

Hi and a BIG thank you for such an excellent piece of add-on software. I have a Nuvi 300 and have already found several caches by going paperless - I've two minor niggles, probably because I don't know how to use GSAK. 1. It currently lists parking areas mixed amongst the caches. Can I set GSAK so it doesn't export this extra data, which really just confuses the picture on the Nuvi 2. Somehow I've got duplicate and triplicate entries for the same cache on the Nuvi ! I have downloaded the data a couple of times, but I thought that just wiped out the previous POI file on the Nuvi. (The dupes don't appear to be on GSAK, but only on the Nuvi) 3. Oh one other question how can I make the Nuvi read the memory card for the POIs instead of the main Nuvi memory? I am really taken with your great breakthrough! How many forests have been saved in just one day of paperless caching!!!!!!

I've just noticed that when I click on "My Friends" it doesn't show their "hidden items" total but only their "found items". Looks like a minor programming glitch.

OK I had exactly this problem, and have resolved it. Your file has to have this format (see sample below). You couild simply copy this, paste it into Notepad, and try it out as an experiment. My file has about 9800 UK cache sites in it. The example has just two. ;Longitude,;Latitude,;Name,;Details -2.230147,55.43058,GC132F Reivers Revenge ,N 55.43058 W 2.230147 -2.262358,55.428455,GC1330 Where's Georges Kidney Stone ,N 55.428455 W 2.262358 Notice the first line. The longitude and latitude are the reverse of what we normally get in geocaching (they put W before N) The I3 only allows just four data fields, so after the Longitude and latitude that allows 2 more. So I combined the waypoint and Cache name as a 3rd field and then gave the normal geocaching LAT/LONG format as single final field. This shows up nicely on the screen, with the full LAT LONG in small numbers HOWEVER - despite the fact that it has a <spell> line when you look at this on the I3, you CAN'T search for caches by name. All you can get is the nearest caches to where you are. This is a shame really, and I'm going to ask Garmin about it. I called my cache RedlightCaches.csv Any file with Redlight at the berginning of the name will cause the GPS to beep when you get in range and tell you which cache you are near to. David Landin Happy Landins

Take the "People - Memorials" sub-category American Revolutionary War Veteran Graves (AMERICAN) Medal Of Honor Resting Places (AMERICAN) Vietnam POW/MIA Monuments (AMERICAN) Pony Express Monuments (AMERICAN) Four out of seven sub categories are only available in America. What about the two "People - Scouting" sub-categories? Eagle Scout Project Sites (AMERICAN) Boy Scout Camps (only Boy Scouts of AMERICA) are permitted Both sub-cateories only available in America. What about the "Places - historic places) Civil Rights Memorials (AMERICAN) Irish-American Historic Places (AMERICAN) Camping Hiking Appalachian Trail (AMERICAN) Ice Age Trail (AMERICAN) I think the point may have been made . . . . . Of ocurse there are other categories that non-Americans can do. But the question remains - does the Waymarking site have an American bias? And should it? And why? And for how long?

I'm interested in getting some kit that will do GPS in-car navigation (e.g. the type with a Nice lady who says "turn right in 200 yards") . . . . PLUS ability to enter and go to Latitude/Longitude Coordinates. with a pointy arrow like my eTrex GPS. Will the Acer n35 or any other in car unit do both things equally well?

I feel that the best way to advance the Waymarking idea is to continue with a slow and steady roll out of more categories and subcategories. You DO learn by thinking, but you also learn by doing, and by using course correction as you start to move. At the moment things seem to have come to a stop. Let me give an example. In the past, I have submitted a quite of number of approved Earthcaches. The Earthcaching people said that they would be rolling out more subcategories on October 1st, and any new submissions would go on the Waymarks site, not to the GC site. The Earthcachers have already defined many sub-categories on their submission form. But these established subcategories have not yet appeared on the Waymarking site. Why not??? My new ideas for earthcache sites don't fit into the current TWO subcategories which are a catch-all "earthcache" category and "working quarries". So I can't submit them to GC nor to Waymarks. For the time being let's follow the earthcaching model. Let them roll out their categories and sub-categories right away. If people get really upset about something, or someone, let's have a simple "appeals procedure" . Jeremy - Let's blow the starting whistle and start moving - at the moment Waymarking is a half launched ship!

Sorry I didn't see your post when I wrote mine - same idea though - "great minds think alike on the same day" it seems"

There are many strongly built piers round our coasts - These were built primarily for people to walk out and look at the waves. I'm not talking here about the small docks a few yards long for launching rowing boats. And I'm not talking about marinas. I am thinking here about the high strcutures built of iron or timber many yards above the water line and extending quite a way into the ocean.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa isn't the only one. Many buildings get a distinct lean or tilt after their foundations have settled. The clocktower on our local town hall is like this. It's kinda scary walking part it - you know one day it will probably fall onto the police station across the road!

Yes that's exactly the kind of place I'm thinking of.

Yes it could be that kind of dress up thing, but I was thinking more of places that have really not caught up with the mnodern world - for example along the coast from where I live is a 1910 style holiday resort that has changed little, and has 100 year old signs on the wall . I know of indoor markets that haven't changed for more than 100 years. My brother in law works in an ancient indoor swimming pool. (probably does use chlorine in the water now!) And there are "futuristic" worlds fair type sites that built imagionary future cityscapes - like personal helipads, streamlined buildings etc that never made it into real life.

This could include any places where things are produced by hand, and to a very high quality, using traditional materials like wood, stone, clay, leather, manuscript, fabric and so on.

These could be places that have got stuck in the past, or point to a predicted future that never actually happened . Places where you think "I've just stepped back 50 or 100 years!"

National and State and Regional buildings where the "Great and the Good" legislate how the rest of us should live.

Anyywhere you can walk on land, below water This could include items such as bridges carrying canals over valleys, and accesible tunnels under rivers, also aquaducts, and some aquaria tunnels.

I don't think this should be a category in itself, but the WOW factor should be an element of most waypoints. Granted my WOW may be your BLAAAAH But I would rather have WOW factor built in to all waypoints. They have to be something special really. This is why I hope McD restaurants don't get in. They fit into another type of cache grouping - like YellowPage caches. Lists of useful but boring things. Only the extremely nerdy would want to log a visit to every McD restaurant within a 60 mile radius. But all of us might like to know where to find one if we are on a journey to unfamilar parts of the country. On the other hand I hope that I WOULD want to visit every waypoint in an area, and be pleased I did so. Most of the caches I have put out or found have had something that made me really glad I'd visited there - perhaps because I didn't even know it existed before, and I am glad that I now DO know it is there. So WOW definitely yes

The earthcache category tell you that to register a new site, you must say if fossil digging/hunting is allowed. Some sites do and some don't. I would have one fossil category, but just state clearly if you can or can't dig. Minerals is good too.

I think these should be in, but possibly toegther with standing stones - to the archaeologist they will be very different, but to the layman, similar. These should have an obligatory educational paragraph aimed at mid-high school level to explain to visitors what they are seeing in words of one syllable!

I think Earthcaches will carry on but under waymarks instead. I would guess they will use the same sub categories as on the eartchcache site. I've written up about 5 of these and have three more ready to submit, and I think they are just what a waypoint should be - WOW factor, educational, not suitable for regular cache box (many cases), found widely, but not very common - if you choose good sites, such as ones marked as SSSIs in the UK

There are a LOT in the UK but many are on private land so out of bounds. But this is a good idea as it could take you to the ones you CAN visit. Quite a few will be earthcache type places, and I'm working on some of these. I think that the term SSSI will be meaningles to many of the American voters, so it might not get voted in on cultural grounds

Excellent idea! I think that the "powers that be" will come along later and scoop up all the portential ideas from these forums and make a comprehenive list.

excellent idea - this would provide a very useful inventory of art objects, though I reckon there would be quite a bit of discussion as to what actually consitutes art. For example, we have a nice bronze mural on the side of our local supermarket. Art? Probably yes. Also some carved trees in a local park. Art?? I guess . . .

Sounds fascinating - a niche interest probably, so it may not get many votes, but I think it is a great idea!