JeremyA

That'll be because it isn't in the documentation. It's mostly intended for debugging purposes. Yes it could, and something like that might get into the next generation of MacGPSBabel. Jeremy

Robert is correct... I deliberately excluded the xcsv option from MacGPSBabel. The reason - that sort of thing is particularly difficult to include in a GUI. However, all is not lost. MacGPSBabel can also be run in 'verbose' mode. Start MacGPSBabel and then press command-option-v on your Macs keyboard (press all three keys at the same time). This will bring up a window into which you can enter the command that Robert detailed above. You have to enter full file-paths e.g. if you had a file on your desktop called 'myWaypoints.gpx' the full path would be '~/Desktop/myWaypoints.gpx' As an alternative, you can use the terminal to access the build of gpsbabel that is embedded in MacGPSBabel... Open the terminal (it is in the Utilities folder in your Applications folder). Type 'cd' (without the quotes) and then press the spacebar. Then go to a finder window and drag the MacGPSBabel application icon onto the terminal window. Back in the terminal window, press 'Return'. Then type 'cd Contents/Resources' and press return. Using Roberts example you could now type: ./gpsbabel -i xcsv,style=~/Desktop/rimar -f ~/Desktop/test -o mapsend -F ~/Desktop/test.wpt (assuming that the files 'rimar' and 'test' are on your Desktop). Jeremy

As Robert pointed out - I do know about a Mac GUI for gpsbabel because I wrote one. Whether it is user-friendly or not is not for me to judge. Here's a couple of screenies...

It's very rough at the edges and by no means comprehensive, but a while back I started to document my experiences with Macs and GPS-related software at http://jfatherton.co.uk/MacCMConvert/geomac.html. Maybe the information there will help someone. I would second the vote for GPS Visualizer, which works great with Safari. I get my tracks off of my Garmin as GPX files with gpsbabel and map them on GPS Visualizer. JeremyA

I think that many people who log benchmarks don't even realise that there is a gallery. They title and caption their pictures using titles and captions that make sense relative to the log that they have just posted for that particular mark. In that context a title such as 'the mark' or 'close-up of the disk' makes perfect sense. This seems reasonable to me because the appearance of a picture in the gallery is fairly transient (within a day or two it will be so far down the gallery that most people won't look at it) whereas its appearance in context (ie in the log for that benchmark) will last for as long as there is a benchmarking section at gc.com. I see no reason to try to force people here to adopt NGS standards for their pictures (or anything else for that matter). This is a hobbyist site and, for me, the point of a hobby is to have fun. Most logs that I see for benchmarks are from geocachers who just find one or two near the caches that they visit, who aren't interested in submitting finds to the NGS. Those that are interested in submitting recoveries to the NGS can keep to NGS standards here, but they shouldn't expect everyone else too. Before the benchmark pages were revamped the PID of each mark used to be automatically displayed in the gallery. For this reason I took to the previous convention of titling my pictures with the designation, place-name and state - placing descriptive text like 'close-up of the disk' in the caption. I have continued to do this thinking that the PIDs might return to the gallery one day. To me, a better solution would be to get TPTB to make the gallery automatically contain the information that makes it interesting to look at (PID, designation, state... ). Then it doesn't matter how people title their pictures, people browsing the gallery would always see this information. JeremyA

As you are a premium member you can do this through Pocket Queries. Go to your 'My Cache Page' on the geocaching.com website. Click on the link titled 'Run Pocket Queries'. Then select the 'Create a new query' link. Work through the form for creating a custom query, at the bottom of the form you will have the option to select LOC or GPX files and below that is a checkbox for ebook format. However, I would suggest that you go with the GPX file rather than the ebook format. Once you have a GPX file you can load this on to your Clie using one of a number of programs: Some people like to convert the GPX file to html and then upload this to the PDA using a program called Plucker. Others (like me) prefer to use a program called Cachemate, this comes with a program that runs on your PC called cmconvert which takes the GPX file and converts it to a format that your Clie can read using the Cachemate software. For lots more information on any of these programs try searching these forums - they have been extensively discussed. JeremyA

Yes - in fact many models come with a built in camera. Jeremy

FWIW - both these marks have their co-ordinates listed as adjusted. In my limited experience of BM hunting I have so far found adjusted co-ordinates to be remarkably accurate (as they are supposed to be). Plotting the co-ordinates for DY2606 on an aerial photograph gives point that has the tower about 22 meters ESE of it (the 1953 recovery note for this mark says that the new tower was built 21 meters ESE of the old one). Whereas plotting to co-ordinates given for DY2602 gives a point that is almost exactly spot on with the current water tower. make of that what you will. JeremyA

I would advise that you avoid the Sears tower - the view is great but overall they have managed to make the whole experience as nasty as possible (long line for tickets followed by long line to get your photo taken followed by a long line to get into a very cheesy tacky movie followed by long lines for both the elevators up and down - by the time you actually get to the top the overall feeling is relief!). The John Hancock Center may not be a virtual cache, but overall you will get (arguably) better views and a better experience. Using the Sears tower as a center for a nearby caches search reveals three other virtuals in the loop area (GCHR9P, GC73FD, and GC8FBF), the Navy Pier Micro (GCHG29) which I am yet to visit despite working within walking distance of it and a mystery cache which I had never noticed before but looks like it might be interesting (GCHDBG). I'm sure that there used to be a webcam cache near the Shed Aquarium, but it doesn't come up in my searches. GCGWHQ is fairly close to the Museum of Science and Industry. I don't know where Medieval Times is so I can't help on that one. JeremyA - still new to the Chicago area so others might be able to give better advice.

Thank you JeepCachr! I normally stay out of 'X vs Y' threads as I don't really see the point in them - my answer to such questions is usually do your research and choose whichever solution is right for you. However, it gets to me when people say things like "X can do more than Y" without being able to say what that 'more' is, or worse, say that X can do this and Y can't when actually Y can. So I am glad that you feel able to put your money where your mouth is. There are a number of good Geocaching solutions for the Palm. Granted there is nothing that can read GPX files directly but in many of the Palm solutions conversion from GPX to the necessary format is effortless (I have the whole thing automated so that my PQ arrives in the email, is processed and queued for syncing to my Palm without any intervention on my part). Going off-topic: My Palm came bundled with documents-to-go which can read/edit/create Word/Excel/Powerpoint files. I have no experience of the PPC counterparts but I have read in a number of places that documents-to-go is generally considered better. With these you may or may not be correct - I don't use my Palm for networking so I can't comment on the Palms networking capabilities except to say that there are some networking capabilities there. A proprietary solution from Microsoft which, of course, the Palm OS can't read. There are however a number of eBook solutions for the Palm including the cross-platform Palm Reader that can read eBooks bought from the PalmDigitalMedia store. Here you are correct - due to the way that Palm OS is currently written dealing with zip files is difficult. There are archiving solutions for the Palm but they are native formats. Palm OS 6, when it comes out, should make this sort of thing easier to do. Yes all of these are possible on the Palm. The exception being WMV which you would have to convert to a suitable format first, however it is perfectly possible to live without WMV on both your PDA and desktop (but that really is something for discussion another forum). JeremyA

In your zealousness you have forgotten to mention one thing... Exactly what are these more things that you can do with a PPC that you can't do with a Palm? Off the top of my head I can't think of one. JeremyA

Cachemate Plugins JeremyA

Mapopolis on Palm OS and Mapopolis on PPC are very different. For some reason, they decided to get rid of maplets on the Palm. As you are using the latest version of Mapopolis, you have geomarks instead. This is basically a link between your address book and mapopolis (add coordinates to the 'custom 1' field of addresses in your address book and that address will be marked in mapopolis). Cachemate has a plugin that allows you to send waypoints from cachemate to mapopolis as geomarks. JeremyA

You might be 100% certain that you found where the disks were. But, as far as I am aware, the NGS will only declare a mark as destroyed if you actually found the disk and the disk was out of its position (e.g. lying on the floor next to where it used to be). Otherwise they will just mark it as not found. Some people feel that we should apply the NGS's standards to this website. Personally, if I was sure beyond a shadow of doubt that the mark was gone (e.g. the building that had the disk on it had been demolished) I would log it here as destroyed. If there was even the slightest bit of doubt I would just post a note here explaining what I found. JeremyA

Hmm, lets see... Terrabrowser GPS Connect GPSNavX TopoDraw, gpsWrite, link2GPS FlightTrack TrueNav MacGPS Pro GPSy gpsbabel, MacGPSBabel MacCMConvert Konfabulator, Geocaching Widget Route66 2004 Magellan Waypoint Manager Ok, now I come to think of it I agree - there isn't that much available for us Mac users JeremyA

The problem with producing a FAQ is that there is such a range of opinions out there that it is hard to get consensus on what the answers to the questions are. For instance, there are many of us that would consider moving from Palm to Pocket PC a downgrade, not an upgrade. JeremyA

GPSy and MacGPS Pro are still available for OS 9. You'll also need a serial to usb adapter. I have one from IOGear which does a good job with my Powerbook (OS X 10.2.8). I know that others have had success with the adapter that Keyspan make too. JeremyA

Not unless you have somehow managed to get a pre-release of Palm OS 6 onto your Tungsten. Currently Palm OS PDAs can only save PRC or PDB files into their built in memory. That is why you have to put mp3 files onto an external card to play them. In recent years it has become clear that this strategy is a bad one, and I have read that PalmSource have changed this in Palm OS 6 so that you will be able to put any kind of file into the built in memory. JeremyA

That seems like a poor way to do things, but then neither you nor I designed the Palm OS, did we? I feel that someone should speak up for the Palm OS here... The Palm OS effectively treats the creator ID as the name of the program. The name that you see (e.g. CacheMate) is just a human-readable display name. If you give the Palm OS two files with the same creator ID, you are telling the OS that they are part of the same program and so it should only show one icon in the launcher. That seems like fairly sensible behaviour to me. It also seems to me that the problems that you are having are due, not the the OS, but to LauncherX. The behaviour that you describe sounds to me like bad design on the part of the developers of LauncherX and not those of the Palm OS. JeremyA

It is unlikely that GPXtoMaplet will ever be available for Palm users. The reason for this is that the latest version of Mapopolis for the Palm OS (Palm OS 5 only) no longer uses maplets. Instead they have used a system that they call Geomarks. Geomarks are basically addresses in your address book that have had latutude and longitude coordinates added in the 'custom 1' field. Theoretically it would be possible to write a program that took a GPX file and converted all the waypoints into 'addresses' for import into the Palm address book. But, as far as I am aware, no one has done this yet. However, if you use CacheMate, there is a Mapopolis plugin to take caches from CacheMate and export them to mapopolis as geomarks. JeremyA

Deliberate Mistake (honest!)... The version of MacCMConvert that I put on my website was missing some important files. This is now corrected - anyone who has already downloaded MacCMConvert 2.0 should go and get it again. sorry, JeremyA

I have upped MacCMConvert to version 2.0. Here are the main improvements over previous versions: The most basic conversion process now involves fewer steps: Step 1 - Drag your pocket query file (zipped or not) straight from the email it came in to MacCMConvert Step 2 - Click the 'Send to PDA' button Step 3 - HotSync your PDA The Cache listing window is much improved: - The caches are tabulated, meaning that they can be sorted by Waypoint, Name, Difficulty, Terrain, or whether or not they contain a travel bug. - Single/multiple caches can be individually selected for conversion - You can select caches and have MacCMConvert open their page(s) at the geocaching.com website (uses Safari). - You can select caches and have MacCMConvert show you their locations using Mapquest or Terraserver in Safari. You can get it here: MacCMConvert 2.0 JeremyA

Jeremy, Whatever you did today has broken the ability to search by user on benchmarks. JeremyA

Free Palm Software But, do yourself a favour and pry open that wallet and get Cachemate. You'll find it much easier than the alternatives, much more comprehensive than the alternatives, and if you find yourself a cable you'll be linking your Palm and you legend using Cachemate. $7 is almost free anyway. JeremyA

You might find that GPS Visualizer does everything that you need. I like this tool because it is all done online through your web browser, and that maps that it produces are clickable - click on one of the benchmarks shown on the map and it will take you to that benchmark's page at geocaching.com. Also, you can have it project the waypoints onto one of a number of different maps (e.g. street-level, topo, aerial photo). JeremyA