JDandDD

This has been answered several times, but a couple more people have asked so I'll attempt it again: Go to the "Hide & Seek A Cache" Page. Towards the top left are two different drop down menus that let you search by state. The top state search takes you to a state page that shows all the upcoming events at the top, and then all the geocaches in that state from newest to oldest. The bottom state search takes you to a state page that shows you different searches: city, events, and recent travel bug logs. That's all well and good, but, it begs the question Why was it considered a good thing to move that functionality off the main page. Its the same as the issue for those of us in other countries. Yes, I can use my postal code, but, what's more useful is the ability to see all of the upcoming events in my province in a list followed by the new caches. It s that list that people wondering about US states are asking for and used to have easily. Although I mostly like the update, making us drill down a couple for information that was available from top level makes the site less efficient to us and thus is a step backward IMHO. Telling us that we can find it in a more awkward way doesn't address or resolve the issue. JD

Absolutely. This for me is the number 1 issue at the moment. They are so close that you can't really tell. Why two shades of blue? Makes knowing which caches you've looked at impossible to tell. I also echo what someone else said about the whiteness. That is hard on the eyes and something closer to cream is easier. Because of that I don't find any pages easier to read, in fact quite a bit worse. Why was the ability to search by country dropped from the front page? Those of us outside the US do use that functionality and now we have to drill down a layer. Perhaps the site could go back to being a little less US centric. JD

Don't think its in the Star, just checked mine and not there. Its a daily strip so perhaps the Sun? JD

Actually, the drift, if you have a unit that does that (not all do), isn't caused by CO firmware. That's actually the chipset software and is affecting the Etrex HC units as well. They have the same GPS chipset. Again, it does not appear to be all Etrex HCx units that have the issue. The chipset software is coincidentally 2.60 as well and they need to come up with 2.70 for all Garmin units to make that work. JD

Well, there's another potential problem here. I just found a few caches today that hadn't been found for more than 3 months. But that was because they were in an area that is a bit off the beaten track. They were great caches and by simply ignoring them you could miss some good stuff. Even caches not found in winter can be due to people not going out in the cold rather than an inability to find them. Really, there is no substitute to actually reading logs and seeing what might be going on. I find that sometimes to get the best out of this activity you just have to do the prep work and nothing automated will perfectly replace that. JD

And that's what I think it should be. As JP said in his post, its good to make people think about their placement but perhaps EC is unintentionally making it a bit too difficult. I have several caches in the town's parks and their are no problems with them. EC should insist on the same level of permission but not something more rigid. Just my thoughts. JD

I agree with what you're saying JP. I've put in the effort to do it the way EC's web page states it but maybe I'll try placing it with the info like you say. I certainly agree about making people think about their placements, and for mine the town has a statement about staying on the paths, so that's a good thing. I just think that EC should make the permission thing more general on their website. JD

Actually, I didn't think people wer begrudging them. I think its great that there is a work around and hopefully your ideas will get incorporated into the site. I do think the site should make sure that its changes improve functionality rather than requiring work arounds to get back to what people want. I also think its good that you and others help the rest of us out when its needed. JD

I don't doubt what you're saying but I wonder what the issue is. I have never had a problem with accuracy since installing 2.51 and now 2.54 on my two Colorados. One of the things I have discovered is to ensure that you calibrate the compass, even if you are using it turned off. Sometimes you have to recalibrate after it has been near a magnetic source. It is sensitive to the magnetic fields of electrical cables. The Colorado does seem to depend on the electronic compass more than previous generations of GPS. I have a couple spots, as I have said in another post, that I know the coords to absolute accuracy, and the Colorados hit it within .001 every time with WAAS turned on. I have had mine out in a driving rain storm without leakage. I can truly say that I have never been as wet as I was about two weeks ago and the Colorado stood up to it perfectly. Both of mine show a small gap at the top but of course the seals are well inside the cover. Again, a bit of a trick I've discovered is the pressure required to close the latch. It should be very minimal. If its giving more than minimal resistance, my testing shows that the Colorado isn't properly seated on the battery compartment and SD seals. I would agree that the design could be better and give better feedback of whether it is sealed. Looks like the Oregon use the same seal design. I would agree that in a search and rescue setting, I would say that the 60 or even perhaps better the 76 series would be better choices. JD

That pretty much sums it up. The Oregon is really a Colorado with a different user input interface. If you like touch screen then you'll like it. But, I really don't like the idea of touch screen in this application. Geocaching is done in a much harsher environment than your iphone or ipod. You put you hands under rocks, into mud, stuff covering caches etc. etc in the outdoors. Soil, debris, mud, and stone dust, bits off moss etc. etc. come back on your finger. Not only are you putting this on your screen casuing visibility issues, much of that stuff is also abrasive. One thing that touch screens don't like is abrasion. Remember, they are by their nature less rigid and strong because they have to be flexible. So the Oregons are almost sure to get abrasive smudges on their screens. And, break just one screen wire and they can become unusable. Then ever try to use a touch screen in rain or snow. That'll test your patience. Thes observations come from years as an IT manager testing all kinds of touch screens from many manufacturers in lots of environments. Any that got used outdoors regularly or in dirty enviroments ran into all of these problems and they broke or lost functionality regularly in dirty enviroments. Geocaching is a dirty environment. I have never had a problem with accuracy with my Colorados (we have two). I have a couple of spots with absolute known coordinates and both Colorados will find them to within .001 N or W every time I try them at the spots. JD

The original page titles were far better in this tabbed browser world. You used to be able to tell what cache was in an unopened tab, but now you just get the GC# A Traditional ... For every tab. Useless. Why the verbose title is considered an improvement I don't know. The point of the title is to provide information to help the user and the new verbose form doesn't do that. JD

Actually Waymarking is a goood place for Locationless. Waymarks is what they were and should have been considered all along. And the Waymarking concept handles them very well. But, I don't agree as heartily that Waymarking works as well for good virtual caches. Virtuals and Locationless were and are different things. JD

You're comments reflect a problem that I have with the permission issue. A local town park has a great Earthcache idea in it. There is a published document online that shows that you can visit this spot as long as you stay on the paths. That is the permission. It couldn't be plainer. Yet Earthcaching demands a person AND their phone number. First, the person in public parks doesn't want to do it because they don't have time to take what they perceive to be a silly enquiry. They say, look, we say explicity that you have permission why would anyone call us. Earthcaching is treating all public land as though it has the impact of state/provincial or federal park land. I think they should change their permission requirement from needing a specific person's permission to proof of some sort of permission. Online public use documents should suffice and then you don't have to bother people who are annoyed by what they see as trivial requests. JD

Its you. Look at the company history and the constant multiple models. Etrex, 60 series, 76series and on the automotive side, Streetpilot (a gazillion models), Nuvi (a gazillion models). Actually, the Oregons are just Colorados with a different interface really and I for one am not a fan of touch screen in this application. Think of where they are being used, outdoors, with rain, snow, mud, dirt etc. all hitting the screen. The elements are going to be all over your fingers. Not a good situation when trying to view touch screen or to press accurately. Touch does not work well under those conditions. This isn't the conditions your iphone gets, this stuff will get real weather and real dirt on them. JD

I think its Saint John's Newfoundland & Labrador. Seems they said that when we visited two years ago. JD

Great work Dale! Everything is running OK and looks great on the GPS. Thanks!!! JD

That gets the maps working. Do you see any street names where you've looked? I don't including throughout Toronto. Maybe not everywhere. JD

Just if it helps Dale, that's exactly the behaviour that I'm getting. JD

Just one more thought. I looked under mapsource's own Topo Canada registry listing and it does have an MDR file entry which makes me wonder if you need to compile a new MDR for this data set? Just a thought. JD

Well, I did that and as soon as I click on Ibycus Topo 2 beta I get a warning that Mapsource is not properly installed and the program quits. By reverting back to version 1.5 and Mapsource works fine. If was to try to re-install would I use the MapudateBeta or Mapupdate in the download1 directory or do you have some other idea for a fix. JD What happens if you copy the MDR file over from the old version? It shouldn't be looking for it, but I suppose its possible. At the moment, a reinstall isn't likely to change much. It something with the registry settings that isn't quite right.. just have to figure out what and I can modify MapUpdateBeta to make the fix. Moving over the MDR didn't help. I look in the registry under NTDBData and there is a line for MDR pointing to that file. Two thoughts I guess, would removing that line perhaps fix things or a new MDR file. Hate to play with the registry until you can give it some thought. So will wait to hear before trying. JD

Well, I did that and as soon as I click on Ibycus Topo 2 beta I get a warning that Mapsource is not properly installed and the program quits. By reverting back to version 1.5 and Mapsource works fine. If was to try to re-install would I use the MapudateBeta or Mapupdate in the download1 directory or do you have some other idea for a fix. JD

Just noticed two things that are quite different. 1. The original img directory had 10,486 files and was 3.99gb 2 AND MORE IMPORTANTLY there was a 4th index file NTBDATA_MDR.img at 18.0mb, there are only 3 index files in the new upload and this one is missing. Looks like a great deal of data did not get put together and/or uploaded. JD

Got to agree, Lots of problems and missing data. Massive amounts of Ontario are missing. They show has blocks when you are extremely zoomed out but zoom in and no detail at all. The road names shown in the sample do not appear for me. Similarly across much of Northern Ontario and the praries. Even around Vernon BC. Wonder if something is wrong with the index files. JD

Thanks for the info Dale. Its not a problem and getting the number of mapsheets down makes a lot of sense. JD

Just a question about the Maritimes area. Heading out there in a week and started setting up map sets. When I got to PEI, Cape Breton, and Halifax, each of those areas were selected as one large area rather than the individual map segments. Mapsource showed a few segments but 4 or 5 would get selected by one click. Is this a problem in the map (Ibycus 1.5) or did something go wrong in my installation? The maps take up more space than I need since there are areas near Halifax I won't get anywhere near. JD