SSO JOAT
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Posts posted by SSO JOAT
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Super simple business cards for me. Printed business card stock on both sides with a color laser printer and then hot laminated the cards. Super cheap to make and easy to carry.
I've been thinking about making a batch of really small cards for the micro and small caches as the business card size generally only fits in regulars or the bigger end of the small caches (e.g. decons).
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I had an early Apple II+ when they first came out.
Wish I still had that thing; it was a ton of fun in those early days of personal computing.
Here you go...
http://computers.shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&...mp;_sacat=58058
You can use it to solve my next puzzle cache
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Yes, make it PMO for at least the first month. After the first batch of finds by PMs and the cache becomes "established", you can remove the PMO status whenever you want. The traffic level is going to drop off sharply after the FTF is claimed, but that is the nature of a multi-cache.
After the "new cache" smell is gone, it is less likely that it will become a maggot target. However, nothing is foolproof on the thievery front. What the PMO status really does is keep less experienced cachers from pilfering your cache or messing up carefully placed stages. That is of course not foolproof either as there are plenty of PMs who don't use great care in visiting caches.
Your multi-cache choice is what is actually going to keep all the lazy folks away.
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Yes. You can either make a PQ and specify those attributes be present or you can use GSAK and filter for those attributes.
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I don't think anyone uses those anymore.Maybe they are using an Apple II computer?Then you think wrong. I have one set up and operating at my house right now. Do a Google (after playing PacMan) for Apple II and you'll find that there is still a strong consumer following of programming on these old machines. There are Apple II forums and there are companies that still sell pieces, parts, and programs for them.
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If you're just trying to get the tenth-mile separation, the easiest method is to load your GPX of all the area caches into MapSource, select all of them and add a 0.1 mile proximity to every cache. Now load them to your Garmin GPSr and you'll have the tenth-mile circle drawn around every cache so you can quickly tell if you're close to anything.
Be sure to keep a private waypoint file of all puzzle finals and MC physical stages and you can load those into your GPSr also.
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Maybe they are using an Apple II computer? It doesn't have lower case capability. Don't make fun of other people's handiCAPS.
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It might be more impressive if ya got out of LA and visited some wilderness areas. Might give the city people a desire to go outside.
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HTML is as easy as BASIC. Using an "editor" isn't needed and is actually kind of lazy. The list of commands allowed in CO's portion of page is minimal. A few minutes reading an online HTML reference should get most folks up to speed on how to type a "p" in between "<>" and close things out with "/".
I enter all my code manually right onto the cache editing page. At first glance, I don't think I'd want a built-in WYSIWYG on the cache editing page as it may prevent me from entering the code the way I want it to be, especially when doing tricky and/or super-secret spy stuff in puzzle caches.
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Great! Another puzzle has been solved on the forum with the solution posted for the world to see.
BTW... any decent puzzle maker won't use all 15 digits of the coordinates if it results in an obvious grouping of 15 things. We might just use the 10 minutes digits or we might just use the 6 fractional minutes. Or maybe we write out the coordinates as words and encode that so you have to decode 100+ characters. Or maybe the number we hide has to be added to or subtracted from the published coordinates. Also, we like to toss in a bunch of "fluff" and dead ends to make you actually think about what you're doing. The first glance is often incorrect. Though any good puzzle will be filled with hints and clues as to the true path to victory.
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If you're at your computer, MapSource will do it without having to get on the internet and rely on some unknown "tool" to be accurate.
Your GPSr will do it right there in the field if you have a half-decent model.
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FTF with no qualifications means "after the CO thinks it's ready for the masses".
Citation Needed. Can't find this anywhere in the Groundspeak Rule Book.
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Are there any filters to use to eliminate the beta finders and see the unfound caches?
Pezcachers
As it looks like this thread has turned into another FTF bash, I thought I'd let the OP know that their request is simple... All you need is to set up a filter in GSAK. I just ran a quick test by setting the Dates filter to select only caches where the publish date is newer than the last found date. I limited it to traditionals. It pulled 39 out of 2353 caches in my local database. I flipped through the list and they are all yet-to-be-found. A couple of them have finds logged prior to the publish date, but none afterward (your so-called "beta testers"). This naturally relies on the found logs to have been dated prior to the placed date, which we all know is hardly foolproof, but it is a starting point. A few more tweeks here and there and you could probably get a pretty accurate list.
Just to toss my thoughts into the rest of the debate... since there is no official "FTF" log, anyone at any time can claim to be the FTF. No one will know any different, nor can anyone say any different. GS doesn't administer or track anything to do with this silly FTF thingie. GS is also not the only way to have a cache listed. If you think that the guy who hunted down the cache right after the CO placed it wasn't really the "First To Find" the cache, then go ahead and puff out your chest and claim that you were in fact FTF before that other guy who found it before you did. Of all the pre-publish hunts I'm aware of, the CO hides the cache without the rest of the group seeing how/where the cache was placed. Then they regroup and the CO shares the coords and the others get to go find it. Just because it hasn't been published by GS doesn't mean they aren't having to hunt down the cache the same as everyone else.
Or just do like everyone else does and call it FTFAP and be done with it.
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It appears to me that less than 10% of cachers even try to solve any puzzles, even the easier ones.
I've actually been verbally repremanded by strangers at geocaching events for putting out so many puzzles. I just have to laugh and explain the "ignore" feature that came with their account. What's really funny is after being belittled over some of my puzzles and then going to check the audit log to find out that person never even looked at the puzzles. So they are either going off PQ's or are just assuming that the puzzles are "impossible" (note- I have no unsolved puzzles out there, so none of them are impossible) after looking at only 1 or 2 of them.
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People who steal caches are not "cachers", they are muggles, geo-theives, or cache-maggots. So don't say cachers are doing it... theives are doing it.
Replace the caches with NO FANFARE. Many of them are just looking for the attention. Don't give them any.
Tie your cans down. A loose cache can easily walk away. If the cache it attached to the Earth, they are less likley to take an "accidental walk". If the string is cut, replace it with SS cable and crimp it in place.
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I keep a notebook handy that I write down every vague puzzle concept that pops into my head. When I'm in a mood to put out a new puzzle, I open the book and look through the ideas, then pick one to start refining.
I don't really care to go out looking at other puzzles (outside my area as I know everything in my area) and copy them. I prefer to come up with my own stuff or instead of looking at other people's puzzles, get out there on the internet and start reading about non-geocaching puzzles and ciphers. I wrote down 3 puzzle ideas in my notebook yesterday as they came to me while driving for 10 hours. Maybe one of them will become a puzzle this summer, maybe not. There are dozens of other ideas in the book ahead of these.
Personally, I think the cache page design and delivery of the puzzle is far more important than the style of puzzle you come up with. I've got a couple puzzles that I published on the same day that use the exact same concept for hiding coordinates, but because of the appearance and page layout, they don't look like the same kind of puzzle at all. There are lots of people who have solved one but not the other. I find it amusing.
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I have actually found GS "prohibited" items, including ammo, in many caches. Since GS doesn't "own" the caches, I don't see any problem with what's in the caches. GS authority is over the listings and the website interface. They can "suggest" what people use for swag, but they don't "control" it.
I've found ammo on many occasions. It seems to be used as a signature item by a few Alaskan cachers. If it is something good, I'll trade for it (have any of you priced ammo lately?). I've also found knives, matches, cigarettes, lighters, condoms, candy, food, etc. I take any tobacco, condoms, food, candy, and similar items and toss them in my CITO bag to be dropped in the next trash bin. It's dumb to leave such items, but not illegal.
As for camping/hiking/survival equipment such as knives, matches, lighters, etc., unless it is something cool to trade for, I leave them in place. I think such items are perfectly fine as swag... at least in remote areas. Might be a little different in the big city, but not a problem in the country. We actually teach the kids gun and fire safety instead of trying to keep such things a tempting secret.
And I just can't resist pointing out that you are a million times more likely to trip and break your leg on the way to the cache than you are to have a cartridge explode.
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Ammo isn't dangerous. Those who get all freaked out by seeing a bullet need to go take a basic firearm safety and instruction course. A bullet is no more harmful than a rock... unless it is actually in a gun.
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Just because the Premium Members didn't get their early warning alert of recent cache publishment shouldn't be grounds for holding things up. Gives the non-prems a shot at their first FTF.
Dude, this has nothing to do with FTF or early notifications. It has everything to do with the watchlist notifications. Basic members can watchlist a cache the same as a premium. So even Basic members would have received copies of all the reviewer notes after the notification system was reactivated today. Hence, both Basic and Premium would have a copy of the final coordinates if they put any newly published cache yesterday on their watchlist.
I received all the reviewer emails today for a puzzle cache that was published yesterday that I put on my watchlist. I found the listing for the cache through the newest caches search from my profile page. I use that periodically to see what's publishing outside of my normal notification areas. So it was a cache further away and belonged to a fellow puzzler, who spent a lot of time building this 4.5 star puzzle. And just like that the puzzle is spoiled because I received all the reviewer notes. There's another person on the watchlist beside me who would also have received all those emails today. Naturally, the first thing I did was email the CO and the reviewer to let them know the cat was out of the bag. I'm sure everyone else on the watchlist in such a situation would do the same honorable thing, right?
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Any caches that were published during the email notification outage didn't have copies of the notes-to-reviewer or the reviewer logs sent to the CO as normally would happen. However, your cache was published normally and showed up on the site. If anyone put your new cache on their watchlist yesterday, they received copies of all the reviewer notes this morning when the email system came back online. This includes the final coordinates and any hidden waypoints and anything you posted in confidence as a note-to-reviewer prior to publishing.
So if you published a cache yesterday, check to see if anyone is on its watchlist. If so, they may have the solutions to your puzzles or multis.
Groundspeak... you guys need to make a new reviewer policy that you stop publishing all puzzles and multi caches during and email notification outage. As soon as such an outage is discovered, broadcast to all your reviewers to stop publishing puzzles until the notification system is back online.
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The problem is definitely still there. I saw a new puzzle yesterday and put it on my watchlist. The puzzle was a direct challenge to me (even included my name in the description). This morning my email box is full of all the reviewer notes from that puzzle being published. So I not only have the final coords from the reviewer log, but the puzzle solving method from the CO's note-to-reviewer logs.
So this "glitch" has completely spoiled what was to be a fun puzzle challenge between a couple puzzle makers. Naturally, I have immediately notified both the reviewer and the CO that the puzzle is spoiled (I'm not the only one on the watchlist). But I'm sure there are other's of shady character who wouldn't do the same, especially if they were the only one on the watchlist and no one else would know that they cheated.
So Groundspeak, listen up... if your email notification system goes down, PLEASE STOP PUBLISHING PUZZLES until the system is back up!!!! I'd rather wait an extra day for the publish than to have days, weeks, or even months worth of puzzle design work go right into the trash can. A little common sense folks.
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Warning to all... if you published a cache yesterday while the email system was down and someone put that cache on their watchlist sometime before the email system went back up, those people on the watchlist received copies of all the reviewer notes associated with the cache. So if you put any "secret" info in a reviewer note, any watchlisters now have it. And if you published a puzzle, any watchlisters now have the solution via the final waypoint post by the reviewer. And if you published a multi, they have all your waypoints via the same.
Groundspeak needs to notify every cache owner of anything that was published yesterday during the email outage of this problem. Especially the puzzle cache builders and anyone who may have posted confidential info (e.g. names & addresses of cache maintainers, etc) in their reviewer logs that the public should never have seen.
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Back to the drawing board... I can't read any of your example pages. The entire left side is cut off. Looks like about 1/3 of the page is missing.
I'm currently viewing with IE 6.0 under WinXP (work machine, I can't change it). I wish programmers would consider the fact that there are a lot of older systems still out here before going with the latest and greatest HTML tricks.
Keep it simple.
Where is the cheapest place to buy these containers?
in General geocaching topics
Posted
I have many micro and nano capsules hidden in the woods. The thing is, they are only "hidden" in the sense that muggles shouldn't discover them as they are off the beaten path. They are meant to be found by cachers and thus they are placed in plain sight with good coords.
That said, I don't particularly care for the blinkie containers. They are not waterproof. Even the ones that come with an o-ring, it is a super cheap o-ring that will break within the first dozen openings. No one can seem to figure out how to put the log in the cap first, so the log gets smashed and the lid isn't shut all the way, thus water gets in and it's all over. Most adults can't manipulate the log well enough to roll it up tight enough to fit back in.
I bought several of the good quality ones (built as a cache, not a converted blinkie canister) but I've only placed one of them. They have their place. It's just a matter of finding it.