Major Catastrophe

Huh. The first computer virus I ever had the pleasure of hosting was on a Mac. That was something like 20 years ago. The virus came on a floppy-disc-based magazine that we subscribed to. Thanks to the ingenious Macintosh operating system, all I had to do was to insert the disc into the drive; the virus infected the HD before I even saw the directory of the floppy. Macs do have fewer viruses than PCs these days. That's because the mutts who write them are using, and understand the innards of, PCs. Also, the virus writers target PCs because that's the largest pool of potential victims. It has little to do with any innate differences between the platforms. If 90% of the world used Macs, the virus writers would make 'em pay.

Dood! U and I are the same age!

Ipaq 2415. I have a Serial Port interface on a CF card, so I can load and read the waypoints in my GPSr using only the PDA. I use GPXSonar for keeping track of the logs, and I can view topo maps with caches marked, created (on the PC, then loaded to the PDA) with USAPhotoMaps.

I usually drive Behemoth, a 2003 F-250 diesel.

(Thot I'd quote the OP just to keep on topic.) True Story: A bowhunter (I know his name) once took an uphill shot at a game animal. Known target, skilled hunter, misjudged the distance to the target, missed. The arrow went over the animal, continued on over the crest of the hill and down the other side until it hit another hunter, killing him. No amount of blaze orange in the world could have made that other hunter visible to the shooter. Moral? Stuff occurs. So, if you're really worried about bowhunters, despite the fact that they are using short-range weapons AND have a pretty good record of safety overall, ya better confine your caching to non-huntable areas during the seasons. Out here in God's Country, there are precious few geocaches hidden very far into what I consider prime hunting areas, so there's not much of a problem. With fuel prices where they are, few geocachers seem willing to go very far off the beaten track. That also reduces the potential for conflict with bowhunters, who are known to actually go into the woods while hunting. (This is unlike most gun hunters in my experience. Once, while I was in camp during bowhunting season, some gunhunters drove in. They were scouting the area preparatory to the rifle season which would begin after the bow season ended. Somehow, the subject came up and one of them asked one of the other bowhunters about the sanitary facilities at the campground, which they couldn't see from their truck. They were told that, yes there was an outhouse, but they'd never find it because it was 50 feet off the road and painted brown....)

Appropriate FTF prizes include portraits of Ulysses Grant and Benjamin Franklin. The kind that are issued by the U.S. Mint. The correct procedure is to set the cache out, then email me the coordinates a few days before you submit to GC.com.

How about getting some of those exploding ink packets? You know, the kind the banks put inside stacks of money to mark the robbers when they count their loot? Put one of those thingies in the cache so the FTF gets a face full of ink, that ought to slow 'em down.

Seems to me that if it's been moved far enough that a cacher is unlikely to stumble onto it while looking at the previous coordinates, then it's a whole new game. The regulation distance is basically to prevent cache clusters like three under the same rock (to go to the ridiculous extreme.) Unless you're also a "numbers ho" and are worried about him overtaking you, why worry?

How about saving the maps as JPGs?

They're ALL good. The lowliest first-generation Palm Pilot beats the heck outta hauling a pile of paper. Assuming you wind up with something relatively current, it's just a matter of which software works on your choice of PDA.

That's "rappel" unless maybe you're magnetized. Oh yeah, and breaker bars and swiss seats are for weenies. Dulfersitz. Slowly, to avoid getting burned....

I'm 39. My kids will argue when I say that, pointing out that I've been 39 for some 15 years now.

I use an aluminum pole; I've got several. For rough terrain there's the option to carry two of them. During deer season I've got one with a V-notch on top that makes a nice rest for a pistol. Any time, a hiking stick/pole is a great way to probe inside cavities or through vegetation that might conceal a cache, as most cache containers make a distinctively unnatural sound when thumped with a hiking pole.

I bet that cache gets more DNFs than finds......

Hmmm -- this requires us to assume that a particular occupation is closed to idiots. I have seen nothing to indicate that to be the case with any occupation, so presumably there are bomb disposal idiots like in any other field. Probably they never achieve much seniority..... Note: this is not to say that I don't hold bomb disposal techs in high esteem, or that I am not in awe at the job they do. I've got a few caches that are in ammo cans, but I'm not sure I'll put any more out (in ammo cans.) Methinks there are less ominous kinds of containers. Too bad, because ammo cans are definitely the best. Personal note to canningclan: I may never get the chance to give you that hug. But if I ever see you running, I will try to keep up!

GPS receivers only increment their internal odometer when the distance traveled reaches whatever increment it is using. If you are driving around curves, you will travel a slightly longer distance around the curve before the GPS increments; i.e., the GPS might update every tenth mile, but you may drive 0.105 miles around the curve. Those small differences should always add up to more on the car than the GPS. Thus, a car with an accurate odometer should be expected to always read slightly more (over time) than GPS. But the bottom line is, the car odometer is admissible in court......

Lucky you!!! A nice story, other than your somewhat questionable taste in football teams...

As tempting as that would be, I'd probably shake my head, turn around and leave without doing anything. Anything I put into a cache, and the caches themselves, is assumed to be thrown to the wind the moment it's put out there. Sooner or later, stuff occurs....

I can see the logs now: TOOK JUNK ITEMS (CITO!) LEFT NOTHING. NOTE TO OWNER: CACHE IS EMPTY. I've found caches that were quite full, and every single item in them trash. Oh well.....

It's a sad commentary on the state of the world, but I have to go along with the nay-sayers: I never touch CDs in caches, even if the appear to be factory music CDs. Too many [expletive deleted] out there; too much trouble (for me) if I allow a virus or trojan to get into my PC. No matter how reputable you are, or the sources you get files from, unless you write the software yourself you can't guarantee that it's 100% free of malware. (And the majority of "free" programs on the internet, have freeloading spyware on board...)

Uh... I think maybe you could use a couple grains less powder in those loads!

Pocket PCs (in general) are a bit more expensive than Palms but they work great for caching. SWMBO and I use Ipaq 2415s, running GPXSonar on them. Combined with GSAK on the PC, makes a great pair. I also have a serial cable for my PPC, and I can upload/download the waypoints from a GPX file onto my GPSr (Magellan SporTrak Map.) I like to use USAPhotoMaps to create a map image of an area, with caches shown, and upload that onto the Ipaq for just one more way to visualize what's in an area.

Buck(et)ing the System

I've found a few that were near bridges, one that was physically underneath a highway bridge. I had one of my own (since gone missing) behind a guardrail. The comments about national paranoia are well taken. Given that our police and other public servants are not mind readers, it's unfair to expect them to think "geocache" first, and "bad thing" later. Besides, I figure the same percentage of cops are complete idiots as in the non-police population, which means the odds wouldn't be good in any case.....

I have three active caches. They were last found in November, September and July 2005. One of them is only accessible for 4 or 5 months of the year, unless you have a snowmobile and shovel. Frankly, I'm surprised anyone has been cacheing in Western Oregon for the past couple of months; I didn't know that many people owned scuba gear...