TechnoNut

*That* is the $64000 question. No one knows - as the sample GPX file has not yet been released by GS. Everyone is waiting for it, including Clyde (GSAK). If I can hazard a quess, GS are still tweaking it, based on responses received in the various forums (fora?) and from 3rd party developers. The release has already been postponed at least once, and I am not holding my breath for 1 September. We will just have to wait and see.

I agree with the Groundspeak standpoint that only Premium (=Paid) members should have access to favourite points. There are far too many "chancers" out there who would create sock puppet accounts, just to give their caches fave points (and fake finds). Leave it as it is ... If it is not broken ..... PT

Danie - is it possible to drill down more on this? e.g. Of those who have placed 5 (or 10) caches in the last year, what percentage of their placements have been large/regular/small/micro etc? i.e Cacher Name, 20 placements, Micro 50% Small 30%, Regular 15%, Large 5%. Then we can see who is putting down all the micros :-) PT

As a basic member you are pretty limited to what you can do. But for $2.50 per month ($30 p.a.) you can have Premium Membership (less than the cost of two beers). If you still can't do this, try this "quick & dirty" method - I have never tried it, but it should work OK. From your profile page, list your found Geocaches - you will get 20 per page, select the lot and download a .loc file (this is actually an .xml format file). Do the same for each find page, making sure you increment the filename for each .loc download, hopefully there are not too many pages . Rename the downloaded files from name.loc to name.xml and import these into individual Excel spreadsheets, then combine into one spreadsheet. Hope that helps - its really a long way around when compared to the "My Finds" PQ you can get every three days if you have a Premiuim Membership. PT

Any plans, I see that Madsons is already up for it. Anyone else? I am unfortunately working this weekend (Standby) so I might get called out if need be but otherwise I will be around to meet up. Wayne - this is still on the cards for my dash to 1000. But will probably be a during the week thing for me, I am thinking of the week after next (week starting on 15th). My plan is to leave Durban bright and early, do a few caches on my way to NN, camp over and cache again the next day, hopefully wiping Newcastle clean. Then maybe back to Durban via Utrecht and Vryheid. On the camp over - can you recommend a place? Is Amcordam a good place to camp over for two nights? PT

Newbie / Technical Event As I have a fair bit of time on my hands these days (when not chasing a FTF ), I really would like to organise a Newbie / Tech event for sometime in September / October. (This is something I really missed when starting geocaching) The way I see it, we should cover the following. Finding and Logging caches Hiding Caches (with reference to FE's "Hiding a cache in Africa") Generally accepted "caching etiquette" Benefits of Premium membership Mapsource GSAK Basics GSAK Macros General Q&A All sessions about 30 min. Maybe this is too much for one event? Perhaps the GSAK subjects should be a separate event? The following is needed:- Venue: Johan has mentioned that his saltmine training centre may be available Date / Time: would have to be a weekend morning / afternoon. Speakers: on the above topics Video Projector My thoughts on speakers (yes, I know this is cheeky) Finding and Logging - Noddy / DRDM Hiding - DiePienaars Etiquette - Kwenda Tafuta / Noddy GSAK Basics - anyone using GSAK GSAK Macros - Flying Syringe Mapsource - TechnoNut General Q&A - all speakers Of course I may be way out with the above suggestions, that is why I am posting this here - all ideas must be considered, and volunteers should please put their hands up. Thoughts please .....

Welcome back! Hope to finally meet you at the event on the 20th this month (http://coord.info/GC3033B) Looking forward to seeing many at the event - if you can please contact a newbie and invite them as well. Please post your "will attend" logs, and also indicate if you will be bringing a salad to share. Thanks PT

If anyone is going to order, please PM me so that I can climb in on the order (and perhaps we can save something on the shipping). I want one of black and one of black nickel. Will arrange funds transfer. Thanks Pete

The macro works for provinces (countries) where there are more than 1000 (or 500) caches as well - or any filter you set up in GSAK. So, set your filter, run the macro and it will give you the breakpoints for that filter. Nice. PT

Dates for South African 995 cache PQs Please can anyone help with a list of to / from dates to give +/- 995 caches per PQ for South (or Southern) Africa? I have been structuring my PQs around provinces up to now, but think it is time for a change .... TIA PT Later Edit - Flying Syringe pointed me to a GSAK macro that does this very well. GSAK Macro

Thanks Danie - was more or less what I suspected. You just cant get away from Pareto Now, I am wondering about other countries ..... But I know you don't have that in your db. PT

Soutie version: Where there is smoke, there is fire.

Just to bring some sanity here ... No one is accusing anyone of "cheating". But, there have been some (let's call them 'strange') logs on some of the caches which indicate that all may not be straight up and down. There may be a valid reason for this, e.g. caches replaced after the FTF, caches logged in error, etc. Of course, the only way to really prove that a certain cacher (or group of cachers) has done some or all of the caches is to make a GPS tracklog (with timestamps) available to anyone who asks. That will not give any secrets away as the route is straightforward and can be planned by anyone with a little knowledge of Mapsource. As one of the previous holders of the "SA Caches in a day" record (the 144 in Bloemfontein in March this year) I believe that a distinction should be drawn between Power Trail records and Conventional Cache records. To do 120+ of Oom Louwtjie's caches in one day is very different from doing the Gauteng Power Series. And, yes, I would like to give the Gauteng Power Series a try, when I can make it up to Gautengaleng. But I would always see that as being different from conventional caching. Like the difference between a Formula 1 Grand Prix and the Otter Trail. Just my 2c. PT

Danie / Anton This probably got lost in the hoohaa about the power trail --- I have been wondering about something. Does the Pareto principle apply to caching (with respect to hides, and maybe finds)? Have 80% of the active caches in SA been placed by 20% of the cachers? And, (unlikely) have 80% of the finds been made by 20% of the cachers? When there is time ..... PT

I would love to but I'm afriad that it has been limited to Premium Members only, keeping the lowly riff raff out. Premium Membership is less than R20 per month ($30 p.a.). And if you have a Garmin, you can get 30 days FREE membership by registering your device. See this link. The main reason this cache is PMO is because the logging requirements require a Bookmark List. PT

Thanks Wayne, just got an extra month, now to register my other devices PT Yep, 4 months added, registered my 276C, GPS V, and GPS 76 as well as the Oregon 550. :D

Thanks Wayne, just got an extra month, now to register my other devices PT

Newcastle Cash 'n Dash Is there anyone who fancies a few days in Newcastle to clear the place? Either a weekend, or anytime? PT

I have recently published a Challenge cache in KZN. You may want to look at it - see GC30HEH - KZN Nature Reserve Challenge Cache Also see the KB reference. KB Ref PT

Danie / Anton I have been wondering about something. Does the Pareto principle apply to caching (with respect to hides, and maybe finds)? Have 80% of the active caches in SA been placed by 20% of the cachers? And, (unlikely) have 80% of the finds been made by 20% of the cachers? When there is time ..... PT

Thanks for all these Danie - really fascinating stuff. Ad I enjoy them :-) PT

Is it possible to get cache planters for the last year? TIA PT

Yup! GC1N3Q7 Gcwihaba Caverns (Earthcache). Take it away Pierre, your turn. PT

Are there no takers for this one? Is a clue needed? PT

I took the challenge, and came up with a result. However I could not use a pure SQLite solution, and had to copy the basic results into a spreadsheet, and do some trigonometry functions from there. Here is the Distance Calculations I used. If there is a better one please let me know, and I'll re-calculate. The combined total distance every cacher in Southern Africa has travelled is 11,590,239.73 km. The top 100 distance cachers are (and I added Porky2 and their position as they requested the stats): ......drum roll...... Pos, Distance, Name 1 246,366.41 Tricky Vicky & Mickey 25 40,209.16 RedGlobe 175 7,262.67 PORKY2 etc Anton - how did you calculate this? I have a TB - TB3MEAJ - that I dip into every found cache (in the correct order) and this TB has 40728 km according to GS. It is also a reason for my multiple write note c&p logs - I had already done plenty caches when I got the TB and and retrospectively dipped it. PT