artemisworks

Thanks for the invitation, Forest-Ghost! I see there's been a lot of discussion going on about Wherigos here... As a Wherigo creator, I was invited by someone from Groundspeak about 5?-6 years ago to discuss Wherigos etc. and what I thought about them moving forward, but I think they decided to can it in the end and move towards Adventure Labs, which don't interest me in the least. But I understand that they are much easier to create and probably less bug-prone than some Wherigos can be. My biggest gripe about Wherigos has always been how so much time and effort would be spent in creating a cartridge, and then the final coordinates would be shared and then few people bother to play the Wherigo at all especially if it has any complexity to it. I'd love to see a way that requires players to actually get a unique completion code from the Wherigo, and only be able to log the cache with that completion code, but I feel Groundspeak would never agree. They seem too invested right now in AL's to consider tweaking the Wherigo system, I am just waiting for the axe to fall and wondering when they will "grandfather" all Wherigo caches, now that AL's have taken off and seem wildly popular (!). I use several different programming languages for my job, hobbies etc. and so am comfortable with Lua although I've only ever used it to write my Wherigos. I'd like to help in whatever capacity I can (I made all the graphics for my Wherigos too), with the free time I have, so I want to keep informed about whatever happens with this project.

I have just emailed you via your geocaching account. Please check there.

I really want to get hold of one of these Pi Day coins as it is my birthday unfortunately I won't be attending any GC events, but if anyone wants to sell a Pi Day geocoin, can you please contact me via my profile? THANK YOU! Artemisworks

I would be very interested to try the beta app for the Android too. I have a basic Android phone just for testing Wherigos I make.... Whereyougo is fine but there are limitations and I am not a fan of the UI. Thanks, artemisworks

Hi everyone, I am just testing out the Whereyougo App on the Android phone for the first time. I've noticed some odd things with the way the app treats images. In the Settings, I made sure that I un-checked the option to 'stretch all images' and decided to view all images in their original size. However, when testing out a cartridge, I noticed that sometimes the Whereyougo app displays the images expanded to fit the phone screen, and as the original images are quite small, they appear quite pixelated - and other times, the images are displayed in their original size. I don't understand why this happens and if this is a bug with the Whereyougo player. Does the developer read this forum by any chance? Thanks, Artemisworks

Thanks Charlenni, it sounds exactly like the info I'm looking for. However I cannot access the info on the wiki page. It says that an organiser needs to log in to renew the subscription.

I'm sure this question has been asked (many) times before, but I was wondering if I can find any documentation online about the Wherigo API? Thanks, artemisworks

I accidentally uploaded several copies of a Wherigo cartridge I made to Wherigo.com today when I'd unwittingly allowed some HTML tags to sneak into the description and it gave me these frustratingly opaque Error messages on Wherigo.com - what I hadn't realised was that the cartridges were uploaded successfully despite the error messages! Now I want to delete them and there is no way to do so on Wherigo.com. Is there a Groundspeak lackey who is looking after Wherigos at all, and will they help me manually delete these cartridges because I don't really want them littering up my home page? I know it might be pointless, but maybe more people posting about Wherigos might get Groundspeak finally working on the technology again? It seems like such a waste to let it lie fallow like this... From my experience, people find them a lot more fun to do than the other unusual cache types that Groundspeak have come up with in recent years. Artemisworks

Hello everyone, I am building and testing a Wherigo cartridge that uses Timers, particularly a Countdown timer. The player can trigger the timer to start when they are in a particular zone. If they are still in that zone when the countdown timer finishes, they will see Message A. If they have left the zone when the timer ends, then they will see Message B. I have tested this successfully with the Garmin Oregon 200. However, with the standard Wherigo app on the iPhone, I find that if I save the cartridge any time after the timer has started AND finished, then when I resume the cartridge gameplay, it will immediately trigger the countdown timer event and end, and give me Message B. It suggests to me that the Wherigo app does not record the state of the Timer correctly, and just assumes that the Timer has started and triggers it as soon as the cartridge is resumed. Has any other Wherigo programmer encountered this problem and since it appears to be an issue with the Wherigo app for the iPhone, can we hope for it to be fixed at some point??? I imagine that some of the misgivings people have about doing (or coding) Wherigo cartridges stem from all the glitches and bugs that occur with them because of the lack of support Thanks in advance for any insights, Artemisworks

I do not usually post on these forums but the latest changes to the GC.com site have really got up my nose, so I felt compelled to come here and add my 2 cents. I'm sure everything I've said has been said before but I just wanted to add my voice to the deafening chorus pleading for a ROLLBACK to these really horrible changes to the website. I can't even begin to imagine WHY anyone would have thought it was a good idea to make the dates so vague. The changes involve deliberate programming - why, why, WHY??? Anyone who has ever found a geocache, or has to maintain one, will know just how invaluable these dates are. It's pretty shocking that someone thought it would be a nice idea to remove them! Absolutely mind boggling. The new cache logs design with the avatars is also a waste of space, and yes, it makes it much longer to download on a mobile device. An option to turn the extra graphics off would be appreciated, failing that, please just do away with the avatars altogether... note that most geocachers do not have avatars....! And... these Challenges sound completely stupid. They have nothing to do with geocaching and are not a worthy substitute for virtuals. PLEASE, make them something completely separate, if you must keep them.... i for one, am not going to bother to do a single Challenge. Well, it sounds like I've definitely beaten the horse to death. Artemisworks

Evidently, the top brass in the police admit that there is a problem. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-...ws-1834626.html Encouraging. artemisworks

PS: I belong to several photography fora and read photo hobbyist magazines etc. regularly and the questioning/searching of photographers merely for photographing has been a problem for some years now. It's NOT a unique or extremely unusual experience and some officers can be quite intimidating. There was even a tourist photographer from Greece who was doing a bit of street photography while travelling on the Tube - he was arrested and had to spend a day in the cells (and had to go to court, eventually) because someone complained that he had taken a photo of their teenage daughter while they were on the Tube. The photographer apologised and then offered to delete the photos off his DSLR but the matter didn't end there when the person complained to the BTP at the station. There is NO law against taking photos of people in public places, but once the complaint was made to the police, the photographer was arrested, no questions asked. Those of us who do street photography can see ourselves in this exact same situation and it is positively frightening. I'm sure many have abandoned this pastime because it's just not worth it, is it?!

I am a very keen amateur photographer and this is a topic close to my heart. Someone here made a point that thousands of tourist snaps are taken every day at key spots in London and no one ever takes notice. Yes, that is true - and 99.9% of those snaps are taken by small compact digital cameras or mobile phones. Sometimes a small DSLR. But woe on you if you have the temerity to (gasp) use a LARGE camera and (double gasp) use a TRIPOD! Yes, that bulky thing that (very vaguely, if you have good imagination) resembles a hunting rifle that will turn heads, especially in the financial district, and cause security guards to trail after you even if all you're doing is carrying it around over your shoulder. Like, terrorists doing reconnaissance want perfect razor-sharp shots of buildings so they can make pretty enlargements and hang it up on their walls.... The BBC and the Independent photographers were MOST likely using professional DSLRs that are very much more indiscreet than your average digicam. No doubt they got stopped because they were using tripods as well - while shooting in low light without flash. Make no mistake, in recent times, PLENTY of ordinary, law-abiding amateur photographers have been stopped, questioned, harassed even, by police while just taking street photos. Ironically, there were exhibitions at the Tate Britain showcasing 50 years of the best British street photography, photos from old magazines like Picture Post etc. whose photographers will never be allowed to operate with the freedom they used to have, in case they get arrested for being perverts or paedophiles. From personal experience, if you carry anything larger than a compact digicam around the streets, you are often greeted with hostility and suspicion. The point is, plenty of people who complain to police for having been victims of crime, routinely get IGNORED. When my neighbour was robbed and assaulted by robbers some years ago and I contacted police to try and give them what I thought was valuable information, they never bothered to call me back. When my parked car was smashed up by a passing taxi a few months back, a bystander got the registration details - and I went to the police, only to be told that it WASN'T their problem. Nevermind the fact that the incident would have been caught by the zillions of CCTV and congestion charge cameras down my street. It's the cumulative experience of incidents like these that make me wonder if the police are working FOR or AGAINST us. Geocaching in the city is a different matter and understandably, some police might feel that it is just plain odd to be rummaging around in bushes or feeling up drainpipes... so I am always prepared to be stopped and asked what I am doing - but I refuse to be treated like a potential terrorist or criminal just because I am visibly carrying (and using) a large camera. artemisworks

I'm gutted by this decision. The first cache I ever found was a short walk from home and inside one of the aforementioned parks. At no point did I ever think that these caches were detrimental to security, or other people's enjoyment of the parks. Their reasoning (i.e security threats) makes no sense whatsover, the same sort of reasoning can be applied to all of central London's caches and indeed, can we expect the next logical step to be the banning of ALL caches in London? It would seem that it is easiest for parks management etc. to say "no" than to have to deal with any potential issues that may arise.... This is really disappointing but perhaps not that surprising, photography is already deemed a suspect hobby by some quarters (and already banned in some public areas), and geocaching may just follow suit..... Whatever next....?!! Artemisworks, hoping she doesn't have to hang up her GPS soon

I just hit the symbol with the satellite strength bars at the bottom of the screen and the satellite view screen pops up. Is this what you were looking for?

Hi everyone, I am looking for a free Garmin map for Malaysia/Singapore for my GPS.... the trouble is, all the ones I've found so far (MalSing.com) require the use of a Windows computer. How about something for Mac users??? I really just need the gmapsupp.img file, if someone could tar and compress it, I'd really appreciate it. Please let me know where I can download a copy otherwise? Will be in the area over Xmas and would love to hunt down a few caches there. Thanks in advance. Artemisworks

Ah OK thanks, I will try to be more patient then . I was told it should come within 10 mins or so, and I've been waiting hours... I hope it'll come eventually, once it gets through the virus scanners in my ISP's mail server, etc....

I need a bit of help. I use a Mac, and have always used a Garmin Edge 205 for all my geocaching - until it recently packed up and died. I bought an Oregon 200 and have been very excited about it so far - but I've found that I'ev been unable to load my pocket query into it! MacCaching doesn't work with the Oregon anymore, complaining about a USB interface problem. I downloaded GeoJournal for the Mac, but it doesn't seem to include the Oregon in its support list either. Can someone help and give me some suggestions of what else I can try? Thanks in advance! artemisworks

I'm still trying to get my head around Pocket Queries, having just signed up for premium membership over the weekend. I managed to create one Pocket Query successfully - My Finds, just so I could feed it into my cache statistics software. Yesterday I thought it would be great to be able to export my Bookmark List (containing about 8 caches) in bulk to a zipped file, so I could download it all into my new GPS unit. So I went into Bookmark Lists and clicked on 'Create Pocket Query'. So far so good. I checked 'Delete Query Once Run' and clicked on Wed as I wanted it to run ASAP. I had a look at the Manage Pocket Queries page. My query was listed there, and under Last Generated (PST) - it said 'Never'. I've been waiting for a good few hours for my query to run now..... have I done something wrong? Still trying to work this all out... artemisworks

Nevermind, just found an answer to my question there by searching online. Replace irc.nixhelp.org with z.je - apparently the Nixhelp server suffered a PSU failure. Hope this helps everyone get back to the chatroom. artemisworks

Is there something wrong with the UK geocaching chat on IRC? Just wondering, I can't connect to irc.nixhelp.org... it has been like that for 2 days now. Is it just me or is the server down? artemisworks... needing help on pocket queries

I just returned to this thread and was surprised to see so many posts - wow, thanks, I enjoyed reading all your perspectives, and would like to wish all newbies "Hello" and welcome to geocaching! I appreciate that most people who visit this forum will be responsible cachers, and have done all their homework in ensuring that bugs and coins get moved on reasonably quickly. I certainly never meant to tar all newbies with the same brush, after all, having just started in Jan this year, I'm still somewhat a newbie in that respect! But I have noticed some cachers with 1-2 finds pocketing the bugs/coins and you never hear from them again. I suppose they are the sorts who are trying out geocaching, and end up getting bored of the hobby. I just wish they wouldn't pick up the TB in the first place if they weren't absolutely committed to finding a new home for it before they gave up geocaching forever. Another thing I've noticed is how there are some people with a reasonable number of caches to their names, who hang on to EVERY SINGLE TB and COIN they have ever picked up! What does one do about these people? Are they TB/coin collectors? Would it be reasonable for the owners to politely email these people after 1 month or more!? If a TB has a very specific mission, I think it would always be useful to attach a laminated note to the TB. Otherwise, a cacher may just pick it up and then discover that they are completely unable to assist the bug on its mission. Having said that, there are a lot of cachers who ignore the missions anyway. Thankfully my two TBs are still travelling after a few months, although one is stuck in a rarely visited cache... I just want to know that they are in safe hands. I am grateful to all the cachers who have moved them on so far! artemisworks

I'm not usually a cacher who goes for FTFs but who could resist when they were directly in the path (OK, more or less...) of my route from the bus stop to dinner on a Sat evening? So I got 2 FTFs just walking a short 5-6 min route. I wonder how many more of these caches are going to remain unfound until the next time I'm in the West End again...

I don't know if it's just me but I feel a sense of responsibility for every single TB and geocoin that passes through my hands. Nowadays, I get a sinking feeling whenever I see that a cache I dropped a bug or coin off in has had a newbie cacher visit after me, with maybe 3-4 caches to their name. Invariably, the TB or coin has gone missing after their visit, sometimes they'll put it in their log that they 'picked up a travel bug', but they don't ever log it. Occasionally I have been tempted to send them a message, even though the bug does not belong to me, politely asking them to log their find on the webpage. I've never got a single response from these people, and usually they don't find another cache again for months - no mention of the coin or TB ever again!!! I know that some places as well as the media have been trying to popularise geocaching and encourage new people to try it out, but I tend to think that this will only result in more and more TBs and coins going missing, as people try it out once or twice and then never find another geocache in their lives again when they decide it's not really for them. So, every time I find that a newbie cacher has visited a cache that I dropped a bug off in, I can't help but feel a terrible, sinking feeling..... I shouldn't feel this way because I too, was a newbie cacher who only started off earlier this year. I just wish everyone had *some* sense of responsibility! Artemisworks

I received a few PMs already... thanks, everyone. Incidentally, these new film canisters (not the old black types with grey lids) are probably a bit better re: waterproofing, the lids have been redesigned. But you will have to duct tape them for camouflage as most of them are translucent plastic.