striderx

Proof to the newbies that using the Search function in the forum works. I wanted the answer to the exact same questiosn, and low and behold I found it using Search without asking the same question again. Thanks!

Am I still a lurker if I just don't have anything to say? striderx

Funny thing, I just placed a big order for mounts to use my Garmin Oregon on all my vehicles just this afternoon. I've been a huge fan of RAM products for a long time. I've been using one with my Garmin Street Pilot III on my street motorcycles for years. The mount is bulletproof and holds the SP III like a vise. If you're familiar with that unit you know that it's both sized and weighted like a brick. I received a Garmin Oregon for Christmas which now let's me play the geocaching game that the SP III couldn't (that thing wouldn't last 30s away from vehicle power). Anyway, initially I looked at the Garmin vehicle mounts and found them to be lacking in robustness. Then I checked out what RAM has for my unit (I would've arrived there eventually) and not only did I find exactly what I wanted, but I was absolutely blown away but the sheer number of different, custom designed cradles for nearly every GPSr sold in the past ten years. For my mountain bike I got the RAM Mount Plastic Handlebar rail mount, RAP274U, $4.46. Combine that with a cradle for your specific GPSr (the one for the Oregon cost $9.02) and a lanyard to serve as a tether and you're in busness for less than $20. I read a review about the RAM Ez On-Off Rail mount and decided against it as the reviewer said it didn't hold up well. You can see their products at RAM Mounts, but to purchase them you have to go to their resellers websites. I used GPS City. Their customer service was outstanding. I had a live chat with a rep to help answer a couple of questions and was given a discount code to get 5% off my RAM products (the 5% didn't apply to the entire order, only the RAM portion; PM me if you want the code without dealing with the chat). I ordered it today, Jan 23rd, knowing that one of the items wouldn't be in stock until the 29th. They give you the option to wait until all items are in stock to ship in one order or to have them ship what's in stock and then the rest later for an additional $2.99. I chose the former because I wasn't in a rush. Within about 15 minutes of placing the order I received a phone call from them. Their rep told me that when assembing my order they found they had one of the mounts that was was listed as out of stock and a couple of other items (geocache boxes) were actually out of stock. He offered to ship me what they had for no additional charge! He said that sometimes they have a run on the little stuff on the weekends (like the Geocaching.com pin) and he wanted to be sure that my order got filled. Now that's customer service! I hope this helps! striderx

Hi all, my name is Tom and my geocaching.com handle is striderx, much to the chagrin of my 9 year old son and caching partner that wishes it could be doom_herowe or something equally unique. I'm new to the geocaching hobby, having gotten an Oregon 400t for Christmas. I've been a member of the site for nearly five years, but before now I never participated because my GPSr were either - 1. permanently embedded in the dashboard of our van, or 2. unable to function for more than a few seconds once detached from vehicle power (Garmin Street Pilot III). Talking to friends with less sophisticated GPSr devices, I realize I'm jumping to the front of the pack with the capabilities the Garmin Oregon possesses (except those with cell phones that can receive notifcations real-time by e-mail... they're nearly cheating!). Though new to geocaching, I'm well schooled in a plethora of web site designs. I will grant you that this site is among the most elaborate and functional of any I've been a member of, but some of its designs make me scratch my head. Like why is the map on "Mark my home coordinates" page powered by Yahoo, but all the rest are Google? Is there a way that I could make my zip code prefilled on the main page rather than 98103? I love Seattle, but I don't have much occassion to search for caches there... yet. Wouldn't it make sense to set it to my zip code as the pre-filled default, or even my home coordinates instead? There are some functional inconsistencies that would be nice to see cleaned up. If I click on the "Send to GPS" button from a text listing of a cache, a nice, limited-function perfectly sized child window pops up where I can then click on another button to actually send it to my Garmin Oregon. However, in the Google Map view if I click on the cache icon and then click on the "Send to Garmin" instead of that nice little window, it launches a completely new browser session. Since IE will launch new sessions at the same window mode as it was when you last closed it (ie: if the last IE session you closed was full screen, then it'll launch full screen) this can quickly overwhelm your desktop. Successive use of the "Send to GPS" from the text listing reuses that same little window. You needn't close it after each download. However each successive use of "Send to Garmin" from the map view will launch another IE session. To keep the clutter managable you need to close each one after you download the GPX. Could you 'enhance' the behavior of the map view to match the test listing view? That's all for now. There are other things I've noticed, but I'll save them for another time. striderx