Jam Clam

It's my understanding that there is precedent for reviewers asking owners to archive listings (or doing it themselves) when asked by authorities. See http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=204723 and http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=154878 for examples of reviewers taking more responsibility and ownership beyond simply just being volunteers for a 'listing service'. I realize I am not an 'authority' with respect to our particular discussion , so my request holds little weight. I still think it is a good idea though.

It's too bad there's nothing more that could be done collectively in bulk (by the local reviewers, for example) Reviewers only touch listings in the most extreme circumstances. Besides they have way too much on their plate for them to have to worry about changing listings in parks that are closed for hunting. If you consider all the parks in NJ that do that, it comes to hundreds of caches and the reviewer would have to individually identify each one and edit the listing. There is no way to do it in bulk, as it would have to be determined which caches were affected and which weren't. Well, don't you think a risk of getting shot is an 'extreme circumstance'? And this is a unique situation - a reservation that is not normally open to hunters, but will have them for the next 2 months. Ok, I've exaggerated a little to make a point. I understand the challenge facing reviewers. What I'm suggesting (pie in the sky feature request, I know) is the ability for local reviewers to temporarily mark an area as off-limits or temporarily disabled. Actually, it wouldn't be that hard to create a GSAK macro to do this. It already supports filtering by polygon area. You could use this to find all the caches in an area (which is how I came up with the number in the SMR). Then it would be simple to have it do a bulk updated to disable these caches. Unfortunately I'm not a good enough programmer to write this macro, but conceptually it would be straightforward.

It's too bad there's nothing more that could be done collectively in bulk (by the local reviewers, for example)

This is really strange; I see a reply to my post but not the original post. ???? Anyway, here is what I originally posted (sorry if this repeats): The South Mountain Reservation in Essex County, NJ, home to approx. 50 geocaches, will be closed Tuesdays & Thursdays in January & February for a deer hunt. http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index....xml&coll=1 Is there anyway to somehow update the pages for these caches so cachers don't waste a trip and, more importantly, don't put themselves in danger?

I like that example. Actually, I don't like this example. The Chicago Tribune is an example of a traditional supplier / consumer relationship. As such, you as a consumer buy their product, and they solely determine the content. The geocaching.com website, in contrast, exists because the participants actively contribute the data that allows the site to offer something of value that brings people coming back (and thus enables the site owner to sell advertising). This is more akin to a "community" site such as ebay or facebook rather than an online merchant like amazon.com. In these community sites, the participants feel a much stronger sense of ownership or entitlement as is it only because of their contributions that the site exists at all. That's why people here on geocaching.com feel strongly about complaining when they interpret something as "not fair", and why it is frustrating to read responses like "if you don't like it, find your own sandbox to play in".

Added to Cacheopedia: http://cacheopedia.com/wiki/Paperless_geocaching

hmm, I did try this method before I posted and it did work for me. I did have a custom route, but I didn't try a route with multiple waypoints.

GPSBabel is a fine tool, but it's somewhat intimidating. I'm thinking that techie people think that it's the best thing since sliced bread and that non-technical minded folks prefer other methods. Here how you can do this without using GPSbabel: 1. Go to Google Maps, and create the route you want. Add any waypoints you wish, or drag the route to customize the routing as you desire 2. In the upper right of the page, click on "Link to this page". Copy the long URL that begins http://maps.google.com..... 3. Paste this URL into your browser's address bar, and append the following to the end of it: &output=js 4. Press return to get your browser to load the new url. You will see what looks like a blank page with a single empty box on the top. Save this page by going to "File....|Save..." and save it as map.js 5. Go to the website http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/gpsbabel/ and select the following options: - type = Tracks - input format = Google Maps XML - output format = Google Earth (Keyhole) Markup Language (Ok , I lied, you are in fact using gpsbabel, just behind the scenes ) 6. Browse to upload the map.js file you saved earlier, then press 'convert this file' 7. If all goes well, the website will convert the file to a kml file you can download. ------- Theoretically, you shouldn't need to do steps 5-7, as according to the google maps documentation you should be able to append an '&output=kml' to save your route in kml format directly. But I have found this does not work consistently.

As I posted a number of times in this thread, if you don't want to use cachemate, there are a number of ways to generate HTML or mobi ebooks from the pocket query gpx file. GPX2HTML, GSAK, and GPSBabel can all do this; it's documented here: http://cacheopedia.com/wiki/Mobipocket

I just noticed that Groundspeak has changed the text in the pocket query output to say: Is this new text or did my query somehow get run on an old or backup server?

No need to write your own script; there's already a macro for GSAK. See this post: http://gsak.net/board/index.php?showtopic=6132

It's from my post on Sept 19, and it's also documented via a link in the post right above yours, where I include a link to the cacheopedia entry http://cacheopedia.com/wiki/Mobipocket that explains this as well as two other ways to create mobipocket books. And this is now the fifth time in this thread I've posted that link. Come on people, please read the fine thread - everything you need for paperless geocaching is documented at the cacheopedia pages http://cacheopedia.com/wiki/Paperless_geocaching and http://cacheopedia.com/wiki/Mobipocket . And since they are wiki pages, if you think they need updating, you can change them! @sowelch, I'm sure you'll get a lot of help by name calling..... @Groundspeak: Come on, would it really be that hard for you to update the page http://www.geocaching.com/waypoints/ so that it no longer reads: "eBook - As a Premium Member you can also choose to have a list of waypoints compiled into MobiPocket eBook format." It really is time for you to include some documentation about how your customers can geocache paperlessly, rather than forcing them to dig through this thread for documentation.

Hey hopvine, I am relatively new to GCing and BlackBerrying. How do I combine them? I found the Geocaching Wap-like site, but what else do you use. By-the-way I have BB 8830 that I just got. TIA! The best (only) way to do offline paperless caching on a Blackberry is through Mobipocket Reader. You can generate a mobipocket ebook through a number of different methods as documented here: http://cacheopedia.com/wiki/Mobipocket

If you want, you can generate your own Mobipocket ebooks using the GPX file from your pocket queries. See this page http://cacheopedia.com/wiki/Mobipocket for more information.

CasheKicker, I agree with your assessment about how Groundspeak handled this - I think they could have done a much better job, and I think they've lost a lot of goodwill in the process That being said, here is the simplest free way to create mobi books to use as before. It requires one new program. I've listed the steps in gory detail; in reality it really is much easier than it looks. 1. Download and install GPSBabel from http://www.gpsbabel.org/ (This is a one-time step). Note the folder you've installed it to. 2. Save your pocket query gpx file to a folder on your computer (e.g, \caching) 3. Start the program GPSBabelGUI.exe from your GPSBabel folder. 4. Under input, select a source type of "GPX XML", and choose the gpx file you downloaded as input. 5. Under output, select an output type of HTML, and choose an output filename for where you want to save it (e.g, \caching\caches.html) 6. click 'lets go' and it will create your html file 7. Start up Mobipocket reader on your PC (the assumption is you had this installed already) and load the HTML file you just created. Mobipocket reader will convert the html file into an ebook, and you can transfer it to your PDA.

I thought folks out there might enjoy this article: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/18/1817202 In reply to a question about geocaching, the OP wrote in the comments: "That accuracy seemed to have improved a number of individual times during the winter and summer is completely consistent with the way the transition practice runs and actual transition event took place." So this could have good ramifications for us!

Let me voice my opinion here: When Groundspeak dropped Mobipocket support without so much as a notification email, I was one of their biggest critics. Many users (like me!) were left in the lurch as we had no paperless caching alternative given our choice of PDA/smartphone (in my case, a Blackberry). Groundspeak showed a devil-may-care attitude, pointing fingers at Mobipocket and saying 'we warned our users a year ago that eventually mobipocket support would go away' and washing their hands of the problem. Since then, it's been shown that there is indeed an alternative (a command line driven program called mobigen) that Groundspeak could use to restore mobipocket functionality; however Groundspeak has said it would be "too much work" for them to rewrite the system to support this tool. Whether or not you agree with their assessment, I think it's pretty clear from this statement that regardless of user demand, Groundspeak will not be providing this functionality anytime in the short to medium term. Overall, I think Groundspeak's response to this problem has been pretty poor, as all they've done is point fingers at Mobipocket, saying "lets wait for the user community to solve the problem". I think I speak for many in saying this is a pretty poor way to treat paying customers. (In fairness, Elias did post a short note acknowledging that Groundspeak could have done a better job notifying users rather than just dropping the functionality without a word.) That all being said, I think it's time to move on. The user community has indeed responded, and there are now a number of solutions that provide equal if not better ebook functionality than before. For example, the quickest and simplest solution I know of to create Mobipocket ebooks from GPX files is to simply use GPSbabel to convert your pocket query GPX file into an HTML file. You can then load this HTML into Mobipocket reader, and then you can send it to you PDA just like you used to. This process takes at most 60 seconds longer than the prior process, and for most people this should be a satisfactory solution. There are other solutions, such as using GPX2HTML or GSAK, as well as non-ebook solutions such as cachemate. The GSAK solution is particularly nice, as I can now generate a new ebook on the fly without having to re-run a pocket query just to get an updated ebook. I've started documenting these solutions here and here, but I think Groundspeak needs to pick up the ball as well and provide some support pages of their own; it's not surprising that many people are not aware of these alternative solutions as Groundspeak has not done anything at all to document them. This is the crux of the current problem: We need to get something on the main geocaching.com pages documenting the basics of how to do paperless geocaching. People shouldn't be expecting to dig through a 200+ post thread to dig out the nuggets of information. In closing, I hope someone from Groundspeak is reading this and can take action.

Another option is this google mymap: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&m...p;z=13&om=1 You can turn it into a GPX file using http://www.takitwithme.com/

I've started a wiki page that documents the various methods for how to generate your own mobipocket ebook. Feel free to contribute as the initial page I created is very rudimentary. http://cacheopedia.com/wiki/Mobipocket

@Hexy, in the past two pages of this thread there are a bunch of methods listed that describe how you can generate a mobi ebook like before. I'll summarize them below (see the individual posts for detailed instructions): 1. If you are a GSAK user, there is a great macro that will turn your GSAK database into a mobi ebook in one click 2. You can use a tool called GPX2HTML to turn your gpx PQ file into a set of HTML files; these can then be turned into an ebook using either Mobicreator or Mobigen; both available from the Mobipocket site 3. Use gpsbabel to turn your gpx QA file into a single HTML file; you can drag this html file into Mobipocket reader and transfer it to your device (it will get converted into an ebook automagically in the background) Note to Groundspeak: Can we put these instructions somewhere on the geocaching website or in a wiki somewhere? I think this would help people rather than forcing them to dig through this thread for instructions.

Excellent point! But I am very doubtful we'll ever get TPTB to relent on this.

I was thinking about this; in fact, this could really be a one step process. 1. Use gpsbabel (or perhaps an XSLT as others are in the process of developing) to convert the gpx file to a single HTML file Now simply drag the HTML file into Mobipocket Reader; it will load the single HTML file and allow you to send it to your handheld (e.g, in my case, my blackberry) as an ebook. No need for mobigen or any other conversion process. So in fact, if Groundspeak was willing and able to send an HTML file along with the GPX file in your PQ, there would be no reason for anyone to complain any more (Please understand I'm not implying that the one step above is too hard or too much work to run on one's local PC; I'm simply pointing out that we are at a point where it seems there is a solution whereby Groundspeak could provide essentially the same functionality as they used to)

Per Elias's note, I think I've come up with the simplest method yet to generate mobi ebooks from GPX files: 1. Use gpsbabel; use the gpx file as the source and use HTML as the output format 2. Use mobigen to convert the single HTML file into .mobi ebook format I could probably combine these into a two line .bat file if I wanted to automate the process Granted, the HTML isn't as pretty as the HTML generated by GSAK or some of the other tools, but this method has the advantage of putting all the data in a single HTML file, which makes the mobigen post-processing much simpler (and faster!) That being said, I'll have to take Elias at his word that it "would take a significant amount of work" to use this as a method to replace the no-longer-functioning SDK. But I will point out that we are the paying subscribers to this site and I guess we expect that Groundspeak will put in the "lots of work" required to replace the lost functionality. :/

Elias, You mentioned mobigen (a command line tool for creating ebooks) in your post. Could you comment on if it would be possible for you to use this as part of your batch processes to generate & email ebooks similar to how they were done in the past? While it may be a different API, it seems like it would be straightforward to turn GPX files into ebooks at the source and include them with the PQ email. Thanks!

Changing network.http.max-connections-per-server alone didn't stop the throttling; however changing network.http.max-connections to 4 does indeed stop it. <soapbox> I think it's pretty silly that the default firefox settings work fine on the other 99.999% of internet sites but on geocaching.com, where I am a paying ('premium') customer, I need to throttle back firefox. </soapbox>