wildlifewriter

I believe that there is a reasonable explanation for this, but at present I'm still trying verify it. The explanation (if correct) will be disappointingly technical and boring...

Ignore this advice. The conversion method used in [almost all] handheld GPS units is not precise enough for the shortcut described above to work reliably in the UK. Depending on where you are in the country, the resulting error could be nine metres, or even a bit more. dd-mm.mmm and WGS84 - that is all the Law and the Prophets..

Well, you won't have to do much swapping. If you are working from GPS-to-map, then use the appropriate setting to match the map. Then swap over when approaching the cache area. If using a Garmin unit, then changing the position format to the geocaching standard (Deg,mm.mmm) will alter the datum setting, automagically.

Strictly speaking, it's not "US WGS84", it's just "WGS84" which is a global system. Yes. If you are foolhardy enough to go hillwalking in fog or low cloud, this is certainly a possibility. You cannot rely on your GPS to prevent such a thing happening, no matter what it is set to. Hth,

I think you'll find that 'approving of caches' was very much the original issue. However, we will probably have to wait until Peter writes his autobiography (Vol II - The Lactodorum Years) to find out exactly what happened. The question about whether a good approver necessarily makes a good moderator (or vice versa) is a good one, though...

<reads article>... Is it true that there are only ten active cachers in France? I am amazed.

That's quite enough. Closed.

I've met your wife - and why she keeps following YOU home, I can't imagine...

That's what I read too, between the lines. Or... it could have been the kind of "support" that soccer managers get from their Chairman, just before The Press Conference. Not that ANY of this makes the slightest difference. Why would anyone - involved in an onerous and time-consuming (and unpaid) job - put up with personal hassle and dissing, no matter what the origin? I wouldn't...

It was your flamin' cache where I lost the eTrex.

Eventually. Having got them, I made sure that I had EVERYTHING accounted for and packed in my daysack, before driving away. Then (ten minutes later) I drove back again - to pick up the daysack.

(My italics) What on Earth is this remark supposed to mean? No... forget it. This is neither the time nor the place...

Oh Dear. I was afraid this might happen. We don't know what the "comments" from other reviewers were, and we don't want to. Some public comments from the weak-minded few which appeared here, were bad enough to make such a decision understandable. My personal thanks to Peter and Dave for their help and encouragement since I took up the hobby, and for their excellent work while doing this difficult job for all of us.

Here in Norn Iron, it's said that you can often find a cache which Wildlifewriter has visited by following the trail of discarded equipment. It's true - I do tend to lose things while out and about: boots, cameras, tools, gloves, hats (any number of hats), compasses and an eTrex Legend (!) have all been abandoned or mislaid during some expedition or other. My hiking and geocaching stuff never wears out – it just gets replaced at regular intervals. This is a problem. GPS receivers are now specifically excluded from my insurance policies. Staff at Millets start recalculating their sales bonuses as soon as I enter the shop. So it was no surprise, the other day, when I returned from a maintenance visit to one of my own caches; only to find that a belt pouch containing torch, SAK and most of my rechargeable batteries, had gone. These are expensive items, (I've still got the receipts) so I thought: “Aha! - there'll be a track log in my (recently replaced) GPS. I can go back over the same ground and find the things...” This weekend, the weather changed from horizontal rain to a steady drizzle - which is as good as it gets in Ireland, in January - so I pulled on (brand new) boots and headed for the site. It's a pleasant enough walk along the river to this cache. Birds were singing in a half-hearted fashion and, on the bank, I saw a Moorhen jumping up and down in the undergrowth. Loony behaviour by Moorhens is not unusual and I thought nothing of it. Walking down an existing GPS track isn't as easy as it sounds., and a good idea is to look up from the screen from time to time, in case a tree has moved since you were last there. Fortunately, it wasn't a big tree and I sort of bounced off it. As it turned out, this collision was a stroke of luck because the missing item was only a few feet from where I fell over. On the way back along the riverbank, I noticed that the Moorhen was still there, and still acting the fool. On closer inspection, it was clear that the unfortunate creature was tangled up in some discarded fishing line so, ignoring the provisions of the Wildlife & Countryside Act (1981), I grabbed it and cut it free with my SAK. The bird showed its appreciation of this kindly act by treating me to a painful peck on the thumb and a string of vile Moorhen oaths, before pitching into the water and swimming away. Still and all, I arrived back at the car park feeling reasonably chuffed at, for once, having managed to recover some lost property. At which point I discovered that my car keys were missing...

The version of Fugawi you (and I) have has hundreds of bugs in it, but this isn't one of them. We can only assume that some other app install has overwritten or otherwise messed about with SysZLib. This library is widely used, as it handles file de-compression and stuff. Anyway, glad it's working now, Bill - take the rest of the day off...

I told you it was going to be a long night... There are no settings to change. Try this again, and make sure that: (1) It is not trying to install Fugawi Palm onto the memory card. It MUST run from main memory. (2) The following files are listed to be installed (at least): SysZLib.prc Mathlib.prc FugPalm.prc

OK. So (1) is the problem - it's not even trying to send the maps from PC to Palm. Things to check... On Fugawi on the PC, in "Settings" > "Palm" tab - check that the method is "Synchronize" AND ALSO that the Palm username is correct. If this looks correct, then select another map for export, and before doing a hotsync look in the following folder on your PC... C:\Program Files\Common Files\Fugawi\Palm ... where you should see (on an WinXP machine) the file ready for sending. (And possibly, others.) The map file names have a ".FFB" extension. If everything so far is correct, then the problem lies with the PDA, and it's gonna be a long night... (Edited to get the PC path correct)

Some questions... 1) When doing a hotsync after exporting, do you see the "countdown" happening as data blocks are sent to the Palm? 2) How much FREE system memory (not card memory) is available on the Palm? 3) How big a file are you trying to send? (FORMS > PDALibrary, col2)

I know why the thread was locked. You know why the thread was locked. All God's chillun know why the thread was locked. The REAL question is: why did you start it in the first place?

It's probably a waste of time to point out that this kind of stupidity only serves to bring UK geocaching further into disrepute. ... if that is possible, which I begin to doubt.

Congratulations to Simply Paul on a new record number of similies, metaphors and sundry tropes in a single forum post. Thirteen to beat. Can it be done...?

No it doesn't. The nature and conditions of this forum are defined here: (Forum Guidelines) - a set of conditions which you accepted when signing up for a user account, and which are linked to at the top of every page. These make it quite clear that the discussions are moderated, and why. If you don't like it, you don't have to use it.

Bad news here, Ecks - there isn't anything in Magna Carta about 'free speech' as such. There IS a lot of stuff about maintaining your fishponds in good order, so perhaps that's where the problem lies...

And I ain't the only one: Given that he, in the space of only 12 hours... 1) Climbed Slieve Donard in an 80m.p.h. blizzard, followed by 2) an attempt to out-drive 'Wildlifewriter' on wet tarmac, and 3) then proceeded to lecture Mrs. 'Wuthered' (of all people) on English etymology, ...it's hard to avoid the conclusion that 'Klaus23' is a young man who cares nothing for his own safety. The last one was particularly dangerous and foolhardy, and he only just got away with it. (She's been known to devour students in similar circumstances, leaving only the bleached bones.)

Better late than never... Well done to FOF