wildlifewriter

Er...yessss... Incidentally... just found out today that the published co-ordinates for the OSGB's own GPS reference stations might have been wrong! (Gasps of consternation all round, shock, horror, entire foundation of civilization crumbling.. etc.etc.) Well, not really. It turns out that the "error" was +/- 11 millimetres, as explained HERE You gotta give them points for trying.

There's an interesting set of routines HERE in C+ with VB hooks, which gives an idea of what's involved. I don't know how accurate this would be but, looking at the code, Nick is using a generalised Helmert transformation based on this document - so it should be good for 15 feet or so...

Me neither, and I don't think such a program (for PalmOS) exists. Which is a pity, because Cachemate - by means of a plugin - does provide a format conversion, but only to UTM. A similar facililty for GB grid is unlikely to appear, mostly because as discussed in this slightly silly thread doing the thing with sufficient accuracy is non-trivial, mathematically. Incidentally: I discovered by accident that Cachemate is now at ver 4.0.2 (since 10/10/04) whereas I was still using the 'old' 3.5. Mentioned here in case others aren't aware that a new (and much improved) version is available.

Dealing only with your first example - the key seems to lie in the specific wording. (Us writers worry about such things, having little better to do.) The rating guidance system refers to special equipment being "required" to reach the cache. Not useful, or helpful but simply: required. It doesn't seem to me that this leaves room for equipment which is optional. There are a number of mountain caches near home which I cannot reach - being too old, tired, sick and lazy to do so. I could log them by using 'useful and helpful' special equipment (a helicopter), but this shouldn't affect the cache difficulty rating.

Try to be as convincing as possible, while explaining that you took part in an armed bank robbery that morning. After a running gun battle with the police, you escaped by hiding in a nearby wood and took three schoolchildren hostage. Mention that you only got to work on time by hijacking a passing car, ramming through a roadblock and running two red lights. Don't tell him you're a geocacher or you'll get the sack.

Another uncharted reef on my lifelong voyage of discovery. I wonder if the RNLI do home visits...

Aaaaye - c'wan the growks an bleekin th'noo , fer feckle mowlin greastie. Ah weel dane. (No, I don't know what it all means, either...)

I think there's a slight error in Mark & Joans' e-mail addy, as given above. joan@lancashireheeler.info seems to work ok.

The words "put me down for a tenner" would have had the same effect. (Bump).

There's no point in asking anyone here to help. Most of us have got it even worse than you.

The introduction of a full EGNOS service might not make as much difference (to geocaching) as you might think. There are two main reasons for this: 1) Many caches - more than 2/3 of the ones I've found, anyway - are in areas where a handheld GPSr doesn't get a full, down-to-the-horizon view of the sky. Because of the way EGNOS is configured... [ 45 lines of technical stuff about equatorial orbits, mask angles, etc, deleted.] ... the differential correction might not be available anyway. This factor becomes more significant as you move N and W in the British Isles. 2) The delivery schedule for EGNOS continues to slip, so it's likely that older geocachers (like myself) will be dead before it ever goes 'live'. Possibly. Have you tried decoding the hint...?

I could use a geocoin for an event cache that's coming up over here. £25.00 bid, or donate if unsuccessful. (e-mail sent)

Time was, I left golf balls as a kind of "signature item". (They were brand new ones, d'ye see, and therefore worth a couple of quid, each.) Then, as I found more caches, some already had a golf ball in them. "Aha!" I thought, "This golf-ball trail is a well-ploughed furrow." (To say nothing of being a mixed metaphor.) So instead, I've taken to leaving sachets of insect repellent wipes in caches. Which no-one else seems to do AND would make a good cryptic crossword clue as well. (?) While the midgie season was at its height, I received a couple of e-mails indicating that human lives had been saved (allegedly) by finding the same insect repellent. Which now only leaves the problem: what to do with all the golf balls left over?

I read KbootB's article a couple of days ago - and a dam' fine piece of work it is, too. Well written, lucid, informative, and interesting - and just consider how much work must have gone into the underlying analysis. This is a significant contribution to our understanding of how the hobby is developing. As such, perhaps Geocaching Today should give it extra exposure, and some prominence on the site. Good job, KbootB!

(Edited for misunderstanding)

An Australian geocaching forum? I'm not even going to bother asking for a login account. It might be more than my delicate nerves can take...

I use the same ones, and I think they're still "regular". Anything around 1+ litre - or which can hold a standard log book - should be in that category... * If it needs two people to carry it, it's too big. * If you can put it in the car boot, it's "Large". * If you can put it a small rucksack, it's "Regular". * If you can put it in a coat pocket, it's "Small" * If the dog can eat it without chewing, it's "Micro". * If you can put it up your nose, it's too small. (edited for too many <CR/LF> at the end)

I still don't see why all of this would make you want to shoot yourself.

All of this presupposes that the recent stability problems at gc.com derive from a shortage of finance, or lack of spending on IT infrastructure. Yet J.I. is on record (elsewhere in these forums) as saying that this is not the case. Which is remarkable, when you think about it: if gc.com needed money, they could easily raise it by a funds appeal to the wider membership - and yet this hasn't happened. Anyone who has held a senior position in the IT industry (as I have) knows that throwing cash at a problem does not always (or even usually) fix it. And anyone who expects 24/7, 100% reliability from a website, doesn't know anything about IT at all...

I have a question about that: Is it possible to order a duplicate TB tag, or do you just use the spare one? (Edited to remove all pirate vernacular - I can't stop doing it, now..)

Incidentally - there's a whole bookful of this Sabbatini-esque nonsense in "Pyrates" by the incomparable George Macdonald Fraser. (Harper Collins pb £8.99 or less. ISBN0006470173) - which was the inspiration for the piece above.

It's possible that other documents about geocaching in antiquity are waiting to be revealed. There's one here, in Latin, that I haven't quite finished translating...

Log of the pirate vessel "Twigger's Revenge", 7th June 1730. "Raised the coast i'the forenoon, rounded to in Seasider's Bay and cast anchor - shoal water below the keelson, Ambu's Light bearing NW by W half a league - and took the ship's boats to the shore. Ordered a search right speedily, but the crew were mutinous (it being a Thursday) and they examined only three rocks and a small cormorant. 'There be no cache here', saith the first Mate. 'Avast there, and dadgum yer eyes!' quoth I, and pistolled him on the spot. How we laughed. T'was then the lookout reported that a man-o'war had appeared in the offing, unnoticed - right soon she proved to be the "Eckington", a naval frigate speedy and well-manned. Pistolled the lookout for negligence, and straightway pulled back to the old "Revenge", avasting and belaying as we went. The King's ship bore away to fire a warning shot, and there lay his mistake, for we bryced up the trunnions and wore round the headland wi' the wind a point free and two reefs in the spanker boom. Gave the enemy a ball from our stern-chaser, hitting him in the futtocks, and so made our escape..." Historians are still debating the significance of this new document. It is thought that, around that time, the ship was commanded by a psychopathic Irish renegade named Luke O'Zade. Nicknamed "Fizzy Luco" on account of his unruly mop of orange hair, O'Zade was a known associate of Newkie Brown, an indigent Tyneside brothel-keeper. During 1729, Brown was one of those involved in the notorious "Spanish Sombrero" incident: his sister Belinda who p (That's enough history - Admin)

I assume this is on a US site? Deduced from the available sizes, which are: S, M, L, xL, 2xL, 3xL, 4xL...

That's enough geocaching folk song analysis. Next week: Cachein' Gangsta Rap ...