tgsnoopy

Nick, I hope you bought your digital cameras memory card from design design on TradeMe, I just received another 64M SM Card & a USB SM Card Reader I ordered on Monday from him, excellent service and at the best price I could find too. LOL, I'm plugging someone again I'm pleased to hear of the successful GPS12 purchase as well If we all let each other know of these good deals and save some money it's all good.

Nick, I hope you bought your digital cameras memory card from design design on TradeMe, I just received another 64M SM Card & a USB SM Card Reader I ordered on Monday from him, excellent service and at the best price I could find too. LOL, I'm plugging someone again I'm pleased to hear of the successful GPS12 purchase as well If we all let each other know of these good deals and save some money it's all good.

Hi Everyone, thos of you who might be interested, Just spotted a second hand eTrex for sale on TradeMe, starting bid of $150.00 Could be a cheap GPS for someone. Check the link: http://www.trademe.co.nz/structure/auction_detail.asp?id=1694277

Hi Everyone, Approaching fast is the Clean up New Zealand week. It would be good if we as geocachers could be seen to be actively involved in this. Anyone got any ideas how we might manipulate this event to our advantage? Maybe we could get some media coverage even? It's Sept 16th till 23rd apparently.

Hi Everyone, Approaching fast is the Clean up New Zealand week. It would be good if we as geocachers could be seen to be actively involved in this. Anyone got any ideas how we might manipulate this event to our advantage? Maybe we could get some media coverage even? It's Sept 16th till 23rd apparently.

Well thanks to Mamakuman sending me the tracking number Merv the Mamakuman travel bug is now logged correctly. Putting him into a cache proved a bit more difficult than I expected, only cause I didn't know how. I actually had to read instructions to work out how to do it, of course once you know it's so simple its not funny. Live and learn. I suppose I should really have taken a couple of minutes to read the instructions first. I guess I'm just a Typical Kiwi Male, us TKM's love to try and do it on our own without reading the instructions and only read them as a last resort

Well thanks to Mamakuman sending me the tracking number Merv the Mamakuman travel bug is now logged correctly. Putting him into a cache proved a bit more difficult than I expected, only cause I didn't know how. I actually had to read instructions to work out how to do it, of course once you know it's so simple its not funny. Live and learn. I suppose I should really have taken a couple of minutes to read the instructions first. I guess I'm just a Typical Kiwi Male, us TKM's love to try and do it on our own without reading the instructions and only read them as a last resort

well I had my first encounter with a Travel Bug yesterday. I picked up Merv the Mamakuman from Bowentown Bounty and placed him in the new Kiwi Xmas Tree cache. Trouble was, as it was my first encounter, I didn't relaise you need to record his tracking number to log his travels Oops. Hopefully I'll have this resolved in the next few days, I'm hoping to go back down that way on Wednesday, and have also e-mailed Mamakuman himself to ask politely for the number. I just thought I'd mention it in here to save other geocachers the potential embarrasment upon their first encounter with a travel bug if doing a same day movement like I just did .

well I had my first encounter with a Travel Bug yesterday. I picked up Merv the Mamakuman from Bowentown Bounty and placed him in the new Kiwi Xmas Tree cache. Trouble was, as it was my first encounter, I didn't relaise you need to record his tracking number to log his travels Oops. Hopefully I'll have this resolved in the next few days, I'm hoping to go back down that way on Wednesday, and have also e-mailed Mamakuman himself to ask politely for the number. I just thought I'd mention it in here to save other geocachers the potential embarrasment upon their first encounter with a travel bug if doing a same day movement like I just did .

More good news, the GPS12 is a fine performer. This weekend I've nailed easily 3 caches which have given me GPS related woes in the past

More good news, the GPS12 is a fine performer. This weekend I've nailed easily 3 caches which have given me GPS related woes in the past

Yes, the photo was taken yesterday morning. The actual article included the reference to geocaching.com I'll e-mail Tracey (actually a guy!) and ask if a link can be included on the online article, thanks for pointing that out

Yes, the photo was taken yesterday morning. The actual article included the reference to geocaching.com I'll e-mail Tracey (actually a guy!) and ask if a link can be included on the online article, thanks for pointing that out

Ok, I ended up in the deep end. Those of you who get or can get the Waikato times might like to check out the article on page 4 today. For everyone else you can check out the online version at http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/waikatotimes/0,2106,2013169a6579,00.html Forgive the red face and strained look on my face, I was lying facing downhill with hy head lifted as high as possible for that shoot. It's surprising how long it can take to get one of those photo's. The cache is surprisingly clear considering it is in a small cavern almost, and was a reasonable distance away, hence it appears small. All in all I'm not complaining, good publicity in my opinion. L8rz

Ok, I ended up in the deep end. Those of you who get or can get the Waikato times might like to check out the article on page 4 today. For everyone else you can check out the online version at http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/waikatotimes/0,2106,2013169a6579,00.html Forgive the red face and strained look on my face, I was lying facing downhill with hy head lifted as high as possible for that shoot. It's surprising how long it can take to get one of those photo's. The cache is surprisingly clear considering it is in a small cavern almost, and was a reasonable distance away, hence it appears small. All in all I'm not complaining, good publicity in my opinion. L8rz

For North Island Geocachers, view the gear available courtesy of the link kindly provided by Nick in the nessage above. If you would like anything please e-mail me at tgsnoopy at xtra dot co dot nz. Thanks

For North Island Geocachers, view the gear available courtesy of the link kindly provided by Nick in the nessage above. If you would like anything please e-mail me at tgsnoopy at xtra dot co dot nz. Thanks

You won an eTrex eh! Lucky boy! Well one thing, I wouldn't get rid of your eTrex, it will be useful for loaning to people getting into geocaching, or simply for checking there is coverage when placing caches. I know that if my eTrex found a signal, that people after me would be able to get one too. I suppose I should practice what I preach, but I'm short of coin personally (mind you I'd rather be me than you financially at the moment), I'll be able to borrow back the eTrex from my neighbour when placing caches anyway. Next purchase will be a half decent digital camera, but I'm still researching that, and wow, there are a lot of options.

Ok, I have my GPS12 now, and tried it out for the first time today. On a track where the eTrex couldn't keep any form of fix, and only occasionally could receive one satellite, the GPS12 held a minimum of three satellites. It gave me accurate poistion information all the way! Once at the cache I was unable to find last time (130m deviation from the implied track), I put the GPS12 and eTrex down, side by side on the tree stump and left them running there for ten minutes, the GPS12 had five satellites locked & an accurate 3D fix, the eTrex had none! No signal whatsoever! Well, that was the proof I needed. Bye Bye eTrex, my neighbour was keen to buy it for $250, If he still is, it's his! To anyone considering buying their first GPS, don't bother with an eTrex, get a GPS12, it's worth every extra cent.

Ok, I have my GPS12 now, and tried it out for the first time today. On a track where the eTrex couldn't keep any form of fix, and only occasionally could receive one satellite, the GPS12 held a minimum of three satellites. It gave me accurate poistion information all the way! Once at the cache I was unable to find last time (130m deviation from the implied track), I put the GPS12 and eTrex down, side by side on the tree stump and left them running there for ten minutes, the GPS12 had five satellites locked & an accurate 3D fix, the eTrex had none! No signal whatsoever! Well, that was the proof I needed. Bye Bye eTrex, my neighbour was keen to buy it for $250, If he still is, it's his! To anyone considering buying their first GPS, don't bother with an eTrex, get a GPS12, it's worth every extra cent.

Thhank you everyone for your feedback. I've decided to buy a GPS12, I have access to a second hand unit at a very reasonable price, so I should have it in my hot little hands by the end of the month. You are right of course, the 10m shouldn't be an issue

Thhank you everyone for your feedback. I've decided to buy a GPS12, I have access to a second hand unit at a very reasonable price, so I should have it in my hot little hands by the end of the month. You are right of course, the 10m shouldn't be an issue

Ok, users of Garmin GPS12's I want feedback please. I'm considering buying one of these. However I understand in Goto Waypoint mode, it's readout is in kilometres, subsequently the resolution is in 10m steps. Have any of you GPS12 users found this a problem? Hopefully I'll get my hand on one to try it out for myself soon, but I don't want to just rely on a breif try, I'd like feedback please (Besides that, it's been too quiet in here lately, no new caches showing on the website, I'd better go put one in this weekend).

I thought everone should know that Hotmail leaks personal information, read it and act as neccessary. For those of you with hotmail, I suggest you read this then go and change the settings on your hotmail account. I had to change mine. Microsoft Releases Your Personal Hotmail Info If you have a Hotmail account - or if you've used Microsoft Passport - for more than a month, there's something you need to check. Or, more accurately, uncheck. Quickly. A small publication known as The Eastside Journal, based in Bellevue, Washington http://www.eastsidejournal.com/sited/story/html/92308, reports that Microsoft has taken, uh, liberties with your confidential information. A bit of history. Microsoft bought Hotmail in January 1998. It's still the number-one location for free email: log on to www.hotmail.com and you can send and receive email messages at no charge. Almost 120,000,000 people use the system, worldwide. A couple of years ago, Microsoft hooked up Hotmail to its Passport system. Variously known as Microsoft Passport, Windows Passport, MSN Passport, and/or .NET Passport, all of the names refer to Microsoft's giant central database of customer information. If you want to use Hotmail, you have to sign up for a Passport - and in so doing you're added to the Passport database. Microsoft Messenger requires a Passport, too. Windows XP nags mercilessly, offering all sorts of goodies to get you to divulge your name, address, age, phone number, and the like, as grist for the Passport maw. If you signed up for Hotmail - or anything else that uses Passport - more than a couple of months ago, you may be in for a big surprise. It seems that Microsoft changed the rules while you weren't looking. Unilaterally, Microsoft may have granted itself permission to pass along your personal information to other companies that use Passport on their Web sites. The personal information includes your email address, your birthday, your country and zip code, your gender and occupation. Has Microsoft taken liberties with your data? There's an easy way to check. Go into Hotmail. Click Options (to the right of the tab that says "Address Book"). Click Personal Profile (in the upper left corner). Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and see whether the boxes marked "Share my e-mail address" and "Share my other registration information" have been checked. Those boxes didn't exist when I signed up for Hotmail, and chances are pretty good they didn't exist when you signed up for it, either. I certainly never gave Microsoft permission to hand out my email address - or my birthday, gender or occupation. I'd rather be dipped in oil. Yet both of those boxes on my personal profile were checked. I bet they're checked on your personal profile, too. Details are still murky, but it looks like Microsoft added those two check boxes a couple of months ago, and did itself a big favor by checking both of them for all of the Passport holders at the time. When did Microsoft implement this new policy? Hard to say. Details should be in the MS privacy statement, but I couldn't find anything. If you'd like to wade through Microsoft's privacy statement http://privacy.msn.com/default.asp#MSNMAIL strap on your hip waders - it's 520 lines of dense legalese. The last two lines of the statement say: Updated December 2001 © 2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Go figure.

I just thought it might be prudent to put a quick note in here about tree cover. Some of us have GPS units that are less sensitive than others, I think my little yellow eTrex must be the worst case around, every time I've compared it to someone elses GPS it's performance has left a lot to be desired, But I'm digressing. When taking a GPS reading in an area where the signal from the satellites is obstructed (usually by trees), please take into consideration that the signal you are reading your location off may not be there when someone hunting your cache is there. Signals getting through gaps in floiage cover will come and go as the satellites change position moving through their orbit. It is a good idea to provide good decriptive clues for cache hunters to cater for this eventuality. Some of us are just plain old stubborn and will persist anyway, others won't. Don't be put off a good hiding place because of this, just take it into consideration. I must remember to get a decent GPS one of these days, along with a digital camera. Of course it goes without saying you should consider the safety aspect of where you are hiding your cache as well, remember, the cache planter must accept responsibilty for his cache, have fun everyone