digitalformula

More than 3 years later and the map still doesn't have a key that explains this - I had to find this post to get the answer to this question. Thanks noncentric.

Thanks for the info but a Windows-only application is no use to me (I don't run Windows anywhere or on any device). I appreciate the response, though.

Yes, that's the waiting list I was talking about. GSAK is Windows only, right?. Is there a private/shared interface that they make available to other people that need the Geocaching API?

Hi all, I've been Geocaching for a while. Not as long as some - only about 11 years - and my finds aren't that many - about 1000 - but long enough to know a thing or two about it, I suppose. Anyway, way back in July 2012 I requested permission to use and process/analyse the downloadable PQ files generated by My Finds PQs. I was granted this permission. The app that made use of this permission was pretty much finished and I was periodically reaching out to Groundspeak to get updates on various things but the responses completely dried up. Around that time I also asked for access to the API, a program that I know was closed to new applications a very long time ago (2014? 2015? ages, anyway). Nothing has changed on that front - the page that allows us to apply still says no new applications are being accepted but that we can apply for the waiting list. What waiting list? Does it even exist? Sorry for the cynicism but a waiting list that lasts for this long suggests it's not really being watched, at all. Are there any plans to allow new developers access to the program? I see a lot of posts about problems with a new API, JSON API, migration to a new API that cuts over on May 1, June 1 etc. I know this is a forum and not "officially" Groundspeak, but should I just give up hope of ever being allowed access to the API? The lack of response from Groundspeak and the lack of info for members that really want to write new apps is very disappointing. Apologies for being negative but I also found a bug in the way My Finds PQs were generated - a bug that was acknowledged as being a known issue. That bug still exists today so I'm not sure what attention is being paid to the quality of developer-related stuff.

1 hour difference - yep, the DST thing seems to be the case. All the 19:00:00 timestamps seem to be for dates outside of DST. I actually do think the arbitrary/generalised times are for field notes/drafts as that's how I upload and log the vast majority of my finds, via Garmin "geocache_vists.txt". I need to test this a bit further but I think that's probably the difference. That said, I'm also fairly certain I've logged more than 8 finds from my phone in 9 years. I can't be certain until I test but it seems logical that this is the difference. Later tonight, when I get home, I'll fake log a couple of caches from phone, GPS device and website. I'm pretty I'll find something consistently different (hehe) by testing that. By the way, Groundspeak responded to my query about this and said they're already aware of some issues with PQs and that the information I provided (same as above) will help them. Nice of them to respond but it's also nice to know *they* know the PQs aren't perfect. For unfound PQs the data seems spot on, just not for My Finds PQs.

Firstly, you're right. The PQs contain timestamps showing as GMT (same at UTC, although UTC isn't a timezone, technically speaking). As for converting from GMT to my timezone - nope, that doesn't fix it. In fact, that shifts almost all dates out by a day. But, since writing this question I've found some other interesting things. For example, the time associated with a geocaching log seems arbitrary. I did some testing earlier and logged a cache as found as 21:15. A PQ generated shortly after showed the cache as logged at 20:00:00 (down to the second). I did another test shortly before that, logging the cache at 20:30. The PQ still showed the cache as logged at 20:00. Other logs are showing caches logged at 19:00:00 (also down to the second). Other caches are showing caches as logged at times like 08:41:25. In fact, the vast majority of logs in my latest 'My Finds' PQ show as logged at either 19:00 or 20:00 - 885 of them, to be precise. That's out of my 893 finds. That's also far more than I've actually found at those times so clearly isn't accurate. E.g. I logged 2 caches as part of a 100-cache series. They both show as found at the same time on the same day. So yeah, those times in the PQ clearly aren't accurate. The other weird thing is that I've put my finds per day and the Geocaching.com finds per day data into a spreadsheet for comparison. Nearly every day throughout the year is showing the same on both, although a collection of seemingly random dates are out by 1. Never more than 1. E.g. March 10th shows as having 1 find in my data, but Geocaching.com shows me as having no finds on that day. Geocaching.com shows a single find on March 9th, though. If nearly every day through the year was incorrect, I'd expect some sort of calculation or date-shifting issue, like an incorrect timezone, but there's no pattern that I can see re the dates that are different.

Hi all, Edit: Question, first. Are the dates with finds on Geocaching.com showing in my local timezone? In the PQ I can see they're GMT but I'm in AEST. Could that be the issue below? I'm working on an app right now and have some inconsistencies between the data I'm getting from the My Finds PQ and what is shown on my statistics page. For example: - Geocaching.com shows I've found 8 caches on Jan 1st, while the data in the PQ and the data from my app both say I've only found 4 caches on Jan 1st - Geocaching.com shows I've found 4 caches on Jan 2nd while the data in the PQ and the data from my app both say I've found 8 caches on Jan 2nd If you compare those two things, you'll see that Jan 1st and Jan 2nd are reversed. I'm pretty sure my code is correct as it is showing exactly the same data coming out of the PQ, which I have manually checked on multiple occasions. Can anyone verify this or has anyone else seen it? I don't want to spend hours trying to figure what's wrong with my app's code if I don't need to. Thanks

Tried that already - no luck, though. /

Also, here are some screen shots of the geocaching.com pages I'm talking about (just so there's no confusion about what I mean). This image is the page that shows when I last submitted the My Finds PQ: This image is the page that shows the PQ files I currently have available for download. As you can see, there's no My Finds PQ available there:

Yup, that's what I thought. Confirms that there's something wrong with the site or my account, then. It only last for a few days and then in automatically deleted. Did you wait to long? Nope. I ran it yesterday a few minutes before I posted the original message but the download link never became available on the PQ page.

Yup, that's what I thought. Confirms that there's something wrong with the site or my account, then.

Yeah I know the file isn't emailed - I've been running it for 2 years now. What I meant was that on the PQ ready for download page there's no My Finds PQ available, despite getting an email saying the file is ready for download. The only file there is a single PQ that I created manually some time ago.

Hi all, Is anyone else having trouble with their 'My Finds' PQ lately? Last time I ran the PQ I got the email saying the file was ready to download - no problem there. The results weren't available, though, so I guessed maybe I'd deleted the results by accident as I'd been doing some results cleanup. Today, however, I submitted the 'My Finds' PQ again, got the email as usual, but still there's no file available for download. In other words, on the PQ page, there's a single file available for download and it's the results of another PQ I ran recently. This is the second time this has happened and I'm now sure it's not something I've done wrong as I definitely haven't deleted the results. Anyone else seeing this? Thanks

Pitiful disrespect. ALL the old log from my caches are respectfully deposited in an AMMO CAN! Have you hidden the ammo can as a cache? If not, that's a great idea haha. I'm going to do that and call it ... ummm ... *thinks* ... "The Cache of Memories". :-P

Hmmm there are a ton of varied and interesting responses, that's for sure. Thanks to everyone that responded. By the way, I can see the apparent attraction in keeping log *books* if they have some cool stories in them but this particular example is a micro cache and literally only has a log *sheet* about 20mm wide and 200mm long.

I'm finding the hiding of caches more fun than finding them, in a lot of ways. It's a different kind of satisfaction, especially when you successfully hide one that's relatively difficult.

Lol, that's definitely one option! I thought I might just scan it and add it as an attachment to the cache as a sort of 'momento', if that makes any sense. :-)

My first cache (GC2MX8V) has finally had the first log sheet filled and I had to replace it tonight. Out of interest, what do all you cache owners do with your logsheets once they're full? I know they're just a piece of paper in most cases but with such a massive following, I figured that maybe some geocachers "collect" them or something, maybe? What do you think?

Hi Andy, Wow, great response! Thanks a lot for the info and for including some photos - it's a surprisingly good camera judging by those examples. Scary spider, though ... heh. If the only real difference is the camera then I'm not worried at all. My main concern was older hardware (CPU etc, as mentioned) but it doesn't sound like that's the case. Having a camera handy would be cool for multis - up until now I've just been using my iPhone but that's been a pain as I bike while geocaching and the iPhone screen doesn't respond while gloves are worn. Thanks again for taking the time to respond, it helped heaps. Cheers, Chris

Hi all, I've read all the literature on the Garmin Oregon 550 vs the Garmin 450 (and 450t) and the only documented difference appears to be the camera. However, I know the 550 is an 'older' model and that Garmin are currently going through a run-out process as it's been discontinued. I have an Oregon 450t which I bought after deciding to upgrade from the Oregon 300 but unfortunately my 450t has had so many problems that Garmin replaced it with a refurbished unit ... that broke, too (worse than my original one did - basically didn't work at all). This is really disappointing as it's my fifth Garmin unit and all the others have been great. Still with me? Currently the refurbished one is with Garmin but there seems to be a possibility that I can 'upgrade' to the 550 and the local store will throw in the V3 maps that come on the 450t so that I don't lose any functionality. What I really want to know, though, is are there any technical differences between the 550 and 450t that I might not have access to read on the public Garmin website? Surely an older model has a slower processor, slower memory or something like that? I believe the Oregon 300 was USB 1.1 whereas the 450 and 550 are USB 2.0 - that's the sort of difference I'm interested in. If you know the answer to this question and can explain why I either do or don't want to get an Oregon 550 instead of another 450t, I'll worship you forever (in the digital world, from afar ... lol). For what it's worth, the addition of a camera to my GPS unit seems like more of a hassle than benefit since it's just something else to be aware of and be careful of. Thanks everyone! - digitalformula/Chris

Ahh now that's more like what I was looking for. That confirms that I can manually insert the XML data at the end of the My Finds PQ (which I haven't tried as the app isn't that far along, yet). Thanks Andronicus. Note that the "my finds" PQ GPX file isn't just a list of caches, it also includes your "found it" logs (and any other logs you may have posted on each cache). MGP.com uses this information to determine the "unique found caches" vs. "total cache finds". In other words, if you're missing your "found it" logs, you may get unexpected results. Hmmm good tip - thanks dfx.

Problem is once you reach a certain load no matter how many resources you throw at it it will not scale any larger due to limitations of the underlying database technology, I read they are working on changing the underlying architecture of the site to allow future growth. Interesting - I wonder what the underlying database technology is? Scaling shouldn't be an issue if the DB engine is an enterprise-scale one, especially since there are plenty of websites that require many 1000x the power of Geocaching.com and they're all handling the throughput OK ... budget and data centre limitations aside, of course. Anyway, I'm getting a bit off topic now. Thanks for your input!

Ahh now that's more like what I was looking for. That confirms that I can manually insert the XML data at the end of the My Finds PQ (which I haven't tried as the app isn't that far along, yet). Thanks Andronicus.

(Bolding mine) Egads.... a 182 finds and 1 hide, and you want to run a "My Finds" after each outing?? I expected more replies like this, to be honest. As I said at the bottom of the original post, I'm building an application for Mac that will needs the PQ more than once every 3 days if it becomes popular (I'm hoping it will as it does some stuff no other app offers yet). My 'desire' to run it after I've been geocaching is a selfish thing only and nothing to do with the app.

Thanks for the replies. Why do I want to run the My Finds query more than once every 3 days? Because I'm picky and want to update my MGP stats after I've been geocaching. Other cachers checking my stats each day? Hehe, nope, I'm not that important. And yep, I know what rhetorical means but thought I'd answer anyway, for the sake of clarification. Thanks dfx and StarBrand for the explanations - helpful info there. I guess my query re running the PQ every 3 days was partly based on system design (I've managed massive websites for years). I figured that geocaching.com must be massively busy already and that if a system can't handle the potential load, maybe it should have more resources thrown at it (vertical or horizontal expansion) from a systems perspective. Don't get me wrong, geocaching.com is a fantastic site and really well made but Geocaching is increasing exponentially in popularity every day and I think it'd be cool if we could generate our My Finds PQs more often. Imagine if you could only search Google once a day? Ok, that was a shockingly bad comparison, but I think you know what I mean.