RakeInTheCache
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Posts posted by RakeInTheCache
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In fact it appears that states with large urban centers in restricted geographical settings (New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, etc.) may have artificially low numbers. Cache density around the city (or all over New Jersey) would be abnormally high, that in the country abnormally low because the population is not centered in the middle of the state and can't as easily reach it as they would otherwise be able being centrally located.
Doesn't explain why Ohio is so low. Bit of a surprise.
I'm afraid once again your theories are off.
The most cache dense parts of NJ are the least populated. As a matter of fact, a very large chunk of NJ (the Pine Barrens) is one of the least populated areas in the entire northeast; yet it's loaded with caches.
Yes New Jersey is somewhat of an anomoly. But as it's a small(ish) state, I bet the areas you mentioned are easily accessible from large urban areas.
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Hello!
I was just wondering what is the cheapest PDA that can do the following:
1) Play MP3's
2) USB connectable
3) Use SD cards
The Palm Zire 31 meets those specs. The standard price is $150 but it can be found on sale for $100 - $130.
Yeah, but the Zire 72 Nav pack can be had for $335 after rebate from buy.com and it does all of the above PLUS comes with a bluetooth GPS and the ultra cool Tomtom Navigation software (okay, maybe I'm the only one who thinks it's ultra cool).
--Marky
Does a PDA with GPS really stand up to heavy duty use in the field? My Garmin eTrex occassionally slips out of my hand, gets dirty, rained on, etc and still works like a champ. Not sure if the same can be said for a PDA.
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A PDA strictly for caching does not have to be fast or anything. CacheMate (best Palm OS caching software to my knowledge) requires Palm OS 3 or later, so anything above that will work fine. You can easily get a suitable Palm on eBay for $30 or less. (Here is one - auction ends in 3 days.)
Personally, I prefer Pocket PCs BUT I would not recommend one for you if you're only going to be using it for caching - Pocket PCs tend to be higher end and thus more expensive.
What's the general forum consensus on CacheMate? Is it a good alternative to the MobiPocket files generated by Pocket Queries? Indicates Travel Bugs? Considering taking it for a spin. Oh, and does it do special characters better the MobiPocket (like degree sign, foreign characters, etc)
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Doesn't explain why Ohio is so low. Bit of a surprise.
Must be because the Constitution doesn't give the right for Ohio residents to geocache.
That would be the Ohio Constitution of course. As we've learned, the 9th amendment gives everyone the right to do anything they please.
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In fact it appears that states with large urban centers in restricted geographical settings (New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, etc.) may have artificially low numbers. Cache density around the city (or all over New Jersey) would be abnormally high, that in the country abnormally low because the population is not centered in the middle of the state and can't as easily reach it as they would otherwise be able being centrally located.
Doesn't explain why Ohio is so low. Bit of a surprise.
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Considering the pictures are likely just randomly culled by algorithim from the database, you would need to write a bit of code that tells the computer to look at the skin colour of the subjects. Unless, of course, you want TPTB to have to spend huge amounts of time sorting through pictures, and making sure there's a racially sensitive mix displayed. I'd rather have them working on cache-related things.
The photos have to be sorted anyway for the quality pix. It's obviously not a dump of all photos. One look at people's photo collections will tell you that.
This thread could have been interesting discussion about the diverse people doing caching, if the topic had been something like "The Demographics of Geocaching". They we could have talked about all sorts of socio-economic factors.Why don't you create your own if your dissatisfied instead of whining about it.
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Do we need affirmative action for geocaching?
You must declare your race when you find your intended cache. If too many Caucasians find it, their logs will be deleted until non-Caucasians reach parity in finding it.......
Maybe not in this way. But maybe by (as another poster put it) "stacking the photos" on the home page a little, one might be able to make the sport more welcoming for minorities.
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Geocaching is a predominantly white sport because there are more white geeks than black geeks. Other than Steve Urkel and Lamar Blackman,(from the old Air Jordan Commercials) name one geeky black guy...I dare you. Not sure why the asian population isn't into it yet. Have to do some research. Most geocachers I know, myself included, are just a pocket protector and a slide rule waiting to happen. What you have to wonder is why are white, middle class, 30-50 year old males so driven to go out and buy gadgets FIRST, and THEN figure out what they are good for?
(written with tongue firmly pressed against cheek)
That's an unfounded statement. The company I work for has been praised as a model of a diversified workforce. I'm in IT. I know geeky black guys.
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Someone asked for caches by area. Below is a ranking of the states by caches per 100 sq mi.
1. District of Columbia 94.1
2. New Jersey 18.8
3. Massachusetts 16.1
4. Connetticut 15.4
5. Rhode Island 15.4
6. California 11.6
7. Maryland 11.2
8. Florida 9.1
9. Delaware 8.9
10. Indiana 8.8
11. Tennessee 8.7
12. Pennsylvania 7.9
13. New York 7.6
14. Washington 7.4
15. New Hampshire 6.7
16. Ohio 5.9
17. North Carolina 5.4
18. Virginia 5.3
19. Illinois 5.1
20. Oregon 4.6
21. Vermont 4.3
22. Utah 4.3
23. Kentucky 3.9
24. Georgia 3.8
25. Wisconsin 3.7
26. South Carolina 3.4
27. Idaho 3.3
28. Hawaii 3.2
29. Michigan 3.2
30. Arizona 2.9
31. Texas 2.9
32. Alabama 2.7
33. Minnesota 2.5
34. Missouri 2.2
35. West Virginia 2.2
36. Iowa 2.0
37. Colorado 2.0
38. Maine 1.9
39. Arkansas 1.9
40. Oklahoma 1.8
41. Mississippi 1.8
42. Nevada 1.7
43. Kansas 1.6
44. Louisiana 1.4
45. Nebraska 1.2
46. New Mexico 0.9
47. Montana 0.6
48. Wyoming 0.6
49. South Dakota 0.5
50. North Dakota 0.2
51. Alaska 0.1
I've been keeping these statistics for a while and it is a constantly changing list.
Which confirms that New Jersey is probably completely saturated. Low number on the caches/capita, high on the caches/area. The sport is unable to grow there to match the population.
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ok the ranking numbers have been corrected.
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If I want to move Maryland up in the standings I'm gonna have to start hiding caches or killing people...
Just as long as you don't use a gun.
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Where did you get this, and do they have world stats?
I made them myself. Here's the recipe. 1 part population statistic from you friendly census website, 1 part Geocaching search on country/state. Do the math and voila.
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... For example none of the Southern States reach the national average. ...
Tennessee is in the south. My wishing hasn't yet moved it northward.
I feel a fever coming on again ...
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After missing Finland in one list and California and some other states here, I discount RakeIntTheCache statistics altogether. Carelessness in reporting statistics tends to make me think that there are probably other errors in the way these were collected.
You can check them yourself. It's not difficult. Census bureau for pop. and Geocaching for the cache count. If you find an error let me know. (I'm sure you will)
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Discrepant numbers aside, what meaning do these statistics have? How can they be usefully applied?
Statistics for statistics sake?
They could be used to indicate the relative popularity of the sport in each state (with some extenuating factors thrown in). For example none of the Southern States reach the national average. The West as a whole is above average. Of the New England States, Vermont ranks highest. That kind of stuff.
I was to surprised to see that my home state of Michigan was below the average.
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News Flash: Mysterious aircraft seen in skies over California...all Geocaches disappear. Mere coincidence?
Oops. The PDA didn't sort the list correctly so I had to do it manually. Must have(accidentally) left out California, or maybe it was my sub-conscious evil twin. It's corrected now. Hey is there any connection between California and Finland?
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Caches per 100,000 inhabitants. Another interesting statistic would be caches per unit area. I'll leave that for someone else.
National Average : 39.2
- 1. 198.1 Idaho
- 2. 151.1 Utah
- 3. 126.9 Oregon
- 4. 110.2 Wyoming
- 5. 94.9 Montana
- 6. 85.7 Washington
- 7. 79.5 Nevada
- 8. 78.9 Alaska
- 9. 68.5 Vermont
- 10. 62.5 Tennessee
- 11. 58.3 Arizona
- 12. 58.2 New Mexico
- 13. 56.8 Nebraska
- 14. 52.8 Maine
- 15. 52.7 California
- 16. 51.6 Indiana
- 17. 48.3 New Hampshire
- 18. 47.4 Kansas
- 19. 45.9 South Dakota
- 20. 44.9 Colorado
- 21. 44.1 Wisconsin
- 22. 42.3 Minnesota
- 23. 39.1 Iowa
- 24. 38.1 Arkansas
- 25. 38.0 Kentucky
- 26. 35.9 Oklahoma
- 27. 34.5 Florida
- 28. 34.1 North Carolina
- 28. 34.1 Texas
- 30. 31.6 Alabama
- 31. 30.2 Michigan
- 32. 30.1 Virginia
- 33. 29.6 Mississippi
- 34. 29.2 West Virginia
- 35. 29.1 Pennsylvania
- 36. 27.5 Delaware
- 37. 27.3 North Dakota
- 38. 26.8 Missouri
- 38. 26.8 Hawaii
- 40. 26.5 Massachusetts
- 41. 25.7 South Carolina
- 42. 25.4 Georgia
- 43. 24.7 Maryland
- 44. 24.3 Connecticut
- 45. 23.3 Illinois
- 46. 22.9 Ohio
- 47. 21.6 Rhode Island
- 48. 21.5 New York
- 49. 18.6 New Jersey
- 50. 15.6 Louisiana
- 51. 12.8 DC
- 52. 0.6 Puerto Rico
When compared to the Europeans we're number 2 right behind Sweden.
- 1. 198.1 Idaho
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Did I miss it? What's it for the US?
It was more difficult to come up with the statistic for the U.S., Canada and Australia because the cache look up is divided by state, meaning you have to go through all the states and add up the sum of the individual counts. However, as I am still stuck at home getting over this neverending cold I'm thinking to start a new thread with the U.S. state statistics.
Pirates. Peeps who are attracted to this sport/hobby are almost always folks who would have made excellent Pirates.Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
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Here is a Wikipedia article that discusses the problem in detail.
Interesting article, but iI didn't find where it talked about the extent of the dumping problem. Has the dumping issue been in the standard press recently? Time, Newsweek, etc.?
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I take my GPS and so forth along every single time I fly, and I fly a lot. And every single time, when I get to my destination and unpack, I find a form letter inside my suitcase, cheerfully informing me that my bag had been opened and searched by the TSA. And I know why -- the GPS, camera, etc. in my backpack, inside the suitcase, shows up as a sufficiently suspicious item that they want to look at it. It doesn't bother me and they always put everything back the way they found it.
-- Lemur
Airlines will advise not to pack such devices in checked luggage. They are targets for minimum wage baggage handlers.
I had a several thousand dollar device hocked from my luggage in Paris. It must have been the baggage screeners or they were somehow complicent.
I was lucky, after the paltry contribution from the airline, two additional insurers together ended up paying entirely for the replacement, but I had to wait for months for the reimbursements.
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The use of hand held gps receivers is also bound to diminish. The world lived a long time without them. Those mounted in vehicles, I think will increase, much like outside air thermometers mounted in vehicles today, but hand helds have very little practical use for most people.
GPS as a standalone recreational device will eventual disappear as the components become miniaturized and imbedded into other devices (mobile phones, PDA, watches, etc.) We'll begin taking it for granted, it will lose its glamour, and geocaching will lose its appeal for the techies who now find it so intriguing.
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GPS no problem - I keep it off in deference to flight attendants who may be uncomfortable with me using it - and there are some. On international flights there is always a public GPS display availalbe anyway.
Camera tripod on the other hand - this is not allowed and did it put a bee in my bonnet when I showed up at security, already having checked my luggage only to find out my lightweight, breakable tripod would have to be checked in a flimsy cardboard carton provided by the airline. Was sure it would end up in pieces, but I got lucky and it ended up intact.
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For those of us who may be completely unaware of this threat (I lived in the U.S. until 1999 and never heard of it) could you provide some more background on the extent? Does it happen everywhere in the U.S. or only near large urban areas? Some more data would be helpful.
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[ummm.. did you forget something?
Dang! I can't handle all this complexity. I feel a fever coming on...
- 41.5 Sweden
- 32.2 Norway
- 26.7 Finland
- 18.5 Denmark
- 12.3 Switzerland
- 11.7 Germany
- 11.6 Netherlands
- 11.5 Austria
- 10.5 UK
- 8.9 Belgium
- 6.3 Ireland
- 2.8 Portugal
- 1.4 Spain
- 0.9 Greece
- 0.9 France
- 0.8 Italy
- 0.2 Japan (to provide an interesting comparison with a non-Caucausian culture for those purists who didn't get it.)
- 41.5 Sweden
Plaque Talk
in General geocaching topics
Posted · Edited by RakeInTheCache
[Well I think it pretty much died out after the Middle Ages - oops, I thought the title was plague talk.