TeamZebra
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Posts posted by TeamZebra
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Woot! Oh this will be such a welcome change if indeed they do decide to bring then back! I never saw what all the fuss was about in the first place. There are way more lame micros than lame virtuals. Never saw a virtual I didn't like.
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one with an internal electronic compass will point to your destination while stopped, one without needs to be moving to work. I generally do a map check while stopped, not on the move.
Exactly! This is the best reason to have a GPS with a built-in compass. I didn't realize what a difference it made until I stopped using my old Garmin Legend and became using my G1 phone to cache. The phone has a compass built-in, the Legend does not. No compass means no readings unless you are moving.. not moving around, but moving forward. The accuracy difference is definitely worth it. I would never buy another GPSr without a compass.
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intriguing, i have to check this out. got an estimate of total cost for all the stuff to get me geocaching with it?
To get geocaching with the G1? Just the cost of the phone and a data plan if you want on-the-fly internet.
T-Mobile was recently running a promo on the G1 for $169 with a 2 year contract and the Mytouch 3G (basically a G1 without a hardware keyboard) for $149.
As for apps, GeoBeagle is free. Cachemate is also available which provides a 2-d version of the map seen in the Youtube video. You can load a pocket query into it and select "show on map". A Google map will appear with your location marked and treasure chest icons where all the caches are located. You can zoom in/out and select satellite view to see terrain/trees/buildings, etc.
Also of note, someone mentioned being able to virtually walk down a street and see buildings. You can basically do that now with Google Maps Street View. There is an option to turn on "compass mode" which will sense your movements and move the image on the screen accordingly. Imagine standing in the middle of the street and spinning 360 degrees. You can accomplish this same thing by moving the phone. The image on the screen follows the movement of the phone.
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There was a quite lengthy G1 thread a while ago where evertbody was comparing apps and such. I too have shelved my Garmin and started using the G1 as my one and only caching gadget. Love it!
For apps I use Geobeagle and Cachemate. Geobeagle is smaller, quicker and gets the job done. Cachemate ... well I downloaded it strictly for the cache map that shows all the caches in your database on a Google map so you can plan routes more efficiently.
Both allow loggings via Textmarks SMS. Cachemate also has a nice travel bug tracking feature built in that helps you keep track of where you found/dropped coins and TBs.
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I have a 3 year old German Shepherd that I take caching with me. I make a point of letting her sniff the container as soon as I find it (before handling it too much). Apparently it's helping as she has found more FTFs than I have! She likes playing "Find the People"... rather than tracking the cache itself, she follows the trail of the people who have been there before. Obviously this works really well on newer caches and not-so-well on older caches, as the more hunters, the more confused the trail will be.
The first one she found on her own .. she led me straight to it, It was hidden in some shrubbery. I had her on a long retractable leash. As soon as we got out of the car I told her to find the people. She stuck nose to the ground and proceeded to lead me to the shrub. By the time I caught up with her on the backside, all I could see was her backend sticking out of the bushes and her nose on an ammo can! She got a treat, a bunch of praise and I let her "sign" the log first by leaving a pawprint.
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In my mind there can be no question. Geobeagle is the best FREE app in the market. It works great and its the only program I use for geocaching. I wrote a full review with screenshots and a video at this link
That was YOUR video? Thanks a lot for that. I was in the market for both a new T-Mobile phone and a new GPSr and trying not to spend a fortune. I'd been watching the G1 with interest for a while and after watching your video bought one. Couldn't be happier. It's been a big step up from my old Garmin Legend (blue).
PS: I'm the person who just sent you a tweet with a similar message.
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Woohoo! Thanks GeoBeagle Team. Just got the new update with the miles/ft option.
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Loving GeoBeagle but I do have a few suggestions/requests. First off, can we have the option of using feet/miles instead of meters/kilometers? And a way of searching the offline list would be awesome. Sometimes I have a specific cache in mind I want to find and it would be easier to search the list rather than have to search it online and import back to GeoBeagle (thus losing the details because it's only pulling the coords). Pretty please?
But seriously, awesome job with the app. I have officially retired my Garmin because of GeoBeagle!
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I made the move to paperless a few years ago with Cachemate and a Palm Tungsten E2. Worked well but I had problems remembering to charge the PDA and sometimes Cachemate would crash the whole works after I exported caches from GSAK. May have been trying to add to many at once.
Then last year we switched our cell carrier to T-mobile and got a couple free Sidekicks. The Sidekick data plan gave me the chance to leave the PDA at home because I could pull up cache info on the fly anywhere I had a cell signal. I normally used the mobile site (wap.geocaching.com - no graphics so any phone with web access can use it depending on your plan).
A few months ago I started having issues with my old Garmin eTrex Legend (Version 1, non color, non high accuracy). I started looking into getting a paperless GPS. At the same time we were faced with replacing hubby's Sidekick due to some liquid damage (Soda and Sidekicks don't mix). I started looking around and noticed there were folks using T-Mobile G1 phones for caching. The phone has a built in GPS and magnetic compass which has proven more accurate and faster locking than my old Garmin was.
So I gave hubby my Sidekick and he let me buy a used G1. Spent less on it than what we were facing to get a new paperless GPS and phone combined and I have it all in one package.
There is a wonderful free app in the Android Market called GeoBeagle. You can load pocket queries into it (either download from email received on the phone or through USB onto the micro SD in the phone) or pull maps and nearby cache listings direct from geocaching.com. Having google maps right on the phone helps with the directions to and from the cache location. Geobeagle is always being updated to add new useful features to make it even easier to use.
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Not to thread jack; On the phone/GPS units, I would guess that they do not need cell recepting for the GPS part to function?
Thanx.
No, you don't need to have a cell signal for the GPS to work. But it's good when you do have a signal so you can look at the cache page, get hints, read logs, see the map, log the cache, etc.
I just got a G1 a few days ago and have found 2 caches using GeoBeagle so far. Takes a bit getting used to the Radar screen, but I think I'll get the hang of it.
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Yeah. I never post coordinates on Twitter. Granted none of our local cachers follow me on Twitter, but still...
As for shortcutting a multi, yeah I've done it. I was out hunting an FTF one night and walked through the area that a nighttime multi was hidden. You had to find several reflective markers by finding the first one at the coords listed then bearings were given to find the others using a flashlight. They were all within sight of the walking path, including the second to last one. I'd seen them before but didn't realize they were the points of that cache. Just happened to have my phone on me and pulled up the cache page with it, sure enough those were it. Since I didn't have a compass, I basically walked down the path shining my light into the trees until I found the last one, figured out which direction I needed to go by using the dial on my Legend and went to the cache. There was another reflector about 10 feet away from the container (the only one NOT visible from the path with my puny LCD keychain light) which made it that much easier. Don't think I cheated that one.. I DID find all the markers, just not by walking to them and projecting a bearing as was instructed.
I have a multi out that would be both hard and easy to bypass all the stages, but you'd have to look for it to find it and use your geosenses. If someone finds it without going to the individual stages, I don't consider it cheating, but it's their loss as there are some very interesting things to see along the way.
Now, I did recently delete a log from a cache of mine that was disabled two months ago and logged yesterday. The cacher logged that they couldn't remember when they found it, but they found it with another cacher and named their user name. I searched the logs for my cache and the other 4 they logged and found neither name. So I deleted it. I realize it's possible to forget to log one, I've done it myself. But I went back and signed the paper log again before I logged it online. Just felt like the right thing to do. Since this cache had been missing for several months and the other person they supposedly found it with didn't log it either.. I decided I couldn't count it.
This person was fairly new a few months ago and the person they supposedly found my cache with was supposedly teaching them to cache. Apparently they neglected to teach them how to log as every log they posted was basically a cut/paste and said the same thing "found months ago with XXXXXXX". If we weren't in day 6 of our ongoing rain storm I would go check the logs on some of the others they "found" just to verify. But I feel I was justified as the cache owner of deleting a log that had no proof of finding.
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I make it a point to let my dog sniff each and every cache we find. (and every cacher we find!) She has found a few on her own, mainly FTFs because there is only one "people" scent trail. When dealing with urban locations my "find the people" command doesn't work nearly as well because people are all over the place.
As previous posters have said, most people walking their dogs in an urban setting aren't gonna pay much attention if their dog starts sniffing around a corner, light pole, fire hydrant, etc. They'll just figure they're sniffing where other dogs have been and urge them on.
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GLASS JARS! Not only are they dangerous to people and animals, but they hold heat and cold too long causing more condensation. We actually had a whole series of caches in this area for a while that were in glass jars. They have since been archived, but even after the owner archived them, I'd found one... makes me wonder what happened to the rest of them.
I've also found cists hidden in glass jars.**On a side note: I've considered adding little desiccant packs from pill bottles and food packages to caches to help with moisture, but always wondered if the smell would be a problem. Doesn't the rice and salt attract critters?
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322027 here.
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I don't use AVG.. I use PC Tools.. and I have noticed that cache notification emails have stopped. I had a new cache published 4 days ago that has been found twice and had one DNF... never received any of the e-mails that should have generated for it. I was beginning to think it wasn't published for some reason...
I want my e-mails back!
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Well done. Love her reaction!
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I have a tag only for a white jeep, if someone knows where I can get another white jeep toy???
There is another thread in here about white jeep in original packaging. You can get the name of the company off the box and then go to their site.
Name of the company that made them is Maisto. Might be able to find them at Wal-Mart... I bought one there back when the bugs first came out. Sometimes you can find them on eBay too. I got a green one there, non-TB... just for collecting purposes. I want a yellow one now though... both cause they were TBs and we own a real Yellow Jeep!
For the time being anyway.... 
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Here's some pics of it...I know how hard it is these days to find White Jeep TB these days...but have I stumbled upon one in original packaging?
That looks like it has a regular TB tag on it rather than the Jeep-branded tags that I've seen on Jeep TBs. Does it have a tracking code that starts with "JP"?
dave
Flip the tag over and you will see the travel bug logo side. That is what you see in the picture.
That is the original box. I've seen them in boxes like that before.. mostly at events, but the first one I ever found was also still in the box. I have a non-TB one I bought at Wal-Mart not too long after the bugs came out... same box there as well. Maisto is the name of the company that made them.
I think those were the only ones to come in a box like that. I got a red one in the mail last year that just came with the Jeep and tag in a padded manilla envelope.
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Has anybody else had this problem with Bellsouth? I have DSL through them and I have been missing e-mails since at least Friday from gc.com. It's starting to tick me off!!
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There is another type of membership that is very limited, you can only get this membership if you invited to do so. I is call "Ultra" I think it is about $200.00 a year. Ultra members hve the option to throttle back non ultra members. This happen a lot on weekends when the site has a lot of activity.
Nice theory, but that wouldn't explain why it's only happening to Premium users and not the freebie accounts.
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A few years ago I had the chance to join my husband on the road. He's an over the road trucker and we took a job together driving for a company out west (we live in Tennessee). We spent alot of time driving around Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Nevada... places I absolutely loved and saw some REALLY cool stuff out there. Here's a couple of my favorites from caches we visited in those areas.
I'd love to take another trip out that way some day.
This is one of our favorite almost finds.. it had been muggled before we got there. WE climbed on foot... the validity of this picture is a mystery to me... and if it IS real... I have a much higher respect level for Jeeps (perhaps why we are now the proud owners of a real Yellow Jeep!)
Just one of those things you might never have known existed without Geocaching.
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Know the area around the cache. If there are other caches nearby, they must be at least .01 miles from your proposed cache location. Depending on your local rules/laws reviewers may look for other nearby POIs such as schools, churches, cemeteries (Especially in TN - caches in TN cemeteries are illegal), certain state or national park land, etc. Know your local rules.. the regional sections of the forums are a great place to read up on those.
On a side note, if a reviewer turns your cache down, don't loose heart, alot of times it's just a matter of moving it to a slightly different location or providing more detailed information about the location. As has already been mentioned regarding railroad tracks. Reviewer notes can be added to your cache to give necessary info to the reviewer and will be deleted when the cache is published to keep seekers from seeing this info if you don't want them to.
I recently placed a cache that had to be reviewed twice because my local reviewer was looking at the Topo map for the cache location. It hadn't been updated in several years and made it appear that my cache was in a cemetery... huge No-No for Tennessee where I'm at. I e-mailed the reviewer back and advised the cache was not in the cemetery and that the topo map was very outdated... Google Earth was current and showed the correct location. The reviewer unarchived my cache and it was published. So if you are certain your cache is "safe" and it gets turned down, ask the reviewer what they were using to base their decision on, sometimes it's just a matter of a map not being current.
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Bottom line is you can't please everyone with any cache, so don't even try. Plant the caches YOU like to plant.
Exactly! Geocaching is an outdoor activity. And with all outdoor activities there are dangers. Yeah, we could try to make it "safe" for everyone by only placing 1/1 caches in places where you didn't even have to get out of your car (wouldn't want to risk twisting an ankle getting out, would we?) but what would be the fun in that?
Honestly, if you aren't willing to take a few risks and have an ADVENTURE... Geocaching is NOT for you!
One of the best cache hides I've found involved a large fake spider. I hate spiders. I arrived in a Wal-Mart parking lot and parked next to the elevated light pole the GPS was pointing at. Spotted the lid of the film canister before I even got out of the car. I opened the door and snatched the top of the film can and pulled. Saw two big spider legs come out from under the light's apron and jumped back into the car. Once I got rid of the shivers, and noticed the legs hadn't moved I realized what they had done. Fishing line attached the spider to the film can!
I'll never forget that cache. .... Isn't that what we all want as hiders?
I'd love to take another trip out that way some day.
I'll never forget that cache. .... Isn't that what we all want as hiders?
FS New Magellan Triton 400 Adventure Pack GPS
in GPS technology and devices
Posted
We may be interested in one. Just bought a Triton 1500 for the same price but the Topo CD wasn't part of the deal. Hubby mentioned getting a GPS for the boat.. might talk him into this deal and snag the CD for the 1500.
I know it was already asked, but do you take PayPal?