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Team MnMizzou

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Posts posted by Team MnMizzou

    GPS and Outdoor Activities

    in GPS technology and devices

    Posted

    I don't know where you'll be skiing, but you might check out www.mountaindynamics.com they have maps of some ski areas you can download to your Garmin. I just saw a little ad for them on my gmail account advertising skicaching and had to see what it was about. On the website they advertise series of maps, kind of a cool idea!

    Fighting crime with a GPSr

    in GPS technology and devices

    Posted

    I was thinking something kind of just the opposite recently. Here in Dallas and surrounding suburbs, they recently installed red light cameras at various intersections. It would be nice for Garmin and other GPS manufactures have a warning sound that would work in conjunction with a waypoint symbol. That way you could input the various redlight cameras, known speedtraps, and other hazzards like quicksand to remind you as you approach with caution. I know I could just slow down, quit running red lights, and falling into quicksand, but what fun would that be. :-)

     

    Here you go... off of Garmin's website:

     

    Company Name: GPS POI US

    Geographic Coverage: USA

    Language: English

    Website: http://www.gps-poi-us.com

    Contact: info@gps-poi-us.com

    Content Type: US Red-Light Cameras, Sports Venues, Disneyworld, Multiple stores & restaurants, Travel

    Pay Site: Paid, some free

    Garmin PC Interface Cable

    in How do I...?

    Posted

    okay, question, and this is gonna sound really dumb or really funny. i started a thread a few days ago about easy gps and loc files and got some great answers, so i downloaded it and went to connect my legend via the cable that came with it to my laptop and...uh...er...i do not have a serial connection on my laptop. there is something that looks like it, but it isn't. i thought the whole time it was. so what are my choices for connecting my legend to my laptop? is there a serial to usb cable or something?

     

    Yes there is, look on Ebay for a good deal, or pretty much any CompUSA type store will have it as well, I use one to hook my Garmin into my laptop, great gadget!

    whats your "standard" gear?

    in How do I...?

    Posted

    I'm getting a lot of good ideas for things to carry when I go caching. Now for a related question: What do you carry it all in? Most of my caching expeditions are solo trips, so I'd need something (presumably a backpack or similar) that I could carry on my own. Any suggestions?

     

    --Larry

     

    A backpacks probably your best bet for hauling stuff. Just make sure it has extra-comfy shoulder straps.

     

    Now personally I'm thinking about getting one of those photographers vests that has like twenty pockets for carrying various items. I suspect they're expensive though.

    Actually, I've been looking at photographer's vest as a possibility myself. I've seen some decent vests for around $60-$70, but I haven't had a chance to check any details yet. Anyone use a photographer's vest you'd recommend?

     

    --Larry

     

    There is a company called Domke that makes fairly lightweight photog vests, don't know the prices though as I don't use them myself. They are geared more towards still shooters and I do TV with bigger more awkward equipment.

    I've Decided To Start Keeping Jeeps And Coins

    in Trackables

    Posted

    I have seen people that photograph their own coins and send the laminated coin photo out instead of the real thing so that people won't "collect" their coin up and stop it from moving. I figure if that is what they want to do with their own coin, which I guess are expensive to have made, then good for them. I will log the laminated one, even though I would have loved to have seen the real deal.

     

    I think "collecting" other people's travelers, be it TBs or coins, is stealing and I would never do it or condone it.

     

    Personally I think coins make terrible travelers, there's no handy way to add things like instructions tags, short of drilling a hole through it.

     

    Mine are still carried by cachers and are moved from cache to cache, they just aren't left in one for anonymous retrieval. They can still be enjoyed and should survive much longer this way.

     

    I've seen coins put in larger square coin holders where they can superglue it shut with instructions to keep it moving along in the open space in the holder. I have started scanning the coins we have found in caches, then we have a nice picture of the design and we can move it along.

    How Many Is Too Many

    in Midwest

    Posted

    Just food for thought... we have a cacher in MN that has somewhere in the neighborhood of 900 caches placed all over the state. They are some of the best caches you can go after. So should you limit the number someone can place? No way.

    Ground Work..vacation In Maui!

    in How do I...?

    Posted

    Plan on taking GOOD hiking boots if you are going to do any of the caches down in the La Perouse area where you hike across the lava fields. Even some around the McGregor's Point and road between Lahina and Maalaea Harbor have some trails I wouldn't do in sandals. They will tear up cheap sandals and shoes. Plan on taking WARM clothes if you are going to the summit of Haleakla. The summit is over 10,000 feet, and in the dark, especially this time of year is COLD, cold enough for snow to occasionally accumulate.

     

    Besides that I would say enjoy the ones down in the Wailea area, the beaches down there are great.... and the golf courses if that's your thing.

    Are Cell Phone's Worth It?

    in How do I...?

    Posted

    I haven't had a land line for almost 3 and a half going on 4 years, and I don't miss it at all... virtually no telemarketers, and after we figured that between our schedules we're hardly ever home it just made sense to eliminate the 40 bucks a month on a phone we never use. As for coverage, just go to the different websites and they'll bring up a basic map of the areas you're interested in. It seems like Verizon is just about everywhere, except really super remote deserts and wilderness areas. I'm sure that Sprint/Nextel will have enhanced coverage now that they've combined. (Although I will say I have a Nextel for work and in rural WI the service was pretty much non-existant... my personal Verizon phone was a little better overall, but it still had some areas there was no service.) Those are just the realities of cell phones. No one system, cell, ham, satellite whatever is 100% perfect, so I think it is a matter of finding what suits your needs the best. Personally to save the 50 bucks a month I ditched the land line and went with the phone that goes with me.

    Map Of States You've Cached In?

    in How do I...?

    Posted

    So stupid question, but once I've made the map on that Texas A&M site, (the fancier ones) how do you get that up to your profile. I have the red one now, but wanted to change over, only I'm not sure how to get it to go where the "latest news" section is.

     

    Thanks.

    Pq Question

    in Website

    Posted

    So my PQ arrived this morning, but instead of being in a ZIP like they always are the file says it is a .zm9 with an envelope with a little padlock on it. I just installed E-Trust's EZ Spam filter system, which I am lukewarm at best about, is that the possible cause of this .zm9 (which won't open by the way)

     

    Thanks for any info!

    Minnesota Coin

    in Trackables

    Posted

    A progress report for those interested... we are presenting 3 designs to the MnGCA board, and from there the membership will vote on the winning design. After that we hammer down the minter take the orders and have the coins made. Thanks for all of the interest... keep an eye out for a new thread announcing the sale of the coin and details on how to order. In the mean time it isn't necessary to continue to express your interest. We were trying to guage the marketability of it outside of Minnesota. Again keep an eye out for ordering details in the next 60 days or so (just a guess)

    A minimum of 3 months just to get to the ordering stage?

    Let's see 2 people are travelling out of country for work, one of us shoots sports for a living and now the NFL is in full swing with the NHL and NBA right behind it, one committee member is a full time commercial pilot and is on the road quite a bit... and that's 4 of the 6 people... so you'll just have to bear with the fact that we all have full time jobs and this is a hobby.

    Minnesota Coin

    in Trackables

    Posted

    A progress report for those interested... we are presenting 3 designs to the MnGCA board, and from there the membership will vote on the winning design. After that we hammer down the minter take the orders and have the coins made. Thanks for all of the interest... keep an eye out for a new thread announcing the sale of the coin and details on how to order. In the mean time it isn't necessary to continue to express your interest. We were trying to guage the marketability of it outside of Minnesota. Again keep an eye out for ordering details in the next 60 days or so (just a guess)

    Minnesota Coin

    in Trackables

    Posted

    Thanks to everyone for the input thus far! We are making progress on a design, we are trying to keep the cost in the 5-7 dollar range as an initial goal. As things progress along we'll be sure to pass the info along here! Feel free to check out the Minnesota Geocaching webpage as well.... MnGCA Home

     

    Thanks!

    Minnesota Coin

    in Trackables

    Posted

    Hello! The coin is in the initial desgin stage. Tracking has been a sticking point with folks. Personally I would like to see it because from what I see most people buy multiple coins, if I bought multiple coins I might want to put one in a cache on a vacation to see where it goes... and it is so much easier to just go to the one main website in my opinion. I'm curious as to how you got the different looking logo for the MD coin. (I saw it on your profile)

     

    Thanks to everyone for the input so far, we're supposed to meet sometime next week so hopefully some of this informal "research" will help!

    Doing "the Nasty?"

    in General geocaching topics

    Posted

    It wasn't a couple, but a guy who decided that sunrise at Loring Park in downtown Minneapolis was the perfect time to stand lakeside for some self loving. How very very odd. That park has a reputation for attracting it's share of oddballs though once the sun sets.

     

    What sucks even worse is I still haven't found that cache... so I am now on the lookout for wierdos first then the cache.

    Minnesota Coin

    in Trackables

    Posted

    Just to clarify on the tracking we are looking at either tracking through gc.com, or some sort of external site, probably the Minnesota Geocachers website. So either way it would be numbered, I'm just trying to gauge how important people around the country think it is to have the tracking of the coin linked to geocaching.com's system.

     

    Thanks again!

    Minnesota Coin

    in Trackables

    Posted

    Hello one and all,

     

    Some Minnesota cachers are in the early stages of planning a coin. (Snow and ice are not included) One of the big issues facing the group is gc.com trackable or not. So I figured I would take a very unscientific poll.

     

    Would you purchase the Minnesota coin with gc.com tracking?

    Would you purchase the coin w/out gc.com tracking?

     

    If you could indicate a rough number you'd buy and if you care or not about the tracking... I think it would help move us along and add another coin to the collection. (And no we're not going to hold you to a number you post here... I just want to see roughly how many people around the country would buy the coin, and how important the gc.com tracking is)

     

    Thanks in advance!

    Streets And Trips Pushpins/gsak

    in GPS technology and devices

    Posted

    Hello,

    I'm hoping someone can tell me if I'm doing something wrong. I have basically the entire Twin Cities metro in 2 or 3 pocket querries. They are all in one giant database on Gsak. I then use that program to export all of those to Streets and Trips. My job takes me all over the metro and I can look on S&T and see if there are any pushpins close to me if I have some down time. I have gone a step further by color coding my pushpins, so when I find a cache I change it to green. Looked but didn't find, red, etc. Then at a glance I can tell what I've found without having to have internet access.

     

    My problem is this... if I update the Gsak database, presumably with new caches that are added to the existing database if I them try to import a second pushpin is created in the exact same spot. So if I've colo-coded a pushpin it is "buried" by the new one. Does anyone know how to prevent Streets and Trips from doing that? Kind of like if you try to copy a folder on a computer and there is a same file name it asks you if you want to replace it... does Streets and Trips have anything like that? Or would there be a better solution using the Gsak end of the process?

     

    Thanks in advance!

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