Pasha

Ya... as I said in another thread, I'm pretty confident that Google will recognize the usefulness of allowing users to specify their pushpin location via the URL arguments, the same way they added the &ll and &sll lat/long arguments. Just have to wait for it. This has all just been an interesting exercise while we wait. -p

Sorry, didn't mean to clutter this up more than normal. There's a different thread about the Google Maps thing here. -p

Well, this is OT, but the "standard" & character for separating GET variables in a URL is actually not correct HTML; it's supposed to be escaped (&) instead, but I was lazy when I set up this web server and told PHP to only recognize | as an argument separator. Now that's lazy. Works from GSAK for me... what browser are you using?

I've discovered that this apparently doesn't work with IE6, either; something in the javascript required to inject the location and pushpin info causes errors with the IE JVM. In the meantime, Rattlehead is correct; it has to be wrapped because I have to have some method of taking the data from the query (the URL sent from GSAK) and inserting it into the correct javascript code to make Google do its thing. There's no way to just send the javascript query directly from the browser or GSAK. Keep in mind that this page is not Google Maps - it's a page on my site that sends the javascript query to Google Maps and then renders and displays the raw data in an IFRAME. The GMaps interface is not present. There's about 5 different files involved, including an XML template, an XML data file that's written out with the information from your query, an XSLT file to render the returned XML, a CGI to get the graphics and such from Google, and a couple others. My guess is that Google will shortly recognize the advantages in allowing users to specify their pushpin location and will add a GET variable specifically for that, and all this jumping through hoops will end. -p

Hmmm. I didn't try testing with IE6 at all - just with Firefox cause that's what I use. On further reading of the Standalone Hack page, I see this little note: So... that's probably your problem. Sorry about that; I'll keep messing with it to see if I can figure out how to make it work with IE. At any rate, this was more of a geeky little demonstration than anything - I'm sure Google will be disabling the direct access hacks that are used for it any time now. -p

To add to the Google Maps discussion earlier, I'm crossposting this from a different thread since it's only useful via GSAK: I've just been futzing around with some of the various Google Maps hacks out there, and I've managed to cobble together a GSAK custom URL that will show you your cache, with pin marker, via Google Maps. This goes to a wrapper script on my site that loads the map in an IFRAME, but don't worry, you're not sending any information beyond that freely available in the cache listing (name, waypoint, lat/long). It works but is very simplistic at this point: Google Maps=http://massivebraincase.org/gmaps/?title=%code|lat=%lat|lng=%lon|desc=%name Let me know what you think.

How geeky am i? I've just been futzing around with some of the various Google Maps hacks out there, and I've managed to cobble together a GSAK custom URL that will show you your cache, with pin marker, via Google Maps. This goes to a wrapper script on my site that loads the map in an IFRAME, but don't worry, you're not sending any information beyond that freely available in the cache listing (name, waypoint, lat/long). It works but is very simplistic at this point: Google Maps=http://massivebraincase.org/gmaps/?title=%code|lat=%lat|lng=%lon|desc=%name Let me know what you think.

From the OP article: Considering I've been doing lots of caching in the Kent Valley, that's kinda creepy in itself. I was in an area today that was completely remote even though less than 100 yards from a highway, and was thinking as I searched about the Green River Killer and where all his victims were found and so forth. Shiver.

Xangxa's process undoubtedly works well for him, though only small parts of it are probably transferrable to someone without that specific hardware combination. I can't help but think of all the work that went into it. There's a sort of natural evolution of processes for things like this; a variety of file formats and hardware are available, someone tries to put them together and ends up coding a little utility to automate some of it, someone else uses that utility in their own program that does something else, yet another person ends up writing a "kitchen sink" solution that incorporates everything that came before and then some, and eventually Microsoft comes along and buys it all and incorporates it into Windows. The process ends up driving itself when you think about it. That's my Meta-Code Thought of the Day, free to everyone.

I subscribe to the "less is more" theory - one of the lures of caching for me is that I don't need to carry a pack or have lots of specialized equipment. Accordingly my setup is as simple and efficient as I've been able to make it... a GPSr and an old Palm III that I had laying around. I have a case for the Palm that also stores a couple writing utensils, a pad of paper, and has a little room for small bugs or whatever loot I have with me. The geekiness for me (and believe me, I'm as geeky as anyone) is in getting this setup as efficient as possible - minimal effort in getting the caches from the site into my hardware, minimal effort in finding the closest ones, minimal effort in carrying stuff. Hooray for travelling light! (edit: oh, and my cellphone, which I always carry anyway, has a camera in it as well.)

I've yet to have any problem with Google maps, and the interface is so slick that I've already added it to GSAK's external mapping links listing and use it almost exclusively. Not having the marker for the centerpoint is a drawback, though I'm pretty sure it could be done through a bookmarklet or something. There's already a bookmarklet out there that shows you the realtime Lat/Long as you move around the map. (edit - minor grammatical)

Sounds like you have first-hand knowledge. I'm waiting for POP support to be added to GSAK as well, since I have my PQs sent to my Gmail account. The only non-automated part of my paperless setup now is getting the attachments from Gmail.

This is much more of a problem with benchmarks, I think. Many benchmarks (around here at least) have several reference marks and so forth around them, close by, that look very similar. It's sometimes hard to tell which one is the actual benchmark.

I have the same GPSr, Garmin eTrex Legend, and use it with a Toshiba laptop with a USB adapter. Nightpilot is right that you need to set it to serial instead of USB, but it sounds like you're not even getting to that point. The fact that the options are greyed out for you makes me think that the software doesn't see any COM ports available at all... I think you need to install or reinstall the drivers that came with your Serial/USB adapter and verify the COM port you're using. One other thing - with this GPSr I can't set the software to use anything about 57600 for a port speed without errors. If that's an option for you, try setting the speed to that or even 38400. Hope that helps. -C