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infiniteMPG

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Everything posted by infiniteMPG

  1. Active hiders who have a lot of hides can not possibly take the time to validate logs. It's enough to just keep up with damaged containers, MIA's, wet logs, construction, etc (just repaired a cache on the way back to work from lunch). Some of my caches are paddle-only or dozen mile hikes. When a log is enetered for them I don't think I'll be planning a day long paddle or hike to validate the person actually did find it. There has to be some level of trust here and then weed out the blatently obvious bogus stuff. Last thing geocaching needs to become is a system of checks and validations on every find. I have enough of that at work.
  2. I don't think that means you have to validate that everyone who says they found the cache actually DID. I know how we are but that's not how others may be. We have hiked a mile into a preserve, found a cache, realized neither of us had a pen so I jogged back to the Jeepster to snag a pen so we could sign the log. It's an ethics thing.... but I don't expect everyone to be that way. Not to say if something was blatently obvious I "wouldn't" take action, but I don't go looking for it. And when you break it down to the basic aspects, it's how serious you take this. Just like golf, you can apply the USGA rules to the pro's, but don't try to make Mr. Play Once a Year follow them or ream him good for not taking that stroke penalty or he'll be dropping his clubs off at Goodwill. Geocaching exits for the fun of it, and if some warped people have fun cheating then they'll do it with this, too. If others have fun tracking down cheaters in some battle between good and evil, they'll do that here, too. Geocaching doesn't change the way we are, it only gives us another outlet to express ourselves.
  3. >>Maybe if more people actually took responsibility for their caches after placing them, we wouldn't have things like some cachers becoming indignant that other cachers are not "giving back to the game" by keeping up a 10% hide-to-find ratio. If you don't have enough time to keep up with your hides, then have fewer hides. I am the proud father of over 230 hides and proudly maintain every one. I despise tossed hides and like unique locations/camo/area/techniques. I am proud to have a 40% hide to find ratio and it used to be about 80% but I am about saturated on maintenance time. Numbers don't mean much to me. I did three maintenance runs already this week on a dozen caches and have been taking some old less imaginative caches and upgrading the hides. I take pride in my hides and think everyone 'should' but I have no control over anyone except me (and sometimes that's questionable... hehehe). I have one mega-multi that requires a minimum of 11 miles of hiking and there's a clue in the final that someone has to email to me to get credit. Other then that one it's a honor system. The way I see it is if someone logs finds they didn't find then the only real person they're cheating is themselves. When they go to an event or cross paths with another cacher and state "I have 250,000 finds" in the back of their mind a little voice, maybe littler in some then others, is whispering "You cheating low life piece of ****". They have to live with that and if they think it fools anyone then they're even more foolish. Just like the golf analogy, when some hack comes in off the course and says "Yeah, I shot a 75 today" and yet you see the guy has about as much golf talent as your golf towel, just chuckle and walk away. A better analogy (yeah, us engineers are full of analogies among other things) would be to look at us cache hiders as a dart manufacturing company. We make 'em, we put them in public, but we have little control over what people do with them when we're away. Most people toss 'em at a dart board and have fun with 'em. Some people leave 'em in the drawer as talk about how good they can throw, others throw 'em at squirells in the back yard. All we can do it make 'em. Have never checked on a log sheet and not planning on it. When a log fills I keep the old one and enjoy reading what some people have written. But to me, we take the time to make the container, find a spot, devise some camo, write and publish the listing, and maintain it. If someone finds it and all they can do is write "TFTH!" in their log entry then so be it. But my pleasure comes from reading the stories in the logs, and just like side-of-the-road tossed out caches, I pass by the cut-and-paste logs to a dozen caches, too. The same people who fake the finds are probably the same ones who leave the stuff scattered around we CITO for, can't figure out how to snap the lid shut on a decon container, don't have a clue how to log a trackable item in or out, and can't figure out how to use their turn signal.
  4. Exactly.... last I saw on the guidelines it states "Don’t put yourself or others in harm’s way.". That is kind of open to personal intpretation. What I would do for a find might be well beyond what the next person might do or visa-versa. Someone might consider a thorny vine as "harm" while I'll go sliding down Whiteside Mountain on the icy rocks in the snow. Pranks, cool camo, tricky techniques, evil imagination.... heck, without all that you might as well just be searching for yesterday's leftovers in your tupperware!
  5. Which is fine and dandy unless you get nabbed prior to making the find I have a fellow cacher locally who is a Sheriff and gives us all the insight from the other side of thje blue lights. Basically even if there are no tresspassing signs and they catch you there, unless you are obviously doing something malicious (was witnessed throwing bricks thru a window) or appear to be getting ready to (behind a building pouring gas on the shrubbery... NI!) the only thing they can do is ask you to leave. If you don't leave immediately then they can do something. But if you're wandering seemingly aimlessly (i.e. - geocaching) and you leave when asked then end of story. Of course you're on your own with an officer who may of had a bad day so there's a lot of latitude for what may happen. I also had a cache nabbed by some highway patrolmen who actually bragged about taking it to some cachers who were seeking it. There's all types. Use common sense whenever possible.
  6. Hmmm, I would think a moose nugget would qualify as a "regular" and not a "micro" but what do I know...
  7. Agreed with the exception it shouldn't of been a discussion to start with. Just a bunch of personal opinions flying back and forth that carries no more weight then debating if someone should be allowed to post a find as just TFTH! or do the have to write a minimum of thirty words. Don't search for something you don't want to and keep your opinions about micros in the woods in here and not in the logs....
  8. It all boils down to the creativity used in the hide. I have caches that are ammo cans that stand three feet tall and could hold enough supplies for a month, I also have micros that are almost as big because of the camo job. I have tupperware that when you add the camo weighs +40-lbs. I have found 5 gallon bucket caches that were ::yawn:: a bore and also found 5 gallon bucket caches that were a hoot!!! Creativity! As far as the argument against micros in the woods and kids liking trade items, I doubt people will drag their kids on a 12 mile rustic hike let alone worry if a cache they find has trade items. That's what that 'kid friendly' attribute is for. When it comes down to brass tacks, a railroad car sized cache or a nano sized cache both boil down to 1 find, what matters is the fun you had while doing it.
  9. In reading thru this thread it becomes clearly obvious (to those of us with the perception to see the clearly obvious) that everyone has different tastes and opinions. Was that not profound? Duh! Geocaching allows you the rights and abilities to seek what you like, and not what you don't. You can't mandate creativity. And all you can do is whine about the lack of it. People normally set out to hide the type of caches they like to find. Thus, you can tell a lot about someone by the hides that they have placed. I have hauled ammo boxes and camoed micro stages dozens of miles in the woods for a multi cache series. If you eliminated micros in the woods, how would you do a multi-cache? Haul five ammo cans so people don't have to look for micros? If a large area has a good multi-cache foundation with a full sized final, a few smalls scattered about, and a few well thought out micro's sprinkled along the way, that's a good day of caching! The imagination that goes into a hide is what counts, regardless of it's size. Even an ammo box tossed at the base of a tree is boring compared to a decon covered in moss hanging from a fishing line up in a tree. After hiding (and regularly maintaining) several hundred caches of all types, and using as much imagination as I can muster, you learn as you go and learn as you find. Same goes with seeking. The size, difficulty, terrain, description, hints and previous logs are all there to allow each of us to seek exactly what we want to seek and weed out the rest. Just because you didn't like a hide doesn't mean the dozens before you didn't and the dozens after you won't. Some of us are here for the adventure and the challenge and not just big numbers.
  10. Had a couple cachers that were really battling for FTF's on my caches a while back. Really REALLY wanted to prank a cache knowing that one of them would be the one nailed by it. Never got around to it and did worry about freaking out an innocent cacher. The ones we get set back with are a couple that are like a big bug over top of a branch or in a structure that you have to stuff you head in to see and then you're face to face with it. And a few that are fake squirrels on the sides of trees in brush so you peek around the trunk, look around and then look up and he's staring you in the face. Those make ya jump and we love 'em! The ones we don't love are the surprises like all scrunched down under vines behind a fallen tree in the middle of nowhere and you pop open the cache lid to find it filled to the brim and spilling bull ants and eggs all in your lap with no easy escape... great velocity makes thorns hurt worse! But it's all part of the game.
  11. We were caching on Gasparilla Island (Boca Grande) a few weeks back and started seeing some out of state cachers were signing the log sheets the same day. We figured we were hot on their trail (we were doing pedalling caching on bikes) so we rushed to the next cache. As we got there a car slowed past us with tags from the state they were from. They stopped and a lady jumped out, GPS in hand. We were already at the cache location (urban normal bridge cache) and I simply held out my hand, said their caching names and introduced us. Was kind of obvious what each of us was doing. We all signed the log together and proceeded to stand by that bridge for a half an hour and chat as they were familiar with a lot of our hides (they vacation here in winter). For the most part I think we're all stealthy when it comes to geocaching so "opening up" to someone in the field is kind of breaking the silence so it's usually approached cautiously. And I know if some loner cachers who like the privacy of caching in secret so they don't like their cover blown. Everyone has their own approach and the great thing about it, is everyone is allowed that. All types welcomed! Even a simple acknowledgement or tipping GPS's towards each other, like road bikers nodding at each other as they pedal pass, brings a good bit of joy and a smile.
  12. We've run across quite a few cachers at preserves and parks and it's pretty obvious when you're miles from any civilization in the middle of nothing, GPS in your hand, PDA on your belt, and a pack of Tupperware containers on your back. And when we do cross paths with someone we immediately drop all our gear, run and duck behind the nearest trees or cover and loudly tell each other to circle around and block their escape... hehehehe (just kidding) Usually you don't need to ask if someone's a geocacher in the woods because they are either heading to where you came from, or away from where you're going, and a simple "Geocaching?" works for us (and usually ends up with 30 minutes of fun geo-chatter). And since I am seldom seen without my camera it's easy to act like that's all we're doing out there
  13. Does anyone know a way to import data from the geocaching.com pocket querey to a personal map in Google Maps? I can do this to Google Earth but would like to be able to load multiple cache info into a Google Map so I can log on to my map on any computer with internet access and view the cache locations and info. Don't want to just use the map features on the geocaching website as I want to create a private map with all my hidden caches including multiple stages of multi-caches, trail heads, waypoints, etc, to use for maintenance and reference. Thanks, Scott
  14. >>How are you going to do it if the computer doesn't have the USB driver for your GPS? Good point! For that situation I could have the USB drivers already on the Flash drive and ready to go. It wouldn't add anything to their system except a few files it wouldn't use unless a USB Garmin GPS was attached. Actually it's a back door kind of question I posted as my real goal is to be able to sit at my newly 'locked down' (i.e. no admin rights) workstation and still sit here at lunchtime and prep for an after work caching (or cache maintenance) run. I think I could get the USB driver installed but I can't install applications. But now that you mention it I might try to use our little loophole that we recently found (shhhhhhh). They prevent us from installing app's but locking down the C:\Program Files folder but we have found several things we can installing into a local folder we have rights to. I think I'll try to see if I can squeeze the USB Garmin drivers in and also install Mapsource into a folder I have rights to. Always pays to talk to someone about it and more ideas pop up! Thanks
  15. I am looking for a portable application (i.e. one that can be installed and run on a Flash drive or similar removable memory device) that would allow data from Geocaching's website, converted thru Bable or GSAK or something) to be transmitted into a Garmin GPS MAP60C. I have Mapsource and GSAK and all but I need something that can be run on a system it's not installed on. For example, having the application installed on a USB Flash drive, plug it into any PC and run it. Plug the Garmin cable into a USB port and dump data into the Garmin. Don't need a lot of bells and whistles but I am 99.999% positive Mapsource won't do it. Any suggestions? Well, any suggestions for ways to do this without lugging my laptop around everywhere I go? )
  16. I find may applications for doing cache find stats, analyzing your finds, organizing them by difficulty, sorting them by whatever, tagging things like FTF's and milestones, and all kinds of stuff for the cache finder. Is there any management application available for the cache OWNERS???? It would be GREAT to have an application that would organize your hides, how many times they have been found, who was the FTF, how many DNF's, when maintenance was done, other aspects of cache ownership. If there is something out there (besides what i am doing with an Excel spreadsheet) please let me (us) know.... Thanks, iMPG
  17. The Pocket Queries part of www.geocaching.com is probably one of my favorite features. As the owner of many caches and quite a few multi-caches, I was wondering if there was any way to download the cache information for caches you own and also obtain the hidden waypoints for the stages of a multicache??? Having to do maintenance runs on extreme multi-caches is always 'not fun' but it would be a lot easier if you could do a pocket query on caches you own and have all waypoints (including hidden waypoints) download with the file. Any help on doing this???? Thanks, iMPG
  18. The MojoPac looks like it has some good potential. Have to play with that. I have a beat up laptop at home with power plug issues so I am working on that and agree that is the best bet all the way around. And as far as hand held devices, I use a Palm Tungsten TX and it runs Palm OS and not Windows based OS so that doesn't help me for much outside of CacheMate. Thanks for the info!
  19. Dang! Forgot to introduce myself.... again. infiniteMPG (iMPG) and getting known (and feared... muh-ha-ha-ha-ha.... just kidding) in the west central Florida area. Paddler Found introduced me to this a couple years ago and since then I found that I get as much fun out of hiding caches then finding them. Was picked on in the beginning because I had as many hides as finds but pulled that ratio back into check.... right around 2:1 finds over hides.... whew! I enjoy placing hides in unique hidden places, or themed caches, or challenging caches, or just plain ol' tricky camoed places. Appreciate a good hide or a good technique and I have to thank OBH, OBC and SLP for puttin' that spur in my saddle, and live on the edge with hides sometimes (I expect a comment from palmetto on that... hehehe) Don't care for hides for the sake of hides and not overly concerned with racking up numbers, just enjoying geocaching, meeting nice folks and doing it all under the noses of so many muggles. Like hiking, kayaking, biking (on and off road), getting back to nature and getting away from the rat race... and if I can mix geocaching in along the way, then all the better! Hope to contribute my 2-cents here, iMPG (Scott)
  20. Thanks for the info on GSAK. That and Mapsource would be the big two I would want. I have seen in some cases where people simply grab whatever INI or DLL files were added in SYSTEM32 (or where ever) and copy them into the local folder so the program finds them and then it launches anyway. Might still play around with that but my issue is I have GSAK installed on everything I own so even uninstalling it might give me a false run from leftover files....
  21. Definitely agree on the contact link button. Often it's a day or two before the cache owner and the cacher can get on track with what cache is in question and that's valuable cachin' time! Many times a cacher wants to send the owner a note but not include it in the log and I prefer it that way. If someone says something about access or maintenance needs with a hide and they put it in the log it might discourage people from looking for it. Where if they drop a note to the cache owner it gives us a chance to fix it behind the scenes and keep everyone looking sunny and bright. But it kind of helps to know WHICH cache they're talking about so that contact button would be a BIG help.
  22. Oh yeah, as far as the GUI goes for cache pages, there is a link for "Make this page print-friendly (no logs)" but now when you get that 'printer friendly' page I can't seem to find a way to SHOW some previous logs. And it's also a little 'hidden' where the -decrypt- link is over the code key and not near the encrypted hint, it's just lucky that someone figures out that's how to decrypt the code on the other side of the screen. And the maps are a little confusing now. You used to get a MapQuest map and it showed the cache by itself as the location on the map in a new window. You 'could' seek all nearby caches and show multiple caches on a single map but the MapQuest map allowed you to single out the one cache to print out if you wanted. Now you have to use the right table to figure out which of the many markers on the map is the cache you were looking for. You also have several ways to show maps. The upper right inset map is a map view that looks like it's 20-30 miles across. If you click on it you get a map pop up that looks like it's about 2,000-feet across and no way to zoom or navigate. If you hit BACK it not only closes the map but bounces you out of the cache listing page. Don't see much benifit in the pop up map, too tight a zoom and without navigation it doesn't float my boat. Then under the Send To GPS, Send To Phone buttons it says "(view map)" which brings up the same map as the links at the bottom. These maps can get confusing in geocache congested areas as it does not appear you can turn the icons for caches on or off so you're looking at all the caches in the area and not just the one. The map insert at the bottom has numbers under it labelled 1 thru 10. No explaination of what they mean or represent. They're different map views but no telling what you're getting until you click on them. At least when you're in the printer friendly view the map says things like "street", "city" and "state" so you kind of know what you're getting. Maybe I'm just not used to it yet but I think I preferred the old webpage layout and mapping. Also having so many ways to display a map seems confusing and may be a hurdle for someone not used to the site to navigate thru. Hate to think we loose anyone because of navigation problems with their mouse and not their GPS. My 2-cents.
  23. As an owner of several hundred caches I think one of my 'beefs' with the geocaching website is when a user is looking at a cache listing and they click on the cache owner name, it goes to the profile page and then they do a "send message". There is no tagging the name of the cache they are writing about in the message so they go on and on and when the cache owner receives it, they have to write back and ask what cache the people are writing about. The message comes thru to the owner just like any other message yet often it is an issue with a cache that needs pretty immediate attention. It would be nice to add a button to "Contact Owner" or something like that on the webpage listing for each cache and send a message with a specific topic or subject line about that specific cache in the message. When the origin of a message is from the cache page, the users think that the owner is getting a message and will know it's about the cache that they sent the message from. Not the way it works.
  24. Was wondering if anyone has ever done this but figured if they did it would save me a little investigating. Was interested if there was any way to install GPS/geocaching software on a USB Flash drive (or similar device) and run from the USB device? For example, we travel to visit friends and relatives on vacation and take along a bunch of various geocaching wares and pocket queries on a USB drive. When we're at someone else's place we don't want to install Mapsource, GSAK, GPS Babel, CMconvert, CacheStats and things like that on their PC. We rather have them installed on a USB Flash drive, run them from the flash drive and when we leave, we leave nothing installed or added to their computer. Has anyone had experience with this? I am sure the older versions of GPS Babel would run as that's not got an install to run it, but more concerned with Garmin's Mapsource and GSAK. Thanks, Scott
  25. >>It takes about 10 seconds to do this and another 10 to double check your numbers. It seems a lot of people skip the second step. Not worried about the time as much as the potential of mis-typing a coord. >>You should be downloading a .loc or .gpx not cutting and pasting, this leaves NO room for error. That's fine and we do that for getting from geocaching.com to the GPS, I am referring to getting from the GPS to a new cache listing. The GPS, Mapsource and all that has the two coord components which make up the location but geocaching needs you to put degrees in one text box and decimal minutes into a seperate text box. This means either 4 copy and pastes or manually type it. I just wish that geocaching and Garmin would make it so they would both accept the other's data in it's natural state
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