The-Eaves

Beautiful! I see the database structure is quite straight forward! @DamhuisClan: Using the SQLSpy it is quite easy to pull all your logs for example: SELECT * from Logs WHERE lBy="DamhuisClan" Now I know you mentioned in a previous post that you where going to take the plunge and learn the macro language - and given that I'm a newbie I figure it best to learn that from the outset... So... To use the above query in GSAK macro I figure you would do this: $SQL_Query = "SELECT * from Logs WHERE lBy="DamhuisClan" $AllLogsByDamhuiClan = SQLlite ("sql", $SQL_Query, "Headings=Y") Now this is where I'm stumped... Say I'd now like to examine each entry in $AllLogsByDamhuiClan using a loop of sorts... How would I do that? Say for example I want to make a loop which goes through each database entry returned and check a field against some condition - e.g. contains the word "Zambesiboy".... (I'm sure there is an SQL function which can do this but for argument sake say I want to do this manually using a loop going through each line from top to bottom) All I have figured out is outputting the collected lines on an html form using SqlToHtml.... Hopefully I am making some sense..

Ok... Now I have GSAK beta (latest) and the whole country in my database... Downloaded SQLSpy... And now I'm lost... How do I connect SQLSpy to the GSAK database? I'm hoping I can browse the GSAK databse to learn its structure before making some queries...

Many many thanks to you both! I agree that an SQL query would be great way collect the data - The suggestion leaves me with some questions though: I know that GSAK uses SQL for its own database (into which one loads GPX files generated by PQs)... But is it then possible to access GC.com data directly using SQL queries? My question is really this - where is the database I would be collecting the logs from using SQL and the application you describe? (I have used some basic SQL in the past to capture info entered on a questionnaire and then recall data that meets certain criteria in one particular field... I.e. basic basic... but always excited to get a book and learn!)

Hi there guys... I am keen to get my head around this GSAK monstrosity - Thus far I have made some simple macros but now I want to work some numbers based on find counts and more specifically finds at certain cache ages... To do this I will need to know how to pull the total find and DNF count for a particular cache. This must be possible somehow? Also if I manage to take this higher grade I would like to be able to get hold of the date on which a find or DNF was made.... Thanks...

Started hiding the next cache - Phase 1 completed... The final is hidden and secure and hopefully will remain so until I get the other bits installed and working... Whahahaha... (another 2 months is my guesstimate)

Cool! Putting the caches on a map certainly gives more information than just having them blossom in the beautiful black void of space. And sweet the idea of showing a growing bar graph of caches placed - originally in my version I experimented with polygraph-like tracings of caches placed per week, geocachers active per week, and logs written per week, but it got a bit too much. I like the informative non-obtrusive display of it here. Rainbow I am beyond impressed! These vids of your are so special - I was almost overwhelmed with a flood of memories after having watched your first. I cannot wait to see my other half's response! Thanks so much man...

Just installed GSAK beta... wow scary interface indeed. I have zero experience with the beast yet but I'm keen to start fiddling - Getting all the logs would be awesome - How does one go about doing this? (My database hold the 100km around my home location)

Not sure what this has to do with geocaching, but the specific gravity of lead is 11.34, and the S.G. of peanut butter is 1.15. (Peanut butter does indeed sink in water.) The volume of a film canister is 39 cubic cm, so the weight of a canister filled with lead should be 442g, and a canister full of peanut butter will weigh about 45g. (Using the above S.G. of peanut butter, the volume of your jar must be 696ml, if it was filled to the top.) I am so glad that my sleep will now be undisturbed by ruminations surrounding my favorite spread...

Hahaha... Why do it the easy way when there is a perfectly good, ridiculous and complex way of solving a problem which requires a calculator! Volume of peanut butter jar = (area of base)(perpendicular height) = 980cc (just shy of a liter)(and just shy of regular cache size status) I took area of base (easy enough) and the height as the distance from the base to the midpoint between where the bottle starts to taper and the top (eyeballed to compensate for decreased volume for height at the top) Now we have actually made an important discovery here - According to my calculations peanut butter must actually sink in water! I wouldn't have thought so given high fat content. As Wazat rightly asks "How heavy would a film canister full of lead be?"... My question is how heavy is a film canister full of peanut butter!? *****Loophole: Do the guidelines specify capacity or displacement of the container? If the latter my jar may just qualify!

Looking back in time......

How'd you figure it was another beach theme? There is going to be little surprise left if this thread continues! It won't be a ridiculous puzzle though: (A snippet) "No maths, physics or chem this time but do not rejoice, It will have to be dark and you will need a friend - you have no choice!"........ @MnCo: The bottle is indeed glass... (You sure do know your peanut butters!). The glass will pose no danger to anyone though I promise (perhaps you will see sometime?) @Danie: Thanks for the list... Would have liked it to be a regular but did the math and the volume is <1L sadly...

5000 Wow... What an amazing achievement... Congrats iPajero... Wow wow wow... Epic achievement indeed! You must have loads of awesome stories - I just wonder how dispersed the awesome stories become after 2000 finds? Are there still novel hides? Or at least hides that bring the same wow as back in the <500 days? I have a cache idea brewing for you the 2000+ guys... May be a bit costly to build and will bend some GC rules and maybe shatter another... Anyway I'm talking to myself here - Will chat to Rotsip... Congrats to you guys! Seriously awesome achievement.... (That it if you have not done any power trails! Hahaha)... I wonder if they drive a Pajero?

IMHO = small. Small it is then... (Now I suppose there is no mystery as to what to look for when my next cache leaves the review queue... Hahaha)

Small or regular sized cache container?

Can a Blue Bull come along for a stroll under the full moon? By then we could very well be out of the Currie Cup. I can never predict work schedules with much accuracy but if the call roster smiles upon me I will ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE!

You're missing the point. These are not like the other challenge caches, which require you to find several caches in order to find cache. These will no doubt remain as a twist on puzzle and or multi caches for now. These "Challenges" are GCs compromise to the overwhelming request to bring back virtual caches.... the whole concept of which is to not have a container, and are ideal for high muggle areas and or places of interest where hiding a physical container would be difficult if not completely impossible. Oh... I see your point... My bad... I have only ever done one virtual (and that was to clear the territory). Not a major fan. To me if you want a cache in a busy tourist spot it just calls for a better, invisible container! Whahahaha... But yes... These could be fun with some tweaking - I will watch and see what GC.com does with it...

I made a suggestion on the feedback forum a while back which was promptly declined --- Perhaps aspects of it could be built into challenges? What thinks all? http://feedback.geocaching.com/forums/75775-geocaching-com/suggestions/2039841-challenge-cache-as-a-completely-unique-cache-type

I'm stoaked that they are keeping the finds separate... I would be much happier if the challenges actually involved finding a GEOCACHE! Something like the idea I posted on the feedback forum... Maybe they will incorporate this?

Hahahaha thanks Danie... You made my day! Sadly I must admit that the true number is only 1 given that the cache was published, archived and then re-published with a simpler mystery. I absolutely love your stats though - makes for interesting lunch time discussions whenever new ones are posted. Keep up the good work. May I ask how you managed to generate pocket queries for the whole of Africa? Is this also done by grouping caches into pocket queries by date interval?

Hi there Hesamati and Trevor7k Thanks for constructive comments and Trevor thanks for the vote! I personally am quite excited at the possibility of the feature. Hesamati your comment does make one reconsider and moderate one's views. I must admit what makes a cache fun is often completely independent of the cache itself - my favorites have all been done with awesome company! I have thought about my proposal and there is perhaps another reason why it my not work at all! - A pocket query will not contain all the logs! For this reason a much simpler, single calculated ratio would be a much simpler addition to the format and would really not be difficult to add... I will make a new suggestion on the feedback forum and suggest closing of the original.... Here is my new suggestion for just a simple ratio to be included for people who want to search for the best caches in an area: http://feedback.geocaching.com/forums/75775-geocaching-com/suggestions/2158537-favorite-point-to-premium-member-find-ratio-in-gpx

I am planning a trip to Italy and along my proposed route there are over 500 caches within 100m of the road! How better to search for good caches than using favorite points? Reading the logs of over 500 caches is a ridiculous undertaking. Just because you don't find it useful this does not mean that is not. I would find it to be the most useful attribute in the pocket query! Logs and favorite points both reflect the quality of the cache. Completely disregarding one or the other is short sighted. Favorite points could be an extremely valuable tool to help foreigners plan their routes. Exactly! For the favorite point system to be valid we must know how big the denominator is! If there is a small population of Premium Members it DOES NOT MATTER if we properly define the premium members as the denominator. E.g. Popular-tourist-spot-cache: 100-finds; 10 favorite points; 40 premium logs --- Ratio = 10/40 = 25% Popular-tourist-spot-cache: 800-finds; 10 favorite points; 40 premium logs --- Ratio = 10/40 = 25% Really-awesome-cache-atop-a-mountain: 40-finds; 6 favorite points; 8 premium logs --- Ratio = 6/8 = 75% Really-awesome-cache-atop-a-mountain: 158-finds; 6 favorite points; 8 premium logs --- Ratio = 6/8 = 75% This is false... If some PM's do not use their favorite points it STILL DOES NOT MATTER - this as they still form part of the denominator and the denominator is equal across the board. See above example - The ratio remains unchanged even if some PM's choose not to assign favorite points as they are part of a common denominator. I agree with you. This is the best way to judge a cache. I am proposing a simple addition to the GPX format which will be invisible and allow increased likelihood that a search will yield the best caches for me in my planned tour of a completely foreign land where I may not know the area or even the language! If you think about it for a moment you cannot possibly come to the conclusion that the information is useless. Consider the converse - right now, without ratio that I propose the validity of the favorite points is really statistically totally null. The favorite point, right now is as you put it.... What I am asking for here is contribution. How best to formulate a suggestion which will bring increased USEFUL functionality to GC.com and the rest of us planning a trip to another country, or perhaps even a trip to another city. Please if you don't like the idea that is perfectly within your right. I am making this suggestion - If it is heard and approved it will not impact negatively on your lives in any way. The converse I believe will be true. Foreigners visiting our country will know where to head first to experience the best caching South Africa has to offer, and we will have better tools with which to search for the best caches.

Hi there MnCo... Some of your caches are indeed my favorites and I'm glad you will not go the PMO route. Everything you mention I do also agree wholeheartedly. We do not however all the play the game in the same way, and we may derive pleasure from different aspects of the game with some things being true for one group and not for the next. Some of the things that come to mind as justification for my suggestion (in no particular order - just as they come to mind - which really will most likely represent rough inverse value of importance): #- I love statistics. I might actually love mathematics and physics more than finding or hiding geocache in the first place! Is this perhaps excessive? Of course it is! As are my geocache hides and the machine I build to count the number and average color of all the cars that drive past my house (this was much fun btw and the parts are soon going to find themselves reused for another stupid project)... #- I am planning a trip to Italy next year. This after a colleague (and geocacher) went there recently (returned a week ago actually). He decided to plan his route between Rome and Milano using favorite points as a guide (Europe has a really ridiculous cache density) and he found that many caches had many favorite points (but purely as a function of a high find count). Other caches had few favorite points but on opening the caches and inspecting the logs it was found that very few PM cachers had logged finds and the find:fav ratio was very high! This high quality cache was also reflected in the logs! @MnCO: As you rightly say, logs are much more pleasurable to read! I have been smiling ear to ear for the past two weeks following the most beautiful logs I have been reading... This is the true motivation for my now planning more hides! Same point... For the favorite point to mean anything we need to know the denominator. The value is otherwise absolutely useless and any statistician will agree. Perhaps the ratio could be expressed as a single value in the GPX file? Or the membership status of each log must be included (better in my opinion - more data is always better) #- Discussion about which caches are excellent at local meetings is great and an awesome part of building a local community, but it is not an accessible form of information. I for one have never been to a local meeting! I work all the time and cache on Sundays and at night! (And I am by no means unique) Furthermore with my planning to go to Italy now there is no way for me to first join a local geocacher social to discover the awesome caches. Neither do I have time to look up the membership status on every log for every cache between Milano and Brixen (my planned route - ending at the World Unicycle Convention!) Same point... I want to be able to plan my route such that I can do 20 of the best caches I can get to in Italy. I am really not interested in the micro cache that has been found by 300 people and has 12 favorite points. #- We all find vastly different things make us happy. Sometimes something that makes one happy can frankly offend another. In this case however I am suggesting increased functionality that will not in any way negatively impact someone who care not for it. In fact you would not even notice its existence! >>>>>>>>>> I call for anyone who is keen to push for increased functionality, and who may have an interest in making valid the favorite point to follow the link and vote. It must be done soon though - before the next release - otherwise once the format is standardized it will never make it in... Thanks for listening...

Hi guys I believe the new GPX format is soon to be released. September is the last that I heard (although with perhaps August 20th?). There are some suggestions on the feedback forum for additional information to be included in the GPX format. I would appreciate it if you would read my suggestion below and vote on the feedback forum if you feel likewise: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> In order to calculate favorite point to find ratio using GSAK we will need to know for every find logged whether the cacher was or was not a premium member... (This is important as non-Premium Members do not contribute to the denominator given that they are not going to be able to issue favorite points) My concern is that, in an attempt to maintain high favorite point to find ratios many cache owners with high quality caches may make their caches Premium-Member-Only... Please do inform as to what the plan is for the new pocket queries... Thanks >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Here is a link to the feedback forum topic where you can vote... Thanks http://feedback.geocaching.com/forums/75775-geocaching-com/suggestions/2146407-include-membership-status-for-each-log-in-pocket-q

@TechnoNut... You have an excellent point I must agree with you... If you read the comments on the feedback forum you will see this post by Markwell: My reply to him was this: So... Does anyone know if all the info the stats people need will be contained in the new pocket queries?

Hey guys.... Something that will increase the quality of the stats: http://feedback.geocaching.com/forums/75775-geocaching-com/suggestions/2143349-everyone-has-a-favorite-point- Suggestion copied from the Feedback site and pasted below. Visit the above link if you like the suggestion: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Why has the ability to tell the geocaching community which caches are your favorites been reserved for Premium Members only? Is it solely to motivate non-Premium Members to become Premium Members? If so I believe it is a short sighted notion! Here me out Geocaching.com - I am a Premium Member and would pay three times your asking price for the membership! I speak with the best intentions for the game which is geocaching and for the interests of GC.com... 1) A favorite point serves many purposes. First tells every cacher in the community which caches are the best and which ones to hunt for - For this function to work the number of favorite points must reflect accurately how much all the cachers who found the cache enjoyed the cache. If not everyone has a say the number means nothing! They also exist to motivate Cache Owners (CO) to produce high quality caches - good listing, good location, well designed container - The CO must be rewarded for his/her effort by seeing how much everyone who found his/her cache enjoyed the hunt. >>>Now by prescribing who may, and who may not express their opinions you deprive CO's of well deserved reward, and deprive geocachers out there from knowing about the best caches in town!.. Not ideal at all... 2) With the new GPX format being released (September I believe), favorite points will be available for statistical processing. Already I see the following happening: CO's who hide excellent caches are switching their caches into Premium Member Only (PMO) status to ensure that only cachers who have favorite points to award log their caches. This as they aim to maintain a high favorite point to find ratio. Like it or not geocaching is played as a numbers game by MANY (including myself)... and it is us that tend to hide the most epic caches. (and indeed those who hide the caches tend to find the most caches and drive the game).. Soon the best caches are going to be PMO and the game is going to exist in two groups - PMs and nPM's... 3) Information is most valuable when it is non-biased and when there is a lot of it! Favorite points have already motivated the placement of some incredible caches - With the GPX update this will be even more prominent if made non-biased. ****What will happen if favorite points are made open to all*** Cache Owners will produce awesome caches, make them available to all, in order to glean the most possible favorite points. This results in a greater population of geocachers and Premium Memberships will be sold in greater numbers eventually - They will follow the natural progression to Premium Status as we all did before favorite points. The Premium Membership is well worth it and has never been under question. This is a better and healthier way of growing the game and keeping it financially afloat. This is not a motivation to give away freebies - I feel the value of opening up favorite points to all is greater for Premium Members than for non-PM's... And I don't feel being able to grant a favorite point is a major selling point for Premium Memberships in the first place... Please don't just decline - At least review and hear what the community has to say... You guys at GC.com really rock btw. The API system has show that GC.com is an innovative and flexible company indeed!