HDV

An update to my post one year ago: distribution of active geocaches per member state of the European Union, considering area and population (table 2) and evolution in the number of active geocaches (table 1) over the past couple of years (actually ~50 weeks + ~50 weeks). * Joined the EU in 2007; I had no figures for 2006 hence no possible comparison. Note1: km2/cache = average available area in km2 per cache Note2: Cache/mill. Inh. = active geocaches per million inhabitants. Note3: Figures for population and area taken from Wikipedia. Simplistically assuming no variation between 2007 and 2008. Note4: Number of caches retrieved the 19 of June 2008 (aprox. 22:00 GMT).

I gave the Player (2.0.5129.5191) a try on a Windows Mobile 6 device (iPAQ 214 - 210 or 212, different regional references for the same device). The good news: it installs fine, it detects a bluetooth GPS (even in a software split port); overall it seems to work. The not so good news: when it does not find a cartridge in the configured path it either: a) crashes; gives a loop notice (nagging, one warning would be enough and afterwards we should be able to change settings/the path to the cartridges etc..; as it is one has to be really fast to close the pop-up warning and quickly touch the "menu"). Graphically it does not adapt/cope well with the VGA (480x640) resolution (see the screen shots bellow): the GPS fix icon is small and oddly surrounded in white; the fonts for the cartridge title do not seem to have space for rendering; the arrow showing the direction is too small and what I guess is the distance indication to the left does not show. Sadly I have no nearby cartridge to further test this but as I create and test my own I intend to update-report this post with my "findings". Anyway, Wherigo is a step in the right direction and I am very impressed with the features in the Builder.

Some stats I compiled for my own amusement and I thought some of you might find interesting: distribution of active geocaches per member state of the European Union, considering area and population (table 1) and evolution in the number of active geocaches (table 2) over the past year (actually ~50 weeks). Table 1 Note1: km2/cache = area in km2/number of caches = average number of km2 for each active geocache. Note2: Cache/mill. ppl = active geocaches per million inhabitants. Note3: Figures for population and area taken from Wikipedia. Table 2 * Joined the EU in 2007; I had no figures for 2006 hence no possible comparison.

De encontro a proposicao de "Geocaching in Portugal and other Portuguese speaking areas", vinha sugerir o logotipo da CPLP como "icone" do Forum: Uma versao de elevada resolucao pode ser obtida em: http://www.cplp.org/logotipo.asp http://www.cplp.org/fotos/CPLP_LOGO.jpg Homepage da Comunidade dos Paises de Lingua Portuguesa: http://www.cplp.org/ Cumprimentos, HDV

Por amavel solicitacao do moderador, reposto aqui duas tabelas e um grafico com a distribuicao de geocaches no seio dos diversos paises da Uniao Europeia, bem como do respectivo desvio de colocacao em termos proporcionais. Acrescento uma lista com o numero de caches por milhao de habitantes, para o total da UE e por pais. Os numeros das caches foram recolhidos em 14/08/2006 e os da populacao e territorio sao os constantes a mesma data na Wikipedia. Caches por milhao de habitantes EU total avg 132 ------------------- Austria 250 Belgium 148 Cyprus 81 Czech Republic 211 Denmark 418 Estonia 324 Finland 452 France 19 Germany 265 Greece 25 Hungary 65 Ireland 129 Italy 14 Latvia 28 Lithuania 10 Luxembourg 238 Malta 35 Netherlands 176 Poland 4 Portugal 66 Spain 26 Slovakia 83 Slovenia 32 Sweden 669

I am wondering why the list in the “search a cache by country” function of geocaching.com does not include all countries with caches placed in - I thing namely of Democratic Republic of the Congo, but there might be others? Thanks, HDV