biographie

5 years!?!? So when I am looking to get the latest and greatest updates, can I still grab an entire county at a time or do I have to go by the individual PID (that would suck)? You say the monthly updates are only marks that have been updated; not the entire set? So do I grab the yearly archive file and make it my gsak database, then download the monthly update and somehow have gsak perform a find-and-replace for the updated PIDs? Is that possible? So CWxxxx PIDs are internal, but technically shouldn't they still count? You have some physical item that you are giving a reference number to, makes sense to my little brain.

How often does the geocaching database get updated? I downloaded the county file, and loaded it into gsak. Everybody said the datasheets on geocaching are old, and to get the latest updated sheets from NGS. When I went to compare a mark that I had found (BG4320), I saw that Reference Marker #4 also has a PID (CW3696) that the geocaching site does not have. Why is it CWxxx and not BGxxx? Is it too much trouble to keep the NGS database up-to-date? I can't imagine it is any worse than the cache database getting updated daily with new stuff.

Hello everyone, Well, I am getting completely addicted to benchmark hunting, and had some questions as I move forward. I have been taking photos of stations as I find them. I have also been taking photos of the area of marks that I have not been able to find to get a reference for the next person to come along. Now, I still need to post all these photos, but I need to either: 1-get a digital camera to make this process faster, or 2-get on the ball about my film processing and film scanning. Anyway, currently all my photos are sitting on film waiting to be developed and scanned. I figured when I get time to actually do this and upload the photos to the geocaching website, I was considering reporting them to USGS as well since I have the photos and all. The only problem in my mind is, am I doing enough correctly to report to USGS? I have read the forum topics talking about reporting, but just short of seeing some examples of what people wrote in the report's field, I find I am a bit hesitant. If you read most of comments about fining a mark I try to keep it short and sweet unless I could not find it. Is all that I need to report (lat, long, alt, accuracy, date & time)? I have never bothered verifying the actual distances from objects in the station descriptions, do I need to? Which brings me to my final item, how do you keep track of everything? I currently use NG Topo! But it is a long tedious process because I keep things somewhat neat. I have one file that represents my ‘finds’, one for my ‘didn't find’, and one for ‘future’ (marks that still need to be hunted down). Topo does not make it easy to copy and paste between different files. Heck, it will not even run two files simultaneously for comparison. It drives me nuts, and I have complained to them about it. Being able to cut and paste waypoints between files without having to go thru a import/export process would be nice. The other thing I want them to do is expand the info saved for a waypoint. I should not have to create an extra note to link photos to the area and other documents. I would love to be able to link the image files directly with the waypoint and also link it to the datasheet, but I am probably asking too much. Does any program out there do this, or should I stay on top of the NG developers? Am I making my workflow too hard, anything simpler? Last thing, it would be nice to see an application that would allow you to work locally with mapping software, waypoints, and such, but then it also has hooks into the geocaching database so you are not entering the same data multiple times.

Hi everyone, I don't do much talking on the forums, but I do a lot of reading. I made a little program that I thought I would run by everyone. While starting my benchmark hunting adventures, I found that I REALLY needed to have not only the waypoints, but the description of where to find the marks. Well, at the same time, I found it was a total pain in the butt to keep up with a print out of the original datasheet, and also not junk up the car, the house, etc. (not to mention an easy way to transfer data between places and devices). So I got to thinking, why can't I just put this info on my iPod, and bring it with me? Besides the hunt for some of these marks would be improved with some music (especially when I start walking around in a 50 foot circle 20 or 30 times). I started all this by looking at the current programs available. There did not seem to be a program that dealt with getting benchmark data to the iPod. If I could get that much info into my Rino I would go that route, but Garmin's idea of a 'notes' area is terrible. Eventually, I determined I would be writing this myself. So over the last few days I wrote a program (still need to build it into an executable) that can take a datasheet saved as a text file, and break it into a two or more small files formatted to present on an iPod correctly. The first page being name, PID, location, the lat/long numbers, reference marks, and history. The second and additional pages (4000 character limit per file) when needed have the description. All these pages are linked together for navigation, I made sure the program correctly builds paragraphs and word wraps for the 30 character per line limit of the iPod (big, big pain) for readability, and each mark's files sit in its own directory. You simply copy the created directories into your Notes folder on the iPod. I would post a zip file with example PIDs converted, but this I don't see where is forum allows attachments. But for the dozen or so marks that I have test with the converter, it works really well So, the big question, is anybody else interested in such a program? If not, I probably will not bother compiling the executable, but if others are interested I will work on it. I can see carrying multiple handheld devices around being a complete pain in the butt. But I think when working with someone else (I usually go out with my girlfriend), it gives each person a device and a task (one watches the GPS, the other keeps up with the details matching the description with the location).