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JJnTJ

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Everything posted by JJnTJ

  1. There's a GSAK macro called "Google Map V3" that opens a browser window to Google Maps with all the caches in your database on it. I put a button on my toolbar so I can run it with a mouse click. It's not interactive with the database, but it's the next best thing. Edit: Heh. Beaten by two whole minutes.
  2. Here's how I use GSAK (usually): I maintain a database of unfound caches (about 3400) within about 20 miles from home. I have five different Pocket Queries that I run about every week or two. I download these PQs into a GSAK database, where I can purge the handful that have been archived/disabled since the PQ was last run. This takes about ten minutes from the time I check the boxes on geocaching.com. Then I plug in my GPSr and download the whole database into it. Now my GPSr always has a pretty fresh set of caches that I can go find on a moment's notice. When GSAK downloads the database into my Montana, I have it runs a macro which adds the number of days since the cache was last found to the title (so my cache titles look like "CACHE TITLE (12)"). This is helpful here in Minnesota; it's nice to know a cache has been found since the last snowfall. If I'm not in the mood to dig a lot, I can just walk past. I also maintain a separate database in GSAK with all my solved puzzles and the challenges that I qualify for. GSAK is made for challenges; many of them have macros that automate the (often tedious) task of sifting through my finds for qualifying caches. When there isn't a macro, I use my little bit of programming and database skill to create one. GSAK also has powerful filtering tools. If I want to know (for example), how many puzzles I have found that start with "Q" and were published between June 13, 2002 and February 2, 2007, it only takes a few clicks to get the answer. And GSAK 8 allows you to use the API skip the entire PQ process entirely, and download caches straight from Groundspeak's database to yours. I'm not a huge fan of GSAK's interface (I think it should present you with a map view instead of a list), but it is an amazingly powerful tool.
  3. While I'm mostly indifferent to the changes (didn't the D/T stars used to be red?), it seems like another instance of TPTB changing the things they want to while ignoring the changes we want. As illustrated in my signature. No matter how furiously we bang away at our keyboards, no matter how viciously we stab at our little Jeremy voodoo dolls, they know we're not going anywhere with our $30/year. The focus remains on coaxing $30/year out of the ever-increasing crop of new players.
  4. The sats aren't stationary in the sky, they just move slowly. You may have to wait some hours for it to come over the horizon. The link PDOP's posted above will show where all the satellites are at any given time.
  5. Maybe I'm just lucky to live in an area with a hugely diverse population of creative puzzlers. If all of the puzzles here just required Googling, I'd be bored with them too. The hides are lame, but why take up space in a nice park with a cache that will only be found once a month at most? Leave the parks to the Traditionals, Multis, Letterboxes and Wherigoes. What don't puzzles have to do with caching? Geocaching is about using technology to take you to a place so you can find a hidden container. With puzzles, you do it twice; first you must "find" the solution (which is a fun challenge for me), and then you have to go there and find the cache (which is also lots of fun for me).
  6. We're the only ones to officially DNF this Earthcache.
  7. Precisely. If I have to spend several minutes re-parsing a simple sentence because the writer was ignorant or rebellious, I probably won't bother.
  8. I've got two of those, and they work great. I just used one yesterday on a long-ish Wherigo and my phone actually ended with more charge than it started. The little stubby cords aren't terribly durable, though.
  9. FIND: Found cache and signed log sheet DNF: Found container but didn't/couldn't sign log sheet (i.e. trees I couldn't climb, log sheet is pulp) Didn't find container, but looked* * "looked" means whatever I wanted it to mean in the context of the cache, my mood, the phase of the mood, whatever. If it's a 4/4 and I only spent a minute, I probably won't post anything. If it's a 1/1 and I spent 15 minutes, I'm definitely posting a DNF. I reserve the right to be hypocritical, mercurial and inconsistent about DNFs.
  10. A few of the early SpaceX Falcon 1 rockets had major failures some years ago, and I think a couple of paying-customer payloads were lost (nothing so large or important as a GPS satellite!). But those were early days for a new company, and they've done pretty well since. ULA's Delta 4 and Atlas 5 rockets are expensive, but have proven quite reliable, and American launchers have had a good record overall the past 10 years or so. However, there's some indication that the upper stage engine on today's DIV-M suffered a partial failure, and had to burn extra long to compensate. The GPS satellite ended up in its correct orbit, but it's not clear if the upper stage can complete its normal "disposal" burn (which causes it to re-enter the atmosphere instead of remaining in orbit and causing a navigation/junk hazard).
  11. Since Challenges have evolved and are now a totally distinct cache type, shouldn't they have a distinctive icon, too? They don't really belong with the puzzles and night caches and whatnot in the "Unknown" category anymore. Here's hoping they don't water down puzzles next.
  12. Do you have any stats handy, like the altitude difference between the highest and lowest caches? I'm really interested, but I'm a ways away and not in good enough shape to tackle that, I think. Especially if the altitude delta is high.
  13. Have you found other hard caches by the same owner? Are his coordinates usually good? There is one owner not far from me who seems to think that posting bad coordinates is a good way to make a hard hide harder. I'm pretty sure he knows better, but he does this "trick" for his "hard" hides.
  14. Groundspeak does what they want, when they want. They act nimbly and respond to user demand only when their dominant position in the marketplace is threatened. For instance, we got lots of nice, useful updates when Opencaching.com was launched. They also act quickly when their free labor force is up in arms. From what I've read, the reviewers were in open revolt at the tail-end of the Virtual days. With no real competition and no trouble finding reviewers (at least around here), they really don't have any reason to listen. It's not like we're going to take our $30/year away, and even if we do, there are tons of new people (who know nothing about Groundspeak's history) signing up every day.
  15. There are already quite a few quantity-based benchmarking challenges in MastahMatt's area (it's my area too). Edit: whoops. I shouldn't wait so long to type a reply.
  16. The iOS6 developer preview came out in June (a few months ago). It isn't at all difficult to get such previews directly from Apple, not to mention unauthorized channels.
  17. I can kind of understand why it would be offensive to get a boilerplate question from a reviewer after you've hidden so many caches. I don't understand why you're taking it so personally, why you can't just let it go (and answer the questions), or why you're threatening to geocide and/or lose some people's trackables over this. :blink: It's easy to imagine that reviewers get dozens or hundreds of pieces of correspondence each day. Since they have lives outside of geocaching, expecting them to "know you" is arrogant. Reading between the lines of the posts you have here, you seem to have some sort of beef with this reviewer, and attempting to vilify them here in the forums is bad form.
  18. I noticed this also on my 650t with 4.40. I haven't checked to see if it was fixed in 4.50.
  19. For completeness, here is the cache in question. Since the OP now admits the "secret" archery course has lots of signs around it, and geocachers have been aware of the course for almost four years, it can't be as secret as Danger_Warning has claimed. Someday it would be nice to know the answers to such basic facts as: 1) who owns the land 2) is the landowner aware that archery is taking place on it (probably) 3) is the landowner aware that there was a geocache on it (possibly) 4) is the archery club leadership aware of the geocache near the course (possibly) 5) why did it take four years for this deadly mix of archers with tunnel vision and "idiot geocachers" to result in an incident and the resulting histrionics?
  20. How on earth would anyone be able to check basic facts? You're the only one that knows them and getting them out of you has been like pulling teeth.
  21. This is so confusing. So the course is "well signposted", but somehow the signs are invisible to the vandals and thieves who plague archery courses? Edit: I'm going to try to find out who owns that property. So many things just don't add up.
  22. Reading the logs, many cachers reported interactions with archers that didn't result in this much drama. There are logs going back to January 2010 that archers use the place more often than just the 3rd Sunday of the month. So cachers and archers mixing is not a recent problem. What changed? So what kind of property allows archery and (apparently) geocaching? It doesn't sound like there was any TRESPASSing ON PRIVATE PROPERTY.
  23. I'm not trying to come off as flippant, but I don't think anyone's opinion matters except yours and the CO's (and he may be out of the game). If I were in your shoes, I would take the smiley since I visited the spot and did whatever was requested. My "caching conscience" would be clear and it would be irrelevant if somebody disapproved.
  24. Why would accidentally shooting someone who ignored private property signs get you in serious trouble or the range shut down? Does the law not allow for accidents? Are there permits required that your club doesn't have?
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