ClikSnap

Just breathing some new life into this old thread.. I've been out of the caching game for awhile, and now that I am back into it, I want to start working on implementing this in my area!

I too had the problem of being dumped out of the system without my CC payment taking effect. Tried the gift certificate method as well, and while the purchase of the certificate was successful and my CC billed, the redeeming part of the transaction is not working. Time after time, I have the order come back as "declined", even though I'm redeeming a valid gift certificate. I tell ya.... These guys run a really rank amatuer operation here, and seem to care little to none that so many people are getting frustrated and pi$$ed off.

I have a Garmin 60C that's about 2 years old now, that doesn't seem to want to work anymore. Not properly, anyways. Even under ideal conditions, it doesn't get a good "lock" on location.. The most accurate I can get it to go is -/+ 7m. When trying to zero in on a cache, it puts me anywhere within a 20 foot radius of the cache location, and the "blue ring" around the pointer expands to sometimes as high as -/+ 12m. It makes zeroing in on a cache almost impossible. The unit itself isn't damaged, though it was subjected to low temperatures a few times. (Left in the car overnight during winters' worst) Just wondering if maybe anyone else has run into this? It never used to be so crappy at being accurate. Thanks!

Yes, I remember. I also remember feeling very awkward and uncomfortable, (Both myself and my friend were noting the tension on the drive home) due to a fiasco a few weeks earlier wherein my wife and I placed our very first geocache along a creek which was heavily debated as being public or private. Despite our best efforts and intentions, said geocache, and our efforts to place it were unceremoniously critisized and we managed to become ostracized from the local geocaching community. Precicely why we didn't make an appearance at Cache around the fire 2, or other local events. Funny how we always seem to bump heads in some form or another, isn't it? And not in the "ha-ha" sort of way. I think perhaps it's time for us to just retire from the sport alltogether.

So, today, someone "backlogged" 3 of my geocaches, which haven't been "in play" for quite some time. One was archived more than a year ago. The second and third were archived about 6 weeks ago. My first reaction is to delete the logs, but before I do and ruffle everones feathers, I thought I'd ask - what would you do? (I mean, a year ago? Gimmie a break!) ~Geo

I've never seen it, but I'll hazard a guess you're accusing me of not having the ability to think for myself or form my own opinions? Sorry to dissapoint you, but I'm actually fairly adept at forming my own thoughts and opinions. I don't need the media, hollywood, or anyone else tell me what I should think.

I concur. In my humble opinion, America is about the least free country around. Everyone is afraid, armed, paranoid, and nervous about everything. The patriot act, homeland security, big brother everywhere. People arguing about wether or not you need permission to geocache on public, publicly funded land is just one example.

I'm done with this topic. Personally, I'm fed up with doomsayers pointing out every possible way that this idea for an original geocache can be perverted for the sake of doing people harm. Quite frankly, I'm amazed that anyone even geocaches, period. I mean, it's such a high risk activity that is spoiled by people running around doing their best to bring harm to the game and the people who play it. Good god, I'm amazed you're not cowering under your bed, terrified of all the bad things that MIGHT happen. How do you sleep at night?

Mom? Mom, is that you?

Like it was stated earlier, this cache will be aimed speciafically at people who are more computer savvy than your average gerbil. You know, the kind of people that don't epitomize every tired cliche about people who have computers that own them, rather than the other way around? Yeah, that's who this is for, not people like you that live in terror of boogymen that don't exist.

No, I have 2 IP addy's with my ISP, and I'm only using 1. And as I'm sure you know, with a router, you only need 1 IP anyways, as the router lets you make as many net connections off of one IP anyways. If I use the second IP, I'll have two seperate networks with 2 seperate IP's. As for having to broadcast my home address for the hotspot.. Not really. You'd be close, but exactly which house was mine would be anyones guess. Mind you, even if someone was able to figure out exactly which house was mine, I don't think I'd really be at any huge risk.

Oh, geez. On behalf of geocachers everywhere, can we NOT do the Mac vs. PC/Apple vs. Microsoft battle here? I mean, not to sound like a jerk or anything, but consoles vs. PC, which is better - mac or PC, blah, blah, blah. None of it is really pertinent to the original post or topic of the thread. It's a debate that can never be won, because at the end of the day, there IS no right answer, it all boils down to personal preference. I myself prefer PC with a Linux OS, because in MY OPINION and for my uses, it suits me better and isn't propiatary. For someone with different preferences and needs of use, my setup won't suit them. So this whole debate is just going to turn into a flame war. We might as well just start arguing which religion has it right while we're at it. So. Back to the original topic. I drove around last night, did some thinking, and had another idea of how to do the logging for this cache. And how to make more "geeky" for the geeky kids. Instead of all the e-mailing, and all that, what I think might do it is this - Me and two of my friends will set up a seperate network at home. And by seperate, I mean: Modem to hub, hub to two seperate routers, one wireless, one hardwired. (Good old RJ45) Each router will have a seperate IP, and ergo, be seperate and independant networks. The hardwired RJ45 will be our home networks. The wireless will be an open network. Just a small, basic computer with an OS (Linux, winX, whatever) and the thinking is, a cacher can go to a coord that would put them within range of one of these wireless networks. Since the wireless network is completely seperate from the other, none of us would be leaving ourselves open to attack from anyone with skills enough to move from the cache network to our home networks. Anyways. Using the open wireless network, a cacher would use their laptop to access the web, and sign a bravenet guestbook that would log the IP. Then, you could match the IP to the guestbook and verify the log. A text file on the USB drive in the cache would have the coords to the hotspot, you'd then copy the text file to your HD, go to the hotspot, log the visit on the guestbook, then log the visit on GC.com. Any finds/logs made without the confirmation of IP's would just be deleted as non verified. My friend was thinking too that a webcam could be set up that streams to a webpage, and that a cacher could log onto the webpage, and do a screencap of themselves and post that as proof of their visit. My thoughts are that to do that, you'd have to have the webcam in the front window of your home or something, and then you'd basically be broadcasting the location of your private residence on the web, and that wouldn't be good. (Would be ok if you lived in a large apartment high rise or something, I suppose) I think that would be more geeky than just firing an e-mail from home. Thoughts?

Hey, don't look at me, I use SUSE. And on my PC boxes, I DO use WinXP pro, but I use firefox and have alot of the XP features disabled. (I'm perfectly capable of managing my own PC, thank you)

Sensationalism, and consumerism. The media especially, has everyone convinced that their computers are going to explode tomorrow with some new and sinister computer virus. Propagating paranoia makes for good stories on the evening news. I'm absolutely convinced that it's the antivirus companies like Norton, McAfee, Trend, etc that are putting out the alerts that the news outlets pick up. Co-inky-dink? And the more terrified people are of things that don't exist and are NOT a threat, the more people consume to protect themselves. Anyone remember Y2K? Lol. Retailers were LAUGHING THEIR ARSES OFF while people ran around in a mad panic convinced that the end was emminent. I had not laughed that hard in my life, before, or since. Bottom line is, if you educate yourself, and understand the very fundamentals of how things work, you have nothing to be afraid of. People truly ARE afraid of what they don't understand. I work with computers all day, every day. I rebuild, repair, fix crashed systems, and re-install OS's several times a week. You know what the biggest threats to a computer are? Human ignorance and stupidity. It's getting to the point now where it's quicker and easier to simply do a LLF, reinstall, and reconfigure than it is to sit for hours and try to back up data, remove trojans, repair system files, etc, etc. People will eagerly install yahoo, MSN, browser enhancers, tool bars, acellerators, yada, yada, yada. Click yes to every lame popup that warns them of impending viral doom, install this, install that, free this checker, free that checker, install this utility, you have a worm, and so on. Then, when their computers take on all the functionality of a sun baked tire, they run to their nearest computer repair center and happily drop anywhere from $50 to $100 bucks AN HOUR having their computer fixed and cleaned up, rather than just educate themselves and understand what their dealing with and how to take care of it themselves. My father just got suckered into paying $40 to have his web browser home page set back from a browser hijackers home page. Something he could have done himself! I mean no more offense to posters who say they would never participate in a cache like mine then they mean to me by saying "sorry, I wouldn't search for your cache. I don't have any way of knowing what's on that thumb drive" or "I wound never stick somthing in my computer that I find in the woods sorry but now way", but... I find people like you to be hysterical, honestly. Ignorance truly is bliss. Too bad you'd miss out because you're too distrustful to have faith in people. The SAME people you try to convince non-geocachers are "really good people with the best interests of mother nature at heart". Worse yet, you guys put good ideas into a negative light by saying - in a public forum - that the idea is flawed because the potential for harm exists! Where is the potential for harm NOT present while geocaching? lol The Geocachers creed: #7; Protect the integrity of the game pieces. I guess that I'm foolish enough to actually BELIEVE in that. Too bad some people aren't buying what they're trying to sell. Sorry about the soapbox rant. I'm up at 4 am, with insomnia, yet again.

Well. Personally... And after discussing it with my fellow geek and geocacher (Slannesh), I'm tempted to go with the USB drive still. This way, geocaching cartoons, images, MP3s, and other things can be swapped and traded if desired. My fault here is I'm trying to appease the posters that got alarmed at the idea of having a USB drive in their laptops. Personally, I think it'd be a hoot to stick a USB drive in my laptop and seeing what folks have left. Like a virtual swag trade. If someone WAS to attack my laptop... There's nothing on it I can't lose and a full format and reinstall would take me all of an hour, thanks to imaging software.

Well. After much thought, here's how I think I'm going to do this. I have 2 nanocaches ready. I'll hide each, and label them as part 1 and part 2. Each will have half of a third coord. Get both halves, and they will direct you to a third cache. One that is VERY cleverly hidden. Once found, the third will contain a small, inexpensive SD card - if people don't want to put a media card in their laptop, then good. This cache is directed at people with enough computer skills to play the game without being paranoid about a virus. After all, SOME people still honour the geocachers creed. The SD card would be able to be read in a palm or other handheld device, virtually ALL handhelds have an SD card slot in them. For the FTF, there will be a notepad file with a "FTF coord", which they will save to their device (or otherwise record the coords) then delete from the card. At their conveinience, they go collect a 4th cache just for them. As for the media card being the log. It works kind of like the threads you see "the person above me". I will leave a file named "log keyword". The person to find the cache has to then include that keyword in their log online to confirm their find. That person then has to change the keyword on the card (IN CONJUNCTION with signing the log on the card) in order for the next person to log the cache, and in turn, they must do the same. And so on. And so on. Since it'll be clear in the published details that this particular cache is geared towards other geek cachers, and all the "stipulations" of the hunt will be crystal clear to begin with, only hopefully, only those whom the cache is geared towards will be the people hunting for it. People who don't want to have a "foreign" media card in their devices and still seek the cache will find there's NO pen or paper to log the cache in the field as the logbook will be on the SD card itself, and will have to be edited in a hand held or laptop. Simply put, if you don't want to play by the rules of the cache, don't hunt for it. If you don't log the SD card but log the find online, then that entry will be deleted. Anything I'm missing? Suggestions? Thanks to all for your input!

My wife and I very nearly DID quit because of more experienced geocachers in our area coming down on us with both feet. One of the very first geocaches we did was placed along a creek in a very rural area near the town in which we live. My wife, and my daughter who at the time was only a year and a half old, our two dogs and myself parked at the side of a highway that was not too busy, navigated our way over a small barbed wire fence that was meant to keepcattle off the highway, and had a very pleasant stroll along the creek. Saw some great wildlife, took some great photos, and otherwise, had a blast. The very first goy to log the cache was a COMPLETE jerk, took photos of everything negative he could find, complained about the life threatning barbed wire fences, how his kids "could have fallen in the creek and drowned", and basically ripped apart the cache, it's contents, (He removed many items that HE had decided were innapropriate - photographed them for the logs - and kept them for himself) and everything in between, right nown to the fact that there wasn't a paved parking lot available for him and his brood to get out and on their way without being mowed down mercilessly by heavy traffic. We can accept critisizm from people who are more experienced in the sport, no problem. But, when someone is malicious, mean, and act like a couple of trigger happy, over enthusiastic newbies treading on what is exclusively THEIR sport on THEIR turf... It gets my hackles up. To this day, I despise him and his little pack of clones. Luckily, the love of the game keeps us going, and we enjoy the hunt. Unfortunately, because this particular guy was friends with everyone else in the clique, we were pretty much ostrasized and made to feel VERY uncomfortable at meets and other functions. So, we just keep to ourselves, and do our own thing. Bottom line - there's always going to be people who get off on exerting their will on others, and being self appointed cops of whatever the common interests may be. I say, let 'em. If the only place people like that have any power in the universe is online and in some completely unimportant medium such as geocaching... I feel sorry for them.

Well, this particular cache would be a drive up cache. I'd make the media card, whatever kind it might be, (I only suggested USB because I happen to have one sitting on my desk that is a measly 128 meg, and is never used) it would be well hidden, and quite the challenge to find, as it would be cleverly disguised. I have the geocaches all made up and ready to go, just have to figure out exactly how to incorperate the media card. I want to make this a geeky kind of cache that would appeal to only a select handful of geeks..

Sure it would, if you were the ONLY premium member on the entire website. Premium members compose what? 50% of the users on geocaching.com? I think that makes it a fair playing field. Specifically, my original point was (and now I almost wish I hadn't made it at all) is that if my son was a cacher, and I put together a geocache and put a ftf price in it, set it up and then gave him the coords on monday, went with him and watched him find and log the cache (or he logged it at the same time I hid it) - then listed the cache on tuesday after I knew that he had logged it and claimed the FTF prize, that'd be... pointless. It wouldn't be a fair FTF hunt - especially if it happened several times. Personally, I could give a toot about FTF. I live too far away from civilization to be a FTF hunter. But, for other people that love the aspect of FTF (like some are about micros, some multis, some puzzles, etc) I just think it's in poor taste to cache this way. Especially if you look at the profile and it says that said person has "X" number of FTF's. That's like saying you're a fisherman when all you do is go to fish farms and catch trout in a barrel. *shrug*

Yet you seek out and open containers of various sizes and shapes, each capable of being disguised as a bomb, tainted blood in hypodermic needles, poisonous snakes or photos of horrifically obese women in thong bikinis. Odd.

I can't help but wonder if she looks at it and "tsk tsk"s, or if she would do what any geocacher would do and pick it up and carry it out? My guess is not. Prolly too busy carrying her nose in the air and writing letters poo-pooing something she's never tried, and has no understanding of. All while driving her gas burning, oil consuming, pollutant spewing Subaru.

Well, internet access is not required in order for my idea to work. I'm thinking of hiding two seperate nanocaches... Each with a rolled up piece of paper inside. One side will be the "log" (A place to write the date and initials) and on the other side, half of a third co-ord. Find the two seperate, and they will lead to a third, an inexpensive USB thumbdrive. You would then place a .txt log on the thumbdrive as proof that you'd found it. The log would be ON the drive. then, you could download a small .jpg file from the drive that would be added to the photo section of the log on geocaching.com. Just an idea. I'm trying to figure out how to make the whole thing work, but... being that it uses a thumbdrive, and somewhat valueable, I'm sure it wouldn't take long to be muggled. Any suggestions?

Go hide a geocache on the lawn of the white house. I bet you'd get LOTS of attention then. lol

I'm working on a rather unique geocache idea that would require use of a laptop computer. To get an idea of practicality, I'm asking how many geocachers own laptops that they can take with them and use while out hunting? Thanks!

Ouch. Bitter much? Overdosed on nosexatall? Or just enjoying a chance to be hostile? I'd say get out more, but.. Apparently you have. FTF aren't your thing. Yay. Collect your cookie on your way out. But for those who DO enjoy it.... It's a valid query. Anyways... Back to the topic at hand.. The reason I asked, is not because I feel anyone has been cheated out of the first to find, but more because when I read a logbook, and see the first to find prize was claimed by a family member, or a friend, or someone who had been given the coords before the location was published, it seems to me to be completely outside the nature of the FTF idea. Like I said. It's not a "I'm mad because there's injustice in the works!", just a curious observation. Seems kind of redundant to me. *shrug*