DocWahala
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Posts posted by DocWahala
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Perhaps more fun than stamp collecting? sure, the artwork is great, but the feel is always the same.
Perhaps because it is easier to trade geocoins than it is to trade collectible LPs and 45s. (anyone still have a store nearby dedicated to just the old collectibles?)
Perhaps more fun than being a die-hard Nascar fan (which I happen to be) lets face it, geocoins do more than just go in circles from left to right, and don't leave my ears ringing for three days.
Perhaps we collect because its just a great way to kick start the economy and get through the recession? (Ok - Im stretching it a bit), but let's face it, at $10 a pop (x3 if you buy some to trade and some to release), we just gottaaaaaa be doing something for the economy.
At the end of the day - we collect because it is fun to do, and every time we open mailbox and see a bubble-mailer, you have to admit, it feels like Christmas!
DocWahala
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Please post ONE of the following:
2. What theme you collect around
Well, I don't yet have a picture of my favorite coin, so I'll start with
Question #2 -theme.
Unique Artwork - very particular about this, not just the detail, but something which demonstrates the coin designer is an artist as well.
Creative association with the Cache experience - Tick Attack, Caching Memories, Cacheola, etc
Navigation - I used to run in the Orienteering excercises when I was in the army. GPS is just the nexgt generation after compas/map reading, which owes its roots to things like the astrolabe.
State coins - but only if I discovered a cache in the state.
Military - was an important part of my life, will continue to collect these since there are not that many.
Christian theme - another important area of my life - again, not hard to collect, since there are not very many options.
Well, those are my themes. And like most other collectors, my "Dream List" will always be longer than my "I finally have it" list!
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Now, where can I get 63000 film canisters?
Why can't we just photo copy the canister, laminate it, and call it a proxy canister?
DocWahala
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I can offer two choices (or both). England... Nigeria. Give me another two/three months, and I can have one taken to Singapore.
DocWahala
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Hi,
I am looking for trackable unactivated Christian geocoins such as The Ultimate Cache geocoin and the Ultimate Waypoint geocoin, Christ Centered geocoins, Cachers4Christ geocoins...
Interesting! I just happen to be in an email convo about coin design, and I just mentioned the theme I want to stay focused on, is Christian themed coins. I five different coins in various stages of development, (in fact, the first is about to have the manufacturer proof approved, so I can get samples made).
Send a PM to my GC profile - will keep you posted.
DocWahala
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Share some gas money and we can drive over, I mean, after the rest of those 63,000 nanos lined up in the ditch
I get it, I pay half the gas, do half the driving while you harvest all the nanos and not have a life, do you really think that's fair?
I'm on to you, you are trying to get me to help you get some of my nanos stuck in your tires, I'm watching you.
Darn, now I have to go find that tinfoil hat I keep for protection.
I thought that was the idea of caching? to come up with new ways of racking up never to be repeated numbers. 63,000 caches? How can I not resist? In fact, to get a record like that, I would probably weld some form of scoop to the front of the truck, so it can just shovel them up and force feed them into the bed of the truck, where I would be paying three starving college students to spend all day putting on pre-printed stickers with "SL-DW!" and they could just throw them right over the side.
Since it combines so many of the power-cache tecnhniques and adds more, would have to come up with a new name for this technique. How about Power-Vacuum-leapfrogging-with-starving-students?
Big numbers means youhave to think big! That's what it is all about. don't let anyone fool you with words like "History", "Scenery" "Challenging to find". No...it's all about getting in the record book, and maybe scoring a big fat endorsement contract with Michellin and Jeep. Maybe even a cover spot on the Wheaties box.
DocWahala
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I would be very diligent and place them well down in the ditch and through the nearest available culvert under the road so they wouldn't get stuck in your tires. I'm assuming you dont drive in the ditch very often.
Now where's the fun in having a truck with great big wheels if I canna drive in the ditch?
If you wanna drive inna ditch, go ahead, but this is my ditch, stay outta my ditch.
Share some gas money and we can drive over, I mean, after the rest of those 63,000 nanos lined up in the ditch
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I guess if you were wanting TPTB to have a bit of heads up on what their competitor is up to, that wasn't a bad thing to do.
Now, I know a lot can be said about ostriches and keeping the head in the sand and not wanting to acknowledge competitors. Funny thing about the Free Market, trying to hide the fact that there are competitors has never been too successful. Look at GM and then look at Toyota. Look at Texas Instruments and then look at Del.
But seriously, I donna believe this is what is going on. Same Free Market forces punish businesses that make it a regular practice to let the consumer bring in outside source. Ever try to bring food into a movie theater? Heck, airlines won't let you bring your own bottle of whiskey, but have no problem charging big dollars for those tiny bottles they have.
No need to drop geocaching. Something like that reminds me of another country saying "dont throw the baby out with the bathwater". Wouldnt stop driving just because GM won't sell you any Toyota parts, would you?
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I would be very diligent and place them well down in the ditch and through the nearest available culvert under the road so they wouldn't get stuck in your tires. I'm assuming you dont drive in the ditch very often.
Now where's the fun in having a truck with great big wheels if I canna drive in the ditch?
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I have to say I'm starting to warm to the idea of reducing or even removing the limitations presently in place.
What say we line up micros or even nanos end to end, as far as the eye can see or until the gas tank runs out or our endurance fails.
this way we could have 63360 caches per mile or more if the nanos were less than an inch.
No logs to sign, no hiding, no online logs to enter, no effort and no life to live, but WOW, we could rack up the numbers, after all, numbers are the omly thing of importance here isn't it?
And in case you haven't picked up on it yet, Yes, I am being sarcastic.
Eventually, one of those 63,000 nanos would get stuck in my truck's tire and cause a flat, then I wouldn't be able to finish driving that power trail.
Whoops.... I don't think it would have been a good idea to put those nanos so close to the road.
DocWahala
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No secret. What I am doing is called an "Atmega standalone." You buy a bootloaded Atmega328 from Sparkfun for $5.50, and pop it in your Arduino and program and test as usual. My other parts are a $1.50 blank circuit board from Radio Shack, a $1.00 ceramic resonator from Sparkfun, and a $1.50 battery holder from Jameco. The rest of the circuit is just a handful of cheap red LEDs and current limiting resistors, which cost next to nothing, and a diode in case someone puts the batteries in backwards. I had a lot of this stuff from other projects. For my application (persistence of vision display) I made two of these gadgets for a total of about $20. Oh, I'm using Altoids tins for enclosures and will put those inside lock-n-locks.
You might enjoy this website: http://electricgeocaching.blogspot.com/
I love Sparkfun! I will be including a Sparkfun pocket protector as an FTF prize!
Ceramic Resonator? Limiting resistorts? Neutrino? Quasar? Great, I really am a dinosaur, with my ammo can and the pressure switch from a Hallmark card which sings "Who let the dogs out".
DocWahala
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Repetitive caching is something that cache seekers do, not cache placers. No one forced you to go find 100 identical caches. You could have actually just gone and found one. That one cache that you found would not be identicle to any other caches that you found that day.
Repetitive caching is something not done by cache placers? So...ET Alley really was created by forces unknown?
Caching is like Skiing. This Freestyle, Bunny Runs, Black Diamond. Salom, and even cross country. And then there are those people who somehow figured out a surfboard would be a great way to change skiing.
Point is - All caching is caching, but not all caching is the same caching for all cachers. (ok...just had a Buddha moment).
DocWahala
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You guys are forgetting one thing. With a multi there is no need to stop and sign logs at the intermediate stages. Those stages could be any sort of director with no requirement to even stop and log. Imagine the possibilities! I'm very enthusiastic about this idea. It has taken me nearly 10 years to rack up 800 finds. I can double that number in two minutes! This might be the best thing to come to geocaching since ammo boxes.
Heck they could be "virtual" stages to a multi. I'm going to create a new multi-smile trail and call it "All the Mile Markers on I-65 North and South-bound"! I hope your enthusiasm is now at least doubled if not goodropled!
Heck, I'm not even thinking big enough for my own brain! It could be "All the Random White Reflectors on I-65 North and South-bound"!!!
The last idea has the making of a good Virtual Power Run. OOoooohhh... VPR!! Now that's a concept!
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It would be a start if cache owners would bring their caches' trackable inventories up to date when they visit their caches to do maintenance, but many COs don't feel that it's part of a CO's "job" to do such checking.
Mrs B you are right, it would be a good start. But it realies on "if". IF..COs would do maintenance. In my local area, for those who have placed 5+ cache, I know which COs not only take the time to do maintenance runs, they also post a log. I also know which ones appear to have decided all of 2010 just was not their year to do anything with cachingand haven't logged on.
the HormanClan is dead on - the most up to date info would come from the seekers. And how hard would it be to click a button when we are filling out the survey?
And why not just come up with another icon for seekers to use? Maybe a TB with a Question mark on it. TPTB made one for Need Maintenance, Needs Archive, and Coordinates update - perhaps make one for TB updates.
He's also right about the game being 99% good.... it is that 1% difference... which is often the difference between "good" and "excellent".
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My five year old goes by the name WahalaKid. Ever since he could talk, he named our van "Nelly Bell". But when we go caching, he calls it "The Wahala Machine". And now that I've added a Tom-Tom to the dashboard when I go caching, he likes to tell his paw-paw "Nelly Bell is like the Red Power Ranger. She changes her name to Wahala Machine and she can talk! Really Paw paw. Thats true Paw Paw!"
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It was kind of interesting reading the feedback forum. A number of people who voted for the suggestion thought that the CO would be able to block people from seeing their cache (a foil against FTF hounds) and that isn't the quesiton.
However it does have 193 votes so is more popular than I thought it would be.
No...it is now up to 201 votes (I also gave it +3). it is also "prioritized", so maybe something may come out of it.
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Laugh...
What makes it even funnier are the type of conversations the cache maggot will have to endure...
Employer: Thanks for applying Mr X... I notice you checked "criminal conviction"... care to explain that?
Mr X: Uh..yes...I was arrested for stealing a tupperware container.
Employer: And why would you do that?
Mr X: uh... I wanted the free stickers and key chains inside
Employer: I see...well..... thanks for applying.
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This person has been doing this since September of 2010 and shows no signs of stopping. We have lost a large # of caches to this person. And we are otherwise ignoring him and not saying anything - just quietly replacing caches... and caches keep getting stolen and replaced with that "geotrash" sticker.
Ignoring the problem will not make it go away. Giving it the right kind of attention, however, will.
I agree.
Not going to tell anyone how to deal with cache maggots. I do know this, some folks have their priorities wrong. Eco-sensitive areas? A popular cache is going to cause a trail to get laid down. But then again, the eco-clowns won't be happy until only "the enlightened" are allowed to appreciate nature.
I guess they never figure that it is because of things like geocaching, that the next generation even knows that there are reasons for putting down the Play Station and getting up off the coach.
Thanks Geocaching.com - you've helped me come to appreciate nature. Not "Forrest Defenders" and his make believe army of followers.
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Updated trails for 2011 coming up in the next couple weeks. A few projects got nixed but a couple are set up for spring. If anyone knows of any active, upcoming, or proposed geotrails with geocoin rewards, post in this thread.
Would be very intersted in seeing the list. When I first read this, I thought of a Challenge the Mississippi Geocachers Association is working on with the Blues Trail. Is there a link with more information? I really like the part about issuing passports.
I would like to share more about this with MSGA... maybe we can get something from MS added to the list.
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I should also note that the root issue isn't as much that TBs go missing - that will happen. Rather, that part of it going missing is that it seems to leave a trail of bad information - and the technology exists to fix that.
It doesn't keep bugs from going missing, but would improve the accuracy of the information once it does.
Exactly what I'm hoping for, a solution not to fix the issue of bugs being stolen or "misplaced" but a way to fix the misinformation. If lazy CO's or bug owners wont do it, allow those of us that want to help do it!
The both of you are correct... since this is nothing more than a large database, the coders should be able to develop the logic-strings to do this. And I do know a bit about managing large information systems. When you have 600 people spread out from Ivory Coast to South Africa, operating in 6 different drilling units, my management systems have to be both effective and efficient.
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The above suggestion IMHO would lead to an extreme slowdown of travel bug travel. No one is going to go to all that trouble to log a traveler. Given the amount of TB;s that go through my Stargate if I had to do all that to log them through I would close it.
And why would it slow anything down? We already have a drop down for "Found/DNF/Log", there is a field for writing logs (which most just type "TFTC". How many more milliseconds would it take to click another button as part of a 3 question survey?
Also curious...why would the CO be writing the logs? Ok..granted, Stargate might be different, but of the 1.25 million caches, how many fit the Stargate model?
The whole missing bug thing is something that has to be gotten used to.
No we don't. It's a part of the game which is a negative. If "get used to it" was the only response, there would be no point in having Forums, or ever looking to make improvements. Name one sport doesn't change how it is conducted? (ok...chess is not a sport...but I will keep petioning TPTB to let me have more knights)
Also your suggestion about hand-off when you give it to someone else won't be received well since that is generally discouraged.
Generally discouraged, but then again, there is the "discover" for Geocoins. Why go hunt caches for coin icons, when I can go to a coin event and "discover" another 100 coins in one day.
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A few thoughts from a complete noob:
Which leads to thought #2:
Include a question, both from home and on the portables, that asks each cache logger if they saw/took/left any trackables.
So it might be a message like "Congrats on your find and thanks for logging this cache. We show that the 'Bug of Bugs' trackable was in the cache...did you
a ) see it and leave it
b ) see it and take it
c ) didn't see it at all"
If they choose b, then give them a note saying to move it along, etc. otherwise a simple thank you to the logger and then a status update to the trackable.
Likewise, it might proactively ask if they left a trackable and lead them into the logging part.
Now that's a good suggestion. Maybe with a little prayer, someone from the TPTB might see this and will see what a positive change that would bring.
In the meantime, until TPTB add one step to the logging process, it will be up to the cachers to let others know the TB is no longer there. So....let's keep capturing it in the logs we write.
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Agreed. Many do mention in their logs, not as many add the same note to the TB/geocoin page (they should, but probably do not realize that they should -- believing that the log notation will suffice).
You see, it is at this point that the next (broken) link in the chain rears its' ugly head -- A LOT of cache owners do not know that THEY can move the trackable to missing, or they do not feel that it is their responsibility, and therefore pass on the maneuver.
The point about leaving a note in both the log and the TB is a good one. Have to be honest, I've missed on that step. But I wont anymore.
As for CO passing on their resposibility... I agree. But there is a simple fix on that one...as a cacher I can leave a NM flag, or even a NA if necessary. What if there was a TB-Missing flag? As a cacher, if the log is trashed, I owe it to the CO to let him know. As a CO, I dont want a NM flag hanging on my cache page.
Seems the flag has a way of "motivating" both the seeker and the CO to do something about that TB icon that has sat on the page for better part of a year.
Personally, I think TBTB should remove the TB flag from the cache list. With it, some folks focus on only visiting the cache to GET something from the inside, never mind going there for the journey, the thrill of the hunt, the scenery, etc etc and the many reasons CO put up cache. And what happens when they get there and find no TB - disappointment. Again, the thrill of the hunt has been negated, the scenery around means nothing.... just "I wasted my time!"
And if those icons were removed, then maybe we could give Geocoins a halfway decent chance of surviving out in the wild.
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Well, an easy fix, or at least a help, would be if everyone would log that the item is missing. Seems around here, no one is doing it...
Like I said before, I have a watchlist for caches in my area that are still on my hunt list. Based on what I've seen logged on those, and the 9 caches I own, I would say "log ettiquete" has gone the way of the macro-log. Better than 2/3 now just hit one key on their paperless cache and leave "TFTC". Wow.. that says soooooo much.....
fair use and copyright decision
in Trackables
Posted
Interesting thread, especially with my most recent experience with this question as it pertains to gel pins. A few weeks ago, I asked someone to look at a possible coin idea. I sent two drawings, one was a fine line drawing and the other was done in charcoal.
The response back was along the line of no matter how much I had changed my drawing, I was violating copyright laws.
Interesting, because this was not a case of one drawing being based on the other. Also interesting because the drawings were works I had commissioned a regional artist to do for me, with the explicit understanding the drawings would be used as the basis for a geocoin, in which I was invoiced for, and our contract addresses this as well.
As the owner of the artwork, I know I would not want someone to financially gain from something I have invested time and money in. As I am not a graduate of Juliard, even though I know I can draw, I am still going to pay someone else to do the finer work. I also know I am not going to be retiring from my day job, not on coin sales.
It is the coins which are so clearly a copyright ,knockoff that make me laugh. Just run the word "star" - (stargaze, star wars, star trek) and see how many copies there are.
And let's not get started on co-defendants.
Lesson - stay away from copying, unless absolutely sure it it public domain. That, and work with the graphic artist department of the manufacturer.
DocWahala