Haughton's Hunters
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Posts posted by Haughton's Hunters
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Use a program caller GPX Sonar to view the cache details from the .GPX file that you get from pocket Queries. Also the PPC version of cachemate works great for this. Either way - the PPC is a great platform for paperless. Bad news is that you may be sorry the first/only time you drop your expensive device into a mud puddle while out on the trail. Keep it protected.
Thanks all, and I have thought about the dropping it problem. But it will not be my GPS, but carried just like my current phone is, and I have never dropped it while caching yet.
I'm leaning towards the Q because I will also have the unlimited data plan (thanks to the office), so I won't need the programs such as cachemate or GPX Sonar since as long as I have signal, I can go to geocaching.com and look at the page live. Kind of like when I used the company's Verizon broadband card for the laptop on the way back from California. If it had a signal, I'd fire it up, connect and search for caches and log caches too. Very convenient.
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Ok, so I'm going to be upgrading my phone to a "smart phone" soon.
My options are either:
Motorola Q, which has Windows Mobile 5.0 OS for smartphone
or
Samsung SCH-i730, which has Windows Mobile 2003 Pocket PC 2nd edition
Anyone have any idea which would work better? Does one OS have better programs that can be run on them for caching? Of course I can always just browse to geocaching.com with the browser on either model, but that only works if you have signal.
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I got home from work today and found a coin envelope in the mail. This one had been mailed back in November of last year. That in itself is was enough to raise my eyebrows. Unfortunately this was one I had mailed out as a trade and was being returned as being undeliverable.
I have just emailed the intended recipient to let him know I was remailing the coin again and to confirm his address. But it makes me wonder what happened to the envelope in the meantime. Does it really take 4 months to return something to the sender when they can't deliver it for some reason?? Did it lay in the bottom of some dead letter box for that long?? I think the post office was playing frisbee with it. Hopefully this time the person will get the trade.
We got a package back almost 1 year later from the post office with a hand written post it note on it from the postmaster saying "Found in the bottom of a supposedly empty mail bag". We had already sent a replacement set, so that was not an issue. The package (with note attached) now sits on one of our shelves that we chuckle at on occasion.
So, does it happen? Yep, we had a 4"x4"x4" box that it took the USPS almost a year to find and deliver.
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From the GSA's page, still no drops in Arizona....is that trench coat too hot for our desert? If so, there are several people here that would be willing to be sworn to secrecy to help you place some...
Patiently (oh who am I kidding, I want one now!
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I was able to find coin#22 at Myrtle Beach last summer ... I didn't know what it was but I sure am glad to have it now!!! I like the idea to make it into a travel bug to be discovered at events... although, I don't think I could stand to drill a hole in it.. will come up with another way to do so.
bone shaker
You could probably purchase one of those air tight containers that is too big and drill a hole in that. It's a 1.5" coin, so buy a 1.75" or 2" air tight and drill a hole in it then place the coin in that. That would probably work well.
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I know CrazyCaveLover drove from N. California to Phoenix AZ to get a Geocoin Fairy coin. In a large SUV (Escalade was it?). Lots of time, lots of gas. Way more interested in the coin than I would be. I don't know that I'd drive an hour. Maybe if I knew 100% the coin would be there when I got there, but it seems like coins go missing more and more.
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Cool deal! GCF is back in action! This was quite a fun thread there for awhile, I'd love to see it picked back up and more of those coins dropped!
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The logo is mine, and I allow the charity to use it (as the founder member). There is no copyright on the logo at this time.
I have started to amend the coin to be my full logo on the front
But I am trying to find a black sillohuette of a collie and then put an orange jacket on it for the rear. I have lots of photos but not many clipart type images!
Try clipart.com, their images are royalty free. Of course..you have to pay for a subscription, but then you can use their images to your hearts content.
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I have a friend who has a website with pictures,
and if you right click to save the picture, it pops up a windows box that says the photograph belongs
to them, and you are unable to obtain it. I wonder if something like this is a possible option?
NOooooooooo.... please don't do this as it is the one feature that i hate the most.
Nothing worse than wanting to open a page in a new window or new tab and the site will not let you......or it will be set for new_window when i would prefer new_tab to keep my computer session manageable.Whilst people may want to protect images from inexperienced users, it also disables right-clicking of links. Better have some server-side protection if at all.
mm
I got an email form Hirlas that he actually has done this as another temporary stop-gap.
As for navigating, holding the CTRL key while clicking a link opens it in a new tab and holding SHIFT while clicking opens it in a new windows. I think it matters that those are both the left side keys but I'm not sure.
I've done that for a long time now..well, at least the SHIFT since tabbed browsing just started recently.
wgaskins - Very good point, perhaps just a background with our name repeated on it will work. Trying to place it in a specific location won't work because of odd shaped coins. Something we'll certainly look at...
911Turbos, thank you very much for your offer. That is one idea we're looking at. Our web guy has done this type of thing before on other sites, so we will most likely be implementing it on the new version. Our problem is the time between now and then. As stated the code that is up there is written as ASP and using Microsoft Access for the database. These are two programs that, sorry to say, none of us are familiar with. We know enough to keep it going, but changing the information around on is something completely different. Instead of taking the time to dig through to change it all around, we figure the new version is a better place to spend our time. New version will be PHP driven with the DB in mySQL. Should be faster and we'll have more control on how everything looks.
I promise you all, we are working on it and at ways to keep the coins looking nice on the page.
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We are used to doing web design, so I think we will stick with a page on our site for now - but we do enjoy the photos. (Not enough to pay to see them - but they are nice! LOL)
How about a transparent watermark? We use them all the time for our photography - they allow you to view the image, but are DISTINCTLY watermarked.
Certainly one of the options we are looking at. As I said, I will be working on a few different options, possibly even a "hidden" watermark that is virtually invisible, but my only thought with doing that is it won't deter use of the image if you can't see it. We're looking at options that don't detract from the coin image itself, at least not too much, but still deters people from using it because of it.
As for the software in question that glennk721 brought up, this is not the reason for the watermark, just an unfortunate coincidence in timing.
Our biggest problem is the direct linking.
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Thank you all for your comments and concerns.
Here's the deal. The back button was exposed a potential risk on the site. We have disabled it for the time being. As the programing that is in place is not ours, trying to fix it correctly is almost impossible. So we did what we could for a temporary fix. We are sorry for the inconvenience, but with any luck at all, we are only a couple weeks away from the new version, but that is of course with luck, and as with any software, it always seems to take longer than expected.
As for the watermarks. Our biggest offenders were a few sites in the Netherlands. They had image sites (and probably still do) that did nothing but server our images to their visitors. One site was apparently pretty popular as he was using about 25% of our bandwidth. We have asked many people many times to please NOT link like that, but they still do. Ebay is obviously another issue. Every search that shows a small icon is grabbing the same bandwidth as the full image, because it is the full image, just resized. So it's not just user that view those auctions, it is the auction being shown in a search result.
We have a couple options on this for the new server and software. One is IP blocking, one is server side linking only, and one is to have watermarked images for non-paying customers only, paying customers would get to see the non-watermarked images.
As stated on our forums, if users had just asked permission and worked with us, it would have been fine. Our policy was always, use the pictures, but download them and upload them to your server, don't use our bandwidth.
Are the watermarks temporary? Yes. In fact, if I get time this weekend, I will make a few sample watermarks and let the participating members of our forums vote on which they like the best. Then we can update all the images with the new watermark that the community has agreed on.
If you have any other questions or concerns about the images or our site, please let us know. Either email us directly or ask in our forums as we don't get here as often as we'd like and we may miss a thread.
Brian Allen aka Haughton
GeoCoins.net
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Well Brian, as I'm sure Jake may have told you, of course I would need one.
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Hiya Everyone! I'm in Phoenix, delayed on my way to Cali. Snow storms back home, thunder storms out here. I'm hoping to be in Cali by 10PM PST. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. And, FYI, I left home today at 9 EST. Only 16 hours travel time
Imagine that. me too. only i'm leaving Friday morning to drive there...
Ditto, but from Chandler/Tempe.
Hirlas and I will be heading out Saturday AM from Tempe/Scottsdale....
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Try geocoins.net. They have some metal tokens that can be inscribed with you team name.
Still have to use a TBug tag, or inscribe the TBug number on them to make them trackable. But, they are very nice. We just got some made for our geo pup.
Thats a good idea. Just need to find a non-trackable coin that has room for team name and TB # without taking away from the design. Something to ponder in any case. Thanks.
A custom coin can be done that you design as well that allows for your TB code to be placed on the coin wherever you want if you can't find a stock design you like.
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One way to rotect yourself is in the numbering process. When we did the PA state coin, we settled for a number system that does as a result protect against this. We didn't do it for this reaason as we trusted our coin vendor very much and still do, but rather we did it out of uniqueness. After the tracking code we had additional letters and numbers. B for Bronze, G for gold, plus the coin number in the series. B001 was Bronze number 1, and so on. Maybe this is something simple people can do to protect themselves? Sadly it has come to this but it might be the most simple way to know a person isn't minting more coins than you allowed or agreed upon.
Great point! My future coins will have tracking numbers on them to help prevent this (although this doesn't eliminate the problem altogether). It adds to the cost of producing a coin so in the past I didn't feel it was worth it. I now think it is worth it.
...Anthus
I don't think it's worth the $1.50 per coin, but as far as sequentially numbering, that is a fine thing. Of course, my coins are numbered, and there were extras out there...they were trackable as well. But both areas (to the best of my knowledge) are blank on the additional coins. So, how did it protect me? It didn't. All it did do is make the person trading one state that it was un-numbered/non-trackable. Which SHOULD throw up a red flag to the person wanting to trade for it.
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Third, I have recognized and will again that the trading was a mistake in judgment. I am not sure if it has been explicitly apologized for. If not, we certainly apologize for this. It was an error in judgment, we all have them.
Thank you Mike. This is indeed a great start. I have not heard from you yet, but as you post states, I believe I can expect to hear from you.
Have you (the Geocoin Store, LLC) thought about try to contact everyone that these coins were traded to and get them back. Of course this could be a problem as well as the person may have traded them away or placed a value on them above and beyond the "normal" value.
Just curious what thoughts there were about that.
Again, thank you for the public apology and the fact that you will be making changes to your policy. As I said, it's a a good first step in the right direction.
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I wish this thread would disappear.
Simple fix, don't read it. It affects enough cachers out there that it should not be locked. Also, new coin collectors should be aware of this situation as well in the event they want to have a coin made.
Here's another idea, if you're still in the Geocoin Club, cancel your subscriptioin (I did for this and other reasons). Also, don't shop there, don't buy another Signal coin or anything else they produce. This is the third or fourth issue to come to light about the Geocoin Store. Let me refresh your memories;
Not a member, and won't buy from or have a coin made by them again. So far they have done absolutely nothing to appease those affected. Even the email from Mike to Anthus was "here's the name of the mint that has your dies, you deal with it." Nice customer service. I would have at the BARE minimum come in and apologized and made a change to our policy. They have not done any of that to the best of my knowledge. They have no responded here, and I have not been contacted about it by them.
Here's a question I have, were the coins in question (Anthus and HH, etc) produced as part of their "subsidized coin plan" - remember that, where they would help pick up the cost for making your coin, do the distribution etc???
Yes, as has been stated all coins that were affected appear to be "subsidized" coins. However, that does not mean they can make as many as they want! Are you not thinking clearly? As stated, I'm don't believe I have my agreement with them any longer, I don't believe I ever printed it out, my bad. However, I don't recall ever seeing anything in there about allowing them to create extras.
Again, I would not have minded them making 2 or possibly 3 extras. But not 15, there's no need for that.
Arrrgg..I'm still stuck on you thinking it's OK because they subsidized it. I don't see how this is logical in your mind. You think that if someone subsidizes the cost of something for you that gives them the right to make as many as they want for their purposes? How about if they wanted a different finish, so made them all different than that I had ordered? Would that be OK?
I don't get it.
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As one of their customers that had unauthorized coins made, I want to state that I have personally heard nothing from Mike, Bjorn74 or Rusty. Only what was posted here.
Has anyone else involved heard from one of those three personally?
As with others, I invite Mike, Bjorn74 and Rusty to speak their side on this. I would like to hear how they thought what they were doing was OK. And most importantly, I would like (as I'm sure every other affected customer would) 13 of the 15 "extra" coins made. Or at the least, 12 off them, that would give each of them one. 13 would be better, giving them one for the company portfolio and one for a traveling portfolio.
But I would like to hear something. At the absolute least, an apology from each of them would be nice.
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Got my order in as well! Glad I was up tonight, I would have hated to miss that!
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if they had asked for 15 more coins to be made for them I would have said "feel free to do that",
I think this is the biggest point. IF they had asked. But they didn't, at least they did not ask Anthus, and I don't recall seeing it in my agreement, though it may have been.
And as footTrax stated, if anyone has any of my coins that are not numbered, please contact me. I would like to get them out of circulation if possible.
And Cornerstone4...I understood IT immediately!
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At my request last night Moop Along contacted Bjorn74 last night and asked him to remove my unauthorized Anthus Firefighter from his list. Bjorn74 promptly did that. Looks like he is just now removing the rest of them from his list.
I urge the collecting community not to trade for these unauthorized coins. This type trading is unethical, poor business practice, and devalues geocoins!
Yes, I just looked and his list no longer has any "untrackable" or "unnumbered" coins in it. It's down 62 coins in total for his traders. On the Keeping list however, I never looked at the number so I don't know if there were any listed in there or not.
It's a good first step at least.
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BTW,
Last night, I also informed Bryan from Groundspeak that there were un-numbered/non-trackable Signal coins on Bjorn74's trading list. He is aware of this situation.
...Anthus
Yes, I saw those.
Please let us know what happens with the requesting of you dies. I don't know if you will get them or not, but I'm certainly curious.
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What is different is the trading. It seemed innocent when it started and, I suspect, will not continue once the owner of the trading list wakes up and discovers what an outcry it's generated. I'm certain Bjorn never anticipated this kind of reaction or he never would have posted them in the first place. Over time, for a successful company, sample coins are like tribbles. They just keep multiplying. So, without malicious intent, some were listed for trade to "thin the herd". Poor decision? Yeah. At the time it seemed harmless. I even thought I'd do the same. In retrospect - not a great idea to trade them. A practice I hope and expect will be suspended as soon as the list owner awakens in the morning to my email requests.
Ok, so here's an idea. Since MY coins are on his list also, I have to say as happy as I was when I had two different coins made through Rusty (one by the geocoinstore and one straight through Rusty), I am no longer happy with that company and don't see me ever using them again. Sorry.
BUT, if you wanted to "thin the herd", how about contacting the original purchaser and offering them to that person?
I have both my Haughton's Hunters coins on Bjorn74's list, both are listed as "unnumbered" and he is showing 2 for trade. Tell you what..I'll take them off his hands, and yours Mike and if Rusty has any he wants to "get rid of".
You guys were great working with me on my coin as it did not sell as well as was hoped and you made me a great deal. I have since then recommended to you anyone that asked about making coins and even had our GeoCoins.net Member Only coin made through you. Should I assume that there are 15 of each finish of those out there as well? Bjorn doesn't have any on it list, but does that mean he likes them or he already traded his two "extras" out?
I also don't see why you would need 5 in your portfolio. 1 each would be enough. And then only if you are meeting clients at their location. Which I would guess you are not, but I could be wrong. I would say two extra would be sufficient. One set for the office to show clients and one for a "traveling" portfolio for when you meet with clients. But 5? I don't see the need for 5 coins, but that's me.
If you make samples at all - your really can't condemn us for the same. The trading was bad judgment, but I think that will be corrected at the earliest opportunity.
A sample is OK, or ONE sample per partner...IF you don't just add these to the customers bill and they are NEVER given out/traded/sold. Technically Bjorn is profiting off these coins..at least potentially. He's trading them for other coins and he can then sell those coins or trade them for others.
I see these "worthless" coins as you call them, a minting error. And look at what happens to US coins when there is a minting error. They skyrocket in value.
I'm not upset at the fact that you make extra coins for each of you. What I am upset about is that you make 5 for each of you. There is no reason that I can see that you would need more than 1 for your portfolio. If they are "worthless" in your opinion, then why do you need 5? They are all identical, so it's not like you're going to show 5 coins to a customer and say "And we can make a coin like this". Now, I'm going to show you ONE coin and say here's an example of what we can do.
This is truly a unfortunate turn of events, and I would have to hazard a guess that this may be the fall of your business as many of your customers here won't be able to trust you any longer. I personally am very upset to see my coins up on his list. I don't see any GeoCoins.net Member Only coins, but that doesn't mean they weren't made, just that they are not currently on his list. Maybe he already traded them out? Maybe he gave them away. I don't know if they were made or not, and I don't like it.
As I stated before, if you have "extra" of my coins or the GeoCoins.net MO coins, we'll be happy to take them off your hands. Offering them to the public is inappropriate.
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I'm a her, lol. I'm not sure why most people think dorkfish is a guy, but I promise I'm not one.
I just double checked & you paid for two coins. Congrats on one of the LE's. Did you get a glow coin or an antique silver?
Got mine here in AZ. They do look great, and I got 1 regular and 1 LE. I think I got the bonus coin because I don't recall paying for two coins!
Lucky day! Thank you Mr. Fish (I just don't feel right calling you Dork)
Sorry about the gender mixup. I think it's less a name thing than a hobby thing. For some reason, and I can't say why, but coin collecting seems more like a male thing to me. Though I KNOW there are many women collection geocoins (yes..as well as other coins).
As for the coins, if I paid for 2, then I didn't get a bonus. I thought I had purchased one so when two showed up, I figured I had gotten one of the bonus LEs.
OK, editing to add this...
I will also be producing a small amount of LE coins, half of these coins will be mixed in with the black nickel coins & randomly included with orders of 2 or more coins.
So, it looks like I DID get an LE if I'm seeing this right. Apparently it's not that I would have gotten 3 coins, I just would have gotten an LE and a "standard". Well, I have a black nickel and an Antique Silver LE. I don't see any GITD ink on it, and the edges are definitely AS.
Thanks!
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Thanks for the info!