MrCJDL
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Posts posted by MrCJDL
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I take my dog with me, in case I run into any hungry wildebeast, wolves, bears... hedgehogs... no, the scariest thing we're likely to run into on the train around here is one of these:
At which point, the dog will bark and run away
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Ok, so having looked into this a bit further... it seems that the EU in their infinite wisdom did decide that US registered business selling 'e-services' to an EU consumer (or non-business) customer, needs to charge VAT. Depending what research you do, they are either supposed to charge the prevailing rate of VAT in the state that their customer is resident in... or they are supposed to be registered in an EU country, and charge that VAT rate. Regardless of this, I still call BS on the VAT argument.... it's a price-hike and that's it - if they show me their VAT registration number, and proof of vat payments to an EU VAT authority, then maybe I'll believe them.
As for me, luckily I run my own business, so I think my company will be purchasing my PM (VAT free), and it'll then be selling it to me at the one-off special rate of £0.01 (including VAT).
Alternatively, I may feel the need to move to America come renewal day ! Alternatively again, I may just not bother renewing.
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Er, yeah, you're right, my eyes glazed over with rage. ha.
Interestingly, NATO Secretary General George Robertson 1999-2003 signed the Claim of Right, reaffirming the sovereignty of the Scottish people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claim_of_Right_1989
And yes, I'm already a fully paid up member... the sooner we get rid of the ball and chain that is Westminster, the better. I sense this is about to descend into a political argument , so I'm going to bow out now... after saying: I agree with the OP !
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The United Kingdom is a sovereign state. England, Wales, and Scotland are not sovereign states. North America is not a sovereign state.
This offends me. Whilst, after the treaties of 1706 & 1707 (passed by skullduggery and bribery) The United Kingdom came into being as a sovereign state... Scotland is still a Sovereign nation... it did not cease to exist, it simply joined a political union with England. More to the point, the people of Scotland are sovereign. See Declaration of Arbroath [1320] (US Declaration of Independence has roots in this document).
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I'm sorry to say that you guys seriously need to get better tax/legal/accounting advice.
As far as I remember, the last time I purchased Premium Membership, I did so from Groundspeak, Inc. 837 N 34th Street, Seattle, WA 98103 - which, and correct me if I am wrong, is a US registered company. As a US registered company, you do NOT (legally) have the right to charge VAT to customers based within the E.U - heck you probably can't even charge us U.S. state sales tax !
Unless, of course, you have a subsidiary company - registered and domiciled for tax purposes within an E.U. country. If this is the case, you MUST (under EU laws - Distance Selling Regulations, if you want to check) supply the customer with the full name and address of the E.U. registered entity, and you MUST supply the full registered address of the EU entity, along with it's company registration number and VAT registration number - these are actually supposed to be stated on all and any correspondence - including your website.
Furthermore, if you do have an EU domiciled subsidiary you may only charge the VAT rate of the country that it is registered in (most commonly, Luxembourg @ 15%). It is illegal to charge VAT if you are not passing it on to the tax authorities within the country you are registered, or if you are not a VAT registered business.
I tell you how I read this... you're getting hit with PayPal's cross border payment fees, which are currently 3.9% + $0.30 USD, and you want to pass them on to your customers. And you know what, I fully understand that... and if that is the case, fine, charge us an extra 5%. However, to disguise it as a method of reducing the cost for customers when this is blatantly untrue, is frankly disgusting - we don't pay 'massive bank fees', we simply pay a currency exchange rate ! As a matter of interest, my last renewal for $30.00 via PayPal, cost me GBP £19.06 on my Credit Card.
I don't have a 'recurring' membership, as I don't give ANYONE the authority to automatically take money from my accounts... I pay annually each year, and I renew when it's due... however if this debacle is not resolved, you can add me to the list of members that will not be renewing... and I'm sure you can add a few thousand other European cachers to that growing list.
Seriously guys, this is a bad move.
Regards,
Chris.
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I'd probably recommend taking the A82 west coast road. It Runs from Glasgow all the way up to Inverness.
A good route would be A82 from glasgow up the side of loch lomond, detour on A818 to Helensburgh, then back onto the A82, stop at Luss, Tarbet, Crainlarich, The Green Welly, then onto A85 to Oban via Connel Bridge, Isle of Mull is worth visiting while you're there then take A828 north to rejoin A82 jus west of Glencoe and Ballachulish, then onwards to Fort Willam & Fort Augustus, then Drumnadrochit, Inverness, then Dingwall, then A835 to Ullapool.
Plenty of caching to be done along the way, and plenty of wee scenic places to visit too.
If you really want to visit Tignabruich, at Tarbet turn left and take A83, you can visit Arrochar, along the way and Inverary, Lochgilphead then up that road to Oban. It's a LONG diversion though, just for a quick visit.
HTH
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I had considered the lock n lock ideea, but abanazar's response pretty much exactly sums up my thoughts on that. I plan this to be a 5/5, lots of rocks in a crag, and one of them will GLOW brightly at night, under UV light
I'm not sure if the terrain will be 10 at night though ? :-/
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I've been toying with doing something with UV...but after googling it seems that most are indoor. The problem seems to be sunlight.
If used outdoors, they must not be exposed to direct sunlight, as this may damage the paint.Although these say they can be used outdoor...but again not in direct sunlight
That actually might do the trick !! The location I'm planning on putting it in is in a small crack / cave half way up a 150m high rock face, facing north, so should be out of sunlight most of the time (it's in Scotland anyway, what's sunlight ?), and fairly sheltered from the weather !
Thanks
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LOL, i read a Found It log on a local cache earlier where the (new) cacher reported - "Cache was a bit wet, so put it in a plastic bag"
I Face-palmed !
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Hi All,
Wondering if any of you fountains of knowledge would know where to get clear UV Paint that is suitable for outdoor use and can be purchased or shipped to UK ?
Alternatively, clear UV paint, that I can paif over with clear varnish without affecting the UV properties.
Anyone got any ideas ? The googlebot was most helpful in finding UV paint, but they all seem to be for indoor use, can't be shipped here, dry white / otherwise not clear, or wouldn't take well to being smothered in varnish
Planning a 5/5 on a rock face, that can only be found at night
Thanks for any thoughts / ideas.
Cheers,
Chris.
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This. Is. Awesome !
Any way to get it to display Ordnance Survey maps, for those of us in U.K ? I have a separate Greasemonkey script that does that already, but onto for the small tiles on the cache - it'd be awesome if it could work with the main GC map function !!
Cheers,
Chris.
Here you go
Exactly what I was looking for, thank you !
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This. Is. Awesome !
Any way to get it to display Ordnance Survey maps, for those of us in U.K ? I have a separate Greasemonkey script that does that already, but onto for the small tiles on the cache - it'd be awesome if it could work with the main GC map function !!
Cheers,
Chris.
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Brooklyn is correct. My ISP has been a bit flaky recently, so I've been seeing the question marks when things are taking their time / failing to load. I dunno exactly what is failing, but something is. Perhaps the image rollover script / info ?
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It's possible as my wife has something that sized in her cupboard..no idea where it came from though:(
Ask her if she'd like to sell it ?
That might just do the trick ! Hopefully the 11cm part is at the bottom !
Yeah seen those, not 'high' enough unfortunately
Thanks for the ideas people :-)
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Just a quickie... does anyone know where I can buy a cube shaped lock n lock box (or similar) in U.K ? I need a cube shaped box, as close to 10x10x10cm as possible (no smaller than that). Can't seem to find anything that is close to that size
Thanks, for any ideas
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Thanks guys, v.helpful
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Hi All,
Just wondering, does anyone (in UK) have a Garmin GPSMAP 62s, with the full country mapping ?
I've got an offer to buy one for £299.99, which seems pretty cheap considering you get full GB mapping... but wondering what sort of maps you get ? As far as I can tell it's OS Explorer 1:50k maps, or maybe Discover 1:25k maps.
So, does anyone have one, what kinda maps does it come with... and does £299.99 seem like a really good offer ?
Also, if anyone has any experience with uploading custom maps to it, that info would be good too :-)
Thanks,
Chris.
P.S. Posted in UK forum, rather than GPS forum as this is mainly relating to UK mapping, pls don't move !
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is out of context if you want to see it that way
It was... but thats a minor detail
it clearly tells you that if you upgrade you get retroactive award of points and ONLY PM earn favorite points...afaic you can only upgrade once...if you let your PM lapse it is your own choice....and signing up for it again is not an upgrade but a RENEWALDisagee on this, dictionary definition (applicable to this) of an upgrade "an increase or improvement in one's service," If you continue your PM without a break, then I'd agree it's a renewal, but if you don't renew, then you are 'downgraded' t oa basic member, and you then upgrade again when buying PM again.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/upgrade
the point is to get people to sign up for premium not abuse the system just to get favorite points...buy one month get your favorites...let it lapse for a year and get a month of PM...BINGO you got your favorite points again...folks at GC are not that naiveYou can buy a month ? how ? I jest, ok hadn't considered that angle... that isn't really what we're talking about here though - it's people who have let their PM lapse for a short period of time, then upgraded again. I do agree that your scenario above, would seem a bit iffy. Would anyone REALLY upgrade JUST to get Favourite points ?
Perhaps it'd be best to remove a users favourite points altogether if you don't renew your PM, and you get them back if you upgrade again ?
it is in effect a perk for being a PM, i would be quite pi***ed off if it wasn't a one time deal only and it was allowed as i described in the scenario abovePersonally, I don't really care that much about fav points - it's certainly not my reason for buying PM, but the bottom line is that nowhere does it say that if you lapse for a while, you don't get the points when you upgrade again. The knowledgebooks simply state that you get 1 point for every 10 caches found... and that if you upgrade, they are awarded retrospectively.
Nowhere, that i can see, does it say that you get 1 point for every 10 caches found WHILST a premium member, and that the retrospective points award is a one-time only deal.
you want the perks, pay the membership...plain and simpleI do agree, but perhaps the finer details of the perks should be made clearer - or the system changed !
Love n hugs,
Chris
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This is the way the system is designed. Basic members who have never been premium get awarded favorite points for past finds as an enticement to upgrade, but once you have ever been premium, you do not get credit for finds logged while lapsed.
Errrr.... I call that false advertising. Per the knowledgebooks... it doesn't mention that, anywhere ^^
nope...its very clearly spelled out
Who can earn Favorite Points?Only Premium Members earn Favorite Points.
Nice out of context quote... no matter... it is promptly contradicted by:
If you upgrade to Premium Membership we will add up your past geocaching finds and award Favorite Points accordingly.Where does it say this only happens once ? I was basic member, I upgraded, I got points... lapsed (for a week or 2), upgraded again, didn't get the points. Why not, what's the difference ?
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This is the way the system is designed. Basic members who have never been premium get awarded favorite points for past finds as an enticement to upgrade, but once you have ever been premium, you do not get credit for finds logged while lapsed.
Errrr.... I call that false advertising. Per the knowledgebooks... it doesn't mention that, anywhere ^^
Geocaching Favorites is a simple way to track and share the caches that you enjoyed the most. For every 10 distinct caches that you have found, you will be able to Favorite 1 exceptional cache in your find history.If I purchase a Premium Membership later, will I be awarded Favorite Points for the caches I found when I was a Basic Member?Yes! If you upgrade to Premium Membership we will add up your past geocaching finds and award Favorite Points accordingly. From there you can visit the cache pages you found while still a Basic Member and "spend" the Favorite Points on the best ones.
My Favorite Points total doesn't seem to match my find count. Why?Only the first "Found it!" log (or the equivalent "smiley" log for Webcam and Event Caches) posted to the cache page counts toward your total Favorite Points; duplicate finds are not calculated. Finds on caches that you own are also not included. The result is that your Favorite Points count may be slightly less than 10% of your total geocache finds.
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+1 I queried this recently, and was redirected to the link below... apparently it's been broken for quite some time, and has been 'under review' since July...
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The Knowledge Books is down. Plain and simple.
+1
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Yup, happened to me too, my PM had lapsed for a week or so, I attended an event, found ~20 caches, then when I get my PM back, none of the favourites figures made sense. I emailed GSP about it, they responded and manually updated my Fav points - but it's still 'counting' wrong... seems to be giving me a new point every x8th instead of x0th cache.
AFAIK, favourite points are given for your TOTAL # of caches, not the # of caches found whilst a PM... ?
Geocaching Favorites is a simple way to track and share the caches that you enjoyed the most. For every 10 distinct caches that you have found, you will be able to Favorite 1 exceptional cache in your find history. The Favorites accumulated by a cache are displayed in search results and on the cache page so everyone can see which caches stand above the rest. Learn more about Geocaching Favorites.
TravelBugs - Mission / Goals
in Website
Posted
Hi All,
Not sure how easy/difficult this would be but I think it's worthy of discussion
So, we know that some people like to give TBs and GCs a specific mission, such as get to X cache, or get to X location... wouldn't it be good if there was some sort of 'Mission Update' on the bugs home page which showed how far and what direction it SHOULD be heading... e.g. "Goal is 100mi West!" along with a small map tile and track.
The 'goal' could be either an existing GC location (use GC code), or just a set of coords and description e.g. N 27° 59.160 E 086° 55.415 - Mount Everest.
Once a TB reaches it's goal, the owner can then choose to set a new goal, or to 'set it loose' and let it travel - completed goals could be left visible on the page, showing how many miles it covered to get there, and how many 'stops/visits', the history of the journey. Of course, an owner could choose not to set any goals, and it's just be 'free' to travel, by default, unless a goal was set.
Yay ? Nay ? Maybe ? I think it'd be a kinda cool additional to the trackable functionality.
Cheers,
Chris.