Jump to content

Aquacache

+Premium Members
  • Posts

    60
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Aquacache

  1. I also see most PDA's seem to use Memory Stick expandabe memory, but I saw a couple that accept SD type memory cards which brings up another question. My Garmin uses Micro SD memory cards and I have the SD to Micro SD adapter.

    Could one device "write" to the card and then the other device "read" it?

    Probably a dumb question, but I had to ask.

    If you already have a Garmin that uses the Micro SD's and an adapter for them, I'd go with a PDA that uses the SD's (instead of a Sony that uses the Memory Sticks) just to stay with the same format.

     

    To answer your question; yes, you can write to a card with one device and read it with another. I use an SD card reader in my PC to copy files -- maps and waypoints for Street Atlas Handheld, CacheMate documents, etc -- to the card, then move the files from the card to the Palm. It's a little faster that way than doing a hotsync. However, I don't own an "X" model Garmin that uses the Micro SD, so I don't know what files you can put on it. Nor do I know if there are any file types that you can copy from a PDA to a Garmin. If there are, your Micro SD's in the adapter will work fine for that.

  2. I know of a geocaching couple who stopped off to find a cache on their way home from the maternity hospital. The pictures of their daughter in a baby carrier, together with GPS and cache container, were priceless!

     

    Now THAT is an early start on geocaching.

    A friend did the same thing on one of my caches ... found it while taking his 2-day old son home from the hospital. The next day they found another. Two caches found at 3-days old!

  3. It might make sense to just bump it straight up to being an 8-character code instead of 7. That way, it should be good for MUCH longer than jus a 1-digit expansion.

    Cache GCZZZZ will be the 512,400th cache hidden. Adding one digit to the code to get to GCZZZZZ will allow for 28,218,030 caches ... or 27,705,630 more caches. In the last 12 months we've hidden approximately 177,750 caches (it's actually a bit more than that). This means that at the current rate of cache hides, we'll hit cache GCZZZZZ - and run out of numbers again - in just a little under 156 years.

     

    You may be right. Maybe we should add two digits instead of just one. :unsure:

  4. We just had a totally different scenario occur here. A university professor (who is not a geocacher … doesn’t even have a gc.com account) is teaching students the use of the GPS as part of a GIS course. As part of the lesson, the students were required to find and hide a cache in the area. The result: numerous instances of butter tubs and disposable Tupperware containing a wadded up sheet of paper being thrown under bushes around campus by “cachers” with one (or less) finds. The lone ammo box was hidden by a student who has been caching for a while and has a handful of finds.

     

    After several requests from local veteran cachers to not publish these “caches” online, the hides finally subsided with about half of the students still to complete the assignment. I’m hoping that they realized that they could just post the coordinates on the bulletin board in the classroom.

     

    Since most of the students haven’t been back to visit the website since they hid the caches, I suspect that they won’t be doing much maintenance on them in the near future.

  5. Who cares? Is it worth all the drama to say ohhh i got it first.You found it,this is Geocaching,not Firstfindcaching. You would think the way some people act that by finding a cache first they are automatically accepted to Harvard Med School or something,must not have done much in life if being first to post on the website means that much.

    Many people care. Many different aspects of geocaching appeal to many different people. To some people racing against local cachers to be the FTF is one of the many things they enjoy about caching. Why do you care so much about what these people want to do?

    Exactly what I was thinking. When you've found every cache within 20 miles of home, racing against the other local FTFers can be a lot of fun! But I guess you'll have to find more than 3 caches to understand.

  6. The thing that gives me a slight pause is seeing cachers who put out TBs at a minimum cost of $4 each and geocoins at $8-16 each, but they don't leave any decent swag. Certainly it isn't an issue of affordability for them. To each their own certainly though. If *all* cachers gave up TBs and geocoins and invested the same annual amount into geo swag these topics would never come up. Never happen though, so move along, nothing to see here. :D

    Not sure I get the math here. ;) Lets say someone puts out 10 geocoins in a year at $8 each; that's $80. And lets say they find 250 caches that same year (I know ... that's a lot for some people, but just a good month for others). If they take the $80 that they spent on geocoins and use it to put swag in the caches instead, that works out to $.32 per cache. :o Can't even buy that swag at the dollar store.

  7. Hope to meet some of you fine folks in the Wheeling Wva area.

    Hey Dan ... er, Booger. Welcome to this obsession we call geocaching. Just wanted to let you know that there is a geocaching event (get together) at Cabela's on Oct 22nd. Follow this link for more information.

     

    I'd like to get dow to WVa and do some caching some time. I used to live in Charlie West, but this was way before caching. (I believe the gps satelittes still had SA turned on.) WV is a beautiful state.

    Consider this an official invitation for you too, evelbug!

     

    Hope to see you all there!

  8. jerandjana-"We had our FFTF and drove the 30 minutes back to our house and by that time somebody had logged "Not first to find but first to log" Who freakin cares??"
    It's not uncommon for cachers in our area to point out that even though they were first to log on line that they were not the FTF. They are just trying to be clear and give credit where credit is due-to the FTF. I don't see this as anything other than a courtesy.

    I personally (out of courtesy) won't log an STF until after the FTF has had time to log their find. There have been times I've had to wait until the next day to log my find just to let the FTF also be FTL. I know that it doesn't mean anything and most people don't do this, but it's just something that I do.

  9. ...Just a side note. Posted a needs maint. log on a cache we found today that we couldn't even sign. My needs maint. log got deleted. Different cache...different owner. Deleted ours and posted their own about how they would be out to replace the log when they could.

     

    Now that's a pet peeve of mine. On the receiving end it's like being berated in front of God and everyone. A simple email or even a regular log describing the cache would point out the issue. A good cacher will get around to maintaining the cache. The NM log works when the cacher is out of action and causes Groundspeak to follow up directly. It's a higher level wack up side the head.

    Not positive about this, but I don't think a Needs Maintenance log sends any flags to GC.com or to the reviewer; only a note to the cache owner. Someone else can correct me if I'm mistaken. If this is indeed the case, what difference does it make if someone posts a NM log or mentions the maintenance concerns in a Found log? Either way the cache has issues that need addressed.

  10. I didn't realize that the logging on-line aspect of Geocaching was insignificant.

    It's insignificant to those who aren't interested in the numbers. For others, logging online and getting another smiley is what it's all about. I must admit though, this is the first I've heard of an FTL equaling an FTF. Not long ago, a friend of mine posted the first log on a new multi claiming that he was FTA (First To Arrive) but STF. I showed up and found both stages while he was backtracking to get a better signal and make another attempt.

  11. I'm going have to go with the OP. If you don't log it online you haven't found the cache, you didn't get a smiley and your found count hasn't gone up. Therefore it only makes sense that you must log it online to complete your find. Ergo, FTF is the first person to log it online. I will continue to do my part to show that logging a find online is integral to geocaching by crossing out names I find in the physical logs on my caches that didn't log online. ;)

    And you guys thought ekitt10 was alone in their way of thinking! But this takes it even further! ;) I have a friend that has literally found hundreds of caches, yet has only four smiley's online ... yes, four. To him, as with many others including myself, geocaching has nothing to do with the number listed after your name and everything to do with the fun of the hunt. But that's another topic.

     

    As illustrated by my avatar, I've been known to go after an FTF or two. And there have been many times that I didn't get back to a computer to log the find before another cacher logged their find first ... sometimes 2 or 3 others. But the fact remains that my name is in the logbook first and that's what matters to an FTFer.

     

    This thread reminds me ... I found a few caches yesterday that I still haven't logged. :D Gotta go!

  12. When I click a MapQuest link on a cache page, the maps don't work for me either. Instead, it says that "Your web browser may not fully support all MapQuest features." Clicking on the More Information link tells me that they "recommend" the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari. They also only mention Windoze and Mac. Sorry, I'm not going to switch browsers -- and definitely not switching OS's -- just to view the MapQuest maps :D

     

    My guess is that the GC.com pages will need to have the URL format changed to this new syntax mentioned on the GSAK thread linked above. If that still doesn't fix it and the only way is to change browsers, I'll go somewhere else.

  13. Just had one pop up about 1-1/2 hours ago. I drove past it and didn't stop. I doubt I would have been out there poking around in the dark for more than a few minutes before I would have had to explain geocaching to someone in uniform.

    Ok, after meeting up with the cache owner of this cache to go after an FTF on another cache today, she convinced me to go back and get the cache in her yard. I'm still not crazy about these hides, but this one was an easy grab without going deep into the yard and I knew the owner, so it wasn't bad.

  14. Palm T|X with GSAK and CacheMate here. Although I've gone a step further; I've added Street Atlas Handheld and a Bluetooth GPS receiver. Even while traveling on business to unfamiliar areas, this is all I need to navigate from hotel to logbook. :laughing:

     

    The only thing that CacheMate is lacking is images from the cache page and certain page formatting such as tables (had a Sudoku puzzle cache that was unsolvable using CacheMate).

  15. Just had one pop up about 1-1/2 hours ago. I drove past it and didn't stop. I doubt I would have been out there poking around in the dark for more than a few minutes before I would have had to explain geocaching to someone in uniform.

     

    Do I really want to put myself on a stage for a complete stranger to stare at me while I hunt for a cache? No thanks.

     

    Perfectly said.

     

    If you hunt urban caches you do this everytime.

    Guess that's why I don't often hunt urban caches.

  16. ...I would step away when they approached ground zero and let them hide the thing. After they were done, I would accept their coords and go find the cache. Basically, I would beta test it to see if there were no unforeseen hiccups. I would then log my find on-line, but not until a 'real' FTFer has logged the find.

    Several of the locals (myself included) have done this exact thing. A friend went with me a couple months ago for one of my hides and once we got to the spot I wanted, he waited a couple hundred feet down the trail until I was done and then verified my coordinates for me. He then waited until after someone else had logged it to claim his find. Perfectly legit.

  17. I just set up that exact query (centered on Springboro, OH zip) and got the exact results I expected ... no caches found. There are no D5/T5, Premium Members Only caches within 100 miles of Springboro. However, I can't imagine why you're getting caches that are outside the 100 mile radius; I've never seen that before. Are these caches D5/T5, Premium Members Only caches?

  18. I won't do this type either. There's one in the town where I grew up that nobody has been to in over a year. He now has a WJTB and a new GJTB in it to try to get people to look for it. Another local cacher placed one in his yard last year and when I posted that I wasn't going after it, he moved it to a much better location (bike trail). We're friends now, but I didn't know him at the time and he said after moving it, "A cache that discourages cachers isn't much of a cache, is it?" I agree! :laughing:

  19. When you view your cache page, there will be an "upload images" link on the right side of the page near the top. That will get the images into the proper place on the GC servers (they don't go into your personal gallery). Once uploaded, there will be a link to the image on the cache page just before where the logs will start. You can click on that link to view the image and get the address for that image that can then be referenced using html in your cache description. It sounds like you already understand the html part, so I won't go into that. This image address should look something like this:

     

    http://img.geocaching.com/cache/3f3ed749-6...817761e930f.jpg

     

    Hope this helps.

×
×
  • Create New...