Jump to content

ju66l3r

Members
  • Posts

    2126
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by ju66l3r

  1. You don't need to write down coordinates when using Safari and Google Maps built into the phone. 1) Using Safari, go to a cache page while logged into the website. 2) Go to the "Google Maps" link among the mapping options (not the GC.com Google Map). 3) This will automatically open the Google Maps application on the iPhone and place a pushpin with the GC# of the cache at its given coordinates. You can route to it as you see fit (from current location, bookmarked address, etc) with the Directions tab. As for rendering the page vs. using the app, I have never been so delayed by a page being rendered in Safari that my life was ruined. Also, once I have visited a cache page in Safari, once I find the cache, I can then log it. Something not yet possible in the $10 app. As I said, I'll revisit it later when it meets all of the possibilities of just using the website for free at the very least (never mind being able to do any of the premium member abilities if you happen to be one).
  2. $10 for less than what I can do with Safari and Google Maps on the phone for free? No thanks. I can also go get a free coordinate reporting program or for about $1-$2 there are some compass and distance-to-destination type programs if I want to use the phone as a GPSr searching for a waypoint. I'll check back once it seems like the $10 might be for more than just a naked money grab due to the monopoly held on the data access.
  3. Application-wise? Yes. In this case, my specific request is a usability issue with Safari and Maps (two built-in applications from Apple on the iPhone). In Safari, if you navigate to geocaching.com and select a specific cache, then you are given the page just as anyone else sees it through their computer/browser. On the page is a link for "Google Maps" among the list of mapping options. Here is an example of a Google Maps link to a cache near me that I just FTF. ( http://maps.google.com/maps?q=42.34267+-71.10082 ) Clicking that link in Safari on the iPhone will close Safari and open the Maps application with "42.34267 -71.10082" in the search bar but the application will incorrectly center on "0 0" at the equator on the prime meridian instead of the coordinates. The user must then manually change the search to read "N42.34267 W71.10082" and the Maps application will then perform as expected. If instead the link is written as: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=N42.34267+W71.10082 Then, the Maps application correctly interprets the coordinates and centers on the cache location where it has placed a pushpin for directions/etc. While this could easily be labeled as a failing of Maps to best interpret +/- flags on the coordinate data, I was hoping that the N/S/E/W flags could be added here to better play nice with the way the iPhone Maps application is handling the link from Safari. Using N/S/E/W in the maps.google.com query would not adversely affect any current desktop/browser users of the Google Maps link on the Geocaching site, but would give iPhone users a very good bridge over to their other functionality on their side by enabling a jump from viewing the website to getting a full screen mapping application with the coordinate information input correctly. For an iPhone 3G, this also means being able to then go directly to using the phone as a simple cache seeking GPSr (all without need of a geocaching specific application).
  4. On a per cache basis, if you scroll down to the "Google Maps" link (not the Geocaching.com Google Map one), the iPhone should open up your Maps application and point it at the coordinates where it will have placed a pin. BUT, for me, when it opens a coordinate as: 42.000000 -71.00000 The map goes to: 0.00000 0.00000 This is unlike when searching for this location on maps.google.com. If I then edit the coordinates to: N42.00000 W71.00000 It goes right to where it should have gone in the first place. Jeremy et al., is there any way to change the Google Maps link to the N/S, E/W labeled coordinates rather than the +/- labels? This would make viewing Google Maps on the iPhone a bit easier.
  5. Just saw an update. It appears she was a clerk at the park before. She was found at the bottom of a 250 foot cliff drop and likely fell while hiking. Still no evidence of any foul play and it appeared she was hiking (before work?). Judy Payne found at bottom of cliff
  6. Just thought I'd put this out here in case anyone recognizes the woman's name or picture. A woman left for work on Monday morning and her car was found in Cloudland Canyon State Park in the NW corner of GA after closing on Monday. They've begun searching since early Tuesday morning but haven't found her yet. Since they don't suspect foul play, I just wondered if she might have been a geocacher. Her name is Judy Payne from Rock Spring, GA. It's not like there's a brand new cache in the park ( GC1A36Y is the newest, an Earthcache hidden in March 2008) that she might have been running to get, but if she was newer to that area, maybe she was just doing one before work on Monday or something. I dunno, maybe it's a bit of a long shot, but I'm not sure who else just goes wandering into the woods on a workday, is also a mother and wife, and no foul play is suspected. For some reason that sounded like a potential geocacher, so I figured I'd throw it out here to see if she was recognized. Link to story with a picture and description of Judy Payne
  7. There are cachers who go out with nothing more than a map and a compass...and sometimes even less than that when they feel confident. These guys have hundreds and thousands of finds over the years, so I'm sure if you're using GMaps with your triangulation from the cell towers, then you'll find one eventually if you try at it. Someone else mentioned to try larger containers and 1-2 difficulty caches first to get the feel for it. That's the right idea. Good luck!
  8. Thanks, Brian. I guess the fact that you're the only one who wonders what happened to me might tell the tale of why I don't come around as often. Nah. I got my PhD and donated my rustbucket of a car and so I don't get out to geocache as much as I used to. It seems like Boston isn't as active in the city as it once was too. I just don't see too many new caches that I can get to by public transit and taking a Zipcar out at $10/hr just to get lost in the woods for 2 hours means it's about $30-40 per weekend to cache and that adds up. So, I still do it but I'm just not as active at it any more so I don't come poking around in the forums with the community. I did get out to the regional event in North Quabbin Mass. in the fall but even that seems like it might not happen this year if I hear the rumors true. Ah well. I'll be in and out, but I just don't comment as much.
  9. I was just in an Eddie Bauer Outlet store and saw an outdoor survival kit that would make for both good geocache swag as well as a pre-made geocache. I figured I'd stop by here to let you all know about it too. The kit is a polycarb water bottle with useful gear inside. You can find their online catalog info here. # Polycarbonate lidded jar # Whistle # Flashlight with AAA batteries # Emergency blanket # Rain poncho # Multi-purpose knife with blade, scissors, nail file, tweezers and toothpick # Waterproof matches # Nylon-pouch first-aid kit with bandages # Sting relief pad, antiseptic towelettes and zip-lock bag # 3" carabiner You'd have to remove the knife, and maybe the matches, (to meet the cache rules) and maybe the blanket to leave room for a logbook. It's not the cheapest cache/pre-made cache in the world, but the items inside are pretty decent quality and if you find it in one of their outlet stores, the price is around $15-16 with the discount they put on it. They also had a cheaper "hiking survival kit" with some first aid and other items in the store too, but I don't see that on their website. It wasn't packaged well enough to be a pre-made cache, but tearing it apart would yield some good times for swapping and in the meantime, it might even come in handy while it's in your pack. Just something for people to think about.
  10. From xkcd. A nerdy yet funny webcomic.
  11. Um...did Jeremy patch this? I don't get Server Errors any more for GC numbers that aren't likely to have been taken yet. For example, http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCZYYY It says "not published yet"...did we go from GCZQ.. to GCZZZZ in a day? I doubt it. This makes it somewhat more difficult to see how close we are or when it's actually taken...which may be the point.
  12. 25 more since last update... EDIT: Needed the time stamp for my post... That's 70 minutes and 25 more if anyone wants to work out the current length needed to reach the endpoint from a local velocity... (512400 - 487479)/25 * 70 = how many minutes left...works out to about December 18, 2006. Of course, that's from a sampled rate of only about an hour...so less accurate than if someone wants to work out all of the previous updates...
  13. Coordinates. For clues to work, you often have to know/understand the mindset of the person who created them. They can be crafted to be tricky or obfuscated. Coordinates don't have any of those problems. Plug'n'play and go.
  14. Some letters are not used because of their similarity to numbers or to prevent the spelling of dirty words. I don't recall off-hand what they are, but there you go. It's under 36.
  15. The "keep your own record" method is the right track, but coming here to announce what your record is and the criteria you used for setting that record is noteworthy too. The degree to which others might credit your record is indicative of how the community (or at the very least the forum-commenting community) feels. It's clear that a larger faction of the community did not approve of the criteria used by TAR than the criteria used by the Leprechauns or the Gorilla-cacher team that first announced one of these 100+ 24h efforts. For example, if someone said "I've set the record at 432 caches" but their criteria was not to finish within 24 hours, then most people here will acknowledge the 432 in a short period of time, but not give it good consideration for a "daily" record in their minds. It's a simple example where one of the terms/conditions is mostly defined simply by the words chosen to describe the record, but it can be applied to more broad/grey areas of community acceptance of a record attempt. Until a group of cachers takes it upon themselves to setup a common set of rules that most of the community seems to like and encourages people to be king of the hill, it'll just be community acceptance that determines how "great" your attempt is compared to other attempts in the eyes of others.
  16. They must be dealing with the wrong companies. Here's a veteran pilot from Company B using a Chinook to find the cache. Special Ops...they don't log online.
  17. I had a gumball machine when I was young that operated on any coin (it was more of a bank than a vending machine). I'm sure you can get something like that and then put the coins into the plastic shells that toy vending machines use. Put in a coin, turn the crank, ball drops out and inside is the next geocoin. The person then should be asked to leave the shell (for refilling the machine with the input geocoins waiting inside the base of the machine). The downfalls are that you need to outlay for the machine and plastic supplies as well as have enough coins to fill the machine for the first run. Another potential problem (which exist regardless of what option you choose) are that the variety in geocoins will mean that your machine might need to accept such a wide range of coin (size/weight/etc) that many other coins (like pennies or nickels) will suffice to trigger the machine....leading to coins out for pennies.
  18. Not having a premium membership, it took the photoshop of Wile E Coyote and some other information before I was able to locate the cache on a map. I then had to find the website describing the reason for a stone-masoned pylon (it's not just a big rock, it's a manmade structure) in the middle of a river. I then wanted to give good and accurate information...oh, you weren't really interested in what took me until now to comment on the cache placement. There is a bridge less than 1000 feet away (see picture here). It is a railroad bridge built on similar (yet bigger/taller/sturdier stone pylons) and is the replacement for the bridge that used to use the pylons that the cache is upon. As for my motivation, if we'd known about the cache hanging from a bucket under a railway bridge in Idaho or wherever the latest "Bomb squad destroys possible bomb under highway! Turns out to be high tech spy "game"!" story came from, don't you think we would have questioned its cache placement and hoped that all the t's were crossed and i's were dotted? It behooves all of us to keep in mind that we don't want undue attention brought to the hobby because of attention resulting from bad placements (the overwhelming coolness factor of the hide notwithstanding).
  19. This is also definitely a possibility; abandoned right-of-ways do revert to public ownership in some cases. I'm sure a call to either NS or the Historic Society whose site I linked to in my previous post would have the answer. I would hate for a much-lauded cache to turn into a publicized black mark if someone were to make an issue with a searcher accessing the very top to look for the cache.
  20. I think permission is a good question in this case. With just a little bit of searching, I found this page that shows those pylons to be remnants from the old Norfolk&Western railroad bridge. As such, they're most likely still owned by Norfolk&Western (now Norfolk Southern Railway) that operates on the more modern bridge an eighth mile down river. That would make this geocache on private property. For what it's worth, the pylons between the current location and the Rumsey Bridge upriver are the remnants of an old covered bridge connecting Shepherdstown to Maryland. That would make them part of a roadway (i.e. more likely public land) and less suspect than the railroad pylons...I don't know anything about accessability in comparison of the two sets of pylons or privacy with Rumsey Bridge nearby, but I wanted to offer an option that may work better rather than simply noting the only flaw I see in a perfectly fun-sounding cache.
  21. My feeling is that there is nothing wrong with memorial caches. As an example, take a look at your post. You remembered everyone shot by Americans, but not one mention of the Americans who were shot. You see why they might even be necessary, or have you forgotten? There are already caches around that mention the Americans who were shot. That was my entire point of not listing Americans dead in Iraq. There are lots of people who geocache and they will each choose to remember those people/events that they want to remember. As this policy door is opened it could become very grey which are "remembering a day" and which are choosing to remember only days that fit their wants (which when seen from a broader view is creation of an agenda). I agreed with the Groundspeak decision not to place London Bombing and Katrina/Rita memorial caches. I prefer to keep my sentiments and rememberences that are unrelated to geocaching seperate. I don't need geocaches to remind me of these things. In fact sometimes I go geocaching to put those weighty issues aside and clear my head. In agreement with some of budd-rdc's latest comments, there's also a difference between: * "This location is where the first atom bomb landed killing many" * "We'll always remember all of the people decimated in a blink of the eye when the first atom bomb hit this spot" * "We'll always remember all of the innocent Japanese who died because of a vicious attack with a weapon of previously unseen power and this geocache says so" (placed in vermont; see the other 49 in this series) While the first one is very neutral, the second begins to get pushy even though it's located at the spot and the final one is as related to the memorialized event as any other geocache could be with the same description page. It only exists to serve as a platform to make a statement.
  22. Yes, and my posts have been about that same thing. I am concerned with the fact that upon further review the "Never Forget" cache series has been approved as I see it fitting the same lines as the London bombing cache(s) that were not approved in the UK. It opens the question of what is approvable and what is not based around the agenda rule. If you feel that I need to start a new topic to discuss this branch of the discussion (which was not the implicit suggestion given to NotThePainter or briansnat when you responded to their posts earlier in this thread), then I will. I'd like to rationally discuss this issue of guidelines and geocaching. I did not name you in any posts. I have not addressed you directly as you have with me in at least two posts previous in this thread. I have not made any personal attacks in any of my comments. I am not harassing you simply by participating in a forum discussion that you are choosing to participate in. I hope that a third party can look at this sequence of posts in this thread and verify that I've been very reasonable in it while you have chosen to attack my character with suggestions of dropping a giant silver spoon (from my mouth) and making it personal with statements like (paraphrasing) "juggler's never placed a cache".
  23. This is exactly what happened. An exception was made. If a similar issue is brought up, you may feel free to do the same thing that TheAlabamaRambler did successfully. You need to go hide a cache first though. I'm not claiming that anything about this particular incident happened incorrectly. Your strawman argument holds no weight. If you don't want to respond to the two points that I laid out in good detail in my last post, then feel free not to respond, but to respond with "well, but, situation X has been handled correctly" is pointless. I'm not discussing whether TAR or 4America's caches were listed according to guidelines. I'm discussing the use of geocaches as memorials and to what extent does it go from just a simple geocache to harboring an agenda worthy of getting it prohibited, whether it be because of a large and concerted effort to flood new geocaches with a common sentiment (to the extreme consider 3000 new caches placed in Manhattan for each person who died at Ground Zero) or a toned-down version of an unpopular sentiment (to the extreme consider a "What about the good things Hitler did" cache). Personal attacks are not acceptable.
  24. The concept that "every cache has an agenda" is built from poor argumenation/logic. It's true that you can read anything into whatever you want. For example, look at those who would search for sex-related imagery in every Disney movie. Therefore, every Disney movie is just a vehicle for sex-related imagery? This is why I think it is wisely phrased by the guidelines that "...caches perceived to be posted for religious, political, charitable or social agendas are not permitted. Geocaching is supposed to be a light, fun activity, not a platform for an agenda." It is a matter of perception and the people at Groundspeak are not searching for agendas, so it is when one appears and is perceived by the admin that it gets tagged as prohibited. The shades of grey are their own, but until recently, it was clear that they erred on the side of caution by denying caches that specifically solicit (as that's a fairly open'n'shut case of working an agenda) and those that made a concerted effort to portray a specific religious/political/etc agenda. So my point was two-fold: 1) If rememberance/memorial caches are allowed, then at what point does the sheer volume or content of the cache suddenly shift undue weight on the series of such caches that it becomes more about the agenda and not about 50 or more new caches being placed just so each state has a new memorial cache? 2) How many unpopular memorial caches will be allowed if they follow the same "just remember, no agenda" acceptability of the new 9/11 memorial cache series? A cache titled "Remembering Iraqis killed by Americans" with a bland description (like "This is a cache hidden in a nice park where I like to visit") has even less agenda than the ones that appear to be allowed for the 9/11 series. If that's okay, then what about a "Alot of Jews died in WWII cache" or the "Palestinians are being forced from their homes by Israeli settlers cache"? It was much more understandable when geocaches didn't revolve around international events as tupperware and trinket memorials based on the placers' world views.
×
×
  • Create New...