GClouse

you use your gps to mark your parking co-ordinates.... At the mall parking lot. every time you leave your house, your wife asks "Are you geocaching, AGAIN???" you take your kids ( or even the neighbor's kids ) to the park so you won't look suspicious hunting the cache. your choice of hotel when traveling is based on the number of caches in close proximity.

I'm very much the noob at all of this but I just have to ask if you are sure you're using the latest version of GPSBabel? That was my problem with the USB error thing. I am using GPSbabel+ 1.0.0 I downloaded from this site I guess it is the newest version for Mac. I have found a app. link2gps which is working alright so I have been using it. This actually looks like either a driver or configuration problem on the mac. OS-X is BSD-unix derived and unix device drivers create a filename entry to move data between devices and applications. When the named file is written to, it goes to the a device instead of a disk file, when read, it reads from the device instead of the disk. These device-file entries are kept in the /dev directory. The error you are getting implies that GPSBabel is not finding the device filename for a generic communication unit (cu) for USB. It may be looking for the wrong device file name. the name may be something like /dev/ttyUSB0. if you open a command shell and type "cd /dev" then "ls *USB*" you should get a list of all the usb devices known to the system. make sure the GPS is connected and turned on.

The GPSr is probably turned off in the control panel. This is probably a defaulkt power savig setting.

You chose wisely. The E2 is expandable, and has bluetooth connectivity. In the future you can get a bluetooth GPSr and cut down on some of the bulk. ( I have thought about doing this with my tungsten T, but the BT GPSr are still too pricey for me.)

I think the Mio brand is made by the same company that makes the Navman GPS PDAs.

Yes we WERE supposed to go metric in 2000, but since that numbskull publisher in Nashville had everyone here scared of the "Y2K" bug, all of the conversion work was shelved and forgotten about.

I used a GPS300 (a very similar model), and they are not very sensitive. Mine would take up to ten minutes to get an initial fix, and woud be next to useless on really overcast days. Using really fresh alkaline batteries seemed to help a bit.

Actually cloud cover can degrade the satellite signal enough that some older less sensitive GPSr models may not be usable. Darkness actually doesn't affect the reception, but around the time of the vernal and autumn equinoxes when the sun is just below the horizon (just before sunrise and just after sunset), there is a sort of RF refraction effect that produces a lot of uhf and microwave interference. The is due to the fact that the sun produces a lot of RF radiation as well as light. WAAS improves accuracy by calculating an error correction bases on location readings at reference ground stations and relaying the error data to WAAS enabled receivers. WAAS improves accuracy most of the time, but localized weather conditions can cause signal distortions that the WAAS will not compensate for, unless you are close a WAAS ground station and therefore under similar weather conditions. And before someone points out that radio waves travel at the speed of light which is a constant, please note that the speed of is a constant in a vacuum. Transparent materials (such as air) slow the propagation speeds according to density of the material.

I use CetusGPS 1.2b on a palm m125 with a Magellan GPS Companion, and GPSBabel to convert the .gpx file the the Cetus pdb format. Version 1.2b of CetusGPS has a of nice geocaching related enhancements, such as sorting the waupoint entries by distance to current location, and simple viewing of the descrption and even the hints for the selected waypoint. I use some simple bat files to un GPSBabel rather than using the GUI or typing in the command. And the software is all free gratus.

If you just need to know where the zipcodes are in a city, you can use google earth and check the US government checkbox in the "layers" window

There is a development system for Pocket PC and palm devices called CASL. You may want to look into it.

I've seen a lot of people run a string through the center hole and use them as rearview mirror ornaments. Personally I got bummed out when they made the switch from floppies 'cause I had almost finished tiling my bathroom with the disks. The most lame-o thing I have found in a cache was a gravel. Yep a chunk of crushed limestone.

I once had to put off searching for a cache in a secluded and unusual site in Nashville, because a video crew showed up to work on a music video for some country singer.

I think Mainstream Geocaching will be a bit like D&D or the old BBS fad or even the internet itself. If the level of activity picks up enough, the greedy Corporate Types will try to co-opt it conpletely, whilch will fail.. then there will be the media association with "Covert" and "Unsavory" through the mainstream media. Then the paranoid Macarthyites will try to outlaw it, then try to regulate it and control it. Then the media will get bored with it, and will focus on something else like a sudden fad of "Flash Mobbing" and geocaching will drop off the radar. Way back in the 70's this thing happened with CB radio. CB had been around from the 50's. In the 70's, after 2 or three hit songs about about trucking and CB ( "Convoy", the parody "Yovnoc" , and some others, Hollywood started glamourizing long haul trucking with movies like "Smokey and the Bandit", "Convoy"(based on the song), and TV shows like BJ and the Bear, and to some extent "Dukes of Hazzard". By 1976, there were an estimated 6 million CB radios in use, many using illegal modifications, and almost all of them on eith channel 19 or 11. The interference and noise resulting from having 6 million people talking on the same 2 channels mad the CB radios practially useless. Interest faded, and now CB is mainly used by truckers again. I doubt that geocaching will ever reach the extreme fad level that the CB craze did. Public interest will likely peak breifly and fad away as a lot of people try it and simply don't "Get It"

I replaced a torn ziplock bag. I usually carry spare batteries in a ziplock bag, and found a cache wihere the bah containing the log had a small hole. The log was a little damp, so I used my battery bag to replace the damaged log bag in the cache.

I have one in my caching gear. BTW I think that FRS is rated at 2 miles line of sight. I also keep a CB walky-talky in the car. The FRS is not very useful for caching. I have used a CB when hiking in the mountains, and often found myself in dark territority with it, but the FRS is used a lot by small businesses and as a car to car intercom. If you need to put out a mayday call on FRS... Forget it.. Chances are that if you can get a response, it will be: A. Some kids playing. B. some teenager working at a local store C. Some tourist passing through the area that don't know how to help you. If you do a lot of urban caches a gps enabled cell phone would be the best choice. However, if you work a lot of rural caches, CB, 2-meter, or an emercency Sat phone are better options.

There is one in Timbuktu. And a couple in the vicinity of Mt Everest.

"Tranquilty in the City" is in a small historic park that is accessed by driving through a large cementary. The park is not visible from nearby streets, so most people don't know that its there.

I usually scrape them off with an old credit card.

the poison ivy rash is cause by exposure to the skin irritant oil in the plant. While this oil is on your body, clothes, dog, etc. it can be transferred by contact. In some cases it can cause a severe allergic reaction with swelling, headache, fever, and severe blistering on the exposed area. The headache seems to indicate a severe allergic reaction. Not necessarily poison ivy, posion oak, or poison sumack. Some people have a skin sensitivity to the psyllium fibers on grass leaves. Certain broadleaf plants can be more harmful that PI.

The reason for the high tension, high voltage lines is to distribute power over a large area. High tension refers the high tensile strenght of the power cables, which allows them to span a greater distance between support towers. High voltage AC can be carried a longer distance with less power dissipation from the resistance in the wire. at substations the voltage is stepped down to a lower voltage for local distribution, and the at the customer location it is stepped down again before it supplying the home or business. The crackling noise is corona discharge. And it is mostly harmless. There has been some documented cases of nerve damage after long term exposure to high intensity electric fields, but with the exception of groups of people that work with high voltage equipment, this is extremely rare.

The most water I carried on a hike was 8 1liter bottles in a daypack. That was for a 10-mile hike in the Appalachian mountains. It was heavy when I started, but by the time I had rock-hopped up 5 miles of canyon in 104 degree weather with 85 percent humidity... I drank it all before got back to the car. I would only use water in a camelback, however, if you drink a lot of water, you may run the risk of heat exhaustion. This is where you lose enough electrolytes that you stop sweating. It may be a good idea to take a 16 oz bottle and some of those little single serving sports drink packets. I haven't done any long hikes lately, but in hot weather, I keep some of the single serving sports drink around. The added advantage is that these drink powder tubes are available with artificial sweetener, and for a diabetic like myself, it's great.

I guess I've been pretty lucky so far. I was going after a cache in a local park, with my 9yo son when I slipped on some wet leaves, twisting my knee and landing squarely on my back. The GPS went flying straight up and landed an inch or 2 from my left ear with a heavy "Thunk!!!" Went on to look for the cache, but didn't find it that day

This is sounding like the old party gag where a large covered box marked "For Men Only" sits in a corner. Invariably ever female in the room will sneak a peek at whats in the box. Typical items in the box may include a mens razor and shaving cream, after shave, mustache cup... and so on. I have seen a few caches that are not appropriate for children because of location and terrain. But I often take my younger son geocaching and he complains about bushwhacking.

Being a premium member is basically just a way of financially supporting geocaching. As an enticement, you get a few perqs on the website, but thats it. Being a premium member doesn't change who you are. If that reasoning held true then Premium members (Supporters) of the local public TV stations should be better at watching TV.. When I started, I decided that after 30 finds I would upgrade my membership, not for the perqs , but to support the sport if I decided to continue. After 30, I decided to continue. __________________________ Top of the line GPS Receiver .... $500 PocketPC with wireless internet to log finds ... $800 Cheap bic for those micro caches ................. $0.20 Premium Groundspeak membership $30 Finding those really neat places that you didn't know existed .... priceless _______________________________ Actually in my case it's Secondhand GPS Companion for palmpilot ...... $30 Palmpilot from pawnshop for use with GPS ...... $40 Cheap bic for those micro caches ................. $0.20 Premium Groundspeak membership $30 Finding those really neat places that you didn't know existed .... priceless