mrcpu

It would be nice if you could set your own default icon HOWEVER if you are a Magellan user (like me) you will have trouble uploading from ExpertGPS if you get the icons wrong. I used to have a Garmin and wished for the Geocache icon to be in the GPX files. When I tried uploading one of these GPX files with Geocache icons to my Magellan the upload died. Rob Mobile Cache Command

I don't know if this is related or not but I was out caching yesterday and while still in the car driving all the sats disappeared except # 13 !!!! I tried reiniting my GPS etc but nothing helped. I was about to give up and go home when suddenly I sats started popping up and I got signal again! Start of disturbance was around 13:30 EDT and ended about 45 min later. Rob Mobile Cache Command

quote:Originally posted by tirediron: quote:Hold on. This site sucks so just get the BMer! You missed the whole point... Pocket Queries for me or a Beemer for the missus... :startjoke Hmm. I'd say if you have to think about a $3 a month expense then you probably can't afford that BMW either! :endjoke Rob Mobile Cache Command

quote:Originally posted by gm100guy:http://www.mpss.jus.gov.on.ca/english/pub_security/emo/cerv_ont.html They have something they were planning like you have suggested but I don't know what will happen now with the election and change of Gov. LOL! Here's another example of left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing! http://www.overt.ca/ The Ontario Volunteer Emergency Response Team has been around sinse 1996! Rob Mobile Cache Command

quote:Originally posted by DustyJacket:I became a paying member to support the site. Once I started using pocket queries, I could not do without them. I agree. What's 3 bucks a month to support a site that you use regularly. On top of that add the fact that you're addicted to geocaching and it's cheaper than smokes or booze! Rob Mobile Cache Command

From time to time when there have been abductions I've often thought about the fact that myself and other geocachers probably know alot of urban parks and trails better then the average joe. A terrible example of this is the recent Holly Jones case were the missing girl's body was found on the Toronto Islands where there are several caches nearby. I doubt it would be trampling down a crime scene either, considering that the police would probably be very happy that you found the crime scene for them, as long as you didn't intentionally disturb something. I sure hope they find this little sweetheart alive an unharmed though Rob Mobile Cache Command

Servman and I did a cache last year at night. We had to hike about 1/2 mile. I had a small flashlight and my tritium compass. We were walking pretty close to a river but the trail disappeared on us and we had to keep going straight. Having spent 5 years as a reservist and having done many a night patrol, I wasn't worried about using my flashlight but since I was dressed in all black (just happened that way, not intentional), Servman kept losing sight of me. To help Servman keep me in sight I hung my compass open over my shoulder. Anyways, I stopped to wait for him and was looking around when I looked up at this tree right beside me. Up until this point I was perfectly fine in the woods in the pitch dark but this tree was silouetted against the sky and the freaking thing looked like some sort of devil!!! It was a tree trunk snapped off about 10 feet up and it had horns and eyes and everything! I know it sounds slilly but it freaked me out and after that I wished I was back in the army patrolling with 30 guys, each of us with an assault rifle! Needless to say, servman and I found the cache but I really didn't feel calm again until we got back to the car... stupid tree! Rob Mobile Cache Command

I tend to get a lot of caching done in the winter. From time to time the snow actually helps. I did one cache last year when it was extremely cold (-25). I was coming from work and so I wasn't really dressed for it but since it was an urban park I went out anyways. I got within 20m of the cache while still on the trail, then followed the packed down snow right to the cache. I was in and out before getting severe frostbite! Rob Mobile Cache Command

Depends on where you are. In the city, most of the land is public / park land. Outside the city the property owners have agreements with the company. In otherwords, unless you drive a truck that says "Hydro" on the side...your trespassing! :-) Rob Mobile Cache Command

Automobile speedometers tend to be off a bit, especially in older vehicles. It's been my personal observation that my old car was 10 km/h fast and my newer car is about 8 km/h fast. This means that when I think I'm doing 100 km/h by the speedometer, I'm really doing 92. I have used my GPS and observation of other traffic to confirm this. I would have to say that I trust my GPS as a speedometer more then the mechanical, speedometer that can also be off if your tires are not exactly the right size too. Rob Mobile Cache Command

I have a Maggy sportrak map. Servman is borrowing my Garman Venture. Rob Mobile Cache Command

On this cache there is a strange icon that looks like the chinese yin and yang symbol. What does it mean? Rob Mobile Cache Command

In my case (cache 2) the cache was at the end of a dead end road that physically extends into the airport land. In other words, while I was on puplic land, there was airport land on 3 sides of me. The officer may have been coming to the area to take a break, catch some sleep, or eat his lunch. He didn't seem to be interested in leaving to quickly after we chatted and was there when I left. Funny semi-related story. Back in my days in the reserves we used to do practice attacks and patrols in the parks around Georgetown/Brampton/Oakville. As local reserve units, we had "the key to the city" so to speak and had been explicitly given the right to bear arms within city boundries. One night, a unit was on patrol in Brampton. The lead guy stepped out of the woods in front of a police officer. The officer drew his pistol and ordered the soldier to place the C-7 assult rifle on the ground and put his hands up. He asked the guy if he was alone and he replied that he was not. He ordered him to tell his friends to come out, at which point a fully armed platoon (no ammunition of course!) came out of the woods! Thankfully, after regaining his composure, the officer realized what was going on, spoke to the platoon commander and then let them go! Rob Mobile Cache Command

I seem to get WAAS pretty well everywhere I go in S/Ontario, depending on overhead cover and southern exposure. I've had WAAS in Hamilton and Oshawa. Rob Mobile Cache Command

What part of the country are you in? I buy all my maps from FedPubs at their University Ave store in Toronto. Rob Mobile Cache Command

I hate to do this but: http://home4.inet.tele.dk/k-fjord/haha.wav Rob Mobile Cache Command

I originaly bought the Garmin Venture because of the "no topo maps" issue. It was cheaper and had a blank "map" that showed your track and waypoints but that was it. Last year I bought a Magellan Spotrak Map. I started out without the street maps uploaded but soon realized that the base map was useless and that my old Venture was probably a better unit in some ways. I finally got the map software and uploaded it to the unit. HOLY COW! I was extremely impressed! Now as they say "Once you go map, you'll never go back!" Maybe someday there will be topo data for Canada. I heard a rumour that Garmin was going to release some this year. Cheers, Rob Mobile Cache Command

quote:Originally posted by GroundClutter:I'm sorry, but I find this thread VERY distasteful. For anyone to use Holly's murder as a link to discuss geocaching...... I can't believe it. Even if you don't mean it, there is a subtle flavour of humour emerging. Think about it. PLEASE stop now. I would hate to see anyone demean poor Holly's death or to use humour, even though people use humour to help deal with difficult issues. That said, the point behind my original post was to see if anyone in our community new Breire. Geocachers cross a number of demographic boundaries, however the fact that M.B. was a programmer and the close proximity to several caches makes me wonder if he is a member of our community. On another, slightly off topic note, I've often wondered if any GC'ers have ever found human remains while out and about. Being that we as a group tend to go places most people don't, I'm surprised that I haven't heard of this sort of thing being found by a cacher. Rob Mobile Cache Command

I was thinking about doing the Toronto Island caches around the time that Holly was found on the Island so I put of my trip. Now that they have arrested Briere, and he's a programmer, it makes me wonder if he was a Geocacher and that's how he knew the islands. Rob Mobile Cache Command

There is a book that I saw at Mountain Equipment Coop. I don't remember the exact title but it was all about hiking the trails of Toronto's parks and rivers. I recall seeing references to interesting buildings and structures. Rob Mobile Cache Command

quote:Originally posted by Coupar-Angus:Hey Rob, I think you're downtown. You can call one on your turf and I'm sure you'll get a good turnout. I'll be there for sure. There are plenty of British style pubs along Yonge, and accessible via transit too which helps. Cheers! Coupar-Angus There are a couple of pubs up around Yonge and Finch area... hmmm. Rob Mobile Cache Command

I'd love to make it to a pub night! Bolton is a bit far out for me though... Rob Mobile Cache Command

Obviously the server is running now so unless it fixed itself and they aren't aware of it, an after-action report would show some interest for the user community. If geocaching.com / Groundspeak is (going to be) a "real" business, then acting like one and having someone on-site or on-call 24/7. I don't mean to be harsh... I would just like some feedback and this is NOT the first time that there has been an outage and no word from above. It's more like the 50th time. Rob Mobile Cache Command

I've complained in the past that we need more feedback from GC too. It's frustrating when there is a server problem and you can't get in. You end up finding out that it's NOT you through alt.rec.geocaching, not from an official source. At work, we have sat down with feedback from users and now have very strict guidelines to inform users of outages, especially after the fact, so they know what was going on. A simple note like.. "System slow, we are investigating" followed by .. "Rebooted server and everything is fine" would be sufficient. Rob Mobile Cache Command

I use gpx2html and pluker. As a by-product it creats a .loc file that I use to import into S+T. Another option would be to open the GPX file in Excel (must be new version of Excel, it reads XML) and then save it as a CSV file (clean it up first if you'de like.) Rob Mobile Cache Command