fizzymagic

I wouldn't worry about it too much for a couple of days; let's get other peoples' input and see what the consensus is. I did notice that there is a nice little wooded area on the corner very close that would be quite nice for a small cache.

I wouldn't worry about it too much for a couple of days; let's get other peoples' input and see what the consensus is. I did notice that there is a nice little wooded area on the corner very close that would be quite nice for a small cache.

I did leave them; you'll notice them at the top of my log. There's a convenient mechanism for entering coordinates into any log that way. They were: N 37° 42.217 W 121° 49.107 I'm very glad that you didn't take my concern as a criTicism. I think I like you.

I did leave them; you'll notice them at the top of my log. There's a convenient mechanism for entering coordinates into any log that way. They were: N 37° 42.217 W 121° 49.107 I'm very glad that you didn't take my concern as a criTicism. I think I like you.

quote:Originally posted by umc:Making a profit?????? I want my cache to be nice for the finders, I'm concerned about my fellow geocachers and want to take care of them in this simple way. I knew that, but the problem is that not everybody will. If I were to see a geocache planted by somebody I didn't know with an exhortation in the description to only leave "good stuff," I might conclude that he wanted to get the good stuff for himself. And, if I were feeling particularly ornery that day, it might induce me to purposely leave something crappy. OK, I would never do that, but I can easily imagine some who might. So if you want to include a request that nice items be left, be very careful to do it in a way that makes your intentions completely clear. Many people achieve your goal by placing "themed" caches; for example, one near me requests that people only take/leave music CDs. If the cacher doesn't happen to have one, then he or she is requested to not trade at all.

quote:Originally posted by kurtuleas:OK Fizzy, This time I'm timing you... Oooh, a challenge! I love it! I think I got there about 20 minutes after the posting appeared. I had an interesting time retreiving and replacing the cache, and also taking coordinates. It was fun! Thanks!

quote:Originally posted by kurtuleas:OK Fizzy, This time I'm timing you... Oooh, a challenge! I love it! I think I got there about 20 minutes after the posting appeared. I had an interesting time retreiving and replacing the cache, and also taking coordinates. It was fun! Thanks!

quote:Originally posted by umc:So, whats the trick to getting people to trade up? I'd suggest a direct request that donations of cash be left in your cache, if you are that concerned about making a profit off of it. If, on the other hand, you simply want the cache to be nice for future finders, then perhaps you might consider actually maintaining it by periodically re-visiting it, taking out any "crap," and putting new nice stuff into it.

quote:Originally posted by Rubbertoe:How is it that you come to that conclusion? I read the same letter as you did, I assume - and almost all of it seemed reasonable to me. OK. I often hesitate to help folks with their reading comprehension, but you seem sincere. Let's identify particular items from various letters that I found offensive. quote:I also feel that Geo Caching in caves is a hobby that exploits caves and has nothing to do with any conservation practices or particular cave interest. Translation: those nasty geocachers have no concern for the sanctity of our cave. quote:I would like to speak as a member of the caving community in saying that we strive very hard to keep caves in a natural state. Often it requires gating and physically keeping people out. We even limit our own visitation to many caves due to the sensitive nature of the environment (bats or formations, for instance). Note that they even limit their own visitation of caves to protect them. Note the implication that the caving community has some special right to the caves, and how impressed they are by their own restraint. Naturally, someone with this attitude reels in horror at the thought of the Unwashed Masses visiting their cave! Note that neither of these examples includes Czmor's repeated threats to prosecute; those threats constituted about a half of the original letter. I find it difficult to believe that you are able to read those letters and consider them "reasonable." Perhaps, given that your opinion of your fellow geocachers is so poor, you might not want to be involved with the activity. It would certainly reduce the load on the forums server.

There is a serious distinction between "problems with authority" and "problems with abuse of authority." In this situation, it appears that NSS actually owns the land in question, so if they want to prohibit a cache, they have every right to do so. But that doesn't keep them from being jerks. I think it's pretty clear that their little hissy fit has far more to do with their elitism than with any actual concern for the cave in question. While it is true that many caves are extremely fragile and need to be protected from public access, those caves tend to be controlled by actual authorities rather than ad hoc volunteer groups like NSS. Since these folks have published the location of the cave on their website, their claim to be objecting to a virtual cache out of concern for the cave rings pretty hollow.

When I did that one, I came down from above, which was an easy 0.3-mile hike each way. You must have hiked up from the bottom! Also, the cache was not out in the open when I did it! It was well-concealed, which makes me think that somebody didn't replace it properly. Finally, by now you know that in Northern California everything gets dry and dusty this time of year! I can barely wait for December when stuff will finally start turning green again. The best caching months here are probably February through April.

They are cool, aren't they? You can drag other fields onto the table. Try, for example, dragging the "Type" field off the table (back onto the little toolbar thingie floating in the middle of the screen) and then drag the "difficulty" field onto the place left. Now you can see how the difficulties of the caches you have done have changed over time. Or try using the "state" field to see where you have found the caches. You can place it along the left, and you don't have to have any field along the top. Overall, I think the interactive Pivot Tables are one of the very best features of Excel.

They are cool, aren't they? You can drag other fields onto the table. Try, for example, dragging the "Type" field off the table (back onto the little toolbar thingie floating in the middle of the screen) and then drag the "difficulty" field onto the place left. Now you can see how the difficulties of the caches you have done have changed over time. Or try using the "state" field to see where you have found the caches. You can place it along the left, and you don't have to have any field along the top. Overall, I think the interactive Pivot Tables are one of the very best features of Excel.

Ron knew I was talking about him in another thread... I almost always have a hard time finding Ron's caches. I've decided we just don't think the same way. But it's not his fault his cache descriptions are, well, you know... Seriously, I do not blame Ron for the fact that his caches are too hard for me. This is a case where it is always clearly my fault. By the way (and completely unrelated), I made up a neologism that is my current favorite: Moronitude. You'll know it when you see it. There's a lot of it on Bay Area freeways.

Ron knew I was talking about him in another thread... I almost always have a hard time finding Ron's caches. I've decided we just don't think the same way. But it's not his fault his cache descriptions are, well, you know... Seriously, I do not blame Ron for the fact that his caches are too hard for me. This is a case where it is always clearly my fault. By the way (and completely unrelated), I made up a neologism that is my current favorite: Moronitude. You'll know it when you see it. There's a lot of it on Bay Area freeways.

quote:Originally posted by kurtuleas: Jeeesh!!! Fizzy, you don't mess around. I can't belive you found the Blue Bandit that soon after I logged it in. I've got this automatic email notification when new geocaches appear nearby, so when I got up this morning, there it was. Since it was only about 4 miles from my house, I figured "why not?" It was fun. Mike: I work in the Physics directorate, for what it's worth. Maybe I know the people you fly with. Anyone want to come visit the Lab on Sunday? I am taking several people in, but nowhere near my limit of 10. The only requirement is that you're an America citizen and not a terrrorist. I can assure you that the Lab open house days are an unforgettable experience! They only happen every few years, and this one is special. Ron: I finished my Perl script to make a database of your found caches. I sent you the results. Hope you have fun. Anyone else who'd like a spreadsheet of their finds is welcome to one; just write and ask me. [This message was edited by fizzymagic on September 21, 2002 at 12:41 AM.]

quote:Originally posted by kurtuleas: Jeeesh!!! Fizzy, you don't mess around. I can't belive you found the Blue Bandit that soon after I logged it in. I've got this automatic email notification when new geocaches appear nearby, so when I got up this morning, there it was. Since it was only about 4 miles from my house, I figured "why not?" It was fun. Mike: I work in the Physics directorate, for what it's worth. Maybe I know the people you fly with. Anyone want to come visit the Lab on Sunday? I am taking several people in, but nowhere near my limit of 10. The only requirement is that you're an America citizen and not a terrrorist. I can assure you that the Lab open house days are an unforgettable experience! They only happen every few years, and this one is special. Ron: I finished my Perl script to make a database of your found caches. I sent you the results. Hope you have fun. Anyone else who'd like a spreadsheet of their finds is welcome to one; just write and ask me. [This message was edited by fizzymagic on September 21, 2002 at 12:41 AM.]

Another opportunity for a geocache hide, George, kinda like Black Box.

Another opportunity for a geocache hide, George, kinda like Black Box.

I do it all the time. Go to the "hide and seek a cache" page, and enter the keywords into the "keywords" box. It will return all caches that have the keywords in the titles. As for the searches on other features, there are 2 answers: first, Pocket Queries can do most of what you described, and second, when the Pocket Query results start coming out as GPX files, you'll be able to easily load them into Excel or something like it and do queries to your heart's content on any characteristic you want. According to Jeremy, the GPX format is the very next thing on his list, after the current bugs from the site speedup get squashed.

If you enter 24.484 minutes as minutes.seconds (MM.SSS), you get an actual coordinate of 24.807, which is off by .323 minutes, which is 19.4 seconds (you would see at as .194). Likewise, 36.288 would give you an apparent "error" of .110 These are exactly the numbers you see, so it is clear that you have your GPS coordinates set to DD MM SSS instead of DD MM.MMM; otherwise, your GPS is working fine. Set it correctly and you'll find caches much more easily!

If you enter 24.484 minutes as minutes.seconds (MM.SSS), you get an actual coordinate of 24.807, which is off by .323 minutes, which is 19.4 seconds (you would see at as .194). Likewise, 36.288 would give you an apparent "error" of .110 These are exactly the numbers you see, so it is clear that you have your GPS coordinates set to DD MM SSS instead of DD MM.MMM; otherwise, your GPS is working fine. Set it correctly and you'll find caches much more easily!

Somebody got my joke! Thanks, Ron!

Somebody got my joke! Thanks, Ron!

are wonderful. Hotfoot found about 60 caches before placing his first one. Both caches he has placed are exceptionally good ones. I am so grateful that he didn't just start placing caches willy-nilly, but waited until he knew what made a great cache and then placed some of his own. We're lucky to have geocachers like him in our area. There is another geocacher in our general area whose caches I find very frustrating. He and I simply do not think in the same way. I find his cache descriptions unnecessarily obfuscatory and somewhat patronizing. But I recognize that the problem is mine, not his; many other people find his caches and enjoy them immensely, and I am certain that I am projecting my own frustrations onto his descriptions. I'm in this for the fun, not the money. So I don't make his caches a very high priority, because I know I likely won't enjoy them very much. hotfoot's caches, on the other hand, I love. I'll run out in the middle of the night to be first at his!