russellvt

When searching for things like "gpx 500 server error," the forums return: The error returned was: One or all of your search keywords were below 5 characters or you searched for words which are not allowed, such as 'html', 'img', etc, please go back and increase the length of these search keywords or choose different keywords. Of course, considering that GPX is a "large" portion of the premium member features (not to mention "loc" files), it'd probably be handy if this weren't like this... (just sayin') ;-)

No. We have chosen to focus on designing applications for specific mobile platforms instead (currently iPhone and Android). Given the complexity of the site we simply don't have the resources to design with mobile displays in mind. Seems like it would be more beneficial to everyone to simply write a standards-compliant WAP site (which would work on all devices) than to pigeon-hole yourself in to two mobile platforms (ie. a much more time-consuming and costly venture). Then again, I'm sure the individual app-stores are probably the real driving force, here... ;-)

Yes... This. Though, for those that don't want their logs, perhaps there should also be a selectable "Number of Logs" (None, 5, 20, All) or similar (with it defaulted to 0 or 5).

If you have a space in your pocket query name, that's what appears to be breaking it... I also replied to the new release notes indicating such. They just need to fix the HTML that reports the filename to your browser (it's a pretty trivial fix).

There's one bug: [*] Pocket Queries with a space and/or dash truncate the filename when downloaded. Example: I name most of my queries something like "CA - Area of Interest" so that they sort nicely by state on the pocket query page. When I use the download feature, they come across as "#######_CA"(even without the zip extension) -- unchecking the "Include Pocket Query name in download file name" dialog renders it properly with the number dot zip. I suspect they need to URL-encode (or quote) the filename in the HTML header output. Also... It would be very nice for those of us who auto-process our Pocket Queries to make these retrievable via a unique URL (perhaps with some trivial authentication mechanism) so that we can automate the retrievals based on the email (you can even feel free to auto-delete the files after a successful retrieval if you're concerned about abuse potential (eg. share with your friends?)). Like many others (I suspect), I auto-save the attachments to a directory and then process those in to my own, personal (ie. not for anyone else's use but mine) database. The download link breaks that part of my process.

[duplicate post... please delete] *sigh*

A few hours later, I received my typical "Sunday afternoon PQ" ... ELEVEN separate times. Still not received the ones I created today, however.

I created one out of a route about 30 minutes ago... still nothing, even after checking EVERY day of the week. Normally I'd expect turn-around within a few minutes.

I have a similar issue in that queries created from routes seem to "not run" after checking the day of the week (either today (sunday) or even "every" day). Normally I'd expect queries to be picked up in a few minutes and sent out... this one's sat for close to a half hour, though (even with all seven days of the week check marked). It "previews" just fine, though... just can't get a pocket query out of it.

This isn't a browser issue... it's a webserver issue. I've already verified that the times seem to fall over a distribution (ie. somewhat periodic) and are basically seen simultaneously from multiple destinations on separate coasts.

Bah... no real drama (in my opinion); seemed like a pretty reasonable discussion, overall... (I certainly didn't mind it) Welcome to the (in)sanity, eh? I had thought about recommending WAAS to you... certainly hasn't seemed to make anything worse for me, either (and there are occasions where it improves things significantly). Garmin's 3.60 update indicated a fix to the compass... not sure if that affected you, though -- I know there was a time where I ended up missing an update and then later caught up. Maybe your belt or some part of your clothing had a magnetic charge (or were in an area with powerlines, etc) and it threw off the compass for a while... /shrug I know I ended up dropping my unit at one point (it's usually at least on a lanyard) and felt it was "a bit inaccurate" for a time thereafter -- but, either I was just being overly critical or it ended up fixing itself. Either way... seems to work, now (which had me worried for a bit). Anyway... glad to hear that your compass seems to be working again!

You're forgetting the the whole reason of the navigation arrow is to point to the destination target. So if you turn the compass off, walk in a straight line, and turn the GPS 45 degrees to the left, the arrow will be pointing 45 degrees off what it should be. It is NOT pointing in the direction of travel, assuming you were walking towards the target. My point is still correct - the GPS has to use the compass (electronic or inferred) to correctly orient the navigation arrow. You are correct in that it "uses the compass" -- that's a given. I was merely pointing out that it's slightly misleading depending on direction of travel versus orientation and mode of GPS (ie. there are a few assumptions made there and, being able to correctly interpret them is essential - it's still pointing correctly (and turning on the course pointer on the compass screen may or may not help). Myself, especially when navigating in the Jeep on a long road trip... I end up looking sideways at the thing most of the time -- still works, but you have to realize "it's sideways."

How do you think the unit knows the position to orient the red arrow? It USES THE COMPASS. The positioning of the navigation arrow is done by combining information from the GPS (the bearing) and the compass (to determine orientation of the unit). If the compass is turned off, you have to be moving in a straight line, with the unit pointed directly ahead of you (in the direction of travel), so the unit's "faux compass" can work. Actually, I think this is slightly misleading... the orientation of the GPS (at least the 60CSx) doesn't really matter except when the electronic compass is turned on... case-in-point: many of the mounts manufactured for it tend to hold the GPS in vertical or near-vertical orientations... and while navigating from the passenger seat of the Jeep, I tend to lay the thing sideways against the passenger's safety bar (or the dash). The direction of travel is assumed to be towards the top of the GPS by default (though this is also settable from the "Map Setup | General" tab). You can test this yourself by first turning OFF the electronic compass... then start walking in a straight line. Spin the GPS in to any orientation you like and the arrow will always point towards the top of the GPS and in the direction of travel. Next, turn ON the electronic compass and attempt the same (note: the default settings mean you have to do this at walking speeds). The only thing that should happen is that the arrow within the window will rotate according to the direction you point the top of the GPS (but the overall direction of travel should still remain at the top of the screen). And yes, the GPS might slightly "correct" some of the directional info according to Garmin's own top-secret algorithms (*grins*).

My question is, why even turn on the compass?Well, if you want to see GZ, it's probably the fastest way to see "distance to goal" hit 0... at least from the GPS' perspective (which, of course, is prone to normal variance and error - some possibly the fault of the original hider)

You do know that it only works accurately if it's held flat and level, right? That has nothing to do with it. It actually flips 180 degrees and pointing the opposite direction of the cache. It has been held level and its sudden like it happened to me on both occasions as soon as I went to find next from the found screen. Accuracy of holding flat is only reference to the compass not the pointing of the red arrow towards the cache. I even turned off the compass and it was still doing the same thing. For what it's worth, my GPSMap 60CSx also doesn't like being held in any orientation except for flat, either, when the magnetic compass is engaged. I generally carry both a bag and a lanyard which either keep me from dropping the GPS and/or serve as a great holding place when I'm not looking at the thing... in any case, there have been times where I'm "navigating" with the compass and, after coming off the lanyard or out of the bag, the compass can't gather its brains until it's recalibrated... it'll literally be blank until then. So yeah... I can testify that it's a problem somewhere in the hardware and is fairly reproducible... maybe I'm an exception rather than the rule, but it doesn't sound like a completely uncommon problem, IMO.

I believe the real answer is something along the lines of the GPS not being a substitute for good and proper orienteering and navigational skills and training. There have been several recent news stories, too, basically accusing things like GPS (among other technologies) as "dumbing down society" in-general. But yeah... I have an old Military-style GPS, still, that's pretty much simply coordinates and waypoints... the "luxuries" of the thing only include features such as "Velocity Made Good" (VMG) and a few pieces related to current bearing (all through satellite). It was always used as a tool for returning to a known location or for projecting waypoints from a scaled map as a navigational aid (yeah... requires a bit of math - scary, eh?).

We did a 6k mile trip a few weeks back and I never really had problems... then again, I tend to use the compass a lot, so I recalibrate it pretty much daily or after we've been in the car (not caching) for a while (or whenever it seems to be freaking out or not-quite-indicating what I'm expecting).

As Lil'Devil said, a lot can be solved by turning the internal compass off (just push and hold the Page button (the one with the star) for five seconds to toggle it. Make sure that the icon also disappears from the upper left of the screen... If you like the internal compass (tends to work well for me, at times) ... make sure you're not carrying anything that may affect the magnetic field (even a cell phone too close to the GPS can easily throw it off). But I like Lil'Devil's idea of just setting the time pretty far down... at its default settings, we've seen the thing turn itself on while we're out on a 4wd trail (and it's not even close to accurate, then).

*laugh* Ironically, I just noticed that mysekf... and all this time I've been grumping at it -- not sure if I just overlooked it or... *ponder* Guess I'll chalk it up to a PEBKAC error... Sounds like maybe Groundspeak needs to make this more prominent for folks (like me) who view this site without their glasses on... Thanks for the reply!

Seems I can't remove caches on my watch list... either from my watchlist page, or from the individual cache pages. Of course, "Add" works just fine. I'm using Firefox 3.0.1 on XP... I've not yet tried it with IE or Safari, however.

Ever since this release, I've been unable to view the trackables page on my phone (Symbian browser), as the "Recent Logs" overlaps where I'd expect the text entry forms (which seem to be missing). Similarly, browsing any cache list (example) comes up with most of the caches listed in the right-hand green margin. I can't seem to reproduce this behavior by killing/ignoring certain CSS styles anywhere else, nor do I know how to take a screen shot on a Nokia Symbian-based phone. Yeah, I understand wap.geocaching.com is there, but most of the functionality and/or overall flow is missing, so it's not really that useful overall. I'd be happy to share screen shots if someone could help me with a means to achieve such as through PC Suite.

I also noticed the basic search page doesn't seem to let you click the buttons in Firefox 3.0.1... the error console would seem to say: Error: GSPK.Geocode is undefined Source File: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/ Line: 573 A side item is that the trackable item page is pretty much completely unreadable with a Synbian browser (Nokia E series - probably one of the better HTML-rendering phones I've seen). Again the error console spews forth a few dozen CSS errors (all on different lines) like: Warning: Expected declaration but found '*'. Skipped to next declaration. Source File: http://www.geocaching.com/css/reset-fonts-grids.css Line: 55

FWIW (probably nothing), depending on how you go about "celebrating" or commemorating it, technically caches/listings like these can be considered a violation of the listing guidelines (just something to be aware of in the "social agendas" realm). Personally, I think it sounds like a fun/great idea and "more power to you" to coin a phrase. I must also admit that NoSuchCache and I have talked about a similar sort of release for another person, too, so.... just thought that the "potential problem" should at least be mentioned in-passing so that you're aware of possible grief on-down the line (griefers be darned, eh?). Congrats (and thanks), by the way, for such long service... but I'll stop short of anything else now (for reasons previously mentioned).

Well, as others have also pointed out, if you're that paranoid about infectious diseases and similar, there are certainly much bigger worries out there in this world of our's than a little travel bug... public restrooms and/or restaurants, immigration and travelers at-large are probably some of the more note-worthy means of conveying communicable diseases (influenza being one of the big ones). Just the plain old cash in your pocket is going to see a lot more hands and bacteria/virii than your average travel bug... even if the bug's set for distant lands. More to the point, many of those sorts of things (virii in-particular), don't tend to live that long outside of a host... two of the most deadly diseases (AIDs/HIV and Hepatitis for example) can only live outside the body for a few minutes (though that's actually several days in the case of Hep). Even then, they still need a pathway in to the body (eg. fluid exchange or open wound) before you can become infected. Luckily, things like the airborne version of Ebola (portrayed in movies such as Outbreak and 12 Monkeys to name a couple) just-don't-exist... and those sorts of virii currently have a bad habit of killing off all their hosts before they can propagate terribly far or be isolated/contained or sufficiently quarantined (luckily for us). I think you're more apt to pick up a staph infection (which lives on the surface of your own skin) than suffer any issues as a result of caching... that is, unless you're actually caching while traveling within the other country...

That post is over a year and a half old... which would seem to imply that features/ideas don't change over time (which, I'd think is a poor assumption). You can't fault folks for trying to get simple answers out of TPTB, even if slightly redundant or somewhat historical...