Team Shredded Bark

Sadly, Pocket Query constipation has returned. -- "I saw two shooting stars last night, I wished on them--but they were only satellites! Is it wrong to wish on space hardware? I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care." --Billy Bragg, "A New England"

Started getting them again this morning. Must be the metamucil. -- "I saw two shooting stars last night, I wished on them--but they were only satellites! Is it wrong to wish on space hardware? I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care." --Billy Bragg, "A New England"

I have a couple of pocket queries that run daily, and I haven't seen anything in my mailbox since Sunday morning, either (it is now late afternoon Tuesday here). I even tried to "refresh" the queries by submitting them again yesterday, but still nothing. John -- "I saw two shooting stars last night, I wished on them--but they were only satellites! Is it wrong to wish on space hardware? I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care." --Billy Bragg, "A New England"

Re Lazyboy/Mitey Mite's post regarding the stamp getting traded out: You could chain it to the logbook, bank-teller-pen style. (For those of you too young to remember, a bank "Teller" was the person who stood in a window and handled bank transactions for you before the advent of ATMs. Often, there was a pen for signing checks and filling out forms, and it was secured with a chain to keep people from walking off with it.) -- "I saw two shooting stars last night, I wished on them--but they were only satellites! Is it wrong to wish on space hardware? I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care." --Billy Bragg, "A New England" [This message was edited by Team Shredded Bark on April 08, 2003 at 07:57 AM.]

I would log that as a "Not Found." Logging a find indicates to other seekers that it is there and findable. If the cache is actually missing, it should be replaced or archived, and again a "Found" log is going to indicate that it SHOULDN'T be archived. -- "I saw two shooting stars last night, I wished on them--but they were only satellites! Is it wrong to wish on space hardware? I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care." --Billy Bragg, "A New England"

Mac user. Garbled all to heck in iCab (things that should be aligned horizontally are now stacked vertically, so you have to scroll through a bunch of green boxes before messages appear). iCab is pretty standards-oriented, so it might be due to that. Looks OK in IE, but I use iCab as my main browser. I think it doesn't like the alignment tags. -- "I saw two shooting stars last night, I wished on them--but they were only satellites! Is it wrong to wish on space hardware? I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care." --Billy Bragg, "A New England"

I know of at least two other people who have Macs and Magellans--thanks for your efforts. It did crash under OS9.1 on the 733 G4 at work after trying to find my GPS, but this was probably because there wasn't a GPS attached (no USB adapter available here). I will test it at home tonight, OS9.1 on a G3-upgraded PM8100 with native serial ports. Thanks again, you have answered the prayers of Magellan Mac users! John -- "I saw two shooting stars last night, I wished on them--but they were only satellites! Is it wrong to wish on space hardware? I wish, I wish, I wished you cared." --Billy Bragg, "A New England"

I found a cache completely full of water, and the Rite-in-the-Rain log book in an open ziplock bag, with about 1/2 inch of water at the bottom when held vertical. The log book had been soaking in the water for as long as the cache had been hosed (somewhere between a week and a month, although judging by the muddy sediment, closer to a month), and it was completely legible and signable after being wiped off. The moisture didn't penetrate very far between the pages, except the first and last pages, and the little bit that did wiped off easily. Other papers in the cache, including some cache printouts, had turned to mush. I was impressed. Might even buy one. -- "I saw two shooting stars last night, I wished on them--but they were only satellites! Is it wrong to wish on space hardware? I wish, I wish, I wished you cared." --Billy Bragg, "A New England" [This message was edited by Team Shredded Bark (formerly JCR) on January 29, 2003 at 10:19 AM.]

quote: Somebody commented about my "handing my kid a condom" statement from earlier. No, a happy meal toy is NOT the same thing. My argument holds perfect water. Please don't decide what my reaction would be if you handed my daughter a toy, vs. if you handed her a condom. The fact that you would do neither is impressive, but trust me... There is a definite difference between the two, and more light would be shed upon that difference if someone really wanted to test the matter. I commented on that. But my comment was directed at what you originally wrote, which was that it was cowardly of someone to put a condom in a cache when they were unwilling to hand it to your daughter directly in front of you: quote: I would challenge anybody who thinks it's perfectly "okay" to secretly leave a condom in a cache when nobody can see them being so "big and bold" to string a few packets around their neck and wear their "safe-sex statement" in public. Nope. Precious few "advocates" would do that. To that extent, it must take a coward to practice their sneaky "education" behind the scenes. ... I know for a fact that there's not a cacher out here who would go up to my daugher IN FRONT OF ME and hand her a condom... Why be a sneak about it? I wasn't commenting on what your reaction would be, I was commenting on your characterization of whomever put a condom in a cache as a coward. Again, I think it would be unwise to offer a stranger's child anything at all, including McToys, condoms, and religious tracts. I don't think it indicates cowardice on the part of a placer of any of those items. Should they have waited around the cache for the next cacher to show up? Just to reiterate, I don't think putting condoms in a cache is a good idea. But I also don't think the placer was trying to personally insult your parenting skills either, nor were they likely trying to offer a condom to your daughter specifically. It is a little unfortunate that you chose to characterize parents whom don't share your conservative parenting style (if I may characterize YOUR style this way based on your posts) as parents who "don't have control over their children's lives" and who "run around with condoms and make a laughing matter out of them." Their are many different types of parents and many different types of children, and therefore there are a wide variety of parenting styles that work. There is more than one monolithic Right Way. -- "I looked for it and I found it Miles Standish proud: Congratulate me" --R.E.M.

I don't think that it is a particularly good idea to put condoms in caches, but I don't see what the big deal is about it. If you don't think it's a good trade item, don't trade for it. I don't think condoms will be The End of Geocaching As We Know It. I don't understand the vehemence in reaction to this issue. Methinks the cacher doth protest too much . Clearly it is not simply a question of condoms being an unclassy trade item. I wouldn't presume to accuse people who leave religious tracts in caches of cowardice because there was no one around to see them do so. C'mon, no one would walk up to a stranger's child and offer them a McToy, either. That's a specious argument. I also wouldn't archive a cache simply because someone left a trade item in it I didn't approve of. By the same token, I don't buy the argument that you should leave your kids at home due to the risk of seeing a condom in a cache. Condoms are on visible display in my local chain grocery stores, and I take my child grocery shopping with me. What is there to fear? -- "I looked for it and I found it Miles Standish proud: Congratulate me" --R.E.M.

As a parent, I am not concerned about explaining things like condoms to my child. I am not so naive as to think that you can keep children from finding out about things by hiding them or pretending they don't exist. I think the best policy is just to be open and honest with your kids about all things, including sex (and deadly disease). I don't want to descend into a debate about abstinence, I think it is overly optimistic in the face of the available data to believe that preaching abstinence alone is enough to protect your child. That being said, I personally find it pretty unlikely that anyone would find a condom from a cache useful, but I have seen plenty of things (calling cards, for example) in caches that aren't particularly useful to others. Call me closed-minded, but since I have pretty much settled on my religious beliefs at this time, I don't find religious tracts useful, yet I sometimes find them in caches as well. I leave them with the thought that perhaps someone else will think they are useful. I am somewhat opposed to people "cleansing" caches of condoms or other items that they personally find offensive. Of course, you are free to trade out anything you like from a cache, but I feel it is not in keeping with the spirit of geocaching to take something you don't actually want just because you have a political opposition to it. JCR -- "I looked for it and I found it Miles Standish proud: Congratulate me" --R.E.M.

1. Various. Currently my home machine is an 8100 w/G3 upgrade. Plant to get an iBook or G4 desktop (have a g4 at work). 1a. Native serial ports on 8100 2. GPS OSOS9.1 2a. Eventually would like a Mac OS X version 3. GPS Unit: Magellan Meridian Platinum (unsupported by MacGPSpro) 4. Features I would like to see: Obviously, ability to open XML/.loc files. Including comments field for uploading to MeriPlat like EasyGPS would be nice too. Also, the ability to track GPS accuracy and maybe drift, a'la Cetus GPS for Palm, would be a big plus. This would require NMEA. Not critical. 5. I would pay at least $20 to ditch the complexity of maintaining two platforms. I currently have to FTP my .loc files to a Windows box to upload them with EasyGPS, but install the .pdbs on my Palm from the Mac, where I really live and work. I am basically looking for EasyGPS for the Mac. If this existed, I could dump Windows except for Magellan (proprietary) TopoMap uploading, which I do only infrequently. -- "I looked for it and I found it Miles Standish proud: Congratulate me" --R.E.M.

...lbh pna ernq gurfr JVGUBHG qrpelcgvat gurz. -- "I looked for it and I found it Miles Standish proud: Congratulate me" --R.E.M.

A railroad line that passes through my town is labelled in on the Magellan TopoSend CD (and therefore on my MeriPlat detail map) as "Grand Funk Western." -- "I looked for it and I found it Miles Standish proud: Congratulate me" --R.E.M. [This message was edited by Team Shredded Bark (formerly JCR) on November 21, 2002 at 10:57 AM.]

I only use the power cable for my MeriPlat with the mounting bracket, so I didn't need the screw. Since it is identical to the 315 strap screw, I called Magellan (Thales) tech support to ask if the mounting hole could take the strain of a lanyard (yes it can), and if they had a shorter screw available (nope). But they sent me an extra D-loop screw AND a lanyard strap free! I was concerned about snagging the too-long screw head on something, so I carved a rounded black block of rubber the same width and height as the data cable connector plate out of a piece of standard rubber sanding block, drilled a hole through it, and put the screw through. It works great (and matches the color scheme!) -- "Stay off that highway: word is it's not so safe The grasses that hide the green-backs, the amber waves of gain again" --R.E.M.

I'd do my best to attend an SE Michigan geocacher get-together. I live in Birmingham. I've seen some wonderful caches in this area, and discovered a few gems of unfamiliar parts around here in the process. John -- "Stay off that highway: word is it's not so safe The grasses that hide the green-backs, the amber waves of gain again" --R.E.M.

If you pull down the page number menu in MobiPocket (in the upper right of the screen) you can jump straight to Appendix 1: Hints. Then you have to find it by Waypoint ID. Personally I would rather (or also) have the encrypted hint in the usual location with the listing--I just use the Palm-based ROT13 hint decoder to decode it if I need it. John -- "Stay off that highway: word is it's not so safe The grasses that hide the green-backs, the amber waves of gain again" --R.E.M.

I have the same unit. I don't know of a way to turn off WAAS. I am nearly certain that the WAAS corrections occur in the GPS unit itself, not in the Palm software. The unit puts out a modified NMEA output, and I don't believe that supports doing the WAAS in the Palm itself. So the output is pre-corrected, if you will, when WAAS is active. You can tell with the NavCompanion software whether you are getting a strong signal from the WAAS satellites (I believe they are labeled E and W in the sky chart). CetusGPS will indicate a "DGPS" (Differential GPS) fix when WAAS is engaged. I haven't been able to find a way to find out specifically which individual satelites are having corrections applied. I haven't noticed any accuracy problems related to WAAS when using it geocaching. I generally use GeoNiche, which does not indicate when WAAS is engaged. I try to let the GPS run in the car (usually driving Mapopolis) on the way to a cache, which should be plenty of time for it to download the WAAS corrections before I get into the trees. -- "Stay off that highway: word is it's not so safe The grasses that hide the green-backs, the amber waves of gain again" --R.E.M.

I have the same unit. I don't know of a way to turn off WAAS. I am nearly certain that the WAAS corrections occur in the GPS unit itself, not in the Palm software. The unit puts out a modified NMEA output, and I don't believe that supports doing the WAAS in the Palm itself. So the output is pre-corrected, if you will, when WAAS is active. You can tell with the NavCompanion software whether you are getting a strong signal from the WAAS satellites (I believe they are labeled E and W in the sky chart). CetusGPS will indicate a "DGPS" (Differential GPS) fix when WAAS is engaged. I haven't been able to find a way to find out specifically which individual satelites are having corrections applied. I haven't noticed any accuracy problems related to WAAS when using it geocaching. I generally use GeoNiche, which does not indicate when WAAS is engaged. I try to let the GPS run in the car (usually driving Mapopolis) on the way to a cache, which should be plenty of time for it to download the WAAS corrections before I get into the trees. -- "Stay off that highway: word is it's not so safe The grasses that hide the green-backs, the amber waves of gain again" --R.E.M.

Zipping it fixed the corruption for me. However, I am no longer receiving updates on the days specified (I got Friday's, but no others). Doh! Are the Pocket Queries only generated when something has changed, or should I be getting the emails on all days checked, even if the results of my query haven't changed since last time? John -- "Stay off that highway: word is it's not so safe The grasses that hide the green-backs, the amber waves of gain again" --R.E.M.

Zipping it fixed the corruption for me. However, I am no longer receiving updates on the days specified (I got Friday's, but no others). Doh! Are the Pocket Queries only generated when something has changed, or should I be getting the emails on all days checked, even if the results of my query haven't changed since last time? John -- "Stay off that highway: word is it's not so safe The grasses that hide the green-backs, the amber waves of gain again" --R.E.M.

Me too! I just started trying Pocket Queries on Sunday, and none of them (so far) have worked for me. (Haven't tried Wednesday's yet.) I thought I was having a MIME decoding problem with Eudora, but now I am hopeful that it was a correctable problem at the originating end. John -- "Stay off that highway: word is it's not so safe The grasses that hide the green-backs, the amber waves of gain again" --R.E.M.

Topo maps: I currently use AcidImage to view jpegs of topo maps and aerial photos I download from Lost Outdoors . There are GPS programs that support tracking over a topographic map (PilotTracker program and the TopoSync add-on for the Topo! CD-ROM series from National Geographic are two I know of) but I haven't used them much yet. John -- "Stay off that highway: word is it's not so safe The grasses that hide the green-backs, the amber waves of gain again" --R.E.M.

The latest version of GeoNiche (1.1) supports a note for each target (waypoint), which obviates the need to exit the GPS in order to look at the description. This makes it a lot easier to create the target (coordinates, etc.). It also decodes hints (via the Edit menu). It is not yet an all-in-one solution, but it is getting a lot closer. I also use MultiClipHack, which is really handy for setting up waypoints because it allows you to copy several things, and then paste them one by one. I agree that the ability to download waypoints automagically is sadly lacking for PDAs. I use a Mac, and this is a problem for me even for stand-alone GPSs. -- "Stay off that highway: word is it's not so safe The grasses that hide the green-backs, the amber waves of gain again" --R.E.M.

My understanding is that the NavMan for the m500 series actaully uses the Palm's internal battery--they have no battery of their own. Therefore the 3-hour rating is the time it takes to discharge the Palm's internal battery! Partly because of that, and because of past good experience with Magellan, I bought the Magellan m500 companion for my m515 and I have been really happy with it. It isn't as slim as the Navman (it is about the same thickness as the Palm m5xx modem) but it powers itself, and should last at least as long as the battery in the Palm itself. I actually use mine with GeoNiche software for all geocaching, even deep woods. I bought an AquaPac that pads and waterpoofs the Palm/Magellan combination. It's probably not quite up to the same abuse as the latest "armored" models, but it can take a lot. I use Mapopolis to get to drive to the general area, with the car charger. I love having it all on one device. My only complaint so far is that the release of the windshield mounting bracket for this unit has been delayed until (at last check) August. I had to jerry-rig a substitute. John -- "Stay off that highway: word is it's not so safe The grasses that hide the green-backs, the amber waves of gain again" --R.E.M.