brad.32

quote:Originally posted by BrianSnat: quote:Hmmm. Why isn't this thread under the geocaching.com forum? Because a lot more people visit this one. There is a similar one over there. Why isn't there just one big forum for everything then?

Hmmm. Why isn't this thread under the geocaching.com forum?

It has a new look, but the Reply button ain't work. This is Win2000, IE 6. The quick reply one does. The edit post button doesn't work either.

Some of you are Mac users? Ugh.

See Markwell's geocaching FAQ at http://www.markwell.us/ ... particularly "How many feet are in 0.001 minutes?" UTMs avoid this because they are in projected meters, but local to the Zone.

quote:Originally posted by Captain_Morgan&Family:Bit off-topic, but what the h... is nerf ball ? I couldn't find it on dictionaries... Sponge ball. Try "nerf" on amazon.com

Yeah, ya' see, that's what I thought: I would attach something. The tag's name is "little friend". Who's your little friend? ... hmmm, that's open to interpretation. The guy's intention was apparently to just send the tag, so attaching something wouldn't be his idea. The tag by itself is small. It was buried in the bottom of the cache. Plus, tags that don't have instructions are asking for getting lost. I'll probably just place it and wait for bthomas to pick it up.

I understand tagless bugs, but why bother with bugless tags? I found a bugless tag recently, just the silver tag and chain. It's called "Lille venn #1" (Norwegian for "little friend"): http://www.geocaching.com/track/track_detail.asp?ID=24221 I thought the object/item had been taken and the tag was left behind, so contacted the owner, who said no and made it sound normal. This doesn't sound normal.

I put an instruction tag, similar but shorter to what SnowLeopard posted, for my bugs. The first one I released didn't have such a tag (I was new), so I asked the finder if I could mail the laminated tag to him. He added it and placed the bug after that. You could do a similar thing. The instruction tag should include a "please hold for new tag if you complete the current goal". When a goal is reached, you mail a new tag to the current finder, who can swap the tags, then place the redirected bug.

Have you contacted Pigman by email to check out what he is doing? ... be friendly

Mosquitoes are known to carry/transmit diseases like malaria, yellow fever, heartworm, and encephalitides (Eastern and Western Equine, Japanese, La Crosse, St. Louis, West Nile Virus). Mosquitoes do not transmit AIDS, AIDS is not an arbovirus. WHO and CDC both try to get the word out about this issue, and other info include: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pubs/faq/faq32.htm http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~insects/aids.htm http://science.howstuffworks.com/mosquito4.htm http://www.aegis.com/topics/FAQ.html (based on CDC info like the Rutgers one above) http://www.galaxygoo.com/hiv/mosquito.html

In astronomy, terrestrial, martian, etc, coordinate systems, the lon/lat coordinates are written 37d25m38s, 37d25m38.087s, 37d25.63m, 37d25.635m, 37.42725d, etc, where you would read degrees for d, minutes for m, and seconds for s. Of course, in astronomy the equivalent of longitude is right ascension and that's written h m s. ... and don't believe that second coordinate as far as you can throw your computer. [This message was edited by brad.32 on March 21, 2003 at 06:23 AM.]

I don't like lostoutdoors.com's because the JPGs that can be downloaded don't have JPG world files (JGW) to georeference the images (for ArcPad). That file IS available at terraserver. ... and the imagery available from both is aerial PHOTOGRAPHY not satellite IMAGES. Satellites do NOT acquire photographs.

He knows all, and will point out the previous posts and threads where a subject has been discussed previously. You've been "Markwelled" when he catches you at repeating something.

Goto http://www.magellangps.com/en/support/products/ and download the manual for your product. Update: Delta's post wasn't there when I posted this now duplicate. [This message was edited by brad.32 on March 20, 2003 at 12:34 PM.]

Plastic jars are okay, especially if they have a threaded lid, "helps" keep the moisture out. They are a bit of a problem when they have a narrow mouth a finder can't get their hand in it: have to dump the whole thing out and repack. Bigger ones work well. No glass, as others have said.

quote:Originally posted by CoronaKid:I think that the poll is going to be rather skewed based simply on the fact that most regulars on the message boards are also the most likely to log DNFs. I don't follow that logic. The posts here do show it is true, however. They may equally not log DNFs because they don't want anyone to know they "failed". It could be also have been skewed because the regulars are determined finders and have few DNFs. Each option is an assumption. BTW I have logged DNFs and have also looked and not logged anything. [This message was edited by brad.32 on March 20, 2003 at 08:14 AM.]

quote:Originally posted by Captain_Morgan&Family:This came from storm chasers list: >Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2003 18:00:58 -0600 >From: Ed Carp >Subject: Re: [WX-CHASE] Wartime GPS accuracy could be degraded... > >I'm using a non-WAAS GPS receiver. >I usually get accuracy to within 20 feet >consistently. This afternoon, it's been all >over the place, from 15 feet to >200 feet and everywhere in between. Very weird. What was the PDOP? This sounds like a bad PDOP. With a PDOP < 6, it should have an error of 5-10 m, as usual.

You could have had a bad PDOP. What was the PDOP or the spread of the satellites you were locked onto? If other people found the cache at the listed coords, then they are probably right. A normal, commercial GPS unit should have an accuracy of 5-10 m with a PDOP < 6. I've tested a number of different GPS units and they typically have ~5-m error. This is against each other or against accurate benchmarks, at the same time, and/or different days. Any benefit from averaging will be less than a minute. Long averaging is just waiting for a better PDOP. Like Searching_ut said, the bottom line is, try some more caches and see how it performs.

Jeremy provided links to other geocaching threads that discount the slashdot and other rumor reports.

argh. How many threads do we need for the rumors of the return of SA? argh. The compliant dept thread is nice and self-contained. Ahhhhh.

GPS can be regionally degraded, so SA should not be needed globally. "The end of Selective Availability was a major turning point that has helped GPS to become a global utility, now being used around the world in many different applications." "After the attacks of September 11th, the industry buzzed over the possibility of a return to SA. However, on Sept. 17, 2001, the Interagency GPS Executive Board (IGEB), which governs the GPS system, announced the United States has no intent to ever use Selective Availability again." http://gps.faa.gov/GPSbasics/index.htm (Selective Availability page) The original comment can be found on the IGEB web page, http://www.igeb.gov/sa.shtml. Note: these URLs are .gov, as in US Government [This message was edited by brad.32 on March 19, 2003 at 08:09 AM.]

The problem seems to be that people don't understand what to do with TBs, i.e., how to log a find or placement. The Groundspeak tag doesn't have much info on it. A number of posters have written that they add an additional instruction (and goal) tag to their bugs (I do too) as well as to bugs they find to help people successfully log the bugs. There are a number of threads here that talk about this issue.

quote:Originally posted by Ttepee:Check out http://www.geocities.com/team_fisur/geo-creations/index.html has gathered onto their homepage. They did a good job of gathering the ideas in one spot. Good Luck and have fun! Some people have created some cool pieces

I've seen posts that people leave coins (like Beatnik), pins, badges, stamps, carved wooden-items, beaded items (like GEOCACHING bracelets), or other crafty things. I've never found anything like that, just McToys, dice, leaky batteries, etc, but then I've only found ~40 caches. I've taken to leaving small vinyl astronauts or space shuttles. Is that a signature item if it's not an original thing like a coin or a crafty item?