TeamJiffy

People get "so fired up" because this hobby, unlike so many, has a single authority figure (Groundspeak.com) that effectively monopolizes control of the hobby. Talk all you want about the other geocaching web sites, or point out all you want that you could hide private caches, the pragmatic fact is that geocaching.com is in all real senses the owner and controller of this hobby. So, we are a hobby with a boss or manager or whatever term you want to use. This boss chooses to exercise authority, such as establishing the minimum distance between caches, guidelines for the subjective worthiness of a virtual cache. Human Nature: We like to complain about any exercise of authority on the part of our boss, if that exercise happens to not be in our favor, or to our liking. I am not commenting on if our boss is a good or bad poss. I am simply saying that we have a boss, so we will complain. -Jif

Update on Neptune Cache The caching team of 2 for the road was kind enough to get us good coordiantes for Neptune - thanks! Green A's suggestion to try lostoutdoors.com helped a lot - according to 2 for the road, the coordinates I gave them from lostoutdoors were pretty close to the final location. Thanks for the offers of help from everyone! -Jif

There's a typo in the user statistics page. (The one that shows the cache find/hide totals broken by category, then a sum total). The "*" is meant to be after entries that contribute to the total number in the last row. Jeep Travel bugs show a "*" but don't contribute to the cache find total. I think you don't want a "*" in that row... ...a trivial problem, but also... trivial to fix

If we are making feature requests, I'd love the ability to lay out what buttons appear on the tool-bar... like you can do with Microsoft Office and such. I use Garmins, and don't need the Magellan buttons, and I would prefer to get a button to generate CSV files. One way to do this without too much grief is to make a button for just about every menu item, and create a pop-up form which allows you to choose what buttons are shown on the screen, and in what order, with one of those "move between column A and B" lists... or even easier, don't allow order choosing, but have a check-mark list saying which buttons get displayed. Do this, and I'll purchase 2 copies (one for me, one for my wife!), because with the buttons I can finally show my wife how to set things up for paperless chaching by herself -Jif

Congratulations, boulter!

Yes, please let the user enter a string for the mapsource.exe executable. Also, default the value of that string to the registry entry (if any) for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/App Paths/MapSource.exe ...but let us override it (if the registry is broken). If you do the above, you'll probably work on 99%+ of the installations without the user doing a thing. Depending on having ".MPS" go to MapSource is not as good, as it DOES seem to be used for media types by lots of applications. Thanks! Jif

GSAK 3.0.4 PROBLEM FOUND The Mapsource product creates files with a .MPS extention. Unfortunately, this is also a media type, so GSAK when trying to "auto-start MapSource" starts up a player (RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, whatever) on the file! Could you please explicitly run MapSource somehow vs. using the default file type handler? -Jif

Thanks! We like the color swirl! -Jif

Get well soon, Mrs. Mtn-Man! We wish you the best and are praying for you. -TeamJiffy

I agree with the naked woman on the beach. If you don't want to find them, well, don't. -Jif

HELP NEEDED IN MERCED! My wife and I have run into a horrible problem. We just finished a weekend in the central valley fixing up our three planet caches (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.) Pluto, we replaced. Uranus needed a new log sheet. Neptune we had to move, because a new fence was put up inches in front of it (that original cache is effectively entombed!) Here's the problem: We know where we put the new cache, but the entry recorded for it in our GPS receiver (as well as everything else in it) was destroyed in a botched software upgrade attempt!!! [] I DON'T HAVE COORDINATES FOR THE NEW PLACEMENT!! I can describe the location in a way that will get anyone in the Merced area within a 100'-150' or so of the cache. The cache is in the crotch of a tree with many trunks that is rather alone in a field, with only about 3-4 other trees anywhere close, so the cache should be findable in minutes. COULD SOMEONE PLEASE VISIT THE CACHE AND CAPTURE ITS COORDINATES? FOR YOUR TROUBLE, IF YOU HAVE AN AMAZON.COM ACCOUNT, I'LL SEND A $10 GIFT CERTIFICATE FOR YOU! [] A place to park is the northern END of Bismark Drive in Merced. That's at about, roughly, 37 19.450, -120 29.910. You'll notice, to the west, Merced Storm Pump #5. (For some reason, I remember that detail!) Go west beyond that. You'll notice that there is a field, somewhat sunken in, with fences of homes to the south, and a bike path to the north. There is the occasional (rare) tree in the field itself. The cache is in one of these trees, about halfway between the bike path and the homes, and about 200-300' from the pump station. The tree has multiple trunks coming from the ground, and "looks" like a tree that someone could place a geocache in. The cache itself is a little tupperware cube, about 3" or so on a side, covered in camo tape. We covered it with leaves. It is sitting 2-4' off the ground in the "bowl" or "crotch" formed by those multiple trunks. FROM LOOKING AT AN AERIAL PHOTO, WE *THINK* IT IS CLOSE TO 37 19.461 and -120 29.950. I wish I could tell you more. This is SO frustrating!!! Please help! Can anyone help? -Jif

Try updating your 60CS firmware to 3.40, and see if your experience changes

My wife and I both like caching - a lot. We vary as to our level of interest at any given moment. We used to insist that we find every cache together - to keep geocaching a "we" thing vs. "you" and "I" thing. But since our interest level will vary so much, we've agreed that if we both want to go caching we will, but that doesn't stop either one of us from going on a hunt by ourselves or with others. As to our extended families, when we are with my family, they love caching with us, but even after purchasing my Dad and sister a GPS receiver each last year, they haven't gone on a single hunt by themselves, as much as they said they would want to. So it is obviously, for them, a way to spend time with us when we visit. That's fine, and actually touching that they will do this activity with us that is not too enjoyable for them. When we are with my wife's family, they may find one or two caches with us, but generally ask "are you still doing that!?!" question. -Jif

I find it interesting that the original post talked about "lame sign only micros in uninteresting areas". Tons of ammo cans in the woods or the trees are in absolutely uninteresting areas. Are all of our forests vital, important, etc.? Absolutely. Are most areas of forest land interesting in some special way? Absolutely NOT. It's actually far easier to pick a lame placement for an ammo can than it is a micro. Here! Have fun searching through the rotted stump! Here! Put your hand under the hollowed-out bottom of a tree and put your hand in a pile of rotting debris! Here! Walk through this bog to find the cache, and smell to high heaven! None of these places are interesting to visit. After six months, the vast majority of the trade contents of any cache amount to dog-saliva-covered balls, half-used pencils, and McToys that are just sticky for some unknown, but probably disconcerting reason. So - it's possible to have ammo cans that are lame. I'm all for insisting people maintain their caches, and for placing them in more interesting areas. But don't blame log-only micros for lameness. Human beings are too clever for that - they have the ability to take anything and make it lame. -Jif

I noticed this on the Garmin software page that the 60CS/76CS has the following update in 3.40: Corrected problem with Sight N’ Go not projecting correctly. Corrected problem that could occur during compass calibration that could cause incorrect compass readings. The second point is exactly the symptom that I have been complaining about on this forum and to Garmin for a couple of months. I downloaded the software update, and things work fine now. I no longer feel alone and crazy! [] -Jif

Hi - Jif here. I'm well above the 20-30 range, and a guy, but I still have the worries HoundGrrl mentioned. I simply will not look in playgrounds without my wife. My reasoning: why do I want to cause such worry on the part of the parents? So, hunting these with my wife is the only way to go.

You have a pounded penny? What's that like? Would you be interested in a sig swap with one of our smashed pennies? --Marky Now I have to know. What in the world is the difference between a pounded penny and a smashed penny? -Jif

Actually, you need to pay the $$$ to get their routable map as well, which needs to be uploaded into the unit. Even more money!

This is a wonderful thread! Here's the avatar that we use for Geocaching... We like the fact that the edited "J" and "f" are symmetric, and are within a circle... but we've always thought it kind of bland. TeamJiffy consists of Fy (female) and Jif (male). Any ideas for a better one? (Hope, hope, hope!!)

Sigh. A simple thank you has turned into a silly debate. 1) I really appreciate the work Jeremy has done to build and drive this site. I don't appreciate him beyond the appreciation I give to anyone who does a hard job, but I also certainly don't appreciate him less! 2) I also really appreciate the work of all the Geocachers who actually place caches for us to find, and find the caches we place. Seems you need both - a place for the Geocachers to meet and share information, and the Geocachers, too... What's so strange to me is that my reading of some comments on this thread makes me concerned that some feel that it is important to support the second point so much, that the first has to be downplayed in order to create a greater distinction between it and the second. How silly. The fact that Jeremy makes money off the site - however much or little that is - has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that if it weren't for his drive and effort, Geocaching would have had a greater chance of becoming a short-term fad. Also, his site would be rather dull if it did not have real geocachers associated with it. Sounds like we need both, folks.

Waiting to be executed - as in Last Generated "Never" -Jif

Something I wonder about... is it illegal to knowingly destroy or remove a cache? I mean, it's rude... but is it criminal... could you be taken to court for doing it? -Jif

These are some of the hint words that I don't need to think about decrypting anymore... rock ebpx tree gerr under haqre path cngu trail genvy the gur of bs is vf cache pnpur ...any others that folks just know from experience? -Jif

Unless there is unusal load on the pocket query server, something is wrong. Typically, this time of the morning on Sunday, I am able to generate a 1-time query and get results in a few minutes. Now it's been over 30... Is the server ok?

My wife and I find most of our caches together. So we wanted a TeamXXX name. My first name begins with "J", hers with "F". We thought of TeamJF first. I noticed that we were pronouncing it as "TeamJif". Adding the "fy" to make "TeamJiffy" just struck us better sounding than "TeamJif", so there we go. One of us (I don't remember who) noticed that the two syllables of Jiffy are Jif and Fy. If Fy is pronounced with a long i, to rhyme with "eye", then Jif sounds like a boy's nickname, and Fy sounds like a girl's. So, in logs/posts I'm called "Jif" and she is called "Fy". (Although the "team" name is still pronounced to rhyme with "fee".) -Jif