Zahrim

quote:Scavenger hunts get high-tech twist2003-10-06 By Sarah Molina The Oklahoman Terri Cooper is spending a Saturday afternoon in the woods of Dulaney Park, ducking tree branches, dodging poison ivy and charging a steep hill, finally discovering something she's sought for the last half-hour. She is on a high-tech scavenger hunt better known as geocaching. With a tracking device in hand and a pack on her back, Cooper removes a small container made of paintball pods from the base of exposed tree roots. Inside, she finds a tape measure, a pencil sharpener and a keychain, among other treasures. After choosing which item she will take from the pack -- the tape measure -- and replacing it with another -- a USA lanyard -- she signs her name, secures the container and puts it back exactly where she found it. According to the Web site www.geocaching.com, there are about 70,000 caches, or points of hidden items, in 185 nations. Three years ago, 75 caches were reported, mostly in the United States. This treasure-hunt-like sport doesn't take much -- just a Global Positioning System and a little curiosity. ''If they like to be outdoors and like the adventure of trying to find something, spend the 100 bucks (for a GPS) and just go out and have fun,'' said Brian Smith, 40, a geocacher from Oklahoma City. The user programs the cache's location in a GPS using coordinates posted on the geocaching Web site. The handheld equipment tells how far the person is from the cache. The caches can be almost anything -- a small Tupperware container or a large bucket -- but all caches have a logbook where finders record their names and the day they visited. The cache owner can include anything -- maps, books, pictures, jewelry, tools or antiques. The finder is free to take an item but must replace it with something else. There are even theme caches. Cooper said she hopes to eventually hide a dog-theme cache dedicated to her deceased pet, and a harvest moon cache with nothing but yellow items inside. Cooper, 56, of Choctaw said she started the hobby in June and has found 229 caches. ''Once you find your first one or two, you're just hooked,'' she said. ''It gives you exercise, and it's something to get out of the house for.'' Smith is well-known in the Oklahoma City geocache community, finding more than 400 caches and hiding many more since he jumped onto the geocaching scene in December. When Smith posts the location of his caches on the Web site, he makes up stories to go along with where they are hidden or what is included. ''I like coming up with the stories,'' Smith said. ''I bring them in using ghost stories and other stories. I want it to grab me, and I want to go out and do it.'' On this visit, Cooper is looking for one of Smith's caches named Monkey Boy because the cache hunters must scale a steep hill and hang onto tree branches to find it. ''Monkey boy was a child lost in the woods somewhere in Oklahoma who was befriended by a group of monkeys. He was soon captured and raised by humans to live a normal life, all except the ability to climb and cling like a monkey. I named this cache for him and made it so it would truly live up to his abilities,'' Smith wrote. Smith said his involvement in the sport stemmed from his love of rock hunting. He first used his GPS to find rocks. ''This is like high-tech treasure hunting,'' Smith said. ''I truly enjoy making the caches. It looks like it belongs there, but they're so out in the open.'' Dedra Doyle, 42, of Oklahoma City said the sport is a great way to explore Oklahoma and other states. ''Geocaching takes you to places that you might not have seen had it not been for it. People who live in the areas take you to places and sites that aren't on the state tour guides,'' she said. Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

Ok. Will not bother with them. Is there any other way to (find/list/whatever you are looking for) get the information about archived caches? Short of knowing the name..............? Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

Hey, Don't get me wrong. I think it a great new feature. MY point is that After a bit over a year of use, I have never seen this function, and have seen no indication as to the fact that is is even here.... And, the link you gave is not a main page link that anyone can find. Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

quote:Originally posted by Hemlock: quote:Originally posted by Zahrim:What I would like to know is other than here, just where is the link for this 'NEW' feature listed? I do not see it on the 'MAIN PAGE', 'ABOUT GEOCACHING' page, 'HIDE & SEEK A CACHE' page, 'TRACK TRAVEL BUGS' page, 'MY CACHE PAGE', 'DISCUSS GEOCACHING' page (aka the forum), or the 'LINKS' page, ... Oh you stopped looking too soon. Its currently linked from the http://www.geocaching.com/contact.asp page (2nd paragraph in blue). It was only added on Friday afternoon. It is still somewhat in development and will probably be linked from other pages soon. Where else do you think would be appropriate? Hemlock - The alternative to purple frownies. http://ubbx.Groundspeak.com/6/ws/emoticons/frog.gif Well, I am glad someone replied. But I will tell you this. The link you just gave leads to the page, but I can find no way to get there from the main page. Care to help me? In other words, yes it is there (as I said), but what you posted is no help what so ever. From the link you posted, I can get there, but you can not get to the page you posted from any normal link on GC.com. Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

quote:Originally posted by Cruzin!:Follow up: Yep, unique numeric ID. Take a look at the URL for my profile: http://www.geocaching.com/profile/default.aspx?A=12056 Notice the "A=12056" at the end? 12056 is my unique ID number. I'm guessing that I'm the 12,056th registered account on the site. #s 2 and 3 are two of Jeremy's accounts. http://www.geocaching.com/profile/default.aspx?A=2 http://www.geocaching.com/profile/default.aspx?A=3 <another follow-up> The highest number at the moment is 159759. That's a lot of accounts. It looks like they're getting a thousand or so new accounts about every three days. That's pretty rapid growth. Let's hope that a good percentage of them subscribe. -- Pehmva! Random quote: http://sthomas.net/sigimage.php Yes, accounts 2 and 3 are Jeremy's. There is no account 1, and just where did you get the number 1000 every 3 days? That is a big leap... Hmm... let's look at the numbers for a minute. The oldest cache is GC4. It's oldest log is dated 27 Aug 2000. Today is 15 Sep 2003. That makes 1114 days between then and now. There are at this moment 159759 users listed online right now.... Hmmmm.... That makes 143.41 new cachers a day on average.... AND, let me see... I think that 143.41*3 is no where near 1000 new accounts. At best the average = 430.23. Care to try again with your wild assumptions? Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

quote:Originally posted by Hemlock:From the new http://Groundspeak.trakhelp.com/: http://Groundspeak.trakhelp.com/bin/answer.py?answer=91&topic=4 http://Groundspeak.trakhelp.com/bin/answer.py?answer=95&topic=4 Hemlock - The alternative to purple frownies. http://ubbx.Groundspeak.com/6/ws/emoticons/frog.gif This is a very kewl (I am guessing 'new' feature) as I have not seen it before. What I would like to know is other than here, just where is the link for this 'NEW' feature listed? I do not see it on the 'MAIN PAGE', 'ABOUT GEOCACHING' page, 'HIDE & SEEK A CACHE' page, 'TRACK TRAVEL BUGS' page, 'MY CACHE PAGE', 'DISCUSS GEOCACHING' page (aka the forum), or the 'LINKS' page, IE.... I CAN'T find it anywhere. WHY is that? It looks like a very nice new feature, but there is no reference to it anywhere that I can find after looking for it just now. Was this page ment only for admin? Is it still in develipment? You tell me. There is a post at http://ubbx.Groundspeak.com/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=5726007311&f=8016058331&m=79060258 that talks about new features being posted ''Somewhere'', and after seeing this, I agree... I love new features, but the people need to know about them. I will only speak for myself here, but I bet it is true for most.... When I log on to GC, I go to the MY CACHE PAGE.... I think that is the way things are intended.... If there are new features, they need to be listed in some way on that page. Just my thoughts. Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

Hello all. We here in Oklahoma have two groups so to speak. One from Oklahoma City and one from Tulsa. I am very interested in 'just what' becoming a 'non-profit' group entails, and what the advantages and disadvantages are... Any help is much appreciated. Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

quote:Originally posted by Web-ling:I like the idea of an "official" stats page on Geocaching.com. It would eliminate the need for other sites scraping the data and doing it themselves. Is geocaching competitive? For some, no. For others, yes. There should be options for both groups. It's not like you win a medal or anything. I like the idea of listing all cachers on a stats page, with opt-out cachers listed as <anonymous>. Stats are just stats. They do not make the game a competition. Those of us that are competitive will be that way whether we have stats or not. Those that are not competitive won't care if there are stats or not. In order to conserve server workload, static stats files could be generated daily at off-peak times. The stats wouldn't be real-time, but close enough. I agree kinda. "an "official" stats page on Geocaching.com." is what I would like to see, and I am guessing that it is what most who are asking for stats would like to see as they would be "The Stats".... straight 'from the horses mouth'. As to the <anonymous> thing goes, I can live with it, but that is not what I want to see. One of the main reasons I look at the "stats" for is to see who is "knowledgeable" in an area other than my local area. If I am going on a trip to an area 'I Don't know', I would of in the past, look at the LB to see who was the top several people in the area I was heading. I could then ask then any questions I might have about planning my trip. But... I would gladly take <anonymous> over no stats. I have spent the better part of 100 hours try'n to do a manual 'Local Top 25', and that is NOT the way to go. It is WAY to much work to do by hand. Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently." [This message was edited by Zahrim on August 23, 2003 at 09:07 PM.]

quote:Originally posted by DBleess: 1. Got stats. Right from the GC page. http://members.cox.net/dmbleess/geocache/stats.jpg LOL.... Very cute. I can do that too. But, seeing one persons stats are not what most everyone has been talking about here. You are correct in the fact that you can grab "One persons stats" at any time with what is now provided. Without an easy way to "compare" those stats to other people, it is totally useless. The other point here is that many who have spoken up about this is that they, and myself, want to see the stats 'related' at some form of local level. In my case at the state level. I can see several states that might care to see them at a more local level, but for where I live here in Oklahoma, state level is more than enough. quote:2. It isn't a competition. If you make it a competition, you will open up an entirely new can of worms. Competing people are even more prone to do dumb things than non-competing people, so why bother? They will lie about finds to inflate numbers, and steal and screw up caches to make them tougher for others to find to keep their position if they are "honest" in other respects. We simply don't need it. Keep the competitive aspect off the GC page. It will cause far more harm than good to organize and encourage competition. If you want a competition, go play a traditionally competitive sport. There's plenty of them already out there. SA / PP-ASEL-I / Yahoo "SphinxXXVII" / ICQ 1916574 Just WHO do you think you are to make such a statement? How DARE you imply that because I like to see the numbers that I would ever cheat? The only reason I can possibly think of is that you yourself are prone to cheat. You don't know me and at this point I bet you don't know most of the people here asking for stats. It is silly thinking like that which starts bigotry of most kinds, be it racial, sexist, etc... Even though it has not been "a competition" on GC.com I have seen a few cases of people "fake'n" posts. When stuff like that happens, MOST times, the posts are caught quickly and dealt with. If not, then as you don't care about the stats, it should not bother you at all. And another point... For an "anti-stats" person, I find it very funny that on one of the pages on your website you have a large photo of an airplane that is BLATANTLY stat related ( The Nebraska 'Huskers' airplane to be exact)... I think everyone is entitled to there opinion, but that is all it is, and it should be stated as such. If your opinion is you don't like stats, fine. Say so, but DO NOT ACCUSE others. Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

quote:Originally posted by Rc Aro Planes:oh you can tell I am new lol. "Posts: 6 | From: bakersfield | Registered: August 12, 2003" Well, the "Posts: 6" thing gives it away.... Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

I'd like to see totals broken down by state. I'm sure different people care about differnent stats, but for me the only ones that I ever paid any attention to were the state totals. Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

I would also like to say 'THANK YOU' Dan. I have enjoyed the information that your site provided. I will now have to find a way to do it myself, or find someone in the state that has the knowledge to give me my daily fix... Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

I now have to change my 'home page'. I could care less about the "WHOLE world" stats. The only stats that matter to me are the state stats. Stats may not be the 'end all' or the 'thing' for many people, but they mean something to a LOT of people... After looking at the Oklahoma stats page, I found that I was close to being on the "FRONT page", and that was the fact that motivated me to cache just a bit more.... After I ended up on the front page (Top 25), I was then motivated more to crack the top ten, and as #6 atm, I am working on cracking #5.... ETC............. SO... Stats are a GOOD thing. OK, some people don't like them, fine, they don't have to look at them. The rest of us WANT STATS. Even if it's only State Level. Heck, State Level is all I want. At 371 total finds, I can NEVER compete worldwide, But I can at the State level.... Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

quote:Originally posted by fizzymagic:Maybe I am hallucinating, but I was under the impression that part of the reason for the migration to the .NET platform was to be able to provide Web services (i.e. database access) to others. If not, then I am perplexed by the decision to take the path that the House (as you put it) did, since, as far as I can tell, that is mainly what the .NET architecture is for. What move to dot net are you talking about? I see no move by geocaching.com to a dot net. In fact, as this is a semi-comercial site, there can be NO move to a dot net.... Maybe I am missing somthing here, if so, please let me know. Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

Go for it. Just include the information about the possible water levels in your description, and if you can, the probable times of year to expect the high water. The distance is fine, just do not expect a huge amount of finds, as 'hard to get to' caches are saved for planned out trips for a lot of people, unless they live very near by. Here is a cache in Oklahoma that I plan to get 'one of these days', but it is 327 miles from where I live, and on top of that, it's 4.2 miles uphill and an 8.4 mile round trip hike (Black Mesa Cache), and it's a VIRTUAL to boot.... quote:Originally posted by RJFerret: quote:btw it will have some good items like two playstation 2 games!! Pieces of plastic? What would I do with those? (Or do PS2 games come on CD?) Disks of metal encasesd in plastic? What would I do with those? On a side note RJF, PS2 games are CDs and CDs are not "Disks of metal encased in plastic". They are disks of plastic with a VERY thin layer of metallic film on them. Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

quote:Originally posted by Verboten:You can edit it, but I see no reason to for the purpose of geocaching. Also, I have yet to see a cache posted with altitude. Then again, I don't live near any real mountains. -Vb For the most part, this is true. I have come across a few caches that list altitude. They are mostly located on mountain peeks, related to a benchmark, or are in an area with cliffs. In the last case, it would be very nasty of the cache owner to not let you know the altitude, as you could be 2 feet away from the cache lat/lon wise, and anywhere from 10 feet to several hundred feet off based on cliff height. Other than situations like these, altitude is not an important part of geocaching. Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

I see that every idea listed so far is a great idea ''Depending'' on the cache you are hunting. I think the first question people should have asked is - ''What is the area like/what is the difficulty level of the cache?'' As you are 1 for 4 atm, congratulations on starting a great hobby/pastime/obsession. What were the 3 caches you hunted and didn't find? As to the what to bring with you, that ALL depends on where the cache is. Camping kit is a very good idea if you are heading into the woods, outback, or anywhere out of the urban area. If on the other hand, the cache is an urban cache, a lot of the camping/survival type stuff is not needed at all, and just might draw unwanted attention to yourself. (Water is always a good idea, even for urban caches). I would have to say without knowing more about the caches you have been hunting, the BARE MINIMUM... is - your GPS, a printout of the cache page (or the Pocket Query if you have a palm pilot), and a trade item or so. It helps a lot to read the logs of past finders before you hunt, (Like yumitori said ''Caches sheets with all the logs, especially at first. Sometimes you can glean additional hints.'' Hope to hear how things go in the future. Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

quote:Originally posted by pdxmarathonman: quote:Caches Found/Hidden: 0/0 I think Marky was making the same point I was going to make. A good way to take geocaching to the _next_ level is to start! You gotta love those with 0/0. They are ether WAY tooo new, or are someone just baiting people from a second, third, forth, etc... account. Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

This thread, while being funny at times, is ready to die. So, please let it die now. If you had made all this up from dust, fine, but you are using a commercial site. Even though most can not understand what the commercial part is, it is time for this to stop. Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

Right now, there are Micro (35mm film canister), Regular (tupperware, ammo box), Large (5 gallon and higher), Virtual (no cache), Other (see description). I feel that there should be a few other sizes added to this list. Between Micro and Regular, there should be ''Mini'' (Decon kit / Band-Ade box) sized. (This seems to be a size of much use.) The Ammo box should be ''Regular'', as it is now, and there should be another step before the ''5 gallon size''. Just a thought, but ''5 gallon'' to me should fall in a ''Mega'' size. Then there would be room for a spot in-between Regular and Mega. That would leave ''Large'' open for that mid-point. Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

I agree. Everyone should be made by law to have there cellphone number as their license plate number.... So, When I pull up behind some fool on his/her cellphone, I can call them and tell them to move the heck out of the way.... Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

Zahrim is the net name I have been using for several years now. I first picked it out the name while playing a MUD where I was an ''evil'' charecter. I started to look for a midevil type name for an evil character, and came across ''The Twenty-Second Name is ZAHRIM'' ''Slew ten thousand of the Hordes in the Battle. A Warrior among Warriors. Can destroy an entire army if the Priest so desires. His Word is MASHSHAGARANNU and his Seal:'' Even though I no longer ''MUD'', The name has stuck with me, I have grown attached to the name. Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

I checked with a friend of mine from the TAG to be sure before I started pointing my finger. The current 'leader' of the TAG is Beatnik at geocache@cox.net. He is the one to talk to if you have any questions relating to Geo-topics in the Tulsa area. They have a monthly meeting that information can be found at 'Tulsa Area Geocachers Meeting'. I have not had a chance to attend one of their meetings, as I live in the OKC area, and attend the local meetings, but would venture to say it is a good place to meet locals that have similar interests as yourself. If you have an questions at all, please feel free to contact Beatnik or myself zahrim@cox.net at any time. We are both more than happy to help if we can. If we can't, I'm sure we can find you another POC that can help in some way. Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

quote: Only thing I don't like about it is that the chest strap is not long enough (& I'm NOT that big in the chest either ), and the cheesy waist belt. Is that so? Not to be a pain... But, you must understand that this item was designed for the military. They have a very strict size requirement. So, even though you may not be large by public standards.... Are you within military standards? Just something to think about. As I said... The camelback was not meant for the public, but the military. Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

No idea if this is something that many want or not. But, I think it might be worth looking into. What I am after is a new search parameter. One that would let someone search for newbies. Some sort of scale 'of say less than 10, less than 20, less than 30 finds', etc... in "a local area", or something like that, for "new geocachers". Or if anyone else has a better idea.... What I am looking for is some way to find new people in the local area, so they my be personally invited to a local meeting. I have so far been watching all of the "local" caches looking for new names that I don't know... to see if they are new and might need an invite to the local meeting. I know the local meetings are posted. But, for a newbie, they may not know what they are looking at when they see the meeting post. Any help from the management or anyone else would be greatly appreciated... Zahrim.... "There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."