topografix

Thanks! Those look perfect.

Anyone know what these are called, or where to get them? I can picture them - must have seen them at some point several years ago.

The mini sharpies I've seen were about 4 inches long. I'm looking for something just a bit longer than an AA battery. I'll admit, though, after cutting down a pencil to fit, it's a bit difficult to hold correctly so you can write legibly.

Has anyone found a source for pencils smaller than a golf pencil? My sig item is a geocaching survival kit, and I've had to cut about an inch off each golf pencil to get them to fit in the watertight container. It seems like there must be thin mini pencils out there somewhere, but I can't find them.

I applaud any effort to get the child waypoints listed explicitly for each cache. I've looked into having GeoBuddy parse each geocache's description, looking for coordinates, and it is a nightmare. Some geocachers have come up with some very "creative" ways of writing out coordinates in deg min.min format. GeoBuddy tip: if you highlight a coordinate in the built-in Web browser and click New Waypoint, GeoBuddy will attempt to parse the highlighted text and automatically enter it in the Coordinates field of the new waypoint. http://www.geobuddy.com

I'll echo Robert Lipe's request that this get some attention at the source. GeoBuddy's GPX parser will refuse to open a GPX pocket query that contains mal-formed XML. It's a support headache for me, as well. Thanks Jeremy for your quick response to the last instance of this I reported.

Do you support GPX format for these tours?

EasyGPS shows a plot of your GPS data over a white background. If you'd like to see your GPS data plotted over a topo map, aerial photo, or your own scanned trail map, try http://www.expertgps.com

Pocket Queries or individual GPX downloads for the following geocache contain invalid data in one of the logs. This causes an error message in my software when the invalid GPX file is opened. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCVAQX <Groundspeak:log id="18079647"> <Groundspeak:date>2006-08-15T07:00:00</Groundspeak:date> <Groundspeak:type>Didn't find it</Groundspeak:type> <Groundspeak:finder id="413550">RunsFromBears</Groundspeak:finder> <Groundspeak:text encoded="False">5{ for this one and came up short. tough day in the woods. I looked along the wall and where-ever the gps bounced me too. I think the last number was a little bogus as it could have been a 3, 7, 4, or six? [] I guess next time. RunsFromBears.</Groundspeak:text> </Groundspeak:log>

Are they soliciting comments on their GPX implementations?

I'll third that, and mention that as a software developer, I'm ready to start using those attributes in my software as soon as they appear in GPX files.

This beta version of EasyGPS will likely fix the problem - another Vista user helped me track it down and fix it. http://www.easygps.com/beta.asp

http://www.easygps.com/help/dlg_geocaching_settings.htm http://www.easygps.com/latest.asp You need to be using a GPX file (pocket query) from geocaching.com, because the .loc format doesn't include the hint.

Which geocache is this?

In ExpertGPS, select a bunch of geocaches in the Waypoint List, right-click, and click Add to Route. ExpertGPS will perform a "travelling salesman" calculation to add them in the order that creates the shortest route.

As of about noon on Thursday, everything is now working for me. Whatever bad Domain Name Server data that was in the Comcast servers has now been replaced with the correct DNS information.

Thanks for the replies so far. There seems to be a name server problem, but tech support hasn't been very helpful so far. They're blaming my local ISP - which might explain the failures in Stow, MA and maybe oldsoldier in Grafton, MA, but doesn't explain Tennessee or Washington state. A new question - does the first link fail or pass, who is your ISP, and what state are you in? Me: Fails, Comcast (broadband cable), MA

I'm trying to determine if my Web hosting provider is having trouble, or if there is some local failure that's keeping me from reaching my Web sites from here in Massachusetts. Could a few of you click on the following links and report if you can reach EasyGPS.com? http://www.easygps.com http://168.144.186.91 (this is the IP address for easygps.com) As of Wednesday evening, I can't reach easygps.com by name, but can reach it by IP address from Massachusetts. Thanks!

Delaney is the name of the wildlife area down the street from EasyGPS world headquarters. There's a sample file (stow.gpx) included with EasyGPS, and Delaney is the name of the route in the sample file - it runs from the parking lot to the "Dogs at Delaney" geocache. It sounds like you're trying to send the Stow.gpx file to your GPS, and EasyGPS trying to tell you that the route number for that route isn't valid for your Magellan GPS. Using the Select tool, select the route, right-click, Edit Route, and put a valid (1-30) route number in the route.

I think embra gave you better advice than I could provide. You won't see a transfer dialog - EasyGPS is saving a .upt file, which happens instantly. Your job is to save it to the right location - the My POIs folder on your GPS removable drive.

I responded to your support question Monday morning.

Edit a waypoint and put data in both the Waypoint and Comment field in EasyGPS, then send to your GPS. The Comment appears in the notes section of the GPS. The problem is that geocaching.com doesn't put any data in the .loc file for the comment field in EasyGPS.

If I recall correctly, the Magellan GPS 310 does not support data transfer. Look on the back - if it has two contact points instead of four, it can't be used with a PC. (two points for external power, two more for data transfer)

That info no longer applies. EasyGPS 2.0 lists the 60CS model and uses the USB connection by default.

EasyGPS works with both USB and serial connections to GPS receivers.