The Rat

I am writing from California. I just mailed to my daughter at the U. of Edinburgh a Travel Bug (SoccerBug28) that wanted to reach Europe. Do any of you footballers want to do a favor and pick up the bug and place it in a cache there somewhere? Does it help that my daughter is yourg, single and good-looking? No, she's not a geocacher. Please e-mail me rather than replying to the board, since I will post similar messages on other boards, and will not be following this one.

quote:Originally posted by mcvey:I just read on cnn.com that they've put up a new GPS satellite. Anybody know whether you have to do anything special to make your GPSr pick up a new one? I hadn't heard about this, but I'd be very interested to know the answer, too. Surely one of you obsessive-compulsive geocachers will know the answer - assuming the initial fact is accurate. I don't see why there would be any adjustment needed, since each of the general satellites sends its exact position and an exact transmission time, doesn't it? If so, it shouldn't really matter which ones are received or how many there are in terms of processing the information; it should only result in greater accuracy with more satellites received. But I'm no geek here - just speculation. Someone here must actually know the answer.

I posted some images on the Futari cache page for those interested. I'll save the rest for the pizza party or picnic.

quote:Originally posted by TeamJiffy: Do you notice any different 'trands' in caches or hides in Washington vs. the Bay Area? For example, in the Bay Area we have lots of 35mm film canisters in cyclone fence-posts, and magnetic keyholders on the 'other' side of guardrails/bridges, use of those 'candy melt-in-your-mouth strip' containers, etc... -Jif Pepper, go ahead an answer for Seattle, but I thought this was an interesting question, so I'll contribute, too. When I went down to San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara I noticed that every cache was a full-sized Tupper or close to it, even the ones in the urban settings. The one micro was still big enough to trade small items in. Also, a fellow cacher who is in the American Cryptogram Association (in Oregon, I believe) says that up there a cache is not considered legitimate unless it can be seen from some angle without moving anything. In other words, no totally covered caches, although camo is acceptable.

quote:Originally posted by fizzymagic: I'd love to hear any recommendations you have for caches down there. Lost Positas and Table View in Santa Barbara were both in scenic areas with nice big Tuppers to trade in, especially Lost Positas. Stop to do Shell Beach in Pismo if you're able. It's only a virtual, but the coast is spectacularly beautiful there. The three I did in downtown SLO were quick and easy, and SLO-Troll was in a quaint little area I didn't know existed. Go to my profile page and click on the ones I've found for 3/10 and 11 to see what I did. The Binary Blues ones aren't much, but they do what they're advertised to do, which is to break up a long drive with a bit of caching.

I'm happy for you, but I'm deeply offended that you didn't make Big Liar your 600th. Oh wait, that's a lie! But which part? By the way, I had some very nice caching in Santa Barbara and SLO. What ever happened to the book traveler you were asking me to take? Too late now. Almost all the caches there were huge tuppers, too. If you go that way, I can recommend a few.

quote:Originally posted by TeamJiffy:We all think it's time for a party!! Tentative date/time and place: Sunday, April 6, from 11:00 to 5:00 or so at Fremont Central Park. How's the date look for you all? -TeamJiffy I'm available.

quote:Originally posted by fizzymagic:Well, we did it! Jif, Marky, and I solved it and went and got it together. Jif had the insight we needed while he was driving today, and I did most of the rest. I just have one question: how long was it with his sister-in-law? Take that any way you want to.

I'm heading south from San Jose to Santa Barbara in a couple of weeks. No one on the Bay Area board has responded to my plea for good cache suggesteions along 101 S and in S.B. Any Central Valley folks with good ideas? I probably won't have time for major hikes, but some stuff at scenic stops, cliff/beach, etc. would work.

quote:Originally posted by TeamJiffy:I have no specific caches to suggest, however, I do have a suggestion of two particular places that you should visit: + Madonna Inn - + Solvang - I won't say "Hope this helps," as I am not sure that either of these places can be claimed to help _anything_. "Hope this amuses" is all I can say. These are both excellent suggestions. I have been to both more than once. I went to school at UCSB - although everything has changed since then big time. I also went through there last summer and saw the mission. It is one of the better ones in the state. So I am less interested in the general points of interest than the caches this time around. I don't think my waistline can stand more butter cookies. There must be somebody out there with some cache ideas - Salinas area at least?

I have to go down to Santa Barbara in a couple of weeks on business. I may take an extra day and get in some geocaching. Does anybody have recommendations for either 101 S or the Santa Barbara area itself? I probably won't want to go up on long hikes in the hills, so either some interesting urban caches (if that's not an oxymoron) or maybe some beach/cliff stuff. If anybody has a bug they want to go south, let me know, and put it in a local cache for me to take.

quote:Originally posted by georgeandmary:http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=55404 Don't really know how hard to rate this one. There's an easy way to solve this but I don't know how hard it is to find the easy way. I need some feedback. george You want feedback? I read the first sentence of the cache page: "Pi is defined as the ration of a circles circumfrence to it's diameter. " After recovering from an apoplectic fit I vowed to create a Word Police Quiz 2 based on this page alone. Four errors in one 13-word sentence must be a new record. Maybe that could be the secret theme - the number of errors in each succeeding sentence could the numerical key to the cache location. I think I'll pass on going out to this one. I don't mean to flame - I'm really a nice guy - I'm just a purist when it comes to the English language. Feel free to ignore me; everyone else does.

quote:Originally posted by fizzymagic: Has everybody seen kablooey's latest puzzle cache? It has changed names, so I'm not sure what it's called now. I'll bet it's something simple like the last ones, but I can't for the life of me see anything simple yet. If you mean Dizzying Lengths, I just took a look. I think I've made a little progress on it - but I'm never sure with all of kablooey's red herrings (e.g., Sounds Good). If you're interested in sharing progress, email me off-line.

Since there have been only sannin (three people) who have found Operation Futari (two people), I have decided to remove it from members only status. Maybe kablooey found it but won't log it until he's allowed on the page. Now's your chance! I logged onto Ransom Note today - your turn.

quote:Originally posted by fizzymagic: quote:Originally posted by The Rat:I hate that when I'm expected to solve every cipher there is. I'm sorry if you felt pressured. That was never my intent. I never feel pressured. This is fun stuff. I have the solution to BP and I did not use the F5 Java program. Sorry to have caused any confusion out there.

quote:Originally posted by fizzymagic:_ The Big Picture _ If nobody has made any more progress, I will add another hint Friday morning. Rat, you should pay attention: this one should be right up your alley. Oops. An inadvertent hint... I hate that when I'm expected to solve every cipher there is. This is obviously some kind of steganography. There is stego algorithm known as F5 which uses a key. Hint hint not the F5 key on the keyboard. But I've been searching all night and can't find an F5 download that runs on my machine. All the freeware I've found has been in Java and I don't know how to get Java to run. I keep getting error messages that no class has been defined. I found one Windows executable that only encrypts, not decrypts, and is written in German. I got it to open the jpg, but it was expecting me to give it text and a key to ecrypt something INTO it. If someone can just tell me how to get F5 to run I think this thing might be pretty easy to break. The second part of the hint could be the key ... or lead to it.

quote:Originally posted by Marky: So how did you (FizzyMagic) almost get arrested doing Op Futari? --Marky Yeah, FM, how DID you almost get arrested doing Op Futari?

quote:Originally posted by fizzymagic:I ran into kablooey today doing a FTF hunt. He can't be a charter member for Political Reasons, which I understand and support. That's one of the reasons that I tend to turn Members Only caches into unrestricted caches after a couple of weeks or so... It's complicated, isn't it? Obviously more complicated than I anticipated. I may remove the members only restriction if I am given the rationale. My motives for making it members only were twofold: 1) to keep myself from having to respond to a lot of questions or complaints from newcomers about how to do certain things that are explained in their GPSr instruction material. The cache is designed to promote land navigation skills and GPS use, and I figured the charter members would mostly know how to locate a waypoint a certain distance away, etc. without having to be told exactly how. This is the selfish reason. 2. To encourage members to send a few bucks in to Groundspeak. I'm a big believer in paying for "free" services I make use of. I pay to non-profits like KQED, the American Cryptogram Association and KKUP because I get enjoyment from them. Similarly I've gotten much enjoyment from geocaching, and it seems fair to support it by becoming a member. It really is a very sophisticated website for a freebie, and is almost devoid of advertising; it must cost something to maintain. I think the members should pay their fair share. This is the altruistic reason. I am unaware of what the political reasons behind kablooey's objections are, but if Fizzymagic supports them, they probably have some merit. If either of you would like to share them either with this board, or off-list with me privately, I would be glad to know them. I will not post anything about your explanation if you prefer it that way. I, too, am disappointed to hear that politics has entered in this sport/hobby, and hope that it does not end up in dragging it down or creating cliques or factions within the members. The camaraderie is a big part of the fun.

quote:Originally posted by Lamneth: I was in the area yesterday so I went for it... I found the location for the second cache but I couldn't find the container. It was dark when I was searching so maybe you guys will have better luck, but I've given up on it until somebody posts a better hint. I'm surprised but delighted there's no FTF yet. I thought the second stage would be no harder than the first for anyone who knows how to project waypoints. I checked yesterday and the container is still there, still easily accessible, and still covered by ... you know. But it doesn't require moving anything besides the container itself. I'll give it through the weekend to see if anyone finds it before adding any clues.

quote:Originally posted by fizzymagic:Ever since Pepper left, this place is DEAD. The board is a little less noisy, but I'm surprised at how many new caches are popping up. About three or four weeks ago I was only one cache away from being onto my third screen, but there are now about a half dozen caches I have not found on the first two screens. Partly this is due to being too busy to do a lot of caching over the holidays, bad weather, or I'd go out to other areas with friends. Partly this is due to the new cache I've been working on (Fizzymagic - this is now a full payoff of the blackmail threat). But I think that there are now more people placing caches locally. The hobby is gaining popularity, IMHO. This is good and bad. If it continues to grow rapidly, it will soon be impossible to keep up with all the new ones, and too many of them will be uninteresting. But it will be great to have a large selection of the clever and interesting ones. I am enjoying Kablooey's in particular, and I'm waiting for Lamneth to post his new one. It will have to be good to match Double Agent. So how long do we have to wait?

quote:Originally posted by TeamJiffy:While driving today (a half day at work) I thought of a silly idea: What if famous authors had written about Geocaching? Anyway, I got bored with the idea after a while, so I don't think there will be an ending, but I thought I'd post it... I had a variant of this idea. I, too, am no Hemingway/Steinbeck or even Bulwer-Lytton. However, as a frustrated author, I just created a story cache. Maybe we can create a new category. It hasn't been approved yet, so I won't say any more about it yet. And it's members only because I don't want a bunch of complaints from parvenus who don't know how to use their GPSr's. When/if it is approved, let me know if you think it is rated right.

quote:Originally posted by Beast of Traal:what dose this mean? FPRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=This is not a hint" this text showed up when I cut and pasted the cryptogram into word pad. It didn't happen when I pasted the text into WordPad, so I assume you highlighted a little too much space and picked up some html code that wasn't displayed textually by the browser. I don't know html, but that's easy to verify by right-clicking the page and selecting "view source." That shows the the source code for the web page, and you will notice that the phrase you describe is located right after the ciphertext. With a web page, what you really download is a set of instructions and text like this, and the browser interprets the code and displays it graphically the way you are used to seeing it, but these kinds of coding strings are actually underlying every web page. BTW - I found the cache today.

I've had enough Crypto for awhile, but if I have to pay ransom, I'll come up with some "currency".

quote:Originally posted by Green Achers: Now spill your guts, Rat! Where were you? You think I'm going to fall for that good cop/bad cop routine? No, I cleverly confessed to Fizzy off-list only to find out he was ready to use it against me. I cannot say more, for fear of compromising Double Agent. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! I'm innocent and if you let me go I'll never do it again.

quote:Originally posted by SuperGenius:here's my take on the buddy ebsen thing. I am not as smart as I thought I was, but I was thinking that buddy ebsen was on Green Achers, not the Beverly Hillbillys. So with me being wrong in my thinking, I was telling myself that Bill AKA Green Achers was not Verona. Okay, well that sort of makes sense - at least as much as me vandalizing Livermore city property and soaking one shoe. Like you, I got there eventually anyway. I think it was Eddie Albert on Green Acres. But what was Venona thinking of? I still don't get his Buddy Ebsen reference. Is this like Family Feud where you win if you are the best at guessing the same wrong answers that the audience does? (E.g. People named Alfred ... A: Einstein).