egami

Yeah, I went down that path too, lol. Once you said that I had to go see what they said about it. Of course, not supported...

Back on topic that that I've read some other posts. Maybe wishfull, but you are not alone in wishing it. Some of the new Bushnell or Delorme (or both) have arial mapping that could be taken off the internet if they allowed it. I like the direction some of the non Garmin and non Magellan GPSs are going. They just have to decide if they want to sell GPSs or maps. Yeah, it's a slow evolving process and it's going to be interesting to see who wins out...hopefully Garmin doesn't simply become the defacto standard like MicroSoft. Although, I don't think they have near the hold on the market, so that likely won't be the case. I agree...I like some of what I am seeing in the market.

Just to clarify, that wasn't my assertion. My assertion was only that it is economically feasible for a person to print athome if they wanted to. Not that is was more economical than the manufacturer. Conversely, that wasn't his point either. His point was that manufacturer's are somehow obligated to provide printed manuals. I completely agree. My point was simply that in the off chance you needed info. in the field from the manual that getting said info. via PDF on your PDA is an option. Obviously, for the most part you aren't going to want to view the manual this way, but then again...most times I am browsing through my manual for anything I am at home near a PC anyway, not out in the field caching.

Yep, one of the nice things about Motorola and maunfacturers making phones with USB interfaces....finally.

Hm, that's wierd...I have Palm Desktop with no problems on my media edition. Maybe I am lucky.

Too fast on the trigger. Double post.

Just go back to XP. XP is going to be heavily supported for a long time because most corporations aren't going to spend the money to switch to Vista for dozens of reasons. Besides, XP is currently more secure.

Exactly. There is an economics theory that in any market there is basically room for three large players. Usually one major player and two jockeying for position. Now, I don't wholely ascribe to that theory, but there is an element to truth to the concept behind it (and I forget the name of the book now). Garmin is winning, or ultra-competative in some important battles...the customer service battle, the marketing battle and the technology battle. What I'd like to see, if someone is going to knock them off, is a company offer cheaper units with non-proprietary map info. Wishful thinking. But I've used all the major companies units. We use a variety here at work and really, at the end of the day, it's a unit vs. unit thing at best.

What I care about is integrity and legitimacy in complaints. I don't appreciate people skewing facts to smear the name of a company. I don't even care about Magellan, per se...I don't even own one and likely never will. It's the principle of the matter that someone would try to drag a company through the mud over an illegitimate issue. That's why I care...we have enough beauracracy and red tape in this world and most of it can be avoided by simple common sense and communication. And I will let it drop...but I won't let it drop with knight slinging mud at me and trying to cast the perception that I wasn't trying to be helpful just because he is upset that I view his report to the BBB as illegit and unnecessary.

Yep, and there is nothing wrong with that. It's part of being in something this big. There is going to be a fair amount of subjectivity. Browsing caches near Ames last year I noticed a fair number geared toward the college environment. One multi-cache even seemed to need application of college level mathematics to solve. Personally, I enjoy a difficult cache. I also enjoy the variety and creativity people bring to the game. Some people create physically challenging finds, some create mentally challenging finds, some are just plain views into their life in some way and some are the more traditional "interesting walks"... I enjoy the diversity and look forward to my youngest kid getting old enough to walk around with myself and the rest of Team Signal to do more caching on the weekends while mom is at work (that and we're in the middle of moving to DSM area and potentially going through building a home all of which cut into fun time).

Again you are all knowing. How fun it must be to live with you! At least that % will be helped. Which is more than anyone can say of your comments. You are more interested in doing anything but help. Well, that's simply not true. I made numerous reommendations to try and accomodate your situation. You're just upset that I don't harbor an appreciation for you calling the BBB on a company for an illegitimate complaint. I did, however, offer you an economically feasible alternative for getting your information to hard copy. Let's not be dishonest. Yes, it'd be best to move on now.

This is an issue for .1% of geocachers.

There is nothing illogical in what I said. I said IF you wanted it on paper that printing out is an option. Your big deal you were making was that it wasn't in printed form. I assumed that was your preference. My personal preference is paperless, but why would I suggest that when you made such a deal out of not having hard copy? That's a rhetorical question. What's illogical is running to tattle to the BBB over it prior to researching your options.

Yes, you are being unreasonable. Of all people I am surprised to hear members of the geocaching community, who tend to be more environmentally concious, complaining about something like this. Also, it's the 21st century...I am not sure what products you buy, but thousands come with soft copy manuals. Get the manual on disc, load it up in Adobe and print. Problem solved. If you paperless cache you don't have to print anything out. I simply used the mobi reader program (free) to take the pdf files and put them on my hand held. That way i have the entire manual at my disposal with out having to carry a manual around. Just wanted to give you an option other than printing the manual out. Yes, I am aware of that and I thought about suggesting that, but knight2000 seemed to have a fetish for paper. The response to that would be something along the lines of "well, what if your PDA dies, or you forget it at home or a comet from outer space hits it". To which I still suggest a hard copy cheat sheet of the handful of operations you'll every need in such a situation in the field. But yes...I always have my laptop with me in the truck when I cache or a PDA with any pertinent information. The less paper I have to deal with the better. I actually use my cell phone for my paperless caching.

No problems here updating to new version with card in. Haven't had any in the past either. Also, I've used a few different brands of cards...I am wondering if it's their interface that sometimes flakes out or something.

I don't care if you have to print out 500 pages....printing is so economical to do at home that if it's that important then do it. Seriously, you are being way melodramatic about something that is ridiculous. How many items out of the manual are you going to need when you are out on the road, with no cell phone, no communications, no food, no clothes, no light....sorry, getting melodramatic there...how many? A handful at most...make a cheat sheet, or like I do, memorize them. I know how to do a hard reset on my device. In fact, I can hard reset any device I own by memory for that very reason. Of course, I work in IT so that's my nature...but in the end, a hard reset is about the only item you'll need out of the manual in a situation like that. Because if that doesn't do it it's probably hardware related. If that does do it then at best there is a handful of other items you'd need from the manual to make a cheat sheet for. You are being unrealistic. Calling the BBB because someone is doing business in a practical, sensible manner. *edit* Which, btw I looked it up and it's like 98 pages...more melodrama? Also, the ones I just looked up on e-Bay are pictured with manuals. Not sure where you bought yours, but maybe that place is the issue and not Garmin.

I have friend that works in law enforcement and we clocked my truck after he had his unit recently calibrated. My spedometer was dead on (tested at 60 MPH). My 60CSx is always right on with my spedometer. I was curious about this too because my motorcycle reads 5 MPH slower (at open road speeds) than my GPS. Then someone told me that manufacturers make motorcycle spedometers deliberately read slower (not sure if that's true, but I've met a number of different owners that know theirs is off by about that much).

Yes, you are being unreasonable. Of all people I am surprised to hear members of the geocaching community, who tend to be more environmentally concious, complaining about something like this. Also, it's the 21st century...I am not sure what products you buy, but thousands come with soft copy manuals. Get the manual on disc, load it up in Adobe and print. Problem solved.

What do you have to do for data updates on the 350? Purchase updates or what?

It's important to note that phones that are GPS enabled do not necessarily mean you can use them to get GPS coordinates. Many phones have this feature, but it's strictly for E911 tracking and you can't utilize the feature for personal use.

This is very true...assuming Vista isn't the second coming of ME which was never ready for prime time. I've been relatively apprehensive of jumping to Apple or Linux for general home use, but MS is pushing me to that point.

You didn't make that very clear in your initial post.

He already stated why that might be. As unfortunate as it may seem issues do arise that you can't fully recover from. Should we flog him?

double post

Nothing on Lowrance's site would lead me to believe it has SIRFIII chips in these devices...we use them here at work in the field and I've played with most of the iFinder units. They are all good units, but none of them I played with side by side my 60CSx seemed to perform as well consistantly in all forms of coverage. That being said...they are all great units for the price. We've been very satisfied with them and their customer service when we have units that went bad (which have been few).