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quakemap

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Everything posted by quakemap

  1. Check out Premium membership for PocketQueries and try http://www.QuakeMap.com for software. You need to get GPX Pocket queries for general area where you are going to hunt, store those on the laptop. Preview the area in QuakeMap to have maps cached on hard drive. You can make the gpx files persistent, to save Open operation. Now when you want to hunt - get GPS connected to QuakeMap, see your position on the map with all caches and details around. Bring up Waypoints Manager, sort caches by proximity, select the nearest caches and upload to GPS. You are all set to go now, cache names will appear on GPS map. Happy trails, http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  2. I had tough time with Brinkster.com lately (they were upgrading and never responded to my emails anyway) - so I switched to dotnetplayground.com for .NET hosting. Bluedomino.com is a great inexpensive hosting, they have verifiably good bandwidth and plenty of space in most of their plans. Zoneedit.com is the way to go for DNS management and redirecting. Hope this helps. http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  3. There is no limitation on QuakeMap, and if these waypoints are from the .loc files you will see all the real cache names there. I will appreciate if you tell me how it worked for you. http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  4. that sounds like semi-reasonable usage to me, although I am not a judge here (still web service or simplistic query page, if implemented by GC, would be better). So, using Cache Harvester is basically like going to query-by coordinates page, checking all "download" boxes and then downloading the resulting .loc file? The drawback for GC is that they lose advertisement impressions for that hit, while carrying the expense of hitting the database query. Really, you can't do this without their consent. They may agree to allow it if the load is reasonable, and if your program does something good for them (like carrying their ads, promoting GC, praising their community service, encouraging users to subscribe to the Premier membership). But if all they see is their servers' load going through the roof, your program is in trouble. Any ideas? http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  5. One of the ways to protect pages from harvesting is to change HTML formatting randomly (or often enough). The harvester will be lost and always outdated, people will stop using it. On the other hand, the need for getting cache info programmatically is high, and the best way (technically speaking) would be to run a web service for everybody to use (or for the paying folks only). I am definitely volunteering to code support for such web service into QuakeMap (which already has support for Pocket Queries). Also, it would be nice to hear from the Harvester creators, I think the guys just didn't realize they created a monster and may be willing to make it up to geocaching.com Prime Suspect, what do you think? http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy... [This message was edited by quakemap.com on May 19, 2003 at 10:12 PM.]
  6. "Also what is the story behind the picture you have in the installer?" The picture came on CD from USGS, which is part of DDS-8 set they sell. It is a statue of St. Agassiz thrown from its niche above arches, Stanford University. The original, I believe, is in Steinbrugge Collection, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley. You can find more on Google, search for "statue agassiz earthquake". It gets under the skin, does it? Especially for all of us sleeping so well here in California. If you haven't displayed earthquakes in QuakeMap, try it - the graph and the map are quite interesting on the daily basis, and Historical quakes picture (since 2000 B.C.) are quite stunning. http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  7. "I find that if they are in more then one file that I can't drag-n-drop them all into the Quakemap" -- that should work, I do it all the time - just select several files in Windows Explorer, .gpx and .loc files in any combination, and drop them into QuakeMap window. They are processed and appear on the map and in the Waypoints Manager, and in the Imports list. Try clicking on Status bar for trace, or send me the files to slg@quakemap.com http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  8. "Can I use QuakeMap to upload waypoints to my GPS?" - yes, all or selected, in any combination. Use Waypoints Manager, select Waypoints tab. Sort waypoints as needed (click on column headers), and select the ones you want (click, shift/click, ctrl/click on the grey area to the left). Then click "Download to GPS" button and watch GPS Manager taking care of the transfer. http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  9. Thank you all for your kind words! Vacman, the Pocket Query format has significant extensions that may not be supported by third party programs - may be EasyGPS Geocaching Edition can make sense of it, I don't know. QuakeMap does support it completely. In Quakemap the way to keep a bunch of files handy is to use "File-->Import-->View Imports", and make your files persistent. Such files will be loaded every time you start QuakeMap. So, I make my PocketQuery file persistent, and update that file every time I receive a new query in email. That guarantees that every time I run Quakemap I see latest info - all caches in their current state, the found ones flagged. QuakeMap has "File-->SaveAll" feature, real handy if you need to save a bunch of tracks and simple waypoints. The file produced is simple GPX without Groundspeak extensions and can loose cache information - use with caution. In general, QuakeMap doesn't try to be your best data files editor/converter, it's purpose is to make viewing of the information REAL easy, so you won't waste time on the computer when you could be enjoying geocaching itself :-) And after the trip you can save a track or two from your GPS and email it to your friends for easy viewing. http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  10. Vacman, looks like the files you are dropping have been processed by some program before, and the format has been altered. Here are some hints: 1. you need to feed QuakeMap with .gpx files from Pocket Queries or .loc files from the "query by zipcode" Geocaching.com pages. Send me your files to slg@quakemap.com, I'll see what I can do. How these files were produced/processed/saved? 2. Make sure Help-->About shows build 20030518 and that the sample http://www.quakemap.com/demo/13855-gpx.zip (please unzip first) is working for you. If not, visit quakemap.com for update. Anybody else having problems reading their files? http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  11. I am little confused with these two questions; here is what I think the answers are: 1. cache name is in the label and is also a part of the "detail" popup. Do you want to show less info in the popup, just the name and coordinates? I guess a popup controlled by the right click would be useful. Also, try reading regular .loc files (Pocket Queries or just queries) - they provide much less detail. 2. Actual cursor lat/lon and distance from the camera (center of the screen) is actually showing on the bottom right, in the status bar. It has some delay though, so if your mouse keeps wandering, the numbers will just sample the mouse position at a 0.3 seconds interval. If you rest your mouse, the numbers will show the correct static values. If you want to take this (or any other topic) off line, shoot me email at slg@quakemap.com, I will be happy to help and may come up with a better answer. Thanks for your feedback, http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  12. Thanks for trying. -- popups can be turned off and on using Map-->Options menu -- hint: select (by dragging) small rectangle on the map - popups will stop appearing till you deselect it (by clicking outside it). -- clicking into a popup extinguishes it -- if you keep using the program in the same general area, relief map will be accumulated in the cache and the browsing will be much faster. So will the other (aerial, topo) maps. -- reduce the clutter by checking off checkboxes on the left Happy trails, http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  13. New version is out, please update. Just drop your Pocket Query on QuakeMap window and see all relevant information. Don't have your Pocket Query yet? - here is a sample: http://www.quakemap.com/demo/13855-gpx.zip (please unzip first). Happy trails, http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  14. I have both Garmin eTrex Vista and Magellan SporTrack Pro. My two sons will fight for the Vista when we go geocaching. Good buy! Works great with QuakeMap, too :-) http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  15. It is probably bad advice, but have you tried just editing GPX file by hand - changing names of icons can be easy this way. Some XML editor may be of help too. http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  16. Try http://www.quakemap.com - you will see your tracks and current position on the map. Easy to open .loc files and see caches around you. http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  17. All I need for my "found" caches is to log them on geocaching.com and print out the hardcopy to file. The main task from that point is to look at the map and see at a glance which ones are found, and which of the rest are worth hunting for. http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy... http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  18. Robert, the list of caches the page returns is just a list of names and links to actual cache pages. To display the caches on the map, a program will need to follow each link - and that will put really unacceptable load on your servers. If a similar page could be created, returning just names and lon/lat pairs for every cache, such page could be parsed by a program, and the cahes displayed right away. I guess, geocaching.com webmasters could either offer such service for free, or for premium members - in which case some authentication should take place between the program and the server. This is typical Web Service scenario, I am sure you guys are considering things like this on a daily basis. As for smacking the servers, I think everybody should avoid it. Not everything that could be done should be done :-) As for my initial question - in the header of this topic - I think, you just answered it. There is no programmatic interface to your database, and no program in existence can do what I asked for. As scientists say, a NO answer is as good as a YES answer. [This message was edited by quakemap.com on May 14, 2003 at 01:11 AM.] [This message was edited by quakemap.com on May 14, 2003 at 01:23 AM.]
  19. BTW, Pocket Query is cool, having .loc files emailed to you is worth 30 bucks a year. But still if I am looking at the map and want interactive action, this is not an answer. http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  20. Greg, thanks for the hint. A little convoluded (20 clicks, one download, one import into ExpertGPS), and I still need to make ExpertGPS display these waypoints on the map - but it seems working. On the tech level, all ends up with http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest_cache.asp?origin_lat=36.36092&origin_long=-117.28814 -- if that type of search could return a list of caches and their coordinates, I could build a one-click function into QuakeMap. Any ideas? http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  21. If you meant state maps like http://www.geocaching.com/map/CA.asp - those are quite slow and do not allow me to export geocaches into GPS. I was hoping for a software-based solution, eliminating search on the web site. Thanks, http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  22. Is there any program that shows you the nearest geocaches without loading .loc files? What I mean, is just clicking on the map - and the program goes online and fetches geocaches by coordinates of the click point. Thanks for your advice, http://www.quakemap.com - redefining Easy...
  23. If you have a good XP machine and want easy access to tracks and geocaches, quakemap.com is worth a try.
  24. Take a look at http://www.quakemap.com - new version is out. QuakeMap is all you need for geocaching with your Garmin eTrex or Magellan SporTrak. Print aerial and topo maps, zoom in, load geocaches to GPS... It makes good sense of your GPS tracks and prints very useful aerial/topo maps (easy to navigate in the field). Of course, allows off-line aerial/topo, reads .loc files and stores direct links to geocache pages (just click on geocache name on the map). Not to mention low $10 price tag when you want to continue using it. Happy trails!
  25. I have both Garmin eTrex Vista and Magellan SporTrack Pro (from Costco). My preference is Vista for compass, better screen resolution and much better track logging. I like Vista's user interface more, I seem to get more things done in less clicks. Vista's joystick control is also cool, although SporTrack buttons are very well designed and help a lot. My two sons will fight for the Vista when we go geocaching. Both units seem to have same sensitivity and accuracy when you just look at coordinates. Software that comes with them (MapSend streets and MapSource topo) turned out to be not very useful for me; I just use QuakeMap - http://www.quakemap.com - for all my geocaching needs. Happy trails!
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