The Jester

When I got my new 66s I had to get used to an extra decimal place also. I guess the new units are more accurate??? At least, they report on a finer grid.

Just use the hdd mm.mmmm format. It's only adding one more decimal place. Round the last digit down when it's 1-4, round up if it's 5-9.

I met my (now) wife in the computer program at college. She was hot property at Boeing just before Y2K as she was a COBOL programmer, and most programs running then were still COBOL. You can be on my lawn, but only if you mow it for me...

My first computer was a Kaypro 4 with 64K of memory (so 'roomy' after working with the college's 32K). I still have it, plus it's 'big' brother a Kaypro 10 with a 10meg hard drive.

As we say in the Great Pacific NorthWet - If you don't learn to cache in the rain, you'll never go caching. I've always found it harder to think about caching in the rain, then to actually cache in the rain. If I'm out on cache run and it starts raining, I just put on the rain gear and keep going. But, if I'm home in the nice warm, dry house thinking about going caching, but see that it's raining it's more "I don't want to go out and cache in that."

I once tried to step on a rattlesnake in Eastern Washington. I was in Teva's and saw the coiled snake inches below my sole just as my foot was coming down. Don't ask how I did this, but made an "air" step (made another step without having the first foot hit the ground) over and past the snake. We later named that move the "Yakima Viper Two Step." Older snakes can control the amount of venom used in a bite. Often humans are bitten as defensive strike and little or no venom is injected - we are too big to be prey. But young snakes will give the whole load in the strike.

And that they can do that at all is rather amazing - I got my Computer degree in '74 (when 32K was a nice machine) so seeing the changes and improvements is quite something.

During a Cache Machine in winter 2003, six inches of snow fell during the day. At some of the stops we had fun laying false trails thru the snow. Such as walking past the cache and stepping back thru the tracks to get the cache, or leaving multiple trails and voids under trees looking for a hanging cache.

Amen! I have both short (boot top) and long (knee) gaiters. Being that the calf's can lose up to 50% of your body heat (the head up to 75% - so hats!) protecting the lower leg is important (and preventing wet/cold feet/toes). One idea I've used is combine gaiters and convertable pants. When you get warm/hot you unzip the pant legs and drop them into the gaiters. When you stop (or otherwise get chilled) the legs are easily pulled back up and zipped.

Knitted gloves don't stop the wind. My wife and I bought windstop pile mitts (well, gloves for me) that are warmer, but they aren't waterproof so wet weather soaks them (we also have windstop pile jackets that make a big difference). Overmitts (mainly used for climbing) with/without liners are good for all weather, but are a little less nimble (lots of room for liners, mitts, gloves inside). We have found a pair of biking gloves/mitts (we call them lobster claws since they have thumb, forefinger, middle finger glove like, but ring & little finger are mitt like) that are warm and waterproof - too warm often when not biking (no windchill). So finding the perfect glove/mitt is very individual and may take some serious searching (and possibly multiple pairs for different conditions). Just a note, mitts are generally warmer than gloves (less surface area to lose heat) but are harder to manipulate things (I remember seeing 'shooter mitts' that allow the forefinger to slip into a glove like section for pulling the trigger).

I hadn't heard about bike pogies, but that would probably be better, we've used our kayak ones for so long I never thought about exploring further.

Something to consider for the future bike rides - kayak pogies. These are designed to fit over the paddle and protects the hand (and arm for the longer ones) from weather. We've used our long ones on the bicycle, they are big enough to cover the brake handle and really helped on cold and wet rides.

I have, at times, cached dress in full Jester outfit. I've found spectacle is better than stealth. People either let you do anything while enjoying the 'entertainment' or will turn away and pointedly 'not see' you. So I could crawl all over that bench in front of the Seattle Federal building and people will either 'ignore the guy trying to attract attention' or 'enjoy the capers I'm pulling while grabbing the cache' - but either way I'm good. There was one time (not in outfit) that I & another guy started juggling on the sidewalk in a tourist town, making lots of noise and banter, while a couple of friends were finding and pulling out the cache at a rock bench a couple of feet away. No one noticed.

We only had a couple of days in country, but did get Petra (only had time to get the one) and one down by the Dead Sea (earlier got a couple on the other shore). We toured Amman but didn't get close to any caches. We'd planned on going back last May, but for some reason or another had to cancel. We'll try again some time.

Just wanted to comment on this - if you go Menu -> Up arrow once you are on Log Attempt. Saves a few clicks. But I agree with you about losing the Found button.

The only trouble I've with it is hardware related, otherwise it fine.

It's a macro that I wrote for myself, so it's not listed anywhere but on my computers. Not a really complex one, but not a simple few lines either.

I'm assuming England, although there is Dungeness Mansion (ruins) in Georgia, USA and Dungeness Spit in Washington state, so it's not exactly a unique name...

As the original question was "published in the last week" the discussion of adding a 'missing' Published Log to older caches, while interesting, is moot. Since the API has the ability to return such a list, adding that functionality to PQ's would be nice. But it would take a rebuilding (if not a whole new 'item') of the PQ code for it to use the API (who knows, maybe GS is thinking/planning that). So it seems that API Partner apps/programs are the way to do this currently.

I understand that it can direct you to a set of co-ords, but can you download cache data from the website to the app (in addition to what it shows on it own)? If not (my assumption), then what I said about not being able to use the app as "normal" (finding a cache using the app, not a set of co-ords) is true.

But that means, you have to manually download the PQ's at some point. I have a macro that automatically downloads the PQ's and runs any additional requests (like the one I mentioned save as settings) for each day (I update multi databases each week). Which is easier? Six of one, half dozen the other.

I've been at this geocaching for near 20 years, I've never used "the app", and haven't had to "write down coordinates" or "inputting the coordinates" since the early 2000's. So I don't see that piece of it as "what geocaching IS". I've used the computer to load cache data to the GPSr since my second one (a Garmin Rino 110), for a while I needed to keep extra cache info on a PDA, but the new units all take the complete (mostly) cache data and display it. Like I said, I don't use the App so this is a guess, but it sound like you can't add a cache from the website to the app and then use it to find the cache. You can only hunt the ones it will display. If that's so, that is a, IMO, a major stumbling block to new users. If the app is the only thing they know, even if they get on the website and see all those other caches, they have no way to hunt them without getting another app (or paying). But, maybe I'm wrong about all this.

Yes, GSAK does have that function thru the API (Geocaching.com access -> Get Geocaches... -> Page 2, Publish date). I use that every Monday to get all the caches published during the previous week (I use 'during the last 8 days' to catch any published on the previous Monday after I've done the update).

I carry a "Fisher Space Pen Stowaway" with me at all times: Only about 3.75 inches it fits diagonally in the wallet.

I've never had a 'challenge' finding replacements, but then maybe the local hardware chain (McLendon's) is just that good.