TeamSpider3

The ones I've contributed to Jeff's collection were "virtual scans" generated from the PDF maps on the County Parks web site. Adobe PhotoShop Elements can rasterize a PDF and save it as a JPEG. If the virtual scan is a moderate resoultion, say 300 dpi, the resulting scanned map zooms pretty well in ExpertGPS. Calibration is moderately tricky. I usually use waypoints that I can identify on the trail map, sometimes with the help of the ExpertGPS topo map. The quality varies, the best calibrations come from widely separated points that you can readily identify on the trail map. For some strange reason, sometime ExpertGPS gets really confused and won't accept the calibration points, so you gotta start over. Once I found out how to do this, I always get a trail map showing the caches, even if I have to do the calibration myself first. If the calibration (and the underlying trail map) is accurate, you can upload the track and it will be on the trails! Thanks to Jeff Boulter for this service and others he had done! jay (aka TeamSpider3)

The May 2004 issue of Scientific American has an article by Per Enge entitled "Retooling the Global Positioning System". It is quite well done, and compliments "A Walk in the Woods" in the February 2004 issue, which is about the author's (Mark Clemens) introduction to geocaching. Both articles are HIGHLY! recommended. One figure cited in the Enge article is that over 200,000 GPSrs are shipped EACH MONTH! While not all of 'em are going into the hands of would be geocachers, a recent experience of teaching a class in geocaching (GCJ4DY), in which everybody brought in previously under-used GPSrs, says there are a lot of new potential geocachers out there. Enge's article appeared arrived a few days after the class, DRAT! It has a really good explanation of D-GPS and other more exotic topics. He postulates that GPS will get WAY better in the future. What happens to geocaching when we all have centimeter accuracy? Commercial survey units have this today, and while they take a second mortgage to buy, the inexorable pace of technology means that soon, highly accurate GPS will be available in almost every conceivable form. Last Thursday (22 Apr 04), local (I'm in Silicon Valley) GPS chip producer SiRF did an Initial Public Offering (IPO) that shot up 20%. (No, I have no association or financial interest in them.) Their thing is GPS enabled cell phones to comply with the E911 requirements for automatic location of emergency calls. I'm a TNLNSL kinda guy, so the hunt is what keeps me going. Will it be as exciting when the geocaching/mapquest/mapoint/whatever maps take you within a thumbnail width of the actual cache position? In some ways, we'll always be able to place caches that require insight and activity. Here in Silicon Valley, centimeter accuracy is of no value in solving one of The Rat's (and several other) puzzle caches. Just helps at the end. So, fellow geek geocachers, where are we headed? What will the sport look like in two/five/ten years?? How can we keep it as captivating as it has become for me and you??? spider3

I found a different definition of brownie points. This excerpt comes from the Historic American Engineering Record (part of the US National Park Service, HAER documents significant engineering sites) Report on the former Southern Pacific Shops in Sacramento, CA. Quoting from the HAER Report: Both unions and management saw benefits in the "Brown system" of discipline, named after George R. Brown, General Superintendent of the Fall Brook Railway. Instead of levying suspension or dismissal for every infraction, which was hard on both the railway and on employees, a "virtual suspension" was entered into an employee’s record. These "brownie points" could be erased by subsequent months of good conduct. The system, however, didn’t keep employees from being fired on the spot for serious enough offenses. This system also provided the unforeseen advantage of standardizing appropriate procedures for dealing with particular situations, and appropriate penalties for failing to do the correct thing. The report is available on line at: http://www.intemperance.net/carolyn/haer.html or can be obtained (don't know exactly how) from the Library of Congress. This still tells me nothing about what a geocaching brownie point is, probably some good deed related to the cache. spider3

I believe the old log entries will start showing the new name as the cache pages are generated. vdbalamo changed to TeamAlamo, and a an old log entry on my first cache now has the newer TeamAlamo name. 'course with 3600+ finds maybe they are treated specially ;-) AFAIK the pages are only generated when need be, so until a cache page has activity (finds, notes, edits), the old name would stick. spider3

I noticed that too. Didn't Kablooey have a cache there? Or at least I remember him going there at night. Maybe it was to look for one. When Nurse Dave moved here I sent him over there to put a cache there but he ended up putting it somewhere else. I know there was severe fire danger there the last couple of years and the park was closed. Were the caches pulled then? I don't think there's an official policy of removing caches in Alum Rock, they just seem to get trashed. Even one as remote as A for Alum and Quick Cache just disappeared. Up the Creek was removed as the area was being landscaped, say the logs. Rangers had signed the log well before I did, and left paper badges. The park does get awfully heavy use. I hope the new cache is hidden well. The virtual part of A for Alum is a nice gentle walk though the main part of the park and is fairly educational. spider3

FYI: the Feb 2004 issue of Scientific American has a short article (pg 92) on geocaching. Not terribly technical, but a good overall introduction.

We did Indian Montage and Ohlone Sanctuary together for one of the best days of caching I have had. Excellent, varied caches, outstanding views, doable exercise. For a while there was a Silicon Valley Cache of the Week that had a number of excellent caches. One of my favorites was Peiffer Stone House. Good Luck!

Found a new use for my GPSr today, Christmas Tree Shopping! We go to one of the "choose & cut" places in South County, and every year past, it's been "Where was the perfect tree we saw earlier???" Today, it was WP035! (036 & 037 weren't as nice on a second look, the dropped off cart was WP034). The farmer was amused, but asked about buying a GPSr. So, how else do you use your's? Hope the Holidays (some of which started today) bring Comfort and Joy to all!