Astartus

Thanks for this funny category. Stumbled upon this category by accident when planning a trip to Cologne, Germany, where some Space Invaders had been sighted. And now I'm adding more waymarks to the list. I hoe that the category icon will get a more fitting image in the future.

Thanks for this awesome tip, cezanne. This really did the trick. I knew about project-gc for some challenge verification tools, but did not know of the search function there. Too bad the gc.com can't do something that simple.

Thanks for the info. So I was right remembering that this was in fact a viable option in past times. Sadly GSAK won't do the trick, as I wanted to search for all geocaches worldwide with on given keyword. In this case, the keyword would have been "waymark" as in groundspeaks Waymarking.com I wanted to know of all caches that were created as a Waymarking challenge.

Ok, as a veteran ggeocacher (more than 5.700 finds) it is a little emberassing to ask this. So far, I haven't really used the "Search Geocaches" funtion on the gc.com page alot, as I get all my geocaches via PocketQueries and the API. But lately, I wanted to search for all geocaches, that contained a specific word (both as a single or part of another word). But the search function on the gc.com website only shows caches that start with the word, and there seems to be no option to also look deeper in the cachename. For example: I want to look for caches containing the word "apple". Using the search I would get cachenames like "Apples to Apples", but not "On top of the apple tree" as this cachename does not start with "apple". Does anyone has an idea how I can search for all geocaches that contain a special word, no matter where in the name it is located? If these are SQL queries, I wonder why Groundspeak has no option to look for "LIKE = %KEYWORD%".

Having walked the streets of the next biggest town, and remembering the different proposals here, I got ideas for some possible interesting categories, that would like to post for discussion: 1. Countdown Traffic Lights Explanation: In Hamburg, there are at least 2 traffic lights (one for pedestrians and one for cars) that have an additional digital segment showing the seconds till the next green phase, and in cause of the vehicle traffic lights, also the duration of the phase itself. Waiting at these traffic lights feels much more relaxed as you donÄt have to be on your toes waiting for the green light, as you can just take a watch at the ticking down digitial numbers and know immideatly when the green phase starts. I have heard that other countries have similar ideas, some use numbers, others use ticking down circles or even abstract symbols for the remaining time (I saw an idea of a digital sandclock). Possible variables could be style of the clock (digital numbers, circles, moving hands, others), traffic lights for pedestrians or vehicles or both, how long you have to wait between phases (indicated by the clock). An no, I don't think that the categoy "Artistic Neon Signs" would work. 2. Bicycle Tube Vending Automatons Explanation: In the last years, it has become a common sight both in bigger cities around germany but also in the outskirts, to see cigarette vending automatons refurbished to give out bicycle tubes. Many are often found next to bicycle shops or bike shelters, but there are also examples of these vending machines along popular bike trails, for the case you get a flat tire. Example image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Fahrradschlauch_Automat.jpg 3. Outlet Sales / Factory Outlet Explanation: Ok, this category is kinda general. The first idea came to me when I was shopping at my most favorite factory outlet at a cookie factory. Here you can buy so called "Grade B ware" for cheaper prices as in stores. But a cookie outlet or cookie factory category might be too exclusive, so I thought why not have a Outlet category for everything from clothing and accessories to food or body care products. I have treid but did not find such a category yet.

But aren't most of these chewing gum vending machines at grocery stores or shopping mall entries movable pieces, or part of the cash desk in smaller shops? I think what alsterdrache would like to show are fixed vending boxes outside of stores and malls.

Ok, I can finally see the Austria souvenir being awarded for me, and several of my friends also having Spain and Sverige. Really too bad that Groundspeak is stopping further development of souvenirs afterwards. Now it goes in line with Webcams, Virtuals, Wherigo and Challenges. Started but never fully finished.

I think it has something to do with the celebrations of the 2 millionth cache. On the celebration page you can read: Now that the treshold has officially been breached, we should hopefully see the new souvenirs appearing any hour.

I would also like to add my vote for the return of country based souvenirs. Sadly it seems that Groundspeak starts several different projects and never intends to finish these correctly. And they hardly listen to their customers anymore Let's face it: * They created Wherigo caches, released a beta builder and never ever made it to a final version. Now 3rd party programs can do more and better * They created webcam and locationless caches, removed these types and reintroduced them as Waymarks. Although you can download individual waymarks, there is no option for waymark pocket queries (although the people, who enjoy Waymarking really ask for it). * They added Facebook links and hardly anyone wants these (at least none that I know). * They created Challenges and just implemended them half into the geocaching structure. * They created souvenirs and stopped after some countries and states although the community is begging for a return. I have gone so far and edited the pre-created images for the not-yet released souvenirs into my profile, but I would like to see them on my souvenir page, too.

Nope, that's what Waymarking.com is for. The reason: No physical stash at a given location. The same reason why there are no more locationless caches or new virtuals.

Most cachers use a third party program like GSAK and the macro "FindStatGen".

I have also been degraded. I wish there was some sort of announcement by GC that tells us why this happened.

Exactly. I'm curious why so many people have a fascination with seeing/keeping a database of old, archived caches. That is not what we want to achieve. We want to maintain an up-to-date database without archived caches. But if you generate a pocket query and run it constantly, it will somewhen overflow with new caches. Sure, you could just delete all caches that haven't been updated within the last X days, but this will often delete caches that have fallen out of the PQ due to the new caches. You could add a new pocket query, but somewhen you will reach the limitations of the PQ system.

I sign for archived caches in PQ. They don't have to be part of a regular PQ, but an option to also include archived caches or to have a archived Caches only PQ once a week would be great.

Are you using Windows XP and Firefox? Can't access geocaching.com either, although the tracert gets through. REad that other cachers have a smiliar problem with Windows XP and Firefox, but if the same PC runs with Windows 7 or Vista, everything is ok.

For me, the Google Earth Addon helped making trips to far away locations much easier as it is with the Google Maps maps. Sadly, the "Search by address" option is not working very good for germany, you would have to know coordinates to immideatly get to the desired location within Google Maps. But how do you get these locations? Either by using Google Earth (wow, I already am using GE, so why do I have to use Google Maps then?) or by finding a cache close to the location and scrolling the map to the desired location, each time having to wait until the caches in the actual map area load up. And how can you find a cache close to the location? Searching by name might help but often you stumble upon caches in cities with the same name but not where you want to travel. With Google Earth, you simple move to the place you want to visit and when you arrive at the dsired location, you simply click one little checkbox, and all caches, that are hidden in the current view appear (and disappear when you uncheck the box again). So for me it is mostly the differences in usablitly that make this addon so desirable.

Strangely, the live.geocaching.com webpage is working without problems and rather fast.

Have to agree with Torgut. I also use the GeocachingNetworkKML.kml to have a quick look at a region i "might" cache in. Running a PQ, just to notice "ahh, welll I' wont get there" is a waste of ressource and time. I also experience the same problem like mentioned above. All Cache Icons are yellow pins at first and when I hover over the pin the change to the correct Geocach icon and back when the mouse leaves the icon. I think I remember that there was a similar problem many month ago, and that GE eventually updated the kml file. I hope the wil do this again, soon.

Woohooo...... My very first Mystery Coin and Mystery Gift arrived today. Strange black envelope and no idea by whom. Opening the envelope I got roped in by this beautiful coin. #30 is mine, mine, MINE!!!! GGwwwaaahahahaha Thank you alot Geo_Bandit!!!! Holding the yellow side into light; i can guess a small number at the hat's flap. Anyone know if this is something special?

Any news from the OP? Also mailed him/her but got no response so far. The original post looked quit rude with all the "shouting".

Greetings fellow maniacs (ehm I mean geobuddies) from Sweden. I have a small favor to ask. In 2 weeks I will visit a city near Hamburg, Germany for a card- and boardgame convention. When checking out the caches in this area, I stumbled upan a cache with a swedish text, that needs to be deciphered to advance this cache. As it seems to be a pretty quick mutli (owner talsk bout only 5-10 minutes of search, I would like to try this cache, but therefore I would need the translated text. Would anybody be so kind to help me with this text segment? Du skall räkna först N-parkkoordinaten minus femtioett och E-koordinaten minus tjugonio. Sen vill du hitta finalen ganska snart. Thanks in advance and greetings from Germany Astartus

Summer Sun - Texas Cool idea for a cointest, and very european friendly. Thanks alot.

No idea if it is reliable, but GSAK has a new function called "GetCounty()" that should work for UK counties.

When you import a new PQ, check out for caches that didn't change their "Last GPX" column. These are most likely archived.

Thanks for the notification. I also noticed the inconsistency in the region names, and it is good to know that Groundspeak is informed and willing to work hand in hand with fellow cachers. When Groundspeak changes the names, it is just a small correction to the map definition file for GSAK. No big deal.