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Unfortunatly its too late, but probably the worse thing to do is post their activities on the forum. They are reading this you realize. Unless they have a personal grudge against you, they did it just to see us talk about it. Ignore them, don't give them the satisfaction of the post, and they will go away out of boredom.

On Sunday Sept. 9, I will giving a short (1 hour) and simple demonstration of Geocaching to my local computer club SEMCO (http://semco.org) at the Oakland University Science Building Room 172. The talk is scheduled to start at 1:45. Any other area Geocachers are welcome to come out and join me. Bring your GPS units for show and tell! If you need better directions, the Science Building is located at North 42 degrees 40.253 minutes and West 83 degrees 13.051 minutes.

quote:Originally posted by fr:I am interested in getting a Summit or Vista for the electronic compass but am a little concerned about the clickstick on the Vista. Yes, I also narrowed my choices to the Summit and Vista for the same reason - the compass (and altimeter). The only difference really is if you want mapping capability. I eventually chose the Vista so I could load topos and use the maps while tracking mountain bike trails. Even if I didn't bike, I figured if I ever had more reason for maps in the future I wouldn't have to upgrade to another unit. I decided to spend a little extra now. In a nutshell, I'm very happy with the Vista. However, I've only had it for a few weeks and the talk above about the clickstick concerns me. I'm also wondering if Garmin tightened the battery compartments on newer units so that it doesn't shut off like mentioned above. When I load batteries, it is very tight and I have never had mine shut off (and I've been mountain biking on tough trails with it). The first time I ever took the unit out, I was mountain biking up a tough hill and it began to pour down rain (and continued for a good 30 minutes). The unit was drenched but never blinked and performed flawlessly. Sure, I believe a unit with an external antenna will perform better, it has to. But, the Vista has never really let me down in the woods. I love it so far... -exConn [This message has been edited by exConn (edited 09 September 2001).]

It's funny-- while I believe that public forums are the best way to expose the truth about things, it's kinda backfired here, and the result is one that has painted my wife in the least delightful manner. Yeah, you're right-- there was no compromise. The notion of 'let's talk about it' means-- this is what I want you to do for me to feel comfortable In terms of compromise in this particular issue, there is none. It seems as if she's won-- but I've found that there are areas where she surrenders as well. The more one gets pressed and attempted at being controlled, the more it spills out elsewhere. This week in Santa Cruz during my business trip I went on four geocache trips. I had fun. And frankly, without eyes present to judge, I dressed in my normal manner. On the face of it, to keep it all in perspective, other than certain areas of... intractability in her personality, she's a good woman who loves me deeply. I've also learned a bit about airing my 'dirty laundry' a bit-- I get more info than I want! Oh, I may do it again, but sheesh!!

A NAND gate is a logic chip. It consists of four two input logical AND gates, each can be used independentaly. The 'N' in front of AND indicates that there is an inverter on the output of each gate. So, if input 1 AND input 2 of one of the gates are both ON, then the output of that gate is OFF. But if either of the inputs, or both, are OFF, then the output is ON. See? Both inputs have to be ON to turn on the gate, and since the output is inverted, when the gate is ON, the output is OFF. The 74xx series of chips were very early (mid 1970s) Transistor Transistor Logic (TTL) that ran on a single 5 volts. Pin 14 is +5, 7 is ground. In my teens, I used hundreds of these chips. Boy, talk about old memories!

m going down there later this week to talk to the ranger to see what the situation is about whether or not the park is expected to re-open soon. I MAY have to just remove my container and archive the page. It kinda sucks 'cause it was just now starting to get some visitors AND the only reason I hid it there in the first place was to encourage caching in middle Tennessee.

quote:Originally posted by Chris Juricich:My wife has always been supportive of my interests and hobbies, but of late, my interest in geocaching has been screwed with by virtue of a couple of her mighty concerns: My God! All this talk about someone else picking out your clothes for you, telling you what shoes you should wear, and taking away your favorite toy. If you substitute the word "Mother" for "Wife", it sounds like a teenager complaining about his parents. Other than a marriage counselor, I can't think of anything to suggest. [This message has been edited by c.mathis (edited 03 September 2001).]

6 USC 1) We count on our park rangers very much to implement the laws governing the National Park Service. Once park personnel are part of the process of setting up an activity on NPS lands, why would they then thwart or remove something that is understood, planned, and permitted? Park staff take their duties very seriously -- and are notified about permitted events on the park lands they help manage. They know what to do and how to respond. If there is an unpermitted event and materials are left on park lands, park staff have the obligation to remove said materials and accost people who some cases, may be actually entering closed areas, unsafe areas, resource-sensitive areas, or otherwise restricted areas (such as no "off-trail use") of these parks to find those unpermitted materials. Rather than report a missing cache back on the geocaching communication lines, you can imagine that the ranger might first actually like to talk to the person who unnecessarily caused all the extra effort and trouble to the park and prevent such occurrences from happening again! As applied to the activity we are discussing -- all the above supposes that geocaching can be considered in some fashion as being an appropriate activity on national park lands. I hope that we can look to the geocaching community, whether the NPS lands are ultimately deemed appropriate or not for specific activities, for their valued partnership and participation in protecting and preserving our national parks. Thanks again for writing. Marcia Keener NPS Office of Policy --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author: Cephas Hawke Date: 7/25/01 1:55 PM ---Marcia Keener wrote: >I believe I totally understand what you are saying. Lots of time and >effort >wasted to the geocaching participant and organizer when materials are >confiscated. Ms Keener, I'm sorry, but you misunderstood completely. My concern is not with the wasted time and effort of the geocaching participant and organizer(?), but with the land the NPS is trying to protect. Removing an illegal geocache from NPS land is not enough. People will continue to search for it until someone lets them know that it has been removed. Hide it, post it on the web and they will come. Take it away, post NOTHING to the web and they will continue to come. And searching for something that is not there is more likely to be destructive that searching for something that is there. A successful geocacher is in and out in no time; unsuccessful geocachers can spend hours trampling around in the bush. For every blade of grass flattened by the successful geocacher, the unsuccessful geocacher will flatten 10. Your concern on this point is with the enforcement of the rules and regulations and that is fine as far as it goes. But once the rules are enforced, people will continue to search unless you tell them there is no longer anything to search for. You have made a good case that geocaching is in violation of current rules. There might be a case to be made that it is a violation to even search for that geocache. But you will be hard pressed to say that it is against the rules to search for something that no longer exists, especially when the NPS made no effort to notify the public that the cache had been removed. I'm no lawyer, but that starts to look like entrapment. Bottom line: If you want to stop geocachers from searching for an illegal cache, first seize the cache, second let potential searchers know that it was confiscated. The first step enforces the law, the second step protects the park. Isn't that what this is all about, protection of the parks? And the second step is easier than the first. C. Hawke Bedford NH --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author: Marcia Keener Date : Thu, 26 Jul 2001 09:01:35 -0400 Mr. Hawke, Thank you for pointing this out - I guess we have to assume the ranger knows from the information contained within that it is the the object of a current "hunt," that many people may continue to try to find it, and also where to go on-line to report its removal. To report its confiscation (and why--to educate all would-be geocachers entering the park) on-line would certainly be helpful in stopping further activity....a tip we can pass along. Marcia [This message has been edited by CaptHawke (edited 02 August 2001).]

Man talk about something blown out of proportion.This has got to be one of the most harmless thing man has ever done(geocaching).I have never understanded how the gov. thinks. I live on a lake that is owned by the army corp.of engineers,the parks are ran by the NPS,the parks have posts at the gate for people to pay to get in,but there is never no one at the post to take the money and these parks stay packed. I'am not kiddind PACKED!! They can't pay someone $8 bucks an hour to take money to enter the park,but they can spend time and money trying to find a harmless geocach.Just think about that for a minute.Someone said in a post "this kind of stuff goes on in the in the private sector also" One big difference they make money not waste money.I will give you a good example, the rangers that patrol the parks and the work crews all drive V-8 pickups,they don't have any towing hitchs on them so why a V-8? Maybe its to help pass the artic drilling act.Just rember someone once said "A gov. for the people by the people".And by the way if the NPS reads this I would gladly pay 10 bucks for a permit to hide a cache on OUR land.

One of my employees has this model, and he let me borrow it to play with. Using his Pioneer is what made me decide not to buy one, despite low prices on eBay. Its a sequential model, rather than a parallel receiver. What this means is that it can only talk to one satellite at a time, having to rotate between them. Parallel models have 12 receivers, so they can listen to 12 satellites at a time. Sequential models are SLOW to lock in and prone to tracking errors. Buy a modern model with parallel recievers.

I figured out which cache you were talking about and read your log. I'm not sure if you edited your log or not as there were no coords listed in your description. I think I might know part of the reason for his tone. In your log you stated, "...I even had one of the people from the school ask me what I was doing. After explaining to them what geocaching was and my Magellan 330, they still didnt seem to happy to have that cache there. You might want to talk to someone at the school and get the okay to have it there, or I am sure it will be gone soon." The fact that you suggest that the cache may soon be gone or is in a bad spot might account for some of the "tone" in the email he sent you. There are obviously other issues playing into his email as well, but I still don't think he should have sent you such a nasty email. I'm happy to have other coordinates posted seeing as how I'm running an old Eagle Explorer. When people find my caches I'm so relieved!! As far as posting the coordinates where you found the cache, I say keep on doing it. I'm sure this was just an isolated incident.

quote:Originally posted by Bob_and_Genny:It's easy to say that people should use their judgement in a case like this. But I'd be willing to bet that, given access to a program like this, 9 out of 10 people would just go with the rating the program spits out.[/b] They haven't (in general) yet. I've been stating on my cache pages that they're rated using the system, but I've been out on others that don't even come close to what I would rate them using the GCRS. Until we get a consensus that the system is good (not necessarily perfect), and have everyone update their caches with the new guidelines (retrofitting their ratings), all this talk is in a vacuum. We need to come to an agreement that the GCRS, while not 100% accurate, is a good guideline on how to rate your caches, based on consensus agreement of many cachers using the forums. It is nothing more or less than that.

talk to the Cache-U-Nutsm in utah they planned and executed a fun poker game at our last get together....their idea worked real well

What the heck, we helped with the first. I am sure that I can talk Rhonda into helping with anyothers. Sorry, I haven't been around caching much lately but the Dive team has kept me VERY busy lately. But, we are back into the swing of things. I can't believe that there are all these caches in KC now..... I have to get busy. Ryan and Rhonda

Never mind protecting the park land. Protect your own butt. Ms. Keener says that Rangers have an "obligation" to "accost" people who don't play by the rules, although she doesn't know what the rules are. So hide your caches in local parks, where Rangers feel an obligation to *talk* to people instead of to accost them. ------------------ Chip the Big Folk

Yeah, I e-mailed Buxley and asked him to consider making a detail map... and it was done within 12 hours. Talk about service! Thanks, Ed!

ManuelCasi's experience gives me an idea, so maybe something positive will come from his experience. Using Geocaches as a place to meet people. You could leave semi-anonymous information about yourself and an email address, like a special yahoo or hotmail account. You know you have at least a love for Geocaching in common, which would at least give you something to talk about on the first date. It might even be possible to create caches specifically for this purpose. Dan

quote:One word of warning: make sure you have fresh batteries. Bad things can happen if your Etrex shuts off during upload. Many thanks for this tip. I won't forget. As for using an IBM, only Macs at work, but luckily like every other Macuser in the world, I know about a gabillion people who have an IBM. I'm sure I can talk my neighbor into playing.

Quote, from Redd umb question alert: What if you need to carry other supplies like food, clothes, tent, etc. How do you carry water and a full pack? What I do is talk just the bladder and place it in in the top section of my backpack. Mine has a top cover, with a small compartmnet and that is where I put the water.. As far as keeping the bladder clean, if I am out in the bush, it doesn't seem to be a problem as long as I keep water in it and rotated. For longer term storage, I place my bladders in the freezer..

Quote, from Redd umb question alert: What if you need to carry other supplies like food, clothes, tent, etc. How do you carry water and a full pack? What I do is talk just the bladder and place it in in the top section of my backpack. Mine has a top cover, with a small compartmnet and that is where I put the water.. As far as keeping the bladder clean, if I am out in the bush, it doesn't seem to be a problem as long as I keep water in it and rotated. For longer term storage, I place my bladders in the freezer..

I was using an approx 4yo GPS (originally purchased for fishing but it broke down last week, diagosis yet to be determined), no maps, just minimal info, worked fine! Regarding salesman and product knowledge... mutually exclusive aren't they (no offence intended porsteve! - in the world of the web this is even more so) Heard an advert yesterday for a car yard extolling the virtues of their female sales force. I thought, well that wouldn't be a bad idea, they could talk to (not down to) women buyers, and if they read the sales brochures, they would know more about the cars they sold than the current crop of guys one has to encounter!

I was using an approx 4yo GPS (originally purchased for fishing but it broke down last week, diagosis yet to be determined), no maps, just minimal info, worked fine! Regarding salesman and product knowledge... mutually exclusive aren't they (no offence intended porsteve! - in the world of the web this is even more so) Heard an advert yesterday for a car yard extolling the virtues of their female sales force. I thought, well that wouldn't be a bad idea, they could talk to (not down to) women buyers, and if they read the sales brochures, they would know more about the cars they sold than the current crop of guys one has to encounter!

Hello all, I'm a journalist working on geocaching-related piece for a well-known UK magazine. I'm hoping to make contact with UK-based geocaching enthusiasts prepared to talk me about their experiences and endeavours as regards this new sport. Thanks in advance. Harry Sabbers.

Sounds like researching the topo info for the area of the cache would help. I am the worst person to talk about it, but tracking down as much information in advance a possible can really make caches a lot easier. I have been within 200 feet of a cache found a river between the cache and me. Had I bothered to grab a street map, and a topo map I could have had easy parking near the cache, and short walking distance. That said, we really could use a more descriptive terrain option. Something like how some movies will say "Rated PG-13 for brief nudity", we could have "Rated 1.5 for short steep hill". It is possible to do that now in the description, but it is completely subjective. Maybe have a disable checkbox? I think even just mentioning in the cache placement FAQ to keep this in mind when writing a description for a cache would be a big help. Dan

ly' then that's what we must do. I agree we need to do all we can to show our best to those who are not familiar with geocaching. What could help is to take those unfamiliar or even those who say they are against geocaching on a cache hunt. They would find it is fun, family orientated, and generally safe. Except for one biker jerk, I have been free from hostilities. People I talk to tend to think this is a pretty neat thing. But then I have not placed a cache yet, just hunted them. We need the best press we can possibly get - always. I would LOVE to take a park ranger along with me some time. One-on-one in the woods. It is a challenge before us. [This message has been edited by Lou C (edited 17 August 2001).]