New Look To Gc

[+The Hokesters]

Profile page tabs don't display properly in Firefox 1.0.7

[Beer Monster]

... but they have taken away the mileage for each hop, which I liked to see, all you have now is it's total mileage.

Ouch!

 

I'm just compiling the match stats from the first GeoRugby game. Luckily I have all the figures in a spreadsheet now, but life might be a touch more tricky for the next game.

[Deego]

... but they have taken away the mileage for each hop, which I liked to see, all you have now is it's total mileage.

Ouch!

 

I'm just compiling the match stats from the first GeoRugby game. Luckily I have all the figures in a spreadsheet now, but life might be a touch more tricky for the next game.

I think this will be updated soon.and if it is your bug try clicking the recalculate distance ,mine now displays jump mileage but I am not sure how I did it :lol:

 

Deego TB

Edited January 19, 2006 by Deego

[Beer Monster]

Just tried it, but to no avail.

 

However, as it seems to be changing by the minute, I'll keep watching for a little while!

[+kbootb]

... but they have taken away the mileage for each hop, which I liked to see, all you have now is it's total mileage.

Ouch!

 

I'm just compiling the match stats from the first GeoRugby game. Luckily I have all the figures in a spreadsheet now, but life might be a touch more tricky for the next game.

I think this will be updated soon.and if it is your bug try clicking the recalculate distance ,mine now displays jump mileage but I am not sure how I did it

 

Deego TB

Go for 'old map' view, that will show the mileage for each jump.

 

Not the best solution I'm afraid.

[Beer Monster]

Aha!

 

Cheers Keith.

[+Bill D (wwh)]

The Hokesters wrote:

Profile page tabs don't display properly in Firefox 1.0.7

I believe there are some issues with Fx 1.0.7 which aren't likely to get fixed. You could update to the latest version, Fx 1.5.

[+Haggis Hunter]

You can now add additional co-ords to your cache page, don't know if these will be downloadable with a PQ though.

 

It's also slightly confusing setting it up.

[+Firth of Forth]

You can now add additional co-ords to your cache page, don't know if these will be downloadable with a PQ though.

 

It's also slightly confusing setting it up.

If that works, it will be a brilliant addition. I've just edited a cache page to add a link to a .gpx file of the coords for all of the clues for a multi cache Faith, Hope and Tenacity (GCRRF2), which was a bit of a pain, but should make life much easier for cachers. If this can be done through g.com instead, then I hope the process is a little simpler.

Edited January 20, 2006 by Firth of Forth

[+Mad H@ter]

You can now add additional co-ords to your cache page, don't know if these will be downloadable with a PQ though.

 

It's also slightly confusing setting it up.

I can't seem to find this bit, could you point me in the right direction please.

[+Happy Humphrey]

On the cache page, above "Additional Hints" is

"Additional Waypoints

No additional waypoints to display. New Waypoint.".

 

If you follow the "New Waypoint" link, you can add various types of waypoint (Parking area, stages of a multicache, trailhead etc) and specify how much of this information will be publicly available for each waypoint. Brilliant! It will be interesting to see how it's formatted in the GPX file too.

 

This cache is an example.

 

N.B. Cache advertising can't be avoided here...

 

HH

Edited January 20, 2006 by Happy Humphrey

[+purple_pineapple]

at first glance, this looks a neat and well thought out feature, and the additional waypoints are certainly nice and clear on the page. My main question is, does anyone know how this works with actually getting the wp onto a GPSr? I assume GSAK will simply download it as it is, and then grab coordinates from it as it has been. How about non-GSAK users?

 

All in all, very nice!

[Alan White]

this looks a neat and well thought out feature

This is a very ill-thought out feature.

 

The additional waypoints simply appear in the GPX at the same level as the main waypoint. Thus all the additional waypoints get loaded into GSAK (and presumably any other 3rd party program - heaven knows what it will do to G:UK).

 

I've asked in the GSAK forums for a fix as soon as Clyde can possibly do it.

 

Load of *&%$£

[+Happy Humphrey]

I thought the extra waypoints would appear in a separate GPX file?

[+The Hokesters]

The Hokesters wrote:

Profile page tabs don't display properly in Firefox 1.0.7

I believe there are some issues with Fx 1.0.7 which aren't likely to get fixed. You could update to the latest version, Fx 1.5.

Thanks Bill!!!!

 

I thought I was fully up to date but clearly not. All working now and looking fine and dandy

[Alan White]

I thought the extra waypoints would appear in a separate GPX file?

That's what it says in the other forum, and it may well be true for PQs (I haven't had any today yet). Since the feature isn't described anywhere who can say?

 

Even if the addl wpts are in a separate file, GSAK will still process them.

 

And in an individual GPX the addl wpts are all in the same file.

[Deego]

<SNIP> heaven knows what it will do to G:UK<SNIP>

 

I have spoken to Ian and we are watching to see what the result is. fingers crossed.

 

I dont think they have finished yet

 

As nobody has entered any additional waypoints to their cache YET!! it could take a while to gauge the result.

Edited January 20, 2006 by Deego

[+Happy Humphrey]

Even if the addl wpts are in a separate file, GSAK will still process them.

Not unless you load the file!

 

in an individual GPX the addl wpts are all in the same file

That sounds good to me: by loading a single file you're inferring that you want to see everything about the cache (and it's easy to delete a few unwanted waypoints if you don't want them). But in a PQ of 500 caches, it could be a nuisance if you have all the additional waypoints, and would be inconvenient to delete them.

 

HH

[Alan White]

Not unless you load the file!

I don't know about how you use GSAK, but my loading is fully automated. What you're suggesting is that I return to a manual process. Hardly a great leap forward.

[+Happy Humphrey]

Deego,

As nobody has entered any additional waypoints to their cache YET!!

...see above.

 

HH

[+Teasel]

heaven knows what it will do to G:UK

Your guess is as good as mine! Most probably, lots of new waypoints will get included in the system. They'll be easy enough to remove (unless TPTB allow extra waypoints beginning GC!). But the facility to have extra waypoints in GC.com is a good idea which has been a long time coming, so it's worth a bit of short term pain for the likes of Clyde and myself!

[Deego]

Deego,

As nobody has entered any additional waypoints to their cache YET!!

...see above.

 

HH

What I mean is, as its a new feature nobody will have put any additional waypoints on their cache page yet, so it wont send you any in the GPX, as people either create new caches or modify the old ones and add park coords Etc. It will become more apparent what the outcome will be.

[+Happy Humphrey]

unless TPTB allow extra waypoints beginning GC

GC, TB etc. aren't allowed as additional waypoints prefixes. I don't know how the UK database is populated, but as PQ's can separate the two types of waypoint, presumably your interface can as well?

 

HH

[Alan White]

Your guess is as good as mine!

And therein is the rub. Had the feature been tested with 3rd party software (including G:UK) beforehand, then there would be no need for anyone to rush round trying to find workrounds.

[+Happy Humphrey]

Deego,

as its a new feature nobody will have put any additional waypoints on their cache page yet

I meant "Try my example above".

 

HH

[+purple_pineapple]

The additional waypoints simply appear in the GPX at the same level as the main waypoint. Thus all the additional waypoints get loaded into GSAK (and presumably any other 3rd party program - heaven knows what it will do to G:UK).

 

I've asked in the GSAK forums for a fix as soon as Clyde can possibly do it.

 

Load of *&%$£

That was my concern - when you say at the same level as the main waypoints, does that mean I can expect GSAK to start expanding rapidly, as it starts downloading these additional wp. I haven't got GSAK here, but I'll try loading HH's cache when i get home.

 

If so, I unequivically retract my last statement!! It means hundreds of additional and pointless records in GSAK, not to mention being exported to cachemate. I tend to just use GSAK to grab coords immediately prior to downloading to the GPS, as thats the only place I need them - i delete them immediately afterwards.

 

hmmmm!

 

Dave

[Deego]

Deego,

as its a new feature nobody will have put any additional waypoints on their cache page yet

I meant "Try my example above".

 

HH

Ok so there is one

[+purple_pineapple]

another thought - if they are included in the relevent PQs for that cache, then all our PQs will double in number, presumably taking them well over the 500 mark. That's going to require a lot of effort to set up all our PQs again, and probably would mean we are unable to download all the UK in one week, for those of us that do that.

[Alan White]

does that mean I can expect GSAK to start expanding rapidly, as it starts downloading these additional wp.

Yes, indeed so. You might want to add your weight in the GSAK forum here.

[Alan White]

another thought - if they are included in the relevent PQs for that cache, then all our PQs will double in number, presumably taking them well over the 500 mark. That's going to require a lot of effort to set up all our PQs again, and probably would mean we are unable to download all the UK in one week, for those of us that do that.

I've not seen anything to indicate that the addl wpts contribute to the 500.

 

Of course, since none of this is documented....

[+purple_pineapple]

i will do alan - while i'm waiting for it to load, the hope will be that GC.com provides a new listing type, and that GSAK can filter on these and delete them as soon as I d/l a new set of PQs. Or are each point being listed as the same cahe type as its 'parent' cache, which would be incorrect, IMHO.

[+Mad H@ter]

Excellent feature , just tried it on one of my multis and downloaded the GPX file. It uploaded all the waypoints into GSAK and identified them as type "Other", so you can filter all these out if you don't want to see them.

 

One issue that I think could do with being sorted is the prefix, it would be useful if there was some sort of uniformity ie all parking used P1, stages used S1 etc.

[+dino-irl]

One issue that I think could do with being sorted is the prefix, it would be useful if there was some sort of uniformity ie all parking used P1, stages used S1 etc.

I agree....took me a little while to work out how the prefix worked. At first I thought to use a two letter prefix denoting my cache but each prefix has to be unique. When I tried to put in a second waypoint I recognised my mistake.

 

The prefix should be fixed depending on the selection in the first drop-down box as you say PA (Parking Area), FL (Final Location), etc.

 

As far as I can work out all the waypoints are treated as one entry in your 500 in a PQ just as they have been until now but as Alan said it's not documented.

 

GSAK handles them very well. With my cache GCQ8A7 I have the car park waypointed using the prefix CP. This is downloaded to GSAK as CPQ8A7 which can be easily filtered out or in as you need.

 

This is a very nice addition but it does still need tweaked. There seems to be too many unnecessary elements to the form to add the waypoint IMO.

[Alan White]

It uploaded all the waypoints  into GSAK

Which is exactly what I don't want. I don't want non-caches in my cache database. Removing them afterwards is just a huge unnecessary processing overhead. There are ~8000 caches in the UK. Let's say they all have a parking waypoint and half of them are multis with two additional waypoints. That's an extra 16000 waypoints which will be loaded into GSAK and then have to be removed. I think I might need to go and buy a bigger box

[+dino-irl]

Might be worthwhile bringing this up in the GSAK Forum. There might be a Macro that will only download waypoints with the GC prefix...or just do an auto-delete of them when they appear?

 

edit to say:

 

Or if you bring it up on the main Groundspeak forum you might be able to get an option added to the PQs that ingnores additional waypoints

Edited January 20, 2006 by dino-irl

[Alan White]

Might be worthwhile bringing this up in the GSAK Forum.

 

Or if you bring it up on the main Groundspeak forum

Both already done.

 

The point is, no-one should have to implement workrounds or ad-hoc fixes. New features should be properly tested before they're released.

[+dino-irl]

I guess so but then I don't have any problem with the way it works right now and I'd say neither will many others.

 

It's near impossible to plan and test for every eventuality.

 

Also GSAK isn't a Grounspeak program so there's no onus on them to make sure that their new system works with it.

[Alan White]

It's near impossible to plan and test for every eventuality.

 

Also GSAK isn't a Grounspeak program so there's no onus on them to make sure that their new system works with it.

Of course, and I didn't suggest that. I did suggest that some testing might have been good

 

This, I think, is a problem. Groundspeak should work in cooperation with 3rd parties for their mutual benefit, not fight against them by deliberately breaking the 3rd party software. Let's not forget that the changes earlier this week broke SpolierSync. Now GSAK, and anything else that uses Groundspeak's GPX files, is broken.

 

Don't get me wrong: structured additional waypoints is something I've been after for a long time. But this design and implementation is seriously flawed.

[+dino-irl]

They seem to be testing the new changes by actual use. This does create problems but are they getting sorted?

 

BTW I'm not advocating this in any way

[Alan White]

They seem to be testing the new changes by actual use. This does create problems but are they getting sorted?

I don't mind being a beta-tester, but I prefer that "my" production system isn't the one being used

 

Even if Groundspeak agree with any of the suggestions, they can't implement them yet because they're still asleep.

 

Which brings us to another question: is Friday really the best day for an implementation?

[Lactodorum]

Another excellent example of a multi-cache using the new "feature" can be seen here.

 

Like it or not it's here to stay and we shall be requesting all new caches be structured this way. There are hidden benefits for the review process too.

[Alan White]

Another excellent example of a multi-cache using the new "feature" can be seen here.

 

Like it or not it's here to stay and we shall be requesting all new caches be structured this way. There are hidden benefits for the review process too.

Actually I'd say that's a bad example, because all the waypoints are listed twice.

 

I don't doubt that the view on the web page is useful. It's the manner of its implementation, and the downstream problems that I have issues with.

 

After spending much of the day on the problem, I still haven't worked out a way to get GSAK not to load these extra waypoints.

[+Moote]

Another excellent example of a multi-cache using the new "feature" can be seen here.

 

Like it or not it's here to stay and we shall be requesting all new caches be structured this way. There are hidden benefits for the review process too.

Not just multicaching but any cache can have extra coordinates added.

[+purple_pineapple]

alan, at the moment I'm using my start up macro to delete them all as soon as they arrive - although I know you would rather they didn't arrive in the first place. whilst setting this up, I noticed in the delete waypoint dialogue box a tick box saying prevent this waypoint from be added in the future (or something like that). would that work? You'd have to download and delete them once, but after that, they should stay out...!

 

I've just done a cord grab on cock and bull to see if it would rip the coords twice (as they are listed twice) but Clyde has cleverly programmed it to not do this, so it only pulls each one once.

[Alan White]

alan, at the moment I'm using my start up macro to delete them all as soon as they arrive - although I know you would rather they didn't arrive in the first place. whilst setting this up, I noticed in the delete waypoint dialogue box a tick box saying prevent this waypoint from be added in the future (or something like that). would that work? You'd have to download and delete them once, but after that, they should stay out...!

Yes, that will work. Bear in mind that GSAK maintains a list in your database of these ignored waypoints, so that will grow. I've no idea of the performance implications of processing then ignoring large numbers of waypoints - one for Cylde perhaps.

[+purple_pineapple]

lol - so its weighing up the slow down in performance in having to delete them all on arrival each time with the slow down by building up a long list of blacklisted caches! As you say, one for Clyde.

 

My guess is that eventually (and I can understand Clyde waiting for things to settle first) the GetMail command will have some filter functionality built in to exclude these files. We shall see

[+Moote]

I've no idea of the performance implications of processing then ignoring large numbers of waypoints - one for Cylde perhaps.

The main reason for performance problems with GSAK is that over time the drive the data is stored on becomes fragmented, and the Data files are not contiguous. Here is the solution I use for this. I store the data within its own partition and I backup the data to another partition, this is how the drives map out on my PC:

 

C: - 20GB - Windows System partition, this is only used for the operating system and DOES not contain the swap file

 

D: - 100GB - Application Partition, this is where I have my Program Files installed (GSAK installed here)

 

E: - 160GB - System Data storage

 

F: - 8GB - System swap file area

 

J: - 40GB - GSAK database storage

 

R: - 200GB - Backup data store

 

Once in a while I format my J: drive and rebuild the database from a backup. Doing this speeds up GSAK

 

Moote

[Alan White]

My guess is that eventually (and I can understand Clyde waiting for things to settle first) the GetMail command will have some filter functionality built in to exclude these files. We shall see

I think it'll be (and have suggested that it should be) in the Load command. The extra waypoints are also in individual GPX files, and these aren't fetched by GetMail.

[Lactodorum]

Another excellent example of a multi-cache using the new "feature" can be seen here.

 

Like it or not it's here to stay and we shall be requesting all new caches be structured this way. There are hidden benefits for the review process too.

Actually I'd say that's a bad example, because all the waypoints are listed twice.

Actually it's a good example as the cache owner had already constructed the cache page very nicely before I asked him to use the new functionality. You can easily see both systems (old and new) on the one cache.

Edited January 20, 2006 by Lactodorum

[+Jolly green giants]

I don't mind the new look however the log in and the username at the top of the page are so small you can hardley see them and the writting on the pages has got a lot smaller too