Guest Markwell Posted October 11, 2001 Share Posted October 11, 2001 Distance Travelled is now on the pages! Look at Homer for an example. Each individual leg of his journey from cache to cache has a Distance and Direction Travelled. Also, the cache description right below the "Track Images" indicates the total distance travelled. Very cool Jeremy. Feel free to list other enhancements you spot here (not ones you wish for - that's another topic). Quote Link to comment
Guest Fotogg Posted October 11, 2001 Share Posted October 11, 2001 That's Cool! I plan on placing mine this weekend. Quote Link to comment
Guest Utahbill Posted October 11, 2001 Share Posted October 11, 2001 Instructions on how to use a travel but are posted now. The link to them is on the individual travel bug page. Quote Link to comment
Guest Markwell Posted October 17, 2001 Share Posted October 17, 2001 Watch list! Whooooo-hooooo! Quote Link to comment
Guest Artful Dodger Posted October 18, 2001 Share Posted October 18, 2001 Jeremy, Is there any reason why the 'Number of people watching this Travel Bug' is not active? or is something you are aware of and working on it? I have put a few Travel Bugs on my Watch List and when I revisit them, it does not indicate that '1 person/s is watching this Travel Bug' Just wondering... Quote Link to comment
Guest Artful Dodger Posted October 18, 2001 Share Posted October 18, 2001 Jeremy, Is there any reason why the 'Number of people watching this Travel Bug' is not active? or is something you are aware of and working on it? I have put a few Travel Bugs on my Watch List and when I revisit them, it does not indicate that '1 person/s is watching this Travel Bug' Just wondering... Quote Link to comment
Guest edyck Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 Is there now (or will there be) a way to search for T-Bugs in an area (zip or state, etc.), or to be notified when a T-Bug is released or placed in your area? Or to see what other T-Bugs a particular person has released? I'm spoiled with having these features for the caches. Eric www.KansasFolks.net Quote Link to comment
Guest jeremy Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 Because of the odd nature of Travel Bugs (in-transit, compared to caches), I was thinking of an autonotify feature for them. So when they're dropped off in a cache, only, an email will be sent off to anyone within a 150 mile range that the travel bug is there. Folks will have the option to turn this feature on or off. Default will be off. Sounds good? Jeremy Quote Link to comment
Guest ALacy Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 autonotify sounds good, but also let me define how many miles is close. You could set 150 as highest limit, but if travel bugs get popular, I might want to lower my limit to 100 or 50 miles or what ever, to keep from getting so many notices. Quote Link to comment
Guest Markwell Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 I agree with the option of notification when a T.B. is near, but also echo that the radius should be user determined. I did just e-mail J.I. with another problem I found. My T.B. got dropped off in a cache that was not yet approved (brand new). I did NOT receive notification of the drop off, probably due to the unapproved nature of the cache. While most of the time I would agree that notifications concerning unapproved caches are good (wouldn't want someone getting notification that a log has been made to an unapproved cache), in this instance I think it's important to notify the T.B. owner that it has been placed in a cache. Note that the e-mail already doesn't say in which cache the bug cache has been placed. Quote Link to comment
Guest Rootbeer Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 quote:Originally posted by jeremy:anyone within a 150 mile range What if the bug moves from cache to cache to cache, all within that 150-mile radius? Would I get eight notifications? If you can make it notify only when the bug "comes into range" rather than when it is "dropped off within range", with the user-selectable range that ALacy asked for, I think I'd use that feature. Thanks for all of your work to make a great website! Quote Link to comment
Guest glenn95630 Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 It sounds like you get notified if a TB comes around that you have selected 'Watch This Bug'. I'd be interested in knowing about ANY bug that comes around. Glenn95630 Quote Link to comment
Guest Markwell Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 rial">quote: Posted by Jeremy:Because of the odd nature of Travel Bugs (in-transit, compared to caches), I was thinking of an autonotify feature for them. So when they're dropped off in a cache, only, an email will be sent off to anyone within a 150 mile range that the travel bug is there. Folks will have the option to turn this feature on or off. Default will be off. I think this is intended for notification of when ANY bug comes into the xxx mile radius. That's why Jeremy is making the option to turn it on with the default "off." As far as a bug hopping from cache to cache within the 150 (or whatever) radius, I'd think that this would most assuredly happen, but it'd be awful hard to implement a one-time shot e-mail. What if the bug goes within the 150 mile radius, hops out and then hops in? Do you not want to be notified? Also if you get all fired up about finding a bug that you just got notified as being in your vicinity and it hops while you're waiting for the weekend, you'd want another notification, I presume. database administration nightmare. I would think the easiest implementation would be that any time a travel bug is placed in a cache within a certain established radius of your zip code, you would get a notification (not just on watched bugs). [This message has been edited by Markwell (edited 22 October 2001).] Quote Link to comment
Guest glenn95630 Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 When I post a note to a cache page I can add blank lines to make the note more readable. When I post a note to a TB page, I can't do blank lines. See http://www.geocaching.com/track/track_detail.asp?ID=224 for an example. I tried to put in blank lines between the 'dialogue' lines. SWTB: Met new friends, met with potential alliance members, recruited and trained a new travel bug, and gathered intelligence behind enemy lines, my job here is finished. Time to move on to the next sector. ?R2, Warm up my X-wing!? R2: ?Up Yours? SWTB: I knew this sector was going to be trouble from the time I first landed here?? What should I be doing differently? Quote Link to comment
Guest Markwell Posted October 23, 2001 Share Posted October 23, 2001 OK - we need a keyword searchable for the activated Travel Bugs. I was looking for DLiming's Cache Hopping Bird and since it hasn't had any activity in the "recent" area, and is not one of the most recent 24 photos to be edited into the gallery, unless I either go through the Ohio caches (it may not even be placed yet) or go through the TBs numerically, I can't possibly find it. Maybe even a searchable like "Other Travel Bugs owned by this user" like there is on the cache page. Quote Link to comment
Guest glenn95630 Posted October 23, 2001 Share Posted October 23, 2001 I agree with Markwell. Here is my post from a couple weeks ago.. 'I understand that the gallery rotates. But does it have to? I think it would be nice to be able to see all the travellers. Even more than one page of thumbs would be okay. The reason is I wanted to show my kids the travellers and they asked me if I had picked up one. I have, but its picture wasn't there. To show the picture I would either have to record the id number of the travellers I pick up or hope that it is listed in the recent sitings page. Or is there another way... maybe search by name?' Glenn95630 Quote Link to comment
Guest edyck Posted October 24, 2001 Share Posted October 24, 2001 I added a "Wish List" topic to the TB Forum. (see Markwell's original post for this topic). Or we could just continue the wish list discussion here. Whatever. ------------------ Eric www.KansasFolks.net Quote Link to comment
Guest jbmccarthy69 Posted October 30, 2001 Share Posted October 30, 2001 quote:Originally posted by glenn95630:I agree with Markwell. Here is my post from a couple weeks ago.. 'I understand that the gallery rotates. But does it have to? I think it would be nice to be able to see all the travellers. Even more than one page of thumbs would be okay... Glenn95630 Hey! I can page thru and see all the travel bug thumbnails now. Quote Link to comment
Guest glenn95630 Posted October 30, 2001 Share Posted October 30, 2001 sweeeeeeet! Quote Link to comment
Guest martinp13 Posted October 31, 2001 Share Posted October 31, 2001 Jeremy, I'd make it a 60-mile radius: basically an hour's drive. Quote Link to comment
Guest Artful Dodger Posted October 31, 2001 Share Posted October 31, 2001 quote:Originally posted by martinp13:Jeremy, I'd make it a 60-mile radius: basically an hour's drive. That's subjective. That might be an average time in most states. It might be 2 hours in Alabama and 10 minutes in Montana.... Quote Link to comment
Guest Artful Dodger Posted October 31, 2001 Share Posted October 31, 2001 quote:Originally posted by martinp13:Jeremy, I'd make it a 60-mile radius: basically an hour's drive. That's subjective. That might be an average time in most states. It might be 2 hours in Alabama and 10 minutes in Montana.... Quote Link to comment
Guest Walkin Stick Posted October 31, 2001 Share Posted October 31, 2001 I don't know what the right distance is, but I'd have to disagree with limiting it to 60 miles... while that may get some cachers from larger metro areas more than they would ever need... there are only 13 caches within 60 miles of me. I may never hear about any TB's (other than my own) and chances are, if I DO hear about one... I will have already found the cache. 150 miles at least gives me a chance to go after one. Quote Link to comment
Guest badbitbucket Posted November 2, 2001 Share Posted November 2, 2001 quote:Originally posted by Artful Dodger: That's subjective. That might be an average time in most states. It might be 2 hours in Alabama and 10 minutes in Montana.... I smell feature creep... have fun Jeremy! ;-) Quote Link to comment
Guest badbitbucket Posted November 2, 2001 Share Posted November 2, 2001 quote:Originally posted by Artful Dodger: That's subjective. That might be an average time in most states. It might be 2 hours in Alabama and 10 minutes in Montana.... I smell feature creep... have fun Jeremy! ;-) Quote Link to comment
Guest jeremy Posted November 2, 2001 Share Posted November 2, 2001 Yeah. I decided it would be best to allow notifications and let the person decide the radius instead. There will be a max people can go (300 miles). You can see an example on the seek page where you can now choose the radius for your results via zipcode search. http://www.geocaching.com/seek Jeremy Quote Link to comment
Guest ALacy Posted November 2, 2001 Share Posted November 2, 2001 Uh, Jeremy you put it on the hide/seek page http://www.geocaching.com/hideseek/ but not the seek page ]http://www.geocaching.com/seek [This message has been edited by ALacy (edited 02 November 2001).] Quote Link to comment
Guest Markwell Posted November 20, 2001 Share Posted November 20, 2001 A map of the travels for each bug. See the new link on each bug page - just below the Total Distance Travelled... "See a map of this bug's travels." Quote Link to comment
Guest glenn95630 Posted November 20, 2001 Share Posted November 20, 2001 I see it for some but not all bugs. I don't know if only the high mileage bugs get the link or if it is being phased in. Here are a couple of maps... http://www.geocaching.com/map/bugtrack.asp?tid=1355 http://www.geocaching.com/map/bugtrack.asp?tid=150 http://www.geocaching.com/map/bugtrack.asp?tid=224 Quote Link to comment
Guest glenn95630 Posted November 20, 2001 Share Posted November 20, 2001 It is interesting to see how the maps might evolve. Many maps may start out like this http://www.geocaching.com/map/bugtrack.asp?tid=232 and then turn into this http://www.geocaching.com/map/bugtrack.asp?tid=1024 Quote Link to comment
Guest Markwell Posted November 20, 2001 Share Posted November 20, 2001 Hey Glenn - thanks for using my bug I wondered about resolution on the maps as well. Apparently, Jeremy has some algorithm that makes it use up as much of the bitmap as possible (so as not to have 40 little points all close together on a map of the US) but decrease the resolution as the bug travels more (so as not to go off the edge of the page). I wonder if the lack of maps is because of other countries or when they travelled or some other variable. Jeremy? Quote Link to comment
Guest Markwell Posted November 20, 2001 Share Posted November 20, 2001 Hey Glenn - thanks for using my bug I wondered about resolution on the maps as well. Apparently, Jeremy has some algorithm that makes it use up as much of the bitmap as possible (so as not to have 40 little points all close together on a map of the US) but decrease the resolution as the bug travels more (so as not to go off the edge of the page). I wonder if the lack of maps is because of other countries or when they travelled or some other variable. Jeremy? Quote Link to comment
Guest jeremy Posted November 20, 2001 Share Posted November 20, 2001 quote:Originally posted by Markwell:I wonder if the lack of maps is because of other countries or when they travelled or some other variable. Jeremy? To answer the other question, a bug has to travel more than 30 miles before it gets a map. It's just an arbitrary number. If you use one of those links above and change the id to another bug, it'll map it even if it is under 30 miles. I'll give a short explanation of the mapping system on the site... I use shapefiles to do mapping. They're basically vector images, which means they draw from mathematical data. So each map is drawn from scratch, then the points are drawn in for each cache location. Because travel bugs travel worldwide, I have to use a world map, so I use one that is very basic. That way it can draw quickly. I do, however, have state maps, country maps, and in some cases street maps, but I don't have a database of each map and what lat/lon areas that they cover. What the page does is grab all of the logged locations, and get their coordinates. Then it takes the hi and low lat and long and ads (or subtracts) 2 degrees to determine the size of the map square. Then I zoom in on the map in the area and draw it for you folks to see. So, for it to be more detailed, I need to either a) find out all the sizes of the maps I do have and display them in a database so I can pick the right one for each bug or purchase a $20k system and hire GIS developers to give it some cool effects. Though eventually I will go towards I figured a general idea of which direction they go (and in some cases, which continents) that it will work for now. Worst case you can just click on the caches to see where they are. Jeremy Quote Link to comment
Guest Markwell Posted November 20, 2001 Share Posted November 20, 2001 Very cool low-end (<$20K) solution. I had a sneaking suspicion that it was +-a degree or two based on what I was seeing. Very elegant indeed. I think I'll still keep my more detailed maps onboard for Geoffrey and Scooby Doo, as well as the unified map at The Challenge Hub, but as far as the individual Superfriends, I'll let the system and the shapefiles handle it. Kudos for all you do, Jeremy. Quote Link to comment
Guest skooter Posted November 26, 2001 Share Posted November 26, 2001 What about being able to add a Latitude/Longitude location to a Travelbug's log instead of only getting a geographic location at a cache? Quote Link to comment
Guest Markwell Posted November 26, 2001 Share Posted November 26, 2001 Skooter - I'm confused. (which is nothing new). Travel Bugs move from cache to cache or person to person. Are you talking about setting up an entire item that would stand on its own and move around? We've talked about some of these before. RUN JEREMY, RUN !! is an example of a cache that the entire contents move and are hidden. I don't know if a Travel Bug could be implemented on an entire cache. I think the concept is that it has to be moved either from A) person to person, or person to cache to person Quote Link to comment
Guest jeremy Posted November 26, 2001 Share Posted November 26, 2001 quote:Originally posted by skooter:What about being able to add a Latitude/Longitude location to a Travelbug's log instead of only getting a geographic location at a cache? I believe you mean if you pick up a travel bug and visit a burger joint, you can add a waypoint to a log saying "Mr Hamburger travel bug visited his buddies at Happy Land." Well, I'm working on it so you can do this. Eventually I hope to have it set up so if a non-geocacher finds a bug they won't be intimidated on the web site to log it and pass it on. Jeremy Quote Link to comment
Guest skooter Posted November 28, 2001 Share Posted November 28, 2001 Jeremy, Thanks, yes that is exactly the kind of functionality I was talking about. The purpose would be to help the bug owner know that the current holder was taking the bug places, without having to "drop" it off at a cache & immediately retrieve it. The point of non-geocachers logging a travelbug brings up the challenge of address-matching or a gazeteer type search if someone doesn't have access to a GPS or other method of lat/long determination. Bravo for your efforts Jeremy, Geocaching works because of the web interface, thanks. Skooter Quote Link to comment
Guest Markwell Posted November 28, 2001 Share Posted November 28, 2001 Mapblast still works. You just have to jump through some hoops to get there. http://www.mapblast.com/myblast/index.mb Will get you past the pop to vicinity.com. Only problem is that you would have to convert between degrees and degree minutes, which can be a little intimidating. Jeremy, any possibility for these non-cache logs that you could enter the data into a free form field and have the system figure out the units based on the format of the number? Just thinking off the top of my head... Quote Link to comment
Guest Markwell Posted January 13, 2002 Share Posted January 13, 2002 Another new feature!! You now get notification when a bug has been dropped off in a cache. THANK YOU JEREMY!!! (post 999) ------------------ Markwell My Geocache Page Non omnes vagi perditi sunt Quote Link to comment
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