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1 minute ago, Max and 99 said:

Is the problem the placement of the emojis  or the fact that they are in the title? I just started including them in the title of some caches because I thought it looked good and fit with the theme. But if the issue is mostly the placement, what is the best place for them? The title of the thread tells me don't put them at the end, but the beginning is ok. 

It was suggested here not to place them at the start, but it would take a search to find example caches to test them on my Garmin. If you know of some and could give me GC code  links to some examples; image only at beginning, and image only at end, I could load those caches and see if I can search for them. I already have found that images at both ends don't work for me.

 

Another thing with some GPSs, some tend to have smaller screens than phones, and long titles only show the first part and the rest can't be seen, so if there were lots of images at the beginning, even if they showed, that's all that might be seen; the actual title might not be able to be read on the main page. Going to say 'hints' shows the whole title, but that's another stage. When I started off a community power trail on a local  cycle route, I made sure to put the cache number before the trail name, so ALL devices could see this (01 Majura Cycleway).  Someone told me that's how it's not normally done (they must have meant the number should go last), but I ignored that (and thought 'phone user') and placed the number first. Better it suits everyone, than only a few.

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4 minutes ago, Goldenwattle said:

It was suggested here not to place them at the start, but it would take a search to find example caches to test them on my Garmin. If you know of some and could give me GC code  links to some examples; image only at beginning, and image only at end, I could load those caches and see if I can search for them. I already have found that images at both ends don't work for me.

 

Another thing with some GPSs, some tend to have smaller screens than phones, and long titles only show the first part and the rest can't be seen, so if there were lots of images at the beginning, even if they showed, that's all that might be seen; the actual title might not be able to be read on the main page. Going to say 'hints' shows the whole title, but that's another stage. When I started off a community power trail on a local  cycle route, I made sure to put the cache number before the trail name, so ALL devices could see this (01 Majura Cycleway).  Someone told me that's how it's not normally done (they must have meant the number should go last), but I ignored that (and thought 'phone user') and placed the number first. Better it suits everyone, than only a few.

That's helpful! Thank you.

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9 minutes ago, Viajero Perdido said:

No.  Hardware sold in 2020 (or 2019, or 2010) should be compatible with Unicode, which is hardly a new standard, and which is how non-Latin languages (rather important, no?) and those cute pictures are supported.

 

Pretty rotten common denominator.

It is as it is though, and no-one should be expected to need to spend hundreds of dollars on new equipment. Also, not everyone thinks it's okay to change their still working equipment all the time, whether a GPS or phone, and add to the e-waste problem, just so as to be able to add a bit of unnecessary 'fluff' to the title, that adds nothing to the game. Some of us think throwing out still working things very wasteful and wrong.

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44 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

Is the problem the placement of the emojis  or the fact that they are in the title? I just started including them in the title of some caches because I thought it looked good and fit with the theme. But if the issue is mostly the placement, what is the best place for them? The title of the thread tells me don't put them at the end, but the beginning is ok. 

No, the beginning causes similar issues.  Example above.

Edit .. or below, as it happens.

Edited by ecanderson
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29 minutes ago, Goldenwattle said:

Will report back :).

I emptied my Garmin and loaded a couple of caches.

???️= NATURE

 I did a search for it, but typing in 'nature', doesn't find it. However, I can see the cache to click on it, but this would need to be a guess if several had those images at the beginning, as none would have titles. There could potentially be a list of nameless caches to guess at. A few years back in London, I did have such a problem. So, if I am nearby I could see and click on it. I would not be able to find it easily if further away, with many other caches also loaded.

? The National Arboretum ?

This, with images both ends, does not show up at all on my Garmin, either when I search for it, or look at the list of caches. In effect, it doesn't exist.

 

I haven't had one to test with the image at the end.

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Interestingly (or not), the second emoji shows as two leaves on my Linux PC, and a single leaf on my Android tablet - both on the cache page, and as seen in GW's post just above.

 

Obviously, emojis are a shifting standard.  A challenge for vendors of embedded firmware (coughGarmincough) to keep up with, given that software updates are fraught with risk, bricking the unit, that kind of thing.  (Phones separated the OS and application long ago.)

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6 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

I put TFTC (name of CO). Putting the CO name is fast, as I can highlight it and drag it down. A big reason why I use the old logging page too, as doing this quick method only works in that. It doesn't in the new logging page and it's slower to need to highlight, copy and paste. No spelling mistakes of the CO's name then either:). Could get very tiresome typing out Thank you for the Cache, after a busy full day of caching. Can take long enough doing individual logs for each find without that.

 

My sarcasm meter may be broken, but this was meant as a joke, right?  It's not immediately completely obvious.

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On 6/13/2020 at 4:33 PM, Goldenwattle said:

Yes, I figured they work on phones, but many people still use GPSs, so geocaching should ban them to cater for everyone. They are not needed. People shouldn't need to go out and spend hundreds of dollars to buy a new GPS, just so these caches with decorations that aren't needed, show up.

 

Only small minority may need this conversion, not everyone. Didn't you know that you can do this yourself?

 

Here are some examples how

https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/emoticon-and-emoji-in-text-mining-7392c49f596a

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47489836/convert-emoji-unicode-to-text-in-python

 

 

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20 minutes ago, arisoft said:

 

Only small minority may need this conversion, not everyone. Didn't you know that you can do this yourself?

 

Here are some examples how

https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/emoticon-and-emoji-in-text-mining-7392c49f596a

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47489836/convert-emoji-unicode-to-text-in-python

 

 

The bold "everyone" was done by you, not me.

 

As for the rest, I don't understand how that will allow me to read the title of other people's caches that I download onto my Garmin, or in some cases, even to see the cache.

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47 minutes ago, fizzymagic said:

 

My sarcasm meter may be broken, but this was meant as a joke, right?  It's not immediately completely obvious.

Not a joke, I was answering:

15 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

Then a lot of people think that TFTC is a sufficient means of expressing gratitude and can't even be bothered to type out "thank you for the cache".

 

Why would you think this was a joke? I was explaining why TFTC (CO's name) is quicker than typing Thank you for the Cache, because the CO's name can be highlighted and dragged down into the text after TFTC. No typing of the CO's name is necessary. However, this only works on the old log page; one of the reasons I continue to use it, rather than the new version.

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46 minutes ago, Goldenwattle said:

As for the rest, I don't understand how that will allow me to read the title of other people's caches that I download onto my Garmin, or in some cases, even to see the cache.

 

It converts images to text as the article says. It bans emoji characters the way you want. If this ultimate solution is not what you want, your problem is something else than reading the title of other people's caches.

Edited by arisoft
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4 minutes ago, arisoft said:

 

It converts images to text as the article says. It bans emoji characters the way you want. If this ultimate solution is not what you want, your problem is something else than reading the title of other people's caches.

When I am out in the field looking to find a cache, I don't see how that will assist me. I can't even remove a cache from my Garmin without having a computer to plug it into. Or do I need to check all the caches in the bulk load for emojis and convert before I go out? Having to convert all the caches seems time consuming, and I do a fresh load weekly.

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33 minutes ago, arisoft said:

 

It takes about half a second to convert. It is not any faster to convert if geocaching.com makes it for you - but they won't.

But I have to search for the caches like that to convert. That takes longer than a second. Each bulk load has a 1000 caches. And I still don't see how I can convert other people's caches.

Okay, maybe I'm not getting this.

Edited by Goldenwattle
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2 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

Not a joke, I was answering:

Then a lot of people think that TFTC is a sufficient means of expressing gratitude and can't even be bothered to type out "thank you for the cache".

 

Why would you think this was a joke? I was explaining why TFTC (CO's name) is quicker than typing Thank you for the Cache, because the CO's name can be highlighted and dragged down into the text after TFTC. No typing of the CO's name is necessary. However, this only works on the old log page; one of the reasons I continue to use it, rather than the new version.

 

So you actually leave logs that say "TFTC CO's Name?"  You said as much in the post I replied to.

 

You use the old log page because it saves you the keystrokes of typing the CO's name?

 

Wow.  Shame really is dead.

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11 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

I put TFTC (name of CO). Putting the CO name is fast, as I can highlight it and drag it down. A big reason why I use the old logging page too, as doing this quick method only works in that. It doesn't in the new logging page and it's slower to need to highlight, copy and paste. No spelling mistakes of the CO's name then either:). Could get very tiresome typing out Thank you for the Cache, after a busy full day of caching. Can take long enough doing individual logs for each find without that.

 

So efficiency trump sincerity?   There's another solution for reducing the amount of time it takes to log caches.  Find fewer caches.  The argument it takes too long to write out a complete sentences after a busy day suggest that ones find count is more important than properly thanking those geocachers who are placing caches to be found.

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8 hours ago, ecanderson said:

I get 8 "?" characters generated by the four unicode characters on my Oregon.

Fortunately, I operate pretty strictly by GC code on cache runs, so my search was for GC81T9K. 

As noted, GSAK is equally unimpressed, since it does not support Unicode.

 

GSAK.jpg.4f82bcbf6b8e5dcdb7891968ea1e51fc.jpg

 

 

Working in a library, the use of diacritics (which are supported using unicode) is a common issue for the discovery and display of material in our holdings (over 9 million items).  The Vietnamese and Apache languages are typically used as test cases for testing unicode support as they use diacritics more than any other language.  Looking at caches from Vietnam there are only a handful which include diacritics in the cache title but I"m curious how they display on an "older" GPS. 

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4 hours ago, fizzymagic said:

 

So you actually leave logs that say "TFTC CO's Name?"  You said as much in the post I replied to.

 

You use the old log page because it saves you the keystrokes of typing the CO's name?

 

Wow.  Shame really is dead.

Now, are you trying to be funny? At the end of the log, TFTC (name of CO) = TFTC Joan, TFTC John...or whatever their caching name is. I don't literally put 'name of CO' :rolleyes:. How is that difficult to understand, and what is shameful about this? If you haven't understood, below is how it works.

 

 

Unfortunately this very quick, easy method fails to work on the new logging page, hence a big reason I won't use it. It's slower to copy and paste, and can't be used if I already have something else copied to paste.

 

 

Dragging CO name.jpg

Edited by Goldenwattle
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1 hour ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

 

So efficiency trump sincerity?   There's another solution for reducing the amount of time it takes to log caches.  Find fewer caches.  The argument it takes too long to write out a complete sentences after a busy day suggest that ones find count is more important than properly thanking those geocachers who are placing caches to be found.

I'm too busy describing the experiences of each individual cache to bother with what I consider silly, writing the very understood TFTC out in full. I find it more personal to include after the log, TFTC and their name than  just "Thanks For The cache" copied and pasted endlessly, no matter who owns the cache.

Edited by Goldenwattle
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5 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

I was explaining why TFTC (CO's name) is quicker than typing Thank you for the Cache, because the CO's name can be highlighted and dragged down into the text after TFTC.

No typing of the CO's name is necessary. However, this only works on the old log page; one of the reasons I continue to use it, rather than the new version.

 

With the responses it wasn't clear so had to look, and saw it's  something that's added as an ending to your log.    :)   

Guess I don't see the issue.

I do that as well, but the three seconds it takes to type out "Thanks for the fun (CO name) !" I feel is nothing compared to my logs.

 

A friend caches all over the country, with homes in three states, and they take a pic of logs with GC# so they can log their finds when they have the time.

 

Edited by cerberus1
got comma crazed :D
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9 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

 

With the responses it wasn't clear so had to look, and saw it's  something that's added as an ending to your log.    :)   

Guess I don't see the issue.

I do that as well, but the three seconds it takes to type out "Thanks for the fun (CO name) !" I feel is nothing compared to my logs.

 

Yes, it's at the end of my log. Example:

Found itFound it

02/May/2020

So, that's one of the places recording the air quality that I was following during the bushfires. I wonder how much it is effected, if a neighbour has a BBQ and the wind blows the smoke that way. Cache and log are good. TFTC andrewbt.

 

11 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

A friend caches all over the country, with homes in three states, and they take a pic of logs with GC# so they can log their finds when they have the time.

 

I like to do log as soon as possible, whether home or travelling, usually that night, so the memory of the cache is fresh. Although I also take notes at each cache, as I write individual logs for each. It's rare for me to do standard copy and paste logs.

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1 minute ago, cerberus1 said:

 

I was just sending a mail.  Cancelled it.   

 It might be that others thought that "TFTC andrewbt" was all you wrote.    :laughing:

That occurred to me too, but then thought surely no one would expect me to write an  irrelevant log just for here :lol:. I was only demonstrating the necessary bit.

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I skimmed through most of this and I would counter there are sometimes a need for emojis.

 

For instance I found a few puzzle caches in an "Emoji Puzzle Series" and the cache title was part of your hint. The puzzle was in the decoding:

 

EMOJI #1

EMOJI #2

 

And while I agree this may be an annoying/breaking bug for some cases; I'm not one to advocate in a reduction of services/amenities provided by ground-speak. 

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10 minutes ago, STNolan said:

I skimmed through most of this and I would counter there are sometimes a need for emojis.

 

For instance I found a few puzzle caches in an "Emoji Puzzle Series" and the cache title was part of your hint. The puzzle was in the decoding:

 

EMOJI #1

EMOJI #2

 

And while I agree this may be an annoying/breaking bug for some cases; I'm not one to advocate in a reduction of services/amenities provided by ground-speak. 

Emojis would be better to only be used on caches that are only done on the phone, such as Lab Caches and Wherigos. You should consider GPSs users too. And also, travellers from other countries might not be able to use phone data when visiting another country, because the cost of data used overseas is horrendous. Therefore they only have a GPS to use. I have been in this position, as I mentioned in an earlier log. I turn data off on my phone when 'roaming' overseas, as do many people, who don't want a HUGE bill when they get home.

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2 minutes ago, Goldenwattle said:

Emojis would be better to only be used on caches that are only done on the phone, such as Lab Caches and Wherigos. You should consider GPSs users too. And also, travellers from other countries might not be able to use phone data when visiting another country, because the cost of data used overseas is horrendous. Therefore they only have a GPS to use. I have been in this position, as I mentioned in an earlier log. I turn data off on my phone when 'roaming' overseas, as do many people, who don't want a HUGE bill when they get home.

I will remove the tourist attribute from my emoji caches. 

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1 minute ago, Goldenwattle said:

Emojis would be better to only be used on caches that are only done on the phone, such as Lab Caches and Wherigos. You should consider GPSs users too. And also, travellers from other countries might not be able to use phone data when visiting another country, because the cost of data used overseas is horrendous. Therefore they only have a GPS to use. I have been in this position, as I mentioned in an earlier log. I turn data off on my phone when 'roaming' overseas, as do many people, who don't want a HUGE bill when they get home.

 

I completely understand; when I travel I also turn off my phone data. 

 

WhereIGos can be done on some GPS devices though. Also, part of the planning process for a trip that I know includes geocaching would likely be searching out any caches that might cause issues like that for the method that I'm geocaching. I still use an old 2001 era eTrex when I go caching overseas; I manually load in all the coordinates and go from there. I realize that's not ideal for everyone but at a certain point if that's the work around to solve the problem then that's what you have to do. 

I don't believe taking away functionality from cache owners is the right answer here. I thoroughly enjoyed solving and finding the emoji puzzle caches I found. Why should those not exist? What you're asking for is to completely remove functionality from a cache owner for no other purpose than to make it easier for you to load caches to your GPSr when in fact there ARE workarounds. 

Ultimately, like many others, I think that GARMIN should be the one you should actually be annoyed with. Groundspeak is providing a service which your device is unable to recognize. Why should they cater to the lowest common denominator? In that case my 2001 little yellow  eTrex can't receive any texts other than a title. Descriptions, hints and photos should be disallowed.

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5 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

tourist attribute

You do realise that attributes don't show up on all GPSs, so they won't necessarily be seen. Go ahead, remove it if it makes you happy, it won't improve the situation. If I had emojis and found they were a problem, I would be thoughtful enough to remove them.

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7 minutes ago, Goldenwattle said:

You do realise that attributes don't show up on all GPSs, so they won't necessarily be seen. Go ahead, remove it if it makes you happy, it won't improve the situation.

I thought I was doing something nice for the tourists when they plan for a trip. It wasn't to benefit me. 

 

7 minutes ago, Goldenwattle said:

You do realise that attributes don't show up on all GPSs

No I don't know this. My GPS doesn't show anything but coordinates. I have no idea what shows up on other devices. 

Edited by Max and 99
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12 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:
12 hours ago, Viajero Perdido said:

No.  Hardware sold in 2020 (or 2019, or 2010) should be compatible with Unicode, which is hardly a new standard, and which is how non-Latin languages (rather important, no?) and those cute pictures are supported.

 

Pretty rotten common denominator.

It is as it is though, and no-one should be expected to need to spend hundreds of dollars on new equipment. Also, not everyone thinks it's okay to change their still working equipment all the time, whether a GPS or phone, and add to the e-waste problem, just so as to be able to add a bit of unnecessary 'fluff' to the title, that adds nothing to the game. Some of us think throwing out still working things very wasteful and wrong.

 

This is the same issues companies have with software they've used and worked with for years, even decades. At some point it will need to be upgraded. Especially if a workstation operating systems need to be upgraded, and it breaks support for old software. That means it's not just an OS upgrade needed, but ultimately a company-wide infrastructure upgrade - hardware, huge costs, potentially even company workflow - all because the company still uses a tried and true but outdated piece of software.

At some point a line has to be crossed.

Old devices can't be expected to continue to work flawlessly forever with data that evolves. New devices that do not include accepted standards are bound to run into problems.

 

Even that said - unicode shouldn't break the functionality, like cutting off the rest of a title. The format is essentially backward compatible - As we see, other software that doesn't know unicode can still interpret the data and display placeholders. I don't believe this is just Garmin not supporting unicode here - It seems to me there is indeed a bug in the firmware that doesn't even handle unknown characters properly.

 

 

11 hours ago, ecanderson said:

I get 8 "?" characters generated by the four unicode characters on my Oregon.

Fortunately, I operate pretty strictly by GC code on cache runs, so my search was for GC81T9K. 

As noted, GSAK is equally unimpressed, since it does not support Unicode.

 

Yep as mentioned earlier, unicode is typically 2 bytes per character (but could use more!). Those 4 'special' characters would take 8 bytes. But those bytes taken individually aren't necessarily understandable characters, which is why you get 8 ?'s, or empty boxes in some fonts. That GSAK script could be adjusted to treat the incoming text as unicode to be able to understand multi-byte characters, even if there's no visual character in the font (and thus display as an empty box or whatever the font-maker decided). That said, it's good that at least it's showing the 8 ?'s instead of breaking the rest of the title display.

 

 

11 hours ago, Viajero Perdido said:

Obviously, emojis are a shifting standard.  A challenge for vendors of embedded firmware (coughGarmincough) to keep up with, given that software updates are fraught with risk, bricking the unit, that kind of thing.  (Phones separated the OS and application long ago.)

 

emojis aren't a shifting standard (when it comes to handling them) - they're a part of an accepted communications standard. If block emojis and not block special language characters, HQ would have to filter for a small segment of the unicode character set and deny them in text. What's happening, again, is a bug in Garmin's code that gets confused when special characters are used in text data. Instead of handling it gracefully, it cuts off the rest of the title. That (assumedly) is not just emojis, but any title with unicode-specific characters.

 

How a certain emoji appears is entirely dependent on the software and the font being used to interpret that specific character.

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3 minutes ago, STNolan said:

photos

Photos don't show on my Garmin either, but they don't stop the cache from showing, or being searched for, as Emojis do.

 

4 minutes ago, STNolan said:

Also, part of the planning process for a trip that I know includes geocaching would likely be searching out any caches that might cause issues like that for the method that I'm geocaching.

I do a lot of pre-planning when travelling overseas, or even in Australia, and whatever can be planned I do, such as printing out lists of caches with coords, hint, etc. But not all can be planned if the whole trip is not booked ahead, but rather driving randomly from place to place. It's a lot of work too to plan weeks, or even months of travel.

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2 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

travellers from other countries might not be able to use phone data when visiting another country, because the cost of data used overseas is horrendous. Therefore they only have a GPS to use.

 

That argument doesn't work, sorry.  You can set up a phone in advance of travel*, for offline use, just as you would a GPS unit.

 

(* Or in the hotel room every night, over WiFi.  This is how I cache while travelling, even though I usually do get a SIM for emergencies, like needing to see more than 5 logs.)

 

Edited by Viajero Perdido
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3 hours ago, Viajero Perdido said:

 

That argument doesn't work, sorry.  You can set up a phone in advance of travel*, for offline use, just as you would a GPS unit.

 

(* Or in the hotel room every night, over WiFi.  This is how I cache while travelling, even though I usually do get a SIM for emergencies, like needing to see more than 5 logs.)

 

And you counter-argument doesn't work, sorry.  Not every one has a phone they can use for geocaching (I know I don't), not every device can take any SIM card (some are locked, found that out with our tablets in UK), and not everyplace you stay has reliable WiFi (in our travels with our trailer we hit about 50% of the time, even within the same park the coverage is different).

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13 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

But I have to search for the caches like that to convert. That takes longer than a second. Each bulk load has a 1000 caches. And I still don't see how I can convert other people's caches.

Okay, maybe I'm not getting this.

 

Why do you want to search those caches manually? Your computer is much more faster for doing it. It will convert all caches in less than a second.

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8 hours ago, Viajero Perdido said:

 

That argument doesn't work, sorry.  You can set up a phone in advance of travel*, for offline use, just as you would a GPS unit.

 

(* Or in the hotel room every night, over WiFi.  This is how I cache while travelling, even though I usually do get a SIM for emergencies, like needing to see more than 5 logs.)

 

Last time I used the phone (I had forgotten the GPS) it was like watching grass grow as I waited for the cache to load (very close to a tower), and then only some of the cache loaded (no hint, no description etc). The previous time I tried to use my phone, as I hadn't loaded the GPS with the cache I wanted to find), I pulled up where the Tom Tom directed, then got out the phone. The phone was telling me the cache was 70 metres away, which was not what the car Tom Tom was telling me. So I punched the coordinates into the Garmin and it showed 7 metres. The phone was useful to get the coordinates to put in the Garmin, but a slow work around.

Sure, at least in  bigger towns and cities, the phone works most of the time, but even if the phone is working, I find it clumsy to use, and I come close to not wanting to cache. The GPS is just so nice to use compared to a phone. Also, I have only recently started to use data on a smart phone, and am still not that used to it. Most of the time I have the data switched off, because I have very little interest in checking anything on the phone and it's small screen. I wait to I get home and can use a big screen.

When travelling I load lots of caches on my laptop before leaving home, and pick and choose which bulk loads to load on my Garmin.

Edited by Goldenwattle
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2 hours ago, arisoft said:

 

Why do you want to search those caches manually? Your computer is much more faster for doing it. It will convert all caches in less than a second.

You might have the computer experience to do this, but I don't. With my limited computer experience, I have no idea how to do this.

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On 6/15/2020 at 11:33 AM, Max and 99 said:

Is the problem the placement of the emojis  or the fact that they are in the title? I just started including them in the title of some caches because I thought it looked good and fit with the theme. But if the issue is mostly the placement, what is the best place for them? The title of the thread tells me don't put them at the end, but the beginning is ok. 

I tested a couple of caches. Emojis both ends and I couldn't see the cache at all, but only at the start of the title (none at the end), I could see the cache, but the title appeared blank. That meant though, although I could see the cache and click on it when nearby, I couldn't search for it when further away. I haven't tested a title with only an emoji at the end of the title.

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1 hour ago, Goldenwattle said:

 The phone was useful to get the coordinates to put in the Garmin, but a slow work around.

 

I have resorted to that, the  few times that I have tried my phone, after it was bouncing all over the place. I once had GZ 150m away and when I put the coordinates into my Garmin I found it 7m away from where my Nuvi brought me.

I mostly use my phone when doing maintenance runs - disabling/enabling, OM, WN (phone is Motorola G4 plus).

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4 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

You might have the computer experience to do this, but I don't. With my limited computer experience, I have no idea how to do this.

 

It works like solving a difficult mystery cache. You find a friend who can make the tool for you and then you share it with your friends.

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On 6/13/2020 at 9:33 AM, Goldenwattle said:

Yes, I figured they work on phones, but many people still use GPSs, so geocaching should ban them to cater for everyone. They are not needed. People shouldn't need to go out and spend hundreds of dollars to buy a new GPS, just so these caches with decorations that aren't needed, show up.

 

It's an inconvenience so you want them banned?  If you're going to go that route, why aren't you calling for bans of Wherigos, since only older outdated models of GPS units can play them (and phones of course)?  What about Adventure Labs?  You can't do them on GPS units.  Shouldn't they be banned as well?  AR caches? Intercaches (not a lot of those still around)? I don't see you calling for their removal from geocaching in order to cater to everyone.

 

Just because something doesn't work on every platform doesn't mean it should be banned to cater to everyone.  As has been mentioned multiple times by people with much more technological expertise than I have, it's a Garmin issue, not a geocaching issue.  Yes, it's annoying and an imposition but an outright ban seems to me to be a bit much.  

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2 hours ago, coachstahly said:

 

It's an inconvenience so you want them banned?  If you're going to go that route, why aren't you calling for bans of Wherigos, since only older outdated models of GPS units can play them (and phones of course)?  What about Adventure Labs?  You can't do them on GPS units.  Shouldn't they be banned as well?  AR caches? Intercaches (not a lot of those still around)? I don't see you calling for their removal from geocaching in order to cater to everyone.

 

Just because something doesn't work on every platform doesn't mean it should be banned to cater to everyone.  As has been mentioned multiple times by people with much more technological expertise than I have, it's a Garmin issue, not a geocaching issue.  Yes, it's annoying and an imposition but an outright ban seems to me to be a bit much.  

Whatever :rolleyes:.

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On 6/14/2020 at 6:48 PM, fizzymagic said:

After the Great GPX1.1 Debacle

 

How hard is it to update GPSr firmware in 2020 to ignore data it can't do anything with? Especially a company like Garmin? (If you're still using a Delorme you're probably SOL, but that's what you get for still using a Delorme in 2020.)

 

Surely a GSAK-lite program could be made to take GPX files of any version and strip them down to a simple form compatible with older units. That's only about 1% of what GSAK does.

Edited by JL_HSTRE
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27 minutes ago, JL_HSTRE said:

 

How hard is it to update GPSr firmware in 2020 to ignore data it can't do anything with? Especially a company like Garmin? (If you're still using a Delorme you're probably SOL, but that's what you get for still using a Delorme in 2020.)

 

It doesn't seem that hard to me.  But apparently it is hard enough that Groundspeak won't change their GPX data.  Weirdly enough, the data is available via the API interface, so that's pretty much all I use any more.

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1 hour ago, JL_HSTRE said:

How hard is it to update GPSr firmware in 2020 to ignore data it can't do anything with? Especially a company like Garmin?

Considering the age of some of the units in question, there might not be anyone left that could find the build tools and knows how to use them... assuming they would even run on a 'current' operating system.  Then you've either got to find one of the original engineers on the code, or someone will have to sit and reverse engineer the source to figure out how to manage the issue.  Been there, done that many times.  Fun if the company will let you take the time to do it.

 

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