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Time magazine on geocaching.com


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Just got my April 28th issue today and saw a short article on page 85 titled Having Fun with GPS. Checked the online edition, but it's not in the online version.

 

The article talks about a middle-aged math teacher from Auburn, NY who hid a small black box of marbles and posted the coordinates on geocaching.com. It very briefly describes geocaching and then switches to a big commercial for Garmin and how you can play games on their new Geko GPS. It specifically says that Garmin is tapping into the craze of geocaching.

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Garmin turns a story on Geocaching into a promo for their product? Surely you jest! icon_wink.gif

Sounds like it might be a little good publicity for us. Two years ago, when TIME did a blurb on geocaching, they referred to us as Nerds and Geeks. The story back then mentioned an early cache at Joshua Tree, which I think is still active.

 

I'll have to get this week's issue where I can right a letter to them comparing the two stories in a "then-and-now" comparison.

 

Visit the Mississippi Geocaching Forum at

http://pub98.ezboard.com/bgeocachingms

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Does anyone actually play those Geko games? The Rino have some relatively interesting ones (team based) but some of these other games seem to want you to walk aimlessly in circles. I think they missed the point.

 

frog.gif Jeremy Irish

Groundspeak - The Language of Location™

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I agree - I have a Rino and didn't really see the point in the games (although maybe I just need to find other Rino users!).

 

Besides, Geocaching's the best game around!

 

There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home. - Ken Olsen, President, Digital Equipment, 1977

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Carpal-tunnel syndrome time. Here's the article:

 

Having Fun with GPS

by Anita Hamilton

 

Mary Lee Gunn, 58, a middle-school math teacher from Auburn, N.Y., filled a small black box with marbles last week and carefully hid it along the edge of a canal. Using a GPS (global positioning system) device, she recorded the exact geographic coordinates of her stash. Then, when she got home, she posted the box's location - along with some digital pictures taken near the spot and hints on how to find it - on the Web and invited anybody who was interested to try and find it.

 

If it surprises you that anyone would care enough to take Gunn up on her challenge, then you've probably never heard of geocaching, a high-tech treasure hunt played with handheld versions of the same GPS receivers that have guided missiles with such success in the war in Iraq. The sport, which started in a small way three years ago when the U.S. government opened up its network of 24 navigational satellites to civilian access, has lately taken off. The site on which Gunn posted the location of her marbles, geocaching.com, boasts more than 100,000 members and 50,000 caches. Some 1,000 new caches are listed each week, hidden everywhere from Easter Island to Estonia.

 

Now Garmin International Inc., a leading GPS-device maker, is tapping into the craze by incorporating location-based games into its handheld units. For example, its new Geko 201 ($150) invites users to traverse a virtual maze to capture a series of imaginary flags. To play, stand in any field or parking lot (you need at least 360 sq. ft. to maneuver) and look down at the screen to see where the nearest flag is located. Then walk or run toward it. An onscreen arrow updates your location and tells you when you've reached the flag. You can play alone or with friends, but make sure you look up every now and then, so you don't run into a tree - as I did - while hunting for flags.

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quote:
Does anyone actually play those Geko games? The Rino have some relatively interesting ones (team based) but some of these other games seem to want you to walk aimlessly in circles. I think they missed the point.


I tried playing the games once when we first got our Geko, but I played it in the livingroom. Kept running into the furniture. ha ha!. My kids played it once out in the yard, but that was it. Here's the scenerio I'm hoping for.......

 

You finally get that week long camping trip you've been waiting for. You're reclining the best you can in your lawn chair next to the barely smoking fire pit. The tree cover is heavy, but you manage to position your chair so that a small amount of sunshine hits your face. The smell of the pine trees is intoxicating. You're just about to doze off........ when your 9 year old walks up bumps your chair and says........"I'm bored!".

 

I think the Gekos are geared more towards kids. They're easier to use and don't have as many goodies. But the games should come in handy in a boredom crisis.........at least I'm hoping. icon_confused.gif

 

Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

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quote:
Originally posted by Zaphod Beeblebrox:

All publicity is good publicity.


 

NOT TRUE !!!!!

 

Believe me when I say this. After visiting a number of caches, I could write some true statements that would be pretty unflattering about geocaching. If this were published, it would not be good publicity. Instead, I take the time to pick up the used AA-batteries and gum wrapper, put the rocks back over the cache, and wipe out the abundance of footprints left in the area. No way to fix the branches snapped off the bushes. To some, geocaching is just hi-tech littering!

 

Is this the norm? Definately NOT! However, if it happens in just one spot.... and that one spot just happens to be the one and only cache the reporter visits.... then ALL geocachers are the same. This is why cache-in/trash-out is so important. This is why re-hiding the cache at least as good as you found it is important. This is why scouting a cache before you take a reporter out for the photo-op is so important.

 

I am not being a jerk, just bringing up another side. One I think we see way too often in caching. But then again, once is once too often! icon_biggrin.gif

 

The Fort Bliss Commissary manager thought I was kidding when I wanted to BUY a box of 1000 brown plastic grocery bags. When I explained to him I was a state park volunteer, and I used them to pick up trash, he donated a box to me. Won't need bags for a few years now !!!

 

Mike. Desert_Warrior (aka KD9KC).

El Paso, Texas.

 

Citizens of this land may own guns. Not to threaten their neighbors, but to ensure themselves of liberty and freedom.

 

They are not assault weapons anymore... they are HOMELAND DEFENSE WEAPONS!

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quote:
Originally posted by Johnnyvegas:

You would thouht that the authour could have done a better job.


I think we need to give the author a break. If you recall, they ran into a tree. I think maybe they might need medical attention. icon_wink.gif

 

--Marky

"All of us get lost in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer with a backlit GPSr"

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