CacheMonkey - New Geocaching Utlitiy released.

[CacheMonkeySoft]

CacheMonkey is a java application and should run on any OS (with some features disabled on some platforms).

 

CacheMonkey is a tool developed by The GeoMonkeys to help

you get out in the field geocaching quicker, it lets you

spend less time at the terminal preparing your gps and

tracking which geocache to hunt next.

 

Its main features are :

 

Download ANY list of geocaches from geocaching.com

Track which geocaches you have found, and those you havent

Export waypoint info to other popular mapping programs Used by Geocachers

Upload geocache waypoints to your gps

Provide shortnames for geocaches so you no longer need

to remember what GCFFFF is.

Sort and group geocaches by those you have found and

those you planted or are yet to find.

Links back to geocaching.com and mapping websites.

Provide some extra information such as the distance to each cache

which may help you decide which Geocaches to hunt next

 

Go to theCacheMonkey HomePage to get your copy now! ITS FREE!

[+Rusty & Libby]

It worked very quickly and polled more info than any of the other available tools. I really like all the additional information it gives me.

 

A few things I noticed that I would like to see:

1> Magellan support not just Garmuck!

2> Export to .CSV file that would allow it to be manipulated to fit custom needs. I currently do this with GeoBuddy so that I can put in into the format I need for DeLorme Street Atlas.

3> Support for Miles for those of us in the USA that just can't go metric.

 

Those are just suggestions but this is a valuable download just the way it is. I can still export to a .LOC file and do anything I could before.

 

Rusty...

 

--------------------------------------------------

Friends don't let friends cache locationless!

 

Rusty & Libby's Geocache Page

Michigan Geocaching Organization

[DisQuoi]

What a great tool!

 

I'm having problems getting it to work, though. I have set my home point but when I try to download I gett the following messages:

 

CONNECTING TO GEOCACHING.COM ...

LOGGING IN ...

REQUESTING START OF LIST ...

ERROR: PAGE RANGE DOESN'T EXIST

 

I'm able to download all of the caches in Virginia and I like the resulting utility. But what I would really like is the "100 miles from home" part to work.

[DisQuoi]

quote:

---

Originally posted by DisQuoi:

I'm able to download all of the caches in Virginia and I like the resulting utility. But what I would really like is the "100 miles from home" part to work.

---

(Can I quote myself?)

 

I figured out that the options will not allow me to use the "W" toggle. It kept defaulting to "E" which made for incorrect home coordinates. To get around the problem, I set the home coordinates to the correct "W" setting, updated the download settings, then ran the download. When I open the options again, it's reverted to "E" but at least I got my results.

[+parkrrrr]

Just what we needed. Another bandwidth sink for geocaching.com.

 

There's a better way to get this data than to download dozens of dynamically-generated pages from geocaching.com. At least it doesn't also download the cache pages themselves, but it still sucks up a lot of bandwidth and CPU. It's programs like this that are keeping us from getting GPX support, which would solve the same problem elegantly and with less load on the poor server.

[+Kodak's4]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Warm Fuzzies - Fuzzy:

Just what we needed. Another bandwidth sink for geocaching.com.

 

There's a better way to get this data than to download dozens of dynamically-generated pages from geocaching.com. At least it doesn't also download the cache pages themselves, but it still sucks up a lot of bandwidth and CPU. It's programs like this that are keeping us from getting GPX support, which would solve the same problem elegantly and with less load on the poor server.

---

 

Boy, howdy, I've gotta agree AND disagree on this one. The big issue with a tool like this, which can automate the downloading of info, is that in general people are going to use it to download more info than they did before. And that means increased (probably GREATLY increased) resource loading.

 

Now, that said, if there were existing ways to do this (and the pocket queries are the current way) then the server load would DROP. I spend a lot less time browsing the dynamically generated pages via a web browser now that I can have a pocket query generated every day and delivered to my email inbox. Now, there are some issues with my not getting a bolus of stuff every day (some days get missed!) but in general I think the pocket queries demonstrate the huge demand for good tools to get a big chunk of data delivered regularly.

 

So I guess I would disagree about the fact that tools like this DELAY the much needed, much wanted, much pleaded for GPX support. It might make more sense to view the delayed GPX support as the reason why tools like this (which are a BAD idea) are being written. If GPX support was available now, this tool (custom written, surely) would have been written as a GPX tool, yes?

 

So it's one of those things where the causal connection is clear but the direction of the arrow is unclear. If the fine, overworked and underpraised people who are working on this stuff at geocaching.com are delaying GPX support because they're too busy dealing with resource demand issues, then they're doing the right thing tactically (fighting the current fire) but the wrong thing strategically (by not providing a way to reduce the resource demand required to meet the desires of the customer base).

 

Bottom line: this application (which I'm not gonna use because I suspect it generates more trouble than it solves) is prima facie evidence that GPX support ought to be a high priority thing.

 

At least, that's the way I see it. Is there something here I'm missing?

 

[DisQuoi]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Warm Fuzzies - Fuzzy:

Just what we needed. Another bandwidth sink for geocaching.com.

---

This may be true but I don't understand how. Without using something like this, I will still manually peform the same downloads ... it just takes me much longer. I can only download 25 at a time so I have to spend half an hour doing the same thing that this does in a few seconds.

 

Is there really more burden than when I do it manually?

[+Markwell]

Only in the fact that you may do it more often.

 

Hypothetical:

Let's say your absolute favorite hobby is to download gorgeous scenery photos of fall foliage.

 

You've been using a dialup modem for as long as you've had your computer. You can download about 1 per minute for a 1024x768 image.

 

For your birthday, you splurge and get a cable connection. Now you can download those images in seconds.

 

Question: Do you still only download 1 picture every minute, or do you download as many as possible?

===================

It's that possibility of downloading multiple times through a backdoor at higher rates than expected that compromises the servers and bandwidth.

 

Markwell

Chicago Geocaching

"Therapy is expensive but bubble wrap is free."

[+achstone]

First of all thank you for go to the trouble of making this software. I can't even begin to imagine how to do such a thing. I have the program working. It downloads the info I want. However I can't get it to upload to the GPS.

Ezgps and oziexplorer work for me, so the link is solid. Turned off all programs that use com1. I can export to eazygps, but it doesn't send the waypoint symbols. Thought I might send the info to eazy gps then to the GPS.

I am doing something wrong? Garmin Legend, interface set as garmin on the GPS and in the options menu. Even tried it with nmea, that said database error on the gps. Uploading to the GPS it appears to be loading and at the end it displays inialization error.

I'm confused, its probably just me. What am I missing?

Thanks.

 

AchStone

[+parkrrrr]

quote:

---

Originally posted by DisQuoi:

Is there really more burden than when I do it manually?

---

 

Probably.

 

For one thing, most of us have hundreds of caches within 100 miles, or hundreds of caches in our state, but we usually only want the closest of those caches. The user interface of this program encourages you to download one of those prepackaged searches rather than, say, just the first few pages of your "nearest caches" result. Sure, you can do a 25-mile search or whatever, but that's not as easy as just hitting the "get the whole state" button.

 

For another thing, you probably would not actually do all of the steps to do the job manually, because it is such a pain in the tuckus. Thus, while you technically could have the same effect by doing it manually, you probably wouldn't. You'd do the sensible thing and use a pocket query instead. Yeah, it's true that .loc files don't have nice stuff like last found and difficulty/terrain and so on, but if Jeremy & Co. ever get a chance to finish their work on GPX support, they will.

 

[+achstone]

I changed the upload to 6 characters, still didn't work. changed the short name to the cache designation gcxxxx and it worked!! Checked in the gps to see what was there, some are there as short names some are there as gcxxxx. Weird, must be some transfered earlier. Interesting.

 

AchStone

[+trippy1976]

It needs an import function to bring in my .loc file from pocket queries. Would be super cool if it used the .loc and .prc from the pocket queries to build out cache info.

 

--------

trippy1976 - Team KKF2A

[CacheMonkeySoft]

Hi, im the developer of this app and thought Id add a few comments to this discussion.

 

Firstly to all those having troubles, im working hard on adding some bug fixes for a new release.

My short list of things to do is

 

Bugs:

-----

- Longtitude hemisphere restored properly on restart

 

Features:

----------

- Hide certain status from list

- only download first X pages

- only download caches newer than date X or in last X days

- only download caches within X miles of your homepoint where X < 100

- support for miles in the distance display

- export all info to csv

 

I also intend to try and add support for Magellans but i dont have one so its very difficult to test it

 

Now onto the issues of bandwidth and server load etc. I agree these tools can load the server, and I was fully aware of this during development and attempted to make it download only the minumum amount of information required. I hadnt heard about the GPX initiative and still know very little about it. If that was available then surely this tool would have been developed to use that (and most likley will be adapted to use it when it is available). As you can see from the list of changes to be added ASAP ive taken on board some suggestions of limiting how much is actually downloaded for each list. This should help reduce the load this tool places on the server. Im willing to work with anyone (including the gpx team) to help ensure this tool has MINUMUM impact on the geocaching.com servers. The last thing we want is to cause a Denial Of Service attack on geocaching.com with these tools.

 

The new release should be out in a few days, so it might be worth waiting for that!

 

I hope this helps to limit everyones worries about this tool, im dedicated to making it work for everyone!

[Rubbertoe]

You know, a simple "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" from Jeremy and company would help to possibly put the concerned people at ease, or perhaps encourage the author of the program to reconsider the usage - depending on the reaction from the-powers-that-be.

 

The Toe Pages

[+Team Headrush]

I can't seem to get this to work from my home coordinates (near Buffalo, NY).

 

I can't even grab all (or any) NY caches. It seems to load them, says done, and goes to a blank screen.

 

For testing purposes I tried Michigan (since there was a post here that said it worked for them) that worked fine showing all the caches. Any ideas??

 

This program would help us out since we are on the border with Canada, and we would like to be able to split up US and Canadian caches.

[+Sissy-n-CR]

100 mile radius is a little limiting.

 

We're down to less than 120 caches in a 120 miles radius. There's only a total of 183 caches in a 100 mile radius--thus the reason we expalnded the search.

 

In order to use this, we'd have to use the "home" coordinates of another city, say, Greenville or Charlotte to get caches in that area.

 

CR

 

-- Insert pithy aphorism here --

[iryshe]

I believe most folks know my opinion of programs that megahit the web site to download caches. And yes, this issue keeps me from more important things, like creating a GPX export for caches.

 

I'm closing this thread.

 

Jeremy Irish

Groundspeak - The Language of Location™