Geocaching In The Future?

[+Criminal]

Back in the old days we had to listen to the satellite signals on a special radio, quickly write down the time, check the watch, change the channel, and do the math long-hand.

 

Moun10Bike invented the 12 radio arm band (six on each arm) making the first 12 channel parallel GPS receiver.

 

Briansnat was revolutionary with his introduction of the slide rule for shortening the math process.

 

Renegade Knight introduced electronics with his Commodore64/radio 12 pack/mini-generator kit that could be towed by two people, unknowingly creating the first event cache hunt.

 

Somewhere along the way someone suggested electronic calculators as they became cheaper and smaller.

 

Today we have these miracle units that do everything.

 

What will tomorrow bring?

[+Team GPSaxophone]

A combination Saxophone-GPS receiver?

[+Sparky-Watts]

Wet cats with their own satellite dish mounted under the tail to aid in WCAS (Wet Cat Augmentation System) navigation.

[Radman Forever]

I will lead the rebellion against the muggles! It will be known as the Veggie Wars. I will rein supreme and will rename this world as Radmanation! All will bow down and fear the Fat Radish.

 

ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY RADISH MAN!

 

 

I will make all forum regulars my Cabinet of Advisers. The wet cat and bret known as Cy will eventually overthrow me and they wil call the world CywetCatBret!

 

I seriously don't know some of the crap that comes out of my mouth sometimes .

[+Sparky-Watts]

 

I will make all forum regulars my Cabinet of Advisers. The wet cat and bret known as Cy will eventually overthrow me and they wil call the world CywetCatBret!

 

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!

[+Monkeybrad]

Is Supreme your horse?

[Keystone]

Sparky and I are working on another project that he is too shy to mention. He noticed that cats always land on their feet when you drop them. I noticed that buttered toast always lands butter-side down when you drop it. Our idea is to strap buttered toast to the back of a cat. When dropped, it will go towards the ground and begin spinning so that it hovers in midair. The electromagnetic force that's given off is enough to power any consumer GPS receiver, thereby eliminating the need for batteries. Just tether your GPS with a wire to the collar of the buttered toast cat, and push it along in front of you with your hand or your hiking stick.

[+Renegade Knight]

"Scotty, beam me the cache, I don't have time to look"

[+Allen_L]

Allow a humble physics degree holder to comment. In the described mode, the buttered cat will drop like a stone and go splat. The toast is on the cat's back, so its feet are free. Presumably, the toast is butter side up. Dropped from any height, the cat's feet OR the buttered toast both are attracted to the ground, and there is nothing to stop the descent to splat-dom. It is the cat's BACK, and the UNBUTTERED side of the toast that repels the ground. For the "buttered cat array" to work, the cat must have four pieces of toast attached to its paws, with each paw firmly planted on the butter side. THIS array will then "hover, spinning inches above the ground" as the toast tries to flip over to the buttered side and the cat tries to spin so it's back is upright

[Keystone]

And just where did I say that the toast was butter-side up? Pardon my omission which led to your presumption. Why do you think Sparky is fond of wet cats? That's not water, it's melted butter on the cat's fur.

[+Sparky-Watts]

I think I broke a rib!!!!!!!!!!

[+leatherman]

WoW!

Key Stone is involved in a thread hijacking. Does he get a warning? It's rather subtle maybe only 10%.

[Keystone]

I thought I was posting on-topic by describing cutting edge, next generation technology for our sport. But if Criminal, the topic originator, believes that I was off-topic, or even just smug, he should feel free to moderate me under our new "Criminal Eye for the Moderator Guy" program.

[+Sparky-Watts]

I thought I was posting on-topic by describing cutting edge, next generation technology for our sport. But if Criminal, the topic originator, believes that I was off-topic, or even just smug, he should feel free to moderate me under our new "Criminal Eye for the Moderator Guy" program.

ROFL-MEOW

 

Mmmmmmm.....butter......

[+leatherman]

I thought I was posting on-topic by describing cutting edge, next generation technology for our sport. But if Criminal, the topic originator, believes that I was off-topic, or even just smug, he should feel free to moderate me under our new "Criminal Eye for the Moderator Guy" program.

Maybe if you made one mention of your future technology. However the rambling about butter and oily cats can't in any way be considered on topic. You set that standard with all the hacking and slashing of posts, not to long ago.

 

Sparkys one liners can't be helped. Unless he takes the meds the doctor gave him.

[Keystone]

Well, if you don't consider using a GPS without batteries to be "new technology" that's fine. Keep buying your Duracells, and keep holding your GPS in your hand instead of having it float. I'd rather be on the cutting edge of the butter knife.

[+Sparky-Watts]

Well, if you don't consider using a GPS without batteries to be "new technology" that's fine. Keep buying your Duracells, and keep holding your GPS in your hand instead of having it float. I'd rather be on the cutting edge of the butter knife.

Does it make a difference if you use oleo margarine instead of real butter?

[Keystone]

That debate is as old as Oleomagellan versus Margarmin. Or whether you should give Parkay coordinates on your cache page. I guess we'll have to do more field testing

[+geckoee]

Wow, It makes sense that a number of the innovators of GPS technology would be involved in Geocaching, but I never would have guessed who they where. Maybe because they have been humble with there accomplishments. Props to all involved.

 

(I also thought, that the 12 band parallel receiver was 3 groups of four using a 1:4 divider, each signal 90deg out of phase, but that was wrong.)

 

With increasing accuracy, wide availability of micronized units it’s hard to see where it can go next.

 

Here are a couple of thoughts:

 

It seems OnStar or similar systems will be more wide spread. (In Afghanistan there is a company that runs an OnStar type system that is tied into the electrical system of vehicles. If a car goes beyond a certain radius of the city of origin without the vehicle owners notification, the car is assumed stolen and the car is shut down so police can reacquire the vehicle and return it to the owner)

 

As smaller even more portable devices are created they will probably become a more attractive way for parents to track where their children are. (Wherify) This could bring up a whole “good parenting debate” so I’ll just leave it at that.

 

Blue tooth, or something similar, will probably be common in most every electronic device.

 

Who knows what else. I’m out of ideas.

Edited February 25, 2004 by geckoee

[+BlueDeuce]

Why do you think Sparky is fond of wet cats? That's not water, it's melted butter on the cat's fur.

I like cats too!

 

Let’s exchange recipes.

 

Actually in the future they’ll be a cache at every corner drugstore. You’ll find the caches right next to the newspapers. I think the local Pepsi Co stock them.

 

Heck you can even get them delivered to your door and you won’t care if that delivery kids throws them in the bushes.

[Pto]

Actually in the future they’ll be a cache at every corner drugstore. You’ll find the caches right next to the newspapers. I think the local Pepsi Co stock them.

 

Welcome to St Paul, MN ! Kidding - but we do have some pretty thich cache density around here- Not as bad as other places- but pretty thick.

(I can walk from home to at least 3 caches, under .45 miles)

 

I'd bet that in the future, their might be more competition in the hosting/tracking/logging of the sport. Maybe GC.com gets some competition?

Also- GPSr's will become very cheap in short time - making even the coolest ones within reach of anyone interested in caching.!

[+CYBret]

Here's a Back To The Future Markwell with my own response.

 

Bret

[+leatherman]

Honestly. I think the butter thing is to complicated. Gyroscopic inertia and all.

 

I think if you simply tied balloons on a declawed cat, that was wearing a micro Tesla coil on it's collar, letting it run around in a frenzy. You could charge any thing within 15'.

[BassoonPilot]

What will tomorrow bring? I think people will become nostalgic, and "Retro 2001" caching will become the latest fad. People will take nothing more than a printout and their GPS and head off on a nice, long hike in search of a single cache, which will be of a respectable size and actually contain some tradeables.

[Captain Chaoss]

The cat-butter-battery concept has one critical flaw: the attempt to utilize such a power source in the presence of mans best friend. though it certainly will make for some interesting logs, and pics to be posted.

[+clearpath]

Today we have these miracle units that do everything.

It's a miracle my unit does 'anything' let alone everything. But hey, when my unit does decide to do something, look out, cause it means bidness ...

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

I will go out and get in my Secret powered GPS guided, WASS enabled, Hoover Craft.

Turn on the Space Radar and Night Vision equiptment,also Secret powered, and glide without any sound, precisely to the Cache,TN/LN/SL and sweep off to the next cache.

The sport being to keep the Craft out of the trees and power lines and other things left by the previous civilazation.

They were messy, and the Geocaching CITO civilazation over powered the mass of the mess to gain the use of the new technologies they were working on and

perfecting.

The Big Geocacher in the Sky was truly watching out for them in all their quests,and adventures as they matured into a great CIVILAZTION.

........................................................

[+Cache Viking]

I believe this might be one of Keystone's prototypes.

 

[+Sparky-Watts]

I believe this might be one of Keystone's prototypes.

 

Keystone, I believe we've got a corporate spy!!! Get him!!!!!!!!!

[+cachew nut]

Ladies and gentlemen of geocaching, I'm just a caveman. I fell on some ice and later got thawed out by some of your scientists.

 

Your world frightens and confuses me... your iron birds, your magic-picture boxes. I do not understand these things. They scare me and make me want to run back to my cave. You see, I am just an unfrozen caveman geocacher, and while I do not understand these magic cavepaintings, I know I can find my way to those funny metal boxes hidden across the land.

 

Sometimes when I look up at the ceiling I see these strange tubes that light up at the flick of a wall stick, I wonder, did demons catch light from the sun and put it there? I don't know! My primitive mind can't grasp these concepts.

 

But there is one thing I do know. Geocaching. The speed at which things are done in this world amazes and terrifies me. These metal animals you ride on go so much faster than I can walk, and my large savage fingers cannot type at nearly the speed of you.

 

But are things better now then in my world? I would say no. In my world things made sense; true we did not have such perplexing terms like 3D or multipath, but we had power. When I hunt a cache today, I feel the same as I did in my time long ago, except now I have no club, but a GPSr.

 

While I am geocaching I control the GPSr and make it do what I want. No one else can tell me what to do, how to, or when to do it. I can rule because I have this power, and because I simply don't care about you or your world. I understand this, and I hope that you have as well. Although I may not have the most finds, or understand, at least I know power.

 

Edit:typo

Edited February 26, 2004 by cachew nut

[Keystone]

From the same website where others have borrowed material before me:

 

The other thing to keep in mind is that you'd have to be careful where the cat is dropped...in the northern hemisphere, the spinning cat would, of course, spin in a counterclockwise direction, ala hurricanes and toilet bowls. South of the equator, the reverse would be true. A regulatory commission would have to be established to prevent mean spirited people from dropping buttered cats ON the equator, which would cause them to spin both ways at once, either turning them inside out or making them politicians. The truly perverse would tie the cat's feet together, apply the buttered toast, and then watch with glee, as the reverse g-force applied to such a concentrated area would shoot the cat up into the sky like some furry rocket. You have to be careful with these things.

 

It deals with latitude and longitude and hemispheres and the equator and stuff so this is really really really on-topic.

[+SBPhishy]

It's a miracle my unit does 'anything'...

 

Oh, you must have a Garmin.

I couldn't resist. I apologize. Lets keep on topic.

[speez]

But why use a buttered-cat-battery, when there's another application of a buttered toast cat that uses quantum energy to create much more power than the design described by Keystone? It's called Schroedinger's buttered cat, and it's based on the Heisenberg Uncertianty Principle of quantum physics. Basically, if you lock a buttered-toast covered cat in a closet and drop it to the floor, the quantum fluctuations that cause the buttered toast to land butter up and the cat to land feet up will cause the cat to enter into a superposition of states where it has landed on the toast on its back and on its feet--it exists in both states at once. This powerful effect can be used to power many GPSrs and satellites.

[Keystone]

 

Actually, those in need of greater speed could dangle helium assisted mice in front of the cats.

[+carleenp]

I just wonder about what happens when the cat licks the butter off the toast?

 

And don't tell me they can't do it because it is on their back. They can.

[+captnemo]

In the future your GPSr will be uplinked to Groundspeak so that all you need do is say;"a 1,1 cache that is close" and the coordinates will be downloaded to you. Your GPSr will then voice direct you, with Hedi's voice" to the cache. You remove the trade item from the cache drop it into your stash bag and it is teleported back to Groundspeak who then teleports back an item of greater value so that you automatically trade up. The log is automatically updated as is your log on the net.

 

Of course you still need to buy bread, butter and cat food to keep everything running.

[+Stunod]

Where are all these buttered cats??

[GeoWorms]

Risking a warning by actually repling to the original post...I think GPSr's will eventually (2 years?) be bidirectional (i.e. they will be able to recieve and instantly broadcast your position). This would be of great help to hiking partners and SAR teams, and make for some very cool geocaching events.

[+clearpath]

I don't know! My primitive mind can't grasp these concepts.

 

Hey, don't sweat it ... A LOT of people suffer from this ...

[+CO Admin]

Risking a warning by actually repling to the original post...I think GPSr's will eventually (2 years?) be bidirectional (i.e. they will be able to recieve and instantly broadcast your position). This would be of great help to hiking partners and SAR teams, and make for some very cool geocaching events.

Consider yourself warned for being on topic in a Criminal post. Lets try and NOT have this happen again.

 

Thank you

Happy Geocaching

[+Sparky-Watts]

Where are all these buttered cats??

You Kill Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (literally)

[BassoonPilot]

I think GPSr's will eventually (2 years?) be bidirectional

I believe the Bush Administration has proposed a Constitutional Ammendment to ban this.

Edited February 26, 2004 by BassoonPilot

[+geckoee]

I think GPSr's will eventually (2 years?) be bidirectional

I believe the Bush Administration has proposed a Constitutional Ammendment to ban this.

 

Does that mean that all of the Garmin Rinos will have to be retroactively de-activated?

[dsandbro]

GPSr's will be combined with time machines, and caches will have 3 coordinates: lat, long, and date.

 

A typical clue might be: "This cache exists in the same year Charlemagne was crowned."

[+SBPhishy]

That would be so cool

[+dhenninger]

In the future you will be able to log caches with out leaving your computer, just input the coordinates and look at the live satelite photo an be able to see the cache. With NASA's new "AMMO CAMVISION"

 

dave

[Radman Forever]

In the future, GPS systems will have all the crap that cell phones have right now! AND HERE IS A PICTURE OF MY KITTY-CAT OZZIE!

 

[+clearpath]

In the future, GPS systems will have all the crap that cell phones have right now! AND HERE IS A PICTURE OF MY KITTY-CAT OZZIE!

 

That chair looks large enough to seat a BIG FAT RADISH !!!!

[+Team Grizzly]

I now it might be more than a bit extreme, but do you think we might ever have the technology to basically plug applications directly into our brains by creating synthetic sensory impusles in our nervous system, kinda like the Matrix? I have some buddies in college that would prefer to be put permanently into some fantasy coputer game...

 

If this would be the case, I would make my fantasy world consist of geocaching in extreme climates for really cool prizes, kind of an Indiana Jones meets Robert Shackleton or Sir Mallory.

 

What do you think of that?

[+wimseyguy]

I think they call that Borgcaching. I don't like that aspect at all.