EnergySaver is going “TreeSaver” mode

[EnergySaver]

Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
My wife was really impressed by the “paperless” TeamLotsaCache equipment!
So much so, that on the way home she said I can blow some cache on a PDA.

After much consideration of ebay and my lack of trust in the world (except geocachers) … I just ordered a “repacked” and warranted Zire 31 directly from Palm.

The question I have is simple … when it arrives, do I just follow the directions at http://www.geocacher-u.com/resources/paperless.html OR is there some greater (or more local) wisdom I should use to proceed.

[GeoPink]

I’m sure someone else will chime in here too, but you’ll need two programs.
GSAK and Plucker
GSAK costs a couple of bucks but is absolutely worth it.
Plucker is free.

The process sounds complicated but is really very easy once you’ve done it a few times.

Good Luck, you’ll love it!

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Team GeoPink
– Jeff
Co-conspirator to make the world a better place…

[jthorson]

quote:

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Originally posted by EnergySaver:
… OR is there some greater (or more local) wisdom I should use to proceed.

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Don’t drop it into a pond at Bong Recreational Area. Other bodies of water may have similar adverse affects but I have no experience with that.

[Cathunter]

You don’t really have to have GSAK, but it is nice for other things.

The instructions you are looking at use GPX Spinner & Plucker, both of which are free and work great.
http://www.gpxspinner.com

No comment on who’s wearing the pants in the family.

[EnergySaver]

quote:

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Originally posted by Cathunter:
No comment on who’s wearing the pants in the family.

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Ouch! No, that’s Ok. Actually we both are pretty “in control” regarding spending money. We both try to discuss spending with the other … two way pants, I guess? It’s more of the shock of it being her idea, that threw me.

[EnergySaver]

I just read my own orignal posting – I should try that more often … I didn’t include the fact that I never even talked about getting a Palm, I don’t think I even thought I wanted one,until I saw those “paperless” people in action this past weekend … so now in hindsight it’s becoming obvious (is that less obvious or more obvious, Tami?) that meeting Team Lotsacache has cost me more than $20!

[Mama Fishcacher]

After going paperless, I wouldn’t go any other way! (Except for those times when I need a piece of scrap paper for jotting down notes or whatnot at a puzzle cache, lol.)

I use Cachemate myself. I haven’t looked into GSAK yet.

**edited to add** I really like Cachemate and have no desire to even look into GSAK at this time.

~Mel

[This message has been edited by fishcachers (edited 04-18-2005).]

[TeamLotsacache]

(Blush) Well I’m glad the our technology inspired you!!! We use a PocketPC and I use used Spinner with a web browser. I just switched over to using GPXview and GPXsonar, which I was using this weekend, both of which seem pretty good. The biggest time saver is running pocket queries and using your communications cable to download the GPX files to the GPS. (Oh and I HIGHLY recommend the Garmin 60C, we LOVE ours!!!)

[Opossum]

Maybe you can help me out here. I have a Pocket PC PDA. I save the geocaching.com web page on my laptop, then download a batch of them to the PDA. When I’m out caching I look for the nearest waypoints on the GPS, then look that up in the PDA and read the full web page. It’s great.

I hit about 5 caches a week, so I don’t need high-powered software to do all the fancy stuff most of you seem to need. I just like caching while taking the dogs for a walk. Also, the Toshiba e755 doesn’t have a serial port, and my Garmin GPS III gets data over a serial port, so PDA->GPS probably won’t be happening any time soon.

1.) Is there software that does a better job that this, given I hit about 5 caches/week?

2.) Is there software that runs on my PDA that decrypts the hints via cut/paste?

Thanks for your help,
Opossum

[marc_54140]

Going paperless is great! I acquired my Palm last week, and with Miata’s help got things running.

So, my suggestion is find a ‘liver person’ to work it thru. That’s certainly the best way.

[Cathunter]

quote:

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Originally posted by marc_54140:
My suggestion is find a ‘liver person’ to work it thru.

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Yuk, I hate liver.

[abcdmCachers]

quote:

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Originally posted by Opossum:
1.) Is there software that does a better job that this, given I hit about 5 caches/week?

2.) Is there software that runs on my PDA that decrypts the hints via cut/paste?

Thanks for your help,
Opossum

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I use GpxSonar which works well for me. I set up a PocketQuery which runs once a week and gives me a .gpx file for all the caches in the area. GpxSonar does have features like sorting, shows distance from a given center point, etc. When you click on a cache it creates a web page on the fly and brings it up in internet explorer. The hint is decrypted but shown in white text so to see the hint, just drag your stylus over the hints area to highlight it. Links to this and others can be found here: http://www.geocaching.com/waypoints/default.aspx

Hope this helps,
Doug

[Opossum]

quote:

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Originally posted by abcdmCachers:
I use GpxSonar….Hope this helps,
Doug

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Yeah, this helps a lot! I was reading how people use Plucker and GPS Spinner and need the software installed on both their PDA and laptop and my head started spinning. Just learning the GSAK basics seemed like a lot, given that all I want to do is find Tupperware. Really, when you think about using 3 computers on your end, and countless ones on the government end, just to take the dogs for a walk, something’s wrong.

I have four binder clips of printed pages in a folder: caches by Mole, by me, upper WI, and found. (I’d have MI but ran that one blind.) Using the PDA for new cache locations (just saving web pages) is really cutting down on that. Actual software should help even more–thanks!

[Author]

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