GSAK challenged cachers, post here

[3 Hawks]

Deejay lost me right after “Lets do this the easy way.” From then on all I got was blah blah, tech talk, enter. Go to blah blah, insert something there and do the hokey pokey.

I’ll just wait until my 3 1/2 year old starts preschool. Then she can handle all of the tech stuff for me.

I think Deejay is one with the Borg collective.

[-cheeto-]

Paperless looks all high tech and stuff but sometimes you get used to doing things a certain way…

I have found that those small notepads (the 35 cent ones at walmart) work really well for quickly jotting down useful info on each cache I want to hunt and then referring back and marking found, dnf, etc. (and jotting notes for new cache ideas & locations of course…)

Who needs printers… I can filter the cache page down to a couple small lines of notes for most caches. Abbreviated Name, Size, Difficuly, Terrain, Hint (maybe I use them…) and any pertinent info from the text or recent logs. If it’s a complex puzzle I may print the cache page (like one’s with lots of reference coordinates and fill in the blank type ones). It might not be quick but you actually remember a lot of the info and it get’s you more involved in caching and the caches you are hunting…

I would just lose or drop a palm pilot (like I do my GPSr). They are cheap but when you buy them over and over it’s not so cheap.. You are logging the cache with a pen so it’s easy to just jot a note in a notebook at the same time if I want to recall anything about the cache in my log online.

GSAK is a neat little program with lots of useful features and can be run on a laptop as well but I have not used it much other than on our trip up to Door county this summer and even then I ended up finding free wireless most of the trip (thank you chocolate chicken in egg harbor.. by the way excellent place if you are ever in the area) so I didn’t reference it as much as I thought I would.

I would probably attend a paperless event if it was local to me just to watch it be done… What would be cool is not just sitting in some pub and going over it but actually doing a bit of paperless caching as part of the event… from start (downloading PQ, etc) to finish at a cache nearby or something.

-cheeto-

[gotta run]

This maybe leads to a related topic of how much cache information you take in the field. That’s where GSAK/Paperless are the real benefit IMO.

I’ll admit to being a little…verbose…in my cache descriptions but it’s not without purpose and it’s more than a little frustrating to have logs posted griping about stuff that was clearly stated in the description.

Download it all to your handheld, viola. You’ve got it all there. (Of course, you still have to read it.) Like I said, our $20 legacy Palm VII does the job and it’s countless times faster than waiting for my printer to spit out cache sheets (which half the time don’t format right in PDF for some reason), let alone taking the time to manually jot down notes.

It’s literally less than a one minute process once you get the PQ in your email:
-Open PQ in GSAK
-Choose “export to cachemate”
-Save the file
-Drag the file to the Palm sync program on the PC
-Push the button on the Palm cradle to upload the file to the Palm

You already know how to use a computer because you’re all posting to this forum. Therefore, you have all the skills you need to go paperless with just one more piece of hardware.

On the Left Side of the Road...

[Trekkin and Birdin]

My thing with having the Palm is this….sure, we’ve found lots of them without any of this stuff, but I don’t like wasting paper. Plus, I’ll plan out a trip, then return home and see that oh look! There was a new one right along the way! Since we might plan a route and then get to it a few weeks later, that kind of thing happens with regularity (although not so often as it would on the other side of the state!)

So if I can load a whole mess of them into the Palm, we can head out and see what’s there to be found. Since the snow is crummy for skiing today and it’s my day off, maybe I’ll figure out just how to do this!

[Lostby7]

Ya know I read the GSAK 101 document which tells about how to use the program and about some the of features…..and I honestly don’t get it.

I open my PQ’s into my mapping software and can see where all the caches are and I select my route from there. Granted I need to look up each cache and read the information to get text details written by the owners and to read the past couple of logs; the rest of the information is already there in my mapping software(at least the most basic of information like coords and cache type)……

I’m sure I’m wrong about this based on all the raving about the program, but unless you have a Palm to use along with this program I don’t see the advantage of it. But again I think what I really need is for someone to show me how I’m clearly misinterpreting the information this program shows. If I could figure out how to get the info from say 12 caches on one page quickly and easily that would be enough to make the program pretty nifty for me….and I understand that that is possible….but there is still just too much I don’t understand about it.

Some day I’ll make it to one of those classes that will show me light.

[Team Honeybunnies]

I’d happily offer some personal tutoring in exchange for a cache run in the nearby area 😉 . That includes Lostby and Trekkin’ and Birdin’. It really isn’t hard, just a lot to wrap your mind around the first time. One caveat is that I have never so much as touched a Magellan. I hear they cause unsightly warts and halitosis in laboratory animals.

[Trekkin and Birdin]

One caveat is that I have never so much as touched a Magellan. I hear they cause unsightly warts and halitosis in laboratory animals.

Hmm, so maybe THAT’S what’s causing all of Trekkin’s recent dental woes!

Honeybunnies, you know you are welcome to come cache with us, and even stay with us, anytime. That goes for the rest of you guys. Only problem, dog owners, though we love dogs, our son’s dog does not. 😥 Still, we’d take anyone out caching in the area, GSAK lessons or not!

[PCFrog]

@Trekkin’ and Birdin’ wrote:

One caveat is that I have never so much as touched a Magellan. I hear they cause unsightly warts and halitosis in laboratory animals.

Hmm, so maybe THAT’S what’s causing all of Trekkin’s recent dental woes!

Honeybunnies, you know you are welcome to come cache with us, and even stay with us, anytime. That goes for the rest of you guys. Only problem, dog owners, though we love dogs, our son’s dog does not. 😥 Still, we’d take anyone out caching in the area, GSAK lessons or not!

So, where do you put your sons dog when others come over with theirs?

[gotta run]

Here is my unsolicited advice to the fearful.

Download GSAK to your PC. Don’t pay for it and put up with the nag screens until you decide if you like it. Then go to eBay and buy an old Palm, just make sure the one you buy can run cachemate. You might even get a Palm VII for $10 these days since they’re nearly relics but work just fine for this task. And you’re recycling to boot! Then download cachemate and pay the $8.

You’ll be into paperless caching for about the cost of an ink cartridge pack.

On the Left Side of the Road...

[Trekkin and Birdin]

So, where do you put your sons dog when others come over with theirs?

Never been a problem, no one comes over. He’s trying to find his own place, which has been challenging because….he has a dog!
(We told him so!)

[hogrod]

I’ve never used a palm but used to use a pocket pc for caching. I was wondering, does a palm have a web browser? The reason I ask is because when I had my pocket pc, in gsak I would just go file menu, export, HTML files. I could then load the folder it created to my pocket pc and view all my caches in it’s browser, that way I didn’t need to download & pay for any other software.

I no longer have a pocket pc but have been using the web browser on my Sony PSP, and it works great! I’ve included a screenshot of how it looks in a browser, so you can see it filters your caches nicely. you can also have multiple files for the different databases you have made.

[LDove]

At one time, I WAS a happy geocacher…. I struggled through hours of head scratching to figure out how to go paperless. With great delight – I did eventually figure it out (was not TOO difficult). With my new used Palm, GSAK and Mapsource, the world was at my fingertips! No more opening the car door and having papers flying out everywhere – I could roam with only my Palm and GPS! 😛

Then (gloomy music) the dark days began. I bought a new computer with Windows Vista… 😡 No longer compatible with my Palm, or Mapsource, I am now back to using paper again unless I can borrow my daughter’s laptop.

Moral Lesson: If you work with paperless and it is working well with your computer and Palm hardware, don’t get Windows Vista – at least not yet. I am hoping to find someone who has made it all work so by the time the mountains of snow melt, I can be a free and happy cacher again.

[hogrod]

@lonesumdove wrote:

If you work with paperless and it is working well with your computer and Palm hardware, don’t get Windows Vista – at least not yet. I am hoping to find someone who has made it all work so by the time the mountains of snow melt, I can be a free and happy cacher again.

Like I said before I don’t have a palm so I can’t verify that this works, but here is a link to windows vista version of palms hotsync manager.

http://www.palm.com/us/support/windowsvista/#palmdesktop

[djwini]

furfool–there is a mac program similar to GSAK called maccaching. i looked at it a little, but not enough to recommend it, or know how it works. i am also using GSAK in the windows environment on my mac.

usually when i am planning a cache run i will print a sheet of the caches i might try to find, anywhere from 5-20. i list the difficulty, terrain, size, and hints. and if it is a mystery cache, i will also list the corrected coords. not quite paperless, but 1 sheet instead of 20 is better in my book. and then i can write notes on the sheet, since i can’t remember a cache by the time i get home.

[furfool]

@djwini wrote:

furfool–there is a mac program similar to GSAK called maccaching. i looked at it a little, but not enough to recommend it, or know how it works. i am also using GSAK in the windows environment on my mac.

usually when i am planning a cache run i will print a sheet of the caches i might try to find, anywhere from 5-20. i list the difficulty, terrain, size, and hints. and if it is a mystery cache, i will also list the corrected coords. not quite paperless, but 1 sheet instead of 20 is better in my book. and then i can write notes on the sheet, since i can’t remember a cache by the time i get home.

My wif installed maccaching a couple of weeks ago. I played around a little bit with it, but need to screw around a little more. I didn’t realize that it was similar to GSAK. I agree that it really cuts down on the paper, and I too will still write some notes as needed. I haven’t been able to print anything though because our printer took a dump on us. She just bought a new one last week but hasn’t hooked it up yet. Thanks for the help. And to everyone else as well.

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