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I agree that it would be a good idea if someone (WGA?) maintained a list of names, departments, phone numbers, etc. of who cache-placers can call to get permission to place in public parks. Granted, it’s probably a difficult list to maintain since responsibilities shift within the various parks departments, but IMO it’s worth a try. WGA members would just have to be reminded that the list exists and that when they find the person responsible for their area, they should submit the name to be added to the list. I think cachers would be much more likely to call for permission to place a cache if they had ready access to this information.
P.S. saw you on channel 6 last night Tapps!
Yeah, and I’m thinking of closing down GCN115 as a result. It’s a plastic flashlight wrapped in black duct-tape, just off a city sidewalk (placed on business-owner’s property with permission). It’s clearly not a pipe-bomb, you can easily see inside it, and has geocaching.com marked on the side. But it just seems with the paranoia these days, as in Boston, it’s just a matter of time before someone sees it and calls it in. Thoughts anyone?
@knoffer wrote:
You need to have an Adobe Writer utility. This is different then the free Adobe Acrobat reader. To my knowledge you will need to purchase something like Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard. I have never searched for a free writer utility however one might exist.
I use PDF995 http://www.pdf995.com (free with ads, $9.95 if you don’t want ads). It works very well. I have a co-worker who uses CutePDF http://www.cutepdf.com This might be the better option since it looks like it’s free with no ads, but I haven’t personally used it.
As far as accounting software, we use QuickBooks Pro. I think this would be appropriate for what you are looking to do.
@LightningBugs Mum wrote:
Last year when this subject came up, I suggested an alternative in the Groundspeak forum. Why not make temp-finds / multiple attended logs like benchmarks? They could show up on the profile on a seperate line, but not increase the find count. (In other words, your first event log would increase your count, but the rest would not.) Well, that was my idea anyways and like all other helpful suggestions about this topic, GC.com has chosen to ignore it.
Let me bounce this idea off people. Since it’s not likely that Groundspeak will address this issue, what if the various statistics counting programs such as mine (CacheStats) and Cheesehead Dave’s (itsnotaboutthenumbers) came to an agreement for special logging tags that would count categories not covered by gc.com. For example, you would be able to put something like this in your attended log for an event:
I had a great time at the event!
##Temporary: 15
##Pocket Cache: 3Then when you generated your statistics using one of the above applications, you would see two new categories in your cache type listing, but they would not be in your official count. The tag names could be standardized, but wouldn’t necessarily have to be. So you could even create your own categories like “Hikes greater than 1 mile” or “park and grabs”.
It’s clear a lot of people like to get “credit” for finding event temps or even just keep track of how many event temps they have found even if they don’t log them all. That’s understandable – at the WGA picnics I’ve attended it’s no small feat to find all the temps – you may end up hiking 5 or 10 miles to get them all. I think this could be a good compromise that would still motivate people to find the temps even if they don’t get the smilie.
Thoughts? Would people use this feature if it were available?
@hogrod wrote:
My one complaint is how burried switching maps option really is. from the map screen you have to press menu, select setup map, highlight the map setup-information(5th option from the left), press menu again and then show and hide the maps you choose.
I have got used to switching maps but it would be great with a few less button presses. Seems to me they could make it much easier, from the map screen hit menu, and add a swtich maps option right there.
That sounds pretty bad. With Teletype software on my Pocket PC, the map for the entire county gets loaded automatically as soon as I cross the county line.
Although I haven’t tried Garmin mapping software yet, and I’m still using the C series, not Cx, sometimes I wonder if Garmin “gets it” especially when it comes to geocaching. Things like this (why can’t they auto-load the maps?). Other things, why do they only allow a tiny number of characters for waypoint description (40?!). Their “geocaching mode” is worthless if you want to use different icons to represent different kinds of caches (multi, virtual, mystery, etc). Why limit to 1000 waypoints? How can I see how many waypoints are loaded? etc. etc.
@hogrod wrote:
I really like having the microSD/transflash card for maps, and if you use garmins free POI loader software you can store unlimited waypoints on the card separated by category’s if you do it right. waypoints loaded with the POI software are listed under custom points of interest, so you will still have 1000 regular waypoints to use.
I really miss unlimited waypoints since my CF GPS card went out on my PocketPC so I’ve contemplated upgrading to the x series. This solution sounds somewhat complicated – is this the only way? Would be nice if they could be treated as regular waypoints instead of POIs, e.g. load them using GSAK. Or is it not really that difficult? I talked with someone at the picnic who said that you could load waypoints on the microSD card, and then transfer them into main memory as needed. Again, doesn’t seem ideal. Anyone know how easy/difficult that is? Can you load waypoints onto the microSD card using GSAK?
I have a 60C now (not the x). Since there are only 1000 waypoints I always have to be mindful of how many waypoints are in use. Is there any way to tell how many waypoints are currently loaded in the 60CSx? (no way to do this with the 60C regular as far as I know). Also, would be nice to be able to delete subsets of waypoints. I know you can delete by icon type, but would be nice to be able to load waypoints for a weekend trip (using my normal icons), and then delete just those when I get back. Doable in either the 60 C or Cx?
Jeremy, thanks for packaging it up – that’s fine if you want to leave it on the website. You could put the .ppt there too if you want since anyone who gives the presentation will probably want to edit it with current info and use maps from their area. (For example, as soon as I tell people to ignore the Packers and go geocaching instead, they start playing halfway decent and are on the verge of going to .500! 😀 ) Also, many of the pictures are my own, but others I used without permission from the existing powerpoint presentations mentioned above and a few from TB pages on geocaching.com (specifically Cindy the Cinderblock). I assume it’s not a problem, but thought I’d better mention it. If you think it’s important, I can ask for permission for the Cindy TB pics, but can’t do much about the others since I don’t know their source.
I actually managed to get through it in 1 hour. A lot of the slides you can go through very quickly. But I knew it was going to be close so I had to talk fast and hurry through some sections. If I were to do it again given a 1 hour time limit, I’d try to pare it down first.
(edit: grammar)
The geocaching clinic I presented at REI went pretty well I think. There were about 20 people and I don’t think they died of boredom, despite my presentation skills.
I borrowed heavily from the powerpoint presentations above and added a few of my own ideas. Thanks for sending them my way. If anyone would like to see what I put together, you can get it here:
http://www.logicweave.com/misc/IntroToGeocaching.pptJust to warn you: due to quite a few embedded images it’s large (about 5MB). You should view it in slideshow mode because there are a lot of graphics and pictures that slide in and overlap the text. If you view it in your web browser, click on the slide itself to advance (don’t click next page arrow because you won’t get the graphics that slide in). BTW, if you don’t have powerpoint, you can download a free Powerpoint viewer from Microsoft.
Doug
Gotta love TLA’s
We’ve had success in the past asking a flight attendendant for permission to use the GPSr. They knew exactly what we were asking about and gave us permission right away, although I’m sure results will vary. But I think getting permission is a must in this day and age.
One or more of our team might be interested. Could you send me more info either by PM or geocaching account? Do you know if this is a hands-on type presentation or more of powerpoint slides followed by Q&A? I seem to remember someone talking about a public powerpoint presentation that people could use for this type of thing. Does anyone know if that’s still available?
Doug
@Flushingrouse wrote:
I think you still have to encrypt the hint… For a little help in doing this, Tie pointed me to an on-line encrypter/decrypter at:
http://www.speedfreak.info/geocaching/decoder.html
Works pretty nice! Good Luck!!
I use http://www.rot13.com
I’m sure there are many others out there too. This one’s only advantage is an easy-to-remember URL (rot13 being the encryption method used by geocaching.com)I assume you are talking about Volcan Poas and Sit’in on the top of the world? Believe it or not, we were there last summer – small world. IMO, I think it would be fine if you logged it into Volcan Poas (archived) – you were probably only 100 feet away from that cache’s location anyway. On the other hand, if you wanted to log it in to a cache that was miles away in a location you didn’t visit, then I’d think twice.
Wow that was quick! Thanks for 2 great new features.
I just recently read about this on Snopes. They agree, don’t use soap. They also include other tips in the article:
http://www.snopes.com/oldwives/tick.aspIn answer to last few posts:
Regarding other categories, good idea. One way would be to allow users to add their own custom categories in the favorites section, which is on my todo list for the next version. Note that the “my finds” query doesn’t include data for TBs or coins, so those stats wouldn’t be able to be calculated.Regarding support for the Mac, there is a project called Mono whose charter is to port the .NET framework to other operating systems (Max OS X is one). I know nothing about it, other than that it’s there. If someone wants look into it, here is the website:
http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page -
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