[EnergySaver]

I guess 10 “yes” and 0 “no” provides me some positive feedback.
Article has been written and has just been submitted under “News” for approval by the WGA.

[EnergySaver]

Also … this is maybe a bit of a long shot … but are maybe letting the batteries drain down too far before changing them?

I’m looking at the online copy of the Owner’s Guide … it points out, and logically so, that the “backup capacitor” that gives you one minute of memory stays charged from the regular batteries. So it’s possible, I guess, that if you try to get every last “drop” of power out of the batteries before changing them, that they don’t have the strength to fully charge the “backup capacitor” to its maximum capacity.

An experiment … change the batteries when they’re good yet (maybe half way used up), if the problem goes away, that might be what’s happening. I’m shooting in the dark a bit here, but it’s a slow Monday for me.

[EnergySaver]

Not having a Palm III, I might not be right on this. But I doubt that “removing one battery at a time”, allows the one remaining battery the ability to provide power to the unit … as I’m assuming that the batteries are in “series”, which means removing one battery breaks the circuit; only if they’re in “parallel” would you still have a completed circuit. I’m thinking that the only advantage of removing just one battery at a time is the fact that the unit is missing a battery for a shorter period of time.

Online documentation on this issue indicates that you only have ONE MINUTE to make the change … but as others have stated, if the capacitor is going bad, you may not have less or no time. Linky: http://kb.palmone.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,Kb=PalmSupportKB,ts=Palm_External2001,Case=obj(763)

[EnergySaver]

One “interesting” concept with this … if you read the home page bullets … release of the 15th (last) clue to you is a factor of how much accumulated time it took you to solve the first 14 clues. If playing this doesn’t raise your blood pressure, I don’t know what would. Sounds like 15 days of frustration to me.

[EnergySaver]

@Team Deejay wrote:

Alright, I give up. Where exactly on the website do they post the entry fee? I gotta say that this smells of a scam, but even if it is legitimate, the payout is pretty pathetic. Note that if 999 people enter, they take in $99,900 and only payout $10000. Kinda makes the state lottery look like a good bet. I kinda doubt they will get 100 people entering anyway.

I agree … it’s seems a bit scam-ish, except that everythings out in the open … maybe the scam comes when there’s not actually anything to find, or they make it basically next to impossible to be found.

I’m glad I’m not the only one with troubles finding the fee … yet, ironically it’s right on the home page … left-hand column of bullet points, 5th one down.

[EnergySaver]

I don’t think I’d enter even if it was free … if I can’t figure out how much the game costs, how could I ever expect to win!

[EnergySaver]

Oh, I see it now … you do pay to play, but it doesn’t state how much.
Seems to me this is kind of like the lottery, except you use your brains.

[EnergySaver]

I’ve been looking at it a little closer … they’re based out of Grafton, WI … just a few miles away from me. Which explains why I saw one of their posters at the local hardware store. I’m wondering where the money flow comes and goes on this thing? … as they say 3% of their profits will go to charity … so either there’s going to be a fee to play or they sell your email address.

[EnergySaver]

Last week we did some caching in PA … in one park we went after 2 caches … both of them led me to locations where I could find the caches. We went and checked out the water falls and played on the rope bridge … then we tried both caches again, we found both of them, well over 150′ from where we tried 30 minutes earlier.

Did the owner give us bad coordinates? … no … the GPS satellites were playing tricks on us (not our GPS receivers, we had two of them, both showing good accuracy).

Sometimes you just have to wait and bit and try again. I’ve been noticing this more lately than in the past. Could it be that the government is scrambling signals more often lately for security reasons?

[EnergySaver]

What seems to be obvious to me … this is a series of caches that have some special “mystery” concept/appeal to them … the owner of the caches doesn’t want to spoil their hard work by explaining it to us on this Forum … but since the approver knows what’s up, they’re ok with it. Seems like we’re prying into the “secrets” and we should leave it rest and go find them!

[EnergySaver]

@Jeremy wrote:

@jthorson wrote:

Color me impressed.

25 minutes from request to response with a positive ID.

Jeff, this is really just a result of not having enough stuff to keep me occupied at work. 🙂

Speaking of not having enough stuff to keep me busy, I also put together a little flowchart to help people identify poison ivy. Basically it outlines what I look for when I try to positively identify a plant as poison ivy (you can tell I like to think logically :)).

I could find nothing like this on the internet or elsewhere… most sites, posters, identification cards, etc. just have pictures of poison ivy. It is kind of a pain to compare a plant in the field to these pictures. Plus poison ivy leaves can vary from plant to plant and it can grow in a number of configurations, so the pictures given in a guidebook may not exactly match real poison ivy. But if you kind of sort of know what poison ivy looks like, you can simply look for a couple key characteristics on a suspect plant (shown on the flowchart) to either rule it out as poison ivy or positively identify it as poison ivy.

Poison Ivy Identification Flowchart 1.0 (PDF)
Poison Ivy Identification Flowchart 1.0 (JPG)

At some point, I plan to add some small, hand drawn pictures to help people with the flow chart decision points. Also, I am not a botanist or anything, so if people have suggestions on decision points to be added or ways to clarify the terminology being used, let me know.

Jeremy … your flow chart is leaving out the most important consideration, which should be first in the chart …

Does the plant have colorful flowers?
No, continue down the chart.
Yes, pull them out of the ground.

(just kidding!)

[EnergySaver]

The new geocaching page that the DNR just put up, includes links to how to contact various locations. Go to: http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/parks/other/geocache.html

There is a link specific to Wildlife areas, see if your specific area has a contact phone/address. If not, check the contact info for the state park closest to that area; many times the nearest park’s ranger is given responsibility for the wildlife areas.

Your not likely to see a specific contact person’s name on the list, call the facility and ask for the Park Manager.

[EnergySaver]

Thanks for pointing this out.
I’ve submitted the forms for my 2 caches to my local ranger contact and have updated the cache listing text to indicated so.

[EnergySaver]

@otdoorsman wrote:

thanks that helps a little that’s the same thing i read in the manual too.it is just not working lol i don’t know if it is me or the unit lol. but i will keep plugging along another question i noticed alot of people use laptops do you really need a laptop for geocaching or can you get along without one.

No, you don’t need a laptop.

Since you’ve never geocached before, lets stick with “the basics” for now …. You can use your desktop computer and printer to print off on paper the caches you want to try and find. You can use the print outs to hand type the coordinates for the geocaches in to your GPSr. This is the basic concept: print geocache pages on paper, enter the coodinates into your GPSr, then take the GPSr and paper out to seek the cache.

Now, in the future, when you get hooked on geocaching, you can always explore other options, such as:

(1) Using a cable between your GPSr and Desktop computer to load a bunch of geocaches (but that’s a whole seperate experience, first find some caches using the basics).

(2) Down the line you can avoid paper printing all together, by using a Palm Pilot (easy to carry in the woods) or a Laptop (hard to carry in the woods). Or, you can just stick with paper, like many people do.

[EnergySaver]

#1 I read every log entry I get … the whole reason I had caches is to read about the experience and/or enjoyment of others.

#2 I try to leave a log of appreciation to others when I find their caches, or helpful suggestions if there seems to be a problem with the location or cache container.

#3 When we decide what caches to seek, many times we use the logs of other to decide which ones to seek … so the logs of others sort of act like advertisements.

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