[Jeremy]

@bnb wrote:

From just a quick count – so this could be wrong – there are only 192 active members that have visted the website since 1/1/2007. That 131+ statistic doesn’t look as bad when you consider that.

[Lawyer hat on.] This statistic is not 100% accurate. It is possible to vote without recording a “visit” (update the “last visited” time on the website) if you simply log in, vote, and log out. About 30 of the BOD votes have been cast in this way.

However, it does mean that about 100 votes have been cast by the less than 200 members who have actively participated (viewed the forums, posted, voted for COTM/COTY, etc.) on the website since Jan. 1. So as best we can tell, participation by recently active members is >50%.

@rogheff wrote:

I’m curious if it’s possible for the BOD to send those 933 WGA members an email telling them about the election and that it was time to vote. I don’t recall ever getting an email from the WGA other than private messages.

Good suggestion. It is technically possible, but we’ve resisted sending out all kinds of email announcements because we didn’t want to be seen as spammers and contribute to the junk email problem. We also have no way for people to “opt out” of these broadcast emails at the moment.

So far, the only mass email that we did was for the 2005 Wisconsin geocoin. But the BOD elections are definitely important so maybe the Board should consider an email announcement for next year’s election…

@Cathunter wrote:

I wonder how many people signed up after seeing one of Vince’s Fox 6 stories- it is likely that a lot of people might join out of curiosity and then not visit the site much after the fact.

Very true. Of the 933 active member accounts, 480 were created and never used again after the date on which they were created. To get a more accurate count of active members, we could have some sort of “probationary period” where a new account had to be used within one month of being created or it would be removed from the active members list.

[Jeremy]

I moved this topic to the Help forum because it seemed to make more sense here than in General…

Isn’t taking pictures through a wet or dirty bag going to interfere with the auto focus and maybe give you a blurry picture? I’d think if the bag had anything on it, the camera would try to focus on that instead of what you are taking a picture of… and even if you got it to focus, the stuff on the bag would be visible in the picture.

I have a waterproof camera that I use for geocaching (Pentax 43WR). It is rated to the same waterproof standards as most GPS units so it can be used in the rain and even submerged briefly (but not used underwater). Newer Pentax H20 units can be used underwater, and most companies (like Canon) offer waterproof housings for their higher end cameras that let you shoot underwater.

I like Ron’s suggestion of just buying a cheap old camera and using it until the water kills it (or you drop it out the boat, it gets crushed on some rocks, gets left in the woods, etc. :)).

[Jeremy]

Your Garmin didn’t come with that feature? Mine did, but using it really chews up the batteries… especially the blue monster-killing death ray.

Seriously, as a Garmin stock owner this seems like a waste of $2.6 million. Did people really understand what they were seeing, especially people who barely know what a GPS is? I’m sure they did all kinds of market testing, but it was probably one of the dumbest commercials during the Super Bowl. And this panel of advertising folks agrees:

The panel scored Garmin the lowest in Super Bowl Ads.

Maybe they should have shown someone talking to their GPS while driving in the middle of nowhere (see this topic) to highlight the fact that this little device will give you directions anywhere… you simply cannot get lost. Or held an ad contest… whatever amateurs came up with couldn’t be much worse than what they had.

[Jeremy]

Bump.

The voting phase of the 2007 Board of Directors election is now halfway complete. We’ve already had more members vote this year than in last year’s election. But there are many “regulars” here (including some current Board members!) who have not yet cast their votes.

Don’t forget to vote by the end of the day Sunday, February 11th.

[Jeremy]

The COTY results have not been officially certified yet. It might end up being a tie or Match Head might be declared the winner once the Board decides what the definition of a “legitimate” vote is.

Remember scores of people down in Florida hand counting “hanging chads”… that’s where we are at with this now. 🙄 The results of COTY depend upon whether a small number of votes are counted or not. Please bear with us as this gets sorted out.

Note that this delay is a direct result of some less than above board voting by some WGA members in this election (as was reported in another topic), but I’ll save that rant for another day…

[Jeremy]

@rush-2112 wrote:

Thats kinda close… but I need to do it on the real cheap…AKA FREE. so I guess i am loking for the wire schematic for the garmin gpsIII data cable and the proper wireing to convert it to usb. I hope it makes sense.

It makes sense, but it is not possible. While USB stands for universal serial bus, its operation is nothing like the “old” (RS232) serial port standard. Different voltages, different signaling methods, the fact that USB supports multiple end nodes, etc. means that you just cannot solder wires from a USB connector to a serial cable and have it work.

Even the home brew USB to serial design/schematic that Averith dug up uses a USB to serial chip (FT232). My guess is that you’d pay more to buy a single quantity of this chip than it would cost to buy an actual USB to serial port converter…

[Jeremy]

@Ratz and company wrote:

I bought a converter cable,
down loaded some PDA drivers but can not get the things to work
together. I could not even find software for my magellan 315 to work
with the USB port.

With a converter cable attached and the driver for it properly installed, you should have a new COM (serial) port in Windows with a high number like COM5. You can treat this as if it were a “real” serial port with a low COM number… to other software (like GSAK, Palm Hotsync manager, etc.) you specify that you have a serial connection and give it the COM number assigned to the converter. There is no need to download different (USB specific, etc.) drivers or software for your devices.

How do you tell what the COM number was assigned to the USB to serial port converter? Usually they appear in Device Manager under “Ports”… this quote from a web page explains how to get there:

Open the Device Manger to confirm the port is installed correctly. This can be opened either through Start->Control Panel->System then select Hardware tab and select Device Manger in the middle right of the window or if there is a My Computer icon on the desktop then right click on it select Properties and this will bring up the System window as above select Hardware tab and Device Manager. Click the + sign beside the Ports(COM & LPT). With a USB connected receiver there should be a “USB Serial Port (COM X)” listed as one of the devices.

Send me a PM if you need more assistance…

[Jeremy]

I agree, it is too late to change things now that voting has begun.

I saw the 1 year term as being of value or potential benefit to some of the candidates, so I figured it should go to the candidate with the most votes first (if he/she wanted it).

Also, most people accepted their nomination before the resignation, and therefore expected a two year term if elected. By trickling the one year term down until it was accepted by one of the winning candidates, it would have ensured that it would have gone to someone who wanted it rather than being forced on someone who might be disappointed in the shortened term. (But then again, the 6th place person is lucky to get on the Board at all… so they better take their one year term and shut up. :))

[Jeremy]

@decdogg wrote:

The coordinates come from geocache.com

N43°47.939
W088°26.564

Looks like you should be able to enter this set of coordinates into the GPS given your position format setting.

What 8 is not working for you? The 8 in W088°?

[Jeremy]

Sounds like you have your GPS position format set to hddd mm.mmm’ (hemisphere, degrees, minutes, decimal minutes). This is the common convention for coordinates coming from geocaching.com. With this convention, the largest first number after the whole degrees is 5, since there are 60 minutes in a degree.

But the coordinates you have are probably hddd.dddd (hemisphere, degrees, decimal degrees). So you either need to change the GPS position format to match the coordinates you have, or convert the coordinates you have to the format your GPS is expecting.

Sounds like Garmin gave you the right advice about changing your GPS position format to decimal degrees to allow this set of coordinates to be entered. (The current position format your 60cs is set to can be found by going to the Main Menu, then Setup, and then Units.)

I guess post the coordinates you have (EXACTLY as they come from whatever site your getting them from) and your GPS position format setting so we can help you more. Converting from ddd mm.mmm to ddd.dddd format and vice versa is trivial…

[Jeremy]

Put me down for one maybe Marc.

They are predicting some sort of freezing drizzle tomorrow and tomorrow night. But if the roads are in good shape early Saturday morning, I will probably head up there.

If you do reschedule, I can make it every weekend in February except Feb. 3/4.

[Jeremy]

@NSLP#1 wrote:

Where do you see last visits here? or do you just mean postings? Some may visit frequently but not frequently post.

The last time someone visited the WGA site is available in their WGA user profile, on the User Info tab.

Some notes on this last visit information. First, users can choose to hide their last visit date/time and make themselves invisible (not shown in the list of online users). See the “Publish my online status” option under Your Account -> Preferences.

Second, sometimes it is not 100% accurate. Certain actions, such as just viewing the WGA home page (but not the forum index page) do not cause this time to be updated. And the last visit time is not updated until someone logs off or their session times out, so if they are currently online or have been online recently, the last visit time reflects the time of their second-to-last (previous session before this one) visit.

[Jeremy]

@GrouseTales wrote:

I regret to announce that Bill, aka: Flushingrouse, has announced his resignation from the Board of Directors.

Thanks for all your hard work on the Board over the last year Bill. You played a big role in the planning and execution of the 2006 WGA Geo-Campout and Geo-Picnic. And I know you also spent some time trying to organize the WGA secretary stuff that I, Jeff T., and Ken B. accumulated over the years and kind of had in a jumble. 🙂

You definitely will be missed…

@GrouseTales wrote:

It was decided that the candidate ranking #6, based on the amount of votes received, will fill the vacant one year term.

Maybe the one year term should be offered to the candidate ranking #1… and if he/she doesn’t want it, it would be offered to #2, etc. I’m pretty sure one of the six winning candidates will want a 1 year term instead of a 2 year term. This would prevent the weird scenario where #6 (and maybe even 7, 8, 9, …) would not serve on the Board because they declined the 1 year term.

We’re breaking new ground here… this is not covered in the bylaws and obviously has not happened before.

[Jeremy]

@I M W/U wrote:

PS Jeremy, I was talking with Santa tonight, he said get the stable ready for your pony and world peace is on its way! I was requesting gear to prepare for THE GAUNTLET! 😉

Well it is now almost a month after Christmas, but I’m happy to report that I got my pony from Santa this weekend. Thanks to I M W/U (Peace B W/U) for boarding and feeding him since Christmas and for getting him down to the Milwaukee area. Santa said he’s working on the world peace thing, but since there are so many non-believers and stubborn people out there, he’s having a tough time. (Also, he informed me that someone named Lisa is getting a lump of coal for the next several decades?? ;))

Just like The Gauntlet cache, the pony I ended up with wasn’t what I was expecting to get initially. And in both cases I think that I’m actually more satisfied with what the Lil Otter and Santa gave to me than I would have been with the “real thing”. (This miniature pony is great because it can live inside the house instead of out in my garage, and I don’t have to hook up a trailer to haul it around! :))

[Jeremy]

Bump.

Is this thing on for the 27th Marc? The 10-day forecast shows no days above freezing until next Saturday. And if the ice is not in good enough shape, there is always the long (4 mile) and dry hike to the cache…

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