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Daily Ramblings (27 unread)

May 08, 2012
6:43
Life and caching
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Just to be clear... I have a life.

I do spend a lot of my time geocaching and reviewing, but some days I just need a break.
Here is my typical day...
12-7am My phone is shut off at night. I don't need it buzzing all night because some goober is waiting for their cache to be listed, or happens to be up complaining.

7-9am I am getting kids ready for school. I usually read the news, check emails, etc. I do it from the comfort of my bed. Usually yelling at my girls telling them to get in the shower (I don't want to get up yet). I read emails, and see if there is anything urgent.

9-5:00 Work. Yes I do work. I do check my emails during this time from my phone. Do not expect a response.

Breaks and lunch. I am on my computer at work seeing what is up. Providing that i do not need food. If I am hungry then you are all screwed for new caches. I really want to eat.

5-7pm I usually review a number of caches. Usually the ones without issues. If I have to type a discourse on how you need to add waypoints, remove commercial aspects, and that you are 4 feet from another cache I might put it off to get the fast ones done. I might also wait if your caches has something that I want to think about, ask other reviewers opinions, or it makes me feel dirty.

7-9 Scouts/Family/Movies/Yardwork who knows what great adventure I may be involved in.

9-12 review, archive, and play with gsak. I take the time to review in here if there is any. I usually go through those painful ones that I have put off. I will archive caches that are horrible, or just need stones thrown at them. I also play with my GSAK.

Then bed...
Earthcaches
In the middle of those, some nights I do Earthcaches as Geoawareusa2. This is the most time consuming part of my reviewing list. Very few people actually read the guidelines on Earthcaches. Where 70-80% of my caches are publishable at first glance, Earthcaches are about 10%. Most just have simple issues that can be reworked.
- Remove photo requirement
- Add educational material
- Wrong topics
A few caches can take the evening.
Wrap up
I know sometimes that caches is the most important thing in some peoples lives. However it is not always the case in mine. When I get ten emails for me to publish their cache when I pointed out a problem at 5pm, and now it is 8pm, I just ignore them.

If your cache has issues then you fall to the end of my list. I check new caches, then go through my email from oldest to newest. Emailing me ten times will not speed it up. It is no fair that I delay those that are waiting for review. Or that I just jump to you now, when there are five people that have fixed their caches also waiting.

Most understand. A few do not. I have been known to ignore my review queue for a day. I may want a little vacation, read a book, or just watch a movie. Please don't freak out. I plan to be back to it sometime.
May 07, 2012
2:11
Camp Hobe' Geocaching Fund
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Well I am back again. Here is a great chance to help others.

Raising some funds to help run geocaching at a camp for kids with cancer and their siblings.

[fundrazr.com]

From Ho'okele

Camp Hobe' is a special summer camp designed for children with cancer and their siblings, who are often forgotten in the cancer experience. Camp Hobe' gives kids the opportunity to participate in camp activities just like healthy children whose families are not affected by cancer.

Throughout their time at camp, Camp Hobe' kids grow in spirit, strength, and understanding. They are allowed to play outside with other children, to discover the joy and freedom of being away from the confines of the hospital, and to temporarily displace the fears that the future holds. This is their chance -- sometimes their only chance -- to "just be kids" and to escape the grown-up realities they face everyday.

Camp Hobe' Geocaching Fund is asking for your donations to help out with our annual Geocaching event at the camp. Each year, during both the children's week and the teen week, awesome Geocachers come together to hold an event for the kids. Geocaches filled with goodies are placed throughout the camp for the young campers to find. It is a hit with the kids every year!

No donation is too small. Every little bit helps!

This year, Jan & Ken Morales will be hosting the event.

Thank you to all the angels who have made this event possible!

If you can support this great cause with a few dollars. More money means better swag for the caches and the kids.

Here is a link to last years.

http://firennice.squarespace.com/journal/2011/5/26/camp-hobe-and-geocaching.html#

and info on the year before that (2010)

http://camphobegeocachers.chipin.com/mypages/view/id/eebd843b697d6b76
April 24, 2012
20:40
Cache Submission Update, and Guidelines Update
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Well we have another rollout of new things at groundspeak this week. There are a few changes this week and a few things that might interest some people.
Cache Submission Process
Well, we have a new process to submit caches. As of now this is in Beta and people can try it out as an option.

As a reviewer we see a lot of dumb submissions. Some that are simple errors and some that repeat over and over. So the new process is a step to help clear up some issues that seem to repeat on a regular basis. There has been a lot of internal testing to get this going, and to get the Beta out to everyone.

There are a few things that it can help clear up. When you enter your coords you have to "see it on a map" before continuing. Many people place caches and are off by a few hundred feet to thousands of miles. I get a handful in the middle of the ocean a few times a year.

It also will also help with additional waypoints, and getting it submitted. If you are listing a new cache.. try it out.
Guidelines Update
There are a number of new updates, to the guidelines. Nothing huge, but wording corrected, and things to help us solve problems. Here is an overview of a few of the changes that may effect people.

Logging of All Physical Geocaches

Other than documenting a Challenge Cache, physical caches cannot require geocachers to contact anyone.

Listing guidelines that apply to all geocaches

Cache pages cannot require, and should not strongly encourage, the placement of new caches.

and about vacation or distant caches.

Document your maintenance plan in a Note to Reviewer on your cache listing. This should include contact information of the maintainer.

Additional Listing Guidelines that Apply to Specific Geocache Types:

A traditional cache consists of at least a container and logbook and is located at the posted coordinates. For all caches types that have multiple stages, physical elements (tags, containers, or any physical additional to the location) must be added to the listing as Additional Waypoints.

Enjoy all.
April 10, 2012
19:02
Crappy Swag, Stolen Geocoins, and the Micro Spew
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Working in the forums I have seen two threads repeated over and over. In every local geocaching group they pop up, and in discussions at times.

The older (I mean pre-2004) cachers sit down and start yearning for the old days. Back in the days when all the containers were clean ammo cans or five gallon buckets. The geocoins and trackables were lovingly cared for, followed, tracked, and hunted for. And they were all filled with golden magical items, $20 bills, at the end of rainbows.
The Golden Age of Geocaching 2000-2004 (the first five years)
I was not around, but have talked to enough people, and followed enough threads to put a few things together. Remember that GPS units in the first few years of geocaching were expensive. The crappy ones that we take for granted now were expensive. Few people had them, and maps were another expensive addition to the models sold. Also, why did you have them? Avid hunters, backwoods explorers, would get them to help them out.

So caching was in the hands of the well off, well to do (for the most part). Few caches were out. When they were placed they were planned out, well stocked and people traveled to them on purpose. When you arrived you brought something to trade, you knew how many caches you wanted to go to. Each cache had to be put in by hand, usually off of a printout that you carried with you. Downloading a Pocket Query into a GPS was unheard of.

Trackables were carefully monitored. There were not many caches at that point so it was rather simple.

Caches themselves were placed with care. I want to take someone to a cool out of the way location. In fact I have heard from caches that tried to place micros, or caches in cities that were mocked and ridiculed by other cachers saying "that is not geocaching"
The Silver Age of Geocaching 2005-2009
you started to see a huge shift. Low priced gps units started to appear. And the flow of caches started to migrate to the cities. Cachers could start to load multiple caches into their GPS units. Paperless caching became the buzzword. GPS units that could carry all of a cache page were being pushed by retailers, and others carried old Palm Pilots, or other handheld devices where they could load the Pocket Queries into.

It is during this period that caching really exploded. The lower cost units started to bring in many cachers that before could not afford a GPS. Better/cheap/free maps began to appear to allow people to track and follow their movements. Groundspeak significantly improved its site and offerings.

What happened? Well micros boomed. they were scattered hither and yon as times went on. You could now find a cache during your lunch break, family visits, at a church or shopping mall near you. More people were interested, and things literally exploded.

Trackables were starting to be carried to every horrible cache by people. People would find a cache under a park bush and drop a trackable. A cache that kids would easily find and steal. So many travel bugs ended up in some kids dresser on in the trash. Some coins were stolen, there are a number of cachers out there that started to hoard coins. Stolen coins that were traveling that found their way into a collection.

The swag quality dropped. Rather than trading nice things, you began to see the average cacher carry less, or cheap toys. People would take, and never replace. So older caches began to be filled with poorer and poorer quality stuff. Basically if they were unmaintained, they were trash heaps.
Modern Age 2010-
Where are we now? Cell phones and free programs mean that just about everyone can cache. Everyone that wants to try out this new thing can find a few. That also means that people that have no idea what is going on, or what is considered polite, are out there finding caches.

I have seen parents take kids to a cache and drain it of everything. Take the trackables off chains and drop the chains back in the cache. Carry off coins not knowing what to do. Things have changed.

Power trails have appeared in the last few years. ET highway is the most notable. People have started to travel great distances to accomplish challenges, trails, etc. Geotourism is popular in some ares. I see (in Utah) a large number that travel to accomplish their caching goals. I have met a number of people coming to visit to grab all the caches they can.
Final Thoughts
Is it better? worse? In many ways both. There are problems. Some detest caching for what it has become. Yet there is always something around. I have found and walked away from others that were in trash heaps.

Ther is no way to fix what is there. Too many caches that will go a few times and never again. Families, boy/girl scouts, people on vacation, people on business trips. Inconsiderate people will always be out there.

I would ask to please take the time to think. I still love it, and enjoy it. There are problems, but I enjoy what is out there. Some are challenges, others are not. Some can be grabbed as I drive by, and others with a ton of work. I have been thinking about it more as I approach #3000. I am looking for something special. I don't know where/when but I will find something that I want to do. I am guessing this month, so I do not have much time to hunt.
April 04, 2012
16:21
Spring Cleaning, and Memory Lane.
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Spring Cleaning, and Memory Lane. A look back at 2008, and maintenance on caches.
April 02, 2012
7:08
April Fools
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Hopefully everyone had fun this April Fools day. Many of us reviewers did.

There was a group of us that formed a group that bounced around publishing caches in other areas. I only published a few in Utah. Last night right before midnight I posted "I Give UP" on facebook. Then avoided listing until today.

I got an email from england saying my account was hacked and I published a cache there (I did but I was not hacked). Another lady asked me about a bunch of hacked accounts. Some reviewers said they had been fired, others that they gave up. And others told people that due to a dispute with groundspeak that others were publishing in their area.

Not all reviewers were involved. Some did not have time time to plan and prepare for it. It was worked on for a number of months. How we would do it, how to keep errors from creeping in, and what we might say. I know two reviewers were asked if they were replacing me.

In all it was fun. I got two thank you notes for listing their cachers from Europe. I lived in France at a number of places in the 80's and It was exiting to be able to publish a cache a few miles from where I lived.

I know of other jokes as well. Some poor fellow had one of their caches published, retracted, and reviewers from around the world posted notes for and against the cache before it was finally left alone. Still other reviewers published obviosly fake caches, or outlandish caches to get a chuckle from others.

Hope you had fun. Hope you noticed the fun. In all I think there were 18 reviewers that published in Utah from around the world. Ogden, Weber, Salt Lake, Utah, and Central Utah all had a number of caches listed by different reviewers. Too bad things were slow int he St. George area. I wish the joke had carried on a bit better for them.
March 28, 2012
5:06
St George, the Heart, and Breakfast.
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PeanutsParents in an underground cache.

Well the month is almost over and I thought I better write about my trip earlier this month. I am falling behind in my blogging so I better get at it.

Earlier this month I decided to head to southern utah for a breakfast event with PeanutsParents. It was all a maybe trip, and we were never really sure of who was going, or when until about two days before.

Well we headed down friday afternoon and really did not not do much on the way down. We were trying to get to southern utah before it was too late.

We drove for three to four hours with only a few stops. That surprised both of us. Normally a three to four hour trip would have taken us most of the day. However I got out of work pretty late, so our trip was rushed to get there with good time.

CITO pile of crap

The drive to St. George was great, faster than either of us shot. When we arrived in town we got in touch with DrJay and family, and went to say hi. Then got asked if we wanted to go work on some puzzles. So PeanutsParents, Momthecook, cachinhubby, Jac0b, and I headed out in the evening to grab some caches that were around.

The next morning we got up early, really early. Apparently there was a CITO over the border in Arizona. Woo hoo one more state. So off we went.

It was really early and we were cleaning up an area that is a truck stop. An unofficial truck stop. Apparently many of them just threw trash out of their cabs and made a mess. So there we were to save the day. Much of it was in a pile, but without bags, so we spent a lot of time just bagging stuff.

After that we headed north. We grabbed a few caches on route. It was a good morning and normally I would not be out of bed at this time. However this was for caches, breakfast, and bacon. The event was the Spring Breakfast event. Every year it gets bigger. I counted 130 cachers (about). It is hard to count with everyone mulling about.

It was a great event. I do not know how many years it has been going on, but it seems to grow every year.

There were a number of people that traveled hours south to the event. Chasing the sun, and others that headed up from St. George.

I brought one of my limited edition coins to give away. And who won it? The guy that I drove all the way down with. I thought that was really funny. Out of 130 people, he was the one to win it.

It is funny how some events are just the right place at the right time. Sunshine, while the rest of the state is usually still int he cold of late winer.

Last year my wife and I came down and we spent our time doing every virtual and earthcache that we could find. That was a great trip. I had nopes of going with my wife (no offence to peanutsparents) but with kids activites and stuff like that, of course Peanutsparents had planned on going with his wife as well. So it all worked out.

Well later that morning we decided to head out into the desert. It was time to start looking for caches. We grabbed a few caches. In fact I pulled my old trick. There is a road on the map,so we followed that. Unfortunatly the map on the road was a rough road, we did eventually make it to the location, but man it was a nasty ride.

We headed to billionj's mom heart int he desert. There were a lot of caches that made up the heart. So we were actaully planning something rather long. There were about sixty caches in the outside of the heart that we were planning on doing.

Actually we thought about doing the O in mom as well. But more on that later.

We headed out into the desert and we had a number of us. About a dozen running from small 7 year olds to mid 40's all going for a nice stroll. A stroll in the cactus and sand for 7-8 miles.

The group tended to stretch out as time went on. What started out as all of us together slowly started to string out into a longer and longer line. By the time we got to the bottom of the heart (about 20 caches into it), we all knew that some were not going to make it. Unfortunatly for those that gave up it was a two mile hike back to the cars.

As we crossed the road on the SE edge of the heart all of the kids gave up. Jac0b started back at that point. He started with the rag tag band to head back ot the cars.

A bit later A few others felt like they had enough as well. So they headed back as well. So with 35 caches and 4.5 miles of sand dunes and sagebrush ahead of us DrJay, Peanuts Parents, and myself continued to the quest. It was a long long hike.

I had forgotten how much I hated hiking in the sand. I grew up in southern Utah and we avoided sand. You have to work twice as hard. It gets in your shoes. In fact when I was done I had a lot inside my socks. It made for rough hikeing. However even had we decided to give up we were going to be hiking past many of the caches that we were looking for heading back to the car.

I never did actually measure the length. Five barbed wire fences were crossed, and many miles. It was fun to go with the people that I went with. They are a blast and I would not have enjoyed myself had I been caching on my own like I normally do.

The scenery was awesome. Given it was mostly sand, and hills. However it was really a nice break from what I see up north. Like I said I grew up seeing sights like these. Now as I get older I start to appreciate what I grew up with, and what people travel thousands of miles from around the world to see.

Needless to say the rest of the day was spent trying to pretend that we were alive. Nearly sunburned, and wanting sleep we headed back to the hotel to sleep and get cleaned up. I went to dinner later, but was pretty burned and just exhausted. So I did not eat a lot.

The next day was the drive back. I actually found another fifty caches on the way home. I really need to log them. I have tried to make each log part of the experience this year. So I put off logging (like blogging). However I will get back to it.

In all it was a great trip. Thanks for everyone that made it so enjoyable. We saw many great sights. Thanks for everyone in making it fun.
March 24, 2012
3:09
Oldest Earthcaches in Germany
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I added to my map. Jumping to Germany this time. I now added the oldest earthcaches in the parts of Germany that geocaching.com breaks the country into.

I will add other european countries as I have the chance.

View Notable Caches in a larger map
March 21, 2012
6:26
Today playing
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Here is todays project. Slowly adding "first" caches. I added the tradionals from each state, and now I am starting with the Earthcaches (one of my favorites).

View Notable Caches in a larger map
February 29, 2012
16:48
Two new coins
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I thought I would share two new that I found.

The first I traded for. It is a nielsenc Thanksgiving coin 2005. I watch for 2005 coins, and earlier. They are high on my list. The pre-2006 coins are far less common.

The other is one that I saw on Facebook. It is sold by the Space Coast Geoaching Store. I have been a fan of space and space related stuff since I was a kid. I remember being in elementary school and talking about the moon landings, Apollo-Soyuz, and Space-Lab. So when I saw it I had to grab it. There are a lot of memories about the geek (me) watching the launches of the space shuttle.
February 24, 2012
19:22
Geocoin trading and a few new buys
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I am hunting now. As some know i collect geocoins. I dont have a ton, but they are starting to get heavy. In particular I am trying to collect coins that were made by groundspeak lackeys/reviewers/moderators.

In the last few months I have been able to get a hold of a few that I really wanted, and slowly build my collection. Today I had two that came from the geocoinstore.com. When I saw them I really had to grab them.

The top is Pirate Bones Rising and the next one is the copper Seasons of Change
February 23, 2012
16:49
Groundspeak responds about C:geo
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I have heard a number of people complain that groundspeak personally is working to destroy other apps. Especially with this change in maps. It has bugged me because with my work as a moderator, and reviewer, Groundspeak has never mentioned doing anything to hurt another program. Even in the day when they asked me to moderate and pull non-geocaching.comapps out of forum listing. They were more worried about internal affairs then the work of others.

Today tBryan at groundspeak posted this note to C:geo

At Groundspeak, we have been contacted by a number of users who are angry about the impact of recent geocaching.com site changes to C:Geo users. In the spirit of transparency, here is some additional information that will hopefully help clarify what happened:

For what it's worth, our decision to remove Google maps from our site had nothing to do with C:Geo. The loss of functionality from the Cgeo application was an unintended consequence of our site change and the site change was made out of necessity due to Google's new License fee policy for Map use. We simply removed the Google maps from the site and replaced them with Open Street Maps where our former Beta Maps existed. We didn't realize that it had affected C:Geo until we were told by customers, and we certainly didn't do it with any intent of harming the application or negatively affecting geocachers.

We have offered C:Geo (and many other developers in the geocaching community) a royalty free license to use our API for the purpose of building and maintaining their app. This means that we are not asking them for any money, and they are welcome to keep their app free or charge for it. If they choose to use the API, it is fully supported and we won't likely have any similar issues going forward when we make site changes. We currently have over 100 third party developers who are either testing the API or actively using it to develop applications for geocachers (see www.geocaching.com/live and scroll down for a list of active third party api-enabled applications, including other Android apps). The offer to C:Geo stands and we'd be happy to work with them going forward. I believe we can work with them to provide a variety of functions that will ultimately make C:Geo better and more stable (at least as far as geocaching.com site changes are concerned). There may be other issues with implementation but we are happy to work through them with developers. If you ask any of the other API-enabled developers, I believe they'd happily confirm this.

Although the API is provided royalty free for the developer, there are some usage limitations. The most notable one is that basic members are limited to viewing the full details of 3 traditional caches per day. Trackable functionality, viewing basic details or caches and other features are virtually unlimited. Hopefully the basic functionality is enough for users to get started geocaching. It also allows developers to innovate, using geocaching data, with no upfront cost from Groundspeak and a built in user base. Premium Members have almost unlimited access to all cache data from geocaching.com via the API, using any API-enabled applications that they own.

So, with this new API, one of the new benefits of a $30 Premium Membership is that all geocaching.com api-enabled apps (like those on the list referenced above, and many other third party apps currently in development) have full functionality for all Premium Members. A Premium Membership has been $30/year since we introduced it ten years ago. We have never raised the price and we have worked very hard to add value to it over the years. Hopefully you'll agree that having unlimited access to geocaching data through any application you choose would be worth the price of a Premium Membership. From our perspective, we believe we'd be providing you with fair value and you'd be helping to support geocaching.com and the associated API.

So, rather than crippling other apps and C:Geo, I believe that we have opened the door to enabling other apps with geocaching data. We believe that the results will ultimately benefit the global geocaching community, including users of C:Geo. Many third party developers seem to agree and we are excited to see what Geocaching API-enabled products and services they can build for everyone.

I hope this helps. Thanks again for your feedback.

Sincerely,

Bryan

I am sure many will not believe it, but he did put it out there. Groundspeak is more worried about making their site better, and making sure changes do not effect the API. There are some cool things coming out in the next few months, and I am sure they are trying to not "break" what is there when new things are rolled out.

My two cents worth...

c:geo does not use the API. It was their decision to make, and they made it. There is a consequence. Every time there is a site upgrade, programs that do not use the API are at risk of a complete crash, or breaking the software. That is the risk they take. Unfortunately Groundspeak gets the bad reputation for someone else pulling of maps or web pages, and gets the blame far more often than the program creators.
February 21, 2012
16:45
Maps, more Maps, and a Crippled App.
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It has been a while, nearly a month or more, so it is past time that I get back into things.

The most notable change in the last month? Maps. Many will notice a change. Groundspeak does not claim that these are an upgrade, but a change.
Why the Change?
The maps came about when Google instigated a new policy that they announced last fall that they would start charging the heavy users for use of their map API. Well groundspeak delayed as long as they could before they had to actually start paying Google. So they dumped the maps for new ones. The change is not everywhere, but in many places. I expect that it will expand through other services (waymarking, cache creation pages, etc). They just pulled the heavy users at the moment. Every cache page was pulling up two Google maps. I had noticed a month or so ago that the smaller map high on the page was no longer Google, but did not give it any thought at that time.

The only actual statement of cost that I have heard from a lackey is that it would cost "a few million dollars" and maybe more.   I have heard numbers from different people tossing about $10,000 to well over $3 million. The $10,000 number is the low price of licensing through Google. Groundspeak is a very heavy user, that averages over 2,000,000 hits per day. I would guess that on big holiday weekends, that number may be 150-200% of that number, and the game is only growing.   I will stick with the "few million dollars" as only Groundspeak and Google know what the usage is and what the costs may be.

That being said, how many users are there? and income from them? This is only conjecture at this point. [Cacherstats.com] tells us that there are 165,000 cachers that have ever found over 200 caches. There may be 5,000,000 users, but most are casual, or do not log. I decided to say only 50% are paying members. I am sure a few players under 200 finds are premium members, but many over 200 have left the game in the past decade, and found new hobbies. (at least around here) or are a family with many accounts and only one or two premium accounts.

So that leaves us with 85,000 paying customers. That would be $2.5 Million dollars of income. So paying millions or even one million in fees to Google hurts the company severely. Groundspeak has a number of programmers, Customer Service, Legal Council, server and bandwidth costs. They have worked hard to improve the game, and laying off 1/3 to 1/2 of its staff would not be helpful to the game.
What Happened?
There are a few things to look at. There are three main maps that were on Geocaching.com that I recall. The old map page, the "beta" maps, and on the cache page. Those were the big hits (I am guessing).

Well the old map page went away. Groundspeak had been phasing it out for a while now, and getting the new maps ready. There was no reason for them to continue, and keeping it with a new map set would have meant reprogramming the page. No big deal, but it was at the end of its life, so it was left to Die. This had a side effect apparently (see below).

The Beta maps became the new map page. In the upper right corner is where you can shift between map layers. Personally i do like the OpenStreetMaps.

For satellite views? I moved to Google Earth, again. There are instructions on how to use them here. [www.geocaching.com] In Google earth I have KML files of Indian Lands, Wilderness areas, National Parks, and i get a cool 3D view.   Makes it easy to decide if I want to hike if I can see how high the hills actually are. I forgot how cool this feature really is.
Open Street Maps
OpenStreetmapsI find these really cool, mostly because I find maps are cool. Plus I get to work on them and add to them. I always hate maps that do not have roads, or are mission places. I went into Springville, and have added many roads, train tracks, churches, parks, etc. It is a fun project to kind of play with. The bright side.. you can make your maps better.

It took me a bit to figure out, but for the most part it is pretty simple. There are a number of tutorial aids to explain how to do it.

I am not sure if I understood correctly, but someone told me that when groundspeak gets its own tile server up and running that OSM will be set as the default. Hopefully that is true, Mapsource is not bad, but OSM is far better.
C:geo
When the site was upgraded and the old map page was tossed into groundspeak refuge pile for old web pages there was a side effect. C:geo the site scraper was tossed into turmoil. Apparently from reading their website and emails from one of the people working on the project they pulled from the old map. Getting the location and type of caches from that page.

Well with that map gone, they cannot do that any more. The new map operates in a different way. They are working on a fix, but they will be up to 150 feet off at times (50m), depending on your view. It also will not tell you what type of cache is there at that location.

You can load a PQ into it and it will work fine (I did not try that). I pulled it off my phone yesterday in frustration. I may reinstall it, but it is too cold to go caching right now (snow is on the ground from this last week).

Here is the thing. GC.com did something we were afraid for some time now. Live map was changed and old maps was also removed. c:geo relied on this old maps to get data.

In other words they felt that the old maps (the page not the Google maps) were going away. Yet apparently no plans were in place to work on the new set. Originally carnero (the original developer) was looking into the API before stopping development of c:geo and turning it over to a group. The new group has repeatedly said that the API would harm the non-premium members. So they chose not to dive into it. They

Statement on the live maps and development from them. - Here is a clip from that
In a fast, short and not good online meeting for c:geo people come up with this. Live map will come back, but it will never be the same again. It should be fast with 2 problems.
- all caches on live map will be inaccurate (+-50m or so), depending on a zoom level
- type of all caches on live map will be unknown
When a cache will be opened all details can be loaded, including type (traditional, multi, ...) and exact coordinates. Approximate time to implement this is something between 2-6 weeks.
Well, they made the decision. I am going to play with other Android services that use the API. I may review a few of them here. I have not looked at anything other than c:geo and the groundspeak app in the last year or more.

This is from the API Statement Read more here

What would change with the API?

- c:geo only for premium members
- no support for OpenCaching or other platforms than gc.com
- Groundspeak-ads

Also there are problems with development:
- development would take 2-4 months to implement the API
- during this time there would be only access to a testing-server, no nightly-builds
- devs are using the development-build for caching
- the API requires a private key for the app. But c:geo is open-source. There are a lot of independent developers, but only one would get the key - all other developers wouldn't be able to test what they do
- c:geo no longer open-source
- only few core-developers
- much slower development

Now What?
So that is where we are now. Groundspeak and C:geo are trying to decide what is next, people are trying to figure out the maps, and geocaching goes on. I hope to get out and make a day of it soon. If the snow will go away long enough for me to, or I take a trip to get away.

See you at the cache, and remember to have fun.

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January 16, 2012
18:31
Tomb Raider fun
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For those that have not heard, Groundspeak and Tomb Raider.. here is the announcement from the Tomb Raider Blog

A few clips

The collaboration will be executed through a series of location-based, worldwide adventures. Challenges will unfold through both the traditional treasure-hunting format established by Groundspeak, and the more recent photo-based framework, Geocaching Challenges.

Everything is really tight lipped. The game is not going to be released until the 3rd Quarter of 2012 (July-Sept). So I would not expect much until right before the game will come out. I thought I read somewhere that there was going to be something monthly. The apes were released one at a time, this one as well? How many, and what? Perhaps a new icon? Who knows? Mouths are shut tight at the moment
January 12, 2012
7:50
Mahogany Obsidian and Dave Lallas
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I have on my desk a piece of mahogany obsidian. I have wandered the deserts of southern Utah for most of my life yet I have never seen any. I never gathered a piece.

Obsidian is hard to find, and a larger piece or a good looking mahogany piece is even rarer to find. It is a black obsidian with mahogany colored streaks through it.

What makes this particular stone special to me is that it was given to me by Dave Lallas. Dave was one of the fantastic geocachers and rockhounders of Utah. Most of us knew him as Clodbuster2.

Dave passed away last month in a car accident, on his way north. Part of me wonders about his passing. We held a geocaching event the following morning, and he loved to come to events. He was always there with a smile. Was he on his way up to attend it with us? Did we miss one more chance of spending some time with him?

I remember a few months ago as we headed out to the webcam cache at BYU. He had not found that one yet, and the event was finished. I said that I would capture it with my phone. He was tickled pink. Not just that he was getting the cache but that he was going out with someone. We laughed and joked, the event that should have been 30 minutes turned into something more like two hours, laughing and passing the time telling stories.

If caching is obsidian, than Dave was the mahogany color. He took something that many people enjoyed and with his smile, laughter, and spirit added something special. We would wonder about a puzzle cache, and out would come his three inch binder with all the puzzles in the area, or even the state. So he could refer to, and see if we could help him solve it, or him help us.

Well this last fall we went to Delta for the Utag meeting. We spent a fair amount of time with him, he helped us with a few caches, and we placed some near where he lived and where he would be the one searching for them. Well as we passed through his home town, we stopped and had a discussion with him for a few minutes.

Part of the discussion turned to the rocks he had about, and all the obsidian, quartz, ores, and other stones that were about his yard. In the process I mentioned that I was looking for where I could find some obsidian. He walked off and grabbed a few stones and gave me. I brought them home and set them aside and never gave them much thought.

Well now I see them I think of him. It saddens me that we have lost someone that friendly, caring, and fun to be around. I regret that i did not take him up on more caching adventures. We always meant to get together and do some hiking, and looking for some great caches. The beauty in the stone, the color is now gone.

I know that there are others, but there will never be another Dave. Hopefully I will be able to be as good of a friend, tolerant, and generous as Dave. Perhaps those of us that knew him can bring the "color to the obsidian" like he did for us.

I knew this was going to be my next entry in my blog, yet part of me did not want to make it. So since his death before Christmas this has been silent. I knew that if I wrote about something else that I would not do this, but I wanted to.

Well Dave I hope that where you are you are happy, and you found the answers to those pesky puzzles that bothered you. Thanks for being my example, thanks for being a friend, thanks for bringing the color into life. I will keep the special obsidian sample to remind me of you, and to have fun. It is all a game, and I was happy to have played with you.
December 19, 2011
18:39
Oldest Active Caches in Germany
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At the request I have added a page for the oldest active caches in Germany.

Currently I am Finishing out 2001, So I should get all the caches listed from the start to 2001. Once again (as with my other lists) I will add those that were placed in 2001, but were published in the first week or two of 2002. If you was placed in 2001 but published in February, it will not be listed.

View Oldest active geocaches in Germany in a larger map
December 16, 2011
1:21
Cache Map of Utah
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I created a map of the first caches in Utah. They run up to June 30, 2001. You can see the written list on my Oldest in Utah page.

View Oldest Caches in Utah in a larger map
December 13, 2011
6:40
Maps - We Love Maps
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I just added a map to my oldest active geocache page. I am still updating it, but thought you would like a peek.

This is all the caches that are active up to Nov 30, 2000

View Year 2000 of Geocaching in a larger map

For more info go to [firennice.squarespace.com]
December 08, 2011
21:30
Opencaching.com at one year
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We stand at a year. One year of opencaching.com. Where did it come from? What is its status? and were are we going? I thought I would take the time to look at it.
Where did it come from?
There are a few thoughts, a few ideas as to why it came into being. Why would a for profit company make a free service. Well to sell more GPS units.   The general consensus is that they were upset in Groundspeaks Geomate Jr. A small device with no purpose but to push you to caches that were preloaded (later they added a device where you could add more caches to it). In one way I can see the worry with Garmin. Groundspeak is not a competitor. Even though it was on the fringe, would it be the end. What if groundspeak pushed for another, larger one. I am sure it was a scary thought, for Garmin, Magellen, and other companies. Would there be another competitor.

There were rumblings at Groundspeak when the Garmin Chirp (tm) showed up. I know it annoyed Jeremy and a few others. They had tossed the idea of something similar to them a while ago. So having a similar product pop up was annoying. However it was the fact that something that was really made for geocaching, was kept behind the scenes and quiet. Who knows the reasoning, or who had the idea first, but it was odd that it was a surprise that it

Some suggest that because almost all hand held units are Garmin in geocaching circles that they jumped in to grab the market. To keep a hold of it. Perhaps, however there is a flaw in that. Almost every person I know that owns a handheld GPS either has cached once or twice with it or not at all. Cachers are a very small number. Tens of thousands of units are sold every year. Hunters, fisherman, back country enthusiasts, search and rescue, ATVers, scouts and governments buy those units. Many decide to try this out, but it is not the main purpose of the their purchase. However Garmin may have thought it a market to slip into. Long term.

Lackeys and volunteers were slightly worried. What would you think? A company with $3.5 billion in sales, deciding that they want to compete. Groundspeak does not release its number, however I am guessing they would be happy with 1% of that.

Then the name of the new site showed up. Opencaching.com They have said online that they did not steal the name. That is true. The name, and website were available, and they grabbed it. They also say they were in discussion with the opencaching network. I do not believe that any of the managers of the websites ever said they were contacted. In fact most stated that they were never contacted, and they were surprised. So though not flat out wrong and prohibited, it did slap the faces of those other websites.

Ironically, it was the people that support and push the other websites that wanted another site. The forum discussions on those sites were not pleased in the theft or slap in the face of the Opencaching network.

What would Garmin do? What would they come up with? A dozen different ideas were pouring out. How would it be managed? And would it be better?
The arrival of Opencaching.com
You could not believe the collective sigh of relief that I heard from Groundspeak employees and volunteers, when the site was released.   The money that could have been dumped into it, did not appear to have been spent. Things were buggy, problems filled the site. Enough that many people who went to visit, did not want to return.

Bugs are expected. Like every site we did expect the rough edges. However there were a number of bugs, some of them serious that should not have been in place.   These were only small issues compared to the core of the site.

There was no review.    So a number of horrible caches appeared. Caches in wilderness areas, forests and parks where they are not allowed, caches rejected on geocaching.com for many other reasons. All found their way to the opencaching.com site. To be fair, the fast majority were fine, but many were listed that should not have been.

Eventually they added peer reviewing to the site. Then you are at the mercy of others. Did you follow the process? I have seen caches next to others, commercial, and other problems. Worse people were denying things for dumb reasons. People could not get some caches listed because someone just said no. That happens on the geocaching.com site. A reviewer may say no, but they are to point out the reasons, and you have an appeal. Here it seemed final. Some were trying to do their best in reviewing the caches, and yet some were just tossing their thoughts, without event thinking.

On another front there are many that love caching, that have been removed from the geocaching.com site with bans or suspensions. Forums turned into how evil and horrible geocaching.com was, and bickering about the other site. This was going to be the future.

Yet there was nothing new. Tweaks of course. The little radar for awesomeness, terrain, difficulty and size. However still the same type of site, in fact there are fewer cache types. Of course there are no Wherigo or Earthcaches as those are property of Groundspeak and GSA. Multi, Puzzle, and Traditional, eventually they added Virtual. There are no events yet. When you make your cache page, you cannot place photos, or in your logs.
Caches
Ultimately what counts is the caches and their visits. Well there are caches. I have mentioned before there just are not many unique caches. It has been a year, and there currently are about 19,500 caches. If we look at caches that are unique only to geocaching.com. To compare there are are over 300,000 more active caches this year than last. That does not count archived caches from both sites, but it gives you an idea of the numbers between the two.

There were a few large jumps in caches. Obviously there was a jump in the first two months. There were 8000 that were added during that period. Another month during a contest about 4000 were added. So during the other nine months there were 8000 caches listed.

Total numbers of caches at opencaching.com

Some state those number are good, compared to when geocaching started. Geocaching had 7,000 after the first year, so nearly 20,000 caches was good. Yet if you break out the unique caches, caches that are only on that website, you have 1500. Not a really great number.

I have one cache there, yet it is in the center of a populous area. I created it on the first week. Yet in that entire time I have had one log there. It has been disappointing. I have heard that from a number of others. We place caches to be found, really we place them to be logged. If there are no logs it is disappointing.

Another issues is people placing caches on multiple sites is that you can ignore those that are not "important". I know of one that is gone, or has been gone for a while. Yet still it is listed on the site. Mostly because there are not people logging dnf's and the owner just ignores it.   That could pose an issue in the future.
Where are we going?
To be honest I don't know. Geocaching.com will continue to move forward. Just like it always has. What happens to Opencaching is more difficult to figure out.   How committed are the people pushing the Garmin site? How much money do they put into it. Technically it is not very expensive. Server space that they already own, bandwidth, a programmer or two, free time from a marketing person. No one knows the goals or timeframe they have.

It needs to find a niche. What that is I don't know. It can't be the place of anti-Groundspeak. It is like being anti-Microsoft. You have to have something that helps you stand out. Or you just have people arguing in the corner, crying about how evil the other guy is.   Trying to find their future is tricky.

At the moment I would say they are being left behind. They have some interesting ideas, they have tried a number of different things, but eventually they need to find something that makes them stand out. They need to grow, and be unique, but I don't see that right now.

Only the future will tell.

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November 18, 2011
8:56
New Geocoin Up for sale
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Well after a few months of work, emailing and taking my time my first coin is moving into the production circle. I gor my first three samples this week, and here they are.

The coins are 1/2" thick and 1-3/4" in diameter, and will have a custome icon.

The front is the scene of Rainbow bridge. Rainbow bridge is a National Mounument that is considered sacred to the native Americans, and is not visited by many people because of how remote it is.

The back is from a photo I took at Potter's ponds this last year. That is the location of the first cache in Utah. The 29th oldest, and one of three for the month of August that can be used for the Jasmer challenge.
At the moment I am taking pre-orders, and reservations.
In eight days I will place the order for them. If you email me at blue.rajah.ut @ gmail.com and let me know if you want to preorder, or reserve a coin. I will send you an email with a paypal link to pay. If you plan on catching me at an event, tell me and I will do what I can to get it to you to save the $3 shipping (for 1-2 coins - stateside shipping).

The only ones up for sale will be the nickel and the brass ones. Sorry, I will me making a few of the copper ones, for me. For me to trade, gifts, family, etc.

I will be placing the order right after thanksgiving. Then 3-4 weeks I will have them (hopefully sooner) and get them all out. So they should be in your hands just before christmas to new years. sometime in that window.

The coin costs $11

Please email me what coins you want (Brass, Nickle), your mailing address , and how many you would like. If there are any questions I will get back with you. For those preordering I will email you a paypal invoice for you to pay off of, and so i have record to be able to mail them out.

Thanks for supporting me in the project, and I hope you like them.

***edited to remove preorder and reserved info- people were still trying to do that and they are not available that way anymore***

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November 10, 2011
3:18
Groundspeak Android App - Part 1 - Finding A Cache.
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I thought I would do another update with the geocaching app and kind of do a step through to help people.

This is the startup screen. It is only online for a few seconds.

Screen #2 - The start screen
Start Screen
On the start screen there are a number of options. The first thing that you should do is click the button on the top. (See screen #2) The one here listed as "Switch User" I do not remember if there is another option if no one is ever put in. You will notice that when you are logged in you have your icon from geocaching.com, player name, find count and if you are a premium member.

On this page you see a number of options. (see screen #2 again) Of these we will only deal with the "Find Nearby caches" but first, select your menu button. Two options will pop up "Settings" and "Help" select the Settings button.

Screen #3 - Settings
Settings
On the settings screen you can set it up to be able to modify your hunts for caches.
Basic/Advanced
The top one has two menu options. Basic and Advanced. When you do a search and have Basic selected, it will show only the traditional caches in the area. If you have Advanced everything will show up. This means it will include Letterbox, puzzle, multi-caches, events, etc. Everything that appears on a geocaching website will be on your screen
Show All/Hide Finds
The next option down is what will take off caches that you have already found. Sometimes you may not want to see the caches that you have already found. Removing them from your search list
Units
This lets you change things from Imperial (miles/feet) to metric (kilometers.meters)
Database Location
This will determine where the database is located on the phone or on the SD card.

Screen #4 - The cache lis

Now our actual search. If we go back to Screen #2 above is select the Find Nearby Caches. A list of caches will pop up.

This lets you know a number of things about the caches. The icon for the type of caches. The check-mark that is show points out that I have found the cache before. You also see the name, GC#, Direction, Distance Favorite Points, if there are trackables, distance, and difficulty/terrain.

You can select a cache here.

Screen #5 - Cache PageThis screen adds many more options, and shows the same info as the previous screen, however there is more. This screen adds The date the cache was placed, the last find, and who placed it.

Some more options
Navigate to Geocache
I will cover that in just a minute.
Description
This will give you all the info that is on the cache page.

Recent Logs

This will show you some of the last logs, and there is a spot on the bottom of the page to be able to load more caches logs than you can see.
Hint
Really you want to see a hint?
Attributes
You can get a list of attributes for the cache if the cache owner has selected some.
Inventory
This will tell you if there are any travel bugs or geocoins in the cache and what they are. You can actually select those and get more information about them.
Post a Log/Field Note
I will deal with this on a future entry.
Add to favorites
Give the cache a favorite point if you like it.
Save to offline list.
This lets you save a cache to a list of caches so that you can review them offline.
Remove from offline list.
If it was on a list and now you want to take it off.
Find nearby Geocaches
This one lets you do a new search, centered from the cache you are at now
View on Geocaching.com
Takes you to the website
View on External Map
You can go to another map and check the cache.

Screen #6Now lets look at the map from Navigating to Geocaching. The map will show you how to get to the cache. There is a menu at the bottom.

The compass will show a compass pointing to the cache. Adding a waypoint will let you select another location to go to, manually.

The Map mode will let you switch to a street view and a Satellite view.

Another search button, and another button that takes you to the settings.

Well that is it for now.
October 27, 2011
5:42
Geocoin time
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Well after I made a coin a few years ago I decided it was time for round two. I have been looking for places for some time, and decided that it was time to dive in.

I got these back today after I spent my time working on them. Hopefully I will have a sample soon. Needless to say I am exited.

i wanted to find two things, both deal with Utah. Everyone does delicate arch. So I thought I would use Rainbow Bridge. A really cool monument in the desert. The back came to me after a lot of thought. I had taken a picture at the location of Potter's Ponds. So I decided to use that photo for the back, and highlight the cache.

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October 23, 2011
22:40
How to annoy your geocache reviewer
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This is not meant to be a "how to" but more a of different way to avoid annoying your reviewer. Some of the things that people do have no effect on me being annoyed, other things drive me insane. Remember that if you place one cache, that you are one of 10-60 that are looked at in a single day.
The annoying list - the top 10 for me 10 - You Cheat
I used to like to do puzzle caches, they were fun and it was great to be able to say, "Yep I found that horribly evil cache and solved the puzzle" When people found out that I was the reviewer I got a few messages second hand where people accused me of cheating to solve the puzzle. lt is soo hard and I am so dumb that I could not solve it on my own.

This took much of the fun away from me. I have a number that i have solved, and I just drive by them. Someday I will visit them, but I don't know when.

Another variation is that I told someone where the cache was. I have never told anyone and don't plan that I ever will.
9 - I was driving through and thought this spot looks cool
Oh crap, how do you deal with this. When I ask about maintenance and the answer is "I will just archive it when there are problems/" I know I am in trouble. That is not how the system works, and why we don't want a vacation caches.

I have had a few situations where it was even worse.

"Yes I will have TomDick&Harry maintain it for me" - them

"Sorry you are within 528' of another cache" -me

"I can't move it, i live a long ways away, please list it, I will not let it happen again." them

"Why can't the person that will be maintaining it for you? - me

"They dont live near there either." - Them

"Sorry, if no one is nearby to move it then you obviously have no maintainer" - me

how can it be worse?

"But I have three travel bugs in there, they will be lost forever." - Them

>>Facepalm<<
8 - I have 20/30/40+ caches to list tomorrow morning - Here they are
It does not happen often but I get a pile of caches that need to be listed for an event, or something special. It takes time, and you are one cacher out of a dozen. Why should others wait because of you. Give it some time.

I have also had a cache that needed to be listed by a certain date. Event caches are that way, or a cache for an event or a birthday.   Too often people don't check their emails when there were problems. One sent me mean emails when I had not listed their cache, and they had not noticed until right before. They had not seen my email, did not check if it was listed, and never addressed problems, until it was too late.
7 - I must be the reviewers best friend - At all costs
Don't call me, phone me, appear on my doorstep (except for my cache). I like people, and I like caching. Yet there are boundaries. When I am teaching my scouts I dont want my scouts be caching, or church to be caching, or my family time to be caching.. wait, actually i do want that last one.

Don't become my friend on every social media, and interject caching into everything. Sometimes a picture of me and my Dog is just that, for fun. Not a planning trip for caching. I enjoy talking caching when it is appropriate. I also like photography, and enjoy when they naturally go together.

Don't read every log I ever made, or just follow me around town. Restraining orders are a pain to get.
6 - Get mad about hidden waypoints, or premium caches, or saturation
I did not place the multi-cache that fills the entire park, or make it a premium cache that you were not aware was there. I did not place your cache 300' from one that is clearly marked. I feel bad when that happens, I do. However there are rules in place. I like to review. If I just listed everything I got I would not be doing it for long.
5 - A long list of coords to check
Ok, you may not know this. But when I need to check coords for hidden waypoints for others I have to make a cache page. I go through the process like you. It may not take time to do 1 or 2. But twenty is a pain in the butt. This is not an obvious one, but it does annoy me.

Simple way to fix create a cache page, and label it that you are checking coords. In the additional waypoints that you can add, add all the other coords that you want to check. It makes it very simple for me.
4 - The commercial or agenda cache
I don't want to go into the argument of if they are ok or not. Just that agendas are dear to peoples hearts. Breast Cancer, Veterans, Senator Charles, President Willy, are all troubled. I don't like arguing the point. Usually because I support your thoughts.

Note: If you get mad if your cache is accused of being an egenda and we ask you to remove some text to make it ok, then usually it is clear that it is an agenda. For most non agenda caches, asking a needed change would not cause people to get upset.
3 - Complaining about powertrails, micros, hard caches, dangerous, etc.
I dont approve caches, I publish them. I dont determine that power trails are cool, though I do enjoy them. If you hate those go to the forums and start the argument.   If a cache is by a dumpster, dont go find it. If it is on a cliff, avoid it. I am not forcing you to get the cache. Complaining to me does little good.
2 - Offensive language
Calling me a whore, slut, or other language that is far more offensive does not make me love you more. I am not more likely to take your side on that argument or another in the future. When I archive your cache because it has been ignored, disabled for 8 months, or post a warning note it does you no good to get mad. Sometimes I do make a mistake, or jump the gun on an archival. A friendly email may make me see it from another angle, and angry email just makes me move on to the next email.
1 - The "I am the only person in the world" syndrome.
Reviewers do not take the job because one person is so great in their area they cannot wait to see their caches and publish them.   Treat me like trash that works for you, and I will ignore you. When 30 caches come up I go through them one at a time. If I see issues I come back to them. If I am on my phone publishing, I will come back later when at home. If I am in a hurry, I list the ones that will clear a few out for hunters, and do my other stuff.

The goal is to do the first review of caches in 72 hours. You may see others listed, and you may have issues. Look at it closer. I may have also only done 30 out of 100.

If you have issues, you drop to the bottom of the pile. Don't whine, complain, email hourly, text, call, IM, post on my wall every few minutes. I go through those that have had issues one at a time.

Please email me to remind me if it has taken a while. It can get buried. Just don't bombard me.

What people think annoys me that does not
Some people think these bug me. They usually don't.
Take it to appeals
Does not bother me. They make the rules, they can bend/break them. Not me. They say it is ok, then it is ok. I point some people to try and take it to appeals, most of the time with no luck.
Gentle Reminders
I have gone on vacations, walked away for a few days, been buried, forgot to click "watch" on a cache and see your notes. A simple email does not bother me, and helps me get going.
Pointing out Mistakes
I have had people point to me caches where there are issues. Things that slip by me. Sometimes they are not serious enough for me to archive, other times they are. Thanks for letting me know.
October 11, 2011
18:22
One worked, the other didn't.
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Book Deal
A week and a half ago I interviewed with a book publisher to update the Idiots guide to Geocaching. I thought things went really well. However, someone else did much better. So my change faded away. Hopefully things will move forward. Maybe that is the spark to do my own book. It would be fun, and a challenge, and a lot of work.

I had a feeling when i contacted them last week. They were supposed to have made the decision, but had decided to interview another. In the real world that usually points at one of two things. The boss has asked you to interview his relative or good friend. So you do that just to be nice and get it over with. The other option is that they were not entirely satisfied and decided to add another into the mix. The nice part is that I am one of four others that are depressed today.
Geocaching Merit Badge
This weekend I teach Geocaching at Brigham Young University. Actually it is to a ton of scouts. 120 to be exact. Three classes of forty. So I have been throwing together a power point. There is another teacher and we each have a 2-3 assistants.

Well, at the moment I am done with my power point. I am looking for a place to upload it. It does not seem to work well here. The file is 15meg and throws an error. It is not very useful outside of scouts as it has a lot of time on Safety, first aid, Leave no trace, etc. Thought it is a presentation.. the presenter still needs to talk about a lot to make it clear.
October 06, 2011
2:57
Farewell to Steve
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About 30+ years ago I walked into a classroom and saw the computer in the back corner, an Apple II. For the next 3-4 years, that computer did more for me than many others. It was actually an apple II+

The clunky and massive computer. Built in keyboard and so much more.

The specs for this monster...

48k of memory. (not meg, not gig, but k).

Drives held 128k floppy disks. Big disks. There were some odd colors. 16 total if i remember. But all your text were green on a black screen. Unless you programmed it different.

Games, programming, formating cute girls disks. It was an amazing maching for a nerd from the day.

I look back now and think of that as the beginning. My first computer I owned was the original after market Mac upgrade. That was ten years later.

I would never return to them. CAD software took me another way. Never to return.

It did form me. It taught me to work with them, and not to be afriad. I went to college to go into computer science. Something new, and exiting. I never did continue that. I realized I like to draw more than I liked to program.

I helped others, teaching others how to use them, and the Macs that followed. I spend many times in college computer labs showing people how the Macs worked, how to avoid viruses, and planting funny ones on others. Those days are long gone now. But they did form me and my future.

Thanks Steve Jobs for the vision you and Wozniak had. Thanks for telling people they wanted a computer in their home. Thanks for making the Apple II and Macintoshes. they pushed me on your path.

Though I do not follow apple any longer I feel part of me has moved on. Sorry you moved on at the young age that you did. Farewell, and my condolences to your family and friends.
October 03, 2011
17:30
Opencaching.com update.
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Helloooooo all.

Thought I would chime in with a few notes, and interesting observations.
Opencaching.com
Not to be confused with opencaching.us .dk or some of the original opencaching crowd. I am speaking of the ones by Garmin.

It was interesting to note that this last week there were fewer caches on opencaching.com than the week before.

A friend that collects the data from OC.com pointed it out to me earlier this week. I did not ask him to use his numbers here so I will not toss him under the bus for all to see. But there are a few things to note. The site is not quite a year old. They have about 17,500 caches, that were added. Of those it appears 5-10% are unique. So most of you will go out out find a cache and will find that more than 9 out of 10 are already on the geocaching.com website.

Opencaching stats. Top Total, Bottom new additions.

You can see the huge jump in cache submission when they had their GPS unit giveaway. There was none when they did their chirp giveaway. At least I don't see one. (I cannot remember when they did that.

It could be that things are leveling off. It appears that way. Most that I have talked to locally have not noticed a find on their caches. Some of the finds are imports. You can import your finds from other caches, so they will appear. So even logs that are there may be copies of the logs from geocaching.com.
Advertising
On another note.. there was an ad in backpacker magazine for opencaching. The pics were sent to me. I did find them rather funny.

If you look to the right you get the image that I was sent. Below is the blowup.

Yep you got it. On a advertisement that is for Garmin's opencaching.com there is a nice picture of a GPS unit. If you notice the GPS unit is showing a GC# or a geocaching.com cache.

Time to have a talk with your Advertising people .
Summary
I wonder what is in store. Most people that I know of have never heard of the site still. Or if they have they have not desire to do anything with it. It does not bode well for opencaching. They are approaching the 20,000 cache milestone. Assuming there are no more geocides, where people just archive all they have.

I think they may become a niche market. Though I am not sure what there corner is.

the Opencaching network seems very innovative. They are trying new things and doing things that the other sites are not trying.

Terracaching has its "private entry". You have to find sponsors, and people that trust you. Their idea is to push the hide quality. I am not sure that hold true anymore.

Navicache... meh... not sure. Just being an alternative is not enough.

Garmin has tossed some interesting ideas into the works. I think it has pushed Groundspeak to respond faster. In the past they may have planned Project A for January, B for March, C for May. Now it appears they are working on A, B, and C for January, with C,D,and E lined for for Feb, March. They are tackling more, faster, and trying new things.

All of this is good for caching. What people will do next.. we have to see.
September 27, 2011
6:31
UTAG Event and Cache Day
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Prologue
I received an phone call earlier in the week from Peanuts Parents. He was wondering if I would go out to the event with him this last weekend with him.
Friday night. - The Drive
Well after a quick review of things with my wife, I got the green light. So Friday night we headed south to Kanosh. He has a little cabin there.

The drive was a long one, about two hours. Ok well it was not really long, but it was long enough for me. I am not big on many hours in the car. The plus is that I was able to grab caches on the way south. Normally that is a no no. Kids are not fond of stopping for a lot of caches. We took the time to find a mystery cache in Nephi, then stopping in Fillmore to grab another cache.

When we got to Kanosh, Utah just as it was just getting dark. He showed me around the area, inside and out. There is a great view of Utah's West desert with various cinder cones and old extinct volcanoes.

PeanutsParents had a ton of caches. And I do mean a ton. So we spent a good part of the night talking and putting together many of the containers for his cache run.
Sunrise over Utah's west desert. Saturday Morning
The next morning is when the adventure began. We left early in the morning. About 7:00 AM if my mind is correct. Things are fuzzy for me early in the morning. We packed things up, and got everything ready. Neither of us wanted to sleep too long.

There are no stores in Kanosh. So food is what be had brought with us. Well, that was some Jolly Ranchers and a few V8's. what more could you ask for.

Our drive began and we stopped for one or two caches that Peanuts had never grabbed before even though he was nearby. He had left them for the perfect moment. Now.

Then our drive included him placing a number of caches. So as we headed into town and he took me to a few caches, we started to see many of the nice caches that I had never been to.

Then off into the desert.

The desert west of Kanosh is pretty sparse. This year as you walk around there are a number of desert flowers blooming, and a little green. It has been pretty wet (for a desert) this year.

We headed to a string of caches that had been placed earlier this year down a little dirt road. Well that is where things got strange. The road was no more than a few car tracks into the desert. We needed to go three miles. So off we went in our truck. (Bad Idea #1) Those car tracks dwindled until we were on a ATV trail. That was getting a little nerve wracking. Then it turned into a cow trail only a few hundred yards from where we were going. Then little by little a few tracks joined ours. (We did get the caches)

I am not sure that was the wisest choice, but it was not our last dumb one.
The race to the event.The roadless road.
We headed off to the event so we would not be late. The event was about 30-40 miles to the north. Well we were heading west. In the desert. At one point we had a choice. Head south, 8 miles to the road, or take a dirt road to the north.

Well I voted for north. It seemed logical, we were going that way.

Bad idea #2 - Eventually the road got nasty. very nasty. In fact it was not there. You could see remains. It had been a road where they placed a power-line up out in the desert. in the 70's. but not much of one now.

I admitted that I had made a bad decision. Peanuts decided perhaps we would drive on. (Bad Idea #3). So off we went. I snapped a pic out the window. You can see where the road was, but not much of a road, and few have traveled it in years.

Happily we reached the rail line and there was an option to go North or South (there was a road there). Well once again, why go south to reach or destination in the North. (Bad Idea #4). It was 7 miles. but the roads were even worse. I wish I had taken a photo or video. Eventually the road turned into a two-track trail, then a single track. We could see where the road had been. It would have been in the 50's. We traveled wash outs and horrible ledges. And eventually it faded to a cow trail. Eventually as we came within a mile the road started to appear again. People had traveled it from the other end anyway.

We got to the event an hour late. Oh yea... did I forget to mention we had a flat? When we finally hit the highway we found out that we had a flat. The tire was so hot I could hardly touch it. Same with the lug nuts. Ahhh life int he desert. Welll not many were at the event, but it was nice anyway.
Hunting for the benchmark.Drive home
The drive home was an afternoon with benchmarks. Peanuts was putting caches near them. We actually found three that were placed by other cachers doing the same thing. So we were pre publishing ftfs on them. Ahhh the joy of people with the same ideas.

We had fun hunting for them on the way. Especially the ones buried, that we actually had to find.

Benchmarks can be way off anyway. A hundred feet or more. If you can find the sign marking them you may be in luck. But even then they are buried in the sand in the desert. So we had to work to drag them out.

That was the afternoon drive home. We found another 10 benchmarks, making for about 20 benchmarks on the day, with about 50 caches. Plus Peanuts placed another 25-30. So it was a long fun day. We were tired when we made it back home.