Monday 30 July 2012

groundspeak emails

It looks like groundspeak are having email problems, just starting to get emails through now for caches I archived Friday. Just wondering if this could also be the slow time in getting caches published? Answers on a postcard

settings, doh....

Thanks to Collin at ukgeocaching podcast I have solved the unable to comment problem and the silly predictive text problem.

maintenance and puztoks part du

Day two of puztokgate and the reviewers are not budging waiting for orders from groundspeak. Now don't get me wrong but I've come across a frog coin cypher that was published in Bristol surely then that should be archived for similarly the same thing.

Whilst most people have bought these puztoks at £10 for a set of ten, some have been given out to cachers to seed and dr solly has tons to seed whilst out around the country. It's also obvious the codes will come common knowledge as they become popular, but why is groundspeak being so anal?

Ten letters equalling ten numbers isn't exactly rocket science to work out. There is many online program's that can figure out the cipher and most cachers can work out the first 4 to 5 characters from the puzzle icon location as it has to be within two miles of the icon. So this leaves the last three nothings and last three westings and guess what? At least two of the numbers will probably be in there from the 51 or 001 of the co ords making it a 1 in 16 chance of getting the next number correct on first go. All I can say is keep submitting them for review they might then just take the hint.

Back on to maintenance today another couple missing in action and one moved from 8 ft up a tree to near the base by the tree surgeons so I archived it. One other needed a new and dry logbook and container leaving me with three more to check on.

I also placed a new cache called lots of top cheating which involves yes, cheating ask people for the co ords, follow cachers to the co ords, the only rule is that you must physically sign the cache.

Sunday 29 July 2012

maintenance and puztoks

It all started Friday when I discovered my 5/5 had been trashed, not an easy one to get to at least a 12m ladder or ropes so had to be someone who had done it in the past. The container was within throwing distance which frodo found minus the camo tape.

So Saturday I started to go round maintaining my caches and placing some new caches. First container needed a new logbook so I archived it and placed a new cache nearby. The next was fine, however the next two on a byway were gone. Not to be put off I decided to place new ones using puztoks that I got from the geolympix.

Puztoks are 10 different coins in ten different colours each colour having its own cipher. One is a=2b=4 and so on another a=3 b=4 and so forth.

The idea of them is to use as a cipher tool and no different to googling online decipher tools on the Internet. With a 1 in 100 chance of getting the first letter correct with out then then 1 in 81, 1 in 49 and do forth it's not quantum physics. The fact that you already know that the first 3 are 51 2 and 001 2 gives you the first four of 10 numbers giving you a 1 in 36 chance of getting the next number and so forth.

However on sending them through for review the reviewer said no as they need more info and guidance from groundspeak this is after they published a series in Oxford including GC3Q2VT and GC36E5G

I have asked geocaching friends with out these tokens to crack them and most have in less than ten minutes using little more than a map or gps to punch the numbers in and plot where the cache will be.

So what now? I'm waiting for the reviewer to get back, the organiser of the geolympix is now looking into this and many locals with puztoks are wondering if they bought a white elephant?

Well it's not stopping me, I know of a dozen caches waiting to be published and I'm going to place a lot more yet to the stage that they will just have to do something.

So if you have puztoks get placing out the caches and maybe you will get a sensible reviewer who uses common sense. If not publish a quantum physics thesis and set the cache with that lol.

Saturday 28 July 2012

GC3RC7Q awaiting publishing

My monkey tree cache a 5/5 was found by me and frodo destroyed, the only way to get to it is at least a 12m ladder or ropes. only one person came to mind who even had a grudge and to top it all off they even had time to peel off the camo tape. thanks to frodo for finding it. So far many people have pointed the finger to the same trasher sorry cacher. So i decided to put out another hard cache,but this time harder to solve so the only way they will find it is to solve the puzzle which a. they dont do and b. they cant do as their brain capacity couldnt cope. Therefore someone else will have to solve it or tell them where to go. Cant wait to see how people do and see if i cant guess who will be next after whoever the FTFer is. Im not saying anything now on how i put the puzzle together or the location of the cache, but i will say it brings the very old with the slightly new of which will become apparent at gz and many people wont even know it existed, thats what caching is about bringing people to new places.

Thursday 26 July 2012

Geoylimpx and the last couple of days.

Ive been so so busy in the last couple of days. It all started with the bike ride on Tuesday, this was a lovely ride with various icons picked up and a blank d/t square filled in (to find another one has changed and become blank again). Rode past JK's house and a few of us met at the pub and after cooling down decided to go do the south section of jolly jax's new series that's based on the otmoor challenge. At the start i decided to pack my waders hearing of the depths that the water gets to and only needed them on for one cache to get through. in 30c heat wearing waders is a weird experience. there was some good hides on this series and some high d/t's in places which always a bonus. At the pub meet i didnt stay long as i hadnt eaten all day and was starting to dehydrate so decided it was time to head home, log what ive done, cool off in the bath before preparing for the nights night cache event. Arriving a bit early at the night cache event on christmas common i was greeted by simply paul, here i was informed that i had come second in the treasure hunt game at the last event and kindly was able to pick a prize, sadly no hoodies as i would have had one. While Paul set up the night event i was left to greet anyone who turned up including Alex aka wonkey donkey. Near to the start we were broken from the peace as two military helicopters flew over and over very low down on night training exercises, no doubt they would be wondering what a group of cachers were doing out here at this time of night. Some more people turned up and Paul told us what we had to do (no i wont give it away as it will make it more interesting if I or Paul hold another one) so off into the forest to find our prey. I soon had one to hand, but a new twist had been added, Paul was going to come into the forest after 10 mins to hunt us down with only a headtorch and light saber and lots of noises. Soon Paul was on his way and suddenly in the distance i could see the light saber waving about, kind of spooky. Soon he was near so i sat down next to a tree with my torches off ready to do a blinding light and run attack lol. but he walked passed and i followed a little way before making my escape up another path. Later I could see wonkey donkey coming down the track so into stealth mode using just a uv light to see my way i followed down another track and jumped out on him. By now we had been in the forest an hour so we decided to make our way back looking for other cachers which my led lenser torch would illuminate quickly and make them look like started rabbits. I only found one so came in third place, but had my pleasure of stalking and jumping out of people in a forest that had deer and other nocturnal animals within. Wednesday morning (well the nightcache was technically Wednesday morning but Tuesday night) was the walk meet up at Woodstock. Sat in the shade we talked about ways of using the new puztok's designed for the geolympix in our caches and ideas to go on. Later we went for a walk around Blenhiem Palace in blistering 30c+ heat. The first cache found by me, the third once everyone had given up and seen the dnfs from the previous two attempts and joint find on the forth with wonkey donkey. On to the evening it was a trip to Coombe Hill for the closing ceremony of the geolympix, not only was we at i believe the highest point in Buckinghamshire at around 825ft but Britain oldest remaining traditional geocache is up here, a nice size ammo box hidden in a nice location. The BBC Mike Bussell cache is up here featured on a bbc news story on geocaching last year, so got them too. A group photo and closing words from Paul on the event and everyone given a pictok to put out in geocaches in a hope it will take off, mine will go out somewhere wherever i end up on holiday next month. Whilst up here me and wonkey donkey set about solving the night cache trail head. we ended up at the pub for a cold drink and some food before finally cracking it to the amusement of team hippo who had set it. This was an excellent night cache that got harder and harder and needed two of you due to some of the stages where you had to re pick up the trail. We soon had the numbers to hand and soon lost the trail as we looked round i could see two trail markers, heres the next stage i shouted as i headed to it to find it was a deer hiding by a tree which got up and ran off. When we eventually got to what we thought was gz we were then pointed to the next stage where wonkey donkey showed me something on my garmin i didnt know existed and we soon had the nice size ammo can to hand. Well what a week, im looking forward to seeing all the pictures soon and am back to work today for a well earned rest :) This week is certainly one i will remember and most enjoyable mega event/week ever. Thank you to Paul and the geolympix team for all their hard work and also to everyone who attended and made it so successful.

Monday 23 July 2012

Another gold for me

After doing my stats today I decided to check www.project-gc.com to see my rankings and yes now confirmed im oxfordshires top cacher again by beating jollyjax (a lovely bloke) back to the top.

my stats

username has 7958 Finds on 7956 unique Geocaches
username has 7958 Finds on 7956 unique Geocaches

Statistics generated on 23/07/2012

Cumulative Finds by Month
Cumulative Total
Annual Totals


Finds by Month
  2012       2011       2010       2009       All  

2012
  177
 
216
 
362
 
190
 
363
 
90
 
125
 
Total finds 1523
Days caching 92
Average finds per caching day 16.6
Overall finds per day 7.4
Average finds per week 52.0
Average finds per month 226.1
Month: JanFebMarAprMayJun JulAugSepOctNovDec
Days caching: 2312117141213     

2011
  302
 
217
 
510
 
494
 
513
 
243
 
404
 
523
 
232
 
137
 
202
 
292
 
Total finds 4069
Days caching 254
Average finds per caching day 16.0
Overall finds per day 11.1
Average finds per week 78.0
Average finds per month 339.3
Month: JanFebMarAprMayJun JulAugSepOctNovDec
Days caching: 231527303130181717131320



Milestones
Milestone Date Interval   Code   Cache Name
1 01/08/2009 United Kingdom GC1HBDX pooky luke's ultimate kid's cache
1000 11/04/2010 253 days United Kingdom GCM86J Great Bedwyn Lock (Wilts)
2000 16/10/2010 188 days United Kingdom GC19YGV Alban Way 1 - ST. ALBANS LONDON ROAD
3000 12/03/2011 147 days United Kingdom GC2MKGV Roffey Roam #12
4000 02/05/2011 51 days United Kingdom GC2R464 Piddletrent-hides #6
5000 30/07/2011 89 days United Kingdom GC309CE Bunkered?
6000 12/11/2011 105 days United Kingdom GC35PC6 Colden Common Circulation #4
7000 27/03/2012 136 days United Kingdom GC3CE4K 015 - Wiston Wobble
7958 22/07/2012 117 days United Kingdom GC3P05Y Geolympix 2012 CITO - Giving something back

username should reach 8000 finds in 6 days (3 Caching days) on 29/07/2012



Finds by Miles from Home
  Number Percent  
< 10 1042 13.0 %  
10 - 20 1871 23.5 %  
20 - 30 675 8.48 %  
30 - 40 639 8.02 %  
40 - 50 556 6.98 %  
50 - 100 2825 35.4 %  
100 - 200 346 4.34 %  
200 - 500 3 0.03 %  
500 - 1000 1 0.01 %  
> 1000 0 0 %

Average Distance: 41 Miles

Finds by Type
  Number Percent  
Traditional 7469 93.8 %  
Mystery 235 2.95 %  
Multi 137 1.72 %  
Event 44 0.55 %  
Virtual 24 0.30 %  
Earth 22 0.27 %  
Letterbox 14 0.17 %  
Wherigo 5 0.06 %  
Webcam 3 0.03 %  
Mega Event 3 0.03 %  
CITO 2 0.02 %  


Finds by Difficulty Rating


Finds by Terrain Rating


Finds by Owner
  Number Percent  
1 - Flatcoat Walker 182 2.28 %  
2 - poshrule 178 2.23 %  
3 - The Teddies 150 1.88 %  
4 - LordOfTheCachers 145 1.82 %  
5 - Costells 141 1.77 %  
6 - stanthews 127 1.59 %  
7 - Renegade Rabbit 118 1.48 %  
8 - RoobyDoo 112 1.40 %  
9 - KPFB 95 1.19 %  
10 - kryfto 94 1.18 %  
  Number Percent  
11 - The K9 Crew 90 1.13 %  
12 - TedsTeam 76 0.95 %  
13 - BHA LOYAL 73 0.91 %  
14 - The Cache Hoppers 71 0.89 %  
15 - TheAdamss 70 0.87 %  
16 - PJ&L 68 0.85 %  
17 - The Fruitloops 61 0.76 %  
18 - Newmanmadhouseteam 60 0.75 %  
19 - Slogger007 60 0.75 %  
20 - GeoCotch 58 0.72 %  
These didn't make it to the top:
Rothallo (56) kevham1 (55) Merstham Mafia (55) cookie cook (54)
stephia4 (54) Geo J0 (52) Cache and Cake Club (50) Lord Of The Cachers (48)
j4pos (47) cachedrag0n (46) Simply Paul (46) Gowenhouse (45)
CotswoldOx (44) rob72 (44) turtle140 (44) Fleetwinders (43)
SpankyBanksy (41) Pedal Pushers (39) CaptainJack. (38) chilihouse (38)

username has also found caches placed by 1202 other people

Finds by Weekday
5496 Weekend Finds (69%) : 2462 Weekday Finds (31%)


Finds by Container


Some Numbers
Overall Total Finds: 7958 finds in 612 caching days over 1087 total days (56.3 %)
Overall Averages: 13.00 finds per caching day, 7.32/day, 51.25/week, 222.85/month
Last 365 Days: 3089 finds in 180 caching days over 365 total days (49.3 %)
Last 365 Days Averages: 17.16 finds per caching day, 8.46/day, 59.24/week, 257.61/month
Most consecutive days with finds: 112, from 11/03/2011 to 30/06/2011
Most consecutive days without a find: 13, from 04/03/2012 to 16/03/2012
Current Streak: 3, from 20/07/2012 to 22/07/2012
Most finds in a day: 144 on 25/02/2012; 132 on 28/03/2011; 124 on 28/08/2011
Best weekend caching: 233 finds, on Saturday 27/08/2011 & Sunday 28/08/2011
Best week caching: 307 finds, from Monday 25/04/2011 to Sunday 01/05/2011
Most finds in a calendar month: 523, in Aug 2011
Most Cache Types in a day: 11 ( ) on 22/07/2012
Most Countries in a day: 2 (United Kingdom United States ) on 05/07/2012 Note: includes locationless caches.
Most States in a day: 4 (West Midlands, Southern England, South East England, East Midlands) on 24/07/2011 Note: includes locationless caches.
Most Counties in a day: 7 (Berkshire : South East England, Berkshire : Southern England, Berkshire : , Wiltshire : , Wiltshire : Southern England, Wiltshire : South East England, Oxfordshire : Southern England) on 11/04/2010 Note: includes locationless caches.
Fastest 100 finds: 1 day on 22/01/2011
Last 100 finds: 8 days
Fastest 1000 finds: 52 days from 12/03/2011 to 02/05/2011
Last 1000 finds: 118 days
Total cache-to-cache distance: 27443 Miles, Note: includes locationless caches.
1.10x Earth Circumnavigation,
0.115x Distance to the Moon
Maximum distance in a day: 825 Miles - 2 caches, on 05/07/2012
Note: includes locationless caches.
Nearest cache found: No.Puzzle GC3K2JF United Kingdom
Furthest cache found: 817.96 Miles, Keep it Moving GC9D2E United States
Most Northerly cache found: N 54° 20.058, Torver Back common (Cromm Cruac) GCN61X United Kingdom
Most Southerly cache found: N 50° 25.769, Face it, you're stumped! (Devon) GCJAZH United Kingdom
Most Easterly cache found: E 6° 36.899, EXO Area 52 (Bokelt) GCGWVP Germany
Most Westerly cache found: W 20° 27.504, Keep it Moving GC9D2E United States
Cache centroid: N 51° 28.288 W 1° 09.084
Centroid is 11 Miles from home: England, United Kingdom United Kingdom
Youngest cache found: 22/07/2012, Geolympix 2012 CITO - Giving something back GC3P05Y United Kingdom
Oldest cache found: 11/06/2001, The Queens Oak GCBE3 United Kingdom
Caches found which are now archived: 986 (12.3 %)
Log Length, words: Total Words: 156765, Average: 19, (Total Characters: 821555)
Longest: GC3Q5YR 549, Shortest: GC1TKTW 1


Notes


United Kingdom - 7852 finds in 42/72 Counties

 1 2 - 9 10 - 24 25 - 49 50 - 74
 75 - 99 100 - 149 150 - 199 200 - 249 250+

  County Totals: Sort by Totals        County Totals: Sort by Name  


Finds by Bearing


Finds by Month


Finds by Year Cache Placed


Finds to 23 Jul for Each Year


Finds by Found Date
Date
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Jan 39 53 20 4 12 2 104 45 25 8 4 2 2 5 9 2 6 1 2 1 34 117 19 5 10 3 2 1 1 1 22 561
Feb 1 15 1 54 2 36 15 14 1 1 18 3 4 24 18 82 16 8 124 16 1 4 1 24 146 3 1 1 2 X X 636
Mar 3 1 30 1 82 12 42 2 2 2 4 58 24 3 3 2 50 3 105 13 42 22 11 17 28 16 103 144 28 21 105 979
Apr 15 68 7 1 14 27 1 1 77 18 41 6 8 88 1 48 25 52 3 1 1 5 5 9 82 2 1 63 99 69 X 838
May 88 54 19 8 46 113 3 9 12 2 5 37 55 73 10 9 1 3 18 63 6 24 13 4 1 54 21 77 36 128 7 999
Jun 1 1 23 1 13 34 10 10 2 2 62 2 17 1 8 2 3 28 7 56 29 7 29 21 26 15 4 5 1 1 X 421
Jul 2 1 87 57 2 2 12 3 35 55 8 1 4 9 11 51 8 2 4 53 11 48 25 100 35 7 15 6 65 35 93 847
Aug 25 8 12 7 15 5 16 6 7 2 1 2 93 22 33 33 14 2 1 53 20 23 2 11 2 28 114 124 97 24 18 820
Sep 1 33 88 52 1 30 6 62 7 1 8 51 5 1 1 5 66 1 41 8 2 5 8 7 23 13 6 1 1 5 X 539
Oct 41 43 26 5 2 2 1 1 7 6 2 1 12 2 4 85 1 18 4 1 3 2 2 12 20 1 5 2 2 68 9 390
Nov 4 4 6 1 1 3 8 1 4 1 2 77 85 10 21 3 1 1 40 17 3 1 2 2 15 41 75 27 3 1 X 460
Dec 2 1 6 24 27 12 1 1 1 83 66 28 24 6 1 1 1 1 13 1 1 1 6 58 1 1 2 1 17 1 79 468
222 282 325 215 217 278 219 155 180 181 221 268 333 244 120 323 192 120 362 283 153 259 123 270 389 184 349 452 352 354 333

366 Found Dates, out of 366 (100%)
0 FTF Found Dates, out of 366 (0%)
Green cells or black text indicate at least one FTF on that day

Difficulty / Terrain Chart
Terrain
Difficulty 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
1 366 591 113 19 23 12 1 1 1 1127
1.5 186 2257 742 147 234 24 3 1 3594
2 110 428 835 283 239 68 5 4 1972
2.5 36 134 132 294 71 20 5 1 693
3 25 84 53 51 48 18 7 2 5 293
3.5 8 26 23 5 7 7 3 1 2 82
4 3 5 11 8 8 3 13 5 2 58
4.5 1 5 2 1 5 4 18
5 3 4 8 1 1 1 1 1 101 121
738 3534 1917 808 631 155 39 21 115

75 Diff/Terr combinations found, out of 81
1285 (16.1%) finds were rated with Diff or Terr of 3 or greater


Finds by Placed Month
Date
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2000 X X X X 0
2001 1 1 1 3
2002 3 3 5 5 2 1 4 2 2 3 30
2003 4 4 6 1 3 4 3 2 4 2 2 35
2004 3 5 19 7 7 3 6 5 3 4 5 8 75
2005 4 7 19 5 11 2 11 8 3 6 6 2 84
2006 9 16 14 13 4 4 12 10 10 13 21 16 142
2007 18 14 11 31 20 30 38 11 38 38 24 38 311
2008 43 64 68 28 46 46 24 39 52 52 25 173 660
2009 94 71 124 107 78 137 175 65 123 210 64 42 1290
2010 60 69 197 180 206 171 124 138 202 212 225 149 1933
2011 116 124 230 413 315 349 320 214 120 146 255 83 2685
2012 123 185 195 68 47 79 13 710
470 562 884 863 740 827 728 497 556 687 631 513

127 Placed Months, out of 147 (86.3%)

Average Distance by Bearing


Finds by Placed Date
Date
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Jan 32 27 35 14 12 4 13 13 28 15 13 1 3 10 13 7 7 33 13 13 7 7 8 11 11 30 10 52 13 6 9 470
Feb 17 13 76 22 26 8 15 13 29 20 10 10 9 41 11 16 12 8 100 24 12 6 6 9 17 6 13 11 2 X X 562
Mar 27 15 35 20 21 25 42 16 18 16 35 98 67 20 9 4 11 8 3 42 28 50 42 18 35 13 13 78 43 20 12 884
Apr 71 15 56 22 14 20 19 23 46 28 50 49 24 10 17 29 43 40 20 8 9 33 31 13 49 14 14 33 56 7 X 863
May 30 34 19 19 23 10 72 38 12 21 34 22 34 14 58 61 11 16 19 9 32 27 19 10 37 5 8 10 10 18 8 740
Jun 75 43 10 27 7 47 10 5 4 8 20 15 27 59 13 58 31 17 15 39 53 25 60 10 10 24 29 17 53 16 X 827
Jul 7 6 16 13 56 43 14 41 46 24 41 22 24 24 14 23 14 24 5 19 27 19 24 31 19 40 11 26 32 17 6 728
Aug 23 17 10 10 5 6 5 8 20 6 9 5 7 28 23 29 15 13 5 41 13 24 19 18 14 12 26 17 42 12 15 497
Sep 5 11 53 32 18 17 9 14 9 20 12 38 5 6 8 1 10 16 71 22 45 8 21 7 27 19 9 8 9 26 X 556
Oct 5 21 14 48 10 17 20 32 35 21 23 25 6 8 50 4 14 30 20 9 32 9 40 11 33 19 13 23 63 22 10 687
Nov 12 14 20 11 7 10 8 8 31 7 96 15 24 37 14 28 5 6 23 32 16 34 24 12 48 14 16 32 23 4 X 631
Dec 8 5 14 9 8 1 8 9 9 10 14 13 5 5 9 5 13 17 14 52 4 7 7 127 3 4 9 19 78 5 22 513
312 221 358 247 207 208 235 220 287 196 357 313 235 262 239 265 186 228 308 310 278 249 301 277 303 200 171 326 424 153 82

366 Placed Dates, out of 366 (100%)



Stats generated by FindStatGen3 V4.3.07B by rutson and lignumaqua, running on GSAK v8.1.0.10
Themes from pisg by Morten Brix Pedersen and FormicaPL

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