TAG :: Toronto Area Geocachers » 2010 » December

Dec 18 2010

Garmin has also released beta firmware for the Oregon series. Very similar list of fixes:

  • Updated magnetic Earth field data
  • Improved GPS performance
  • Fixed issue with track navigation sometimes not adding waypoints to the Active Route list
  • Fixed issue with MPC map labels disappearing
  • Fixed shutdown on the map page when you have a geocache dashboard active and return after pressing the geocache name

The firmware can be downloaded either here Oregon Updates & Downloads or here Oregon x50 Updates & Downloads depending on which model you own.

The Dakota also has beta firmware, again with a very similar list of fixes:

  • Updated magnetic Earth field data
  • Improved GPS performance
  • Fixed issue with track navigation sometimes not adding waypoints to the Active Route list
  • Fixed issue with MPC map labels disappearing

The firmware can be downloaded here: Dakota Updates & Downloads

Dec 18 2010

Garmin has made the beta v2.91 firmware for the GPSMAP 62/78 series GPS receivers available for download. As with all beta firmware, use at your own risk.

The fixes in this version:

  • Updated magnetic Earth field data
  • Improved GPS performance
  • Fixed issue with track navigation sometimes not adding waypoints to the Active Route list
  • Fixed issue with track and route review from the map page if you came from the elevation plot
  • Fixed issue with MPC map labels disappearing
  • Fixed issue with gpi files that have alerts attached to the points

The firmware can be downloaded at: GPSMAP 62/72 Updates & Downloads

Dec 17 2010

The Ontario Trails Project has been updated today. The project is a crowd-sourced effort to map recreational trails in the Province of Ontario, intended for use on your mapping GPS reciever. Garmin devices are the main support, but there are options for other GPS receiver brands as well.  The update is available at the Ontario Trails Project website.

A big thank you goes out to everyone who has contributed trails and corrections, and other information to the project.

Here’s what changed in this release:

Updated – TJ Dolan Natural Area – Stratford – dfx, Avernar

Updated – Grand Valley Trail – Kitchener – dfx

Updated – Huron Natural Area – Cambridge – dfx

Updated – York Regional Forest Trails – York Region – KDotBlueDot

Updated – Guelph Radial Line Trail (Completed!) – Guelph – Guelphhiker

Updated – Speed River Trail, John Woods Side Trails – Guelph – Guelphhiker

Added – Glen Major Forest Trail – Barnie’s Band of Gold

Added – Unnamed trail – Brantford – dfx

Added – Unnamed trail – London – dfx

Added – Wilson Flats – Fergus – Fizbot

Added – Sherwood Park – Toronto – GPS Derek

Added – rare Charitable Research Reserve – Cambridge – Teamvoyagr, Doug Mathieson

Added – Ball Tract – Cambridge – Teamvoyagr

Added – Hampton Conservation Area – Orono – KDotBlueDot

Added – Northumberland Forest – Coburg – Skyecat

Added – River and Ruin Side Trail, High Water Routing – Puslinch – Avernar

Added – Sulphur Spring Trail – Saugeen Valley CA (Hanover) – dfx

Added – Trans Canada Trail Portions – Tillsonburg – dfx

Added – William T. Foster Woods – Kleinburg – Josee Leon (Spydercat)

Added – Walter Bean Trail Portions – Kitchener – dfx

Added – Marsh Boardwalk – Presqu’ille PP (Brighton) – Hapla

Added – Jobes Woods – Presqu’ille PP (Brighton) – Hapla

Added – Bluebird Trail (Long Sault CA) – Scugog – Hapla

Added – Hemlock Trail – Algonquin PP – Hapla

Added – Lackner Woods – Waterloo – dfx

Added – Vascan Trail – Dickson – dfx

Added – Apps Mill Trail – Brantford – swamper68

Added – Kache Lake Trail – Washago – swamper68

Added – Secord Forest – Stouffville – Barnie’s Band of Gold, entogeek

Added – West Duffins Creek Trail – Stouffville – entogeek

Added – Hillside Nature Trail – Toronto – bakersdozen

Added – Harold S. Bradshaw Park – dfx

Added – Avon Trail – Perth – dfx

Added – Hamilton Conservation Trail – Hamilton – Avernar

*** Previously updated but missed in the changelog:

Added – Baker’s Bush – Cambridge – Rolf Kuetemann

Updated – Grand Valley Trail Portions – Cambridge –  Rolf Kuetemann

Dec 15 2010

It looks like it’s a big news day all around today. Now, Groundspeak has added another killer feature to the geocaching.com website. They have purchased mygeocachingprofile.com and will be adding a “stats” tab to your geocaching profile page, starting next Tuesday. This is a welcome addition to the tools at geocaching.com.

Stats you can currently track on mygeocachingprofile.com include which states/provinces you have cached in, and various challenges like the Fizzy/Well Rounded Cacher 81 D/T grid and the days of the year caching challenges.  This type of information built into the site will reduce the need for some GSAK macros like FindStatGen.

From the mygeocachingprofile.com homepage:

Mygeocachingprofile.com Acquired by Groundspeak!
12/15/2010

Great news for lovers of geocaching statistics! Groundspeak has acquired the mygeocachingprofile.com site and will be moving the statistics, charts, and maps into the geocaching.com website! They have already begun an initial transfer of several profile sections into a new “Stats” tab in your geocaching profile and they plan to move over more sections in the near future. Look for the new “Stats” profile tab in the upcoming geocaching.com release next week!

The mygeocachingprofile.com website will continue to be available in its current form so cachers can take advantage of any existing sections that haven’t yet been incorporated into the main geocaching.com site. We’ll also be passing along all of your fantastic development suggestions to the Groundspeak team so that they can continue providing new statistics and maps directly on geocaching.com.

Thanks to all of our users for your tremendous support and thanks to Groundspeak for bringing these fun features to the geocaching community!

Happy caching!

Cameron and Jan (Brainzane & Yossface)

This is great news for Groundspeak’s geocaching community.

Dec 15 2010

The secrets are starting to leak out now. Now we have a GoGeocaching twitter post that links to a video on their YouTube account. Check out the embedded video above to see a demo of the new map functionality. Very similar to Opencaching.com’s map with one notable exception – the Geocaching.com map blots out the map with the cache information when you zoom out to a state/province level.

Word is, this will be arriving next Tuesday (December 21), and this update’s gonna be major.

Dec 15 2010

Groundspeak is now reporting (via their Twitter account) that their large infrastructure update is complete. Users have been noticing glitches all morning, including problems with the Geocaching iPhone and Android apps, and the coord.info links. Judging from the chatter around on the blogs there is a lot more going on at Groundspeak than a simple server upgrade. No doubt the war chest is being armed against Opencaching (and others). The website appears to be operating more or less normally now.

The date was chosen for the upgrade as historically December 14 is the least busy time on the site. Guess most of us are Christmas shopping … well in the Toronto area we are

Dec 15 2010

While the Geocaching.com site may be back up after the update, it’s not without any hiccups. The site is very slow in responding currently.

Pocket Queries have also not run for today and the iPhone app can’t connect to the site.

Dec 15 2010

Found this one this morning at Teamvoyagr’s Cachemania blogsite. Looks like Groundspeak gave permission to one of their reviewers in the United Kingdom. Pyrocacher, to release a few screen shots from an upcoming software update at Geocaching.com. These features are not coming as a part of last night’s update but we “won’t be waiting long”.

Improvements coming for include:

  • Better maps – he has a screen shot showing every cache in North America
  • Cache favouriting
  • Stats

Stop by Pyrocachers blog for more details

Dec 15 2010

Well, it looks like the Geocaching.com update window has gone a little over the 6 hours. The original time estimate was from 11PM EST to 5AM EST for the site maintenance but here we are at 8:25 AM and the site seems to be down. The forums are up and running, but there’s nothing posted in the maintenance thread to indicate there’s a problem. Geocaching.com, Waymarking.com are down but Wherigo.com is up and running.

Dec 14 2010

Just a quick reminder that the TAG Christmas gathering is tonight at 6:00pm, at the Kelsey’s Restaurant (Millcreek and Erin Mills Parkway) in Mississauga. The event page is GC2JATT.  The event currently has 70 people signed up (as of 2:00pm). While the main seating area holds 50 people, there’s room to spill over into the main restaurant as well.  Make sure you check the event page before showing up for any last minute information

Also, please note that Groundspeak will be shutting down for maintenance starting at 11PM EST for about 6 hours, so you might have to wait until tomorrow to post your “attended” log, especially if you head out caching after the pub. Groundspeak is describing this as the biggest update they’ve undertaken in 5 years. Wonder if there will be any interesting new goodness come out of this update.