TAG :: Toronto Area Geocachers » maintenance

Nov 08 2011

Another little tidbit came out of today’s update at Geocaching.com. You can edit/nuke an image that someone uploads with their log entry.

That means you can remove spoiler pictures without deleting the actual log entry.

For example, here’s a log on my cache – GC2DN1K Leaf Peeper Leap, by cache4pat. This one I just chose at random from my owned caches.

Before today, I could view the image. If I wanted to remove it, I had to delete the find log.
Today, I have a new “Edit Image” option when I view that log as the cache owner.


Once I click on that “Edit Image” button, I have the familiar screen as if I owned that image. I can change the title or delete it altogether.


Now I’m not actually going to change this log entry, I just pulled it as an example to show that it can be done now. This is a great feature (that should be used with care) that puzzle owners can use to remove spoiler images without affecting the finder’s find count / log order.

Nov 08 2011

The maintenance mode banner is back on the Geocaching.com site

Geocaching.com has gone down for it’s monthly maintenance update, and it’s usual host of bug fixes. Notable this month are new Geocaching Live! partners (namely GSAK) and corrected coordinates for Mystery and Multi-Caches.

That last one is what has me paying attention – the feature has been one that geocachers have waited about 10 years for. You can adjust co-ordinates for a mystery you have solved or a multi you have finished so the cache will reflect the actual co-ordinates. You can download them in individual GPX files from the cache page but not from Pocket Queries just yet. While this will wreck havoc on GSAK databases in the short term, cachers without GSAK (for example, Apple Mac owning cachers) now have a way to load corrected co-ordinates in their GPS without having to fire up GSAK in Windows Virtual Machine.

Other updates today, as posted by OpinioNate:

Release Notes:

• Added a feature to correct Multi and Mystery cache coordinates for personal use (note: Coordinates are fixed in individual GPX downloads however Pocket Query functionality will follow in another release) • Added the ability for cache owners to delete spoiler log images without also deleting the log text • Added GSAK, Sachsencacher.de, GeoGet and Cachebox to list of partner applications on geocaching.com/live • When a geocache is created or edited we now associate (behind the scenes) a Yahoo GeoPlanet WOEID to the cache allowing us to tap into 6 million named places globally. This provides opportunities to expose the data in creative and helpful ways • Separated out Challenge stats to a new profile tab and added the ability to view a user’s Challenges completed and created, as well as your own accepted • Avatars are now resized to 48 x 48, down from 75 x 75 • Added Romanian to the list of Geocaching.com supported languages • Added new French translation of the Intro to Geocaching presentation at geocaching.com/tools/intro.aspx • Updated site-down notice with Facebook link and “hamster” video • When viewing a bookmark list you own it is now possible to see which caches in the list you have already found • Transitioning away from User Voice and back to IPB forums for support inquiries and feedback • Fixed map bug which caused the map not to update a Pocket Query properly when making changes to the PQ • Fixed map bug which caused the mouse pointer to identify filtered caches by name even when the icon is hidden • Fixed display of updated coordinates log in print-friendly version of cache pages to actually include the new coordinates • Updated text for Discovering a trackable on the Travel Bug tutorial page • Added clarification to Terms of Use, Section 3 (language now allows for under-18 usage of the website with parent or guardian supervision) • Fixed the CITO gallery to include a log link when viewing an image • Fixed link on /about/history.aspx page to updated noaa.gov description of Selective Availability • Added new teaser video for “Discover” challenge type on types page

• Fixed display issue on Trackables pages when the title is especially long

Geocaching Live API Beta

The beta launch of the Geocaching Live API continues! This time we’re pleased to announce four new partners:

Geocaching Swiss Army Knife (Coming Soon)

This application will scheduled to launch with Live support tomorrow. GSAK is the all-in-one Geocaching and waypoint management tool. Features include: Groundspeak API support, multiple databases, sending/receiving waypoints to GPSr, Google maps, conversion to many mapping formats, PDA output (including CacheMate support), HTML output, extensive searching, macro support, and much more. GSAK runs on Windows operating systems (2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7).

GeoGet

A complete geocaching solution for Windows. Import Pocket Queries, solve mystery caches, add notes, plan trips, and export information to the GPS or browse your database in your PDA.

CacheBox

Cachebox is a paperless mobile geocaching software for Android with offline database support and Geocaching.com Live API capability. Manage and find mystery caches with intelligent handling of Final Waypoints and the Mystery-Solver module. Features include multi-database support, image and spoiler view, Field Notes upload, track recording and viewing. Cachebox is a free open-source application.

Sachsencacher.de

Sachsencacher.de is a website providing statistical evaluation of geocache quality in Saxony (Germany) by examining log content.

[ Geocaching.com ] [ Release Notes ] [ GSAK ]

May 03 2011

Geocaching.com is gearing up for a site update tomorrow. The site will be getting a new look and feel, with lots of changes visible on the main screen. There is a video posted on Latitude47, Groundspeak’s official blog, that shows what to expect.

From the Geocaching Forums, some lackeys are giving some small details about the planned outage:

Colin said:

Geocaching.com will be going offline for 4-6 hours for a site update on Wednesday, May 04, 2011 at approximately 9am PDT (GMT -7). We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

In an effort to keep people informed, here are some more details about the planned outage:

Estimated start time is 9 AM PST
Will be down:

  • Geocaching.com
  • Waymarking.com
  • Wherigo.com
  • Internal Groundspeak Admin tools
  • User Voice: unless you are already logged in – User Voice itself will be up, but you won’t be able to login with Geocaching.com
  • All API
  • Notifications
  • Pocket Queries

Will be up:

  • Knowledge Books
  • Forums will be operational

And, MissJenn added more detail about the involvement of the hamsters in the process (this was also in the weekly mailer):

… You may or may not be aware that Groundspeak’s servers are powered by hamsters.* We are adding several additional hamsters to the mix**, which should fix website service issues. Groundspeak products will go offline around 9 am Pacific Daylight Time (UTC/GMT -7 hours). We are not sure how long it will take to complete the upgrade; we estimate 4 to 6 hours, but it may be more or less. We will be providing updates on the 4th via Facebook and Twitter. When the Groundspeak products come back online, Geocaching.com will have an updated look and thewebsite performance will be improved.

*Our servers are not powered by hamsters
**Upgrading our database server

The short message here, is if you’re planning on geocaching tomorrow – generate and download your pocket queries now. The site will be out from noon to about 6pm Toronto time. You won’t be able to use the iPhone or Android apps either, unless you download a Pocket Query to your device and log with Field Notes instead of logs.

Dec 21 2010

The long awaited update to the geocaching.com web site has begun today shortly after 2pm.

The three main updates are:

  • Geocaching Favorites
  • Geocaching Maps
  • Geocaching Statistics

You can read more about it here:  Geocaching.com site update 12/21/10

Geocaching Favorites

Dec 21 2010

The Groundspeak forums came back with a mainly cosmetic update last night. Logging in, it’s quite easy to notice the entire forum has a much nicer look and feel to it. The core functionality appears to be pretty much the same, though there are performance enhancements in the background. This will hopefully get rid of those forum timeout messages and duplicate posts that have plagued the system for years.

Jeremy posted this to describe the update:
As you may have noticed, the forums underwent a complete renovation on Monday, December 20. It was long overdue and will hopefully come with some much needed performance enhancements. There is still some drywall dust and spent nails around the place, so we’ll likely be making adjustments for the next couple of days. However, all the content for the last 9 years is still here and ready to search. We’re looking forward to continuing the conversation! Jeremy & Elias

Sadly, while the RSS subscription is more prominently displayed, it is still limited in that you get the first post of a topic only – no subscribing to replies in the forums via your favourite newsreader.

A wonderful development is the mobile device support. The forum detected my iPhone and switched to a touch  friendly layout, optimized for the small screen. This also worked for me running on my Android device. It did not correctly detect my Blackberry Bold 9700 (OS 6), or my Windows Mobile Device (Touch Pro2) and produced the desktop version of the forums on those devices.

Forum upgrades have been requested by the community for years and the responses of “it’s coming” had taken on an almost Duke Nukem: Forever persona where it was widely believed we’d never see an actual update.  This upgrade kicks off Groundspeak’s major site update with the rest of the pieces falling into place later today.

Dec 20 2010

The forums suddenly went offline this afternoon at Groundspeak. Looks like some maintenance is going on there now. Could this be the much requested forum upgrades, or are we looking at something more basic like a server hardware upgrade. Given that tomorrow is the “big” upgrade we’re all waiting for, I wonder …. The forum upgrades are expected to last the rest of the day, and tomorrow’s Geocaching.com site upgrade kicks in at 1PM EST.

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.