Today I checked off all my set up to be gone to the ICE Conference on Thursday and Friday. This is my first year attending this conference or ANY conference that is completely tech focused. I’m really looking forward to learning all kinds of new things but I’m really excited about meeting some of the people I’ve been interacting with online. Then on Saturday after the conference is over I’m going to spend the day geocaching near St. Charles with my sister-in-law. It’s going to be a great weekend!
Paperless Caching 2 August 17, 2007
My Palm IIIc came in the mail today. Ebay is a wonderful place! For a mere $40 I am now the proud owner of a really outdated PDA package that will work wonderfully for geocaching. As a result a spent a few minutes on the net figuring out exactly how to make my new PDA work for geocaching. I went directly to one of my favorite sites called Geocacher University written by a geocacher called CYBret. Bret has put together a page on paperless caching that took me through the whole process with no problems.
So I’m now ready for my next caching adventure! I’m taking a trip to Pontiac on Friday so that I’ll be out of the cleaning ladies’ way. (By the way “thanks” to the cleaning ladies!!!) Then I’m going to Indiana on Saturday with my sister-in-law for a last round of caching before the school year begins. The trip to Indiana will mean a new red state on my geocaching map! I’m looking forward to the challenge and the exercise!
Paperless Caching August 9, 2007
One of my newest interests is geocaching. I started this summer and go whenever I can organize myself to leave the house for a trip. Currently there aren’t very many caches in my area so a trip usually means going at least 30 miles away. Before I can leave I need to print out maps and a sheet for each cache I plan on searching for. I also need to transfer each of the cache waypoints from my computer to my GPS unit. It’s a feat of great organization, which I’m sure is part of why I like it. But it’s also time consuming and wastes huge amounts of paper!
So I’ve been doing some research on www.geocaching.com about paperless caching. Previously I figured I would have to spend $100 or more to get a PDA to make this work. But yesterday I read that an old Palm IIIc works great for this and they are available on ebay for under $50. I will feel a lot more comfortable taking a cheap PDA into the woods with me than I would taking a $300 PDA. So this sounds like a good option. I got on ebay last night and after some research I ordered a unit. While I’m waiting for the unit to arrive in the mail I’m going to keep looking into the steps to get the information from my laptop to the PDA. I’m so excited about not having to print out all those sheets!
