Jon designed a really sweet t-shirt for the event.
Monthly Archives: June 2006
National DML Meet: The Official DML travel bugs are done!
Looks like Jon spent some time on these.
New Temp Sensors
I added 3 new indoor Temp and Humidity sensors to my home weather station system last night. These sensors will record data from the master bedroom, hallway and my home office in addition to the existing indoor sensor I already had in the dining room.
I’ve also configured an alarm on the system that will automatically page my cell phone if any of the temperatures exceed 100°F.
Vacation Photos
Cross Posting to DML & DTW National Meets.
While we are on vacation in CO we’ll be attending the National DML (Dakota Mailing List) Meet. Since there is already a blog set up for the 10 day event, I will cross post my blog entries by posting on that blog and simply linking to them from ours. No need to type everything in twice. Link to the National DML Meet Blog
After that meet, well be heading to the DTW (Dodge Truck World) National Meet in St. Louis. Many of those update will be posted in the DTW forums so again I will just link to the posts as necessary.
This blog will contain an entire log of our trip though it may link to some external pages. If you want to keep tabs on our progress, bookmark this blog.
If you have a RSS reader on your PC, you can add this Channel: http://www.walt-n-ingrid.com/blog/atom.xml
Walt
Walt-n-Ingrid’s Travel Bugs & Geocaching
What is Geocaching? Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for gps users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a gps unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache. How do you pronounce Geocaching? You pronounce it Geo-cashing, like cashing a check. The word Geocaching broken out is GEO for geography, and CACHING for the process of hiding a cache. A cache in computer terms is information usually stored in memory to make it faster to retrieve, but the term is also used in hiking/camping as a hiding place for concealing and preserving provisions. Are there any other names for Geocaching? The GPS Stash Hunt, Global Positioning Stash hunt is interchangable. Geocaching has become the standard for the game, however. So what’s the big deal? You gave me the coordinates so I know where it is. Seems pretty easy. It is deceptively easy. It’s one thing to see where an item is, it’s a totally different story to actually get there. What is a GPS device? A GPS unit is a electronic device that can determine your approximate location (within around 6-20 feet) on the planet. Coordinates are normally given in Longitude and Latitude. You can use the unit to navigate from your current location to another location. Some units have their own maps, built-in electronic compasses, voice navigation, depending on the complexity of the device. You don’t need to know all the technical mumbo jumbo about GPS units to play Geocaching. All you need to do is be able to enter what is called a “waypoint” where the geocache is hidden.What is a Groundspeak Travel Bug? Simply put, a Groundspeak Travel Bug is a trackable tag that you attach to an item. This allows you to track your item on Geocaching.com. The item becomes a hitchhiker that is carried from cache to cache (or person to person) in the real world and you can follow its progress online. What does a Travel Bug do? It’s really up to the owner of the bug to give it whatever task they desire. Or no task at all. The fun of a travel bug is inventing new goals for the Travel Bug to achieve. One Bug’s goal may be to reach a specific country, or travel to 10 countries. How do Travel Bugs work? Each Travel Bug has its own unique tracking number stamped on it. This tracking number is used as proof by the user that they found the item. It also doubles as a way for the user to locate the personal web page for the travel bug. Travel Bugs are tracked with the help of users who go online and “grab” them from caches, or receive them from users. The idea is by picking up and dropping off Travel Bugs on the web site you are mirroring the Bug’s real world adventures. Each Travel Bug has its own “diary” that follows its movements.
I’ve made up 4 Travel Bugs that we will drop in caches while in CO. The mission of these TB’s is to make their way back to a cache located only a few miles from our home in CT. Each TB’s represents a vehicle we own.
“Walt-n-Ingrid’s Virtual Roadtrip #2 – Plum Crazy Cuda” Travel Bug Details
“Walt-n-Ingrid’s Virtual Roadtrip #4 – Dodge Dakota” Travel Bug Details
National DML Meet: Where’s Waldo?
National DML Meet: Where’s Waldo?
This is a dash cam I set up in the truck. I still have a little tweaking to do on this also. As long as I can get a cellular Internet connection, the image should update every 60 seconds.
It’s also capturing a sequentally numbered image every 2 seconds that I can import into another utility I have with will create a time lapse video with them.