Someone said the site was/.ed... Not for me, so here's the artcle:
MINNESOTA: GPS treasure hunt under fire BY BOB SHAW Pioneer Press
Ian Stevens checks his GPS unit, as rain drips off the end of his ponytail.
The GPS arrow points to the east, and Stevens begins another session of geocaching -- a sport like a high-tech scavenger hunt -- in Cottage Grove's Ravine Park.
Three park officials walk up. Will they kick him out?
Not today. The developing friction between geocachers and park officials doesn't materialize.
"Did I hear you say you were geocaching? You are the first one I have seen here," said parks manager Mike Polehna, who seems intrigued. "There's no problem as long as you aren't disturbing the natural areas of the park."
But officials in other parks, faced with an onslaught of geocachers, are scrambling to develop restrictions. Recently, St. Croix National Scenic Waterway in Wisconsin announced a ban on geocaching, and other parks are considering lesser restrictions.
Whatever they decide, they have no choice but to deal with it. Geocaching didn't exist a few years ago, but now, according to the official geocaching Web site, there are more than 600 caches within 100 miles of the Twin Cities.
The sport depends on two new technologies: the Internet and handheld GPS units, which use satellite signals to show the user the precise longitude and latitude of their location.
The geocachers search for a nearby cache on the Web site, record the longitude and latitude of their prize, and then use GPS locators to get within a few yards of the caches. Usually, the caches are in plain sight or under twigs or leaves -- never buried in dirt.
Caches contain such things as trinkets, souvenirs or coins. Searchers are free to take or leave what they like. They then sign into the logbooks.
At home, they record their work on the Web site. Online conversations develop between finders and placers of geocaches.
But it's not for everyone.
"My husband thinks it's the most moronic sport ever," said Nola Cutts, co-chairwoman of the state Geocaching Association, who goes geocaching with her children twice a week. "But he's into fly fishing, so I guess we all have our own moronic sports."
The group was started, she said, "to educate parks departments about what geocaching is and to show them we are not evil people tearing up the parks.
"Ninety percent of us pick up bottles and cans, whatever we find. It's part of the game," she said.
Cutts, 43, of Anoka, takes several of her five children when she goes geocaching. "It gets the kids outdoors, away from TV," said Cutts. "We see wildlife. We talk."
Robert Sime, a Richfield dad, takes his 4-year-old daughter out about twice a month. He said parks should adjust to what the public sees as legitimate use. "When volleyball came along, they all put in courts for that," he said.
The sport even attracts geo-tourists. Jonathan Gorton, a 43-year-old Milwaukee man who says he has a condition like muscular dystrophy, visits the Twin Cities "because we have pretty much picked Milwaukee clean. We found 428 caches."
That kind of fanaticism bothers some park officials, who say geocaching leads to geotrashing.
They don't want anything left behind in parks.
They worry that hundreds of people tramping through their woods will damage plants and habitat.
"It's good, clean, wholesome fun -- just do it someplace else," said Brian Adams, chief of resource protection for the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, which has banned geocaching.
Earlier this year, he and park officials were startled to learn of several geocache sites in their park. On one site, said Adams, balloons were left. "That's not a good thing. Waterfowl and birds eat brightly colored things," said Adams.
In Minnesota, other park officials don't express such vocal opposition.
"It gets people outdoors, which is kind of neat," s
Isn't having fewer patches a step in the wrong direction? I would think that by combining patches together, you would have more chances of things going wrong (ie. breaking your system) than if each patch just fixed one little thing. Even if that means having to install many more patches.
Also, fewer patches means that there will be more time between patches, thus more systems running longer unpatched, and that can't be good.
This might be a good example of the difference in design philosophy between MS and the *nix world: MS always want to make the "one big program that does everything" instead of analyzing problems and breaking things down into small packages.
I agree. Why emulate indeed? I think that most Windows users who are thinking about Linux don't just want a Windows that doesn't crash. (Though not crashing is probably one of the better "rational" arguments for a lot of people.) Most of all they are expecting something new.
I think that is why MS tries to change things around with each new version of Windows, to make people think that they are getting something new and better.
Easy manipulation of virtual desktops in Linux was one of the things that could appeal to new users, but I am sure that there are a lot of other visual innovations that could be added to the list.
Let's not forget the wonderful combination of ratpoison and screen, as detailed in a great Freshmeat article. I have been using this setup for several months on a slow laptop and found it great (once you get the hang of the keybindings, and customize them so they don't screw up Emacs). Not only does it not take any memory to speak of, but by always seeing everything full screen, you use all of your valuable laptop screen real estate.
Why on earth would anyone stop and think, let's add a new security policy to the HTML renderer if it wasn't a PR problem? it's not flashy, it's not useful, nobody cares about it... no exec would grant the time and money spent on it.
But why is this the community's fault? If MS makes bad design decisions, isn't that their problem?
I don't remember the role of the editor including giving personal opinions over and above those stated in linked articles. Why don't editors submit the story with a summary of other people's reasons, then post their own comment?
Remember: in a newspaper, the editorial is where the editor gives his personal opinion.
I think the Free Software people are just jealous because Microsoft, too, figured out that giving away their software for free is a good idea. God, it's like you people want to see non-profits be deprived of choices or special benefits in the market.
The point is that they aren't just giving the software away, but, I'm sure, they are counting this as a tax right-off: charitable donation. So they are actually making money on this, since the software doesn't cost them anything, yet it is allowing them to (legally) avoid paying taxes.
I couldn't believe it when I first discovered that some countries use liters/100 km as a measure of efficiency. Talk about a bass-ackwards way of describing a car's efficiency. It's completely counterintuitive. Bigger should always be better, not smaller. What's the point of having a wonderful measurement system like the metric system if you can't even apply it usefully?!
You get used to it. It is just one of those cultural things. I don't know where the per 100km idea came from, but once you get used to it, it works all right.
The main problem is that it is a bitch to convert mentally... though not as bad as Farenheit to Celsius. Once you have a mileage figures to compare to it makes as much sense as our good old MPG.
Had you used win2k/xp, I wouldn't have said that, but as an 'expert amateur' using dos/win95/98/2k and xp, (regcleaning, spy-ware busting, occaisonal virusscanning et all) I can say with confidence that win9x sucks the big one compared to the newer kernels.
Except that I would have to buy a lot of new RAM in that case.
Do yourself a favour...get win2k/xp...hell, even linux is better than a win9x OS:)
My other boxes are running Debian... Win9x crashes once a day, avg., Debian when the power goes out.
I have a box running Win95. I haven't done a reinstall for at least 4 years and it still "feels" fast. This might be due to having Norton system monintoring software that is constantly cleaning up the register.
My wife's laptop running Win98 (and no Norton) could really use a reinstall, on the other hand. So go figure.
I think Bill G. dropped some fairly big bunches of his own stock recently. It is pretty obvious that these guys are hedging against a crash in MS stock. Then again, who wouldn't do the same thing, since most of their wealth is tied up in MSFT.
They probably think that the stock is still strong enough so that their dumping of it won't be seen as a sign of rats leaving the ship, which could further accentuate a slump.
I say kudos once again to the GPL and all the effort to make it really
solid and really tough to get around. Cases like this show that such
a licensing scheme is important and that it does protect
the OSS community in general.
Microsoft does not have the right to further it's monopoly
and break US and EU laws just because they want more market
share. They're not like everyone else. They are a civil judgement
recognized monopoly.
It is precisely because they are a monopoly that they
don't have to obey any US/EU laws. By the time anybody can get
a decent case going against them, they have moved on to the next
version of Windows, the damage is done and the money is in the
bank. $43 billion can buy a lot of lawyers that can slow any legal process
down, while the software gets sold.
So it turns out that the real reason we decided to build a reusable spacecraft, is that it is more like car: you can just jump in your shuttle, fly up to the stars, then come home and park it in front of your house.
You keep your wireless harddrive in your backpack/pocket/purse/briefcase/whatever. Now your handheld has access to 80GB storage at all times, at no size/weight/cost. Your phone, handheld, and computer can all use the same harddrive, so they could all use the same data.
That's great and all, but just to play the Dev's advocate here, if the personal server is a super add-on wifi harddrive, doesn't that mean that instead of carrying just a PDA around, I now have to have two little boxes, that both need batteries, etc.?
Thence defeating the whole idea of the PDA... (maybe that's what they meant by "killer")
Blogging is a concept that is slowly losing its meaning. Software developers are beginning to blog, as are writers, artists, etc. This used to be a truly independant, virtually anonymous medium.
You mean that the association is breaking down between a medium and a certain type of writer &/or certain type of attitude. That is a valid point, but it doesn't mean that blogging as a concept is losing its meaning. Its meaning is just expanding, along with the practice. The acutal technique of blogging is alive and well, of course.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not disagreeing with you, but one should remember that Hitler was a National Socialist.
Someone said the site was /.ed... Not for me, so here's the artcle:
MINNESOTA: GPS treasure hunt under fire
BY BOB SHAW
Pioneer Press
Ian Stevens checks his GPS unit, as rain drips off the end of his ponytail.
The GPS arrow points to the east, and Stevens begins another session of geocaching -- a sport like a high-tech scavenger hunt -- in Cottage Grove's Ravine Park.
Three park officials walk up. Will they kick him out?
Not today. The developing friction between geocachers and park officials doesn't materialize.
"Did I hear you say you were geocaching? You are the first one I have seen here," said parks manager Mike Polehna, who seems intrigued. "There's no problem as long as you aren't disturbing the natural areas of the park."
But officials in other parks, faced with an onslaught of geocachers, are scrambling to develop restrictions. Recently, St. Croix National Scenic Waterway in Wisconsin announced a ban on geocaching, and other parks are considering lesser restrictions.
Whatever they decide, they have no choice but to deal with it. Geocaching didn't exist a few years ago, but now, according to the official geocaching Web site, there are more than 600 caches within 100 miles of the Twin Cities.
The sport depends on two new technologies: the Internet and handheld GPS units, which use satellite signals to show the user the precise longitude and latitude of their location.
The geocachers search for a nearby cache on the Web site, record the longitude and latitude of their prize, and then use GPS locators to get within a few yards of the caches. Usually, the caches are in plain sight or under twigs or leaves -- never buried in dirt.
Caches contain such things as trinkets, souvenirs or coins. Searchers are free to take or leave what they like. They then sign into the logbooks.
At home, they record their work on the Web site. Online conversations develop between finders and placers of geocaches.
But it's not for everyone.
"My husband thinks it's the most moronic sport ever," said Nola Cutts, co-chairwoman of the state Geocaching Association, who goes geocaching with her children twice a week. "But he's into fly fishing, so I guess we all have our own moronic sports."
The group was started, she said, "to educate parks departments about what geocaching is and to show them we are not evil people tearing up the parks.
"Ninety percent of us pick up bottles and cans, whatever we find. It's part of the game," she said.
Cutts, 43, of Anoka, takes several of her five children when she goes geocaching. "It gets the kids outdoors, away from TV," said Cutts. "We see wildlife. We talk."
Robert Sime, a Richfield dad, takes his 4-year-old daughter out about twice a month. He said parks should adjust to what the public sees as legitimate use. "When volleyball came along, they all put in courts for that," he said.
The sport even attracts geo-tourists. Jonathan Gorton, a 43-year-old Milwaukee man who says he has a condition like muscular dystrophy, visits the Twin Cities "because we have pretty much picked Milwaukee clean. We found 428 caches."
That kind of fanaticism bothers some park officials, who say geocaching leads to geotrashing.
They don't want anything left behind in parks.
They worry that hundreds of people tramping through their woods will damage plants and habitat.
"It's good, clean, wholesome fun -- just do it someplace else," said Brian Adams, chief of resource protection for the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, which has banned geocaching.
Earlier this year, he and park officials were startled to learn of several geocache sites in their park. On one site, said Adams, balloons were left. "That's not a good thing. Waterfowl and birds eat brightly colored things," said Adams.
In Minnesota, other park officials don't express such vocal opposition.
"It gets people outdoors, which is kind of neat," s
Isn't having fewer patches a step in the wrong direction? I would think that by combining patches together, you would have more chances of things going wrong (ie. breaking your system) than if each patch just fixed one little thing. Even if that means having to install many more patches.
Also, fewer patches means that there will be more time between patches, thus more systems running longer unpatched, and that can't be good.
This might be a good example of the difference in design philosophy between MS and the *nix world: MS always want to make the "one big program that does everything" instead of analyzing problems and breaking things down into small packages.
I agree. Why emulate indeed? I think that most Windows users who are thinking about Linux don't just want a Windows that doesn't crash. (Though not crashing is probably one of the better "rational" arguments for a lot of people.) Most of all they are expecting something new.
I think that is why MS tries to change things around with each new version of Windows, to make people think that they are getting something new and better.
Easy manipulation of virtual desktops in Linux was one of the things that could appeal to new users, but I am sure that there are a lot of other visual innovations that could be added to the list.
Let's not forget the wonderful combination of ratpoison and screen, as detailed in a great Freshmeat article. I have been using this setup for several months on a slow laptop and found it great (once you get the hang of the keybindings, and customize them so they don't screw up Emacs). Not only does it not take any memory to speak of, but by always seeing everything full screen, you use all of your valuable laptop screen real estate.
Maybe that should be the definition of bloat: you should at least be able to turn it off.
That way, if there's bloat, at least it's your bloat.
But why is this the community's fault? If MS makes bad design decisions, isn't that their problem?
The community may bitch, but MS is doing the design. Why would MS's reaction to community bitching be the communities fault and not MS's fault?
You have a strange concept of responsibility. (Troll?)
Remember: in a newspaper, the editorial is where the editor gives his personal opinion.
The point is that they aren't just giving the software away, but, I'm sure, they are counting this as a tax right-off: charitable donation. So they are actually making money on this, since the software doesn't cost them anything, yet it is allowing them to (legally) avoid paying taxes.
No ??? involved.
You get used to it. It is just one of those cultural things. I don't know where the per 100km idea came from, but once you get used to it, it works all right.
The main problem is that it is a bitch to convert mentally... though not as bad as Farenheit to Celsius. Once you have a mileage figures to compare to it makes as much sense as our good old MPG.
Except that I would have to buy a lot of new RAM in that case.
Do yourself a favour...get win2k/xp...hell, even linux is better than a win9x OS :)
My other boxes are running Debian... Win9x crashes once a day, avg., Debian when the power goes out.
Cheers
It really isn't that new. It's from the 12th century, according to your quote. ;-)
My wife's laptop running Win98 (and no Norton) could really use a reinstall, on the other hand. So go figure.
Whether it gives SCO any credence or not, it does give them a check to cash, which could help them in their lawsuit.
They probably think that the stock is still strong enough so that their dumping of it won't be seen as a sign of rats leaving the ship, which could further accentuate a slump.
Isn't going to jail kind of like catching a viral disease?
I say kudos once again to the GPL and all the effort to make it really solid and really tough to get around. Cases like this show that such a licensing scheme is important and that it does protect the OSS community in general.
It is precisely because they are a monopoly that they don't have to obey any US/EU laws. By the time anybody can get a decent case going against them, they have moved on to the next version of Windows, the damage is done and the money is in the bank. $43 billion can buy a lot of lawyers that can slow any legal process down, while the software gets sold.
So it turns out that the real reason we decided to build a reusable spacecraft, is that it is more like car: you can just jump in your shuttle, fly up to the stars, then come home and park it in front of your house.
It's the American space dream.
That's great and all, but just to play the Dev's advocate here, if the personal server is a super add-on wifi harddrive, doesn't that mean that instead of carrying just a PDA around, I now have to have two little boxes, that both need batteries, etc.?
Thence defeating the whole idea of the PDA... (maybe that's what they meant by "killer")
HTH
You mean that the association is breaking down between a medium and a certain type of writer &/or certain type of attitude. That is a valid point, but it doesn't mean that blogging as a concept is losing its meaning. Its meaning is just expanding, along with the practice. The acutal technique of blogging is alive and well, of course.
They are free to speak, we are free to not listen or to not pass their messages on.
Thank you for a very satisfying experience: clicking on a link that says "See ad here" and then seeing nothing!