User talk:Robyn

Make a new category at the bottom and add your comments, or add them into an existing category that makes sense. I'd really appreciate a good summary, too, as I might not get to the wiki for a week, but I'll get the notification e-mail. Feel free to move a section back here if you want to talk about it more.

I moved all the old comments to User talk:Robyn/OldTalk because I was having trouble finding the new ones.

Birthday Party

Geohashers are invited to my birthday party.

Thanks!

Thanks for the well-wishes, and I will definitely keep the Formal attire acheivement in mind. I also wanted to thank you for all the great work on the Help and How-to pages... they are a HUGE help! Meghan 22:41, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Move

Thanks for that! I really am not particularly good at this stuff! Ah well, have to go, am meeting CJ for a consecutive meet up! Kate 06:56, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Categories

Sorry for messing up a few of the categories. -- relet 22:24, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Ah no problem. I didn't look closely, but I think you were improving ribbon templates. Seems like a worthy cause. -Robyn 07:27, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Hi

I'm no good at how to use a wiki. I'm way confused right now. I just wanted to thank you for welcoming me.... THANKS *waves and runs off into the distance* --Avarice 00:19, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

Re: Ninja hunting

I just saw your comment on Talk:2009-02-22_32_-90. I just wanted to point out that there is also a handy E-mail this user function on the left of every user page. This one should work even if the user disabled monitoring of his user talk page (but not if she disabled emailing altogether). I don't know if you knew, but I hope to increase your ninja uncovering odds this way. :) -- relet 09:56, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Re: Last Man Standing Ribbon

Yeah, I was just using it to figure out how the ribbon templates work. I was working on implementing the Back from the Grave honorary achievement and wanted to make sure I didn't break the existing functionality before I edited the real last man standing template.

Ugh. I dislike that one because it fractures the possibilities for any given day, and there's no chance of meeting someone there. But it's not always about me, is it? -Robyn 04:32, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Not always about you, Robyn, no. Just most of the time ;). In reality, no-one is going to go for a retro hash if the actual hash is even the barest possibility, so it probably doesn't have such an effect as you might think. -- UnwiseOwl 04:35, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

I'll allow the warm fuzziness of that rationalization to protect me from the retro hash. -Robyn 04:44, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

This weekend in Surrey

Wow, what great wilderness hashes for Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately I have little free time this weekend, and they don't look like quick trips. In these locations, would you expect shallow compacted snow, deep snow, a mud pit, or just a little damp? Also, do you think they're fenced off from the closest road? Be my guide! Juventas 00:51, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

I don't have knowledge of that specific area, but I see that Saturday is in a park, so you should have access. I suspect that the "Private Road" is parksboard access and will be gated with one of those swing bar gates that stops cars and trucks but not bikes and pedestrians. I also suspect there may be trails leading close to the geohash from 128th.

The terrain I predict is steep, heavily treed, with wet debris underfoot, maybe a little bit of snow but not much. Bear in mind that I have been out of town for a month, so I'm a little out of touch with what the weather has been up to.

Sunday: oh my, that's quite the spot. I expect it to be treacherously steep, heavily treed, with no artificial barriers to access, but very difficult going. Were I to try it, I might try to go up along the bank of the creek.

Both spots are at about 300-400 m elevation, so some snow, but I think the forest canopy is sufficient that there will not be much depth on the ground. I await your report to find out how wrong I am! -Robyn 02:12, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Turns out I won't have transportation today, and tomorrow is too far when you combine the driving and the hike. Alas. Juventas 19:02, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Canada grat name

Hi Robyn, your opinion is wanted at Talk:Lloydminster‎. --joannac 00:44, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

etrex tracklogs

Just saw your note...

Do I understand right that the point you fail at is splicing the long tracklog into several parts? If they are saved as GPX, and everything else fails, you could edit them manually in any kind of text editor. GPX actually is a XML variant, i.e. a pure text format which is more or less human-readable. That's what I'm currently doing myself (I have no idea what the software supplied by garmin does - it's windows software, after all, so it probably won't work here anyway - and haven't taken the time to search for decent track processing software yet). Also mind that if you save a track internally in the etrex (as opposed to downloading it from the freshly recorded data), timestamps are removed, which will confuse some programs and make the log less interesting. --Ekorren 01:30, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

The Garmin software is called MapSource, and I have heard it works with Wine. With some extra tricks you can even transfer data from and to the GPS with Linux.

When you download the data from the GPS, you get all data. My GPS starts a new tracklog every time I turn it on, or after it lost reception. What I do is save that as "all20090307.gdb" and then I delete everything except the tracklog I want, usually the most recent one. Same for the waypoints. I save that again as "geohash20090307.gdb" and *that* is the file I put in gpsvisualizer. You can delete the tracks individually.

Oh well, I also rightclick on the track and go to the properties of it, where I can see all logged points. I delete the very first and last bit, so it isn't very obvious where this man lives that leaves his house every saturday.--Arvid 07:06, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

Mine is mapsource, too. It came with either the GPS or a heart rate monitor I bought from Garmin. I tried to save the tracks for just the expeditions, but yes, the device contains every track for every time I've ever turned it on. I'll experiment with deleting parts of it. -Robyn 07:17, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't know. I saved what I thought was the track from my February 25th expedition as the default, a gdb file and then uploaded it using this website but the result had tracks from everywhere I'd ever been since I bought the GPS. Can you talk me through it? Can I mail it to you? Is there another way I can take the data off the GPS?-Robyn 01:34, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

The etrex records everything into an internal memory of 10.000 points (1.500 on very old models, probably more on better models - I own the low end etrex H). When the memory is full, it starts to overwrite the oldest parts. So, unless you manually delete the tracks in the GPS unit from time to time, you will always get a full 10.000 points worth of past logs. Depending on what you were doing, and what recording accuracy you set, that may be a few hours or a few weeks. For an example, on highest compressed accuracy, the 1000 km/19 hours trip to 2009-02-22_51_10 yielded about 8.000 points. The default setting seems to range around 40-50% of that.

I fear I can't "talk you through it" because you probably have to use totally different software I don't know at all. You may send me the file, though, and I'm quite sure I'll be able to cut out the interesting parts (give time range in UTC, please). However, I'm sure there is some good solution for your problem out there, and I hope someone will come up with it. (And now I'm off to bed, anyway - past 3 am here). --Ekorren 02:06, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

This is the website I used. If the files work (they display temporarily) just send them to me by email and I'll put them up for you!

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/map_input?form=googleearth

Thepiguy 20:32, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Australia

Hi Robyn, CJ and I were wondering, when you come to Australia (Whoo Hoo!), Could you please bring your airplane with you? Thanks, -- Kate 13:23, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

I'd need to a) convine my boss he didn't need it that week and b) fill all the baggage holds with fuel to get it that far. How about I bring my licence and hire one there? -Robyn 17:26, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Yay! We'll planepool (as in carpool?) and go on an Airtrip (as in roadtrip?) ! -- Kate 21:34, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Yeah! Drop by your local flying school and find out what the rules are for a rental by someone who holds a Transport Canada and FAA licence. -Robyn 21:36, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

2009-03-09

King Ed and Knight:6:00! Check Vancouver talk page...

Okay, I guess that means 18:00. :-)

Latitude 49

Thanks for leaving the hard ones for me ;). Fortunately I am honing my dormant French skills and visiting Québec government websites for better maps. -- Meghan 21:17, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, I knew you liked a challenge. And then I went off and started naming bits of Antarctica. The one where I stopped in Québec is obviously really industrialized, with that poor Abitibi park sticking out like a sore thumb in the satellite view. I assume it's pulp and paper, maybe just Mategami, but perhaps there's a local name you can find somewhere. -Robyn 21:23, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm becoming more amused by the potential names in Newfoundland, especially in -55. Like Seldom-Little-Seldom :). It'll likely just end up being Fogo Island or something. -- Meghan 22:06, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

I agree, so sad not to have Conception and Dildo as graticules, I know. I'm fine with naming after a river if there is truly not one populated centre in the graticule, and if the river is both clearly in that graticule and not substatially in any other. I think the Gulf of St Lawrence one is poor, because there are many graticules that have significant portions in the Gulf of St. Lawrence -- unless that name is on a graticule that has no land at all, just the gulf, like the Atlantic Ocean ones. -Robyn 22:59, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, both of those graticules have no land in them whatsoever. -- Meghan 02:53, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Ah, then they have the absolutely correct name. I may have linked to the Atlantic Ocean when I should have linked to the Gulf. I'll go back and check. -Robyn 02:59, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Qov?

There's a Qov on kli.org who's Canadian, and one on deviant art who's Canadian and male, and one on Flickr that's into quilts. Are any of these you? -- Jevanyn 21:45, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Heh. Cyber-stalker ;) --joannac 22:10, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

I had no idea there was more than one Qov. They are like Wiki categories. -Robyn 23:00, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the assist!

I was trying to figure out how to put categories on my expedition page from today when all of a sudden they just appeared!

Now I'll know how to do them myself. Thanks for being such a great caretaker of the wiki! FunkyTuba 22:57, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

You're welcome. It's my way of showing up on that lawn to be part of your expedition. -Robyn 23:00, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm New!

Just thought I should put that out there, perhaps to stem the flood of "What did you DO!?"'s that may spring up from me trying to understand my first wiki. Sorry guys, my learning curve tends to take out a few trees while accelerating to high, dangerous, speeds. Anyway, I'm excited to be here, and thanks Robyn for welcoming me. Yes, I did mean 'barter' in the classic sense of the word, knowing the equestrian club on campus may help. :) - Sprica 2009/03/13

People will just come up behind you and fix anything they don't like. You can also start projects and abandon them and when you come back someone else has finished them. -Robyn 02:10, 14 March 2009 (UTC) 1 Ah, well in that case I won't be so afraid to poke around. Not too much though! -Sprica 10:42, 13 March 2009

Cycling Gear

I bought clippy pedals! And clippy shoes! They're so awesome! Once you get over the initial "OMG my bike has my feet and it won't let go!" feeling that is. I'm biking to UBC tomorrow to test them out.

On a different note, I'm wanting to get some sort of bike bag that will let me access things while riding. Just small things like my gps or camera. I don't like biking with backpacks, I'm not sure how I feel about hanging things off my handle bars and I've heard the bags that attach to the frame can get in the way. Any ideas or suggestions? Thepiguy 06:23, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

I have a small front handlebar bag. (You can see it in pictures of the March 5th geohash). It's great for pulling out a camera or an energy bar during a quick stop, but I wouldn't recommend it for getting at things while riding, because I find it awkward to pull sideways on the zipper while riding in a straight line. You can leave it open, but stuff can bounce out. Another problem is that it has a frame, to hold the bag's shape, and the frame interferes with my light, so at night I have to pull off the bag and stow it elsewhere. Honestly the only thing I know of that is really suited to grabbing things while rolling is a proper bicycle jersey, like they wear in the Tour de France. It has a series of pockets across the back and it's easy to grab things out of them. You can also mount things in the bottle cages, or holster them around your ankles. You can definitely get a handlebar mount for your GPS. - Robyn

Canadian globalhash!

The crowd goes wild. It's even almost on land (albeit not Canadian land). Heck, it's even in British Columbia! --starbird 00:50, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

What? The 18th? It's in the Dixon Entrance to the Hecate Strait in Canadian waters north of the Queen Charlotte Islands. It would be a daunting expedition. The only way I'd have a chance is an airhash, and that would be at least a $4000 proposition from here. -Robyn 01:04, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

On the plus side, you have a whole day to prepare! :-) --starbird 01:11, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

If I get a globalhash, I want to GO there, anyway, not just fly over. -Robyn 01:15, 18 March 2009 (UTC)