I'm not sure this is anything to get upset about. Lots of people charge for things. You gotta buy a soccer ball and possibly cleats in order to play soccer. This just seems like an easy way for someone to trace movement of an item they place in a cache. A better place for your query would be to ask Jeremy himself, since he's the one who developed the web site capability to track these things. Let us know what he says. In case someone is wondering what we're talking about: http://www.geocaching.com/track/
Oh, actually I just thought of a low-tech (or low-cost) way for you to join in on something like this: http://www.wheresgeorge.com/ The serial number is produced by the US Government. Just get out a dollar bill, write the website on it somewhere, put it in a cache and hope that whoever gets it out of the cache will play along. I guess it's still a pay-to-play system, but it's only a buck.
On a separate GPS story, has anyone seen this: http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,46677,00.html - a GPS device that has a database of speed cameras in the UK, and alerts you when you get near one. Everyone was worried about the government putting GPS's in everyone's car and monitoring their speed and mailing them tickets when they broke the law. Here's the flip side.
Well, fall is upon us and we (my family, anyway) are getting ready for some geocaching. We got out of the habit during the summer - just too many other things to do. Looking forward to traipsing through the leaves in search of 'treasure'. I know there hasn't been much traffic on this list lately. I'm assuming others have felt the same and things will be picking up soon.
See you out there.
> ---------- > From: GC Scout[SMTP:gc_scout@hotmail.com] > Reply To: gpsstash@yahoogroups.com > Sent: Friday, September 21, 2001 6:05 PM > To: GPSstash@yahoogroups.com > Subject: [gpsstash] geocaching.com travel bugs > > Geocaching.com just released a method of tracking geocache hitchhikers > through the use of serial numbers assigned to the hitchhiker. > > Does anyone know if there'll be a way to get a serial number generated > without having to buy a Groundspeak dogtag for $5.99 plus > shipping/handling? > Or is this a pay-to-play scheme? > >