Solution to the battery problem

Yesterday I had made a plan; To solve my problem with the high battery consumption on my HTC Desire, let's get a backup phone. So I a visited the Net on Net store and bought a Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro (red of course...).  Maybe it's a bit luxurious to buy a second phone, but as my HTC has a hard time charging I need to send it to service for two weeks and I can't stand being smart phone less for two weeks... (Has it come to this? Dependent on being connected all the time? Yup!) Didn't get round to pack it up, though, as I spent the rest of the day with my girl friend and dog.

Today I had another plan; To go on a caching trip to eastern parts of Östergötland. Had to complete that all-counties series.  But I just had to fix this, and that, and install some programs on the new phone etc. So when it was time to go the time had passed... So I went Turfing a couple of hours instead. 

Someone had put a warming thing on the lion

Around 5 a clock the battery of the HTC run out... But the X10 could help out, maybe? Well, for c:geo, yes, but not for Turf which requires Android 2.x (and the Mini had 1.6). So I gave up for the day, I thought, and got on the bus. When I was close to home I just checked the e-mail on the X10; a new cache! The multi cache GN2NDEY Axel Brunskogs skapelser about an architect that has made some of the building in the "sten series". As it is a bit rare for new caches this time of the year (except for mine, that is) everybody will jump the gun, but this had not yet been taken. Hm... 

But not only the phones had low gas, myself as well after walking around the town for 3 hours, feeling a bit tired. So I got back home, upgraded the X10 to Android 2.1, and made some food; wooked Chicken, vegetables and rice, with some semi-dry Apple cider. At 8 pm I checked the cache again. Still not taken, but some problems with the final step it seems, so several of the FTF wannabees had failed to get it. Well, might as well go and have a look, while Turfing some more. 

LFC ladies practices for the CL game against Arsenal.. Notice the finger; one advantage of digital pictures is that you can discard failed photos. But I did not notice my finger..

During this Turf round I used the bike instead of going by foot. At one time here I managed to crash with the bike, and flew other the handlebar, and landed on the ground. Ouch! Had I had more speed I guess hospital would have been the next stop. And the helmet would not have helped here. Riding bikes during this time of year is to beg for trouble....

The Turf round eventually got me to the same parts as the Multi cache (Vasastaden), and I started to follow the steps. When I got to the penultima step the HTC d(r)ied again! I guess GPS + Spotify + c:geo + Turf is not a good combination :-) But now I could use the X10. Just had to configure that, install that, etc (as the phone is wiped when you upgrade its software.) Sigh... At least I discovered that ola&marie had updated the final step. Hm, maybe I will be first after all?

I steared towards the final spot. I had a good idea what the tall thing hinted at, and right I was. When I turned the last corner I saw a typical geoCaher: superchrist, so we joined forces and located the cache at last. So, a happy ending at last. If only I had found a FTF in January....

If I should say something of the X10 Mini Pro as a caching tool, I would say that it is too small. At times I feel that even the HTC screen is too small, and X10 has about the same size as a normal phone. The browser felt a bit slow; maybe it's the processor that is weak? But the keyboard makes it a good choice for logging in the field. The software included in the factory delivery was a bit crappish, but after upgrading it, and the OS to Android 2.1, I think it is OK.

So, what happended to the eastern trip?  Well, I will save it for another day. Maybe next weekend.

Surf & Turf

Turf in action

I mentioned geoCaching for a colleague at work yesterday. He had not heard about it but exclaimed "Oh, it's like Turf then?" I was lost. Turf? Had never heard about it. "Oh, that was voted as one of the best Android apps of last year." So, I had to try it out while I cached Andre4s first attempt to hide a cache (Kastanjebacken in Johannelund).



I had to try it out... The idea is that you download the Turf app to your Android phone, and start it. Then you can walk around and you'll see read areas on the map. When you enter such an area, and stay there for 30 seconds, you capture it. This will score some points. Also you get a small amount of points for keeping the area.

So, a multi-player GPS game, with some chat possibilities, more of a capture the flag type.

This is like live geoCaching of sorts, but more conflict oriented I would say. You capture your turfs and hope nobody else capture them in turn. If you do you can recepature them etc. Areas which often are conquered score more points per hour. Guess it can be a good idea to Turf late at nights....



Another of those games that get you moving outside. Comparing to geoCaching, not that that is much of a point, I would say that this is very suitable for quicker hit & run, while geoCaching is more visit new territories and spending more time outside.  So a good complement.



Turf started in summer 2010. The App is still beta, but it is free, so do try it.

Time for some weekend caching

As I sit here planing for a trip to place some more caches in my state series three new caches popped in, one of them 3 km from here!  I guess I should go out, now...  Have packed, and will head for Norrköping (and maybe Finspång, Söderköping and Valdemarsvik depending on the communications), but the 127 one in Norrköping I will probably not be even STF at.

Blue sky, sun shining, caching - what else could you ask for?  Well, maybe no snow or ice....

Urban exploration in Mjärdevi?

If you read magazines or news papers you can sometimes find references to geoCaching. In the latest issue of Språktidningen, a Swedish magazin about language, had an article with the title "Coola ner! Engelska är okej." (Cool down! English is OK.) The conclusion in the article was that the large influx of English words into Swedish was not really a problem. Instead is was when we stop using Swedish that you have a problem; you risk loosing some domains. (For example geoCaching, if more people than me starts writing in English instead of Swedish. But this is my language of choice for publications through the year.)

One of the example words that they used was urban exploration. The first attempt to translate this was to "stadsutforskning" but that was regarded as uncool. Linus Salö instead suggests "urban utforskning". Sounds OK to me.

This example got me to think about two caches near my work: Urban Exploration Mjärdevi #1 (D3/T5) and Urban Exploration Mjärdevi #2-5 (D5/T5). These seem to be the "talk of the town" at events around here. They seem like caches that would be possible to log, although some equipment might need to be acquired? (Have to check with some of the loggers.)

Also, T5 caches is probably not a good idea to go after yourself. Is anybody out there interested to join forces on this one? When it gets warmer outside, that is...

Of course there is one more Urban Exploration in the vicinity, namely Matrjojska. Reading the logs from that I realize that this is far out of my league...  Have to go through a climbing course to even consider trying to get that one. (Or by that jetpack, maybe? ;-)