It's about time we had an official blog. Today we announced Latitude 47 as the official Geocaching.com blog, and introduced Eric is handling the day to day operations as well as managing the stories for Groundspeak's Lost & Found.

I'll remain using this as my personal blog and continue intermittently posting entries on a range of topics that interest me, not all of them geocaching related. That isn't to say that topics won't bleed over from time to time.

The videos for Lost & Found are coming along nicely, and we should have a teaser video up next week.

Here was the normal scenario over the last 10+ years:

"Check this out."

"What?"

"On my computer. No no. Come around here and take a look."

"Oh. What's that?"

"Use the mouse and click on that button. Yeah. Up on the right. No no. The other button. Here. Move over and let me do it."

The phone isn't any better:

"Check this out."

"What?"

"Here."

"I don't see anything."

"Oh. Hold on. Now look at it."

"Neat. Oops. I clicked something."

"Let me see. Yeah. Here. Try again."

In the two scenarios, the sharing of information was awkward. For desktop computers you have to shift, adjust and lose control over the device to share anything with another user. And phones can be cumbersome too.

The iPad, on the other hand, can sit flat on the table. By tipping it, the perspective changes for the user. Both of you have access to the virtual buttons, no one is leaning over your shoulder, and no one has to move.

It's Microsoft Surface, but portable, and it changes the way I and my wife, and friends can interact with a computer. And developers should be determining ways to make social applications that work with this new platform.

I think this will reinvigorate board games. Scrabble for the iPad is one great example. If you have an iPod Touch or iPhone you can download a free tile application so you can manipulate your tiles on your handheld. When its your move you can flick your tiles onto the game board and arrange them there.

I can imagine these mobile devices could hold your cards in Texas Hold'em, manage your resources in Risk or Settlers of Catan, and make board games easier to set up, manage the rules, and remove the normal friction involved to set up and play complex social games.

How cool would it be to see computers bring more people together in real-space and enhance real social connections? The iPad is the first of these social computing platforms, but we'll see more from other manufacturers soon.

If you missed it, last night's show "The Forgotten" had geocaching in it. Well, sorta. Some highlights:

• Geocaching was called Globocaching in the show. It reminds me of how Law & Order uses a social networking site called Facespace.
• The geocache that started the show was labeled "EXPLOSIVES" in huge letters. Globocaching guidelines must be slightly different in regards to labeling caches. </sarcasm>
• Travel Bugs were called Travel Hoppers.
• The Travel Hopper in the show was a ladybug Cachekinz.
• The girl who owned the ladybug Travel Hopper was cute though somewhat deranged.
• Apparently Globocaching events are slightly different than Geocaching events. A globocacher seems to be a cross between a geocacher and a furry. Don't get any wild ideas, event organizers.
• They used TNLN (took nothing, left nothing) and TFTC (thanks for the cache) as part of the plot. You'll have to watch it to find out what LOTM means. Maybe we should add it to our glossary.
• The urban geocache was actually pretty ingenius. Christian Slater must have a 3rd eye or something since he found it quickly.

Murder always seems to be on the menu for geocaching related shows. Law and Order: Criminal Intent's show, "The Unblinking Eye" was the first portrayal of geocaching. There's even a suspense thriller called GPS The Movie that has some fun plot twists.

Yesterday we had over one million active geocaches on the Geocaching.com web site. Well, precisely 1,001,001. So I played with the number:

• It is a palindrome. A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!
• Prefix it with a zero and you get the ASCII binary for the letter I (for Irish, naturally)
• This number is apparently the name of the first android in existence, built in 1001001 B.C.

And it has been both a long and a short 9 years.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—   
I took the one less traveled by,   
And that has made all the difference.

Last year during a think tank I realized how much mobile devices are changing my behavior. It started with the first GPS I used, a Hertz Neverlost system that got me to the Orlando airport in time for my flight home. Without this technology my experience would have been very different.

Technology, for the most part, has made my travel life better. Instead of relying on fliers and in-hotel advertisements, I pick my restaurant and entertainment based on what the crowd thinks. I use Yelp for restaurants, Fandango for movies, and my GPS to set my path to each. I don't go to the closest restaurant I see from my hotel, but the one around the block in an alley, like I did at Salt in Vancouver, BC.

It's the first time over all the years using computers that technology is having a significant, obvious impact on my life. It is literally molding my experiences wherever I go.

So far this has been a good thing but I do feel like I may be traveling the road more traveled, and that worries me. Hopefully we'll see more systems that reward exploration and discovery. This may mean we'll have more bad experiences, but it also means we'll have higher rewards when we do discover something new and amazing.

Thanks Robert Frost!

There was some wringing of hands recently about the listing I published for a geocache hidden on the International Space Station by Richard Garriott, one of the first space tourists and the creator of the Ultima game series. It was initially denied under the guidelines, so it went through the appeals process. Ultimately I was the one to publish it. The response was overwhelmingly positive, but a few people said that the cache violated the guidelines and should be archived.

We intentionally have guidelines instead of rules because occasionally something comes along that defies definition under the current guidelines (and, in this case, is totally fracking cool). The are called guidelines so we have the ability to adapt. In the case of the ISS, some people quoted the guidelines about moving caches as the reason why the ISS cache shouldn't be listed. We disagree.

A moving cache was a cache that, when found, would be picked up and moved to a new location. The coordinates would then be updated on the site. Theses caches resulted in many frustrated geocachers going to the listed coordinates and finding that the cache was no longer there. Even worse, people would increase their search, thinking that the cache was still there, adding to the frustration and the impact to the area surrounding its former location. And moving caches never went through a review process to ensure it followed the guidelines - especially the important ones like private property, distance to another geocache, etc. So we added a guideline to restrict moving caches.

So in the case of the International Space Station, if you are able to dock to the station the cache will be there, so it doesn't really violate the intent of the guideline. Since the cache is in the Space Station it technically doesn't move in relation to the station.

Heck, if we were literal about the moving cache guideline, we wouldn’t be able to publish any geocache! Earth itself travels at about 66,660 miles per hour. This doesn’t even include the expansion of the universe at around 43 miles per second.

So as a result of the new cache listing, I have created a draft to be added to the current guidelines so that it is well understood what is acceptable about caches in space.

Geocaches in Space (or other planets/spacecraft)

We do allow cache placement in outer space, such as the International Space Station, or Mars. Make sure you can land or connect to the space station/planet for it to be acceptable as a listing. Keep in mind, however, that due to the 520ft guideline you can't place another cache on the ISS since one is already listed there.

PS. For fun, we’ll also be updating the coordinates of the cache to reflect the current location of the space station, but keep in mind that the space station travels at 17,500 miles per hour so it will already be out of date by the time you refresh the page anyway.

Over the weekend, the family took a short, two-day vacation to the lovely Victoria, British Columbia via Clipper Vacations, a travel site specifically for the Victoria Clipper Ferry. The vacation package included a trip to see the holiday lights at Butchart Gardens (pronounced "butch art"). As kids don't equate to a romantic weekend, we focused on kid-related attractions to tire out Colin since we are far happier when he is.

If you plan on visiting Victoria with kids, here are some recommendations:

On the ferry:

• If you have children under 5 you are allowed to pre-board on the Victoria Clipper. Get there at least an hour early to do this.
• When you get on the ferry, immediately head to the center of the boat and find the seats that face the bow of the ship and have their own tables. Because of the emergency exit on the port and starboard of the ship, you have an empty space across from your seats.
• Try not to check any luggage. If you do, you will be the last to leave the vessel and go through customs. In the future we'll likely just bring two or more smaller bags instead of a large one. We did bring our Kelty backpack on board and put it between the seats.
• You can order drinks and food from your seat, but service can be slow.
• Customs can take a while, so patience is a virtue.

In Victoria

• Get a hotel near the Clipper so you don't have to take a cab or walk far. We stayed in a suite at the Royal Scot Hotel. We love places that have both a bedroom and a sitting area with a television.
• There are no wifi connections anywhere, so we pretty much went dark for the trip. It isn't a bad thing but I realized I need to be better prepared when I don't have a lot of information at my fingertips. We ended up using paper maps and guides which felt nostalgic.
• Miniature World is great! It is on the side of the Empress Hotel and has the best collection of miniature displays that I have ever seen. There are a ton of interactive buttons that make things move in the displays. Colin had a great time pressing them all. And an added bonus during the holidays - There are 6 hidden santas. If you find them all you get a free year membership. We found 3.
• Government Street is the main shopping strip. Visit Rogers Chocolates on the corner of Government and Courtney for some delicious ice cream and chocolates.
• Don't visit the Original Christmas Village with kids. The proprietor doesn't want your child's grubby hands on his merchandise. He also doesn't want looky loos. If you visit you better darn well purchase something. Bah humbug!
• Take the free trolley. We rode it on the last day it is in use (December 20) and just circled downtown Victoria. Colin loved the ride and we enjoyed the Christmas music and the trolley bell. There are also free horse trolley rides downtown. We ran out of time so we didn't do it. If you are taking a romantic holiday there are also paid rides through town.
• We grabbed some 2010 Winter Olympics swag at the mall, including the cute mascots designed by Meomi.

At Butchart Gardens

• Definitely take a tour to the gardens. The winter lights follow the 12 days of Christmas throughout the gardens. My favorites were the 4 calling birds and the 11 pipers piping.
• Don't bring a stroller unless you don't mind seeing the 12 days of Christmas out of order. The normal path leads down a staircase to the sunken gardens, so you have to take the handicapped slope which takes you backward through 3 of the 12 days. People give you weird looks when you head upstream through the crowd.
• If you have older children, bring your ice skates. They have a nice skating rink at the gardens.
• Make some extra time to go in to the restaurant and have some pastries and hot cocoa.

We received shipment of our photo booth today! Geocachers who visit the office can take home a souvenir of their visit now :)

Last week I posted to Facebook "Is it weird, or just geocaching weird?" From the following comments I realized that my post was being misinterpreted as "Geocaching is weird." That's only a half-truth.

Finding hidden containers in the woods can be considered weird since the contents are generally valueless, but my comment was regarding the many games within the game. Travel Bugs, for example, can have many misadventures, weird goals and weird attached objects.

For example, Cindy the Cinderblock is a real cinderblock and there are more than one of these, including a boulder in the back of an abandoned vehicle in the woods. I've seen a Travel Bug tag as tall as me, an actual airplane propeller, enormous carnival-won stuffed animals, ashes from a loved one and a hair stylist training head. But my recent comment was about the human female torso Anybody Want me? and her male counterpart Anybody Want Me Too?

These are only a handful of weird items, but these trackable items and other weird stories come out of geocaching every day. Does anyone have a good Travel Bug or story for the geocaching history books?

Ok. I'll try anything once, but the idea of an individually packaged wine box turns out to be a horrific idea, or at least is a horrific wine. I can't tell if one affects the other.