The Last Crusade – GC2M066

Posted by Wally Atkins on April 18, 2012 under Geocaching, Geospatial | Be the First to Comment

This is a great example to other geocachers out there for inspiration of assembling a wonderful geocaching experience. The initial find is simple enough but from there thought and effort will challenge the explorer and lead them through an amazing theme-based journey. Not to mention … how could you go wrong with an Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade geocache?

Picture 1 – Once you find the ammo box you will see that it is marked with a symbol used in the movie called the grail cross. It was the symbol of those that protect the Holy Grail in the movie.

Picture 2 – Inside the ammo box you will discover the Grail Diary of Dr. Henry Jones.

Picture 3 – Inside the book you will first see the shield of the knights templar.

Picture 4 – On the next page is what appears to be a drawing of a knights templar and on the side of the figure are these markings – “MCM.LXXIII” and “MGM.VXIXLLV”. The guess is that these would be Roman Numerals and could possibly be coordinates of some sort but the “G” in the second one is confusing because the letter “G” is not a valid Roman Numeral. Maybe MCM.LXXIII = 1900.73 and MGM.VXIXLLV = ???.79 … perhaps this is 1973 to 1979?

Picture 5 – X.DCCCXXXIII = 10.833 and XXXII.DCVI = 32.606

Picture 6 – “tres numero erit probations” = three in number, shall be proof. Challenges will number three.

The Holy Place N 31 46.702 E 35 13.792

The QR Code contains the text “X marks the spot”

The Body Electric – GC2M066

Posted by Wally Atkins on April 9, 2012 under Geocaching, Geospatial | Be the First to Comment

I like the puzzle geocaches that folks will put out there. This clever one uses binary to tell you how to get the coordinates and will lead you directly to the cache. So, if you know how to read binary then read this.

01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01100011 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101100 01101111 01100011 01100001 01110100 01100101 01100100 00100000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01001110 00100000 00110011 00110111 00100000 00110001 00110110 00101110 00110110 00111001 00110101 00101100 00100000 01010111 00100000 00110000 00110111 00110110 00100000 00110100 00110100 00101110 00110101 00110100 00110010

If not, then you need a binary translator. I’m sure you can figure it out … or I could just give you a spoiler:

“The cache is located at N 37 16.695, W 076 44.542“

http://coord.info/GC2M066

My First Mission Trip

Posted by Wally Atkins on April 7, 2012 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment

To Those That Visit My Website:

I will be heading down to Ensenada, Mexico to build a house with my brother and sister (and about thirty more people) in June 2012. I’m sure it will be a fun time to reunite with my siblings since we all live apart from one another these days but it will be even greater to see God at work through throughout this experience. What will we be doing, you ask? Well, the group that is going will split into three teams and each will build a modest house for families in need within a week’s time.

So, why am I writing about this on my blog? First of all, it’s not free to travel down there and to build a house so I am asking for donations if you feel lead to give. If you do feel like donating to this cause then please use the PayPal button to send as little or as much as you would like. More importantly than money is that if you feel lead to pray for myself and the team that is travelling along with those that we will encounter – please do. I also posted the letter that I am sending out to friends and family if you would like to read that for more details.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts, prayers and generosity. If you have any questions please leave a comment on this thread.

Wally Atkins

Experts Exchange BETA – Version 10

Posted by Wally Atkins on November 9, 2011 under Computers, Web Stuff | Be the First to Comment

I don’t know if I have mentioned Experts Exchange on here before but I used to be an avid user and contributor to the site. Well, to their credit they are moving along with technology and have upgraded their site once again. They have a beta version that is open to private invite only so here is a way to check it out if you are interested.

Beagle Boys Reference

Posted by Wally Atkins on September 24, 2010 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment

When was the last time that you sat down and enjoyed the adventures of Duck Tales or came across a reference to the Beagle Boys? Well, for me … once again SlashDot has provided a nostalgic look back into my youth with a crazy story of burglars over in France. I will have to do some more research when I get a chance to try and find the exact episode that this appeared in but there was a very similar scenario where the Beagle Boys used a vacuum to steal gold and money and surely it must have been the inspiration for this group.

Anyway, here is a grab of the post and link to the Vacuum Burglars article on Slashdot:

Why I Read Slashdot

Posted by Wally Atkins on September 17, 2010 under Web Stuff | Be the First to Comment

I guess I could be grouped into the category of “nerd” and claim that I am interested in “stuff that matters” but more often than not I find myself coming back to /. to read the witty and sarcastic comments left by the very large and intriguing community that the site maintains. So, I’m betting that it would be helpful if I gave an example of this humour instead of leaving you to wander over to the site and find some on your own … so wait no longer … here is a screen capture from my Google Reader:

There you have it – an absolutely classic example – where a snippet from a technology article on harvesting sound for energy and *BOOM* right off the bat a commenter takes the stereotypical jab at his jabber jaw wife claiming that he has an endless source of power right at home.

Funny? Well, depending on your stance or gender you may or may not find this example as LOL as I did but the joke is relatively clean and apparently quick because it was the first post on the article.

The Internet is full of this kind of stuff and even though you may have to peruse the comment threads a bit to find them, personally, I find that Slashdot is usually good for a few quips per topic. If you happen to come across any please share them!

Facebook Is Like Televesion – In Reverse

Posted by Wally Atkins on August 11, 2010 under Computers, Web Stuff | 2 Comments to Read

From one of the commenters at Slashdot on an article about Social Data:

The funny thing about Facebook is that it is similar to television: You’ve been given the impression you’re the customer, but you’re actually the product being sold to the real customers – advertisers.

Facebook just takes it another step, because you’re voluntarily giving them extensive data about who you are as an individual, as well as involuntarily (or unknowingly for most people) letting the technology create profiles of your browsing habits. If that weren’t enough, there is the further twist – at least on TV there are professional artists and actors and creative types who are producing the content you enjoy. On Facebook, the content is created by you and your friends and given away for free to the website owners.

So all they have to do is create a database infrastructure, then you and your friends come along and do almost all the Data Entry, and while you’re doing it they’re watching you and adding meta-data to their private database, then they can turn around and sell all the aggregate data to their customers. Profit!

At the peak of the show “Friends”, Jennifer Aniston was getting paid a million dollars for pretending to be Rachel whatsherface for each 30 minute episode. The million dollars ultimately came from advertisers who bought airtime from the network.

We are now self-creating global databases with billions of entries and in return are getting… the ability to “poke” someone from your 10th grade Health class. Meanwhile, how much money is Google, Facebook, BlackPlanet, etc. making from both the ads already on their sites, and the immediate/future revenue from the data we are giving them?

Quite an interesting insight and food for thought. Any comments on this comment?

Importing Shape Files into MySQL

Posted by Wally Atkins on July 14, 2010 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment

I recently was interested in getting some shapefile information quickly into a MySQL database. It seems like it should be a relatively simple task but you never know until you try, right? Well, thanks to the wonderful GDAL there is a great command that should be shared with the world:

ogr2ogr -f "MySQL" MySQL:"geospatial,user=user,host=localhost,password=password" -lco engine=MYISAM shapes.shp

It’s a thing of beauty! One little command line entry will take the entire contents of the shape file and push it into a MySQL database with the geometry. The only catch that I have run into so far was needing to increase a setting for increasing the MySQL allowed packet size. To change that just edit the /etc/my.inf file to include something like:

max_allowed_packet=100M

Works like a dream.

Inside the Fake PC Recycling Market

Posted by Wally Atkins on July 8, 2010 under Computers | Be the First to Comment

From Slashdot,

Companies called “fake recyclers” approach well-meaning organizations — charities, churches, and community organizations — and offer to hold a Recycling Day. The charity provides publicity, legitimacy, and a parking lot for the event. On the designated day, well-meaning residents drop off their old electronics for recycling. The fake recycler picks it up in their trucks, hauls it away for shipping, and makes money by exporting it to Chinese or African “recycling” centers. Nobody’s the wiser

This is horrible … I have a bunch of old computers, monitors and peripherals crammed away into my garage because I have not found a decent way to dispose of them. Now even the thought of using a charitable service is not a viable route! The United States and all of the “green” talk needs to turn into actions and, in my opinion, the ease of recycling electronics show be extremely high on the priority list!

via Inside the Fake PC Recycling Market.

Microsoft Hohm vs. Mint.com

Posted by Wally Atkins on April 23, 2010 under Web Stuff | Be the First to Comment

Hey Microsoft,

Mint.com just called and said they want their website design back. Seriously Microsoft … do you have an original idea of your own, ever? I mean, the very first thing I thought of when I heard about Microsoft Hohm was Google’s existing effort called Power Meter and I said to myself, “Once again, Microsoft is attempting to play catchup with Google. How are they going to miss the mark this time?” Then I decided to check out their web site to see the spin they were doing with their service and, immediately, upon first glance I thought I was sent to mint.com by accident.

Take a look for yourself and decide …

Mint.com Front Page

Microsoft Hohm Front Page