Geocaching

This weeks blog assignment was to investigate Geocaching. After reading about the subject I became very excited about the Idea. It is actually a very brilliant Idea, incorporate technology with the love for the outdoors and adventure to create a sport that almost all can participate in. Geocaching is where you get a set of coordinates from a website. Then you use a G.P.S. to navigate your way to the cache point, this is where the, “treasure” that you are seeking is located. As the online introduction states, it’s deceptively easy. It's one thing to see where an item is, it's a totally different story to actually get there.

To participate in this activity you need three main things, the first is a set of coordinates marking a cache, these can be found using the internet or by going to a place that has cache point coordinates. The second thing you need is a G.P.S. or a Global Positioning System. A G.P.S. can be purchased at any outdoor store, electronics store or online for $100 to $1000, they vary in features such as screen size, color quality and accuracy but they all serve the same general purpose. They use satellites to find the position of the G.P.S. device and directions to any point you impute into the G.P.S. The only rules involved with Geocaching is that it you take something from the cache you should leave something in the cache and write in the logbook.

A similar, but much older activity is known as letterboxing, this was supposedly invented when a man simply left his calling card in a bottle near a pool in Dartmouth England. Today the game is played by finding directions to a letterbox, stamping the logbook with your own personal stamp, the stamping your personal logbook with the stamp found in the letterbox. This game is similar to Geocaching in principal, but is much older and does not offer any prizes other than getting to the box. I have not actually participated in either activity but I would be very interested in trying Geocaching, I find this more interesting because it incorporates modern technology, with outdoor exploration, and I will be looking for a cache on my next hike.

Google Docs vs. Microsoft Word

After using Google docs and its features I’ve come up with several comparisons between the free online program and Microsoft Word. They both contain advantages over the other and each has their own faults. As an overall review I would suggest using Microsoft Word if it comes free with the computer you purchased over the online word processor, Google Docs. If your computer did not come with the Microsoft Office package and you don’t use your computer for a great deal of word processing, I would definitely recommend using Google docs as your word processor, it does an acceptable job, and the Microsoft office package can cost up to 200$ is stores.

Google docs are missing some of the very helpful features that Word users may be accustomed to such as in text spell check, clearly expressed margins, and easily accessible text formatting. There are many features missing from the online word processor, but few you will miss because they are very rarely used. Some features found on Word can be found on Google Docs, only with less options, for example on Microsoft word there are 171 different font styles available, whereas Google docs only offers 14. The same is true for text size, in Microsoft word you can impute your own text size, whereas in Google Docs only 7 font sizes are available. The only formatting feature I found on Google Docs that was not available on Microsoft Word was the ability to insert Chinese characters, which I wouldn’t consider a huge advantage. Word however offers several features not available online.

Google Docs have two evident advantages over Microsoft Word. One is cost, Google Docs are free; Microsoft word is not. The second advantage is the ability to access your saved documents from any computer with internet access at any time. Obviously Microsoft Word has many advantages over Google Docs, but three stand out to me. The first and most important to a poor typist such as myself is the in text spell check. Second would be the number of font choices, and last would most likely be the ease of knowing where you’re at on a printed page. On Google docs it is hard to tell how much you have actually typed until you hit print.