Data Hacking

Chapter 12 — GPS Games
It seems that the government departments responsible for keeping track of these markers (the
United States Geological Survey in the U.S. and the Ordinance Survey in the U.K.) approve of
benchmarking because benchmarkers visiting them can report on any damage that they have
suffered, or that they are missing.
Finding benchmarks isn’t hard. Some are marked on maps. However, the digital age has made
finding them much easier, and now the main geocaching website (www.geocaching.com)
lists benchmarks in the U.S.
For a listing of U.K. trigpoints, visit www.trigpointinguk.com.
Finding benchmarks is a matter of logging on to www.geocaching.com and doing a search.
Start off by doing a search of your local area (you can search based on zip code). This should
(hopefully) pull up a big list of them. For your first outing, it is advisable to pick a benchmark
that has already been visited by others — this enables you to confirm that it is actually there
(or was on the date of the last find). More important, the log might contain a photograph that
you can use in your hunt.
After downloading the coordinates to your GPS, simply follow the pointer until you get close.
However, now things get interesting. You are looking for something that is not hidden per se,
but it might not be too obvious. Finding huge concrete pillars is easy, but finding a small nondescript
bolt in the ground can be quite hard, so you may need to search for a while before you find
it. Console yourself, however, with the knowledge that the more you find, the easier it becomes!
Once you have found the benchmark, you can log it. There are no logbooks to fill in or swaps
for you to trade, but you can take the details off the marker. You can also take a picture of it
(put your GPS in the shot if possible).
When you get back to your PC, you can log your find on the geocaching website.
Don’t go out benchmarking expecting a find every time. Many benchmarks are old and damaged,
missing, or in overgrown areas.
GPS Drawing
Many GPS units are now capable of displaying a map. This can either be a detailed map, showing
roads, rivers, coastlines, and contours or it can be a very simple map showing nothing more than
waypoints that you have entered. What both have in common is that they will be capable of
displaying the trail you have navigated on the screen with the map. This trail, known as a track
or breadcrumb trail, is the log of the path that you (or, more accurately, the GPS) took. When
these units became more popular, they spawned a new GPS-related hobby — GPS drawing!
GPS drawing (sometimes called geo art) is an activity in which you walk around with a GPS
switched on and track your position, and then you use the track or breadcrumb trail to create a
picture on the screen of the GPS. Figure 12-5 shows an example.
Seems easy — but it isn’t. You have to make really huge movements in order for them to appear
on the screen, which means that you need a lot of space in which to work. It’s also good to have
a plan in advance.
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