DutchClick

As I love techtoys I always want to have new stuff to play with…

Since a few years already I am into geocaching (for Dutchies: go HERE), a game that sounds like old skool, as in treasure hunting. But it isn’t. It is a game for adults and kids to play all over the globe (I did it in: France, Israel, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Greece and Spain). But there is one thing you need and that is a decent handheld (!) GPS. There have always been two camps: Garmin users and Magellan users. I am a Magellan user, because of its superieur quality. But that aside.

As handheld GPS devices are very very very expensive in Europe, I have been looking around the globe. And I did find a seller of a new Magellan eXplorist 600 in the USA. The price was very nice, which means a difference of about 200 euro (read: about US dollar 272, including shipping)!!! Yes, that is right!

I wanted the seller to ship to a friend in the US, who’s mother is going to take it to The Netherlands end of this months, just to save shipping costs and import duty, ofcourse . I did buy it and payed within a few minutes.
After 9 days of hearing nothing I did ask the seller about the status of the shipping. My friends didn’t see anything coming. Then I got a swift reply that my US address was not confirmed and that he was not going to send it. A few minutes later I had my money back on PayPal. But only AFTER my claim where the shipping was.
The discussion that followed after that was short but clear. I couldn’t trust the guy anymore… I might have made a mistake by not reading all the rules, but only after asking what was wrong I got a very short answer and my money back. Without any other way to get a solution what I asked.

I did not expect to get into an eBay dispute anyhow. But the old proverb is true: evil doers are evil dreaders. You would rather not buy at LJ Electronics on eBay.

I now did buy it at DragonFlyDirect. Thank you for you confidence!

While you are here: check out my new GPS Blog: GPS Passion

I have been away from home last weekend. I am a bit tired and wanted to take a little hike with my brother, just to relax. Finally we took the bikes out and went on the way. Wireless…
We took a Nokia E61, a Palm Treo 680, a standard gsm, a Magellan SporTrak Color (handheld) GPS and a QStarZ Bluetooth GPS ‘mouse’.

You wonder why we took all this ? We wanted to go out and play a worldwide high tech game: Geocaching (dutch: here).

People always want to travel to the other side of the world to see how life is overthere… And there is nothing wrong with that. I mean this is great. It grows more understanding for others I think…
The problem is that people (including me) don’t know what there is to see within say 50 km from there own home. That is a pity…

Don’t you agree? Tell me… With pictures if you can!

I never had the idea that the Swiss are nice people. I don’t exactly know why… All men are reservists in the army and have their (sometimes stone old) guns at home.
To Americans this seems heaven. I understand. But it is strange to Europeans in general… I may be a little biased.
Where do they need all these weapons for?! Protect their stolen money?

The Swiss are said to be neutral in the Second World War… I mean they didn’t care were the money did come from… I am sure this is true…

I am afraid I started just a bit off topic…
The Swiss are banning all navigation devices with so called POI’s, Points of Interest on it. Yes, serious!
Not all POI’s, but only the ones that contain information on speed controls, speed limits and everything related it seems.
This is fine with me, because I think it is a-social behaviour to drive (too) fast and then hit the brakes to get to the right speed. It is the way they do this….

But the police and maybe others can search actively to PND, Personal Navigation Devices to see whether someone has one in possession.
I can see the border patrol with their German Shepherd Dogs (no Berner Sennenhund or Saint Bernard! – the first are helt on farms and the second are used for rescue in the mountains….), and search cars for illegal PNDs!

The official information on this (in German / Italian / French) from ASTRA, “the bureau of roads”, with an (German only explanation here.

Happy driving in Switzerland!!!

[I forgot to say that pda's (like my Palm Treo 680) with navigation software can be confiscated and destoyed too!!]