This thing called the Internet

See the little graphic on the bottom of the page that says, SiteMeter? Anybody can click on it. It takes you to a site that tracks visitation stats for this blog. They track several stats, like which URLs you came from (called a referrer), which pages folks visit the most (my post on image grabs from Garmin's is still the top reason folks come here) and where folks go from here. SiteMeter is a free service. Anybody can use it. Even your friend can use it to spy on other folks. Really.

This link shows page recent visits by referral.

Not sure if it matters to any of you, but there's no magic going on. I hope you realize that you're being watched by the web. Not just by your ISP, who knows every site you visit, but also by the very sites your visit. You should assume that all of them know this sort of stuff. If you're particularly paranoid, stop surfing the web now.

Here endeth the lesson.

Garmin Colorado and the Geocaching.com Waypoint License Agreement, Part II

Having read the Groundspeak Waypoint license agreement again, it suddenly occurred to me that some Garmin owners might be in trouble. Owners of the Garmin Colorado might have bought the unit for the wireless sharing feature:

Share Wirelessly

With Colorado 300 you can share your waypoints, tracks, routes and geocaches wirelessly with other Colorado users. Now you can send your favorite hike to your buddy to enjoy or the location of a cache to find. Sharing data is easy. Just select “send” to transfer your information to other Colorado units.

Emphasis mine. The license agreement says that sharing of downloaded waypoints is not permitted. I wrote Groundspeak pointing out this issue and got a quick clarification:

Hi Jim,

Thanks for asking. Sharing of individual cache data using the Garmin Colorado features is authorized by Groundspeak, although not specifically addressed in the Waypoint License. Please feel free to contact me with any additional questions.

Sincerely,
Bryan Roth
Groundspeak Inc.
bryan@groundspeak.com
P 206.302.7721 x103
F 206.374.8161
Groundspeak - The Language of Location

As my attorney wife says, "Get it in writing." I don't know if Bryan is an officer of Groundspeak, so I don' know if his response is legally binding. I will be taking him up on his offer and asking about the Groundspeak TOS and waypoint license agreement language.