Re: [Texascavers] RFID Credit Cards

2013-02-17 Thread Brian Vauter
Just as an FYI (and I can't believe this thread is still going) Within the business of taking credit cards at NBC, I have been told by two software vendors and one processor that chip-and-pin will be coming to the US around 2015. If you are a merchant, this will likely mean you'll need to

Re: [Texascavers] RFID Credit Cards

2013-02-17 Thread Brian Vauter
Just as an FYI (and I can't believe this thread is still going) Within the business of taking credit cards at NBC, I have been told by two software vendors and one processor that chip-and-pin will be coming to the US around 2015. If you are a merchant, this will likely mean you'll need to

Re: [Texascavers] Mountain lion killed on highway by town of Medina

2012-11-04 Thread Brian Vauter
Allegedly there is one in and around the Lewis Ranch/Rockwall Ranch area near NBC. Through secondhand sources, a dog was killed in one of those subdivisions and the vet attributed the death to a big cat. And a friend of the NBC owners claims to have seen one chasing down a deer inside the

Re: [Texascavers] Mountain lion killed on highway by town of Medina

2012-11-04 Thread Brian Vauter
Allegedly there is one in and around the Lewis Ranch/Rockwall Ranch area near NBC. Through secondhand sources, a dog was killed in one of those subdivisions and the vet attributed the death to a big cat. And a friend of the NBC owners claims to have seen one chasing down a deer inside the

Re: [Texascavers] HALOGEN lighting system at Longhorn Caverns?

2012-07-21 Thread Brian Vauter
. Personally, I tend to shy away from doing so as it's not too many steps away from full-on tecno-color-rama of red, blue, purple, and green lights found in some show caves. And that just hurts my feelings, along with my eyes. Brian Vauter Natural Bridge Caverns On Sat, Jul 21, 2012 at 6:33 PM, Don Cooper

Re: [Texascavers] HALOGEN lighting system at Longhorn Caverns?

2012-07-21 Thread Brian Vauter
. Personally, I tend to shy away from doing so as it's not too many steps away from full-on tecno-color-rama of red, blue, purple, and green lights found in some show caves. And that just hurts my feelings, along with my eyes. Brian Vauter Natural Bridge Caverns On Sat, Jul 21, 2012 at 6:33 PM, Don Cooper

Re: [Texascavers] HALOGEN lighting system at Longhorn Caverns?

2012-07-21 Thread Brian Vauter
. Personally, I tend to shy away from doing so as it's not too many steps away from full-on tecno-color-rama of red, blue, purple, and green lights found in some show caves. And that just hurts my feelings, along with my eyes. Brian Vauter Natural Bridge Caverns On Sat, Jul 21, 2012 at 6:33 PM, Don Cooper

Re: [Texascavers] Re: Caving Alone

2011-02-19 Thread Brian Vauter
I suppose you could say that some risks in caving are dependent upon the number of people on the trip (or even the group's collective experience with the activity), but I would say that the actual risks involved with caving are largely indeterminate of the number of participants. Our perception of

[Texascavers] OT: GPS+compass-enabled camera from Ricoh

2010-10-26 Thread Brian Vauter
From Ricoh: Not only does it record where you took the picture, it also records what direction you were facing. Positional accuracy +/- 10 ft (compass accuracy +/- 3 degrees). The website reads that you can connect the thing via bluetooth to an external GPS or laser range finder for greater

[Texascavers] Bat boy fights WNS!

2010-09-23 Thread Brian Vauter
From the World Weekly News: Bat Boy Fights White Nose Syndromehttp://weeklyworldnews.com/headlines/22512/bat-boy-fights-white-nose-syndrome/

[Texascavers] Re: cave closures

2010-08-10 Thread Brian Vauter
Mark, Do you think the Feds are also not letting up on their policy for fear of lawsuits from environmental groups? On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 10:22 PM, Mark Minton mmin...@caver.net wrote: This is essentially what happened here in Virginia. Initially there was a knee-jerk, blanket ban

Re: [Texascavers] Personal Road-trip Report 11 of 20

2010-08-05 Thread Brian Vauter
David, Regarding free wi-fi, Starbucks has switched their wi-fi to a free service for everyone. You don't even need a username or password. They tend to be more reliable for hotspots than others. I've never been asked to even purchase anything, and it often works outside the building if you can

Re: [Texascavers] Princeton Tec

2010-07-17 Thread Brian Vauter
I have always just put them in the mail. A new light arrives in about 2-3 weeks or thereabouts. Brian Vauter Sent from my iPhone On Jul 17, 2010, at 11:05 AM, Nico Escamilla pitboun...@gmail.com wrote: Does anyone know if I need a return authorization number to send a light back

[Texascavers] Ultra Electronics Rockphone

2010-07-02 Thread Brian Vauter
I don't know if this has made the rounds on CaveTex, but the company (Ultra Electronics) was just awarded a US Army contract for their Magneto Inductive rock phones. http://www.ultra-uems.com/rockphone.html

Re: [Texascavers] Re: Ultra Electronics Rockphone

2010-07-02 Thread Brian Vauter
I had also noticed their lack of any real data on the phone's range through rock. There's a link to a publication called the *Government Security News* that has an article on the Rock Phones. In the article, they also don't mention how far the voice signals can penetrate. An interesting aside,

[Texascavers] Re: Sonora Butterfly

2010-01-30 Thread Brian Vauter
Going back to what the guide was reported to have said, the quartz comment is something I have heard from many guides at many caves. It's a prevalent guide info-virus. I suspect it's a mis-hearing of the word coarse in describing crystals. I heard this same thing a number of years ago from a guide

[Texascavers] cooler weather next week!

2009-07-15 Thread Brian Vauter
Just saw the forecast on KSAT 12 for the next 5 days. The high is moving westward, breaking down, and should lead to cooler temperatures for next week. By cooler, they were talking about 95 on Saturday, 94 on Sunday, and 93 on Monday. This was, of course, for San Antonio. Kerrville looks like it

[Texascavers] Re: Digital Underground Survey Instrument

2009-07-03 Thread Brian Vauter
Does anyone have any experience/comments/criticisms for this device? It's a Digital Underground Survey Instrument http://www.digitalsurveyinstruments.com/node/16

Re: [Texascavers] Looking for help to give ICS participants a place to stay or a ride!

2009-06-01 Thread Brian Vauter
an incredible way to travel. You learn to deal with the lateness. I didn't say tolerate, but you cope. Gotten more books read while riding the train to and from Dallas. And it's cheap. Brian Vauter Sent from my iPhone On May 31, 2009, at 10:18 PM, Ann Scott mayaca...@mail.utexas.edu wrote

[Texascavers] WNS in Austin???

2009-04-11 Thread Brian Vauter
Notice the extra use of question marks in the topic. Before I have words with an employee for spreading this around, do any of you know if this is true? Thanks Brian Vauter

RE: [Texascavers] cave fallout shelters

2007-09-29 Thread Brian Vauter
For the longest time, Natural Bridge Caverns had the requisite fallout shelter signs on both the building and at the entrance to the cave. I asked the owners then (and this was back in the 80's) if there were any provisions or plans. They said there were not, had never been, and the signs were

Re: [Texascavers] Visitors at Natural Bridge Caverns wade in aquifer

2007-07-30 Thread Brian Vauter
Back in 1992, we made a rough type of weir and measured 8,000 gallons per minute coming into the cave at Castle of the White Giants. The same thing happened this time. That doesn't count the amount of water coming at Chapel Hall or near Emerald Lake. Stagnant water would be hard to find. The

Re: [Texascavers] A Hole in Mars

2007-05-29 Thread Brian Vauter
The caption makes use of the ever popular underground cave catchphrase used by the press. I wish just once we could find one of the /aboveground/ caves. That would make things so much easier.

[Texascavers] [maybe spam] Re: [Texascavers] the hole in Mars

2007-05-24 Thread Brian Vauter
Hopefully Bill Stone is working on a flying version of the DepthX bot. - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail:

Re: [Texascavers] Texas Leg Increase Fines

2007-05-11 Thread Brian Vauter
Does this do anything for private caves? Aimee's email mentioned state-owned caves. I would take that to just cover those caves within state parks. I suppose privately owned caves are still SOL if vandalized??? The previous bill had a clause that if you had prior written permission from the