link
OK....dumb, arrogant, ignorant, rich douchebags are, well, dumb, arrogant, and so forth, so let's make this a multiple choice question:
QUESTION
You're the CEO of a Big-Three auto manufacturing company. You're coming to Washington to beg, hat in hand, for a multi-billion-dollar bailout in front of a skeptical Congress. You're crying poor-mouth, you're vowing change in the way you do business.
Do you:
A) Pile into a plug-in hybrid prototype with the other two CEOs and DRIVE to Washington from Detroit, reaping huge publicity rewards? ("Yo Waggoner - ROAD TRIP!")
B) Drive into Washington from, say, Wilmington, in a 3-car plug-in hybrid prototype convoy, showing off the type of "green" products your respective companies plan to produce once Congress gives you the money?
C) Fly commercial in First Class?
D) Fly commercial in Cattle Class?
E) All three of you get on the telephone, order your respective Gulfstream corporate jets to spool up, and fly all three jets almost side-by-side from Detroit to Washington, spending $7500 an hour apiece on gilded transport?
Take the challenge. Depending on your answer, you may be more qualified to run one of the Big-3 Detroit Automakers than are the current douchebags.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
"One Who Seems To Have No First Language"
Irrespective of factual accuracy, I think I'm a pretty smart guy. One phrase I don't find myself uttering very often is "I wish I was as smart as [insert name here]".
In this case, it is with a huge amount of appreciation (if not envy) that I state the following:
I wish I was as smart as Dick Cavett.
http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/the-wild-wordsmith-of-wasilla/
Pure genius in print.
In this case, it is with a huge amount of appreciation (if not envy) that I state the following:
I wish I was as smart as Dick Cavett.
http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/the-wild-wordsmith-of-wasilla/
Pure genius in print.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Going Long on "Money Honeys"
Warning: This post is NOT politically correct.
If the old saying "as goes GM, so goes the country" has any validity, then we're all up Shit Creek without a paddle. GM just went South of $3 (down 95% over just a year ago) and Henry Paulson has, apparently, completely lost control of the $700 billion "bailout" to the point where nobody, including Paulson, knows how much money has gone where, and to whom.
But in every bear market there's a silver lining. As I sat at my desk watching Yahoo Finance clips, drinking tea, and having my morning cry about the state of my 401(k), I couldn't help but notice the astonishing beauty and smooth, detached, cool, analytical demeanor of the bevvy of gorgeous talking heads telling me I'm completely fucked (in the financial sense). Alexis Glick, Jenna Lee, Rebecca Gomez, and Dagen McDowell of Fox Business News would look just as feng shui in a Cosmo photo spread as they do in their Wall Street / London studios, discussing the cratering economy glibly with "The Godfather of Hedge Fund Lawyers".
Where the hell does Rupert Murdoch find these babes?
The whole "Money Honey" thang started about 5 or 6 years ago with Maria Bartiromo of CNBC, who's not really that beautiful, but is witty, knowledgable, engaging, and a helluva lot easier on the eyes than Jim Kramer. Bartiromo, in fact, has personally trademarked the phrase "money honey". Bartiromo is smart as hell and seems down-to-earth, I could see her doing a sweaty strip-tease on top of a trading terminal to a funk tune after a few too many dirty martinis at the CNBC Christmas party.
Building on the success of Maria, CNBC then hired Sue Herrera, who also looks good on the air but doesn't seem to have the same raw smarts as Bartiromo.
Personal Note: I almost, literally, bumped into Herrera on a crowded walkway at the US Open a few years ago. She smiled at me as we almost did a chest-bump. She's a bottle blonde with a big Jackie-O beehive, a wide flabby ass (too much time in the anchor chair and not enough in the gym), you wouldn't look twice if you saw her on the subway. Pretty, genuine smile, though. Nice teeth. But she should avoid wearing white pants in public.
Recognizing a successful formula, CNBC then upped the ante by hiring the beautiful (and much younger) brunette Erin Burnett, who seems to be every bit as smart and savvy as Bartiromo. Burnett (to her credit) is apparently celebrating her brunette-ness. She's raven-haired and loving it, doesn't even attempt to bleach or streak her raven locks. As a matter of fact, I think Burnett might be going darker, as I initially saw her with a Rene Russo-esque reddish-brown coiff, but these days she seems to have gone almost an Alisa Milano black.
In his typical style, Murdoch is late to the game but he's going big. He hired the above-mentioned FOUR beauties for Fox Business News, each of which is more gorgeous and just as young as CNBC's Burnett. None seems to be quite as smart as Bartiromo or Burnett, and they all show traces (if you listen carefully) of high school giggly speech affectations. But, hey, when you're 26, you've got time to clean that up.
If the old saying "as goes GM, so goes the country" has any validity, then we're all up Shit Creek without a paddle. GM just went South of $3 (down 95% over just a year ago) and Henry Paulson has, apparently, completely lost control of the $700 billion "bailout" to the point where nobody, including Paulson, knows how much money has gone where, and to whom.
But in every bear market there's a silver lining. As I sat at my desk watching Yahoo Finance clips, drinking tea, and having my morning cry about the state of my 401(k), I couldn't help but notice the astonishing beauty and smooth, detached, cool, analytical demeanor of the bevvy of gorgeous talking heads telling me I'm completely fucked (in the financial sense). Alexis Glick, Jenna Lee, Rebecca Gomez, and Dagen McDowell of Fox Business News would look just as feng shui in a Cosmo photo spread as they do in their Wall Street / London studios, discussing the cratering economy glibly with "The Godfather of Hedge Fund Lawyers".
Where the hell does Rupert Murdoch find these babes?
The whole "Money Honey" thang started about 5 or 6 years ago with Maria Bartiromo of CNBC, who's not really that beautiful, but is witty, knowledgable, engaging, and a helluva lot easier on the eyes than Jim Kramer. Bartiromo, in fact, has personally trademarked the phrase "money honey". Bartiromo is smart as hell and seems down-to-earth, I could see her doing a sweaty strip-tease on top of a trading terminal to a funk tune after a few too many dirty martinis at the CNBC Christmas party.
Building on the success of Maria, CNBC then hired Sue Herrera, who also looks good on the air but doesn't seem to have the same raw smarts as Bartiromo.
Personal Note: I almost, literally, bumped into Herrera on a crowded walkway at the US Open a few years ago. She smiled at me as we almost did a chest-bump. She's a bottle blonde with a big Jackie-O beehive, a wide flabby ass (too much time in the anchor chair and not enough in the gym), you wouldn't look twice if you saw her on the subway. Pretty, genuine smile, though. Nice teeth. But she should avoid wearing white pants in public.
Recognizing a successful formula, CNBC then upped the ante by hiring the beautiful (and much younger) brunette Erin Burnett, who seems to be every bit as smart and savvy as Bartiromo. Burnett (to her credit) is apparently celebrating her brunette-ness. She's raven-haired and loving it, doesn't even attempt to bleach or streak her raven locks. As a matter of fact, I think Burnett might be going darker, as I initially saw her with a Rene Russo-esque reddish-brown coiff, but these days she seems to have gone almost an Alisa Milano black.
In his typical style, Murdoch is late to the game but he's going big. He hired the above-mentioned FOUR beauties for Fox Business News, each of which is more gorgeous and just as young as CNBC's Burnett. None seems to be quite as smart as Bartiromo or Burnett, and they all show traces (if you listen carefully) of high school giggly speech affectations. But, hey, when you're 26, you've got time to clean that up.
Friday, November 07, 2008
Lake Louise In My Future
One of the ways I keep myself entertained this time of year is to keep track of the change of seasons at my World Cup client venues (Lake Louise & Kitzbühel) and my favorite places to ski (Snowbasin, Deer Valley, Beaver Creek).
Canadians in general, and the Lake Louise R.O.C in particular, are tough, resourceful mofo's. The Eurotrash wankmeisters at FIS bitch and moan about coming over to North America, but fuck them.....they come over here before it's even winter and get training runs and races off like clockwork at LL and at Beaver Creek (race venue run by my colleague & friend Greg Johnson). In the last 3 years, LL has hit their marks on 17 out of 18 training runs and 15 out of 15 speed races. In NOVEMBER. Meanwhile, European Club-5 member Val d'Isere has been canceled, what, 3 years running now, due to no snow?
Here's a photo of Lake Louise today, Nov 7th. They've made snow from top to bottom on the downhill course, and they are selling lift tickets to the public tomorrow.
This is what it looks like during World Cup:
In two weeks, I'll be there with my partner Ted and my team of timing geeks, setting up for World Cup. Will there be enough snow to race downhill on? Hell, knowing Lake Louise, it'll be -35C by then.
Canadians in general, and the Lake Louise R.O.C in particular, are tough, resourceful mofo's. The Eurotrash wankmeisters at FIS bitch and moan about coming over to North America, but fuck them.....they come over here before it's even winter and get training runs and races off like clockwork at LL and at Beaver Creek (race venue run by my colleague & friend Greg Johnson). In the last 3 years, LL has hit their marks on 17 out of 18 training runs and 15 out of 15 speed races. In NOVEMBER. Meanwhile, European Club-5 member Val d'Isere has been canceled, what, 3 years running now, due to no snow?
Here's a photo of Lake Louise today, Nov 7th. They've made snow from top to bottom on the downhill course, and they are selling lift tickets to the public tomorrow.
This is what it looks like during World Cup:
In two weeks, I'll be there with my partner Ted and my team of timing geeks, setting up for World Cup. Will there be enough snow to race downhill on? Hell, knowing Lake Louise, it'll be -35C by then.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
More on BirdieSync
About a week ago, Sunbird 0.9 became available. I started to install it, but then it occurred to me that it might break BirdieSync, which claims(ed) compatibility only with Sunbird 0.8.
Within a couple of days, BirdieSync released a new version which supports Sunbird 0.9.
BirdieSync is a winner. I just paid them their license fee.
Within a couple of days, BirdieSync released a new version which supports Sunbird 0.9.
BirdieSync is a winner. I just paid them their license fee.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
AKI Wins "Pick Hit" Award at IBC
Saturday, September 20, 2008
BirdieSync, Windows Mobile, and Mozilla
I spent years writing application software for the elegant, excellent-for-its-time Palm OS. Unfortunately, Palm lost the war. Fantastic engineering, horrible marketing, no business savvy. This past summer I reluctantly gave up my Treo for an ATT Tilt with WM6. WM6 is typical Microsoft – horribly bloated, slow as molasses, confusing as hell. A ton of cheap / free apps available. Although pretty hopeless as a phone, the browser / e-mail client work great.
An example of annoying....in WM6's Calendar, if you mark an event for a time period (say 10-11 AM) on a given day, the calendar displays a tiny caret on that day on your monthly calendar so you know you've got something going on at a glance. However, if you mark an event as an "All-Day" event (99% of mine are all-day), WM6 displays nothing on the monthly calendar view to remind you at a glance. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!The one thing that really pissed me off most about the WM6 experience was you have to BUY and use Microsoft Outlook in order to sync the Tilt with your PC. I gave M$ my $50 while holding my nose and tried it for 6 months. Outlook is also typical M$, i.e. horribly bloated, slow, and infuriating.
I just bought a new laptop and, whilst gagging as I waited for almost 1 gig of M$ Office to download so that I could install Outlook, I stumbled upon a British app called BirdieSync, which supposedly allows sync-ing WM6 with Thunderbird and Sunbird. There's a free trial, and the software costs €19.95 (about $30 US). I gave it a try.
Installs in a jif.
Difficult to configure, no doubt because M$ makes it as difficult as possible.
Sunbird blows the Outlook calendar away (duh), and of course comparing Thunderbird to Outlook is like comparing a Porsche 911 Turbo to a Buick.
A few tips:
1) BirdieSync installs a submenu in both Sunbird and Thunderbird under TOOLS. Most of what can go wrong can be solved in those menus. When the Activesync process fails, the error messages are usually pretty useless, but the answer can usually be found in the TOOLS -> BirdieSync submenu.
2) BirdieSync is very particular about time zones. In order to sync Sunbird properly, the time zone on your WM6 device must be EXACTLY the same as in Sunbird -> Tools -> Options -> Time Zone.
3) When configuring Activesync (Tools -> Options) the usual suspects (contacts, calendar, etc) apply only to Outlook. For BirdieSync, “Cards” means the Address Book in Thunderbird, “Events” means the Calendar in Sunbird, and “Mails” means the e-mails in Thunderbird.
4) On the BirdieSync site, there's a sentence in the support section saying “please consult the FAQ, almost any question you've got is already answered there”. I found that to be true. Getting everything syncing properly took me a solid hour of futzing around, and every seemingly complicated question I had was indeed answered (sometimes a bit cryptically) in the FAQ.
5) Unlike Palm Desktop and Outlook, if Birdiesync encounters a problem while sync-ing, it won't warn and continue. It warns and then sits down in the middle of the highway like an obstinate camel and stops dead. You must correct the error condition, then unplug the USB sync cable, then re-connect the cable, and then re-attempt sync. Not necessarily a bad thing, but different, so be aware.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Omega's Slime in The New York Times
The Swatch Group and its divisions Swiss Timing, Longines, Omega, and Tissot, are liars, cheaters, and thugs. They bribe, the commit contractual fraud, they blackmail, they falsify results, and they threaten events & other timing & scoring vendors in a massive worldwide effort to dominate the Olympics and World Cup in various sports such as swimming, cycling, and ski racing. They are kings of conflict-of-interest. And technically speaking, they are pretty lousy at timing. Their technology is, for the most part, stuck squarely in the Apollo era.
My part in various parties' battles against Swatch have been as technical backup to others fighting for an open marketplace in Olympic & World Cup sport, such as the Austrian Ski Team (ÖSV), Precision Timing of Montreal, Rolex, the Kitzbüheler Ski Club, and TAG Heuer. Much of this conflict has been fought behind the scenes.
Occasionally, some light is shed onto Swatch's slimy practices. Yesterday was one of those days. The New York Times went after Omega's slime in a big way, in no uncertain terms.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/sports/olympics/21longman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
I hope this article is a sign that the decades-long efforts of Ted Savage (my partner in my winter sports group) toward technical transparency and an open vendor marketplace in timed Olympic & World Cup sports are gaining some traction. My part in this battle has been significantly smaller than his, but it has been my battle too. We have won some battles, and we have lost some too. This fight has not made us any money, rather, it has cost us both professionally and personally. But we will continue to fight for fairness, transparency, and verifiable written standards for electronic timing in professional sport.
With the kind of under-the-table money The Swatch Group throws around, this effort by The New York Times is probably just a blip. There's probably somebody over at The Swatch Group right now boxing up a bunch of $25,000 Patek Phillippe wristwatches (another Swatch brand) to send to the editorial staff at The New York Times as a "gift".
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Snow Gods Appeased?
At some point, I must have pissed off The Snow Gods. I don't know where, I don't know when, but I must have done it.
Working in the ski racing biz, The Snow Gods are important. Perhaps the MOST important thing. Except for the Serendipity Gods, of course - the ones that bite you on the ass despite development, testing, failover planning, and so forth. In the "old days", I can remember World Cup races at Snowbasin, Beaver Creek, and Vail (amongst others) being canceled due to TOO MUCH SNOW, which is sort of the ultimate accident of nature for a guy like me. I mean....you're at the mountain (sometimes via police escort because the roads to the venue may be closed to the public, due to snow), your skis & boots are there, the races are generally canceled by around 8 AM, and then you've got absolutely nothing to do for the rest of the day....except ski all that fresh pow off. On a mountain that's probably closed to the public. Your on-piste race pass gets you on any lift at any time. In a pinch you can even occasionally commandeer a snowmobile. Some of the best powder days of my life occurred (for example) during the US Nationals at Snowbasin in 1994, and again during the World Alpine Championships at Beaver Creek in 1999.
But the last few years, it seems The Snow Gods have turned against me. In 2007, I sat around with my thumb up my ass for a week in Kitzbühel in 50 degree weather, watching a week of violent rainstorms wash away what little snow remained on the Hahnenkamm DH course. This year (2008) at Kitz, I had two great alpentouring powder days just before DH training started with my good friends from the Kitzbüheler Ski Club (thanks Hermann & Micchey!!), but then the weather then turned against us; both the Hahnenkamm DH and the Super-G were run from their respective bad-weather starts, which was a bummer for all concerned.
So it was with no small amount of trepidation that I scheduled a quick dash to Argentina last week to try to get some skiing in the Andes Mountains. I figured The Snow Gods were going to hose me, so I planned to get some pleasant socializing accomplished, drink a few bottles of Malbec, and maybe get up on a few mountains to have a look around.
I guess The Snow Gods must now like me again, because out of 6 ski days in Argentina, 4 of them were freshie spectaculars. I started out in Bariloche with three powder days at Cerro Catedral. I hired professional mountaineering guides to ski with me through CASA (www.casatours.com), because the best skiing in The Andes isn't in bounds, it's off-piste in some fairly dangerous places. We absolutely raged. Climbing on skins, hiking out of bounds, we got some of the best fresh tracks I've had in years. Many thanks to Lucas and Craig of CASA. Then on to San Martin de los Andes, a really cool little town about the size of Park City. I skied two days at Chapelco, which were pretty crappy. Bad viz, a bit of rain, a lot of fog, and out of bounds was out of the question (even with professional guides) because the snowpack was extremely unstable and two guys had been wiped out by an avalanche 4 days before we arrived.
Then - the last day at Cero Bayo. Ahhhhhhhhhhh. Drove from San Martin de los Andes down to Villa Angostura the night before, and it rained like hell the whole day, the whole way. The road to Angostura was about 2000 feet below the bottom of Bayo, so I was hoping all the precipitation was snow up at the ski mountain.
It was.
What a day. Cerro Bayo had blue sky, a half-meter of fresh pow, so much snow in fact that the road up the mtn from Villa Angostura was almost closed. Almost. We encountered a traffic jam of stranded cars, but in a hilarious display of a vigorous game of "ultimate clusterfuck", anxious skiers jumped out of their vehicles (stuck or not) and pushed any stuck cars off the road so we could get up to the lifts. This is in August, mind you. While everyone else in North America was sweating their asses off, and everyone else in the sports biz in in Beijing breathing toxic air. Went huge all day long, and in fact left a lot of fresh powder untracked up there, because when they shut the lifts down on us around 5 PM, there were still plenty of freshies to be found. I was so spent, I could barely put one foot in front of the other to make it back to the car. Just to put a nice exclamation point on the day, the owner of CASA was skiing with us that day, and he shot some video of me going off, which he kindly edited into a nice snippet with music and sent to me. So here it is, sports fans: Cerro Bayo on a bluebird August day.
Guess this old bod still has a few powder days left in it.
Thanks to The Snow Gods. Whatever I did to piss you off, guys, I am sorry to the bottom of my heart, and thanks for giving me another chance.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
REAL Sports Are Timed, Not Judged
There really out to be a law.
link
I wonder what percentage of Olympic sports are judged, not timed. They should throw the judged ones into the shit-can, where they belong.
link
I wonder what percentage of Olympic sports are judged, not timed. They should throw the judged ones into the shit-can, where they belong.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Say Bye Bye to the US Hopeless
I just found out yesterday that for the first time since 1988, I will not be at this year's US Open. My tennis software licensee, IDS, has decided they can carry the ball without me, they do not need my onsite support.
Upon hearing the news, I admit being stunned for about 2 seconds, after which I ran out the front door screaming for joy and did cartwheels down the street.
Figuratively, of course.
I've been anticipating this for a long time. If I never go to Flushing Meadows again in my life, I won't miss it one bit - the slums, the smell, the crime, the filth, the noise. It's a horrible place, and it's a national embarrassment to hold our national championships in such a festering armpit.
I'm going skiing in Argentina to celebrate. For at least 15 years, I've had a hard-on to ski in August, but I never could do it because of my commitment to the US Open. This year, I can finally do it.
Frankly, I'm too old for the US Open now. It requires a lot of energy - psychic and physical - that I no longer have. It has never been fun, it's always been the low-light of every year, although it was an interesting challenge from 1988 to about 1998. Now it just sucks, it's a chore, and was something I dreaded every year, all year long. For 20 years I've said my typical year is divided up into the 4 months I spend recovering from the US Open, the 4 months I spend preparing for the US Open, the month I spend at the US Open, and then there's one month where I try not to think about the US Open.
A few weeks ago I flew back from Brussels into JFK, and had to take a taxi over to LGA. It was a beautiful spring afternoon, yet I was fill with loathing and disgust for that part of Long Island as we sat in traffic on the Van Wyck.
My time at the US Open is done. Yay.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
I Love Technology
There are days I hate technology, and then there are days I love it. Today is one of the latter.
For four years I have carried a Palm Treo phone in my pocket. I was one of the "early adopters", and as a Palm programmer, I loved the fact that the C++ toolkit for Palm OS was free. This meant that hundreds of thousands of programmers were out there writing software for Palm OS (including me), so in those rare cases where I couldn't find a Palm program for free or for $19 to do almost anything (English-German translation, for example), I could roll my sleeves up and write the damn thing myself.
Unfortunately, Palm lost the war. The unbelievably incompetent management at Palm snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and the elegant, superb Palm OS is headed for the scrap heap.
After evaluating the alternatives, I eschewed the iPhone because (a) Apple stuff is more style than substance, (b) I didn't want to keep iTunes, which is WORSE than a virus, running on my PC in order to synch the iPhone, and (c) The iPhone is locked, so I can't use it with my European SIMs (such as A1 in Austria). Yes, it is possible to jailbreak and unlock an iPhone, but fuck Steve Jobs for fighting programmers.
So went over to The Dark Side and I bought an HTC Tilt a few days ago, which runs Windows Mobile 6. One of the reasons I chose the Tilt is because it has an internal GPS, and I had a vague idea that perhaps that would come in handy sometime.
Today was that day. This thing has already paid for itself, at least in my mind.
I am on holiday in the San Juan Islands. After a brutal week working dawn to dusk in Calgary, I brought my Ritchey Breakaway bike out here with the idea of riding my ass off for a few days. There is some GREAT riding here, however, the roads are very confusing because the islands zig-zag NW and NE whereas the roads all run E-W and N-S.
Riding with paper maps is difficult, because the maps get all soggy and fall apart in your jersey pocket. If the map is big enough to be effective, then folding it up and putting it away a few times destroys it.
What I discovered is that the Tilt is the ultimate bike touring accessory. Running Google Maps / WM and receiving data from the GPS, I just ride in whatever direction looks interesting, and when I need to figure out where I am, I just whip out the Tilt and the GPS tells me precisely. In addition, if I need to find - for example - water or a bike shop, I can just type that into Google Maps, and up pops all the choices nearby.
I had one of the most fun rides of my life today, weaving in and out of all the byzantine coves and coastal towns in and between Oak Harbor, Coupeville, and Langley WA without the slightest worry as to how the hell I was going to find my way home. I just cruised, taking every dinky little back road I could find, and when I started to get tired, I turned around and headed home on the route dictated by Google Maps and my Tilt's GPS.
Today, I love technology.
For four years I have carried a Palm Treo phone in my pocket. I was one of the "early adopters", and as a Palm programmer, I loved the fact that the C++ toolkit for Palm OS was free. This meant that hundreds of thousands of programmers were out there writing software for Palm OS (including me), so in those rare cases where I couldn't find a Palm program for free or for $19 to do almost anything (English-German translation, for example), I could roll my sleeves up and write the damn thing myself.
Unfortunately, Palm lost the war. The unbelievably incompetent management at Palm snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and the elegant, superb Palm OS is headed for the scrap heap.
After evaluating the alternatives, I eschewed the iPhone because (a) Apple stuff is more style than substance, (b) I didn't want to keep iTunes, which is WORSE than a virus, running on my PC in order to synch the iPhone, and (c) The iPhone is locked, so I can't use it with my European SIMs (such as A1 in Austria). Yes, it is possible to jailbreak and unlock an iPhone, but fuck Steve Jobs for fighting programmers.
So went over to The Dark Side and I bought an HTC Tilt a few days ago, which runs Windows Mobile 6. One of the reasons I chose the Tilt is because it has an internal GPS, and I had a vague idea that perhaps that would come in handy sometime.
Today was that day. This thing has already paid for itself, at least in my mind.
I am on holiday in the San Juan Islands. After a brutal week working dawn to dusk in Calgary, I brought my Ritchey Breakaway bike out here with the idea of riding my ass off for a few days. There is some GREAT riding here, however, the roads are very confusing because the islands zig-zag NW and NE whereas the roads all run E-W and N-S.
Riding with paper maps is difficult, because the maps get all soggy and fall apart in your jersey pocket. If the map is big enough to be effective, then folding it up and putting it away a few times destroys it.
What I discovered is that the Tilt is the ultimate bike touring accessory. Running Google Maps / WM and receiving data from the GPS, I just ride in whatever direction looks interesting, and when I need to figure out where I am, I just whip out the Tilt and the GPS tells me precisely. In addition, if I need to find - for example - water or a bike shop, I can just type that into Google Maps, and up pops all the choices nearby.
I had one of the most fun rides of my life today, weaving in and out of all the byzantine coves and coastal towns in and between Oak Harbor, Coupeville, and Langley WA without the slightest worry as to how the hell I was going to find my way home. I just cruised, taking every dinky little back road I could find, and when I started to get tired, I turned around and headed home on the route dictated by Google Maps and my Tilt's GPS.
Today, I love technology.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Kitzbühel In The Summer
Dropped in on my bro's at the KSC the other day on my way back from the Czech Republic. As great as Kitzbühel is in the winter, it's ten times as great in the summer.
One of the most amazing things I found is that the KSC froze the steep parts of the course so hard for the race that there's still almost two meters of snow left on some of the steeper sections, like the exit of the Steilhang and at the bottom of the Mausefalle.
You can still see my neon green tape (with notes to Andy & Brian) on the wiring box at the Alte Schneisse.
Hermann at the Alte Schneisse.
Petra is going to scout an area for a FIS-piss tree in Kitzbühel
This is the exit to the Steilhang, where Bode skied up onto the Vexar during the 2008 DH to keep from dying. Still almost two meters of snow there.
You could still ski down the Steilhang, no problem, on May 25.
The KSC Mountain Goat stands watch proudly over the golf course. The Hausebergkante and the Zielschuss have a high "pucker factor" even in the summer.
Yours truly at the Alte Schneisse breakover.
Hermann at the bottom of the Mausefalle.
James at I1.
The top of the Kitzbühelerhorn seems to have more snow on it in late May than it did during the race.
One of the most amazing things I found is that the KSC froze the steep parts of the course so hard for the race that there's still almost two meters of snow left on some of the steeper sections, like the exit of the Steilhang and at the bottom of the Mausefalle.
You can still see my neon green tape (with notes to Andy & Brian) on the wiring box at the Alte Schneisse.
Hermann at the Alte Schneisse.
Petra is going to scout an area for a FIS-piss tree in Kitzbühel
This is the exit to the Steilhang, where Bode skied up onto the Vexar during the 2008 DH to keep from dying. Still almost two meters of snow there.
You could still ski down the Steilhang, no problem, on May 25.
The KSC Mountain Goat stands watch proudly over the golf course. The Hausebergkante and the Zielschuss have a high "pucker factor" even in the summer.
Yours truly at the Alte Schneisse breakover.
Hermann at the bottom of the Mausefalle.
James at I1.
The top of the Kitzbühelerhorn seems to have more snow on it in late May than it did during the race.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Closest Finish
For 2008, I upgraded the entire Pit Crew Challenge timing system from 1/100 resolution to 1/1000 resolution. The teams are so evenly matched....they use the same equipment, they train the same way, they use the same coaches; like any NASCAR race out on the track, the PCC is extremely close competition.
The upgrade came in handy. In the Skills competition, the Top 10 in each discipline were covered by about 1.5 seconds.
Here's the Lynx image of the closest finish - 2 vs 31. Decided by 0.052 seconds.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
It's NASCAR Time
In Charlotte for the NASCAR Pit Crew Challenge. Always a trip to parachute into NASCAR world for a few days. Started things off by going to my favorite soul food restaurant, Mert's Heart and Soul, with Trampass & Brandy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
