May 2003 Archives

I really wanted to just love the Matrix Reloaded. It was a good movie, but not a great one IMHO. I just rewatched the original Matrix and I can see why. The original was filled with mystery. First versions can be. It wasn't clear what was real and what was a dream. Who was good and bad. Not to mention that the first part had that slow, film noir pacing and look. Second reason is that there is no mystery in Matrix Reloaded. There is more and more of the same. Tons of agents. Too many facts. In fact, I kind of thought it was confusing that Neo could crush folks, bend walls at the end of the first Matrix and in this one, he has to fight 100 agents. Not clear why. He dos the superman thing, but would have thought he could just smash the whole thing. The main thing is that the original, like my other favorite movie Blade Runner, just keeps you guessing (a.l.a. what is the real world vs. who is the replicant). I thought Matrix Reloaded was predictable, while Matrix was completely not. For instance, what if the "real world" itself turns out to be a construct itself. Layers in layers. Alternatively, to kill the Matrix, you have to go to another reality called the Construct. Make that all white and pure while the Matrix is black. Another alternative is that to get the Matrix, you have to awaken all the folks who are plugged in so he has to become a leader in the Matrix world itself. Most depressing thing is that the special edition of the Matrix was cancelled. It could really have used a DTS soundtrack for instance. My Two Cents - Archived Posts (3/17/03 - 2/24/03) Here are some other reviews: * "Tim Wick":http://www.misfit.org/views/2003/05/twicktmr.htm. The number one hit on google for reviews. Go figure. I agree with his points. * "Rotten Tomatoes":http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/TheMatrixReloaded-1122457/. My favorite site for reviews.

I've been looking for my second bike. I love my Trek 5900, but it isn't that practical for all the other things. Fortunately, Steve Hooper told me about Adventure Cycling Association. Here is what I found out:

Buying a Touring Bike. A great comprehensive piece. There is not much on touring in mainline publications like Bicycling.com, so it was nice to find this. . I ideally would love to get a touring/cyclocross bike that also is packable. Ideal specifications would be:

1. SS Couplings. The Frame splits so that it can be transported in a standard sized suitcase.
2. Cyclocross Tires. So that I can do light mountain biking with the kids. No need for a suspension for a while. Also, this would be an ideal compromise for the wet, wet winter commutes.
3. Disk Brakes. Again for the wet and also given the loads. Weighs more, but Avid now makes mechanical brakes that can be used with road bike levers.
4. Stiff. Assuming that this thing will be carrying/pulling weight. I'll probably get one of those one or two wheel trailers for camping with the kids.

Here are some bikes that meet some of these requirements listed in rough order. The amazing thing is that I emailed these guys and in every case someone answered right away:

• Independent Fabricators. They make a Titanium Cyclocross bike with couplers available and 700c wheels. Missing: Need to see if they have disc brake tabs and 132mm axle spacing. They have them at Aurora Bikes here in Seattle. Contact Rob at 206-783-1000.
• Co-Motion. A Northwest builder. They make a steel racing, light touring and heavy touring bike series that all have SS couplers. These are called the Espresso, Nor'Wester and Americano respectively. The Nor'Wester sounds about right at 3.85 lb frame with 0.5 lb for the couplers. It is much shorter in top tube than what racers use. It can also use Cantilever, although not Disc brakes. It is a 130mm axle in the rear so can't really put mountain hubs in the rear. Missing: 132mm axle, disc brakes and aluminum (e.g., lighter frame). They don't recommend disc brakes since it causes stress on the front rigid fork and also interferes with panniers.
• Waterford. These cyclocross and touring X-22 series can be had with couplers. The X-22 can have up to 38C tires and cantilever brakes. $1600 for frame and $800 for couplers, case and other accessories. 3.85lb frame. The X-14 is $1300. Missing: disc brake tabs and 132mm spacing for mountain hubs. Richard Schwinn himself (part of the Schwinn's that started the famous bike company) sent me mail giving me advice. Basically said, that a good all purpose bike if carrying more than 50 lbs is the Adventure Cycle. Said that a trailer didn't handle as well. They have them in Tacoma. Spoke and Sprocket. As Richard says, "If they were in Seattle they would be one the jewels of the city. I know many Seattlites who happily make the trek south. Talk to one of the Jim's there at 253-564-1422." List price is $1600 plus $1,200 for the Ultegra kit. Same for the Adventure Cycle.
• Erickson. Glenn did a nice bike for Hoops that has everything I want except the disc brake option, but he's totally custom so I'm hoping that he can make this for me. Also noticed he does titanium as well. Fully custom, so the price will be interesting I'm sure! Only problem is that Glenn is gone this summer.

These bikes are wonderful but don't have couplers mainly:

• Rivendell. They make full custom bikes of course at $2,200 per frame, but also have a standard Rambouillet for $995 or (Atlantis is available, but in my size takes 26" wheels) made by a small shop in Japan. Steel bikes and these don't have couplers. But, they are big wheel friendly and can accept a mountain rear 135mm or a road 130mm rear hub. Missing: couplers, disc brake tabs and lighter frame, but they are cheap.
• Giant OCR Touring. Just about everything except the couplers. Has Avid Disc Brakes. There is also a frame only for Cyclocross and touring, so that I can build it up myself, so couplers really are the only problem. Bike is $1300 list.
• Cannondale. They have a touring bike the T2000, but checkout their Cyclocross model with Disc brakes, etc. Just missing the couplers.
• Redline. They have a Conquest Pro.

Passion for PeaceA great piece by Friedman as usual. The Rumsfeld doctrine of small-force, high-tech armies may be great for winning wars, but you need the Powell doctrine for winning the peace: a massive, overwhelming investment of soldiers, police and aid. We should be flooding Iraq with people and money right now. Start big and then build down — not the other way around. Ditto on the politics side. In destroying the Iraqi Army and Baath Party, we have destroyed the (warped) pillars of Iraqi secular nationalism. We need to start replacing them, quickly, with alternative, progressive pillars of Iraqi secular nationalism; otherwise, Shiite religious nationalism will fill the void.

ULead MovieFactory. I'm depressed. I used this thing to create a DVD movie. Now as I'm trying to duplicate 7 copies, I have 1 coaster (e.g., destroyed DVD+R) for everyone that is good. An obvious driver problem where in the middle of a copy, it gives up the ghost and hangs. I'm using an older Sony DRU-120A and Windows XP and I'm sure there is a driver bug somewhere. Sigh. An evening not to mention a bunch of DVD+R at $5 a pop down the drain. That's what I get for being on the bleeding edge. I'll have to try another utility to create DVDs. I've also seen on C|Net that Dazzle's DVD Complete has the same problem. I wonder where the bugs are.

Well the next generation of hardware performance is here. There is the new lineup of Pentiums with hyperthreading and also a new set of motherboards based on the i875P and the i865P. Tom's Hardware recommends getting an 865P motherboard and the 2.8 GHz Pentium IV. I'm on the way: * Tom's Hardware Guide Motherboards & RAM: One Tough Cookie: 10 Boards with Intel i875P Chipsets - Part I - Intel takes Dual DDR to its Mass Market. The next generation of power is here in the i875P (a.k.a. Canterwood) chipsets. Here are the current reviews. It shows that there are Bios problems with most right now. But, ulitmately performance is going to be great. This roundup showed lots of bugs and problems and basically said, don't buy the 875P yet. I'm so sad.

Well it's been six months since I figured out the best way to backup DVDs. Here's an update on what's on the web now: * "Doom9.net Guide":http://www.doom9.org/. This was the source I used before and learned about Gordian Knot. The site has only gotten better. It actually explains what you are doing while the other guides are more of the press key 1, 2, 3 variety. Not the first hit in Google, but seems the most comprehensive. Main change is the use of the XviD encoder which is open source and royalty-free apparently with great quality. I'll have to give that a try. * DVD To DivX conversion guide. I did a DVD to DivX backup tools study about six months ago. It's interesting to see how the tools have evolved since then. Here's a how-to-guide that uses the various piece parts that Gordian Knot integrates. * "Ecuador's DVD to DivX Guide":http://ecuador.ebodyform.com/pcdvd/dvdrip.htm. A slightly different take on the conversion process. This does a conversion of the audio to MP3 as well, so you lose the AC3 I think. He also has a rip "pack":http://users.otenet.gr/%7Ethalia1/ecurip23.htm of all the software needed. * "Ecuador's PC Software Player Ratings":http://ecuador.ebodyform.com/pcdvd/dvdplay.htm. He also has a good guide to software DVD players. He likes Cyberlink PowerDVD the best. * "OCAddition DVD to DivX Guide":http://www.ocaddiction.com/articles/howto/dvdbackup/. Yet another guide. This one uses Gordian Knot. I used this program before. I sure hope it has gotten easier.

Alex is learning poetry. Here are some of his latest. First is a kind of neat form:

Peta-Jane Awesome fun Busy helping caring Makes me very challenged Peta-Jane

I had not heard of this form before, but it has the first and last line are the name of the person. The second line are two adjectives describing the person. Then third line are three things she does. Finally fourth line is what she does for you. Kind of neat huh?

Wireless Internet Access - T-Mobile HotSpots. Pricing is hitting the right range. Right now T-mobile offers a $20/month plan if you are T-mobile voice subscriber for Wifi access. Sign my up!

Doug's Dynamic Drivel: A new Wi-Fi model. This problem of how power WiFi has been hotly debated in our shop over at "Geekfishing":http://geekfishing.net. Basically if you have lots of 802.11 Wifi access points beaconing, you get unpredictable results as clients roam automagically from one to another. In our own offices, there are no less than five different Wifi networks up at any given time from different small businesses. Boy it is confusing for end users to suddenly get on a network. What is worse is that half the networks won't allow VPN back to our secured company network. Sign of things to come. And according to the folks at "RovingIP":http://rovingip.net, this is not easy to solve without low level changes in all clients.

h2. Topolino Wheelset Topolino Tech. I'm a crazy dope with too much craziness for lightness. In any case, I just got these wheels. A great deal from "Bethel Cycles":http://bethelcycles.com that includes tires, rim strip and tubes. I finally got these and mounted them with a set of Veloflex Pave 700x22 tires. Here's a review of them after about a month: * My buddy has a pair of Campagnolo Nucleons. Now, those look like delicate wheels. The spokes must be 14 gauge at most. These are much thicker and there are 36 spokes. The idea is that if the spokes are light why not put more on. They are about as stiff as my Mavic Ksyriums. This surprised me. Such a light wheelset (1400 grams about, but this doesn't include rim tape or skewers) is amazingly light. They haven't gone out of true yet. Something else that I had expected for such a light set. Only about 300 miles on them so far, but have hit things unexpectedly. * I used nylon rim tape that Bethel sent me. Very light, but switched to Velox in the front. Got lots of flats. In fact, my super light 50 gram Performance ultralight tubes ended up with 6 flats on the inside because of spoke intrusion I think. Made a 20 mile ride awful long. I'm used to Mavic Ksyriums which don't need rim tape. Switching to Velox (what Topolino recommends) and also going to the Michelin A1 tubes at 70 grams seems to have helped. Haven't flatted yet. * Of course, these aren't the sensible wheels that will last a lifetime. I'm 165 pounds, so not super light. I've had good success with Mavic Ksyriums. Riding them for 2 years now and haven't wrecked them. I did have to true them slightly at 2,000 miles, but given the potholes I've hit in the winter, this is pretty amazing. * They certainly aren't as stiff as my long ride wheelset. These are Mavic CXP-33 semi-aero rims with 14/15 gauge butted spokes on Campagnolo Record hubs. The spokes are put in 2-cross.Now that's a durable rim set. h2. Veloflex Pave Reviews I've been using the Veloflex Pave's now for a little bit. They are 700x22c and I'm at 110psi (so breaking all the rules below). Nice tires. Theoretical an ounce light (180g) than the Michelins. Main difference is they are very squirrelly at high speed (above 35 mph) and also in the rain. So they are fast fair weather tires. Probably not a good choice for all weather use, but terrific for the summer. Also, they don't take kindly to glass, my first set of Pave's ended up getting a casing tear after 200 miles because of glass and junk on the road. I've use the 700x23C Continental 3000GP. Got a true 1,500 miles out of the rear tire and still going on the front. The idea is to do a rotation because the fronts don't really wear out. Decent rain performance. Tried also the Michelin Axial Pros. Had the same problem with a tear in the casing due to road debris. Probably a fluke. Thought they were very nice. Similar to the Continentals. h2. Sane Tire Recommendations "Road Bike Rider":http://roadbikerider.com. Here is the conservative recommentation from folks who are riding 15,000 miles per year. I'm not kidding and what to recommend to ordinary, non crazy folks. * For tires, use either Michelin Pro Race or Axial Carbon 700x25C tires, or Continental Ultra GatorSkin 700x25C or 28C. An added bonus is that all of these have puncture protection built in. I know there are other good brands of tires, but the Michelins and Conti's are my all-time favorites. * For tubes, I recommend latex, which is more resistant than butyl to punctures and pinch flats. * For inflation, run no more than 100 psi. I weigh 210, ride on crappy, potholed roads and run 87-90 psi front, 95-98 psi rear. I never pinch flat, not even with butyl tubes.

a little ludwig goes a long way: SHN. John points out that instead of using lossy Mpeg compression. Going to a lossless compression scheme like SHN might be better. Great point. With disk space so available, I'm already encoding at 320Kbps variable rate which is still 5x less than the raw CD format. But, I know I'm losing something.

CyberLink Patch Files. Yet another update for the DVD player on my machine. For some reason PowerDVD works, but nothing else can play a DVD. Not Real, Windows Media Player or Interactual. Feels like a codec got blown away.

Adaptec Windows ASPI Package. Here it is the current Adaptec ASPI drivers, so I can flash my DVD drive.

DVDplusRW.org - Compatibility List DVD-Video Players. Well, I finally blew the DVD+RW as a test with MovieFactory. It looks decent, not great. Main problem now are the many incompatibilities with players. "Compatibility hacking for DVD Recorders":http://www.dvdplusrw.org/resources/bitsettings_pc.html. My Toshiba 6200 needs a compatibliity hack, but the Sony DRU-120A drive I have can't have the bitsettings changed. At least the latest version of Nero has this utility built-in. Arrrgghh. "Sony DRU-120A Support":http://sony.storagesupport.com/dvdrw/dru120a.htm. At least I found support page and I got the manual now. Also to update the firmware, you need Windows ASPI drivers which XP doesn't load anymore. Arrrgghh. Also, my machine has corrupted codecs thanks to Kazaa Lites Codec Pack installation so I can't see the DVD on my machine anymore. Sigh. I need to get the Windows XP SP1 CD. Windows is demanding a CD and I only have a copy on the disk. Arrrggghhh.

Well, I've finally mastered the Video Explosion/VideoFactory tool and have a nice video, now there is the issue of how to get it out to the real world. It isn't easy: * Sonic MyDVD. This has got to rate as one of the most ugly programs I've ever used. Main issue is that you have just one movie, it puts a tiny button on the first DVD menu that gives you no hint you are supposed to click on it. Seems designed for adding several movies into one DVD. At least 6 to make the layout look semi-decent. Didn't try to actually blow the DVD though. * DVD Complete. This has a much nicer layout. But it is still confusing to have one movie just sitting there. Also, Cnet.com users reports lots of bugs blowing the CD. Nicest layout tools though. Also has a strange requirement that the DVD Video be under 8MBps and VideoFactory defaults to 8.3MBps. Argh. * ULead MovieFactory. Has an OK layout. The main issue is that the layout again is ugly. Doesn't have a single movie option really. Most of the programs seemed tuned for lots of random video clips and a slideshow. * ULead VideoStudio 7. This was actually the first tool that I used. It was harder than VideoFactory/Video Explosion, but it sure made a beautiful DVD menu. It is tuned for a single movie on a DVD, so it boots right into the chapter menu rather than into a multiple title menu. To convert this into a DiVX format movie. That is using MPEG4, it seems that this is a little easier: * DivX Digest - AVI to DivX Guide. Good instructions on how to take an uncompressed AVI and turn it into a DiVX file. * "Moo's Video Editing Tips":http://www.student.oulu.fi/~miohtama/dv-editing-tips.html#Ulead%20Media%20Studio%20Pro%20specific%20issues. The only issue is that VirtualDub mentioned above can't read DV Camcorder AVI files unless it has an older Video for Windows Codec. That you can get from Canopus.

a little ludwig goes a long way: Naveen. Proving once again, I don't understand the law. Naveen Jain owes Infospace $200M or more dollars!

Jabber Software Foundation: open instant messaging powered by XMPP. An open IM standard. Supposed to be pretty good according to Gary.

Here are some of the top Google hits for wifi hotspot directories. Interesting to see the third tier actually building networks: * "Node DB":http://www.nodedb.org/. Wireless node database. * PDAStreet: Software: Other Internet & Communications: WiFi HotSpot Directory. An Excel spreadsheet of access points. * "Riverwalk Directory":http://www.makewirelesswork.com/directory.htm. Another directory. I think this is the actual content of the one above. * "Wifi Freenet":http://www.wififreenet.com/. Only free access points are listed here. Not much there, but interesting to see what people try. * "Hotspot Locations":http://www.hotspot-locations.com/. A pretty complete directory it seems. Interesting third tier WISPs: * "Seattle Wireless":http://seattlewireless.com. Seattle's local hotspots. Note that they are now charging for this. * "PersonalTelco":http://www.personaltelco.net/. Portland based hotspots. They have 158 locations right now. * "aXess2go":http://aXess2go. Has 14 hotspots right now. Finally, here are the big boys who are creating the biggest underlying networks: * "T-Mobile":http://locations.hotspot.t-mobile.com/. 2,300 locations and counting. Interesting to see how many are airports. Of course they are also doing Starbucks and will do Borders and Kinkos. They are now doing $20/month with no commitment for T-mobile customers. Wow. * "Wayport":http://www.wayport.com/locations. They are in 10 airports and 500 hotels right now. Their pricing remains high at $30 with a one year agreement. Here are the consortium folks who are aggregating: * "Airpass":http://isps.net/Directory/. A roaming consortium provided by Airpath. They do provide hotspot services, manage hotspots and provide roaming. This is based in Toronto and is looking for financing. A partner with "RovingIP":http://rovingip.net. * "iPass":http://ipass.com/. Has existing customers, owned hotspots and roaming. They have 1,000 APs from 11 underlying networks. * "GRIC":http://gric.com. They have a global network. Charges $30/month. * "Boingo":http://boingo.com. They have 1,300 "locations":http://www.boingo.com/search.html now through roaming agreements with Wayport in particular. * Picopoint * FatPort * Kubiwireless Analysts are trying to get a handle. With roaming agreements there is much double counting. * "How Many Hotspots are there?":http://www.gric.com/articles/1_03_80211_planet.html. A good analysis of who has actually deployed what as of January 2003.

Sonic Foundry. After all that, it turns out that VideoFoundry/Video Explosion can strip out the audio tracks and produce MP3 or WAV files. It is buried in the custom render menu when you choose Make Movie. Not documented anywhere either. Sigh.

Divx Avi Asf Wmv Wma Rm Rmvb Fix Joiner - Download.com. Another utility program. This does fixup of various video files. Good for fragmented downloads. For me, this is most useful for various segments of AVI files that Video Explosion creates. I create one large file and then extract all the audio and then off into a CD with Nero or through an MP3 converter with Exact Audio Copy. Wow, there are lots of utilities aren't there around.

Advanced AVI Splitter, AVI Joiner, MP3 Splitter, audio extractor, video frames grabber. Ah there is a tool for everything. In this case, it is a tool that takes an AVI file that VideoFoundry/Video Explosion creates and extracts the audio portion so that I can edit it with a conventional tool like Audigy.

What is Audacity?. VideoFactory doesn't come with an audio editor and I need one to take the DV Camcorder audio and stick it onto a CD. Here's an open source one. One of the highest hits from Google. The other was GoldWave. It uses Lame Encoder to create MPEG files. So, it should well with Exact Audio Copy which I also use.

Video Production. A great web site that explains what products you need to author. I tend to agree with him that VideoFactory is probably the easiest product to edit. I have tried the Ken Burns effects (it's not that discoverable ;-), but will try them. Has nice "tips and tricks";http://users.rcn.com/rofrano/Video/Vegas_Tips/vegas_tips.html for Vegas that apply pretty much to VideoFactory as well. And eureka, he tells you about chapter points for a DVD (these automatically create points in most DVD authoring programs so that you can do chapter select: How can I print out chapter points for use in my DVD authoring program? To get a "printout" of where-ever you want chapter points, do the following: How can I print out chapter points for use in my DVD authoring program? To get a "printout" of where-ever you want chapter points, do the following: # Set a Marker wherever you want a chapter point # Press "Alt-4" to show the edit details box # In the "show" dropdown box - pick "Markers" Highlight all the rows # press CTRL-C # open Notepad # press CTRL-V # print "DVD Authoring Recommendations":http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=178662&Page=0. He also some good recommendations for DVD authoring and other tools. He likes the Ulead DVD MovieFactory for authoring simple DVDs. Having used the MyDVD that's bundled with Nova's Video Explosion (an OEM version of VideoFactory), I tend to agree! Also says to try DVD Complete. There are trial versions of both, so I'll give them a try. DVD Complete let's you have really neat DVD opening sequences, but is more work.

Polar S720 on ebay. Hoops has been on me to get him a new bike computer. The S720 is about $330 from excelsports.com, so I've also been looking on ebay. The query above is one way to find it. You have to subtract out items because folks list the S720 as S-720, S 720 and 720 which are queries that you can't run a one liner on ebay. Anyway, this shows that the lowest price has been about $212-232 for this, so it is quite a savings from the "$300":http://www.coloradocyclist.com/common/products/productdisplay2_v2.cfm?PRRFNBR=28682&S=22977,22978,27734,20070,22854,28682,12111,24608,24609,27091,24610,24604,16241,24603,12150 at Colorado Cyclist. Still need to get the power kit separately from "Colorado Cyclist":http://www.coloradocyclist.com/common/products/productdisplay2_v2.cfm?PRRFNBR=27091&S=22977,22978,27734,20070,22854,28682,12111,24608,24609,27091,24610,24604,16241,24603,12150. The cadence thing is just $40 separately, but the power output kit is a cool $315 although this includes cadence and power output. You can also get the whole thing direct from a big "Polar reseller":http://www.polar-usa.com/polar-packages.html for $690. This is a Polar S720i, a Power Output kit and a USB/IR connection. We don't really this last thing, although it is very convenient if you don't have a laptop.

Video Explosion. Been using this product to create a movie. Wow, is it complicated, but the results are great. This editor got a 9/10 from C|Net and it is definitely easier to understand that Ulead. It is licensed actually from "Sonic Foundry":http://sonicfoundry.com and seems to be a copy of their VideoFactory. This is in turn a crippled version of "Vegas":http://www.sonicfoundry.com/products/showproduct.asp?PID=808. The bulletin board and forum over at SonicFoundry seems to be the place to figure out things. Main problem now is DVD authoring of menus. There is a commercial product called "DVD Architect", but the bundled Sonic MyDVD needs something called chapter marks in the MPEG2 file that Video Explosion/VideoFactory outputs and I can't figure out how to create these. These things really shouldn't be two products BTW. So, the search for the right PC product continues.

NEWS! - Minolta announces DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 film scanner. No availability or pricing, but here are specifications. "Imaging Resources":http://www.imaging-resource.com/SCAN1.HTM also has reviews of scanners too.

What a dilemma on scanners (with printers, it is easy, if splurging and if you want archival quality, then it's on to the Epson 2200, if it is everyday stuff, the cheaper Canon i950). For scanners, it's a different story. First there is the question of flatbed vs. dedicated film scanner. For flatbeds, the two to get seem to be: * "Epson 3200":http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Scanners/Epson_3200/page_1.htm. This particularly reviewer really loved the quality. No dust removal, but very high quality at 3200 dpi. USB 2.0 and relatively fast. * "Canon 9900f":http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Scanners/Canon%209900F/page_1.htm. He didn't like it quite as much as the Epson. For film scanners, a good "overview":http://www.rit.edu/~cgs2794/scanners.htm by Carl Smith and a a "comparison":http://www.rit.edu/~cgs2794/comparison.htm shows: * Nikon Coolscan 4000ED has the features, but it's expensive at $1400 * Canoscan FS4000US most folks think is close to the Coolscan, but it only has USB 1.1 so it is slow. It is in the $600 range. * Nikon Coolscan IV has lower resolution but digital ICE and it is great at resolving shading (something called D-max). It is also about $600. * Minolta Discan III is cheap, but low resolution and poorer dust removal at $300 and a good default choice. * Minolta Dimage 5400 (see below). This sounds like a great unit that is coming out next month. So the idea is to wait. Photo.net Canon Canoscan FS4000US Review by Bob Atkins might provide the answer...

Just for information, for people intending to buy a filmscanner but who can still wait a few more months: Partly based on this review and the appended comments, I had more or less decided to buy the Canon FS4000US plus a SCSI card. I found the Nikon 4000 ED too expensive and the Minolta Elite II maybe not having enough resolution. However, yesterday I heard that in June 2003 Minolta (Europe) will be releasing a new 35mm filmscanner: DiMage Scan Elite 5400. With 5400 dpi, 16 bit ADC, USB 2.0 and FireWire and a price of appr. 900 US$ this almost sounds like a dream come true. Therefore, I think I will hold on to my money for a few more months and until some reviews of this new scanner have been published. But just from the manufacturer's specs, it is at the top of my list right now. -- Jos Roost, April 9, 2003

Well, the printer market keeps changing, now it's time to look for a great photo-printer. Here is what I've learned: Hardware Reviews - CNET.com. C|Net unfortunately, doesn't throw old reviews away. For the reviews that are less than a year old, the winners are: * "Epson 2200":http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-2375165-404-9782487.html?tag=pdtl-list. Lots of folks like this one. 84% positive reviews. Steve Bush loves his. It's expensive though. * "Canon i950":http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-2375165-404-20854718.html?tag=pdtl-list and the "PC Mag Review":http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,916063,00.asp. Replaces the very good S900. Phil Bogle got one and loves it. Doesn't have a roll feeder for lots of borderless prints though. This is the ONLY machine with a pricepoint at $249 with a consistent 2 picolitre droplet, 4800 dpi and 3072 nozzles to put out a 4x6 borderless print in about 37 seconds. Amazing.

Campy Only!. If you are a Campagnolo Bike part junkie, there is actually an entire web site just for you. Now that is narrow casting.

Some cool work happening on location-awareness and blogs. Amazing what a little XML can do. Here are some things to look at: * blogosphere. This let's you see a globe, spin it and then click on various blogs. * "Blogosphere Usage":http://blogosphere.headmap.com/docs/bg-mt.htm. This thing requires two plug-ins. One called "GeoURL":http://www.geourl.org/mt.html let's you add latitude and longitude to MovableType blog entries and another does "HeadmapXML":http://blogosphere.headmap.com/download/movabletype/HeadmapXMLData.pl to load this in the correct format. * "Your location":http://geourl.org/resources.html. Geourl gives you some links so that you can figure out where you are if you don't have a GPS handy.

Some interesting companies according to Rob: * w o w - c o m : Wireless NewsLine. Mehru Networks is doing some interesting work * "VOIP Telephone":http://www.tmcnet.com/it/0303/0303po.htm. * "Intel Wireless investments":http://www.intel.com/capital/portfolio/broadband.htm. Pretty much the who's who of wireless right now. * "Ecutel":http://appzone.intel.com/pcadn/company.asp?vendorID=872. Ecutel was doing enterprise wifi access.

Satoshi's Wireless Weblog: User Interface is an Art: Bluetooth for GameBoy. An interesting and cool product. Gameboys are really a cool product.

Search Engine Ratings And Reviews. We've been spending time learning about search engines and opportunities there. Here are some places to look. Notes we've found: * "Neilson Netratings":http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/article.php/2156451. 29.5% Google, 28% Yahoo, 28% MSN, 18% AOL * "Comscore":http://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2197801. Interesting analysis of the various search engine positions. It's interesting to note what works well and does not work well. For instance, local queries like the ones below: * "Seattle Paintball":http://www.google.com/search?q=seattle+paintball. Even though Google is wonderful, this is not particularly relevant * "Seattle Bakery":http://seattle.citysearch.com/search?lat=&long=&miles=&c_zip=&init_search=1&context=generic&cslink=cs_topbar_search&query=seattle+bakery. This is a city search for Seattle Bakery. Notice, it only returns bakery with Seattle in its name. * "Seattle Bakery in Qwestdex":http://qwestdex.com/servlet/ActionServlet?pid=bresults&vertical=&from=&resultform=basic&city=SEATTLE&dir=1159&inRegion=true&state=WA&metro=true&hdg_val=Bakers-Retail%23316%23reta&Submit.x=31&Submit.y=5. This is the yellow page guys. Notice the first hit is a bakery in Redmond. Not Seattle :( * "Seattle Paintball":http://search.msn.com/results.asp?RS=CHECKED&FORM=MSNH&v=1&q=seattle+paintball. MSN query is the closest so far but it first shows a site with just a GIF on it. * "Seattle Plumber":http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=seattle+plumber&FORM=SMCRT. Plumbers are slightly better. Close listing, but it is just a listing not a rating service. * "Seattle Paintball on Dogpile":http://search.dogpile.com/texis/search?q=seattle+paintball&cat=web&top=1. More interesting queryl.

Ludwig told me about places where there are blog portals. A quick web search revealed these sites: * International Blog Meetup Day. There is actually someone coordinating meetings of blog folks. * a little ludwig goes a long way: Seattle Weblog Portal This points to "Seattle":http://seablogs.hellbent.org/.

Polar S720 Heart Rate Monitor. Wow, it is amazing what a heart rate monitor can do. This one combines a cycling computer with an incredibly sophisticated heart rate monitor. I have a Campagnolo Ergobrain and a Suunto Advizor, but this is both of them. Only issue is that the Ergobrain is integrated into the bike levers, so you don't need to move to push. On the other hand, this thing actually has strain gauges on the pedals to measure power. It also has cadence and IR bi-directional to a PC. All that for $200 or so. Cool.

Kevin's Comment on Home Theater Recommendations. A little wierd, but I'm creating a new entry that refers to a comment on my own website, so that it gets indexed properly. Basically, poor Kevin is like just about everyone else. Trying to hook things up properly and it is complicated. Main advice is to subscribe to "Home Theater Spot":http://hometheaterspot.com. They folks there are just great. Here is what he has, hopefully, this is a useful guide for others; * Denon 2803. * Mitsubishi 55 (HD) Television * Motorola digital cable box * Motorola HD decoder * Pioneer dv-656a DVD players * Sony VCR. So here is a quick guide. First off, you've spent enough that you really should get a "Pronto":http://remotecentral.com so that you can manage all of this with one remote. It is going to be incredibly complicated otherwise. On hookups, let's start with the video ones. I'm referring now to the Denon 2803 "manual":http://www.usa.denon.com/catalog/pdfs/avr2803%20DFU.pdf, since I don't have one of these things yet. Page 6 and 7 are the key ones I think...

OK, I'm going to start recording my biking mileage and training here. Boring stuff, but I have to have somewhere to keep it... May 5. EM36 x 2. This is round trip to from work. May 6. EM36 x 2. May 7. Traveling. Missed it May 8. EM60. On a stationary bike. Yuck. Up at 6:30AM! May 9. EM60. May 10. EM142. Around the horn to Kirkland then Bike Saturday with the kids. May 11. Mother's Day. Too cycling. Too ba.d Been having trouble with the "CTS":http://trainright.com website, so can't enter these values in.

Two sources for Northwest cycling news: * "Cascade Bicycle Club":http://cascade.org. The group that puts on the STP and other great events. * Bicycle Paper. A pretty good read.

Going to take the kids out to see the Mariners a few times this summer. Amazing the resources on the Internet to buy tickets and things. Here are some: * SeatData - Seattle Mariners - Safeco Field. The all important seating chart. I love the idea that when you click on a section, you get an actual sample of your view there. * "Ebay":http://ebay.com. Amazing how good their search engine is. * "Google":http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=mariners+tickets&spell=1. Literally a million online ticker sellers here.

Suuonto Advizor. Thanks to Brad Silverberg and John Zagula for getting me this a few years ago. It is the most complicated watch in the world. It is two years and I'm still learning how to use it. BTW, I've mirrored the Advizor Manual in case they decide to get rid of it later.

Polar USA. Eventually everything needs a new battery. My Polar watch should be sent back to those folks for a new battery. They don't encourage you to just get a new battery from a jeweler. Wonder if that is revenue protection or if you can really damage the waterproofing. In any case, both the watch and the transmitter are going back.

Calvin's project this year are Aztecs and Mayans. He started with some basic questions he made up himself including: # How many gods do they believe in? # Where did they worship? Here are some of the places he looked: * Google Search: mayan temple. Some fantastic pictures of Mayan temples * "Aztec Temples":http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=aztec+temple&sa=N&tab=wi. Same for Aztec Temples. * "Aztec and Mayan Gods":http://www.meta-religion.com/World_Religions/Ancient_religions/Central_america/aztec_and_mayan_gods.htm. An incredible list of Aztec and Mayan Gods. * "Huitzilopochtli":http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mythology/huitzilopochtli_sun.html. The head god himself. * "Human Sacrifices":http://nv.essortment.com/aztecsacrifice_raif.htm. The most incredible part of the story was the regularity of human sacrifices. Nearly 20,000 people per year.

Tom's Hardware Guide Mass Storage: Decision at 250 GB: Maxtor MaXLine Plus II vs. Western Digital WD2500JB - Conclusion: All-Around Talent vs. Business Type. Well it had to happen, now you can get 250GB in a single drive. So a terabyte in a home with a couple of PCs is very likely.

Toms' Hardware has some great guide. Here are two I thought were very interesting for those with wireless networks: * Tom's Hardware Guide Networking: Wireless Bridging Need-To-Know - Introduction. A good introduction to bridging multiple wireless networks together. You can daisy chain wireless networks all around the house if you are careful. * "Wifi Performance":http://www17.tomshardware.com/network/20030502/index.html. The most frequently asked question are how to get more coverage and capacity. This is a great guide to doing that. Adrian take note!

U of M VC Returns. Interesting report from silicon valley on Venture Capital Returns. Read'm and weep.

Seattle Cinerama. The matrix is nearly here. Tickets from "MovieTickets.com":http://www.movietickets.com/house_detail.asp?house_id=5881. The 12:45PM show looks good. There is also 7AM on May 15-17 if you can believe that! I'm go for the week after the Thursday it opens. That makes it May 23 I think. Thanks to the amazing "Digital Remastering":http://www.killermovies.com/m/thematrixreloaded/articles/2995.html technology that IMAX has. Then there is the IMAX version...at the "Pacific Science Center":http://pacsci.org that opens June 6. Sign me up! While we are at it, there will be many movies remade. For instance, "Apollo 13":http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/Apollo13TheIMAXExperience-10001918/reviews.php is comginout this way as well. "Too bad":http://www.imax.com/apollo13/ you have to go to Boston or Florida to see it.

Train Right with Carmichael Training Systems. So, I finally decided to try this and get more systematic. I'm going to start recording my times and what I do in this blog. Blogs are such a good place to store things as Zagula points out. Here is what I did today: * 72 minutes in zone 2 (140-150 bpm) to and from work. * Two 3 mile time trials out and back to Seward Park. First time was 7:35 minutes and the return was 9:15 minutes. Average cadence was about 90 out and about 85 back. There was a 5-10 knot wind blowing, so it was a little breezy. Was cool and not humid though. Average heart rate was about 165 bpm. Effort level was about 7 out of 10, so it wasn't a mad dash, but more of figuring out all the many buttons to push on the bike computer and the HRM.