October 2003 Archives

a little ludwig goes a long way: Rich's PC buying guide. No problem helping you figure out the Shuttle product line. I agree, it is incredibly confusing what to buy. Turns out they encode most of the important information into the product name (like most geeks), so you can figure it out if you understand what the designations are. Here is the Shuttle decoder ring: * The first letter S. It is always S for Shuttle I would bet. * The second letter SN. This tells you the BIOS chipset vendor (OK, you can stop with the laughing). So for instance, if it is N that means it is an nVidia chipset. Of course geeks know that nVidia only does chipsets for AMD Athlons, so all names that start with "SN*" are for Athlons and are likely to be high performance. * The second letter "SS". This means the SiS chipset. They don't use the SiS chipset much. It is for the Pentium. But it is the cheapest chipset around. * The second letter "SK". Refers to chipsets using the VIA series. These are mainly obsolete now, but there was the SK41 for the older VIA KM266 and the SK43 for the VIA KM400 chipsets. * The second letter "SB". This is for the Intel chipsets. Not sure why it is a B, but these are for the Intel chipsets. * The next digit tells you what version of chipset you arle using, so SB6 means you are using the 865 chipset while SB7 tells you are using the more expensive 875 chipset. * The final digit gives you a sub version of the chip, so SB62 for instance means the Intel 865G chipset (with integrated graphics) while the SB65 is the Intel 865PE. * The final letter and optional digit tell you something about the chassis. The original chassis was G, the newer chassis sport a G2 for a later revision or G4 is the very latest chassis that has a SD card reader. OK, so now you can decode: * SK41G. This is a Shuttle, using the VIA _K_M chipset series. the 1 indicates, it was the first model, the VIA KM266. The G says it was the original chassis. * SB65G2. This is a Shuttle using the Intel (_B_) chipset. It uses the 8_65_ chipset and the G2 chassis. * SN85G4. This is a _S_huttle using the _N_Vidia chip nForce3 (_8_) chipset and it uses the G4 chassis.

Well, it had to happen, folks are asking me what to buy for this fall season. Here are recommendations by category (assuming you are building up your own box). Here's a summary: h4. For Power Users The Athlon 64 3200+ in a Shuttle SN85G4 barebones system with ATI Radeon 9600 XT or nVidia FX 5700 Ultra graphics card, two Corsair 512MB XMS3200C2 memory modules, a Hitachi KT hard drive and Sony DRU-510A DVD RW drive. This is a super high performance system and you get to support AMD while you're at it. Price for this system without a monitor is about $1400. So pretty amazingly cheap really and what I would like to buy for myself. The main drawbacks covered in "Tech Reports":http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2003q3/shuttle-sn85g4/index.x?pg=13 are that you can only put a single drive in there because the card reader takes up a slot. Also, the USB 2.0, Firewire and Ethernet aren't particularly fast. Overall compared with an Athlon XP 3200+ (the 32-bit version), the new Athlon 64 is about 10-20% faster running 32 bit applications. Here are the prices as of today courtesy "Pricegrabber":http://pricegrabber.com. The open issues are that there is a new 8x DVD Write now coming out from Optorite. Currently only "Livewarehouse":http://livewarehouse.com/livewarehouse/shop/product.asp?dept%5Fid=18&pf%5Fid=%7BA41CA7AF%2DD3FD%2D4EAE%2DB87D%2D88B146837C4C%7D has it. Also, the Shuttle boxes are not out shipping yet and the VIA based one (SK83G2) may be cheaper and about the same performance as the nVidia based one (SN85G4) | Component | Price | Comment | | Shuttle SN85G4 | $348 | In preorder mode. Can get a $700 CPU+Shuttle from Excaliber. Also need to check out the SK83G2 | | AMD Athlon 64 3200+ | $421 | | | Kingston HyperX 1GB DDR3200 Kit | $231 | Need to check memory reviews | | Optorite DD0203 | $106 | But Optorite DD0401 is 8x writer but is $169 | | Hitachi 7K250 | $339 | Or WD2000JB at $160 ($120 at Fry's retail) if you don't need 10% more speed | | ATI Radeon 9600 Pro | $145 | if you play games else get a cheap card| | Total | $1590 | | h4. For Enthusiasts Gamers Not as pricey, but probably top of the line is a Intel Pentium 4 3.08 GHz with a Shuttle SB65G2 XPC plus the same components noted above. That is a great system probably for about $100 less than the above one. This has the best price performance. It even has serial ATA and RAID 0 support if you put in two hard drives. It also has two 100Mb Ethernet ports so you could run them in parallel if you wanted. The big open issue here is the new Shuttle ST61G4 just available ($375) and it has a Radeon 9100 chipset, so you could potentially save $145 if you are casual gamer. Otherwise, this is a fine box. Also, if you want 1Gb Ethernet, you should get the SB75G2 which is a little more expensive and is positioned as an office machine. This setup BTW, gives up the smart card reader for a pair of hard drives, but if you are into digital photography, etc. I'd just get a single drive and the smart card reader. | Component | Price | Comment | | Shuttle SB62G2 | $292 | ST61G4 $375 for casual gamer don't need video card | | Intel Pentium 4 2.6 GHz | $175 | $215 for 2.8GHz | | Kingston HyperX 512MB kit | $122 | Or $225 for 1GB kit | | Optorite DD0203 | $106 | Very cheap, fast too | | Western Digital WD1200JB x2 | $170 | Or 1 WD2000JB at $170 + card reader $32 | | Total | $865 | If you only need an office machine, see below | | ATI Radeon 9600 Pro | $145 | If you want high-perf gaming | | Total Gamer | $1010 | Rocking game machine | h4. For Power User Business Types. If you want a powerful gaming machine get a Pentium, but if you want a basic surf the net, do some video, use Office, then you should get an Athlon because of the pricing. This machine is a little cheaper than the above because it doesn't, but has twice the memory. Main cost issue is the need for an external video card. The open issues here are the new Shuttle SK43G which is only a single channel memory system, so it is cheaper and not much slower in practice. This is not yet available, but I'll update this recommendation as reviews come in. | Component | Price | Comment | | Shuttle SN45G | $260 | The SK43G is coming out and could be cheaper | | Cheap 2-D Video Card | $20 | Unfortunately, no built in video | | Shuttle Card Reader | $32 | from ewiz.com, adds a flash card reader | | AMD Athlon XP 3200+ | $294 | $250 for 3000+| | Kingston HyperX 512MB kit | $122 | Or $225 for 1GB kit | | Optorite DD0203 | $106 | DD0401 is $160 with 8x burning | | Western Digital WD2000JB | $170 | | | Total | $1004 | If you only need an office machine, see below | h4. For Budget This is the great price performance system. Good for office machines where graphics power isn't important and cost is. Amazingly, Microsoft Office really doesn't get any faster as processor power goes up so these are great office machines. I think a Athlon is the way to go. The chipsets are much cheaper and is the CPU. So get a Shuttle SN45G with an Athlon 2700+. This is budget because Intel doesn't make a cheaper CPU that $175 | Component | Price | Comment | | Shuttle SN45G | $259 | Goto the SK43G if cheaper | | AMD Athlon XP 2700+ | $108 | $132 for the 2800+ | | Kingston 2x256 DDR2700 | $80 | | | Lite-ON 523227S CD-RW | $36 | Or get Optorite for $106 | | WD1200JB Disk | $95 | | | Total | $578 | As an office machine | I'm assuming that you already have a mouse, keyboard and monitor, so it is just the system unit we are talking about. h4. CPUs It's a bit tricky because Intel has slipped its Prescott processor by six months (from Q303 to Q104), so the main thing that will happen are price reductions. So if you want to buy today, get a Pentium 3.08 if you want fast and a Pentium 2.8 is a good price now. _As an aside, now that Tom's Hardware is sponsored by Intel, they don't do much rumor mongering anymore, so I've switched to X-bit Labs (highly rated by google) as the source for rumors_: * "Intel CPU Roadmap Changed: Prescott Postponed to 2004":http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20031011084615.html. The current generation is called Northwood based on 130nm technology. The new Prescott is based on 90nm and has bigger L1 cache (16K uOps vs. 12 uOps) and bigger L2 cache (1MB vs. 512MB). These will be big chips and burn 120 watts! Wow, so if you want to buy this Christmas, it is the Northwood. Prescott launch is December 3, but that's just the marketing showcase. * "Prescott anticipated pricing":http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20030915183339.html. October 26th there is a price cut and on February 15, the Prescott arrives with a massive cut. You'll be able to get a 2.8GHz Prescott for $178. Wow, so hold on if you can. * X-bit labs - - Intel and AMD Perform Massive CPU Price Reductions. Good news is that Northwood prices have dropped as "predicted":http://www.xbitlabs.com/misc/picture/?src=/images/news/2003-10/cpu_price_desktop_28102003.gif&1=1. The net effect is to put the Pentium 2.8 and 3.06 into the sweetspot pricing of $218 (from $278) and $262 (from $401) respectively. On the Athlon side, it puts the Athlon XP 3000+ at $203 from $265 at the sweetspot and the Athlon XP 2800+ at $140 from $180 as the bargain chip. But, of course, there's quite a bit of debate about how the Athlon really compares. * "Athlon 64":http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=12087. AMD is on the ropes. Would be really sad if they left the microprocessor business for consumers. That being said, they have $1.8B in debt and a new CEO. If you can get an 2.0GHz Athlon 64 3200+, it is going to be very fast at $417. * Athlon 2700+. Unlike Intel, AMD has some very low priced chips. These aren't super competitive with the current Intel Northwood chips, but they are great for budget systems that are just going to do Office. For instance the Athlon 2700+ is just $107, but the Penitum 4 2.4 is $175 and that is pretty much the cheapest Northwood (that is 800 MHz chip around). h4. Motherboard and system I only recommend Shuttle "XPC":http://www.shuttle.com/hq/product/product_b_intel.asp systems for most people. They are smaller, more convenient yet super powerful: * "Shuttle SN85G4":http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mobile/display/shuttle-sn85g4.html. This is my favorite Shuttle form factor ready for the Athlon 64. Cool features are the floppy is replaced by a super card reader that supports SD, Memory Stick, MMC, and SM cards, so you can boot up from. And it has a 240 watt power supply as well plus room for a fast video card. And it has an onboard RAID controller to and you can put in two hard drives. This works great mated to a AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (working at the actual frequency of 2GHz, as you remember), RADEON 9700 Pro graphics card, two Corsair XMS3200C2 memory modules and Seagate Barracuda ATA IV HDD. Nice thing in is that there is no performance tradeoff anymore with a Shuttle. For instance Unreal Tournament 2003 plays at 82.25 fps vs. 72.26 fps on a DFI LAN Party NFII Ultra (where do folks come up with these system names?) * "Shuttle SB65G2":http://anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.html?i=1861. This is for the Intel platform. It has serial ATA and also a wireless LAN option. Equipped with an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, Western Digital 120GB hard drive and 2x512MB Mushkin PC3500 Level II DS and a Pentium 4 3.08 chip, it has essentially identical performance to a full size system. Perhaps it is 2% slower. * "Shuttle SN45G":http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDk5. This is an update to the SN41G that uses the updated nVidia chipset. It has good performance vs. Intel-based systems for Office applications particularly when runing at DDR400. But is much slower for CPU intensive things, so a Athlon 3200 doing LAME encoding takes 54 seconds vs. an ASUS P4C800 with Pentium 3.0 GHZ taking 40 seconds. Main cost issue is that it is the only machine listed that requires an external video card. These are pretty cheap at $20 for a good 2-D one, but it does add to the cost. * "Shuttle SN41G2":http://anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.html?i=1764. This is a performance Athlon XP machine. When tested with 2x 256MB Corsair DDR400, Western Digital WD1200JB hard disk and the Athlon 2600+ CPU. For Office performance, you can just use the onboard graphics, it doesn't affect performance. It is only a DDR333 system, so memory is slower than Pentium or Athlon 64. h4. Graphics Card If you are going to just use the machine for Office or Internet, then you don't need a fancy card. Just use the onboard graphics. If you are going to play games then you do need a fancy graphics card. Here's the current state: * "Tom's Hardware on graphics cards":http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031023/nvidia-nv38-nv36-43.html. Their latest review shows that the new ATI cards, the Radeon 9800 XT and 9600 XT are only marginally faster than the Radeon 9800 Pro and 9600 Pro they replaced. So get the 9800 Pro if it is cheaper if you want performance gaming. Pick the nVidia FX 5700 Ultra or ATI Radeon 9600 XT if you are in the mainstream. Get the 9800 Pro or 9600 Pro if you can still find it. h4. Hard Disks "Storagereview":http://storagereview.com is my source for the best hard drives. here's the scoop this month: # There's has a new leader, it is the Hitachi 7K250. Hitachi bought out IBM's hard drive division and Western Digital and Hitachi now battle it out. This is a seriously cool drive. It is serial ATA, so much faster and only works on the very latest hardware (the Shuttle SN82G4), but it is seriously expensive at $339. # Western Digital WD2000JB. This is the 8MB version with 200MB of hard disk. It was last quarters winner. The main thing is that it is quite fast, but uses a traditional interface ATA-100. Cost is also quite a bit lower at $219 a piece. You really want two of these if you are doing video BTW. Windows likes to have a scratch drive and system drive. Also most modern systems have RAID 0 in hardware, so you can make this look like a 400GB drive that is twice as fast. # Western Digital WD1200JB. This was the winner six months ago and is the budget drive if you can believe it. It is very fast and relatively inexpensive at $95 each. Has about 112GB (thats really gigabytes, not the bogus 1 million bytes is a MB measure that the hard drive guys advertise), so it is amazing how inexpensive it is. h4. Optical Drives: Right now "CDR Info":http://cdrinfo.com seems to have the most comprehensive reviews of DVD and CD drives. This is the tip over point. The price of DVD burners has dropped from $300 when I first got one to the $111-154 range. And these are for drives that burn everything. Both DVD+ and DVD- media, although there are all kinds of flaky things about what media works with what drives and with what firmware. Here are some of the latest reviews: * Sony DRU-510A, AOpen DRW4410, "Ricoh MP5240S":http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Articles/Specific.asp?ArticleHeadline=4x+DVD%2BRW+Roundup+Vol%2E2+%28AOpen+DRW4410+%26+Ricoh+MP5240A%29+&Series=0. These are all the same drives underneath. All made by Ricoh. Performance-wise it is OK. It is slow on reading DVDs, but is fast on DVD ripping. I got a DRU-510A for my dad and can report that it was definitely flaky under Windows XP until I applied the latest driver. I also have an older Sony DRU-120A which I reflashed to be a Ricoh MP5125 for the same reason. Sony firmware ain't that great and it is more expensive at $154. These drives BTW can read 99 minute CDs. Wow, cool. * "Pioneer DVR-A06":http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Articles/Specific.asp?ArticleHeadline=Pioneer+DVR%2DA06+DVD%B1RW+recorder&index=12. This is only $134 for a universal DVD+/-R writer. It is decently fast, so a good pick over the Sony DRU-510A. * "Optorite DD0203":http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Articles/Specific.asp?ArticleHeadline=Optorite+DD0203+DVD%B1RW&Series=0. This has something call HD-BURN that lets you put 1.4GB on a CD! Main thing is that it is very fast at ripping and reading compared with the Sony and Pioneer. * NEc NC1300A at $111. This is a completely barebones drive with no software at all. No deep review of it I could find, but seems to work OK according to forums. There is someone hacking away at the firmware to improve compatibility which is a plus. Not clear about its speed. For the true budget folks, there is the Lite-ON CDRW now at 52x/32x/52x. About as fast as anyone ever needs for a CD burner. It is just $36. h4. Memory I haven't had time to research memory. There have been issues in the past, but I've had good personal experience with the higher quality RAM. The Kingston HyperX line or Corsair memory seems to be favored in many reviews. The machine above are dual channel memory machines, so you always want to get two memory cards. This improved performance. So the Kingston HyperX 1GB kit is actually two matched 512MB memory cards.

Adrian's Rojak Pot Bios Optimization Guide. I've never understood all the BIOS settings. Here's a guide to the over 200 different things you can now tune in your PC. Wow.

October Fire Scripps Ranch San Diego, CA Photos. An incredible fire. Here are some images from Scripps Ranch that I found incredible given I've been so close to neighborhoods like this while visiting San Diego.

Joi Ito's Web: Ego-surfing on Amazon search inside the book. Joi Ito points out that you can now "ego-surf" on Amazon so you can see your name in books. They have indexed 120,000 books. So, I could resist. Here are searches for "Rich Tong":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=stripbooks&field-keywords=%22rich%20tong%22&search-type=ss&bq=1/102-7967833-8380932 at Amazon. Actually came up with three hits that I didn't even realize were memorialized: # "Business at the speed of thought":http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0446675962/102-7967833-8380932?checkSum=sH5NtLzqRIWII7jGZsnudTXsh%2bFf01OYGlUzKCnyJ0I%3d&avc=1&p=S07L&keywords=%26quot%3bRich%20Tong%26quot%3b. There is a story about the answer tracking application thing we did. Answering 90% of all field questions in 48 hours. A great project. # "Breaking Windows":http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0743203151/ref=sib_vae_pg_59/102-7967833-8380932?checkSum=UEU41AzMaFHvs%2fXfSClXdGEaCbi%2b5Ua%2fxWz9o3Ool2k%3d&p=S023&keywords=%26quot%3bRich%20Tong%26quot%3b&twc=3#reader-link. Somehow David Banks found a memo I wrote about the low reputation Windows suffered at the time. Honesty I think is always the best policy. # "World War 3.0":http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0743203151/ref=sib_vae_pg_59/102-7967833-8380932?checkSum=UEU41AzMaFHvs%2fXfSClXdGEaCbi%2b5Ua%2fxWz9o3Ool2k%3d&p=S023&keywords=%26quot%3bRich%20Tong%26quot%3b&twc=3#reader-link. Ken Auletta's book about folks leaving Microsoft and I even get a mention. BTW, I also looked up "Steve Hooper":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index%3Dstripbooks%26field-keywords%3D%252522Steve%252520Hooper%252522%26store-name%3Dbooks/102-7967833-8380932. He's got two good references. "Cameron Myhrvold":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index%3Dstripbooks%26field-keywords%3D%252522Cameron%252520Myhrvold%252522%26store-name%3Dbooks/102-7967833-8380932. He's got two. "Brad Silverberg":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ix=stripbooks&rank=%2Brelevancerank&fqp=keywords%01%22Brad%20Silverberg%22&nsp=score%01proj-unit-sales%02bin-fields%01none%02post-process%01docid-ve%02return-fields%01proximity%02store-name%01books&sz=10&pg=2/ref=s_b_np/102-7967833-8380932 gets 23 references! Unfortunately, other Ignition names are too common to really see if they are in Amazon books. Since we're at it, this blog is the #2 blog when you search google for "Tong":http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=tong. Getting closer to the top although I notice that John Ludwig now has a 6 page rank. ANd he's the 18th Ludwig in a google search now.

Joi Ito's Web: Joseph Urbaszewski's blog coverage Lake Arrowhead fire. BTW, a hat tip to Joi Ito for keeping track. There is also a scanner feed so you can hear fireman live. Wow.

Joseph Urbaszewski's Weblog. We were talking about this at "work":http://ignitionpartners.com today. Ib et folks that the best place to find news about the California fires would be on blogs. Joesphe is proving me right. How much more interesting than CNN!

_Hat tip for "Zagula":http://zagula.com on this one_ In Japan, they have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft error messages with Haiku poetry messages. They're used to communicate a timeless message, often achieving a wistful, yearning and powerful insight through extreme brevity. Here are 16 actual error messages from Japan:

The Web site you seek Cannot be located, but Countless more exist. Chaos reigns within. Reflect, repent, and reboot. Order shall return. Program aborting: Close all that you have worked on. You ask far too much. Windows NT crashed. I am the Blue Screen of Death. No one hears your screams. Yesterday it worked. Today it is not working. Windows is like that. Your file was so big. It might be very useful. But now it is gone. Stay the patient course. Of little worth is your ire. The network is down. A crash reduces Your expensive computer To a simple stone. Three things are certain: Death, taxes and lost data. Guess which has occurred. You step in the stream, But the water has moved on. This page is not here. Out of memory. We wish to hold the whole sky, But we never will. Having been erased, The document you're seeking Must now be retyped. Serious error. All shortcuts have disappeared. Screen. Mind. Both are blank.

Now............. Isn't that better than "Your computer has performed an illegal operation?"

Five components that caught Andrew's attention. It's sad that one of the top five things that caught Velonews interest is just a concept. I asked Johannes over at Ritchey Logic (a great guy btw, answers email very quickly and is approachable in the extreme) and here is what he said. Sad to me they had enough interest, but are too busy it sounds like to make it a product. Heck, maybe folks can lobby them at "Ritchey":http://www.ritcheylogic.com/contacthm.htm: From: Johannes Schmidt Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 9:35 AM To: Rich Tong Subject: RE: Titanium Break-Away Rich, That bike was a concept bike and we do not have any solid plans for development. We did have enough interest to make the Ti bike a reality but at this time I do not have any time line or pricing available. Keep your eyes on the website for updated product info. Regards, Johannes Schmidt Ritchey Design Inc. 860 Hurlingame Ave. Redwood City, CA 94063 f. (650) 261-1317 http://www.ritcheylogic.com/

a little ludwig goes a long way: Rebecca always has good inspirational thoughts.. Rebecca Schwoch as noted by John seems to clip some great thoughts. His two favorite and mine, "no decision is a decision" and "passion is a competitive advantage." Boy, am I living that right now in my current role as an investor in people at "Ignition":http://ignitionpartners.com

Nikon N80 body review (F80 outside of US). I've had this Nikon N80 for about five months. A good time to give it a review. First of all, I'll move to digital eventually folks, but I have to say that it is kind of nice to have such an inexpensive high quality camera in 35mm. The "A&I":http://aandi.com developing has been awesome. Experience so far is with the basic Nikkor 50mm F/2.8 lens, SB50DX lenses, so it is very standard kit. The biggest variable I've found so far is the film that I've been using which the lastest Popular Photography "review":http://www.popphoto.com/article.asp?section_id=3&article_id=679 comfirms: * Fujicolor Superia XTRA 400 . This is an inexpensive film. Less than $2 from B&H. Main issue is that it is very saturated. Everyone's lips look very red when taken with old Yashica T4 Super (a wonderful camera BTW). Connie noticed that straight off. I noticed that it is incredibly sharp. Way sharper than I could ever imagined film could be. With the Nikon N80 though, it looks quite good. A little more red, but amazingly sharp. Given that this film is less than $2, it will become our standard film I think. * Fujicolor NPH-400. This is much less saturated and in fact looks down right fuzzy on some shots, although the latest set that I took was awesome. I think this might be to camera shake from me now that I look at it. You don't get that incredible sharpness. I noticed that the film review on "photography.net":http://www.photo.net/equipment/film said to expose it at ISO 320 so I'll give that a try. This effectively means to overexpose the film by 1/2 stop. Maybe you get more saturation this way. * Fujicolor Superia X-TRA 800. This is the 800 version that got good reviews. Certainly lets you shoot in lower light. Haven't developed the film, but will be interesting. Wow, this works super well in low light. On a 4x6, you really don't see the grain and that extra stop really does help. It is expensive film though at $4-5 so only for special occasions where you really have to shoot available light. The SB50X is just great in enclosed rooms because it can bounce flash. I've had super results with it, so the X-TRA 800 is really for special outdoor and other large room low light situations. * Fujicolor Press 800 Professional. This is the press version of the film I got from B&H. Will be interesting to see how this does. Supposed to be very good in lowlight conditions. To my eye, I couldn't tell the difference between this and the Superia. It is probably there, but hard for me to see, so I'd probably buy on price. That leaves just two films left to try: * Fuji Portrait NPZ 800. This is the portrait film version at 800. Supposed to be of as high quality at 800 as the NPH-400 is at 400. * Kodak Portra 400UC. This is way more expensive than Fuji. I'll let you know what I find out. This has extra high sharpness compared with most other films and isn't too saturated for natural colors. As of right the overall recommendation is Fuji Superia XTRA 400 for every day use, with tests out on the Kodak Portra 400UC and the Portrait NPZ 800. I will probably carry in my bag mainly the Superia with an 800 film for special occasions.s. Only other thing that I'd really like to have is a high quality zoom lense. These are really expensive. There is the Nikkor 30-70mm F/2.8D and the Nikkor 28-80mm F/2.8D VR. These are about $500-700 and $1200-1500 respectively and are incredibly heavy, but wow, what great lenses. Also, there is the longer 80-200mm F/2.8D VR out there as well.

Windstar Cruises. My brother was asking about cruises. I told him we'd not been on many, but had research it quite a bit (before the age of blogs). We really recommend the Windstar cruises. The Tahiti trip is amazing. The ship is just 400 feet long, all the cabins are the same and it is small enough to get into the very shallow lagoons. I'll never forget stopping the middle of the ocean to catch the sunset off of Bora Bora while looking at the four masts. Also, it is casual, so you don't have to wear formal attire. We also did the Istanbul to Athens leg and that was also great. Little less advantage in having a small boat, but it did mean we could get into Bodrum and see ephesus, while the bigger ships couldn't get in there.

Mountain Bikes,Bicycle Parts, & Accessories from Supergo Bike Shops. Supergo is a discount bicycle store down in California. They are going to open up a store here in Seattle. Don't know where yet, but nice to know folks like coming up here!

Deep Throat: Uncovered | Department of Journalism | University of Illinois. In the days of covers being blown and senior white house officials saying this or that about CIA officers, its kind of interesting to ask, who was the Deep Throat of Watergate fame. Here's a website all about it. I believe it!

_Learned this from the Boingo mailing_ You can buy USB chargers now. Some laptops actually let you push from a USB connector and charge the battery if you can believe that, so you don't need your brick. See Advanced Accessories for Mobile Electronics (Cell Phones and PDAs) for some connectors for cell phones and PDAs. I've been on a bunch of flights lately and some of the newer international flights have DC power using something called an Empower connector. Here the magic airplane "connector":http://shop.store.yahoo.com/laptopsforless/airpowadcor.html. that you need to connect. Costs $10, but you do need a car adapter. Magellan's also have this "Empower":http://www.magellans.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?ruleID=4&iMainCat=0&itemID=618&iSubCat=0&iProductID=618&sSearch=EA270&itemType=PRODUCT for $13. Gateway has a nice closeup of the "Empower":http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/peripher/6500687/6500687mvr4.shtml connector. It is Dc, so you need the right magic socket to plug in and probably a DC-to-DC convertor to go from 12V to your laptops power level. This is what a car charger does, so you need both an Empower connector and a car charger for your laptop.

Been spending a bunch of time in Europe lately, so it has been fun to compare the different cell phones in the US and here. Here's quick scoop on cool ones: * a little ludwig goes a long way: My new phone -- Siemens SL56. This has been in Europe for a while. An amazingly small one. This is just a phone, so doesn't have a zillion functions. * Sony Ericsson P810. This is a class of smart phones you don't see much here. Based on the Symbian Operating System, so it feels like you are using a "big" device. Incredibly big screen and a tap-able user interface. There is a keyboard when you close the thing so you can dial like a conventional phone. Has ever feature in the known universe including camera, MP3 player, SD card slot for more memory. Only problem is that it is incredibly hard to find and use things. For instance, taking a picture and then sending it takes quite a few clicks. Amazing screen is the main thing.

InterBike: Five of my favorite bikes _Another amazing find at InterBike, a 16 pound cyclocross bike!_ Moots PsychloX-SL Even though it is a cyclo-cross bike, at under 16 pounds the PsychloX-SL may be the lightest bike in the Moots booth! The clean and elegant frame is welded out of Reynolds 6Al/4V butted titanium tubing. The bike hits its sub-16-pound weight equipped with Reynolds carbon Stratus deep-section wheels and carbon ‘cross fork, Campagnolo Record group, and (what else) hand-made Dugast tubular ‘cross tires.

Five components that caught Andrew's attention _Here's #5 that caught Velonew's attention at Interbike 2003. Man what I wouldn't give to have a Titanium Ritchey Break-Away with Dura-Ace 10 components and have it weigh 17 pounds_ 5. Ritchey BreakAway Ritchey's new foldable BreakAway bikes are full size, standard geometry steel road bicycles with 700c wheels, that feature a unique coupling system that allows the bike/frame to be quickly disassembled and packed into a 26x28x9" suitcase. The bike weighs 19 lbs and is equipped with Ritchey Pro and Shimano Ultegra components. Suggested retail is $2500 (includes case). A 17 pound prototype titanium version was shown at the booth and may or may not see production.

Site Meter - Counter and Statistics Tracker. I can't quite believe it. I think the statistics must be wrong. In any case, I use Sitemeter to record page views and visits and have some history there. In July, I changed Sitemeter to record all hits across all pages of my blog. Here are the statistics: | Month | Page Views | Visits | | June | 3,000 | 1,000 | | July | 6,000 | 3,500 | | August | 13,500 | 8,500 | | Sept | 21,000 | 14,200 | | Oct (est) | 36,000 | 25,000 | Is anyone else stunned that a basically useless blog is getting hit so much. Now much of this is because of the various robots running around indexing blogs, I think. I see that technorati, popdex and so forth are trolling pretty regularly, but there does seem to be more traffic.

Spent a great weekend in LA escorting Connie to her class reunion. Here were some sites and things to do: * Universal Studios Hollywood movie theme park Los Angeles L.A. CA. Hadn't been to Universal Studios in a long time. Say 20 years. Man, how has it changed. I highly recommend the VIP tour. It is expensive, but you never wait in line and get a two hour tour of the studio itself. Apparently, the very best tour is at Warner Brothers where you are on a golf cart with a couple of other people. Didn't see any movie stars except the Conan the Republican of course :-)

Johnny Vanderlinden 20Lb. Spider. Well, Brad and I both agree the Intense Spider XVP is the bicycle to lust after. HEre is a one that is just twenty pounds. The frames are super hard to get. List for $1950 and Brad says they are backordered 3,000 frames. All handmade in California. The Santa Cruz Blur is much cheaper and the same basic design, but it is like comparing Porsche to Honda really. Great specs on this bicycle too: * INTENSE Medium ball burnished Spider XVP * 517 Mavic with Chris King hubs * Rock Shox Sid Team 80mm fork * Chris King headset * Shimano XT front derailleur * Shimano XTR 11 32 Cassete * Selle Itallia SLR saddle * Sram XO 9 speed shifters * Pro Shift brake levers * MOC Lite V brakes * FSA Carbon team crank & BB * Easton CT2 seat post * Easton EC90 bar * Ritchey WCS stem * Sram XO rear derailleur

OK, I just went to the UK and Germany and realized that even with a wonderful world phone, it is very expensive to call given the roaming charges. Here are the ways around that:

• CogniCall Long Distance Calling Card. This is an international long distance calling card. Nice thing is that it is billed to your credit card and there is no minimum monthly (unlike IDT which I used to have) nor is it prepaid (so you don't have to leave money lying around). Rates are pretty good. It is $0.17 from a UK landline to the US. Hoops, take note, this is a good card for going to Spain. Have to order in advance though.
• MCI World Traveler. This is a pretty good card. It is $25. And the rates are pretty good. $0.19 from a UK landline to the US. Main problem is that it expires after six months, so it is roughly equivalent to IDT which I've used before. It charges $2/month even when you don't use it. A good deal if you are going to use it all up quickly. Also it rounds to 3 minutes, so not great for short calls.
• IDT. I've used quite a few times. Reliable and similar in cost to MCI. Best if you have a international phone or a mobile on a prepay so you can call the local access number and then jump to the US.
• Phone Card Savers. A pretty good comparison site. Does a specific call to the USA comparison.
• Everdialback. This is great if you have live overseas and have a dedicated phone line. Won't work if you are calling from a hotel or a mobile. It is $0.43/minute calling from a UK mobile to the US for instance.

Universal Currency Converter(tm) I was on an Australian site looking at Panel PCs and was reminded that most folks don't know about this great currency converter.

HOw depressing, the spammers have figured out how to spam a blog. That's why I'm getting a dozen comments a day from folks who sell viagra and then use the backlink feature to link me to their site. Sad, I'm going to have to turn off comments pretty soon as I can't keep up with the deletes. MovableType really should have a acknowledge feature for comments so robots can't do this.

Thanks to Adrian, I have at least a few places in London that make life easier for the frugal business guy. A little accidental tourist, but here are some places:

• Hilton Green Park. This is a small hotel near the center of London. Not a mega hotel, but 18 townhouses remodelled together to be a single hotel. The rooms are scandinavian like and small (like most London hotels), but the rates are reasonable (150 pounds) and most important they have WiFi access. It is expensive at 15 pounds per day and you have to buy a special card since BT (who runs the service) only takes british credit cards, but I have to say it was certainly easy to sign up and logon. Major drawback is no air conditioning, so on these muggy autumn days, it was a little hot. Plus you have to love the fact it is on Half Moon Street. As Stacey says, sounds like Harry Potter lives there.
• Julie's. A very nice restaurant in Notting Hill. Does anyone think it is strange that the Julia Roberts was at Julie's in a movie called Notting Hill. Nice place. Lamb chops were very good as was the mozzarella with tomatoes.
• Heathrow Express. Man these brits really have transportation figured out. It is 15 minutes by rail from Paddington Station in London to Heathrow. And you should see the mall in the airport. Bigger than most shopping centers. Good for those last minutes gifts.
• Air Canada. Flying between Seattle and London is expensive. Only non-stop is BA. They charge an amazing amount. On the other hand, their business class features flat beds. A dream of mine really to really get some great sleep on a plane. On the other hand, Air Canada flies non-stop to Vancouver and you can then jump down to Seattle. Way cheaper. The dreaming continues
• Blackberry 7230. I can't imagine anyone being without one. It works amazingly well as a world phone and with GPRS roaming, I was literally online the moment I landed. There is no easier way I know of to stay in touch. Plus, it takes power with a USB cable, so you don't need to bring a charger. Go to someone's office and just take the USB cable and plug it into a PC and you charge.