June 2005 Archives

Listmania! Read the best fantasy books ever written for children 2. Alex loves these kinds of books, so here's a great list from Amazon.

He and Calvin really like the Artemis Fowl collection,

SimHQ.com - Air Combat Zone - Review: Falcon 4.0: Allied Force - Part 1. When I first got a PC, I played Falcon 3.0 for hours and hours. I just loved that simulation. And F-15 Strike Eagle and Harpoon. These kinds of realistic simulations fell out of favor when Doom and its ilk came out. I still have a soft spot and there are all kinds of sites on the net that still support Falcon and now a publisher has actually brought the game back.

Cool!

Mark Wong dropped me a line. Worked with him in the early 90s (could that have really been 10 years ago) while at Microsoft. He was on the Bank of America account and I was working on Excel. Anyway, since then he went to Wordlink and has been hanging out in the Valley for 10 years now. He's also encylopedic in his knowledge of bikes. We had a great hour where we talked mainly about great bikes. He doesn't have a blog, so here are his recommendations:

. Steelman Cycles Carbon. These are custom carbon fiber bicycles. They are made from Dedacciai tubes from Italy and lovingly put together. Prices are reasonable too for full custom. They start a $2700 for the frame and a fully built up Dura Ace is $5000. Really nice looking luges, etc. Great lust factor. This is the all out racing machine.

For this kind of bicycle, he gets the frame and then builds up, so what kind of components does he recommend. We had a long spirited discussion about it and I kind of agree with him:

• FSA MegaExo Compact Cranks. These are cheap and light and most importantly with a 50-34 ratio, good for old guys.
• Shimano Dura-Ace for the rest. He like Campy but thinks the Japanese precision wins out. Cheaper too now with the euro where it is. Having just looked at a $270 12-25 cassette for Campy Record, I'm kind of inclined to agree if you are on any budget at all. You need the FSA by the way because Shimano doesn't make a compact crank.
• Rolf wheelset. He actually has Topolino like me, but he finds them so stiff, they bang him up. I definitely find them harsh, but responsive. I thought my Topolino's were cool but the new Prima Elan wheelset weighs just 1295 grams for a clincher so is a full 100 grams lighter than the Topolinos. Wow! The Vigor is their aerodynamic set that weight 1400 grams. They also make a Vigor Tandem as well.

Specialized S-Works Roubaix. According to Mark, this is the value frameset. The S-Works version is actually bin sorted, they test the frames and pick out the stiffer ones. It is 30% stiffer for the same weight as the average Roubaix. The other builtout Roubaix models are just different build kits. For instance the Roubaix Comp Double is Dura Ace equipped and is $3300 while the best price/performance (note how little difference there is vs. full custom above for $600 more at Steelman). These frames are made in Taiwan and are very good indeed according to Mark.

Calfee Tetra Tandem. Mark recommends these for racing tandems. Carbon fiber and just 28.5 pounds. I'd fit a Large/Small for riding with the kids 57cm top tube on the front and 75 standover in the rear. Probably a Large/Medium would work with Connie. $5227 with standard geometry frame only (e.g., not custom). $500 more for custom geometry if you can stand the price. Built up it would be a $7K expedition to get one of these. The Dragon uses higher end tubes and is about 10% lighter in the frame. It is quite a bit more at $6900 for the standard frame so for a Tandem the Tetra is pretty fine.

Welcome to FedEx Wireless Solutions. Seems like there are more and more sites like this. Check your packages on your phone via WAP at mobile.fedex.com

Discovery HD Theater :: Tune-in. Hat tip to Bikeforums.net for this. Here's the schedule of rebroadcasts.

Chasing Lance: Hell Of The North - Thursday, June 30, 9 p.m. ET. Encore Marathon Sunday, July 3, 2 p.m. - 7 p.m. ET

Get an inside look at Team Discovery and its elder statesman, George Hincapie, as he takes yet another shot at fulfilling his lifelong dream of winning the Paris-Roubaix classic.

I've been trying to figure out how to lube these babies. I got the Speedy Luber pieces, but these just leak like a sieve when I try to inject grease into them. The original design had a plastic cap without a hole in it. The newer X/1 pedals have something with a philips screw and a hole in it that you inject grease into it.

If have been lazy like me and didn't do this every three months as recommended, you can't force the grease through the bearings, so you have to either call Speedplay to have them rebuild it or disassemble the thing.

It is actually not too hard according to the instructions. Basically, you have to take off the dust cap and then heat the screw inside with a soldering iron, then you use a T-20 Torx (why don't people all just use Philips). There is a retainer clip you pull out with pliers and then two sets of sealed roller bearings fall out. Lubricate these and you are good to go at aleast according to Daily Peloton - Pro Cycling News

User maintainable. The pedals contain sealed unit replaceable roller bearings that can be purchased from any stock bearing supplier in Yellow Pages. All pedals also have needle roller bearings, which are still going strong on my original pedals. The pedals come with a speedy luber plastic cap that can be used to inject grease into the pedal. I find it is more effective to take the pedal apart and grease in that way, but lazy, non-mechanical types can do it the recommended way!!

Well, there are just two weeks to go. Here's the final training schedule

So, I'm a little off this schedule. Did 100 miles this Saturday, but need to get 40 miles then 30 then 80 then 40 through the coming long weekend.

Also, just went to Gregg's and learned some depressing things about my bicycle. Basically, I've been overusing it. Another lesson that although a chain may be in the wear range. That is not stretched, it will certainly cause the cogset to get worn. Net, net, on the eve of it all, here is what's happened:

Topolino wheelset. Basically, the rear wheel hub is loose, so the folks at Gregg's had to clean and rebuild it. There aren't instructions from this from Topolino Tech, but you essentially, remove the cogset and then there is a set screw that you remove and the whole bearing system comes out. Turns out that the pawls and everything else was rusty and gunky, so put it back together. There is also now a wobble, so I need to true it. The bad news is the guy said that the wheelset had fraying. Topolino will rehab the thing for $50 for new bearings and $50 for retruing and tensioning the wheels. As usual, these are strange wheels, so it is not like they like it. Rather I just use Mavics. I just spoke with Jason over at Topolino, he says the fraying is not a big deal, but does recommend bringing it back in.

Cogset. Two shops have said the teeth are worn. It makes sense to me now that two have said it. The chain they say is already 75% worn and I just put it on. I had this problem before where a worn cogset then blew a chain. Since I've done 250 miles on this chain, it might really happen. He also claimed that my front cranks are worn. Hard to believe that. I have a spare 12-25 cogset from my other bike, so I'll try that and put another new chain on it. Hope that helps. Also says I had an 11-tooth cogset holder and I needed a 12-tooth. I remember this vaguely, so need to put that on. I'm guessing what has happened is that using an 11-tooth holder has made the cassette wiggle and increased wear on it.

Ergolevers. Says that the Ergolevers are worn. Could be. They are just 2,000 miles old though, so hard to believe. I do have another Ergolever, so I can swap that as well.

Cadence sensor. It is on the drive side and he says it should be on the other side to preven interference with the cables. Easy to do so will get to tonight.

Pulley bolt. I have a Polor Power Output pulley bolt. I don't know where my Record pulley bolt is. Hard to believe that is an issue but should do for hygiene.

Bent derailleur hanger. The most depressing thing, the derailleur hanger is bent. He tried to straighten but it didn't hold. Said that metal fatigue on the drop meant that the frame had to go back to the factory to be replace. How sad. I can probably hang on till after the STP for that (I hope). Not clear how it got bent though as I didn't crash and it has been straight.

Sports Express Luggage & Sports Equipment Delivery Service - Welcome. If you have to ship your bike, there are a couple of options. The airlines charge $80 each way and you have to have a bike case. Also, remember the TSA can inspect anything, so your $$$$s bicycle is completely open for anyone to look at.

Lots of folks are using Sports Express to do this. They are a service that uses UPS or someone underneath to do the shipment, but they provide tracking. $44 for the 2-day service. You do have to pack your bicycle. You go to a bike shop and they do this and then you ship it.

Adventure Cycling Association. They have a really detailed set of maps that go from Vancouver BC to the LA area. Just $47 if you are non-member, $33 if you are a member of Adventure Cycling Association.

Also, they have GPS information you can load directly into a Garmin GPS unit or if you have Magellan, you can use a third party tools called Oziexplorer that also lets you load third party maps. These are way cheaper than buying mapping information from Garmin or Magellan (although who knows how accurate). I've already spent for example $300 for a Magellan GPS and then $300 for various maps, so this is a real savings.

W800i - Music player - 34MB internal memory + 512MB Memory Stick PRO Duo™ included - - Sony Ericsson. This is the first of a long line phones that are going to be great music players. It comes with a 512MB Memory stick and stereo headphones. Plus, it is a 2M

Kind of a fun site, Global Security answers the question, where are the carriers. Tells you an amazing amount of facts about where they are right now which is basically that we have twelve carriers with the Nimitz in the Persian Gulf and the Vinson in the Pacific right now. There is one carries, the Roosevelt that is "surge ready" that it is it is ready to be deployed.

Amazing how it takes twelve carriers to have three up and ready to go. That's because of training and maintenance cycles.

Google Maps is amazingly cool because of its overhead satellite images. I got a link about a B2 in Palmdale where there is a Plant 42. Made me realize there are lots of places where various military things have been photographed:

B2 stealth bomber overhead in Palmdale.

F-15's (not clear if they are F-15Cs or Strike Eagles F-15Es) of the 366 Composite Wing in Mountain Home

The John Stennis CVN-74 based in San Diego Naval Base

The Carl Vinson and its support ships in Everett Washington

In Hampton Roads, there are a pair of carriers at Naval Base Norfolk

You'll see a pair of assault carriers, what looks like the Essex LHA-2 and Iwo Jima LHA-7 as well at the Norfolk Amphibious Naval Base

An attack submarine in San Diego most likely Los Angeles class but depends on the data of the photo.

An amphibious warship probably the LHA-5 Peliliu, looks like the LHD-15 in San Diego as well.

Battlefield 2 Reviews. All eyes wait as Battlefield 2 is coming out. I liked Battlefield 1942 although it is more like a shoot-em-up vs. a realistic simulator like Full Spectrum Warrior or Ghost Recon.

To me, the fun stuff is the more realistic, but to each his own.

Canon PowerShot SD500 Digital Camera (9885A001) - PriceGrabber.com. It's been an agonizing decision, but because Adrian liked his and because it is 7 megapixels and has higher resolution, I'm off to get this one even though it is not as light (7 oz vs 4 oz) as the Casio. Wish me luck.

Pricegrabber has it for about $445 right now, so it ain't cheap. Also you need a gigantic SD card. 1GB would be about right. The main issue is to make sure the SD cards are fast enough. For instance these ATP cards are 60x or 10MBps speed in 1GB and 2GB sizes. Pricegrabber has these for $90 at Zipzoomfly. Pretty amazingly inexpensive.

I also got sold an extra battery. Probably just marketed to.

Also had a chance to look at these cameras in person. Have to say the Casio 750 is sure small and the gigantic screen on the back is a big selling point. It is 2.5" which I'm surprised at how large and nice that is, so a good one to consider.

Purina.com - Downloads - Wireless. OK, one of our companies, mFoundry launched its second application. It is amazing what pet lovers will use. They have ringtones (barktones), forums and all sorts of other things on line now. Check it out.

Purina knows how much you love your pet. Now take that love wherever
you go with fun ringtones, color wallpapers, weekly pet tips and even Purina RSS feeds. All on your mobile phone. All free from Purina.

welcome to dvspot - digital camcorder reviews & news

Sony today introduced
the world's smallest and lightest (and possibly cheapest) consumer HD
camcorder. This is one that we can't wait to check out, though getting
stuff from Sony has been... challenging... lately.

Its supposed to weigh 1.5 pounds and record in 1080i. Wow that is cool! The start of things to come I think.

Top Podcasts on PodcastAlley.com -- The place to find Podcasts. Don't know how reliable this rating system is, but interesting to look at. Notables are of course Coverville my favorite radio show and EarthCore, this is an online scifi novel.

Well, the day for our big trip to Europe is getting close, so time to get on the ball and get the right equipment. That means an ultralight digital camera and ultralight digital camcorder too. Here are the final shootout choices for the digital camera.

Either the Canon SD-500, this is expensive ($450 street) and bigger ( 3.37 × 2.24 × 1.04 inches and 170 grams or 6 ounces without battery or memory card), but it is 7 megapixels and very high quality in images.

On the other side, we have the Pentax Optio S5Z. (This is essentially the same as the S5W and the original S5i, but with 2.5" screen on the back). It is inexpensive ($250 street) and tiny (only 3.3 × 2.0 × 0.81 inches i and 4 ounces or 120 grams including battery and memory card!), but it is 5 megapixels and image quality is not as good. About 1200 lph vs. 1500 lph resolution for the Canon and it has contrasty and a little undersaturated in color.

More data below:

• Canon PowerShot SD500 Review: 1. Introduction: Digital Photography Review. A good detailed review especially showing the high image quality.
• Imaging Resources. Another good in-depth review. A great description of high quality and 1500 lph image resolution.
• Digital Camera Info. The most detailed reviews on color balance, scored well. Main thing is a red-push that is common in consumer cameras like it is consumer TVs. People like pink skinned people :-) Its ratings were Color 8.12, Resolution 5.28, Noise 5.58, and Low Light 7.0 which aren't bad.
• Steve's Digicam. Like everyone else liked the image quality.

On the Pentax, here are reviews for it and its similar older models, mainly the S5i:

• DP Review. Consistent with Imaging Resources, found it would undersaturate and overcontrast, but pretty good quality. Also found pretty high barrel distortion at maximum zoom (1.3%).
• Imaging Resources. A good general review particularly on image details.
• Steve's Digicam. He really didn't like the ergonomics of having the power button on top so you'd accidentally turn the camera off while taking a picture for example, but his reviews don't focus as much on image quality as the ones above do.

For the Casio EXILIM EX-Z750, this is a 7Mp camera and is the same dimensions (3.5" W x 2.3" H x 0.88" D, so a little longer, but thinner ) as the Canon but considerably lighter (4.2 ounces without battery vs. 6 ounces):

• DP Review. They mainly found that the camera was way overcontrast, saturated but by turning down internal settings it looked fine.
• Steve's Digicam. It uses the Sony 7Mpx imager so it is sharp and good color
• Digital Camera Info. They didn't do a technical review, but did say it was a little hard to use.

Welcome to Flickr!. The place to dump your photoes. Way better than my own PHP Gallery hosting.

TagCloud - Home. Hat tip to John and Phil on this one

TagCloud is an automated Folksonomy
tool. Essentially, TagCloud searches any number of RSS feed you specify, extracts keywords from the content and lists them according to prevalence within the RSS feeds. Clicking on the tag's link will display a list of all the article abstracts associated with that
keyword.

Shoes » Road » Rocket 7 » Standard Road. I was trying to get a custom set, but John Gallagher didn't have the custom kits. With them on sale for $220 at Gregg's, I might just get a standard set there.

. GARMIN Vista and LEGEND COLOR GPS Product Review. Jeff got one of these and they appear to really be breakthrough in size and cost. Sad since it means new software is needed since I bet on Magellan. Still, these are very tiny and have a bike mount.

The Legend Color is $300 and the Vista Color is $340 (it has a compass in it).

GPS Receiver Information, Software, and Hardware Reviews of Garmin, Lowrance, Magellan and other GPS Receivers. Bump this back up. I've used these guy's guide before. Very useful three years ago when I got my Magellan SportPro for the boat. Now I need to see what is the smallest lightest thing for touring on a bike.

Cannondale Bicycle Corp. - Si Hollowgram Cranks. My buddy dave has these proprietary cranks on his Cannondale. They are nice but as with all proprietary designs, you can't interchange them. Now he wants a Campagnolo Record CT crankset for our middle-aged legs, so the question is how do you get the darn things off. What tools do you need.

Also, I presume that the frame itself is English internally so you can just put the Record cranks and bottom bracket on, but it isn't clear to me.

They have manual for the Si Hollowgram and it makes it seem very hard to remove and replace the bottom bracket. Requires a host of special tools. Arrgh. I hate proprietary stuff!

Seems like someone at a shop needs to do this. Well beyond me as I read it.

Adventure Cycling Association. Hoops and I were thinking about going from Seattle to San Francisco. Adventure Cycling is a great organization that makes planning this easy.

They sell a complete map set. They also have a set of GPS coordinates that you can download. Very convenient. My buddy Jeff has a bicycle GPS made by Garmin and it is pretty neat. Nice not to get lost!

Bicycling Forums. My Speedplay X/1 pedals seized up. Well, looks like you do need to lubricate them particularly when it rains. I have the older speedplays that don't have an injection port. If you aren't ready, here is what you need:

Most auto parts stores sell a needle adapter like shown below for under $10 at Tool Warehouse

For Speedplay X-1 and X-2 you also need an adapter called a Speedy Luber for about $6. Find it at Performance

X-3's don't need the Speedy Luber inject the grease.

There's maintenance guides in PDF format available at Speedplay

Community Transit Online - Smile and Ride. Had a great day doing a 90 miler with Dave and Peter. It was cold and riany and then incredibly windy, nevertheless, we got up to Everett and then Snohomish. Never did find Monroe and then Duvall and Carnation though.

Here are some notes on how to get to places:

1. When you are coming up the Burke-Gilman Trail from Seattle, when you get to the Bothell rest area, take a left. This puts you on 175th and takes you thru Woodenville. This is actually a nice ride if you take it early in the AM or a terrible ride if you do later with all the traffic.
2. You can get up the hill on Woodenville-Duvall Place and then take a right going east towards Duvall. This road, thanks to zillions of housing developments and no urban planning is incredibly busy, so be careful.
3. At the next light, make a left at 165th, this puts you on the road to Snohomish County.
4. You follow this road until you get to the Chevron (a couple of miles) and there is Paradise Lake Road, make a left instead and cross SR522 (be careful, during the day, this is just terrible unless you hit it early).
5. Make a right at the T in the road and then look for Broadway. Broadway winds and windws and takes you eventually to Lowell Larimer Road, cross over the SR9 and you have a nice cruise up to Everett for about 10 miles.
6. Eventually you end up at Lowell and the Lowell River Park, make a right and take Snohomish River Road back to Snohomish
7. The road Ts into Airport Way, make a left and then the next right and then a right on Lincoln to get out of Snohomish.
8. This becomes Old Snohomish-Duvall Road and in a little bit, you'll end up in Monroe
9. Go through on Main Street and then make a right onto Lewis Street. This is the start of the very busy SR203. A mile or so out of town, make a right a Tualco Rd to get out of the traffic. This then becomes Crescent and deadends into W Snoqualmie Valley Road. Its a climb up but worth it.

Now you are in the Snoqualmie Valley, so you get take W Snoqaulmie Valley Road back to King County and eventually Carnation, then across to Issaquah-Fall City Road and eventually through Pine Lake and back to East Sammamish Way.

What a ride. We actually miseed the Lincoln area ride because I got confused and was looking for the way to Monroe. We'll to try it again sometime.

There a bunch of cameras that now compete with the Pentax Optio S5Z. See PC Magazine

These include the Sony T-7. but this one doesn't have a viewfinder and uses Memory Stick, so I wouldn't consider this one.

Nikon S1 review. This got a good review in Pocket Lint, but PC Magazine thought it had too much pincushion distortion.

Maps and Routes. As part of getting ready for the STP, it sure does mean that there are lots of routes to figure out. Here are some of the places to find routes:

• Snohomish County. A little hard to find, but these are the routes in Snohomish County. You get up there a variety of ways, but the easiest is to take the Burke-Gilman trail up to the top of the lake. Right at the Bothell rest stop, you go north on NE 175th, this takes you up through Woodenville to Fall City-Woodenville Road. A left on 165th will take up up into Snohomish County.
  
  Another trick is to use routes that various rides have already marked. This is great because the road markers are still visible. So here are some centuries around town to add to the list:

• Flying Wheels Century. This is the classic century that folks use to prep for the one day STP. I've done this route quite a few times and it is great.
• 7 Hills of Kirkland. This has lots more climbing, but this year they have the route for a century as well.
• Chilly Hilly. This is just 33 miles, but plenty of climbing.
• STP. One thing we like to do is to take pieces of the STP itself and train on them.

Seattle Mariners : Schedule : 2005 Mariners Schedule. It's baseball season again and good to know the schedule since it make getting to and from Bellevue hard.

On the other hand, since they are doing so poorly traffic has been way better :-)

Chez Shea. We haven't been to Chez Shea's in forever, but it is funny how you remember certain restaurants and certain things. In my case, it was about 10 years ago, we went, it was a beautiful sunny evening and I just remember the curtains billowing through the windows in the golden sunset.

My brother also proposed to his wife there so how's that for romantic.

Oh and the food was good too.

Seattle Restaurant News. When we lived in LA, we practically ate our way through the Gayot restaurant guide. These days I'm more likely to use the Seattle Weekly, but not the Gayot guides are on the web for all to see.

Alexa and Andy were asking me what's a good digital camera to get. I'm assuming a bunch, but the point-and-shoot kind is probably what she means. Right now the best buys are in the 5 to 7 megapixel (Mp) range. Pretty amazing cameras in that they will give you beautiful shots up to 13×19 for 7Mp and often above. I'm also assuming that she'll want compact and also no shutter lag. Shutter lag is the bane of the
"I've got young kids" crowd.

Steve's Digicams - The "Best" Digicams. Steve's Digicam's is a great source of reviews and in many ways is more interesting than the commercial sites that feature reviews. DP Review is another great site. I particularly like their matrix of volume (HxWxD)and weight so you can see what is the lightest and smallest easily.

If you just love small cameras and don't mind a smaller 5 megapixel imager, then you can buy two cameras for one. 5Mp are about $250 while 7Mp cameras are $500.

So here are some to pick and choose in rough order

• Canon Powershot SD500 and DP Review. It is the same size as the Casio. It has excellent image quality with ISO 200 in speed with sharp accurate images but has color fringing and 1700 lpi resolution. It takes 1 second to start and 1/2 second to autofocus and shoot so a little slow for this instant take a picture shots. 3.5"×2.2"×1.0" and 6 oz so it is small for a 7Mp but not particularly light.
• Casio Exilim EX-Z750. This is about the size of a deck of cards. It uses the same Sony 7Mp imager as the Cybershot below. Outdoor shots were sharp and indoor shots were very natural. Ergonomics were a touch below at "good." It takes 1.5 seconds to power up and only takes 1/10 to autofocus and shoot. 3.5"Wx2.3"Hx0.88"D. 4.48 oz so it is nearly as tiny as the Optio S5i.
• Sony Cybershot DSC-P150 and DP Review. The DSC-P200 replaces this model. I'm not sure the difference. This is 7Mp. It is bigger than the ultra-small Pentax Optio s5i and is one inch thick but it has a Carl Zeiss lense with excellent image quality and 1500 lpi resolution. It is very fast with a one second turn on and 3/10th of a second to autofocus and then shoot. He liked outdoor shots but though the indoor shots were too "warm" (that is reddish). $500 street. It has great ergonomics but it is quite a bit wider than the others at 4 1/4" × 2 1/8 " x 1" and weighing in at 5.7 oz so it is heavier too. The big ding for this camera is that it uses the proprietary MemoryStick (Ugh! Sony why do you do this).

Finally if you drop to 5MP, the best recommendation seems to be much wider:

• Casio Optio S5i and DP Review is a good choice. It is a little whacky in ergonomics, takes 2/10 of a second to autofocus and shoot. And it had good overall picture quality with ISO 100 equivalent with some tendency to underexposure, overcontrast and undersaturation resolving to 1200 lpi. With a 5 megapixel imager, its shots are good to 8×10". Most important of all, it is truly tiny at 3.3×2.0×0.8 inches and 4.2 oz. The updated model is called the Casio Optio S5z. It's main advantage seems to be a 2.5" LCD vs. a 1.8" LCD in the S5i.
• Sony DSC-T7. This is a ultra thin camera that is 5Mp. It is 3 5/8" × 2 3/8" × 5/8" so even smaller than the Optio S5i. It does require a proprietary MemoryStick though. Ugh, I hate Sony for that.
• Optio WP. This is a waterproof camera that is 5Mp and would be wonderful if it really worked.