I recently switched from using a Blackberry Curve as my primary cell phone to my Android G1. The main reason: Bluetooth A2DP Stereo support.
The Blackberry Curve supposedly supports A2DP too, but the native media player didn't expose the feature, and I had to try a 3rd party player. The result was atrocious --- one track would use the headphones, and the next one would use the phone's speakerphone or just cut off completely. I would have given up at that point, but then I tried upgrading my android to cupcake.
The integration is easy: just pair your phone in the Wireless Settings to the SBH 500, and start the music app. That's it. It even does the right thing when a call comes in --- the music player pauses, you take the call, and the music resumes after the call is over. Sound quality is good. No, let me take that back. Sound quality is great! When I'm in the office or at home, I get no dropped notes (unless I strain the G1's processor --- then the music skips, but that's not the headphone's fault). Phone calls sound great --- even my callers comment on that! I'm not usually a fan of listening to music at work, but now I do, because it sounds so great, and I didn't realize how much the fact that my headphones had wires kept me from listening to music until I had these!
As a bonus, the charger for these headphones has the same charger tip as for my Kindle v1. The manual claims 10 hours of talk time and 10 days of standby time, and indeed, I have yet to drain the battery on it, despite only charging the headphones once a week or so.
The only complaint I have about the headphones is that they get a little uncomfortable after a couple of hours of use --- that's not a big deal --- I take them off and 10 minutes later I'm ready to wear them again.
Given that they're available used on Amazon.com for about $25 shipped, I think these are an incredible bargain. Recommended!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Review: The Steel Remains
I would have written a review of The Steel Remains in January if Del Rey had chosen to price the Kindle edition of the book at $9.99 instead of trying to price it like the hardcover at $14. As it was, since I had plenty to read, I simply placed a hold at my public library. Yes, Del Rey, you lost $14 of revenue because you mis-priced your product.
At this point, we all know what to expect from a Morgan novel: a super soldier, lots of explicit sex, and plenty of philosophy and violence. Well, Morgan throws us a twist this time: the universe is an atypical fantasy universe, the protagonist is a gay warrior, and while there's plenty of explicit sex, the violence is even more explicit, and as bloody as you would expect --- much more so than the usual cleaned up fantasy novel.
I mis-wrote. There were actually 3 protagonists, all relics of the past war with the Lizards 10 years ago. Egar the Dragonbane is now part of the Steppe nomads, a happy clan-master running an unhappy clan. Archeth, a deadly knife-fighter, now works for the emperor as a trouble-shooter, losing herself in drugs. All this ends when Ringil's mom shows up and guilts him into searching for a cousin sold into slavery. (As unorthodox a start to a fantasy story as you can find --- how many brave warriors have moms?)
The plot then multiplies and we dig into one mystery after another until it all comes together in a bloody finale. While it's not radical, it all makes for fun reading --- and Morgan, if nothing else, is a good enough writer to keep you occupied for a few hours. Recommended for those with a strong stomach. For anyone else, take a look at Altered Carbon and see if Morgan's to your taste. That's still his strongest work.
At this point, we all know what to expect from a Morgan novel: a super soldier, lots of explicit sex, and plenty of philosophy and violence. Well, Morgan throws us a twist this time: the universe is an atypical fantasy universe, the protagonist is a gay warrior, and while there's plenty of explicit sex, the violence is even more explicit, and as bloody as you would expect --- much more so than the usual cleaned up fantasy novel.
I mis-wrote. There were actually 3 protagonists, all relics of the past war with the Lizards 10 years ago. Egar the Dragonbane is now part of the Steppe nomads, a happy clan-master running an unhappy clan. Archeth, a deadly knife-fighter, now works for the emperor as a trouble-shooter, losing herself in drugs. All this ends when Ringil's mom shows up and guilts him into searching for a cousin sold into slavery. (As unorthodox a start to a fantasy story as you can find --- how many brave warriors have moms?)
The plot then multiplies and we dig into one mystery after another until it all comes together in a bloody finale. While it's not radical, it all makes for fun reading --- and Morgan, if nothing else, is a good enough writer to keep you occupied for a few hours. Recommended for those with a strong stomach. For anyone else, take a look at Altered Carbon and see if Morgan's to your taste. That's still his strongest work.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Review: The Lost Fleet, Relentless
The Lost Fleet: Relentless is the fifth book in the Lost Fleet series starting with Dauntless. They are meant to be read in order, so don't buy this book and not have read all the others in the series.
One of my biggest fears with regards to long series is that the series will never end (or Robert Jordan style, the author would die before the series ends --- even his successor is having trouble keeping the final volume of the series in one book). Fortunately, it looks like John G. Hemry/Jack Campbell is very disciplined and the series will end at the sixth book.
Unlike previous books in the series, this one doesn't center around relativistic space battle set-pieces. In any case, if I was impressed by Campbell's set pieces, Alastair Reynolds' Redemption Ark blew me away as far as creativity in space battles is concerned --- it's obvious that Reynolds was an astronomer/physicist while Campbell was a navy man. Instead, what we have is a series of intrigues, one of which centers around a mole/traitor on the flagship.
As usual, Campbell's handling of romance and relationships between men and women is shallow, but as an adventure story the pace is fast, your brain rarely needs to be fully engaged, and nothing is bogged down. Recommended as an airplane novel and not much else.
One of my biggest fears with regards to long series is that the series will never end (or Robert Jordan style, the author would die before the series ends --- even his successor is having trouble keeping the final volume of the series in one book). Fortunately, it looks like John G. Hemry/Jack Campbell is very disciplined and the series will end at the sixth book.
Unlike previous books in the series, this one doesn't center around relativistic space battle set-pieces. In any case, if I was impressed by Campbell's set pieces, Alastair Reynolds' Redemption Ark blew me away as far as creativity in space battles is concerned --- it's obvious that Reynolds was an astronomer/physicist while Campbell was a navy man. Instead, what we have is a series of intrigues, one of which centers around a mole/traitor on the flagship.
As usual, Campbell's handling of romance and relationships between men and women is shallow, but as an adventure story the pace is fast, your brain rarely needs to be fully engaged, and nothing is bogged down. Recommended as an airplane novel and not much else.
Working with your hands
The New York Times Magazine ran an interesting excerpt from a book called The Case for Working with Your Hands this past weekend. In it, the author expresses how directly working on a physical object is direct, honest and cleansing in a way that intellectual work (such as the deservedly maligned investment banking) is not.
To some large extent I agree with him, but I've also had exceedingly bad encounters with shadetree mechanics who wouldn't read a book or understand the principles behind them if it killed them. Here's an example: Bicycle Wheels. I started building them for myself after running into several issues with wheels built by bike mechanics.
What really annoyed me was that these mechanics always adopted a holier than thou attitude --- they would insist that what they were doing was correct, despite violating every engineering principle. Myth and lore would take priority over being correct and building solid wheels. For instance, mechanic after mechanic would insist that straight 14 gauge spokes were stronger that swaged spokes. They would insist that not tensioning the wheel up to maximum possible tension was better than doing so (even though wheel durability is directly correlated with spoke tension). I even recently got into an argument with a well-known wheel builder as to whether spoke prep/loctite was necessary for building strong wheels.
It was this kind of attitude that made me realize that no matter the myth/lore/experience of a shade tree mechanic (or even a reputable mechanic) --- someone who's a good engineer (even someone who's not a real engineer, such as a software engineer) who's willing to read up on prior art and apply himself really does make a superior mechanic, if that was what he wanted to do. So there's plenty of learning on both sides.
(And I have no doubt that investment bankers would make terrible mechanics)
To some large extent I agree with him, but I've also had exceedingly bad encounters with shadetree mechanics who wouldn't read a book or understand the principles behind them if it killed them. Here's an example: Bicycle Wheels. I started building them for myself after running into several issues with wheels built by bike mechanics.
What really annoyed me was that these mechanics always adopted a holier than thou attitude --- they would insist that what they were doing was correct, despite violating every engineering principle. Myth and lore would take priority over being correct and building solid wheels. For instance, mechanic after mechanic would insist that straight 14 gauge spokes were stronger that swaged spokes. They would insist that not tensioning the wheel up to maximum possible tension was better than doing so (even though wheel durability is directly correlated with spoke tension). I even recently got into an argument with a well-known wheel builder as to whether spoke prep/loctite was necessary for building strong wheels.
It was this kind of attitude that made me realize that no matter the myth/lore/experience of a shade tree mechanic (or even a reputable mechanic) --- someone who's a good engineer (even someone who's not a real engineer, such as a software engineer) who's willing to read up on prior art and apply himself really does make a superior mechanic, if that was what he wanted to do. So there's plenty of learning on both sides.
(And I have no doubt that investment bankers would make terrible mechanics)
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Review: The Prefect
With Absolution Gap being such a big disappointment, I could not bring myself to dive into The Prefect right away, even though the library had delivered both books at the same time. Nevertheless, by the time I was half way through the novel, I found myself visiting the library's web-site and ordering every book Reynolds has written that the library has.
The Prefect revolves around Tom Dreyfuss, a policeman of sorts during the Yellowstone System's Belle Epoque. What's great about this setting is that from previous novels, we know the fate of the system, but since those stories took place after a major disaster, we never get to know about the Glitter Band before it became the Rust Belt. The setting, then, is both different yet familiar to fans of the series. Even better, Reynolds has to clue you into the setting whether or not you're an old hand or a new reader. Technically, this is brilliantly done, and a clear case of the author in complete command of his universe as well as the stories he wants to tell.
Set in a post-singularity world, the story begins with Tom Dreyfuss investigating a mass-murder --- someone has destroyed an entire space habitat. From there, the story proceeds to increase in scope, as Dreyfuss has to unwind plots both within and without the Panoply (the police force for the Glitter Band) that ultimately determine the fate of the system. All throughout, we get hints and names that are familiar to us from previous novels, yet none of that name dropping is an inside-reference --- Reynolds deftly ties it altogether, and we see that what we thought were side-references in previous novels can be seen as scene-setting for this one.
Amazingly, after my complaints of wooden characters in previous novels, we now see fully-formed characters. Dreyfuss is very much not a cardboard cut-out, and we learn to respect him. There weren't any obviously wooden characters in this one, except perhaps for the villain. The only real criticism of this book is that despite the initial setup as a crime novel, it really turns into a techno thriller in the end, as the author does tell you who the traitor is long before Dreyfuss gets to him.
Nevertheless, this novel is highly recommended, and well worth paying the $10.80 Kindle price for if you're too impatient to wait for the library.
The Prefect revolves around Tom Dreyfuss, a policeman of sorts during the Yellowstone System's Belle Epoque. What's great about this setting is that from previous novels, we know the fate of the system, but since those stories took place after a major disaster, we never get to know about the Glitter Band before it became the Rust Belt. The setting, then, is both different yet familiar to fans of the series. Even better, Reynolds has to clue you into the setting whether or not you're an old hand or a new reader. Technically, this is brilliantly done, and a clear case of the author in complete command of his universe as well as the stories he wants to tell.
Set in a post-singularity world, the story begins with Tom Dreyfuss investigating a mass-murder --- someone has destroyed an entire space habitat. From there, the story proceeds to increase in scope, as Dreyfuss has to unwind plots both within and without the Panoply (the police force for the Glitter Band) that ultimately determine the fate of the system. All throughout, we get hints and names that are familiar to us from previous novels, yet none of that name dropping is an inside-reference --- Reynolds deftly ties it altogether, and we see that what we thought were side-references in previous novels can be seen as scene-setting for this one.
Amazingly, after my complaints of wooden characters in previous novels, we now see fully-formed characters. Dreyfuss is very much not a cardboard cut-out, and we learn to respect him. There weren't any obviously wooden characters in this one, except perhaps for the villain. The only real criticism of this book is that despite the initial setup as a crime novel, it really turns into a techno thriller in the end, as the author does tell you who the traitor is long before Dreyfuss gets to him.
Nevertheless, this novel is highly recommended, and well worth paying the $10.80 Kindle price for if you're too impatient to wait for the library.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Review: Soon I Will be Invincible
Soon I Will be Invincible is Austin Grossman's superhero novel. It is told from two perspectives: Fatale, who is the Next Generation of Warfare, a rookie superhero joining the New Champions a superhero team roughly analogous to the Justice league of America. The other narrator is Dr. Impossible, The Smartest Man in the World, the supreme villain who has fought with CoreFire, the Superman analogue all through his career. The chapters alternate between the two perspectives.
Being a novel, the book gets into the minds of the characters as they muse about their various predicaments. Unfortunately, Austin Grossman is studying for a PhD in English at Berkeley which means that it's very hard for him to make Dr. Impossible come off as a really smart person --- a novel that tries to get into the mind of a character has to pull off quite a bit more than a comic book that only shows the Villanous dialogue rather than quiet reflection. In fact, Dr. Impossible comes across as a self-pitying person who never quite gets the hang of villainy.
The plot behind the novel was extremely simple Dr. Impossible escaped from jail and a superheroes once again have to stop him before he conquers the world. All the cliches you can find in comic books are here, as Grossman doesn't find that he has anything to add to the genre except some meta-musings: for instance, Dr. Impossible is said to have malign hyper-cognition syndrome --- the politically correct term for evil scientist.
Unfortunately all the plot twists are telegraphed way in advance by the author, as if he was afraid that you weren't smart enough to figure out what was going to happen next. Even the ending isn't at all interesting because Dr. impossible doesn't seem to even know what to do when he has conquered the world. Oh wait, it is only implied that he might have known what to do if he did succeed. The novel isn't even courageous enough to take that step. All in all, although the novel is short and could be a fun read on an airplane or on a bus, I can't really recommend it over going to the source material, and hunting down a copy of Alan Moore's Miracleman (the paper books run on ebay for hundreds of dollars each, but I'm sure you can find electronic copies if you look)
Being a novel, the book gets into the minds of the characters as they muse about their various predicaments. Unfortunately, Austin Grossman is studying for a PhD in English at Berkeley which means that it's very hard for him to make Dr. Impossible come off as a really smart person --- a novel that tries to get into the mind of a character has to pull off quite a bit more than a comic book that only shows the Villanous dialogue rather than quiet reflection. In fact, Dr. Impossible comes across as a self-pitying person who never quite gets the hang of villainy.
The plot behind the novel was extremely simple Dr. Impossible escaped from jail and a superheroes once again have to stop him before he conquers the world. All the cliches you can find in comic books are here, as Grossman doesn't find that he has anything to add to the genre except some meta-musings: for instance, Dr. Impossible is said to have malign hyper-cognition syndrome --- the politically correct term for evil scientist.
Unfortunately all the plot twists are telegraphed way in advance by the author, as if he was afraid that you weren't smart enough to figure out what was going to happen next. Even the ending isn't at all interesting because Dr. impossible doesn't seem to even know what to do when he has conquered the world. Oh wait, it is only implied that he might have known what to do if he did succeed. The novel isn't even courageous enough to take that step. All in all, although the novel is short and could be a fun read on an airplane or on a bus, I can't really recommend it over going to the source material, and hunting down a copy of Alan Moore's Miracleman (the paper books run on ebay for hundreds of dollars each, but I'm sure you can find electronic copies if you look)
Monday, May 18, 2009
Short Mt. Tam Ride
This ride really took it out of me. Despite being short, the day was well over 90 degrees by the time we started riding over towards Fairfax, and the tandem makes all climbs about twice as hard. Mike didn't have much trouble and was quite strong at the end. Definitely needed to eat more ice cream!
A Quick Tutorial on ND grad. filters
Now that I have sample photos up, I can discuss ND graduated filters, which are my favorite tool for serious landscape photography, so much so that I feel naked without them when I'm on a serious photography trip. As described earlier, the fundamental problem of photography is to be able to render a scene that your eye can see into one that the digital sensor and your monitor (or print) can present.
Since slides and monitors can present about an 8:1 contrast ratio between the brightest and dimmest section of an image, while your eye (because it moves constantly and your brain composites all those images with no effort on your part) can see about 1000:1 contrast ratios in the same scene, you have a problem with a typical sunset or sunrise:
Note how the light (which your eye will render as yellow if you were there) is washed out, and the dark sections of the scene hold no shadow detail. (This is in addition to this film being shot by a point and shoot camera) The solution is to eliminate the dark portions of the scene through careful framing, and then placing an ND grad. filter right where the cloud-line would otherwise blow-out:
Now the light on the mountain looks closer to what you would see in reality if you were there. In the digital age, you can use Photoshop and Lightroom's HDR facilities to achieve something similar through multiple exposures instead of carrying $100 filters, but if the clouds in the scene were moving at all, for instance, you can forget it! One reason I converted over to Lightroom from my beloved Picasa is that you can apply an ND grad. filter after the fact in Lightroom (you must shoot in RAW mode for this to work --- storage is so cheap nowadays there's no reason not to)! This is huge, since even if you habitually carry ND grad. filters, what this means is that you get effectively 2 more stops of additional filtration after the exposure if that's what you need.
When in doubt as to whether the scene requires the use of an ND grad. filter, what you can do is to switch the camera to spot meter mode, and quickly spot meter the brightest and darkest parts of the scene. If the difference between the two is more than about 2.5 stops, you need an ND grad. filter. To decide how much filtration you need, figure out the difference between the highlights and the shadows, and subtract 2.5 (or 2 stops if the arithmetic is hard) from it --- this is how many stops you need. I usually carry both a two stop and a three stop filter, and can combine the two to create a five stop scene. If you're shooting RAW digital, you can be off in this calculation by about two stops, since Lightroom will give you that much leeway. (If you're shooting slides, you better be exact, or spend more film and bracket)
A really important tip about placement of the line in the view-finder. It is essential that you stop down to shooting aperture before placing the filter! Where the line on the filter is changes depending on your shooting aperture, which is one reason why the SLR is a superior tool for serious landscape work than a TLR or a rangefinder camera. This is why even though you might be able to use a polarizer on a compact point and shoot, it will be difficult to use an ND grad. filter on one --- there's no way to see the shooting aperture.
Another place where ND. grad. filters are useful is in reflections:
Not all the light hitting the water bounces back in the direction of the camera --- some of it goes into the water as well, and as a result when you try to take a picture of a reflection, the reflection often looks too dark. The solution: an ND grad. filter with the gradation line placed right where the reflection is.
Graduated filters are not a panacea --- used wrong, they can look unnatural, and frequently there's not a good line you can use. But when faced with a high contrast scene (especially those wonderful alpenglow scenes that nature photographers love), they are indispensable, and well worth their weight in the camera bag.
An example of an unnatural look when an ND grad. filter is used. Notice the blue sky above the clouds but yellow below. Of course, unnatural doesn't always mean that the picture isn't pretty
Since slides and monitors can present about an 8:1 contrast ratio between the brightest and dimmest section of an image, while your eye (because it moves constantly and your brain composites all those images with no effort on your part) can see about 1000:1 contrast ratios in the same scene, you have a problem with a typical sunset or sunrise:
 |
| From Grand Tetons and Yellowstone |
Note how the light (which your eye will render as yellow if you were there) is washed out, and the dark sections of the scene hold no shadow detail. (This is in addition to this film being shot by a point and shoot camera) The solution is to eliminate the dark portions of the scene through careful framing, and then placing an ND grad. filter right where the cloud-line would otherwise blow-out:
 |
| From Grand Tetons and Yellowstone |
Now the light on the mountain looks closer to what you would see in reality if you were there. In the digital age, you can use Photoshop and Lightroom's HDR facilities to achieve something similar through multiple exposures instead of carrying $100 filters, but if the clouds in the scene were moving at all, for instance, you can forget it! One reason I converted over to Lightroom from my beloved Picasa is that you can apply an ND grad. filter after the fact in Lightroom (you must shoot in RAW mode for this to work --- storage is so cheap nowadays there's no reason not to)! This is huge, since even if you habitually carry ND grad. filters, what this means is that you get effectively 2 more stops of additional filtration after the exposure if that's what you need.
When in doubt as to whether the scene requires the use of an ND grad. filter, what you can do is to switch the camera to spot meter mode, and quickly spot meter the brightest and darkest parts of the scene. If the difference between the two is more than about 2.5 stops, you need an ND grad. filter. To decide how much filtration you need, figure out the difference between the highlights and the shadows, and subtract 2.5 (or 2 stops if the arithmetic is hard) from it --- this is how many stops you need. I usually carry both a two stop and a three stop filter, and can combine the two to create a five stop scene. If you're shooting RAW digital, you can be off in this calculation by about two stops, since Lightroom will give you that much leeway. (If you're shooting slides, you better be exact, or spend more film and bracket)
A really important tip about placement of the line in the view-finder. It is essential that you stop down to shooting aperture before placing the filter! Where the line on the filter is changes depending on your shooting aperture, which is one reason why the SLR is a superior tool for serious landscape work than a TLR or a rangefinder camera. This is why even though you might be able to use a polarizer on a compact point and shoot, it will be difficult to use an ND grad. filter on one --- there's no way to see the shooting aperture.
Another place where ND. grad. filters are useful is in reflections:
 |
| From Grand Tetons and Yellowstone |
Not all the light hitting the water bounces back in the direction of the camera --- some of it goes into the water as well, and as a result when you try to take a picture of a reflection, the reflection often looks too dark. The solution: an ND grad. filter with the gradation line placed right where the reflection is.
Graduated filters are not a panacea --- used wrong, they can look unnatural, and frequently there's not a good line you can use. But when faced with a high contrast scene (especially those wonderful alpenglow scenes that nature photographers love), they are indispensable, and well worth their weight in the camera bag.
 |
| From Grand Tetons and Yellowstone |
- Singh-Ray ND Grad Filters (2 stop and 3 stop hard)
- Cokin "P" Filter holders (Wide Angle)
- Adapter Rings for the Above
- Tripod
 |
| From Converted |
An example of an unnatural look when an ND grad. filter is used. Notice the blue sky above the clouds but yellow below. Of course, unnatural doesn't always mean that the picture isn't pretty
Grand Tetons and Yellowstone Trip, September 2002
 |
| Grand Tetons and Yellowstone |
For the longest time I promised myself that when I had time, a fast computer, and a place to host photos, I would go back and scan all the pictures I have on slide film into digital format for display. Part of it is that in this digital age, no one seems to have time to show up for a slide show any more. The other part of it is that I like to have images up for instructional purposes as well, and some of those pictures I had back in the old days were especially good. Slide photography is the most demanding form of photography there is --- unlike with color negative or digital photography, there's no possibility of rescue from a bad picture --- you can't even crop! Everything has to be done before the shutter is pushed. In addition, the very best slide films were slow (Fuji Velvia is ISO 50, Kodak Kodachrome is ISO 25).
Now that I have a little bit of time and a fast computer, I'll start with my Grand Tetons/Yellowstone Fall 2002 collection. That was one of those photo-trips where everything came together --- the light, the weather, and my gear all operated in peak condition, and I was very pleased with the results. The camera gear was an Olympus Stylus Epic 35mm point and shoot, and I had both my Canon bodies with me: EOS-3 and Elan IIe, as well as my entire collection of lenses and filters. I did suffer a mishap though --- as a cheap-skate I was always camping whenever I could, and after a stint in the hot springs with the tripod, the next morning I'd found my tripod legs frozen solid! I had to sit in the car with the heater full on and aimed at the tripod legs to get them to unfreeze so I could use them! All in all, I shot about 30 rolls of film for a 2 week trip, of which 7 days were spent in the back country without the serious equipment.
Scanning was performed on a Canoscan 4000US slide/negative scanner. It works like a champ, but of course, even the comparatively cheap Canoscan 8800F nowadays will be fast and probably just as good. I had to buy Vuescan because Canon does not provide a 64-bit Vista driver for that old scanner, but even if they had, neither Lightroom nor Photoshop support TWAIN scanners any more anyway! It sucks to be obsolete. Fortunately, Vuescan is very good and well worth the $40 --- the scans are so clean that I only have to crop them and post.
In any case, click through on the link, click "slideshow", and enjoy the show!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Review: The Steerswoman
The Steerswoman is such an old book that it is now out of print. You can, however, buy the Steerwoman's Road, which contains the first two volumes of the series.
The novel starts in what you would think is a typical fantasy universe, with mentions of Wizards, no high technology, and long travel on foot, sail, and all the usual inconveniences. The story revolves around Rowan, who's a Steerswoman, a combination of sage and wise-woman who acts as a repository of information for the community.
At the story's start, Rowan stumbles on some interesting jewels at an inn and feels compelled to investigate further. Before long, however, she finds herself under attack, and the story proceeds then to investigate the world she lives in, which turns out not to be the usual straightforward fantasy world after all.
The reveals are well setup and put together intelligently, but the characters are perhaps a little wooden. Nevertheless, I'll be tracking down the rest of the novels.
The novel starts in what you would think is a typical fantasy universe, with mentions of Wizards, no high technology, and long travel on foot, sail, and all the usual inconveniences. The story revolves around Rowan, who's a Steerswoman, a combination of sage and wise-woman who acts as a repository of information for the community.
At the story's start, Rowan stumbles on some interesting jewels at an inn and feels compelled to investigate further. Before long, however, she finds herself under attack, and the story proceeds then to investigate the world she lives in, which turns out not to be the usual straightforward fantasy world after all.
The reveals are well setup and put together intelligently, but the characters are perhaps a little wooden. Nevertheless, I'll be tracking down the rest of the novels.
Review: Absolution Gap
Absolution Gap is the last book in the Revelation Space trilogy of connected novels. The first two volumes were Revelation Space and Redemption Ark. You could read this novel standalone, but the universe would be a lot richer for you if you read those first two volumes before tackling this one.
Unlike the previous two volumes this one is a downer. Reynolds almost immediately wipes the slate clean by getting rid of characters we know from earlier novels. Second, he then provides a bit of misdirection by providing a separate plot on a new system known as Hela. As the two plots converge, we learn more about the nature of the planet, and how dire the fate of humanity is under the threat of the inhibitors.
Unfortunately, as warned by the reviewers on Amazon.com, the book has a bad ending. It's bad not necessarily because the plot is no good, but because after all that build up, the ending has nothing to do with either of the plot strands discussed earlier. It's as though Reynolds decided to pull a massive bait and switch. The science parts of the novel are fun and interesting, but I'm afraid even Reynolds can't hold a novel with just that. I can't recommend this novel as a result, though I think the overall series is still worth reading on the strength of the first two novels alone.
Unlike the previous two volumes this one is a downer. Reynolds almost immediately wipes the slate clean by getting rid of characters we know from earlier novels. Second, he then provides a bit of misdirection by providing a separate plot on a new system known as Hela. As the two plots converge, we learn more about the nature of the planet, and how dire the fate of humanity is under the threat of the inhibitors.
Unfortunately, as warned by the reviewers on Amazon.com, the book has a bad ending. It's bad not necessarily because the plot is no good, but because after all that build up, the ending has nothing to do with either of the plot strands discussed earlier. It's as though Reynolds decided to pull a massive bait and switch. The science parts of the novel are fun and interesting, but I'm afraid even Reynolds can't hold a novel with just that. I can't recommend this novel as a result, though I think the overall series is still worth reading on the strength of the first two novels alone.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Review: The Science of Fear
The Science of Fear is a great book! It covers why fear seems rampant in this modern age, when life expectancies are longer than ever before, and wars seem less frequent than ever (though the 20th century was still the bloodiest in history, neither nuclear Armageddon nor famine became prevalent). The book covers all the elements of fear, starting from why we remember negative news better than we remember positive ones.
It then goes on to examine who has an incentive to make you fear the world. Product companies (such as security specialists) have an incentive to sell you a product, and by making you afraid (of say a break in), they make money. Politicians such as George H. W. Bush have an incentive to sell fear, because that enables them to stay in office. Finally, the media has an incentive to sell news stories, and the best news stories involve fear, since nothing else sticks in your mind like the latest disease or disaster, no matter how statistically unlikely it is to affect you.
The author also dissects why we are so vulnerable to such institutions and people preying on us: our brains aren't evolved for modern society, from photography to round-the-globe 24-hour news coverage, so while we're capable of driving at 65mph down the freeway, our brains haven't adapted to the idea that perhaps the fact that we spend all our time driving and very little time exercising is much more dangerous to us than that news story about the serial killer or what-have-you.
What I love the book is that it's not afraid to name names and debunk myths. The breast implants scare comes up early on, and he follows through with such examples as the primary cause for cancer (I won't spoil it for you, but I guarantee that it's not much of a surprise if you think about it). Even sacred icons such as Rachel Carlson are not spared from Mr. Gardner's research and analysis.
All in all, this book is highly recommended.
It then goes on to examine who has an incentive to make you fear the world. Product companies (such as security specialists) have an incentive to sell you a product, and by making you afraid (of say a break in), they make money. Politicians such as George H. W. Bush have an incentive to sell fear, because that enables them to stay in office. Finally, the media has an incentive to sell news stories, and the best news stories involve fear, since nothing else sticks in your mind like the latest disease or disaster, no matter how statistically unlikely it is to affect you.
The author also dissects why we are so vulnerable to such institutions and people preying on us: our brains aren't evolved for modern society, from photography to round-the-globe 24-hour news coverage, so while we're capable of driving at 65mph down the freeway, our brains haven't adapted to the idea that perhaps the fact that we spend all our time driving and very little time exercising is much more dangerous to us than that news story about the serial killer or what-have-you.
What I love the book is that it's not afraid to name names and debunk myths. The breast implants scare comes up early on, and he follows through with such examples as the primary cause for cancer (I won't spoil it for you, but I guarantee that it's not much of a surprise if you think about it). Even sacred icons such as Rachel Carlson are not spared from Mr. Gardner's research and analysis.
All in all, this book is highly recommended.
Monday, May 11, 2009
The Relay, 2009
So two weekends ago, I participated in The Relay. As part of the third Google Team, we ran 199 miles.
This blog chronicles everything that my team went through, giving pretty much a blow by blow account of the entire race. =)
Yes, we blogged on the run. Say yay, to mobile WiFi!
The race was more of a logistics challenge more so than a challenging run. As a bonus though, I got to run one of my favourite hills to ride up, Redwood Gulch. =)
Ironic, I never thought I would be running up that hill! My time for that portion fortunately is worse than my ride up it (50 minutes for the 3 mile stretch)
I don't think I'll quite do this again as it didn't turn out to be difficult and was just long stretches of waiting. It IS quite incredible to do this as part of a team though, and that I'll treasure more than anything else.
Review: Black Diamond Orbit Lantern
I bought the Black Diamond Orbit Lantern during the REI 20% off period. I actually spent some time debating between that and the Apollo, but decided that the lighter weight of the Orbit would soon meet my needs.
Prior to this purchase, I always used a candle or a Coleman gas lantern, but the Stephenson did not come with straps for hanging the candle lantern, and the Coleman always had problems with use inside a tent --- not only is it dangerous, but a topple could burn up your tent!
The Orbit is tiny. It weighs 5 ounces with 4 AAA batteries. Each set of AAAs will go for about 10 hours, which is more than enough for a 5 day backpacking trip during the summer, or 2-3 days in the fall. It is bright!. With it fully lit, the inside of the tent feels very much like daylight. (that's an illusion, since it only has a 1W LED) It's so bright that your see white spots for a bit after you stare at the lantern directly.
As a reading light, it is so bright that I had to turn it down (fortunately it comes with a dimmer switch). I found a great way to use it, which is to lie it down on the side and then read on my back with the book (or Kindle) held up in my hands. For extra battery savings stick a mirror behind it, and use the dimmer.
Needless to say, this light is highly recommended. I'm retiring all my candle and gas lanterns as a result.
Prior to this purchase, I always used a candle or a Coleman gas lantern, but the Stephenson did not come with straps for hanging the candle lantern, and the Coleman always had problems with use inside a tent --- not only is it dangerous, but a topple could burn up your tent!
The Orbit is tiny. It weighs 5 ounces with 4 AAA batteries. Each set of AAAs will go for about 10 hours, which is more than enough for a 5 day backpacking trip during the summer, or 2-3 days in the fall. It is bright!. With it fully lit, the inside of the tent feels very much like daylight. (that's an illusion, since it only has a 1W LED) It's so bright that your see white spots for a bit after you stare at the lantern directly.
As a reading light, it is so bright that I had to turn it down (fortunately it comes with a dimmer switch). I found a great way to use it, which is to lie it down on the side and then read on my back with the book (or Kindle) held up in my hands. For extra battery savings stick a mirror behind it, and use the dimmer.
Needless to say, this light is highly recommended. I'm retiring all my candle and gas lanterns as a result.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Cazedero LDT
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| From Piaw's Blog |
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| From Piaw's Blog |
What a gorgeous weekend it was! Not wanting it to go to waste, I joined the Western Wheelers for the Cazedero Circuit rides, a combination of really gorgeous rides in Northern California, on the Sonoma Coast. I knew I was out of shape, but this ride told me how badly off I was. Two years ago, I did the E ride on Saturday, 85 miles and 8500' of climbing, and was surprised on Sunday by how easy the ride up Coleman Valley road was. This year, I did the C ride, 65 miles and 6500' of climbing and was exhausted, feeling a lot of lower back soreness from the climbing. Then Saturday's climb up Coleman Valley road was a slog, no question about it. I was just too tired to be frisky.
Nevertheless, with wild poppies abound and gorgeous coastal scenery, I can't complain. It's good to be able to enjoy California after spending so much time away.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Kindle DX a massive boon to travelers
I did not bother upgrading to the Kindle 2 because I thought it was an inferior product compared to the Kindle v1. Today's announcement of the Kindle DX, however, will likely have me digging out my wallet to pay for the next time I travel. It's heavier (8 ounces more, so it will now compete with my CPAP machine in weight), and bulkier, but has one major feature, which is PDF support.
For the traveler, that means all the lonely planet PDFs can be stored for searching when you travel. When cycling in Europe or backpacking through Japan, this is a massive weight and space savings over the paper books. I begged Lonely Planet a year ago for a Kindle edition, but now I don't have to wait.
I don't know when the newspapers and magazines will switch over to PDF content, but it's only a matter of time --- now you'll be able to get all those glossies with images, etc. In other words, if you're about to travel somewhere independently (i.e., not part of a guided tour), this will become an essential accessory for you.
For the traveler, that means all the lonely planet PDFs can be stored for searching when you travel. When cycling in Europe or backpacking through Japan, this is a massive weight and space savings over the paper books. I begged Lonely Planet a year ago for a Kindle edition, but now I don't have to wait.
I don't know when the newspapers and magazines will switch over to PDF content, but it's only a matter of time --- now you'll be able to get all those glossies with images, etc. In other words, if you're about to travel somewhere independently (i.e., not part of a guided tour), this will become an essential accessory for you.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Review: My Life as a Quant
My Life as a Quant (kindle edition) is Emanuel Derman's memoir of his journey from being an ambitious Physicist to being a much lauded financial engineer.
The first half of his book covers his training and education as a physicist. There's not a little bit of the usual physicist's arrogance built into his training. There's the note that in Physics, you frequently run into people so smart that you know you'll never be at that level, and the widely accepted opinion that Physics is so much better than other fields that a poorly paying post-Doc as a physicist is better than almost any other profession. From being a professor at the University of Colorado to finally ending up at Bell Labs where he was essentially trained as one of the early C programmers, Derman's gradual disillusionment with Physics and his lack of material progress in that field shows through.
The second half of the book is much more exciting. It's provides a good layman's introduction to financial engineering (that Derman's currently a professor of financial engineering shows through), as well as Derman's life in Goldman Sachs and Saloman Brothers, firms which were central in the financial collapse last year. Now that he's a successful theorist in financial engineering, Derman's a lot more humble --- he ends with a long treatise on the limits of financial engineering, and emphasizes that ultimately, it's the trader's human intuition that makes the final decision, and that no model in finance can give you the same exactness as the ones in Physics --- in one you're playing a game where the rules do not change, and in the other you play against humans, who learn and always find new exploits.
The book was worth my time, but I wonder what he would say now, given the events in 2008.
The first half of his book covers his training and education as a physicist. There's not a little bit of the usual physicist's arrogance built into his training. There's the note that in Physics, you frequently run into people so smart that you know you'll never be at that level, and the widely accepted opinion that Physics is so much better than other fields that a poorly paying post-Doc as a physicist is better than almost any other profession. From being a professor at the University of Colorado to finally ending up at Bell Labs where he was essentially trained as one of the early C programmers, Derman's gradual disillusionment with Physics and his lack of material progress in that field shows through.
The second half of the book is much more exciting. It's provides a good layman's introduction to financial engineering (that Derman's currently a professor of financial engineering shows through), as well as Derman's life in Goldman Sachs and Saloman Brothers, firms which were central in the financial collapse last year. Now that he's a successful theorist in financial engineering, Derman's a lot more humble --- he ends with a long treatise on the limits of financial engineering, and emphasizes that ultimately, it's the trader's human intuition that makes the final decision, and that no model in finance can give you the same exactness as the ones in Physics --- in one you're playing a game where the rules do not change, and in the other you play against humans, who learn and always find new exploits.
The book was worth my time, but I wonder what he would say now, given the events in 2008.
Review: Escaflowne
I found this in my archives on my hard drive, and still have fond memories of the TV series, which is now available in all sorts of special collection editions on Amazon, and decided that Escaflowne can't possibly be popular enough, so I'm resurrecting it on my blog.
Vision of Escaflowne is a science fiction adventure. Produced by Shouji Kawamori, who also produced the delectable Macross, Escaflowne is a story that combines fantasy, romance, and adventure in 26 25-minute episodes. Aired in Japan in 1996, this TV series is now available as a complete DVD collection.
The story revolves around Hitomi, who is a first year student in high school. Hitomi has a crush on one of the seniors on the school track team, Amano. When she learns that he is leaving for England, she gathers up her courage, and asks him to clock her on the track. And if she gets in under 13 seconds, would Amano-sempai please give her her first kiss?
Unfortunately, during her run, a boy from one of Hitomi's dreams show up in a flash of light, followed closely by a dragon. In the events that transpire shortly thereafter, Hitomi is transported along with the the boy to his planet, Gaea, with no apparent way back. I'll let other sites do the rest of the plot synopsis. Rest assured that the adventure never lets up, and surprise after surprise will challenge the viewer to keep the story straight.
As a world, Gaea evokes Edgar Rice Burrough's John Carter, Princess of Mars series. There are ape-men, and cat-women, boy princes and dashing swords men, flying ships which levitate using anti-gravity rocks, and powered-armored suits (called Guymelefs in the story) which transform, fly, and draw their energy from a stone called a Dragu-Energist, which can only be found in the remains of a dragon. The title of the series, Escaflowne, is the name of the Guymelef that Van Fanel pilots.
The boy whom Hitomi rescues is Van Fanel, a prince of a small country on Gaea. When Fanelia is destroyed by an invisible army of Guymelefs, Hitomi and Van spend the rest of the story trying to discover who is doing this and why.
The Characters
There are four major characters in the story, along with a large supporting cast. Hitomi is the viewpoint character, a natural choice, since the audience is far more likely to identify with her than with anyone else. Van Fanel, the King of Fanelia starts the story appropriately enough, as a King without a country, and eventually grows to become the warrior that he did not want to be at the start of the story. The third leg of Hitomi's romantic triangle (you knew there was going to be one, didn't you?) is Allen Schezar, a dashing, handsome swordsman of Asturia, the country Van and Hitomi flee to when escaping from Fanel's destroyers. Princess Millerna, who's the third daughter of Asturia, however, is in love with Allen, hence the romance turns out not to be a simple case of who does Hitomi chooses?
The interactions between characters is entertaining and perhaps classically romantic. The characters have histories that come back to haunt them, as well as unresolved pasts that they eventually have to confront. But as with most good stories, the most impressive thing about Escaflowne is that the characters do grow and mature. Hitomi does not return to Earth as the same girl who left for Gaea.
Plot
This is a fast paced series. There are at least one or two plot twists every episode,
so watching it in a collection is much better than trying to pick it up off broadcast TV. Escaflowne was first conceived as a 39 episode series, but the budget was set for 26 episodes, hence the tight pacing. In many ways this is a good thing, since there are no episodes where nothing happens, and even the character development episodes don't leave a viewer feeling cheated.
What I really like, however, is the fact that for a romance, Hitomi definitely does more than her fair share of rescuing in the series. The female leads are strong characters, and the story is compelling and full of the kind of wonder I started reading science fiction for. Of course, there are a few inconsistencies, such as Hitomi's school uniform remaining intact and immaculate despite the rough treatment she gives it, and the number of adventures she puts it through. (And except for a few episodes, she doesn't wear anything else!)
Is it worth 13 hours?
Yes! If you don't feel like buying the series, rent it, borrow it, or pool money with your friends and buy it, but by all means watch it. This is Japanese animation at its best. Unlike older series such as Macross or Gatchaman, this series is incredibly well-drawn for a TV series. The art is uniformly high quality, and consistent from episode to episode. Sure, there are the usual cases of long still shots and reused footage from episode to episode, but by and large the animation, even on a small screen is as good as anything I have seen. You won't be disappointed.
There is a movie, but as with Macross, the movie has no plot resembling that of the TV series, and in fact, will have some of the characters redrawn so dramatically that you will not recognize them except by name.
For More Information
The Big Escaflowne Website. This is a well-designed site, with lots of production information and notes on the show, as well as episode guides and a good idea of what's going to be in the movie. Spoilers are carefully marked.
Vision of Escaflowne is a science fiction adventure. Produced by Shouji Kawamori, who also produced the delectable Macross, Escaflowne is a story that combines fantasy, romance, and adventure in 26 25-minute episodes. Aired in Japan in 1996, this TV series is now available as a complete DVD collection.
The story revolves around Hitomi, who is a first year student in high school. Hitomi has a crush on one of the seniors on the school track team, Amano. When she learns that he is leaving for England, she gathers up her courage, and asks him to clock her on the track. And if she gets in under 13 seconds, would Amano-sempai please give her her first kiss?
Unfortunately, during her run, a boy from one of Hitomi's dreams show up in a flash of light, followed closely by a dragon. In the events that transpire shortly thereafter, Hitomi is transported along with the the boy to his planet, Gaea, with no apparent way back. I'll let other sites do the rest of the plot synopsis. Rest assured that the adventure never lets up, and surprise after surprise will challenge the viewer to keep the story straight.
As a world, Gaea evokes Edgar Rice Burrough's John Carter, Princess of Mars series. There are ape-men, and cat-women, boy princes and dashing swords men, flying ships which levitate using anti-gravity rocks, and powered-armored suits (called Guymelefs in the story) which transform, fly, and draw their energy from a stone called a Dragu-Energist, which can only be found in the remains of a dragon. The title of the series, Escaflowne, is the name of the Guymelef that Van Fanel pilots.
The boy whom Hitomi rescues is Van Fanel, a prince of a small country on Gaea. When Fanelia is destroyed by an invisible army of Guymelefs, Hitomi and Van spend the rest of the story trying to discover who is doing this and why.
The Characters
There are four major characters in the story, along with a large supporting cast. Hitomi is the viewpoint character, a natural choice, since the audience is far more likely to identify with her than with anyone else. Van Fanel, the King of Fanelia starts the story appropriately enough, as a King without a country, and eventually grows to become the warrior that he did not want to be at the start of the story. The third leg of Hitomi's romantic triangle (you knew there was going to be one, didn't you?) is Allen Schezar, a dashing, handsome swordsman of Asturia, the country Van and Hitomi flee to when escaping from Fanel's destroyers. Princess Millerna, who's the third daughter of Asturia, however, is in love with Allen, hence the romance turns out not to be a simple case of who does Hitomi chooses?
The interactions between characters is entertaining and perhaps classically romantic. The characters have histories that come back to haunt them, as well as unresolved pasts that they eventually have to confront. But as with most good stories, the most impressive thing about Escaflowne is that the characters do grow and mature. Hitomi does not return to Earth as the same girl who left for Gaea.
Plot
This is a fast paced series. There are at least one or two plot twists every episode,
so watching it in a collection is much better than trying to pick it up off broadcast TV. Escaflowne was first conceived as a 39 episode series, but the budget was set for 26 episodes, hence the tight pacing. In many ways this is a good thing, since there are no episodes where nothing happens, and even the character development episodes don't leave a viewer feeling cheated.
What I really like, however, is the fact that for a romance, Hitomi definitely does more than her fair share of rescuing in the series. The female leads are strong characters, and the story is compelling and full of the kind of wonder I started reading science fiction for. Of course, there are a few inconsistencies, such as Hitomi's school uniform remaining intact and immaculate despite the rough treatment she gives it, and the number of adventures she puts it through. (And except for a few episodes, she doesn't wear anything else!)
Is it worth 13 hours?
Yes! If you don't feel like buying the series, rent it, borrow it, or pool money with your friends and buy it, but by all means watch it. This is Japanese animation at its best. Unlike older series such as Macross or Gatchaman, this series is incredibly well-drawn for a TV series. The art is uniformly high quality, and consistent from episode to episode. Sure, there are the usual cases of long still shots and reused footage from episode to episode, but by and large the animation, even on a small screen is as good as anything I have seen. You won't be disappointed.
There is a movie, but as with Macross, the movie has no plot resembling that of the TV series, and in fact, will have some of the characters redrawn so dramatically that you will not recognize them except by name.
For More Information
The Big Escaflowne Website. This is a well-designed site, with lots of production information and notes on the show, as well as episode guides and a good idea of what's going to be in the movie. Spoilers are carefully marked.
Saturday, May 02, 2009
A Consolidated Cycle Touring Page
For years, my cycle touring travelogues and web pages have been all over the place, ranging from my Alma-Mater to this blog to geocities. With recent news that Geocities was to be shut down by the end of the year, I asked on FriendFeed where to host all my soon-to-be-gone content.
The overwhelming vote was for Google's App Engine. I had played with it 2 years ago when it was a Google internal alpha, but I didn't think of using it for hosting static content. It does have a few quirks, but it's cheap, and visitors are unlikely to overwhelm the free quota, which is more than I can say about the Geocities page! I do like that I finally get to use the domain that I registered two years ago.
The runner up was DreamHost, which came with rave reviews by many users, but my experience with their promotion for migrating Geocities was less than ideal, and I have reasonable confidence that Google's free quota will always be more than I can use.
I'd like to say that I rescued everything before bit-rot set in, but unfortunately, I've already lost quite a number of photos, and in many years had to settle for just rescuing the text.
So hop over to my Consolidated Touring Pages and have a look! (I do apologize for the years in which I didn't do write ups of my trip --- I intend to remedy them eventually)
The overwhelming vote was for Google's App Engine. I had played with it 2 years ago when it was a Google internal alpha, but I didn't think of using it for hosting static content. It does have a few quirks, but it's cheap, and visitors are unlikely to overwhelm the free quota, which is more than I can say about the Geocities page! I do like that I finally get to use the domain that I registered two years ago.
The runner up was DreamHost, which came with rave reviews by many users, but my experience with their promotion for migrating Geocities was less than ideal, and I have reasonable confidence that Google's free quota will always be more than I can use.
I'd like to say that I rescued everything before bit-rot set in, but unfortunately, I've already lost quite a number of photos, and in many years had to settle for just rescuing the text.
So hop over to my Consolidated Touring Pages and have a look! (I do apologize for the years in which I didn't do write ups of my trip --- I intend to remedy them eventually)
Friday, May 01, 2009
Review: Almost Perfect
One of the best things about owning a Kindle is that items that are too long to read entirely online are easily converted to Kindle format and then are indistinguishable from books. Almost Perfect is one such item.
Almost Perfect was written by W. E. Pete Peterson, one of WordPerfect's early employees and CEO in all but name. For those of you who remember the era of desktop software, there's the usual Microsoft story of the evil empire using its formidable influence to tilt the market to its playing field. I was on the sidelines at the time, and my observation was that most Microsoft competitors didn't need Microsoft's help doing themselves in.
In WordPerfect's case, it was clear that they had an incredibly good product for DOS and character-based interfaces. I was an early Wordstar user, and I remember how MicroPro shot itself in the foot with the introduction of Wordstar 2000, destroying all the backwards compatibility the users had come to expect. Frequently, the lack of backwards compatibility was what killed a lot of software companies. (Microsoft's current woes with Vista driver and application compatibility is only the latest such example)
The book is short and well-written, and unremittingly describes WordPerfect's success (listening to the customer, supporting them well, and learning from their mistakes) and mistakes (supporting platforms and programs that didn't make money, never developing in house management talent that could think the way the founders did, and being too optimistic about the resources required to compete in GUI-oriented word processing programs). In this case, the attempt to diversify across product lines extracted a costly toll on the company that it could not afford, since it did not have a monopoly that Microsoft had to sustain as many disparate development efforts as they did.
Ultimately, however, I consider this book a good example of the importance of building an organization that can function along without key people, rather than an organization composed of superheroes. While Pete Peterson was undoubtedly a talented executive (proving once again that business school is no substitute for hard work and common sense), towards the end he was strained past the breaking point by WordPerfect's growth, and could not keep track of all that was essential for success. He wanted to run a flat organization, but the shortage of management talent in the company (and his flailing attempts to remedy it at the last minute) eventually came to roost, and WordPerfect paid the price.
Recommended for its brief, honest appraisal, and a good look at the inside world of desktop, shrink-wrapped software.
Almost Perfect was written by W. E. Pete Peterson, one of WordPerfect's early employees and CEO in all but name. For those of you who remember the era of desktop software, there's the usual Microsoft story of the evil empire using its formidable influence to tilt the market to its playing field. I was on the sidelines at the time, and my observation was that most Microsoft competitors didn't need Microsoft's help doing themselves in.
In WordPerfect's case, it was clear that they had an incredibly good product for DOS and character-based interfaces. I was an early Wordstar user, and I remember how MicroPro shot itself in the foot with the introduction of Wordstar 2000, destroying all the backwards compatibility the users had come to expect. Frequently, the lack of backwards compatibility was what killed a lot of software companies. (Microsoft's current woes with Vista driver and application compatibility is only the latest such example)
The book is short and well-written, and unremittingly describes WordPerfect's success (listening to the customer, supporting them well, and learning from their mistakes) and mistakes (supporting platforms and programs that didn't make money, never developing in house management talent that could think the way the founders did, and being too optimistic about the resources required to compete in GUI-oriented word processing programs). In this case, the attempt to diversify across product lines extracted a costly toll on the company that it could not afford, since it did not have a monopoly that Microsoft had to sustain as many disparate development efforts as they did.
Ultimately, however, I consider this book a good example of the importance of building an organization that can function along without key people, rather than an organization composed of superheroes. While Pete Peterson was undoubtedly a talented executive (proving once again that business school is no substitute for hard work and common sense), towards the end he was strained past the breaking point by WordPerfect's growth, and could not keep track of all that was essential for success. He wanted to run a flat organization, but the shortage of management talent in the company (and his flailing attempts to remedy it at the last minute) eventually came to roost, and WordPerfect paid the price.
Recommended for its brief, honest appraisal, and a good look at the inside world of desktop, shrink-wrapped software.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Review: Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark (dead tree edition) is Alastair Reynold's third novel in the Revelation Space universe.
This novel introduces Nevil Clavain, one of the original Conjoiners who fled the Solar System ages ago (in a back-story that's revealed in Galactic North). One of the best things about the series is that the science is impeccable. We have explorations of inertia, of relativistic interstellar combat and tactics, and an amazing amount of exposition that's not very neatly hidden amongst the conversations between the characters.
Yet the characters, I feel, are the best Reynold's has come up with yet --- they're still wooden, but at least their motivations are sensible. Even more interesting, the presence of the Inhibitors (Reynold's answer to the Fermi Paradox) is explained well, and a far more interesting answer than I expected. We do get an explanation about the hell-classed weapons that were presented but not explained as part of Revelation Space, and some of the characters from both that novel and Chasm City show up as well, though not in such a way that you'll need to read those two novels before reading this one (but those novels are recommended, so you might as well read them).
While other books in the series have been self-contained, this one does manage to end in a very bad place --- a place that leaves you wanting to flip the Kindle over to the Amazon.com store and click the buy button for Absolution Gap. The reviews on that novel, however, are leaving me cold, so I'll check it out of the library. Nevertheless, Redemption Ark is highly recommended --- old fashioned science fiction that doesn't leave out the science and gives you the good old tingly sense of wonder that science fiction is supposed to provide!
This novel introduces Nevil Clavain, one of the original Conjoiners who fled the Solar System ages ago (in a back-story that's revealed in Galactic North). One of the best things about the series is that the science is impeccable. We have explorations of inertia, of relativistic interstellar combat and tactics, and an amazing amount of exposition that's not very neatly hidden amongst the conversations between the characters.
Yet the characters, I feel, are the best Reynold's has come up with yet --- they're still wooden, but at least their motivations are sensible. Even more interesting, the presence of the Inhibitors (Reynold's answer to the Fermi Paradox) is explained well, and a far more interesting answer than I expected. We do get an explanation about the hell-classed weapons that were presented but not explained as part of Revelation Space, and some of the characters from both that novel and Chasm City show up as well, though not in such a way that you'll need to read those two novels before reading this one (but those novels are recommended, so you might as well read them).
While other books in the series have been self-contained, this one does manage to end in a very bad place --- a place that leaves you wanting to flip the Kindle over to the Amazon.com store and click the buy button for Absolution Gap. The reviews on that novel, however, are leaving me cold, so I'll check it out of the library. Nevertheless, Redemption Ark is highly recommended --- old fashioned science fiction that doesn't leave out the science and gives you the good old tingly sense of wonder that science fiction is supposed to provide!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Australia: A Photo Journey
At last, it is done! I have processed all the pictures from the Australia Trip. I still have a few that need work --- for instance, all the panoramas need to be stitched, and I need to play with the HDR, but the bulk of the work is done. Enjoy!
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| Sydney |
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| Blue Mountains |
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| Great Barrier Reef |
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| Atherton Tablelands |
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| Melbourne |
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| Tasmania |
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| Tasmanian Overland Track |
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| Great Ocean Road |
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| Perth and Margaret River |
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| Ningaloo Reef |
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| The Red Center |
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| Australia Panoramas |
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Black Mountain Summit
I'm definitely out of shape --- it took 110 minutes today to reach the summit, and just as long to get to the bottom. It was hazy but there were lots of flowers (though there're signs that they'll all be gone next week). Unfortunately, none of the flower pictures turned out, but the panorama at the top did.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Review: HP m9600t Desktop PC
After returning from Australia, I had to buy a new PC to cope with the 100GB of pictures and run Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop CS4 to deal with the output from the Canon 5DMk II.
Interestingly enough, the HP m9600t went on sale the day after I returned. HP is kind enough to give Google employees a 10% discount, so for $973.59, I configured a machine with the ATI Radeon 4850 (1GB), 4GB of RAM, and a DVD writer. I did not upgrade either the hard drive or the memory, since those were much cheaper if you bought them and installed them yourself.
If you want to go over every nook and cranny of the machine, there's a more thorough review elsewhere. I'm just going to summarize my impressions of this machine.
First of all, the inside of the machine is cramped! To install memory or to install a hard drive, you have to pull the drive cage out. The first time I opened up the machine to install the hard drive, I had no problems --- following the instructions the cage came right off --- and then I discovered that in their infinite wisdom, HP had not left me even a spare SATA cable, so I had to run out and buy one. Once I had one, I discovered that I had to cut the zip tie to the power cables so that I could extract one and use it for the new drive. Not having any spare zip ties sitting around, I left the wire loose and one of them got into the fan of the video card, which created a god-awful noise until I figured that out and moved the wire out of the way and zip tied the cables.
The second time I opened up the machine it was to install memory --- and this time I just could not for the life of me get the drive cage out. Fortunately, I have slim fingers and good manual dexterity, so I worked the DIMMs down below the drive cage and plugged them in with no problems. The resulting total cost was around $1300 when all said and done (including taxes, shipping, and everything). I even got to figure out how good their tech support was --- I had an intermittent fan noise from the video card for a bit, and was surprised to get their weekend support crew, which while it seemed was staffed by high school kids, they seemed to know what they were doing.
My first impression is that the machine is quiet! It's much quieter than my Infrant NAS box, and it only makes noise when it first spins up. I'm very impressed. Secondly, it is fast. In fact, at this point, I'm completely disk-bound except for generating large panoramas in Photoshop or HDR involving 5 or 6 RAW files. What I did discover was that 4GB was insufficient for running Lightroom and Photoshop together. Photoshop wants about 3.7GB of RAM, while Lightroom wants about 700MB. That makes 6GB comfortable (until you're dealing with 5 RAW files), and 8GB just enough. Purists will want to go for 12GB to make use of the triple channel RAM, but since we're not CPU bound anyway, there's no point going for more speed --- the next step really would be getting a striped disk array to reduce the delay from reads, or solid state disks (which realistically speaking, isn't cheap enough for what is essentially an accessory to my SLR!).
I plugged in two Dell 2407wfp monitors, and the result is I can view all the thumbnails on one monitor while doing photo manipulation in the other. The extra real-estate is very nice, and my work-flow is now relatively efficient.
Games: wow! This is the first time I've got a machine with a graphics card powerful enough to play most PC games, and I'm impressed. Now if only I had more time --- I could get some gaming in and get my photo editing done, but I guess that's going to have to wait. All this super duper compute power does come at a cost --- the machine dissipates about 127W while browsing the web, and about 206W (peaking to 220W) when crunching through photos with all 4 cores busy. Fortunately, I expect not to have to keep the machine on all the time once the initial backup to off-site storage is done.
All in all, I'm very pleased with this machine. I usually like to keep machines for 5-6 years, but had to upgrade earlier than expected this time because of digital photography. I don't expect to have to upgrade for another 5 years. I did have the usual people bugging me to get a Mac, but realistically, a quad core Mac starts at $2500, which doesn't come with the Radeon 4850 video card. I like the Mac Pro's case, but I don't like it so much that I'd be willing to pay $1300 for it. Realistically, the next time I get a PC, I'm just going to have to build it from components if I want a less cramped case with more room for drives (or better yet, hot-swappable drives). But that's 5 years away.
Interestingly enough, the HP m9600t went on sale the day after I returned. HP is kind enough to give Google employees a 10% discount, so for $973.59, I configured a machine with the ATI Radeon 4850 (1GB), 4GB of RAM, and a DVD writer. I did not upgrade either the hard drive or the memory, since those were much cheaper if you bought them and installed them yourself.
If you want to go over every nook and cranny of the machine, there's a more thorough review elsewhere. I'm just going to summarize my impressions of this machine.
First of all, the inside of the machine is cramped! To install memory or to install a hard drive, you have to pull the drive cage out. The first time I opened up the machine to install the hard drive, I had no problems --- following the instructions the cage came right off --- and then I discovered that in their infinite wisdom, HP had not left me even a spare SATA cable, so I had to run out and buy one. Once I had one, I discovered that I had to cut the zip tie to the power cables so that I could extract one and use it for the new drive. Not having any spare zip ties sitting around, I left the wire loose and one of them got into the fan of the video card, which created a god-awful noise until I figured that out and moved the wire out of the way and zip tied the cables.
The second time I opened up the machine it was to install memory --- and this time I just could not for the life of me get the drive cage out. Fortunately, I have slim fingers and good manual dexterity, so I worked the DIMMs down below the drive cage and plugged them in with no problems. The resulting total cost was around $1300 when all said and done (including taxes, shipping, and everything). I even got to figure out how good their tech support was --- I had an intermittent fan noise from the video card for a bit, and was surprised to get their weekend support crew, which while it seemed was staffed by high school kids, they seemed to know what they were doing.
My first impression is that the machine is quiet! It's much quieter than my Infrant NAS box, and it only makes noise when it first spins up. I'm very impressed. Secondly, it is fast. In fact, at this point, I'm completely disk-bound except for generating large panoramas in Photoshop or HDR involving 5 or 6 RAW files. What I did discover was that 4GB was insufficient for running Lightroom and Photoshop together. Photoshop wants about 3.7GB of RAM, while Lightroom wants about 700MB. That makes 6GB comfortable (until you're dealing with 5 RAW files), and 8GB just enough. Purists will want to go for 12GB to make use of the triple channel RAM, but since we're not CPU bound anyway, there's no point going for more speed --- the next step really would be getting a striped disk array to reduce the delay from reads, or solid state disks (which realistically speaking, isn't cheap enough for what is essentially an accessory to my SLR!).
I plugged in two Dell 2407wfp monitors, and the result is I can view all the thumbnails on one monitor while doing photo manipulation in the other. The extra real-estate is very nice, and my work-flow is now relatively efficient.
Games: wow! This is the first time I've got a machine with a graphics card powerful enough to play most PC games, and I'm impressed. Now if only I had more time --- I could get some gaming in and get my photo editing done, but I guess that's going to have to wait. All this super duper compute power does come at a cost --- the machine dissipates about 127W while browsing the web, and about 206W (peaking to 220W) when crunching through photos with all 4 cores busy. Fortunately, I expect not to have to keep the machine on all the time once the initial backup to off-site storage is done.
All in all, I'm very pleased with this machine. I usually like to keep machines for 5-6 years, but had to upgrade earlier than expected this time because of digital photography. I don't expect to have to upgrade for another 5 years. I did have the usual people bugging me to get a Mac, but realistically, a quad core Mac starts at $2500, which doesn't come with the Radeon 4850 video card. I like the Mac Pro's case, but I don't like it so much that I'd be willing to pay $1300 for it. Realistically, the next time I get a PC, I'm just going to have to build it from components if I want a less cramped case with more room for drives (or better yet, hot-swappable drives). But that's 5 years away.
The Promise of Sleep
(A hat-tip to Niniane Wang for loaning me The Promise of Sleep to read)
I was diagnosed with Sleep Apnea 3 years ago, yet it wasn't until last year that I managed to adapt somewhat to it by using CPAP therapy. The Promise of Sleep is ghost-written by William Dement, the person who opened the Stanford University Sleep Disorders Clinic, and who was the first person to document the various stages of sleep. Amongst other things, one of the big features of this book is that it mentions the names of some doctors I'd heard about and one I actually met!
The book covers very quickly the history of sleep research --- extremely valuable and told from a first-hand perspective of course. Then it jumps into our biological clock and the opponent-process model for why we feel sleepy at certain times of the day and not others, despite a large amount of sleep debt. It turns out that this leads to certain dangerous situations --- if you're a night person, you might be extremely awake at a party, but then when driving home you could doze off and crash your car and lose your life because of how this process works.
He then covers certain sleep orders that were discovered --- restless leg syndrome, sleep apnea, and insomnia. In particular, he recommends sleeping pills for insomnia, especially since he feels that building up a dangerous level of sleep debt is much worse than the possibility of any addiction to sleeping drugs (which are by and large quite safe nowadays).
Finally, he shows you how to apply these theories to every day life, jet-lag, napping, and the life cycle of a person's sleep (for instance, we sleep soundly and well as children, most people shift from being Owls to Larks in middle age).
I found myself enjoying the book, even the parts that I've read before, and would heartily recommend this book over Take A Nap and other shorter books. Thanks, Niniane!
I was diagnosed with Sleep Apnea 3 years ago, yet it wasn't until last year that I managed to adapt somewhat to it by using CPAP therapy. The Promise of Sleep is ghost-written by William Dement, the person who opened the Stanford University Sleep Disorders Clinic, and who was the first person to document the various stages of sleep. Amongst other things, one of the big features of this book is that it mentions the names of some doctors I'd heard about and one I actually met!
The book covers very quickly the history of sleep research --- extremely valuable and told from a first-hand perspective of course. Then it jumps into our biological clock and the opponent-process model for why we feel sleepy at certain times of the day and not others, despite a large amount of sleep debt. It turns out that this leads to certain dangerous situations --- if you're a night person, you might be extremely awake at a party, but then when driving home you could doze off and crash your car and lose your life because of how this process works.
He then covers certain sleep orders that were discovered --- restless leg syndrome, sleep apnea, and insomnia. In particular, he recommends sleeping pills for insomnia, especially since he feels that building up a dangerous level of sleep debt is much worse than the possibility of any addiction to sleeping drugs (which are by and large quite safe nowadays).
Finally, he shows you how to apply these theories to every day life, jet-lag, napping, and the life cycle of a person's sleep (for instance, we sleep soundly and well as children, most people shift from being Owls to Larks in middle age).
I found myself enjoying the book, even the parts that I've read before, and would heartily recommend this book over Take A Nap and other shorter books. Thanks, Niniane!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
The lifetime of bike parts
I broke another set of industry standard SKS mudguards yesterday, marking the second pair of SKS mudguards I've destroyed in 5 years. I'm generally sanguine about parts failing, since they do face a harsh environment, but I guess I have a few months before the next rainy season before I start thinking about getting Honjo fenders.
Over the years, I've collected through personal experience various expected life time for parts, so I'll summarize them here in order (from most frequently replaced to least frequently replaced):
Over the years, I've collected through personal experience various expected life time for parts, so I'll summarize them here in order (from most frequently replaced to least frequently replaced):
- Chains. These don't last more than about 2000 miles if you ride every day and don't keep them squeaky clean. If you keep them clean, you might get about 5000 miles out of them. The longest lasting chains are single speed chains on fully enclosed crank case bikes --- those will go about 10000 miles between replacements.
- Tires. Depending on how heavy you are, these can range from 1000 miles (28mm tires on my tandem) to 4000 miles (23mm tires back when I was running Michelin Hilite Comps). You can double their lifetime by starting new tires on the front and then rotating them to the back when the back is worn. (That's the recommended replacement procedure!)
- Bar-tape. These usually die every year or so.
- Deraileur cables. These don't last much more than 2 years or about 8000 miles. The inner wire usually frays from the end if you don't cap them, or snap in the shifter if you have bar-ends or STIs. Downtube shifters will give them longer life. By contrast, deraileur housing lasts almost forever. I've only replaced one due to rupture in about 15 years of active cycling.
- Brake pads. These are entirely dependent on weather conditions. On fair-weather bikes, you can run the same pads in California for a decade or more! For commute bikes, I replace them every 4 years or so, but if I was living in Germany or Seattle, I'd have to replace them every year. Heck, mountain biking in Seattle, I had to replace the brake pads every other ride!
- Chainrings. These last about 15000 miles in optimum conditions (tandem timing rings, which don't have any cross-chaining during their life), or 10000 miles in on a normal bike.
- Bottom bracket. Phil Wood sealed BBs are supposedly good for about 20000 miles. I once rode one for 40000 miles, but apparently you couldn't turn the spindle by hand after that if you removed the cranks. After last year's stint in Germany and France, though, I ended up with a BB that wasn't smooth after only 8000 miles. So much for 20000 miles...
- Cassettes. These go every 30,000 miles or so. If you don't replace your chain often, you can expect them to go earlier. The strange thing is that if you do replace your chain often, the failure mode isn't that they wear down --- the failure mode is that you break teeth in the sprockets! Very weird.
- Brooks saddles. On my singles, these have gone as much as 12 years. But on the tandem, they don't last more than about 5 years or so. That's because you don't stand up enough on a tandem so the leather gets soaked every hot ride.
- Seat posts. To be honest, I've never had to replace one in 15 years of riding, except for the carbon seatpost after only 3 years, which has scared me off carbon seatposts for a long time.
- Cantilever brakes. These have proven extremely unreliable for me. I've gone through 3 sets on about 8 years of active mountain biking, and they fall apart in weird ways, most of it having to do with the springs inside popping out. I don't think they should be spec'd on bikes.
- Deraileurs. The front ones don't seem to be good for more than about 5 years or so --- at least, until recently, that's how frequently I've been replacing them. Recent stuff seems to be getting better, so now I don't know. Rear deraileurs are good for about 60000 miles, with a pulley replacement every 20000 miles or so. I used to be able to say that I've never worn one out, until I sold a bike to Lea that she claimed had a worn out deraileur. In my defense, I never noticed a problem when I was riding the bike, but then I wasn't running 10-speed either, which has much closer tolerances than the 7 or 8-speed stuff I was running. According to an old-timer in my bike club, you used to have to replace rear deraileurs every 20,000 miles or so, until Shimano came along and started actually engineering the part!
- Cranks. Now we're getting into stuff I've never broken. My 17 year old bike still has a good crank. Now if you're big and strong you might expect to break one every 10 years or so, but the real answer is if you're that big and strong you should be examining your bike every year with an eye to seeing cracks in frames and stuff.
- Frames. For me at least, these don't go bad unless you get run-over by a car (and unfortunately, that's happened). Update: I've broken 2 Ti frames now. Ti frames seem to be very much subject to manufacturing defects.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Review: Chasm City
Chasm City (kindle edition) is Alastair Reynolds' second novel set in the Revelation Space universe. This is a standalone novel designed to be read in any order within the series. However and it would still make sense to have a good understanding of the Universe before proceeding so I still recommend reading his collection of short stories Galactic North. The novel centers around use former soldier known as Tanner Mirabel. We start off with a cinematic action sequence with Mirabel stalking someone for revenge, but ends up fighting for his survival.
Despite the title of the book, the novel is as much about Sky's Edge as it is about Yellowstone, the star system in which Chasm City exists. Through a series of dream sequences, we learn about Sky's Edge's founder, Sky Haussman, who turns out to be a thoroughly despicable character. Despite the misdirection, we figure out what the connection is between Mirabel and Haussman is by the middle of the novel, but the novel has us firmly in its grip by then and the urge to read on is compelling. What's more, Reynolds has yet another surprise up his sleeve, and while that one is tougher to figure out, it's not too hard for the reader to put two and two together.
The universe is realized very finely, and we learn about the origins of the Melding Plague, as well as the backstory behind Chasm City. The result is a deeper view into Reynolds' universe. At the end of the novel there's a little bit of redemption, and a hint as to what's coming in future novels.
Recommended for a plot that's interesting and fair (in that it's possible to unravel the mystery before the reveal), and a reasonable exposition. As usual, the characters are shallow and not that interesting in themselves, but that's a common fault for science fiction writers, who love their ideas more than they love their characters.
Despite the title of the book, the novel is as much about Sky's Edge as it is about Yellowstone, the star system in which Chasm City exists. Through a series of dream sequences, we learn about Sky's Edge's founder, Sky Haussman, who turns out to be a thoroughly despicable character. Despite the misdirection, we figure out what the connection is between Mirabel and Haussman is by the middle of the novel, but the novel has us firmly in its grip by then and the urge to read on is compelling. What's more, Reynolds has yet another surprise up his sleeve, and while that one is tougher to figure out, it's not too hard for the reader to put two and two together.
The universe is realized very finely, and we learn about the origins of the Melding Plague, as well as the backstory behind Chasm City. The result is a deeper view into Reynolds' universe. At the end of the novel there's a little bit of redemption, and a hint as to what's coming in future novels.
Recommended for a plot that's interesting and fair (in that it's possible to unravel the mystery before the reveal), and a reasonable exposition. As usual, the characters are shallow and not that interesting in themselves, but that's a common fault for science fiction writers, who love their ideas more than they love their characters.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Review: Tivax Digital TV Converter Box
Because I don't watch any TV, I never bothered with a cable subscription. A few years ago, Lisa indicated she wanted to watch PBS or NPR once in a while, so we bought an indoor amplified antenna (a pair of rabbit ears), and the signal was so bad that we immediately gave up and returned the antenna.
Thanks to the stimulus package, we applied for and received $40 coupons to buy a digital TV converter box, due to the impending switch-over to digital TV. Since the converter box would have been useless without an antenna, we also bought a matching amplified antenna. According to the Amazon reviews, this was a consumer's report choice, so I bought it. The total cost after coupons: $25.
The box is surprisingly small, about the size of an external 3.5" HDD. It comes with an IR remote, which inexplicably wouldn't teach my 4 year old Sony Universal Remote. It takes as input the RF cable from the antenna, and you have a choice of outputting to an RF cable to feed into the TV, or composite + audio cables on the TV. Since those slots were taken by a Wii, we opted for the RF cable. There's a selector that lets you choose between Channel 3 and Channel 4.
The device powers up slowly, but once it comes up is fairly easy to use. The responsiveness is slow --- it takes about a second between button pushes for each change to happen. The first thing to do was to take about 10 minutes to scan for digital TV signals. I was surprised at the number of digital TV channels it found! Then we started to see pictures. This was quite interesting because we had never seen TV so clear before! (Remember, we're on an ancient Sony analog TV!)
Then there was a few minutes of frustration as I tried to deal with a black box that filled the bottom 1/3rd of the screen. It turned out that we had close-captioning on, but set to an incompatible setting. A quick adjustment on the TV's menu fixed that. We took a look at the various channels, and checked the signal strength --- it was apparent that our input signal was mediocre at best, with only one of about 12 channels showing a strong signal. With the amplification on the indoor antenna turned down, we would get stuttering or a frozen picture, so the amplification was clearly necessary. But when watching TV, we saw no sign whatsoever that our signal was so attenuated --- clearly this digital stuff works!
I probably still won't watch much TV, but with $25 for a one time charge for the KQED, I guess this is not a bad deal, especially since we're unlikely to upgrade any time soon. This is literally the first time in 9 years we've had a working TV set in the house, so if you're like me, go apply for that coupon already!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Review: Stephenson Warmlite Tent
I first bought my Stephenson Warmlite tent 2 years ago. But I never did get around to using it because all my trips had not required a tent of the caliber. Here were the big features I got it for:
It took Lisa and I about half an hour to setup the tent the first time for seam sealing. Most of it was spent searching for the entry-way for the poles! Then it took us another hour or so to seal it, all the while sliding around on the slippery mylar that made up the inside of the tent, including the floor. Interestingly enough, in use, the slipperyness never became an issue, while we thought it would be a major issue unless the tent was perfectly flat.
Setting up the tent involves assembling the poles. These lightweight aluminum poles are so light that you are urged not to allow the cords to snap them together, as this could damage the structural integrity of it. It also doesn't take much to dent the tube, and I've already put a ding on mine, and consistent with all other dings I've ever had on bikes, I don't know how the ding got there. Then you find the pockets to slide the poles in. The first couple of times you do this, it's extremely hard to find the pockets, but if you're doing this every day it becomes extremely fast. The first few times we set it up, I didn't realize that you could put the entire pole into the tent, and had a bit sticking out, which looked funny. After a few times, the poles settled in and what we had looked much better. Finally, you stake down the tent ends (only 3 pegs required), and tension the cords and the tent raises itself up like magic.
Setup is extremely fast. So much so that even by myself, our tent was always the first up and the first down when doing the Overland Track. There really is nothing to it. I didn't know whether I wanted to believe this piece of marketing, but it really was true.
Once the tent is up, you have several options, depending on which tent you bought. We bought the version with 2 windows. You can either roll up the windows on the outside, granting maximum ventilation but no rain protection, or apply the corded pockets mentioned earlier to the loops at the end of the window, and use rocks or some other weight to stabilize the window covers to the side. This provides some ventilation, as well as rain shelter, but you better use heavy rocks or any kind of hard rain will cause the window to flap back into place. Finally, you can keep the windows zipped up if you're expecting snow or it's going to rain all night.
If you manage to get the ventilation right, this tent stays dry, but on our first test in California winter, it was too cold to keep the windows open, and we got condensation inside the tent. Stephenson would claim that we should just keep the windows open and dress appropriately. In the rain, despite having open windows, we still would get condensation in the tent, so I conclude that the marketing on condensation is just marketing, though Stephenson would probably say that we need to buy some of his vapor barrier clothing.
How robust is the tent? We used it for about 8 days in Australia and it stood up to that fine, except for the ding in the pole. We had strong wind one day, and a bit of rain for a few days here and there, but the one day we had a torrential downpour we chose to use a hut instead of camping out for an unrelated reason, so we did not get a chance to test it. It does feel extremely fragile, but I think it'll withstand regular use if you follow directions. And as for weight, no one had a lighter tent, no matter where we go, and folks were quite impressed by the large windows and the good ventilation as a result.
One big negative compared to our other tents was the lack of ceiling attachments --- it's impossible to attach a candle lantern to the inside of the tent. You have to use a floor lantern if you want light, or just wear a head lamp. You also can't hang wet clothing to dry or anything like that. On the other hand, the tent is so big that you can easily stick your packs in there.
How do I feel about this tent? Given the price, I'm not going to use it for car camping. I have other tents more appropriate than that. For a single person, I would investigate the use of a camping hammock. However, for a couple that's cycle touring or backpacking, this is probably as good a set of compromises as you can get. I'll call this a cautious recommendation --- it's worth the money, but it's not a no-brainer tent --- you really do have to treat it with care and respect.
- Weight: 3 pounds for a full size, 2 person tent
- Roomy: far bigger than any of our existing 2-person tent
- Quick setup (this was advertised, but I wasn't so sure about it)
It took Lisa and I about half an hour to setup the tent the first time for seam sealing. Most of it was spent searching for the entry-way for the poles! Then it took us another hour or so to seal it, all the while sliding around on the slippery mylar that made up the inside of the tent, including the floor. Interestingly enough, in use, the slipperyness never became an issue, while we thought it would be a major issue unless the tent was perfectly flat.
Setting up the tent involves assembling the poles. These lightweight aluminum poles are so light that you are urged not to allow the cords to snap them together, as this could damage the structural integrity of it. It also doesn't take much to dent the tube, and I've already put a ding on mine, and consistent with all other dings I've ever had on bikes, I don't know how the ding got there. Then you find the pockets to slide the poles in. The first couple of times you do this, it's extremely hard to find the pockets, but if you're doing this every day it becomes extremely fast. The first few times we set it up, I didn't realize that you could put the entire pole into the tent, and had a bit sticking out, which looked funny. After a few times, the poles settled in and what we had looked much better. Finally, you stake down the tent ends (only 3 pegs required), and tension the cords and the tent raises itself up like magic.
Setup is extremely fast. So much so that even by myself, our tent was always the first up and the first down when doing the Overland Track. There really is nothing to it. I didn't know whether I wanted to believe this piece of marketing, but it really was true.
Once the tent is up, you have several options, depending on which tent you bought. We bought the version with 2 windows. You can either roll up the windows on the outside, granting maximum ventilation but no rain protection, or apply the corded pockets mentioned earlier to the loops at the end of the window, and use rocks or some other weight to stabilize the window covers to the side. This provides some ventilation, as well as rain shelter, but you better use heavy rocks or any kind of hard rain will cause the window to flap back into place. Finally, you can keep the windows zipped up if you're expecting snow or it's going to rain all night.
If you manage to get the ventilation right, this tent stays dry, but on our first test in California winter, it was too cold to keep the windows open, and we got condensation inside the tent. Stephenson would claim that we should just keep the windows open and dress appropriately. In the rain, despite having open windows, we still would get condensation in the tent, so I conclude that the marketing on condensation is just marketing, though Stephenson would probably say that we need to buy some of his vapor barrier clothing.
How robust is the tent? We used it for about 8 days in Australia and it stood up to that fine, except for the ding in the pole. We had strong wind one day, and a bit of rain for a few days here and there, but the one day we had a torrential downpour we chose to use a hut instead of camping out for an unrelated reason, so we did not get a chance to test it. It does feel extremely fragile, but I think it'll withstand regular use if you follow directions. And as for weight, no one had a lighter tent, no matter where we go, and folks were quite impressed by the large windows and the good ventilation as a result.
One big negative compared to our other tents was the lack of ceiling attachments --- it's impossible to attach a candle lantern to the inside of the tent. You have to use a floor lantern if you want light, or just wear a head lamp. You also can't hang wet clothing to dry or anything like that. On the other hand, the tent is so big that you can easily stick your packs in there.
How do I feel about this tent? Given the price, I'm not going to use it for car camping. I have other tents more appropriate than that. For a single person, I would investigate the use of a camping hammock. However, for a couple that's cycle touring or backpacking, this is probably as good a set of compromises as you can get. I'll call this a cautious recommendation --- it's worth the money, but it's not a no-brainer tent --- you really do have to treat it with care and respect.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
The Out of Shape Ride
I hadn't been on a real bike ride for 2 months (since I was in Australia), but somehow the usual suspects I left behind at work claimed they were even more out of shape, so I announced an Out of Shape Ride. Joe Gross, Kekoa Proudfoot, Cynthia Wong, Lea Kissner, and Mike Samuel met me at the outfitter and we rolled off. I was so happy to be back in town that I had to pick all the random alternate backroutes to get to Old La Honda Road. Old La Honda Road is the standard climb around here, and Joe and I did it in about 38 minutes, about 13 minutes more than my best recorded time. Unfortulately took more than 3 minutes more to get up the hill, so I had to go back and do the climb over. ,After that climb, Joe, Kekoa, and Cynthia elected to descend 84 back into the Valley.
Lea and Mike went down with me on West Old La Honda road and when the view opened up we were impressed to see the hills around us, all lush and green, with road side poppies peppering the green with orange. In La Honda, we stopped at the Deli for some potato chips and water, and then I declared "Duck Pond!" "Duck Porn?" asked Lea. I had to spell it out for her before the miscommunication was resolved.
Then we wound around inside the Redwoods and ended up riding West Alpine on a not very cold day. Unfortunately, there was still quite a bit of haze, so we could not see Big Sur or Monterey Bay from the road. It was still stunningly pretty, though --- after all the desert I was seeing I was glad to see green. All in all, not a bad ride for a bunch of out of shape office workers: 52 miles, and 5000' of climb.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Australia Impressions
The best feature of Australia is Australians. Australians are funny, friendly, and the most welcoming people. I've lost count of the number of times we camped out in a campground and had a neighbor come by and greet us, say hi, or give us tips. Whether it's the climate, or because a large number of folks we meet are tourists, it's such an amazing experience. It's even institutionalized. Young people, for instance, can apply for a working holiday visa, where you can work (and minimum wage is $12.50/hour in Australia!) while on vacation for up to a year. There aren't too many other countries that are so generous to visitors!
As an old continent, I knew intellectually that Australia would be eroded and not have as many mountains, but that still did not prepare me for the emotional reaction I had when I visited. This is definitely a country where most of the features are off the coast, under the water. Australia is definitely a great place to visit for a SCUBA diver or a snorkeler. The water is nice, and the wildlife plentiful --- for this trip, the highlight was definitely the trip to Ningaloo Reef. What an amazing place.
I learned that one of the reasons why I enjoy my cycling trips, and why I enjoyed the coast to coast trek is the navigational challenge. At the time when I did the Coast to Coast, I was annoyed by how frequently I would get lost. It was only after doing the Tasmanian Overland Track that I realized that being led by the nose had never been the experience I was after in the outdoors, even if I had some nominal choice as to which side-trips I could choose to take!
What would I do differently on this trip? The big one would have been to plan to visit Ningaloo right from the start. That would have saved us some time and money! Secondly, rather than doing the Overland Track, I would have chosen to whitewater raft the Franklin/Gordon river system. While the Overland Track is nice, I don't think it actually offers anything that many other hiking trails in New Zealand, the U.S., or anywhere in Europe doesn't, while the wild rivers in Tasmania were really impressive. I would cut the amount of time spent in the Red Center to just 3-4 days rather than almost an entire week. While Kings Canyon is impressive, it really wasn't worth a whole day, and by the time we got to Alice Springs we were quite sick of desert. I don't expect to visit Bryce Canyon, or any of the desert U.S. parks either, after this visit to the desert.
All in all, however, this was definitely a trip of a lifetime.
As an old continent, I knew intellectually that Australia would be eroded and not have as many mountains, but that still did not prepare me for the emotional reaction I had when I visited. This is definitely a country where most of the features are off the coast, under the water. Australia is definitely a great place to visit for a SCUBA diver or a snorkeler. The water is nice, and the wildlife plentiful --- for this trip, the highlight was definitely the trip to Ningaloo Reef. What an amazing place.
I learned that one of the reasons why I enjoy my cycling trips, and why I enjoyed the coast to coast trek is the navigational challenge. At the time when I did the Coast to Coast, I was annoyed by how frequently I would get lost. It was only after doing the Tasmanian Overland Track that I realized that being led by the nose had never been the experience I was after in the outdoors, even if I had some nominal choice as to which side-trips I could choose to take!
What would I do differently on this trip? The big one would have been to plan to visit Ningaloo right from the start. That would have saved us some time and money! Secondly, rather than doing the Overland Track, I would have chosen to whitewater raft the Franklin/Gordon river system. While the Overland Track is nice, I don't think it actually offers anything that many other hiking trails in New Zealand, the U.S., or anywhere in Europe doesn't, while the wild rivers in Tasmania were really impressive. I would cut the amount of time spent in the Red Center to just 3-4 days rather than almost an entire week. While Kings Canyon is impressive, it really wasn't worth a whole day, and by the time we got to Alice Springs we were quite sick of desert. I don't expect to visit Bryce Canyon, or any of the desert U.S. parks either, after this visit to the desert.
All in all, however, this was definitely a trip of a lifetime.
Australia Index
This is the consolidated Australia related trip index and report. The photos are still being processed and worked on (hopefully it'll go much faster when the new machine arrives). I'll also try to update the text-heavy pages with photos as well.
- Sydney
- Sydney (Part II)
- Sydney (Part III)
- The Blue Mountains
- The Blue Mountains (Part II)
- The Jenolan Caves
- The Spirit of Freedom
- The Atherton Tablelands
- Melbourne
- Tasmania
- Tasmania (Part II)
- The Tasmanian Overland Track
- Tasmania (Part IV)
- The Great Ocean Road
- Perth
- The Margaret River Area
- Ningaloo Reef
- The Red Center
- Conclusion: Australia Impressions
- Australia: A Photo Journey
- Equipment Review: Stephenson Warmlite Tent
Thursday, March 26, 2009
New Computer
I was a foregone conclusion that by buying a Canon 5D Mk II I was going to have to get a new PC --- my 3 year old Mac Mini just couldn't run Adobe Lightroom with any degree of interactivity, and after playing with Lightroom a bit, I decided that was the software I was going to process serious photography with. I did decide to put off buying a machine until I had a significant amount of photos to process, however.
We came back from Australia, with 92GB of photographs, so now a new machine was inevitable.
Shopping around, I discovered that the lowest end machines with quad core processors (which Lightroom and Photoshop are designed to use --- to the point where if you have a dual core box and run lightroom, one of the cores just gets pegged doing apparently nothing!) are Dells, running around $600 at Dell's refurbished outlet store. The big issue with these machines is the video card. To upgrade to a video card that can dual-head, I'd have to upgrade the power supply and the video cards, which was a pain and wouldn't save very much money.
So to my surprise, the cheapest quad core machine I could get with a decent video card turned out to be HP's m9600t, which with an EPP discount came up to about $974 with a Radeon 4850 1GB video card. Dual-head wasn't something I thought about at first, but it is nice to be able to plug in either a second monitor or go with a 30" screen. The amount of memory wasn't ideal (4GB), and neither was the disk (500GB), but both are easy to add, and the machine came with Intel's latest Core i7 processor.
And no, the Mac Pro wasn't even a consideration. At $2500 even an EPP discount won't get it down to twice what the HP costs. I've long come to the conclusion that Mac fans just have a lot of money, which I guess, is what Apple counts on!
[Update: Too late for me this round, but I found another well-reviewed site, CyberPower, which sells customized, water-cooled PCs for about the same price as the HP I got with the employee discount (sans OS). It's more or less the same deal, but having a bigger power supply and water cooling does give you a bit more headroom. A reference for next time I have to buy a PC.]
We came back from Australia, with 92GB of photographs, so now a new machine was inevitable.
Shopping around, I discovered that the lowest end machines with quad core processors (which Lightroom and Photoshop are designed to use --- to the point where if you have a dual core box and run lightroom, one of the cores just gets pegged doing apparently nothing!) are Dells, running around $600 at Dell's refurbished outlet store. The big issue with these machines is the video card. To upgrade to a video card that can dual-head, I'd have to upgrade the power supply and the video cards, which was a pain and wouldn't save very much money.
So to my surprise, the cheapest quad core machine I could get with a decent video card turned out to be HP's m9600t, which with an EPP discount came up to about $974 with a Radeon 4850 1GB video card. Dual-head wasn't something I thought about at first, but it is nice to be able to plug in either a second monitor or go with a 30" screen. The amount of memory wasn't ideal (4GB), and neither was the disk (500GB), but both are easy to add, and the machine came with Intel's latest Core i7 processor.
And no, the Mac Pro wasn't even a consideration. At $2500 even an EPP discount won't get it down to twice what the HP costs. I've long come to the conclusion that Mac fans just have a lot of money, which I guess, is what Apple counts on!
[Update: Too late for me this round, but I found another well-reviewed site, CyberPower, which sells customized, water-cooled PCs for about the same price as the HP I got with the employee discount (sans OS). It's more or less the same deal, but having a bigger power supply and water cooling does give you a bit more headroom. A reference for next time I have to buy a PC.]
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Review: Galactic North
Galactic North (kindle edition
) is Alastair Reynolds' collection of short stories about the Revelation Space universe. Sorted in roughly chronological order, the stories range from the founding of the Conjoiner sub-race of humanity, to the far future where intelligent races have to flee the Milky Way because of a mistake made by two people.
Every one of the stories is excellent and worth the time. Many of them are quite haunting, including one in which the secrets of the Conjoiner light-hugger drives are revealed. Others seem a bit love-craftian, which isn't really a bad thing. Ironically, the story I liked the least is the last one, Galactic North.
All of the issues that I have with Reynolds' first novel are gone in the short stories --- in a short story, the plot trumps characterization, and the ideas trump all, and Reynolds proves himself as the master of both, over and over. Highly recommended, and in fact, this is probably the best introduction to Reynolds' universe.
) is Alastair Reynolds' collection of short stories about the Revelation Space universe. Sorted in roughly chronological order, the stories range from the founding of the Conjoiner sub-race of humanity, to the far future where intelligent races have to flee the Milky Way because of a mistake made by two people.Every one of the stories is excellent and worth the time. Many of them are quite haunting, including one in which the secrets of the Conjoiner light-hugger drives are revealed. Others seem a bit love-craftian, which isn't really a bad thing. Ironically, the story I liked the least is the last one, Galactic North.
All of the issues that I have with Reynolds' first novel are gone in the short stories --- in a short story, the plot trumps characterization, and the ideas trump all, and Reynolds proves himself as the master of both, over and over. Highly recommended, and in fact, this is probably the best introduction to Reynolds' universe.
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