Ever since I bought my Kindle in March, every time I saw a book I wanted that wasn't on the Kindle but was on the dead trees, I'd send e-mail to the publishers and authors to try to get them to put it on the Kindle.
From April through June, I mostly got no reply, or Thank you for your feedback type automated responses. Authors have mostly said things like, "I have no control over it --- the publisher makes the decision." Then recently, the replies have started changing to, "We're working on it. In fact, we're working on our entire back-list and bringing it up soon. Stay in touch."
Is this a sign that the Kindle is tipping the publishing industry? I hope so. I would especially love to have travel guides on the Kindle.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Review: The Best of the Year: Science Fiction 2007 Edition
I got sent a 10% off coupon for the electronic edition of Rich Horton's 2008 Anthology (dead tree edition), and with the discount couldn't resist, especially after I noticed that 3 of the stories in it won a Hugo, and the stories in it pre-dated my subscription to Asimov's Science Fiction magazine (dead tree edition).
All in all, this is a pretty good collection, though there were perhaps way too many stories about religion for it to be completely my taste. The best story sits near the end of the book, Robert Reed's A Billion Eves, a haunting parallel universe tale with a twist. Robert Charles Wilson weighed in with an excellent thriller, The Cartesian Theater, and Water Jon William's Incarnation Day was similarly excellent. Ian Watson's take on reincarnation, Saving for a Sunny Day was also of note.
Strangely enough, the Hugo winner, Okanoggan Falls left me cold. Nevertheless, I got full value for my money, and if not for the fact that my Asimov's subscription will probably make buying next year's collection redundant, I'd be buying it as soon as it came out. In fact, anthologies like this will make me rethink my subscription to science fiction magazines --- it's definitely much more cost effective to buy collections than to subscribe, especially with the ridiculous prices magazines seem to want to charge for the electronic subscriptions --- I can get Asimov's for $18 a year from Mags4Cheap, so why not give me the same price for the electronic versions?
All in all, this is a pretty good collection, though there were perhaps way too many stories about religion for it to be completely my taste. The best story sits near the end of the book, Robert Reed's A Billion Eves, a haunting parallel universe tale with a twist. Robert Charles Wilson weighed in with an excellent thriller, The Cartesian Theater, and Water Jon William's Incarnation Day was similarly excellent. Ian Watson's take on reincarnation, Saving for a Sunny Day was also of note.
Strangely enough, the Hugo winner, Okanoggan Falls left me cold. Nevertheless, I got full value for my money, and if not for the fact that my Asimov's subscription will probably make buying next year's collection redundant, I'd be buying it as soon as it came out. In fact, anthologies like this will make me rethink my subscription to science fiction magazines --- it's definitely much more cost effective to buy collections than to subscribe, especially with the ridiculous prices magazines seem to want to charge for the electronic subscriptions --- I can get Asimov's for $18 a year from Mags4Cheap, so why not give me the same price for the electronic versions?
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Kindle Battery life
I was wondering why my Kindle didn't have the kind of battery life that others reported. Well, it turns out that others have similar issues, and someone came up with a really plausible theory:
I called Amazon to ask if the Kindle indexes while it is in sleep mode, which it does do, and currently I have a theory that because when I first got my Kindle I through my SD card with 100+ books in it, that everytime I've slept it so far on battery, it goes NUTS trying to catch up indexing, hence my dead battery way too fast.
Given that I'm reading at a high rate, and swap books in and out of the Kindle on a regular basis, I'm guessing that the indexing is indeed the source of my Kindle battery life problem. My brother had similar problems when he first got his Kindle and left it in sleep mode in a backpack with a freshly loaded Kindle. Now I just have to find the hidden switch to turn indexing on or off. In any case, I'm guessing that leaving the charger home isn't something that I'll do for all but the shortest trips.
I called Amazon to ask if the Kindle indexes while it is in sleep mode, which it does do, and currently I have a theory that because when I first got my Kindle I through my SD card with 100+ books in it, that everytime I've slept it so far on battery, it goes NUTS trying to catch up indexing, hence my dead battery way too fast.
Given that I'm reading at a high rate, and swap books in and out of the Kindle on a regular basis, I'm guessing that the indexing is indeed the source of my Kindle battery life problem. My brother had similar problems when he first got his Kindle and left it in sleep mode in a backpack with a freshly loaded Kindle. Now I just have to find the hidden switch to turn indexing on or off. In any case, I'm guessing that leaving the charger home isn't something that I'll do for all but the shortest trips.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Thoughts on Financial Planning
I recently had occasion to discuss financial planning with several folks with a variety of backgrounds and interests. And it's really interesting to me how challenging financial planning is:
Will, for example, small U.S. investors become ever more involved in the capital markets? This is largely a political question, dependent on whether the electorate ever wakes up to the mess of IRA/defined contribution pottage sold to them by the libertarian right. Over the past few decades, it has become apparent to even the most enthusiastic proponents of private accounts that most plan participants are about as qualified to manage their retirement portfolios as they are to do brain surgery or play left wing for the Rangers. Some autonomy needs to be stripped from them by mandating default opt-ins, lifecycle funds, annuitization, and so forth. Would it not be better simply to throw in the towel, throw out Wall Street, and establish a national pension system? Most Europeans, when they gaze upon our retirement system (and our health care system as well), laugh themselves silly.
In short, the typical person is as qualified to be his own financial planner as he is to be his own plumber (myself included). Unfortunately, unlike plumbers, where it is quite possible to find an honest and competent plumber in nearly every town, the existence of competent and honest financial planners is all but myth. That's why I ultimately end up doing all of it myself. In my travels, I find myself meeting lots of retired Americans --- almost all of them (a surprising number of them former teachers) are beneficiaries of the defined benefit system which has been phased out in recent years. I wonder if my generation will be able to travel as extensively as those whom I have met at the same age.
- Several folks had all the recommended books on their book shelves (Four Pillars of Investing[kindle edition], Random Walk Down Wall Street[kindle edition]), but had either not read them, or not understood them.
- Several folks understood what the right thing to do was, but just simply didn't do them. The discipline to execute is in fact one of the reasons why some people need a financial advisor, even if they're intellectually capable of understanding the fundamentals
- Being smart can just as easily work against you --- smart people have a tendency to want to second-guess the market. That usually works against you because there are just as many other smart people trying to do this as well, so they all cancel out and you end up not getting a good result either.
- Costs really matter. In many countries (in particular European countries), the financial markets are so under-developed that brokerage commissions are high, and costs are high. What I'm finding is that in Europe most people don't trust the stock markets, and turn to real estate to finance their retirements, along with all the hassle that entails.
- Finally, financial planning is hard because returns are measured by decades, not months or even years. This makes all the usual methods of learning (do something, see if it works, and do more if it does) fail --- the kind of discipline and devotion to learning from history that this requires ensures that there are very few Warren Buffets out there, and that you're unlikely to be one of them. It also leads to the kind of retirement planning disasters described in Nudge.
Will, for example, small U.S. investors become ever more involved in the capital markets? This is largely a political question, dependent on whether the electorate ever wakes up to the mess of IRA/defined contribution pottage sold to them by the libertarian right. Over the past few decades, it has become apparent to even the most enthusiastic proponents of private accounts that most plan participants are about as qualified to manage their retirement portfolios as they are to do brain surgery or play left wing for the Rangers. Some autonomy needs to be stripped from them by mandating default opt-ins, lifecycle funds, annuitization, and so forth. Would it not be better simply to throw in the towel, throw out Wall Street, and establish a national pension system? Most Europeans, when they gaze upon our retirement system (and our health care system as well), laugh themselves silly.
In short, the typical person is as qualified to be his own financial planner as he is to be his own plumber (myself included). Unfortunately, unlike plumbers, where it is quite possible to find an honest and competent plumber in nearly every town, the existence of competent and honest financial planners is all but myth. That's why I ultimately end up doing all of it myself. In my travels, I find myself meeting lots of retired Americans --- almost all of them (a surprising number of them former teachers) are beneficiaries of the defined benefit system which has been phased out in recent years. I wonder if my generation will be able to travel as extensively as those whom I have met at the same age.
Review: Value Averaging
Value Averaging (Kindle Edition) comes highly recommended by none other than William Bernstein, the master of asset allocation himself.
This short book is incredibly dense reading. The concept of value averaging itself is simple: rather than buying a constant dollar amount of shares on a regular basis (dollar-cost averaging), what you do is to chart out a projected progression of your portfolio over time, and on a regular basis, add money or sell shares to match the charted progression. The result is a disciplined buying strategy that buys more stocks when the price is low, and sells them when the price is high.
If that was all, you wouldn't be paying even the Kindle-discounted $10 to buy this book. There are several complications. First of all, over time, your portfolio should grow --- if all you're doing is saving a fixed amount of money over each interval, then the adjustments you can make with that fixed sum eventually gets swamped by the portfolio growth itself. So you'll have to also adjust your savings by the projected growth (unfortunately, if your income doesn't grow as your portfolio grows, you might be in a bit of a bind in this regards).
Secondly, there are tax implications --- the required selling in a taxable account might trigger capital gains which reduce the efficacy of this approach. Depending on the current capital gains rate, this could complicate implementation.
Finally, if you are saving (and investing) for a particular goal, you might need to adjust your savings rate as the market movements move you closer or further away from your goal --- at the very least in the last few years of your goal you might wish to go to more bonds to reduce the risk of a sudden market collapse preventing you from achieving your goals.
To its credit, the book covers all these details and more. Just as importantly, it provides the spreadsheets by which you can do your computation online for easy downoad.
There are a few problems that I can see with this approach: first of all, this sort of formula investing requires you to provide (in the spreadsheet, if not elsewhere) a projected investment return over the period of savings --- being off in that adjustment can result in dramatic under-saving. Secondly, for someone who's building a portfolio and have no idea of what their future income will be (most people fall into this category), I don't see how this kind of planning can be achieved.
Finally, once you get to your goal (say, your magic number for retirement), there's no guidance as to what you should do now. (Note that there are other resources that help you with this, so that's less of a problem with this book)
People who should read this book:
This short book is incredibly dense reading. The concept of value averaging itself is simple: rather than buying a constant dollar amount of shares on a regular basis (dollar-cost averaging), what you do is to chart out a projected progression of your portfolio over time, and on a regular basis, add money or sell shares to match the charted progression. The result is a disciplined buying strategy that buys more stocks when the price is low, and sells them when the price is high.
If that was all, you wouldn't be paying even the Kindle-discounted $10 to buy this book. There are several complications. First of all, over time, your portfolio should grow --- if all you're doing is saving a fixed amount of money over each interval, then the adjustments you can make with that fixed sum eventually gets swamped by the portfolio growth itself. So you'll have to also adjust your savings by the projected growth (unfortunately, if your income doesn't grow as your portfolio grows, you might be in a bit of a bind in this regards).
Secondly, there are tax implications --- the required selling in a taxable account might trigger capital gains which reduce the efficacy of this approach. Depending on the current capital gains rate, this could complicate implementation.
Finally, if you are saving (and investing) for a particular goal, you might need to adjust your savings rate as the market movements move you closer or further away from your goal --- at the very least in the last few years of your goal you might wish to go to more bonds to reduce the risk of a sudden market collapse preventing you from achieving your goals.
To its credit, the book covers all these details and more. Just as importantly, it provides the spreadsheets by which you can do your computation online for easy downoad.
There are a few problems that I can see with this approach: first of all, this sort of formula investing requires you to provide (in the spreadsheet, if not elsewhere) a projected investment return over the period of savings --- being off in that adjustment can result in dramatic under-saving. Secondly, for someone who's building a portfolio and have no idea of what their future income will be (most people fall into this category), I don't see how this kind of planning can be achieved.
Finally, once you get to your goal (say, your magic number for retirement), there's no guidance as to what you should do now. (Note that there are other resources that help you with this, so that's less of a problem with this book)
People who should read this book:
- Fresh graduates and people building portfolios over a long period for a specific goal, if they can articulate such goals (college savings, etc)
- Those with relatively stable income who have their act together enough to be able to work on these spreadsheets
- Those with a lump-sum investment who find themselves paralyzed because they fear buying into a market at a peak (there's been a number of my colleagues who've fallen into this category --- I recommend this book to them)
- Setting a portfolio allocation
- Deciding what appropriate goals should be
- Keeping you disciplined enough to take the buy low/sell high approach that value averaging will naturally ask you to do.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Lauterbrunnen Trip
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| Lauterbrun |
I think I'm in danger of becoming a Euro-phile. We took a short 5 day trip to Lauterbrunnen Valley, for some hiking and sight-seeing, and I have to say, it's got to be the prettiest place I've seen for some time. In fact, in the US, I can only think of Grand Teton National Park or Glacier/Waterton Lakes National Park that's as pretty, and neither of those places have the infrastructure to support such a variety of activities.
Day 1: This was a transit day, for us to catch the train from Munich to Zurich, a transfer to Lucerne, a panoramic train to Interlaken Ost, and then a short hop to Lauterbrunnen. The scenic train was indeed beautiful --- there were faster connections but this was worth the two hours. After getting onto the Lauterbrunnen train, I realized that this was one of the trains that split in two, with one half going to Grindelwald and the other to Lauterbrunnen. At Wildersil, I stepped outside for a moment to see if there were any indicators as whether we were on the right track, but saw no sign. So I stepped back onto the train to ask another passenger. Lisa, unfortunately, decided that she would try to help me after I'd done that, and of course, after she stepped out the train took off, with me on it and her at the station. (Don't ask me why she thought it was a good idea to leave our luggage unattended) Well, there was nothing for me to do but to go on, and for her to stay. Once in Lauterbrunnen, I checked in at Hotel Staubbach, read a bit, and then went to the train station to pick Lisa up --- when the train came in an hour later. We got into the hotel just as a storm kicked in, complete with thunder and lightning.
Day 2: We got up for a scrumptious meal at the hotel, and went out to walk up to the Staubbach fall. The trail at the bottom of the fall goes up into a tunnel and then emerges behind the fall. I arrived here on last year's tour of the alps, and was pleased to see that it had lost none of its power to please me. The hotel staff recommended that we also see the Trummelbach falls, so after we packed up our stuff and checked out (leaving our stuff in the hotel's storage), we rented a couple of mountain bikes and took off towards Trummelbach falls. Trummelbach falls is a series of cascades inside a mountain that has been carved out with an elevator installed so visitors can view what the cascades look like on the inside. It's a tourist trap, but what a tourist trap! The views of the cascades are stunning, and the feeling of being in a canyon in many places are just too much.
After that, we rode around the valley, getting caught in rain after 3 hours were up, and returned to the hotel, where the staff were happy to lend us towels to dry off. Then we returned the bikes, ate lunch, and headed to the cable car station to head up to Murren, our home for the next 3 nights. Switzerland is expensive, and one never knows how expensive it is until confronted with the fare prices for trains and cable cars. There was a dizzying array of options --- we could buy tickets a la carte, buy a 6 day pass for all the transport on the Murren side of the mountains, buy a 6 day pass for all the transport in the region that gave a discount on some days but not others, and a discount on some routes but free travel on others, or a 14 day pass that had similar characteristics. After some evaluation, I decided on the 6 day pass for the Murren side of the valley, reasoning that one trip to Schilthorn was 100CHF, and getting to Murren and back was another 20CHF, so this was the one for us. (The other passes did not grant Schilthorn for free)
So up the cable car we went, which granted us great views of Wengen on the other side of the valley. It didn't look big to us a the time, but as we got used to the size of Murren and Gimmelwald, we would come to think of Wengen as the big town. The cable car ride wasn't that interesting, but the mountain train on the top that connected the car to Murren was stunning. Views loomed out at us as the train drove along the ridge at 30kph, giving us beautiful views. I shot picture after picture on my camera.
When we arrived at Murren, I looked at my map and realized that I had no clue where the Chalet Fontana was. By asking around, we eventually got to the vicinity, but I still walked past it once before finding it right across the street from the one supermarket in town. We got ourselves unpacked, Lisa took a nap, and then we headed out to Almendhubel for our first hike.
We got onto the Almendhubel funicular railway, which was quite an experience --- rather than a rail that climbed up and down via cogs, this was a rail that was pulled up with a cable. At the top, we saw a good view of the mountains and the strangest path I'd ever seen --- but the sign explained that this was a foot massage --- letting your feet experience different textures before giving them a good soaking. We then set out on the so-called Flower trail. However, before we even got half a mile in, it started pouring pretty hard, so Lisa made the call to head back down to Murren. We got back just as the rain stopped, in time for dinner at the Hotel Bellevue, where we both had the Rosti.
Day 3: The forecast for the day was good, so I planned to do a longer hike --- from Almendhubel to Birg, and there by cable car to Schilthorn, where hopefully we'd get good views. Taking full advantage of our holiday pass, we took the funicular again to Almendhubel, and got started up the steep path to the ski areas. A fog rolled in, however, so we only got a few views here and there. It was pretty in a desolate, snowy mountain kind of way. By the time we got to the Schilthorn Hutte, it had gotten quite chilly and I started to wonder if the fog would ever clear up. But as we had a snack there, the sun peeked out and we were once again motivated to climb the last 200m to Birg. The path to Birg was snow-ridden, and on running shoes, it wasn't the greatest but we both made it.
By the time we got to Schilthorn, we were quite hungry and immediately headed for the restaurant. I once again got sticker shock by prices in Switzerland, but by the middle of lunch the fog lifted a bit and we were stunned by the views. You do get what you pay for --- the views of the Eiger, the Monch, and the Jungfrau were nothing short of amazing. We finished lunch quickly and went outside for a few pictures before the fog rolled in again.
Using the cable car to get back to Murren, I noticed it was still only 3:00pm. So after Lisa got her requisite afternoon nap, we took the funicular once again to Almendhubel and headed down the Mountain View trail. The views lower on the mountain were actually even prettier --- wild flowers greeted us everywhere, and there was another view of the ranges every corner. It was even prettier than the Lakes district as I saw it in 2006.
By the time we got done with the hike, it was just 10 minutes before the 6:33 mountain train. The views from the train was even better than the day before, and we ate dinner outside in a restaurant that had a beautiful view of the mountains. After dinner, a lovely alpenglow set in, and I regretted for the 30th time not having a tripod, SLR, and ND grad. filters with me.
Day 4: Today, we decided to do the North Face trail, as recommended by Denise, who owned the Chalet Fontana. We took the train up the Almendhubel again, and headed along the North Face trail. At this point, I'm out of words to describe natural beauty. The surroundings were nothing short of amazing. After a while, we found the trail pointing us to Spurtz, which was a mountain fall where the hiking trail went right behind the falls. We sat there eating chocolate, contemplating the beauty and isolation of it all --- the whole time we were there, we saw no one else!
With the weather so fine, by the time we got to Gimmelwald, we knew we had to go up to the Schilthorn again. And this time we were right --- we could see all around us --- the Thunersee, every ridge (and there were plaques telling us which mountain was which), every glacier, and every detail. The visibility was outstanding. We spent some time walking around as well, and spotted what looked like a gorgeous ridge walk on the way down from Birg. We knew that we wouldn't have time to do this, but it's good to have something to spur us for another visit some time.
I went for a swim while Lisa taught some QiGong to a friend she had met the day before. Dinner was at the Hotel Alpina.
Day 4: Our train wasn't until 2:33pm, so we left at 9:30 to hike down to the valley bottom, leaving our gear in the Chalet Fontana. This 1.5 hour hike didn't take long, but wasn't as pretty as the other hikes we had been on. By the time we reached the bottom, it started raining, and we had a very wet walk to the cable car. Getting back to Murren, we decided to eat at the Almundhubel restaurant, which Lisa had found out was the best restaurant in the area. The food turned out to be fine, but the menu was limited. We then got changed, and hopped onto the mountain train home.
Things to watch out for: Chalet Fontana is very well priced, but Gimmelwald might be a nicer stay because of its quieter nature. Murren is quite expensive and Chalet Fontana doesn't quite give you the European experience because it was mentioned by Rick Steve's Switzerland Guide --- as a result, the place is full of Americans and British folks. What Rick Steves doesn't tell you is that headroom is a problem. Even though Lisa was only 5' 2.5", she kept hitting her head in what was sold to us as the biggest room in the house (it did have room for 3). As a matter of fact, there is only one room in the house that I wouldn't be constantly hitting my head on. So be warned. Now that I've been there in early July, I can say that there's probably other lodging just as cheap and in quieter areas. The cheapest way to approach this would be probably to rent an apartment for a week. That way you can cook and don't have to deal with the amazingly high Swiss restaurant prices.
Despite all these complaints, this was an amazing trip. In fact, after this trip, I wonder why I bother visiting American National parks --- sure you see more wildlife, but in exchange you have to drive a lot (or camp out). The Lauterbrunnen valley is prettier than Yosemite valley by far. I've seen more waterfalls in those 5 days than in 10 years of visiting Yosemite, and the Lauterbrunnen falls are better. So save your money, grit your teeth with the air travel and the European exchange rates, and go. Lauterbrunnen is worth every penny, and if you wait too long the American dollar will be too worthless to be of use in Switzerland anyway.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Review: Fantasy - The Best of the Year 2006
I bought this fantasy collection (kindle compatible edition)after thoroughly enjoying Rich Horton's 2006 Science Fiction collection. It took me much longer to read this book than the science fiction counterpart because I didn't like a number of stories in it, which made certain stories slow going. That said, there were a few gems in it. My personal favorite was Peter Beagle's Two Hearts, a sequel to his beautiful The Last Unicorn, and just as beautifully written --- a tale about how a hero would age and the attempts of his friends to revive him.
Neil Gaiman's Sunbird was also worth reading, as was Pat Cadigan's story about a recovering vampire, Is there Life After Rehab?. The closing piece, a Jack Vance tribute by Matthew Hughes, was also entertaining. A number of pieces left me cold, however, namely Steve Tem's and Marc Laidlaw's stories.
All in all, while not a waste of money (it's cheaper to buy these anthologies than to subscribe to the paper magazines they draw their material from), not as good a value as the science fiction equivalent. Mildly recommended. I'll probably buy the 2007 editions next.
Neil Gaiman's Sunbird was also worth reading, as was Pat Cadigan's story about a recovering vampire, Is there Life After Rehab?. The closing piece, a Jack Vance tribute by Matthew Hughes, was also entertaining. A number of pieces left me cold, however, namely Steve Tem's and Marc Laidlaw's stories.
All in all, while not a waste of money (it's cheaper to buy these anthologies than to subscribe to the paper magazines they draw their material from), not as good a value as the science fiction equivalent. Mildly recommended. I'll probably buy the 2007 editions next.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Review: Book of Lost Things
This short book (kindle edition) runs on a familiar theme: a young boy loses his mother to a deadly disease, and then misses her horribly. One night, he hears her calling to him, and following her voice, finds himself in a magic fairy-tale land, and proceeds on a quest to rescue her.
The novel covers a lot of traditional fairy tales, putting entertaining twists on many of them, and perhaps covering a bit of cliched ground. Connolly manages to grant a fresh view on my fairy tales without necessarily spoiling them (though I am getting tired of the riddling troll bridges, but it was used in a way to orient the reader so I can forgive it).
Even the plot isn't as cliched as one might initially think, because the quests and stories used are quickly discarded, and the ending is appropriate, without even a hint of Deus Ex Machina. My big complaint is that the book is too short and hence a quick read (it lasted perhaps half a long train trip). Recommended for a good change of pace from the usual kid lost in a fairy tale land story.
The novel covers a lot of traditional fairy tales, putting entertaining twists on many of them, and perhaps covering a bit of cliched ground. Connolly manages to grant a fresh view on my fairy tales without necessarily spoiling them (though I am getting tired of the riddling troll bridges, but it was used in a way to orient the reader so I can forgive it).
Even the plot isn't as cliched as one might initially think, because the quests and stories used are quickly discarded, and the ending is appropriate, without even a hint of Deus Ex Machina. My big complaint is that the book is too short and hence a quick read (it lasted perhaps half a long train trip). Recommended for a good change of pace from the usual kid lost in a fairy tale land story.
Review: Saturn's Children
This is Charlie Stross' first novel to come out both in the kindle format simultaneous with the hardcover, so I immediately bought it to show my support (that and I like Stross' prior works). This short novel is about a post-human society. Yes, a science fiction novel where humans have become extinct while leaving behind a detritus of robots and other automatons searching for their destiny.
The narrator and viewpoint character is Freya, a sexbot who was instantiated long after the last human has died off. She offends a high ranking (aristo) bot and is forced to flee the system and take on a new persona --- that of a spy and courier. Circumstances force her to insert the soul chip of a sibling named Juliette into one of her slots, which starts to give Freya dreams based on Juliette's life. The plot deepens when she discovers (through Juliette) that her line of bots can be upgraded to become assassins and spies, and things get complicated from there.
Stross has managed to work out many of the interesting details behind a robot-only society (especially one that was built to serve man at the deep fundamental level). For instance, from a bot point of view, creationism is the correct "religion." Late in the book, this passage arises which I found really funny:
"This is our fruit garden. Fruits are the fertilized reproductive organs of the plants you see all around us --- often one tree would bear both male and female flowers, so our Creators, being largely fruitivorous, subsisted on a diet rich in hermaphrodite genitalia..."
Because of the energy requirements of interplanetary (and interstellar) travel, later generations of interplanetary traveling bots would be smaller and lighter, making sexbot models like Freya Ogres by comparison.
The big weakness of the novel is that the ending feels rushed, where the reveals all cascade together, making it tough to keep track of what's going on. The ending does seem a little pat, with poetic justice all around, but that's a slight fault.
Recommended as light airplane reading --- it flows smoothly and isn't as dense as Glasshouse.
The narrator and viewpoint character is Freya, a sexbot who was instantiated long after the last human has died off. She offends a high ranking (aristo) bot and is forced to flee the system and take on a new persona --- that of a spy and courier. Circumstances force her to insert the soul chip of a sibling named Juliette into one of her slots, which starts to give Freya dreams based on Juliette's life. The plot deepens when she discovers (through Juliette) that her line of bots can be upgraded to become assassins and spies, and things get complicated from there.
Stross has managed to work out many of the interesting details behind a robot-only society (especially one that was built to serve man at the deep fundamental level). For instance, from a bot point of view, creationism is the correct "religion." Late in the book, this passage arises which I found really funny:
"This is our fruit garden. Fruits are the fertilized reproductive organs of the plants you see all around us --- often one tree would bear both male and female flowers, so our Creators, being largely fruitivorous, subsisted on a diet rich in hermaphrodite genitalia..."
Because of the energy requirements of interplanetary (and interstellar) travel, later generations of interplanetary traveling bots would be smaller and lighter, making sexbot models like Freya Ogres by comparison.
The big weakness of the novel is that the ending feels rushed, where the reveals all cascade together, making it tough to keep track of what's going on. The ending does seem a little pat, with poetic justice all around, but that's a slight fault.
Recommended as light airplane reading --- it flows smoothly and isn't as dense as Glasshouse.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Navigating the incredibly complex European train system
First of all, if you're a tourist and are doing what I consider a business trip tour of Europe (if it's Tuesday, we must be in Paris), you're best off with the Eurail pass. They come with various number of travel days, along with a validation system that I haven't bothered to figure out.
If you're in Europe for a long stay, or your trip are widely spaced, or you're bringing a bicycle, then the Eurail pass is not for you and then you have to deal with the European train system directly. Each train system has it's own ticketing system with arcane rules and reservations, so I will only deal with the German system.
The big decision in Germany will be how frequently you travel. There are 3 Bahn-cards (or train cards) that give you discounts and or unlimited train travel. The Bahn-Card 25 gives you 25% off, the Bahn-Card 50 gives you 50% off, and the Bahn-Card 100 grants unlimited train travel. I am told that once upon a time, the German train system was owned fully by the government and so fare structures are simple and everyone could use trains. Now the Deutsche Bahn is about to be privatized, they have to dress up the numbers to make stock attractive to investors, so they've adopted the fare structure that the other successful transportation system has used so profitably --- that of the airlines.
So what happens is that the reservation system releases tickets 3 months in advance. What happens is that the lowest priced tickets are released at that time in limit numbers (those deals are accessible via the Deutsche Bahn website). As those tickets get sold, last minute travelers have to pay more. Furthermore, there are special fares that Bahn-Card 25 holders can get (and some of those fares work even if only one person out of a party has the Bahn-Card).
Complicating this is the difference between trains. The fast trains are the Inter-City and the Euro-City (international) trains. These trains don't stop often, and can go as fast as 300-400kph (unfortunately, those speeds are not achievable in Bavaria). These trains have limited bike capacity, and must be reserved in advance. The remaining trains are regional trains. This distinction is important, because there are two important types of tickets that you can use to your advantage: the Happy Weekend ticket (35 Euro), and the Regional ticket (in my case the Bayern Ticket --- 27 Euro). These tickets let you use the regional trains within the entire state (Bayern Ticket) or throughout Germany for one day for an unlimited amount of time, subject to time restrictions (later than 9am on weekdays, and unlimited for weekends). Up to 5 people can travel on this one ticket, so if you're traveling as a group for a relatively short distance, these the tickets to get. Neither tickets can have Bahn-Cards applied to them. Regional trains will take bikes without reservations, but if they run out of room you're stuck until the next one.
International trains are even more complicated. Some respect the Bahn-Card, some don't. Sometimes, you can get a special deal that makes things like Bahn-Cards useless. An interesting one, for instance, is the night train from Munich to Paris --- you can book bunk beds, get on it, go to bed, and wake up the next morning in the other city. With a special deal, the trip can cost about 75 Euros each way (the same as a flight), which sounds expensive until you realize that in your trip cost is included a free nights hotel, which you would have to pay if you flew to the other city. And the train is way more comfortable than even a first class plane ticket.
With all these choices, specials, and deals, I quickly gave up and found an agent in the form of Euraide. I got lucky and was there on a Saturday afternoon when the general manager, Alan Wissenberg was working overtime. In any case, I've been using their office for most of my train work. Note that while they are great people, they aren't cycling specialists, so they will not know what to do with bicycles on trains, and the special rules involved.
For instance, French long distance trains have chosen completely not to serve cyclists and bicycles unless they are packaged in a special fashion. So for our upcoming Tour of the Pyrenees trip, we bought one of the special priced night trains to Paris, and rented a car, since the time cost of getting the regional trains was so high that we were better off doing so.
On the way back, Roberto wanted to visit Lyon, where he was an exchange student. That's conveniently near Geneva, where we would escape the French train system onto the Swiss system. The Swiss system (and the German one, for that matter) are much more bike friendly, but don't allow for bike reservations from a German train station. But all through the last few years, I've traveled using the Swiss train system without needing a bike reservation at all, so I bought the passenger only special (112 Euros for 3 of us, from Geneva to Munich --- much cheaper than flying), and then booked a bike reservation for the part of the trip that was on the German train crossing international borders from St. Gallen to Munich. To bridge the distance from Perpignan to the Lyons region, we reserved a car, but at the last minute cancelled the reservation and hopped onto a local train instead.
One of my hopes on visiting Europe was that train travel would be much cheaper than driving, and more bike friendly than flying. The reality on the ground has proved to be rather disillusioning. This is a pity, because trains and bikes are the perfect combination, as anyone who's done so can attest. Nevertheless, in the US, renting the car would have been the only option for us, with all the attendant problems that come with it, so I'm glad that we managed to negotiate the system as is.
If you're in Europe for a long stay, or your trip are widely spaced, or you're bringing a bicycle, then the Eurail pass is not for you and then you have to deal with the European train system directly. Each train system has it's own ticketing system with arcane rules and reservations, so I will only deal with the German system.
The big decision in Germany will be how frequently you travel. There are 3 Bahn-cards (or train cards) that give you discounts and or unlimited train travel. The Bahn-Card 25 gives you 25% off, the Bahn-Card 50 gives you 50% off, and the Bahn-Card 100 grants unlimited train travel. I am told that once upon a time, the German train system was owned fully by the government and so fare structures are simple and everyone could use trains. Now the Deutsche Bahn is about to be privatized, they have to dress up the numbers to make stock attractive to investors, so they've adopted the fare structure that the other successful transportation system has used so profitably --- that of the airlines.
So what happens is that the reservation system releases tickets 3 months in advance. What happens is that the lowest priced tickets are released at that time in limit numbers (those deals are accessible via the Deutsche Bahn website). As those tickets get sold, last minute travelers have to pay more. Furthermore, there are special fares that Bahn-Card 25 holders can get (and some of those fares work even if only one person out of a party has the Bahn-Card).
Complicating this is the difference between trains. The fast trains are the Inter-City and the Euro-City (international) trains. These trains don't stop often, and can go as fast as 300-400kph (unfortunately, those speeds are not achievable in Bavaria). These trains have limited bike capacity, and must be reserved in advance. The remaining trains are regional trains. This distinction is important, because there are two important types of tickets that you can use to your advantage: the Happy Weekend ticket (35 Euro), and the Regional ticket (in my case the Bayern Ticket --- 27 Euro). These tickets let you use the regional trains within the entire state (Bayern Ticket) or throughout Germany for one day for an unlimited amount of time, subject to time restrictions (later than 9am on weekdays, and unlimited for weekends). Up to 5 people can travel on this one ticket, so if you're traveling as a group for a relatively short distance, these the tickets to get. Neither tickets can have Bahn-Cards applied to them. Regional trains will take bikes without reservations, but if they run out of room you're stuck until the next one.
International trains are even more complicated. Some respect the Bahn-Card, some don't. Sometimes, you can get a special deal that makes things like Bahn-Cards useless. An interesting one, for instance, is the night train from Munich to Paris --- you can book bunk beds, get on it, go to bed, and wake up the next morning in the other city. With a special deal, the trip can cost about 75 Euros each way (the same as a flight), which sounds expensive until you realize that in your trip cost is included a free nights hotel, which you would have to pay if you flew to the other city. And the train is way more comfortable than even a first class plane ticket.
With all these choices, specials, and deals, I quickly gave up and found an agent in the form of Euraide. I got lucky and was there on a Saturday afternoon when the general manager, Alan Wissenberg was working overtime. In any case, I've been using their office for most of my train work. Note that while they are great people, they aren't cycling specialists, so they will not know what to do with bicycles on trains, and the special rules involved.
For instance, French long distance trains have chosen completely not to serve cyclists and bicycles unless they are packaged in a special fashion. So for our upcoming Tour of the Pyrenees trip, we bought one of the special priced night trains to Paris, and rented a car, since the time cost of getting the regional trains was so high that we were better off doing so.
On the way back, Roberto wanted to visit Lyon, where he was an exchange student. That's conveniently near Geneva, where we would escape the French train system onto the Swiss system. The Swiss system (and the German one, for that matter) are much more bike friendly, but don't allow for bike reservations from a German train station. But all through the last few years, I've traveled using the Swiss train system without needing a bike reservation at all, so I bought the passenger only special (112 Euros for 3 of us, from Geneva to Munich --- much cheaper than flying), and then booked a bike reservation for the part of the trip that was on the German train crossing international borders from St. Gallen to Munich. To bridge the distance from Perpignan to the Lyons region, we reserved a car, but at the last minute cancelled the reservation and hopped onto a local train instead.
One of my hopes on visiting Europe was that train travel would be much cheaper than driving, and more bike friendly than flying. The reality on the ground has proved to be rather disillusioning. This is a pity, because trains and bikes are the perfect combination, as anyone who's done so can attest. Nevertheless, in the US, renting the car would have been the only option for us, with all the attendant problems that come with it, so I'm glad that we managed to negotiate the system as is.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Review: In the Midnight Hour
I'm beginning to realize that Tor's free e-books might just not be for me. Take In the Midnight Hour (free kindle download), for instance. Girl meets guy, they fall in love right away, but spend a good half the book with heaving bosoms and longing for each other while moving plot tokens around, and then finish with a grand finale, vanquishing enemies, and restoring the universe to its proper place. Character development? Well, both main characters are perfect, and everyone else is a stereotype.
If this book was sold as a bodice ripper, I wouldn't have picked it up. As it is, it was given away as a Fantasy novel. Well, it's fantasy alright, but perhaps of the kind best restricted to day dreaming.
Recommended only for people who like bodice rippers. Yech! I don't know anyone like that.
If this book was sold as a bodice ripper, I wouldn't have picked it up. As it is, it was given away as a Fantasy novel. Well, it's fantasy alright, but perhaps of the kind best restricted to day dreaming.
Recommended only for people who like bodice rippers. Yech! I don't know anyone like that.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Navigating the incredibly complex Munich public transit system
The German train system is designed for people who live in Germany, not for people from abroad. As a result, the system is complex in a way that makes optimization difficult, if not impossible, for all but non-natives. Even natives sometimes screw up and buy the wrong tickets (or a more expensive one than necessary).
The Munich local train system is the MVV. How complex can a subway be? If you're German, it can be incredibly complex. There are no less than 3 different ticketing systems!
System #1: For one trip. Here, you buy a ticket for each trip. There are 4 zones, and depending on how many zones you cross, you pay 2.2, 4.4, 6.6, or 8.8 Euros. Unless you buy with a smart-chipped ATM card, in which case you pay a little less. If you don't have one of those, you can get the same discount, but only by buying a Streifenkarte, which is a stripped ticket where instead of buying a ticket for each trip, you use a certain number of stripes and fold them into the canceling machine for each trip.
System #2: For multiple trips in the same day (the Tageskarte system). Again, these are zoned. You pay 5 Euros for inner-city trips, with a sliding scale up to 10 Euros for all zones. You pay for the most zones you'll need, and can take unlimited rides given the same day. To complicate this, if more than 1 of you are traveling together, you can buy the Partner Tageskarte, which runs from 9 to 18 Euros, and lets up to 5 people travel on that one ticket.
System #3: Weekly and Monthly passes. Unlike the other systems, this one doesn't operate on zones but on rings. There are 16 rings, of which rings 1-4 comprise the innermost zone. The prices range from 10 Euros for a weekly ticket that covers zones 1-2, to 200+ Euros for a monthly ticket that covers all the rings. These transferable tickets can be used for an unlimited number of rides within the designated zones. Then, there's the Isarcard 9Uhr, which gives you a discount, but doesn't let you onto the trains between 6-9am. And, for the true natives, you can buy a subscription to the train system, where you pay for 10 months (or 9 months), but get a full year's worth of monthly passes mailed to you.
Toss in the usual mix of discounts for students, kids (which may accompany parents on some tickets but not others) and senior citizens, and you can see why the optimization function can be quite complex. Oh, and before I forget, a day ticket for a bike costs 2.5 Euro. There are no monthly or weekly tickets for bikes. To round it all out, you also have a 3-day city center ticket (for tourists), which provides some other discounts for museums, etc.
In case you're wondering what the machine that dispenses all these tickets looks like:
Oh wait, that machine doesn't dispense tickets using system #3! For those, you have to go to a customer service center, or find a different machine which takes credit cards and has a touch screen instead of buttons. If you're in the main train station, it's easy to confuse those machines with the machines which dispenses tickets for long distance trains.
For someone with flexible work hours (like me), you might think that the Isarcard 9Uhr would be an easy decision. For 60 Euros, you get free run of the entire train system. Well, but I also have a bike, and on weekends, half the time I'll be using the Bayern Ticket with Lisa to make runs outside the city (which is the only time I'll really need a 10 Euro Tageskarte). The rest of the time I only need 5 Euro day tickets or 2.20 trip tickets. So yes, not only is the system complex, it also interacts in an odd fashion with the long distance train system.
Don't get me wrong --- I really like the public transit system (though surprisingly enough, it's not much faster than riding a bike --- I can bike 15.2km to work in about 35 minutes, and the transit takes me 25 --- not including walking to and from the train!) The system is relatively on time (though not as punctual as the Swiss trains), and quite reliable, and useful when it rains.
I started out entitling this blog post, "Navigating the incredibly complex German train system", but I realize that I've run out of time, and haven't even gotten to the real trains, as opposed to just in-city transit, so I'll save that for another time. Those are even more complex!
The Munich local train system is the MVV. How complex can a subway be? If you're German, it can be incredibly complex. There are no less than 3 different ticketing systems!
System #1: For one trip. Here, you buy a ticket for each trip. There are 4 zones, and depending on how many zones you cross, you pay 2.2, 4.4, 6.6, or 8.8 Euros. Unless you buy with a smart-chipped ATM card, in which case you pay a little less. If you don't have one of those, you can get the same discount, but only by buying a Streifenkarte, which is a stripped ticket where instead of buying a ticket for each trip, you use a certain number of stripes and fold them into the canceling machine for each trip.
System #2: For multiple trips in the same day (the Tageskarte system). Again, these are zoned. You pay 5 Euros for inner-city trips, with a sliding scale up to 10 Euros for all zones. You pay for the most zones you'll need, and can take unlimited rides given the same day. To complicate this, if more than 1 of you are traveling together, you can buy the Partner Tageskarte, which runs from 9 to 18 Euros, and lets up to 5 people travel on that one ticket.
System #3: Weekly and Monthly passes. Unlike the other systems, this one doesn't operate on zones but on rings. There are 16 rings, of which rings 1-4 comprise the innermost zone. The prices range from 10 Euros for a weekly ticket that covers zones 1-2, to 200+ Euros for a monthly ticket that covers all the rings. These transferable tickets can be used for an unlimited number of rides within the designated zones. Then, there's the Isarcard 9Uhr, which gives you a discount, but doesn't let you onto the trains between 6-9am. And, for the true natives, you can buy a subscription to the train system, where you pay for 10 months (or 9 months), but get a full year's worth of monthly passes mailed to you.
Toss in the usual mix of discounts for students, kids (which may accompany parents on some tickets but not others) and senior citizens, and you can see why the optimization function can be quite complex. Oh, and before I forget, a day ticket for a bike costs 2.5 Euro. There are no monthly or weekly tickets for bikes. To round it all out, you also have a 3-day city center ticket (for tourists), which provides some other discounts for museums, etc.
In case you're wondering what the machine that dispenses all these tickets looks like:
Oh wait, that machine doesn't dispense tickets using system #3! For those, you have to go to a customer service center, or find a different machine which takes credit cards and has a touch screen instead of buttons. If you're in the main train station, it's easy to confuse those machines with the machines which dispenses tickets for long distance trains.
For someone with flexible work hours (like me), you might think that the Isarcard 9Uhr would be an easy decision. For 60 Euros, you get free run of the entire train system. Well, but I also have a bike, and on weekends, half the time I'll be using the Bayern Ticket with Lisa to make runs outside the city (which is the only time I'll really need a 10 Euro Tageskarte). The rest of the time I only need 5 Euro day tickets or 2.20 trip tickets. So yes, not only is the system complex, it also interacts in an odd fashion with the long distance train system.
Don't get me wrong --- I really like the public transit system (though surprisingly enough, it's not much faster than riding a bike --- I can bike 15.2km to work in about 35 minutes, and the transit takes me 25 --- not including walking to and from the train!) The system is relatively on time (though not as punctual as the Swiss trains), and quite reliable, and useful when it rains.
I started out entitling this blog post, "Navigating the incredibly complex German train system", but I realize that I've run out of time, and haven't even gotten to the real trains, as opposed to just in-city transit, so I'll save that for another time. Those are even more complex!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Review: Gomadic Charging System
With the plethora of electronic devices that makes up my personal travel kit nowadays (chiefest of which is the Kindle) comes also a multiplicity of chargers that I had to carry. While most chargers nowadays come ready-to-travel (110-240 chargers come with nearly every device), having to carry one for each device sucks. Roberto says his personal solution is to stop buying products that don't charge using the mini-USB plug, but I personally don't have that kind of discipline, so end up with needing to charge the Kindle, ipod, AA batteries, and blackberry (the only device I own that takes the mini-usb plug).
There are basically two systems that offer a modular socket, so you can basically plug one universal charger into any number of devices: the iGo or the Gomadic. The iGo system is about twice as expensive per tip as the Gomadic system. The difference? Compatibility with Nokia phones. Apparently, Nokia's charging setup is so screwed up that it requires intelligence on the charging side to regulate the charging system. The result is that you apparently have to build smarts into the tips, which quadruples their costs.
Since I don't own a Nokia phone, I bought the Gomadic, along with the extended battery pack. I bought 4 tips: mini-USB, standard USB, kindle, and ipod. My brother pointed out that I should have bought two of each tip, since they were so cheap, and I would eventually lose a tip. I realized that I should have bought the double charger instead, which would have let me charged two devices with one charger.
Why the standard-USB plug? Because in combination with the Sanyo AA USB charger, I get the ability to recharge NiMH AA batteries, which is what my Garmin GPSMap 76CSX takes. So now I can leave for a bike tour with all these tips and be able to charge every device I am likely to have with me (I am unlikely to have an ipod with me, however!).
I've used the Gomadic charger in both the USA and in Europe, and so far, it's worked like a champ. Note that Gomadic tries to sell you on the fact that this charger will deliver 1000mA to your device, so it will charge twice as quickly as the typical charger. In reality, I have not found that to be true at all --- it takes just as long to charge my Kindle or iPod with my Gomadic as with plugging it into the standard charger. But in any case, if you travel at all, or is sick of having to constantly plug in a different charger into the wall socket, I can recommend the Gomadic device to you --- unless you own a Nokia phone.
There are basically two systems that offer a modular socket, so you can basically plug one universal charger into any number of devices: the iGo or the Gomadic. The iGo system is about twice as expensive per tip as the Gomadic system. The difference? Compatibility with Nokia phones. Apparently, Nokia's charging setup is so screwed up that it requires intelligence on the charging side to regulate the charging system. The result is that you apparently have to build smarts into the tips, which quadruples their costs.
Since I don't own a Nokia phone, I bought the Gomadic, along with the extended battery pack. I bought 4 tips: mini-USB, standard USB, kindle, and ipod. My brother pointed out that I should have bought two of each tip, since they were so cheap, and I would eventually lose a tip. I realized that I should have bought the double charger instead, which would have let me charged two devices with one charger.
Why the standard-USB plug? Because in combination with the Sanyo AA USB charger, I get the ability to recharge NiMH AA batteries, which is what my Garmin GPSMap 76CSX takes. So now I can leave for a bike tour with all these tips and be able to charge every device I am likely to have with me (I am unlikely to have an ipod with me, however!).
I've used the Gomadic charger in both the USA and in Europe, and so far, it's worked like a champ. Note that Gomadic tries to sell you on the fact that this charger will deliver 1000mA to your device, so it will charge twice as quickly as the typical charger. In reality, I have not found that to be true at all --- it takes just as long to charge my Kindle or iPod with my Gomadic as with plugging it into the standard charger. But in any case, if you travel at all, or is sick of having to constantly plug in a different charger into the wall socket, I can recommend the Gomadic device to you --- unless you own a Nokia phone.
Review: Battlestar Galactica
As mentioned before, I'm a big fan of the remade Battlestar Galactica, easily the best science fiction TV series I've ever watched (at least, Season One and Two tops any single season of Buffy in my book). I was eying the novelization of the mini-series, but seriously didn't think that a novelization would add anything to the brilliant piece of work by Ron Moore.
Of course, the very next week, Tor Books released the Kindle edition for free (HTML for the kindle-deficient), so I jumped on it and read it in a couple of days.
I was unfortunately correct, it's not worth the money (or the time, which is probably better spent watching the mini-series again). I do read faster than I can watch TV, so if you're watching say, the first episode of season one but then gave up because you didn't understand what had gone before, I can see picking up the novelization as quick catch up. But all the good parts of the TV show is lost. Ron Moore's use of negative spaces, dramatic interrupts, and the astoundingly good acting (especially for a SciFi channel show) are all gone, and that which remains is a pale shadow of the TV show. You do pick up a few background details here and there that you might have missed, but by and large, Carver did not add anything to the show. The other big deal is that while the TV show could show how the characters learned and developed, the novel tried telling you that.
I think I would have been better served by a published teleplay of the mini series than by a novelization. Not recommended.
Of course, the very next week, Tor Books released the Kindle edition for free (HTML for the kindle-deficient), so I jumped on it and read it in a couple of days.
I was unfortunately correct, it's not worth the money (or the time, which is probably better spent watching the mini-series again). I do read faster than I can watch TV, so if you're watching say, the first episode of season one but then gave up because you didn't understand what had gone before, I can see picking up the novelization as quick catch up. But all the good parts of the TV show is lost. Ron Moore's use of negative spaces, dramatic interrupts, and the astoundingly good acting (especially for a SciFi channel show) are all gone, and that which remains is a pale shadow of the TV show. You do pick up a few background details here and there that you might have missed, but by and large, Carver did not add anything to the show. The other big deal is that while the TV show could show how the characters learned and developed, the novel tried telling you that.
I think I would have been better served by a published teleplay of the mini series than by a novelization. Not recommended.
Wolfrathausen to Holzkirchen
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| Wolfrathau |
The morning looked beautiful, so we caught the 9:55 S-Bahn to Wolfrathausen. With the somewhat strenuous hike the day before, we weren't in any mood to do any challenging rides, but I had plotted out a route from Wolfrathausen to Holzkirchen a while back and wanted to check it out. Of course, I had cleverly left the map at the office, so I had only the GPS, which meant that we got lost very quickly after leaving town. Fortunately, near the Isar, we found a couple that set us straight, and soon thereafter, we passed a pair of women stuck by the road side with a dropped chain that seemed to be resisting their attempts to fix it. I took a look at it, borrowed the stick they were using, and Grant Petersen style reset the chain. It was still jammed, however, so I looked at the front derailleur, tweaked the shifter a bit, and everything fell into place. The two women looked at me like I was a genius, but I was spared from any depredations by my lovely stoker. The two women would play leap frog with the tandem until lunch time.
The road turned beautiful, and I was quite pleased with the plan I had come up with a few weeks ago. We passed rolling hills, climbed shaded hills, and wound around the lovely Bavarian foothills until a series of fast rollers took us into Holzkirchen. There, we had lunch at a cafetaria (Pizza), and did a bit more riding in the area before stopping for ice cream and visiting the local Sunday market (a rarity in Bavaria)
Not bad for 44 miles and 2145 feet of climbing.
Walchensee Hike
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| Walchensee Hike |
Stefan told me that he and Irene were going to go hiking near Walchensee, and I jumped at the chance. First of all, Stefan's a great organizer, and will have everything down, right down to which direction to walk in. Secondly, I'd ridden past the Walchensee a while back, and it was gorgeous.
So I dragged Lisa out of bed at 6am, got everything ready and caught the 7:44am train to Munich's main train station, met up with Stefan by 8:20, and caught the train to Tutzing, where we switched to another train to Kofel, where a bus picked us up and then dropped us off to Walchensee. The hike began in a forested area and we were glad of the shade, since the day had already warmed up. The climb began gently enough, but after about a half hour or so suddenly started to get steep and granted us occasional views of the valley below. The Walchensee is at the Northern most end of the alps, so when we got near the top we got to see the plains of Germany far to the South. As we walked along, we got to see the ridge that we were going to hike. It didn't look nearly as precarious as Helvelyn peak in the Lakes District, and the trail was surprisingly sparse with hikers, despite Stefan telling me that the German alps were way too crowded.
Following the signs to Heimgarten, we finally crested and saw the restaurant waiting for us, with a fake bus-stop sign. We bought food and ate quickly, because we were invaded by a swarm of bugs, which while not being the stinging kind, still made eating lunch annoying as we had to stop occasionally to swat at them. At one point my companions laughed really hard and I had to ask why, and it turned out that two bugs were copulating on my shoulder.
After lunch, we pressed on along the ridge. The book apparently said that there was some scrambling involved, but it was all really tame. At no point did we feel like the ridge was precarious, and the views were rewarding. The weather, which had seemed a little ominous earlier, cleared up really nicely and gave us good visibility and the occasional cloud cover as shade. At the shelter near the second summit we took pictures of each other, ate some food, and then hiked down to the cable car, which cost 6.7 Euros per person. The descent happened in about 10 minutes, and we had about 40 minutes before the bus arrived, which gave us plenty of time to eat ice cream and chat before the trip home.
This is a stunningly pretty hike, and I was much impressed. Highly recommended.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Cultural Differences
We've now moved in to our apartment in Pullach, which is a nice 90 square meter apartment with 2 toilets. Our landlords, even though they didn't advertise it as a fully furnished apartment, furnished it with enough stuff that we're not really going to have to buy much. Even silverware was already in the apartment. This is quite different from the usual apartment move-in experience from what others tell me --- I'm told that usually the kitchen is completely bereft of appliances (we even have a microwave and a dishwasher and fridge). We even have a fold out guest bed in the living room/dining area. (Hint: if you want to visit, come in July/August, nobody seems to want to come to Munich during that period --- by contrast, September/October's pretty much booked up, and by all accounts November's pretty miserable)
The move-in was not without hassle though. First, I had to register with the city when we moved in. Yes, Germany is a police state. When I mentioned this to my colleagues, one of them asked, "What, you don't have to register when you move?" "No, you might want to tell your bank, but if you don't update the address on your driver's license nobody cares --- it's more inconvenient for you to renew, and that's it." "But how would the police know where to find you?" Not that it's really hard for the police to really find you if they want to in the US, but it's definitely a different attitude.
Then I had to supply a deposit (3 months rent is standard in Germany). There's a standard method for doing this in Germany, which is to setup an escrow account and you and the landlord have joint rights over it. That cost 15 Euros to setup. But my landlord didn't want it done that way, because she had a previous bad experience. So I had to undo all that, and give her cash, which is questionable, but I have a receipt for it. I figure that these are people with keys to our apartment --- if we don't trust them, we have no business living there anyway.
Utilities are expensive --- for our apartment, it is estimated at 250 Euros a month (for water, electricity, common area maintenance, and cable TV, which came with the apartment whether we wanted it or not --- but we got a TV along with our mostly furnished apartment, so that's not bad). I guess that's why everyone seems more environmentally conscious in Europe --- the costs are setup so that you will think before you buy an energy inefficient washing machine.
One glitch about the move in was that our landlady didn't want to share her washing machine with us, so we're having to buy our own. Apparently, it's not unusual for renters to stay in one place for years at a time in Germany, so apparently this is quite normal. I've found a used one, and hopefully it will work well enough for me to sell it when I leave.
DSL was a hassle --- because we didn't want to sign a 2 year contract, the company hit us with all the activation fees, and didn't supply basics like a DSL modem. It took me quite a while to set it all up, but now I have internet at home. (Yes, that's why posting has been light)
I will confirm this: my bike commute is easily the prettiest I've ever had. The area around here is beautifully green, and the German lifestyle is definitely one I could get used to. It's not a bad way to live, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to do so --- so far, it's been the best combination of Asia and the US I have experienced, though the costs are definitely way up there, and of course, the taxes would be insanely high if I were to stay past November. There are other issues (the weather isn't California perfect, and I've had 3 flat tires in the last 2 days from glass on the bike path), but all in all, it's definitely worth the experience.
The move-in was not without hassle though. First, I had to register with the city when we moved in. Yes, Germany is a police state. When I mentioned this to my colleagues, one of them asked, "What, you don't have to register when you move?" "No, you might want to tell your bank, but if you don't update the address on your driver's license nobody cares --- it's more inconvenient for you to renew, and that's it." "But how would the police know where to find you?" Not that it's really hard for the police to really find you if they want to in the US, but it's definitely a different attitude.
Then I had to supply a deposit (3 months rent is standard in Germany). There's a standard method for doing this in Germany, which is to setup an escrow account and you and the landlord have joint rights over it. That cost 15 Euros to setup. But my landlord didn't want it done that way, because she had a previous bad experience. So I had to undo all that, and give her cash, which is questionable, but I have a receipt for it. I figure that these are people with keys to our apartment --- if we don't trust them, we have no business living there anyway.
Utilities are expensive --- for our apartment, it is estimated at 250 Euros a month (for water, electricity, common area maintenance, and cable TV, which came with the apartment whether we wanted it or not --- but we got a TV along with our mostly furnished apartment, so that's not bad). I guess that's why everyone seems more environmentally conscious in Europe --- the costs are setup so that you will think before you buy an energy inefficient washing machine.
One glitch about the move in was that our landlady didn't want to share her washing machine with us, so we're having to buy our own. Apparently, it's not unusual for renters to stay in one place for years at a time in Germany, so apparently this is quite normal. I've found a used one, and hopefully it will work well enough for me to sell it when I leave.
DSL was a hassle --- because we didn't want to sign a 2 year contract, the company hit us with all the activation fees, and didn't supply basics like a DSL modem. It took me quite a while to set it all up, but now I have internet at home. (Yes, that's why posting has been light)
I will confirm this: my bike commute is easily the prettiest I've ever had. The area around here is beautifully green, and the German lifestyle is definitely one I could get used to. It's not a bad way to live, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to do so --- so far, it's been the best combination of Asia and the US I have experienced, though the costs are definitely way up there, and of course, the taxes would be insanely high if I were to stay past November. There are other issues (the weather isn't California perfect, and I've had 3 flat tires in the last 2 days from glass on the bike path), but all in all, it's definitely worth the experience.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Review: Duma Key
Duma Key(Kindle Edition) is Stephen King's latest novel. After reading On Writing, I was reminded of how readable King was, and upon sampling the first few chapters of Duma Key, was sucked in and immediately bought the novel (the Kindle price at $10 also makes it an easy sell).
The novel revolves around Edgar Freemantle, a developer who made millions building homes, offices, and banks. While driving through a construction a crane runs over his SUV, crushing it (and him). The result is a head injury, amputation of his right arm, and recurring pain in his hip, which had to be reconstructed. It is clear from reading this part of the novel that King has intimate knowledge of major injuries as well as recovery --- having first hand experience as well, his descriptions and characterization of the victim is real. In Freemantle's case, the consequences are even more dire --- his wife leaves him, and he is left unable to do the job he enjoyed. His psychiatrist saves him from suicide by suggesting that he changes location and takes up a hobby which he enjoyed before --- drawing.
Take his doctor's advise, Freemantle moves to Florida and discovers to his surprise, that he's good at his work. His work improves dramatically in an astonishingly short amount of time, and his mental and physical state heals. He meets neighbors, and enjoys their company. Yet both folks living near him appear to have suffered head injuries, and he discovers that one of them, Elizabeth Eastlake, was also an artistic prodigy who has given up her art, claiming that she had no talent.
True to King's form, Freemantle soon discovers that his paintings aren't just disturbing, his talent enables him to reshape the world, and Duma Key isn't what it seems...
I won't spoil the rest of the novel for you. The plot is relatively straight-forward, the writing is trademark King --- easy to read, but with excellent use of characters, dialogue, and imagery, and therefore probably not at all easy to write. The themes involved --- art, creation, healing, and family --- are dealt with deftly, competently, and without pretension. They arise naturally as part of the story, and at no point do they feel artificial. The characters, however, are what makes the book shine --- from the speech patterns to the narrative (the novel is mostly written in first person from Freemantle's perspective), every bit of characterization oozes authenticity.
This book is a long read --- I drained my Kindle from a full charge to empty three quarters of the way through the book (I was using a font size larger than usual). Yet at no point did I feel that the book was bloated. The ending was satisfying and didn't feel like cheating at all, with all the pieces having been presented to the reader a while back. Highly recommended for those looking for a summer read.
The novel revolves around Edgar Freemantle, a developer who made millions building homes, offices, and banks. While driving through a construction a crane runs over his SUV, crushing it (and him). The result is a head injury, amputation of his right arm, and recurring pain in his hip, which had to be reconstructed. It is clear from reading this part of the novel that King has intimate knowledge of major injuries as well as recovery --- having first hand experience as well, his descriptions and characterization of the victim is real. In Freemantle's case, the consequences are even more dire --- his wife leaves him, and he is left unable to do the job he enjoyed. His psychiatrist saves him from suicide by suggesting that he changes location and takes up a hobby which he enjoyed before --- drawing.
Take his doctor's advise, Freemantle moves to Florida and discovers to his surprise, that he's good at his work. His work improves dramatically in an astonishingly short amount of time, and his mental and physical state heals. He meets neighbors, and enjoys their company. Yet both folks living near him appear to have suffered head injuries, and he discovers that one of them, Elizabeth Eastlake, was also an artistic prodigy who has given up her art, claiming that she had no talent.
True to King's form, Freemantle soon discovers that his paintings aren't just disturbing, his talent enables him to reshape the world, and Duma Key isn't what it seems...
I won't spoil the rest of the novel for you. The plot is relatively straight-forward, the writing is trademark King --- easy to read, but with excellent use of characters, dialogue, and imagery, and therefore probably not at all easy to write. The themes involved --- art, creation, healing, and family --- are dealt with deftly, competently, and without pretension. They arise naturally as part of the story, and at no point do they feel artificial. The characters, however, are what makes the book shine --- from the speech patterns to the narrative (the novel is mostly written in first person from Freemantle's perspective), every bit of characterization oozes authenticity.
This book is a long read --- I drained my Kindle from a full charge to empty three quarters of the way through the book (I was using a font size larger than usual). Yet at no point did I feel that the book was bloated. The ending was satisfying and didn't feel like cheating at all, with all the pieces having been presented to the reader a while back. Highly recommended for those looking for a summer read.
Nordlingen to Rothenberg
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| Rothenburg |
We caught the 7:04am train on Saturday and one train changed later were in Nordlingen. After circling around town for a bit, we headed off on the trip to Swabisch Hall as described in Germany By Bike. I had laid out the GPS route by hand the day before, but for whatever reason it kept getting confused and we found a lot of strange routes. Nevertheless, the day was beautiful and the scenery very nice. This was Lisa's first major ride since she graduated, and I discovered that I was no longer acclimated to the tandem after so much time on my single, so we stopped frequently to rest.
After several detours, we rolled into Tanhauser for lunch. For whatever reason, we could not find the route to Dinkelsbuhl, but since I had laid out an alternate route via GPS, I thought we could go on to Swabisch Hall. Sad to say, even this was too ambitious for us in our current state, and when we passed Ettwallegen, Lisa called for a stop. I immediately punched Find on the GPS and brought up the list of nearby train stations and headed for the nearest one. When we got there, however, I discovered that the cost of the train to Rothenburg would be too much, and as we were making up our minds as to where to go, a bunch of folks came up and hogged up the machine until a train arrived for Crailsheim. That was approximately the right direction, and I didn't want to wait around for another hour when we should be looking for lodging, so we got on. (This is the incredibly straight line seen on the GPS log)
20 minutes later, we were in Crailsheim, and a quick ride around town revealed many restaurants and a hotel in our price range (88 Euros for the two of us for a night). We got a room in the highest floor with great views of the town, and then proceeded to shower and take a walk around town. We had gone 40 miles that day.
The next morning promised to be even warmer, so we got up early, ate breakfast, and got onto the road by 8am. Climbing out of Crailsheim was very beautiful and had next to no traffic, and I resorted to setting the GPS for the next town rather than trying to use a previously set route. When we descended out of the forests, however, temperatures climbed rapidly. Fortunately, the climbs had stopped, so we barreled along making great time. Soon enough, we saw the signs for the Romantic Roads (in both English and Japanese), and for Rothenburg.
We got into Rothenburg by 10:30am, having done 30 miles, but it was already uncomfortably warm, so I was glad to be finished with the riding. We did touristy things for a few hours, and then got onto a train back to Munich. It was so hot that we resorted to asking for water from Hans & Sibylle, another pair of cyclists just finishing their bike tour as well. All in all, it was a nice tour, but I think the Munich area is prettier.
Equipment review: the front dérailleur cable is almost gone on the tandem, and the velcro on our trunk bag is worn out by too many years of touring. Other than that, things worked very well --- I hope we can get back in shape soon.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Sinking Saddles Returns
On my last post I got a comment that I didn't see in a timely manner, so I'm responding here.
From Ket: Thanks, helpful post. I recently pruchased the specialized Jett-store measured my sitting bones. The first ride was 70miles. The next day and until the next ride a week later, my sit bones were still TENDER! I didn't want to give up on my new saddle, thinking that my soft tissue needed to "break in." I really liked the cut-out, no numbness of genital area. Several 40-50mi rides later, I'm still sore. Will my sit bones eventually toughen-up?
I actually had the same problem on the Jett, to a certain extent. In fact, as I mentioned before, I couldn't handle the Jett on the tandem. I suspect the answer to your question is: maybe. Helpful, eh? Well, there are a few fixable things and a few unfixable things that I've found contribute to seat bone soreness:
As for the tandem, I had to abandon the Jett (as much as I love it) and move to a saddle more appropriate for the more sit-up-and-beg stoker position. I'm trying out a Terry Butterfly now and am thus far happy with it. I did a 75 mile mountain climb (on pavement) and a good bit of dirt riding with it in the last few weeks and it's holding up well. It's not squishy enough to drop me on my soft tissue (given that I'm sitting up more) but not hard enough to punish my seat bones (in combination with a spiffy suspension seatpost). One caution about Terry saddles: they break in after a while, so look for something that's harder than you want and go on relatively short rides at first.
The short answer is that if you're not hitting any of the unfixable problems I mention above, then I'd guess that you did what I did and bruised your seat bones (or the tissue around 'em) getting a little overly enthusiastic about a brand-new saddle that doesn't cause soft tissue pain and numbness. It takes a while to heal, unfortunately, so be nice to your butt and rotate saddles for a while.
I was going to post about my new adventure with brake levers, but I've rambled too long and I'll save it for another time.
From Ket: Thanks, helpful post. I recently pruchased the specialized Jett-store measured my sitting bones. The first ride was 70miles. The next day and until the next ride a week later, my sit bones were still TENDER! I didn't want to give up on my new saddle, thinking that my soft tissue needed to "break in." I really liked the cut-out, no numbness of genital area. Several 40-50mi rides later, I'm still sore. Will my sit bones eventually toughen-up?
I actually had the same problem on the Jett, to a certain extent. In fact, as I mentioned before, I couldn't handle the Jett on the tandem. I suspect the answer to your question is: maybe. Helpful, eh? Well, there are a few fixable things and a few unfixable things that I've found contribute to seat bone soreness:
- Legs that are tired or not as strong as you'd like. Ever notice that when you get tired, you sit on the saddle more? I don't just mean sitting down, I mean really putting weight there. You don't mention how unusual this 70mi ride was for you, but you might have just overdone it a bit with a new saddle.
- (Unavoidably) rough terrain. If you can't stand up over it or lift yourself up over it and it hits you in the butt, it's probably going to hurt later. I suspect that if you did the same thing with the saddle without the bike, it would have the same effect.
- High handedness. A lot of women's bikes seem designed to make you sit up. I have no idea whether this is more comfortable for people (other than in the soft tissue arena), but I find that there's a certain angle after which the sit bones are far more unhappy. Happily, at that point I'm also sitting up far enough to relieve some of the pressure on my soft tissue, giving me more room to compromise on saddle hardness.
As for the tandem, I had to abandon the Jett (as much as I love it) and move to a saddle more appropriate for the more sit-up-and-beg stoker position. I'm trying out a Terry Butterfly now and am thus far happy with it. I did a 75 mile mountain climb (on pavement) and a good bit of dirt riding with it in the last few weeks and it's holding up well. It's not squishy enough to drop me on my soft tissue (given that I'm sitting up more) but not hard enough to punish my seat bones (in combination with a spiffy suspension seatpost). One caution about Terry saddles: they break in after a while, so look for something that's harder than you want and go on relatively short rides at first.
The short answer is that if you're not hitting any of the unfixable problems I mention above, then I'd guess that you did what I did and bruised your seat bones (or the tissue around 'em) getting a little overly enthusiastic about a brand-new saddle that doesn't cause soft tissue pain and numbness. It takes a while to heal, unfortunately, so be nice to your butt and rotate saddles for a while.
I was going to post about my new adventure with brake levers, but I've rambled too long and I'll save it for another time.
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