Archive - May 2008

Way back when, Boris told me about something called RSS and showed me how I could use it to bring information to me, instead of having to go out and look for it myself. It took a while, but eventually I 'got it' and started amassing RSS feeds from all over the place - starting with my friends' blogs, and then later finding feeds from newspapers, tech blogs, and even Environment Canada (for local weather updates).

I tried different desktop clients as my RSS aggregator (or reader) for a while, but then eventually found out about, and started using exclusively, Google Reader. I love it, and one of the things I like best about it is 'Shared Items' - both being able to share with my friends as well as being able to see what they are sharing. Even better, with some recently introduced features, I can even add a note to items that I share to explain why I'm sharing them. FriendFeed takes this one step further and allows you to have conversations (in the form of comments) back and forth about shared items. I signed up for FriendFeed and have it aggregating some of my stuff (Flickr photos, Google Reader shared items, and Twitter posts) but since nobody else I know is using it - I'm not really making use of it all that much. My FriendFeed feed is here.

Anyways, if you're not using Google Reader yet - I highly recommend it. My shared items page can be found here and there is even an RSS feed for them - although if you've got me listed as a contact in your gmail, then you'll automatically have a feed for my shared items anyways.

Just over two years ago I bought a new road bike and if I had to guess, I'd say I've probably put somewhere around 2000 kms on it. In all that time, I've never got a flat tire. Well unfortunately that all changed this past Sunday. I was out for a ride, by myself, on the back roads around Stittsville. The plan was to do 60 kms - and I came close to that. I was on my way home from a there and back route, when I noticed that my bike was feeling a bit weird - riding much rougher than it normally does. I immediately suspected a flat and when I slowed down, sure enough that's what it was. I know exactly when it happened (I remember the bump my back wheel took) but I have no idea what caused it. Was it a large rock that I somehow missed with my front wheel but hit with my back? A pothole perhaps? No idea.

I had about 8.5 kms to go when this happened, so luckily I had completed just over 50 kms of the 60 kms I had hoped to do. I didn't have a lot of options at this point because although I had an extra tube, and the tools to make the change - I didn't have a pump or any other means to inflate the new tube. D'oh! Walking that distance in cycling shoes would be absolute insanity, so luckily I had brought my cell phone with me. I just called up Amy and asked her to come get me, which happily she did. Lesson learned - if you're going out alone, make sure you have the means to inflate your tires should the need arise. I'd rather not have to carry a pump so instead I'll be looking into CO2 cartridges. Steve first told me about them a while ago, and I confirmed with Grant that you can get them at MEC so I've added that to my list of things to do/get before my next solo ride.

Anyways, like I suggested in my post title, perhaps I was just due for a flat. :)

This past Saturday, JK, Dave and me spent about 4 hours playing disc golf. We started out the day (late morning) with a round at Camp Fortune where we filmed the majority of the holes - well the drives anyways. The bugs were brutal which took away some of the enjoyment of the game, but by the end of the round I had managed a personal best +6 for the course so I was pretty happy. After our round at CF, we headed to Jacques Cartier Parc and played another 18 holes there. Not sure what it is, but I always seem to play better at JCP if I've just played at CF. I ended up with another personal best of -1 for that course. All in all a pretty fantastic day of DG for sure! Really looking forward to our DG trip to Syracuse in the middle of June.

I applied the 10.5.3 update last night to both my iMac and my MacBook. One of the big issues that I was hoping would be addressed was the stability of the wifi connection on the macbook - ever since I got the thing, it randomly drops its connection to the AP on my network. In the release notes for the update, it did mention some improvements to 802.1x stability and reliability but alas - I have not seen any such improvements since updating. I am still seeing random drops of my wifi connection. :(

The other bummer is the fact that they updated Address Book to allow syncing with your gmail contacts, but it only seems to be available to those who have an iPhone. Huh?!

I went out to lunch the other day to a place called Phu Yen, in Kanata. I think the food is great there (which is why we keep going back), and you always get a fortune cookie at the end of the meal. Mine said, "You have enough energy and enthusiasm for two people." I had to chuckle, especially since I had just read this comic the other day at xkcd.com.

Or perhaps I should say are doing it again. Frigtards!

That is all.

A while back (quite a while ago actually) I made the switch from Bell Mobility to Rogers as my cell phone service provider. The switch was driven, in large part, by the fact that Rogers had all the 'cool' phones. At the time I wanted a RAZR and also at the time, Bell didn't have a CDMA version of the RAZR. Anyways, I made the switch.

I've been catching up on my google reader posts today, after having suffered through a couple of very busy days where I didn't find the time to read as much as I like, and I came across this post on Wired that talks about a group of cyclists calling themselves Crimanimalz who rode a couple of miles on L.A. freeways at rush hour to try to show that in addition to the environmental benefits, riding your bike may actually get you home quicker. I'm not sure I'd be up for anything like this (afterall it only takes one pissed off driver to cause some serious damage) but lately I've been thinking about how cool it would be if cyclists had better roads to use. Imagine a Queensway for cyclists!

So far this spring I haven't been out on my bike anywhere near as often as I'd like to be. It would be a real PITA to ride my bike to work on days when Liam is in daycare. That leaves the days that Amy is off for me to ride to and from work, but sadly those days seem to be few and far between these days. :(

Following Duane's lead, I decided to go ahead and generate a QR code for haggaret.com using the link that Duane referenced in his post. Will it ever get used? I can't imagine what for so probably not, but there it is anyways. I think the first time I heard about these things was from Chris Foo, who was talking about using them for HungryTable. He was thinking you'd have one for each restaurant that would be visible in the window or whatever and it would link back to the reviews on HungryTable. That way you'd be able to scan it with your phone, and then quickly check out the reviews before deciding if you want to go inside or not - a cool idea if you ask me.

Well to be honest, I'm not sure there is any routine, but at least I've managed to get out 4 or 5 times for some disc golf in the past couple of weeks. My latest outing was on Saturday afternoon with Steve and Dave. We went to JC Park (or should I say Parc since it's in Gatineau?) and the weather was perfect! I brought along my camera, but instead of taking any photos, I opted for some short video clips. I think video works quite well, although it's definitely possible to get some cool photos too. Anyways, since I was the one with the camera, I only made it into a couple of the videos. That's a shame too, cause I was on fire! ;) I finished the day with a big fat zero, which is a decent score for me. I'm hoping to improve a lot this summer, especially with my new driving technique, so we'll see how that goes. Anyways, head on over to Flickr to see the rest of the videos.

Oh yeah - we're heading out again on Sunday (and hopefully Monday since it's a holiday) if anyone wants to join us. Just shoot me an email and I'll keep you in the loop.