Say it aint so... uh, Alberto

Bummer.

Hatred, stupidity, ignorance, anger and fear

Any time I read the comments section of any current news story, I feel sad for America.

AppleTV

Our new AppleTV shipped yesterday and is currently in Hong Kong making it's way to San Jose. Apparently the rumors about a 3 week delay were exaggerated.

100 Rides

Yesterday's commute to work was my 100th ride recorded on the Garmin 705. I missed a couple of rides, but this is a pretty good record of the last 9 months. I got it for Christmas and the first ride was January 16th.

Total Rides: 100
Total Distance: 2623.52
Average Speed: 16.1 Mph
Total Duration: 162.95 Hours
Total Climbing: 123,643 Ft
Number of Bikes Ridden: 9
- Independent Fabrications Independence: 33 rides
- Ibis Silk SL: 20
- Land Shark Dirt Shark: 14
- Intense Tracer: 12
- Ibis Scorcher (Fixed):9
- Surly Pugsley:4
- Fat Chance, Wicked Fat: 4
- DeRosa SLX:2
- Bontrager Race (Single Speed):2

I'm quite proud of these numbers given the first 5 months were in Denver were we got 30+ inches of snow. My 8.2 mile commute is lowering the average distance per ride. Last year my average was a little over 33 miles/ride vs 26.2 this year.

The climbing numbers are also dropping now that every ride doesn't end with a 900 foot climb up get back to the house. My commute used to include 2700 ft of climbing now it's about 12 feet but it's still all on the way home.

Blackburn Flea rechargable lights

When Kathy and I did the San Jose Bike Party ride last month we wanted to add a little supplemental lighting to both our bikes so we are easier to see in the dark.

I used this as an excuse for a trip to my bike shop where I found a nice Night Rider combo package including both front and rear lights for Kathy's bike. Typical of Night Rider these are solid well-designed lights with an excellent mounting system. I've owned a number of NR lights and really like them.

I was going to get a second set for myself when my trusted mechanic ambled up and suggested instead the Blackburn Design Flea lights. Fleas are tiny -- smaller than a matchbox -- USB rechargeable Li-Ion powered LED lights available in front or rear configurations. They looked too small to be really bright, but I only needed them for the Bike Party ride so I took his advice and got a set for myself.

Wow, what a great product. They are tiny, extremely bright, easy to mount, and last a long time on a charge.

I even use them on my IndyFab which has one of the most expensive bicycle lighting systems available - A Schmidt Dynohub connected via a custom harness to a pair of Schmidt E6 lights. This system, designed for commuters and long-distance cyclists, is great for seeing the road ahead but does little (and if you stop, nothing) to be seen by other traffic.

The front Flea is astonishingly bright, almost blinding if you look directly at the 4 LEDs. It mounts to the bike using a very nice rubberized Velcro strap. The rear is almost as bright and actually appears to be brighter than my much-larger and currently in need of yet another set of batteries -- Planet Bike light I have permanently affixed to the IndyFab's seat post. The rear light has a very strong wire based belt clip and another Velcro strap like the front. I attached the rear light to the back of my helmet a month ago and have used it on every ride since. It's so small and light (17g) that it is easy to forget it's there -- until you turn it on.

I was a little skeptical about the USB charging method. It seemed like a gimmick for a cycling light, but after a month the system has proven both convenient and quick. The included USB adapter attaches to the lights with a little magnet. It's a really nice system.

My only complaint -- and it's a minor one -- is this. In order to charge the lights you must remove them from the bike and remove the Velcro mounting straps from the light. That a lot of on-off and my straps are already showing some wear. Since two straps are included, I do have a spare.

Rarely dose a product so completely exceed my expectations as these little lights have.

HDCP really is broken

Intel confirmed that the High-bandwidth Digital Copy Protection (HDCP) master keys posted lst week on pastebin.com are authentic portending the end of the Consumer Electronics industry's most-favored copy protection method. Unlike CSS and Macrovision HDCP is a link encryption protocol. It is used to protect content as it is moved from one device or system to another. The most common use today is to encrypt the HDMI signal from your set top box or Blu-Ray player to your TV set. This leak will inspire new (illegal) hardware and software products that will allow users to record HD programming directly from these devices.

Many in the press this week have attempted to downplay the impact of this leak claiming that most consumers want to do the right thing and wont make use of the tools based on this leak. That may or may not be true, but what this will surely impact is Hollywood's (a generic term to describe all Movie and TV content producers) continued reluctance to make their products available via the internet.

From their perspective, this is further proof that anything they put on the internet will simply be stolen. I'm sure the music (and publishing) company executives had these same thoughts as their industries withered and died.

What happens when the internet kills the current model before a new model can stand up?

Interesting Reading

Why humans regularly appear to be a dumb as fenceposts -- because they only trust "Scientists" who agree with them.

I have frequently failed to recognize the absolute power that Cultural Cognition has over ones interaction with the world. I have friends and even relatives who are so totally dependent on their assumptions about the world that they literally cease functioning when those assumptions are challenged.

If you are not actively, aggressively engaged in expanding your social, cultural, and spiritual horizons and challenge your own Cultural Cognition, you will become a victim of your own echo-chamber where your own Cultural Cognition becomes the only lens through which to view the world and that is a sad dark place.

Sad fact of the day

Only 28% of Americans have a passport
- Outside Mag 10/10

Oats

For a food that has been around for 1000s of years there sure is a lot of confusion about Oatmeal, Quick Oats, Rolled Oats, Steel Cut Oats and Whole Oats.

I listened to some moron at the local "healthy" store attempt to explain the difference to me. He prattled on about how This is better than That and These have a better "mouth-feel" than Those and then realized after his second contradictory statement that this guy really had no idea what he was talking about.

5 minutes with an iPhone, Google and Wikipedia proved that nearly everything the guy told me was flat-out wrong. He must have just been making shit up.

Read about it here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel-cut_oats

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolled_oats

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groats

Follow Up: Steel Cut Oats Rule! Had a batch of McCanns this morning and they beat both rolled oats and my regular 7-grain blend from Sprouts hands down.

Bohlman, On Orbit, Montavina, Black Rd and Highway 9

The ride over Bohlman Road and On Orbit Lane is a candidate for the steepest climb in the Bay Area for good reason. It rockets up 2500 ft in just over 4 miles and offers the discerning climber sustained grades between 15 and 20%, and a number of shorter sections that approach 25%. This isn't a test of aerobic fitness, grinding out the steepest sections is way more heavy weight-lifting session than spin-class.

I've been up it a couple of time before so I knew that standard road-bike gearing is pretty stiff, I opted for a 24f/27r granny gear and a couple of times even wanted a little more. I threw a Mt Bike crankset on the Plastic Bike and adjusted the front derailleur to match.

So if you are looking for a South Bay test of your late-season climbing legs, look no further that the Village of Saratoga and Bohlman Road and On Orbit Lane.