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Firebird
Firebird Browser. Ludwig recommends it. I just downloaded Opera and Netscape and I have to say these have gotten much better. “Downloading”:http://www.mozilla.org/projects/phoenix/why/ this one now.
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Eating the right fish
Farmed Salmon — Bad. Actually, there are many more things than farmed salmon that are bad. At “Seafood Watch”:http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp, there is a huge “list”:http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_regional.asp. The long and short of it is that most things that are around like bay shrimp, chilean seabass, cod, orange roughy, etc. are really bad to eat. Read the “All Fish”:http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_factsheet.asp…
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What is the Nexus?
a little ludwig goes a long way: Microsoft NGSCB. Ludwig is right, the next generation secure computing initiative called The Nexus does sound like the Matrix IV.
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Best time to start a company is now?
a little ludwig goes a long way: Tony Perkins Startup Advice. Good acvice for starting a company. I like the point about build a community first.
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Buying a PC and amusing intrigues
Tom’s Hardware Guide Motherboards & RAM: Metamorphosis from Springdale to Canterwood. Those folks at Tom’s Hardware are amazing. They figured out that the folks at ASUS activated a feature in the lowend chipset 865P that gets you an additional 5-10% performance. This normally costs you $55 more because it is only in the high-end 875P.…
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Does High Power for 802.11b Matter?
Tom’s Hardware Guide Networking: Review: Wireless SMC EliteConnect 2.4-GHz 802.11b High Power Wireless PC Card (SMC2532W-B) – Wireless Features. This is a very cheap ($50) 802.11b card that runs at 200 mW rather than the more typical 15-30 mW you’d find say in a Linksys card. Interesting result is that it can give great range,…
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Road Wheels and Disc Brakes
Wheelcraft. Australian, they make a 700c wheelset with MTB hubs. Need to see the axle spacing required. Not much written about this. These folks appear to be one of the few doing it. However one thing to watch out for is the stress. According to Alan Cline over at “Co-Motion”:http://co-motion.com, who wrote to saying: I…
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Headphones for Plane Flights
I had two hours to kill in Newark Airport. They have an amazing number of store there. Got to listen to about half a dozen headphones and try the noise cancellers. Wow, the good ones work well. Here are some recommendations: * “Headroom”:http://headroom.headphone.com/layout.php. A great souce of technical information. They sell high end headphone and…
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Weekend in the San Juans
If you get a chance to spend a weekend away in the San Juans, here are some recommendations: * San Juan Island Lodging in Friday Harbor, The Highland Inn Bed and Breakfast. Expensive, but a spectacular view. Helen has just two rooms and the look out into Haro Strait. When we were there, we arrived…
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Blackberry 6210
Connie’s Blackberry died and now the 6210 is widely available. * BlackBerry 6210. A T-mobile reseller. $249 with activiation, free car charger. $40 unlimited data or $30 if you are getting a voice plan too. Nice price. * “Karbon Systems”:http://www.karbonsystems.com/products_detail-23.html. $249 for an AT&T Wireless one. Slightly more expensives $40 basic and $50 unlimmited data.…
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Astronomy
Great notes from Cam Myhrvold about astronomy for amateurs. So I am at astronomy camp put on by the University of Arizona. Here are three very cool pieces of software/sites. “Clear Dark Sky”:http://Www.cleardarksky.com It looks at the weather forecast (wind, cloud cover, and I guess the key thing is the amount of water vapor in…
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Harmony Remote
Satoshi’s Wireless Weblog: User Interface is an Art: Harmony Remote. Satoshi has discovered this. BTW, the manufacturer site is “HarmonyRemote.com”:http://www.harmonyremote.com/. “Ludwig”:http://www.theludwigs.com thinks it is great idea and his family actually would use it. The heart of the idea is to be activity based and to guess the likely activities from the devices that you have…
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Grace at 35
Grace is another one of the Tong’s who is far older than her chronological age. I’d guess she’s about 35. Recent evidence are what she told me over the last week: * Refrigerator in the Bathroom: “Dad, the water isn’t cold enough in the bathroom, when I grow up, I’m going to have a refrigerator…
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Physics, Wisdom and Advice for Dad
Albert Einstein Online and “Stephen Hawking”:http://www.hawking.org.uk/home/hindex.html. Now Alex wants to be a physicist having read about both Albert Einstein and also Stephen Hawking. I told Alex that I wanted to _Albert Einstein_ when I was little. Since Alex is really 50 years old in terms of wisdom, he said to me, “Dad, you can’t be…
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Polar Power Kit
OK, got “Hoops”:http://scbhooper.com an S-720i, but now we need the power output kit. These are harder to find at a discount. Here are some sources listed in order of my confidence in them: * “Colorado Cyclist”:http://www.coloradocyclist.com/common/products/productdisplay2_v2.cfm?PRRFNBR=27091&S=22977,22978,27734,20070,22854,28682,12111,24608,24609,27091,24610,24604,16241,24603,12150. $314 vs list of $349. * “Excel Sports”:http://www.excelsports.com/new.asp?page=8&major=3&minor=2&description=S%2D710+Power+Sensor+Set&vendorCode=POLAR. At the $350 list. These are listed in google page rank…
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Cassette Sizing
Branford Bike: Campagnolo 10 Speed MK 2 Cassettes. Dave Malcolm and I are going to ride the “STP”:http://cascade.org and he asked me about what cassette in the rear to use. He has an 11-23 cassette and is wondering if he should get a bigger one. Here are some facts, but Well. I’d reco a 12-25…
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HDTV in Seattle
Home Theater SPOT! and Dan Kurts. It is still way too hard to get high definition TV. But, I finally can watch it (albeit from my Dad’s house) thanks to Dan Kurts over in Seattle and the good folks over at the Hometheaterspot.com. Amazingly difficult to get it to work. We are back to the…
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Six Days of War: Review
Amazon.com: Books: Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East. Wow, it is amazing how things don’t change. If you replaced 1967 with 2002, you’d almost have the same story. There are many views on the Six Day War (a.k.a. The June War). This was fascinating to me because…
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User Experience on Wireless
Satoshi’s Wireless Weblog: User Interface is an Art: Who controls the user experience?. Another great analysis by Satoshi about user experience. Essentially, when carriers control it well like DoCoMo, Vodafone and Verizon, it seems to work well. It is uniform across devices, etc. That has a big impact on success.
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Tong Family Visiter Changes
It’s interesting to see how site statistics have been changing. Initially most of the hits on this home page were from the default home pages for my many machines, so the referrers were often tongfamily.com or none. I now get about 20,000 hits per month, so not that many, but most were from google as…
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The Matrix and the Matrix Reloaded
I really wanted to just love the Matrix Reloaded. It was a good movie, but not a great one IMHO. I just rewatched the original Matrix and I can see why. The original was filled with mystery. First versions can be. It wasn’t clear what was real and what was a dream. Who was good…
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Buying a Touring/Commuting/Crosscycle Bike
I’ve been looking for my second bike. I love my Trek 5900, but it isn’t that practical for all the other things. Fortunately, Steve Hooper told me about Adventure Cycling Association. Here is what I found out: “Buying a Touring Bike”:http://www.adv-cycling.org/features/buyabike2003.cfm. A great comprehensive piece. There is not much on touring in mainline publications like…
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Won the War, Losing the Peace
Passion for PeaceA great piece by Friedman as usual. The Rumsfeld doctrine of small-force, high-tech armies may be great for winning wars, but you need the Powell doctrine for winning the peace: a massive, overwhelming investment of soldiers, police and aid. We should be flooding Iraq with people and money right now. Start big and…
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Depressed: DVD Coasters Galore
ULead MovieFactory. I’m depressed. I used this thing to create a DVD movie. Now as I’m trying to duplicate 7 copies, I have 1 coaster (e.g., destroyed DVD+R) for everyone that is good. An obvious driver problem where in the middle of a copy, it gives up the ghost and hangs. I’m using an older…
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DDR400 is Here!
Well the next generation of hardware performance is here. There is the new lineup of Pentiums with hyperthreading and also a new set of motherboards based on the i875P and the i865P. Tom’s Hardware recommends getting an 865P motherboard and the 2.8 GHz Pentium IV. I’m on the way: * Tom’s Hardware Guide Motherboards &…
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dvd to divx backup
Well it’s been six months since I figured out the best way to backup DVDs. Here’s an update on what’s on the web now: * “Doom9.net Guide”:http://www.doom9.org/. This was the source I used before and learned about Gordian Knot. The site has only gotten better. It actually explains what you are doing while the other…
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Ode to Peta Jane
Alex is learning poetry. Here are some of his latest. First is a kind of neat form: Peta-Jane Awesome fun Busy helping caring Makes me very challenged Peta-Jane I had not heard of this form before, but it has the first and last line are the name of the person. The second line are two…
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T-Mobile $19.99 WiFi
Wireless Internet Access – T-Mobile HotSpots. Pricing is hitting the right range. Right now T-mobile offers a $20/month plan if you are T-mobile voice subscriber for Wifi access. Sign my up!
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Drowning in Wifi Signals
Doug’s Dynamic Drivel: A new Wi-Fi model. This problem of how power WiFi has been hotly debated in our shop over at “Geekfishing”:http://geekfishing.net. Basically if you have lots of 802.11 Wifi access points beaconing, you get unpredictable results as clients roam automagically from one to another. In our own offices, there are no less than…
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Topolino Wheelset Review and Veloflex Pave Reviews
h2. Topolino Wheelset Topolino Tech. I’m a crazy dope with too much craziness for lightness. In any case, I just got these wheels. A great deal from “Bethel Cycles”:http://bethelcycles.com that includes tires, rim strip and tubes. I finally got these and mounted them with a set of Veloflex Pave 700×22 tires. Here’s a review of…