Tong Family (richtong.org sync)

Ok some quick reminders. The first is that you should make sure you pay attention to the quality of the rental and then make sure you are using the right discount codes and things. Getting points and miles It might not seem like it, but with AirBNB, you can actually get more points values than…

Well, sometimes things don’t work. I’ve been telling everyone to get an Unifi instead of consumer grade hardware, but today I got caught. If you have the “square” access points, they are effectively dead. These are called Unifi UAP AC and they use the Broadcom chipset that has been buggy and is now unsupported. Super…

Now that everything from the Jaguar iPace to the Audi EQ are coming out, it’s time to take a look again at real-world vs. EPA efficiencies. Here are some notes: Tesla Model X 100D This car has an EPA rating of 295 miles with a 100kWH battery, that translates into 338 WH/mile. The big variables…

Some folks have been asking me what are the must have accessories for the Model 3 (for the lucky ones who are getting it). Here’s my stack ranked list: Protective wrap. The car has lots of paint in the front and from our Model X experience, you really need a protective film. There are many…

OK, now that I know that increasing your average wattage from 150 watts to 175 watts is actually quite a bit of work. So what are some other ways to be more efficient. Why this matters? Being dropped Some wonder, why any of this matters for the average rider who is going in a group…

Although the iPhone has made printing photos basically obsolete, it is still nice to decorate a dorm room with photos. The easiest way is to just use an online print service to do it. While you can always go to Costco or Walgreens, it turns out that there are specialty shops that do a great…

These are benefits that I really should take more advantage of, but somehow I really do forget, so in order, here are the big ones for some of the major credit cards: Chase Sapphire Reserve They have a mini website devoted to benefits, here are the interesting ones in order: Auto rental primary insurance, so…

Well, if you are like me a little safety conscious, then you might know that we are in a big transition right now. Disc bikes used to have lots of disadvantages, but the latest Dura Ace for instance has no weight penalty. The one thing that is a little concerning is that some bikes are…

I barely use it but these (not very discoverable Tricia are great). Hat tip to Lifehacker To navigate. Hard press in the keyboard and you can navigate through text fast. Lighten pressure and then hard ideas in this mode and do quick selections In Mail medium press and peek at Email On a folder hard…

Well, I’ve been using a set of Nike biking shoes. These use velcro straps and then have a ratchet system. They actually don’t work as well as my very old Sidi shoes which have three ratchets. So on to looking for some replacements. They have carbon fiber soles, but along with the PowerTap P1 pedals,…

Another thank you to Brad for finding great stuff. But if you are riding, then you don’t just […]

Ok, here are some things I’m always looking for and never seem to find. First if you have a Merrill Lynch credit card, it is issued by Bank of America and because BoA owns ML, there is integration. For months, if you try to prepay your balance, no matter how much you look on Bank…

Well the winter is approaching and in Seattle that means rain and darkness, so time to get ready for it. There are a few things that you need. Computer Well Garmin seems to be ruling the roost here, but if you need directions then the 1030 is the one to have. It is large enough…

Seems way to early to talk about winter sports, but a  sale on winter ski passes ends Sept 3. See https://www.epicpass.com/pass-results/passes.aspx.  If you are going to Park City that is included as are most resorts in Colorado and Whistler as well, it’s called the Epic pass and the discount ends shortly. See https://www.epicpass.com/pass-results/passes.aspx but basically a…

As part of my campaign to reconnect, been hanging out with victorr. Awesome guy and amazing book recommendations. Haven’t missed for me yet! Island Books staff picks are here: https://www.mercerislandbooks.com/meet-staff Victor’s current recommendations are: • Educated (https://www.mercerislandbooks.com/book/9780399590504) • Need to Know (https://www.mercerislandbooks.com/book/9781524797041) • How to Change Your Mind (https://www.mercerislandbooks.com/book/9781594204227) • Life Reimagined (https://www.mercerislandbooks.com/book/9780399573323) My list…

Well the good news is that Google finally allows more than one account for synchronization. Right now Dropbox allows two, one personal and one for business. The bad news is that Google only allows three and I oftentimes need more than three since each non-profit, each company has it’s own drive. Sigh. If you need…

Since switching from macports, Homebrew has been just awesome, I use it for my personal installation scripts and it is fast and seems reliable. The nice thing is that it installs the so called casks in their own directory and then symlinks them to /Applications` However, last month I discovered two problems: When you use the…

I got a “I’m at Best Buy, what should I buy?” call from my friend Jon. So, opinions vary on this, but if you are getting a Mac, then the MacBook Pro without  Touchpad makes a lot of sense as a budget model with 8GB of memory and 256GB hard drive. When you add the…

Well if you are car camping, you have so much more latitude in terms of gear. You don’t have to eat dehydrated food. You don’t need to worry about weight. So for the average mortal it’s way more practical. Here are some things to get to prepare in order of comfort: Sleeping pad. You want…

Again from Brad a good list of touring companies that do higher-end bike tours with decent bikes too: Butterfield & Robinson. Highly recommended by Brad. Backroads. This seems to be the most common group, seem to have many friends who have taken them with great results. They have decent spec bicycles too with Di2 shifting.…

He’s a super smart guy in all things, but the bike advice is terrific, from Bsilverberg.com, he gives a couple of great tips: The Garmin 1030 is great for navigation. You download to it from Ride With GPS. Also get the XERT application so you can constantly see your FTP (functional threshold power) which tells…

Last things first. Wow finally subscribed to Strava for $60 a year. Nice to see the power analysis but they bury the fact they give you a CTS training regime. Buried on the website you can subscribe and you get a daily email on what to do.Requires you to do a CTS Field Test. Basically…

Well now that it’s clear the Stages LR and the Garmin 1030 are great choices, where’s the best place to buy them. It’s pretty clear that like cars, in bicycles technology has taken over. First looking at cashbackmonitor.com, the best place right now is jensonusa.com, they are offering 6% cash back and this applies to…

Very sad and strange but an Horizon ground staff took a Q400 and flew it. This caused NORAD to scramble two F-15Cs from Portland to intercept which a plane spotter took. Made want to exercise my inner geek and figure what the planes were… These are F-15C, if you look, then have a balanced load,…

Well, it used to be that maintaining a bike was a relatively simple matter of making sure the chain was well lubed and clean and making sure that the derailleurs were tweaked, but now in the 21st century it has gotten more complicated, so here’s a pretty complicated guide to all the things you need…

OK, I had no idea this was so easy (and so hard to remember). I’m glad the days of function keys are over because remembering these is impossible but from Apple, here’s how to do screen grabs without having to start the screen Grab app: Shift-Command-3 will grab the entire screen. You will hear a…

If you’ve gotten a new Mac, you do have to make some te it is safe and sound. Looking at https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-antivirus,review-2588-6.html the big thing is to find a decent antivirus program and then install the following Avast which is free and well rated Turn on the firewall in system preferences/firewall Make sure that you have…

Well it’s that time of year when kids are going back to school and for those lucky enough to attend college for the first time, it’s time to figure out what laptops to get. Here are the good, better and best recommendations. Good: Dell XPS 13 (2018) $1300 This is the premium ultraportable laptop. This…

Regardless of whether or not grilled meat will eventually kill you, to me it is kind of worth it, there is nothing like a double thick cut of T-bone grilled at 600 degrees and then moved over to the radiant side to cool to a perfect medium rare. Wirecutter.com actually does an awesome job of…

Well, I hope everyone is doing the basics of keeping safe. Right now there are so many phishing attacks it is ridiculous. To review the recommendations they are in priority order with difficulty of doing listed: Use different password for every account. This is actually pretty hard to do, but using the same simple password for…