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Google’s My Tracks Is Good

Published February 17, 2009

The T-Mobile G1 / HTC Dream failed to focus in freezing temperatures. This was taken while I was out on a bike ride.

Google has released the My Tracks app for Android, and I think it makes the T-Mobile G1 into the best hand-held GPS I’ve owned. While on a beat-the-snow bike ride† to test out the Mary Bar from last night (note: moving it slightly made my hands much more comfortable) I fired up the app and a short segment of the route back to my house, then around the parking lot a few times. I’m very, very happy with the detail in those logs. You can look at the KML (which only works in Google Earth, not Maps, for some reason) here: 17-Feb-2008_MyTracks_Test_While_Biking.kml

Right before I started this route plot I tried to take the photo seen above with the G1. For some reason, in temperatures right around freezing, the camera wouldn’t focus. I guess this is to be expected, as all manner of small mechanical systems aren’t intended to work right at those temperatures.

All in all, I’m finding myself quite happy with the G1. There’s a few quirks, but nothing that makes me want to get rid of the phone. In fact, I’m considering selling my recently-purchased Nokia E51. I’m also thinking that the On-One Mary Bar might work out well for me. I need to adjust the bar position a little more, but after tonight’s fiddling I found it considerably more comfortable.

† Total ride tonight was somewhere just under 16 miles. I did roughly the same route as on last Tuesday, but with a few detours. I rode the single-speed fully rigid Bianchi D.I.S.S. with very knobby tires, which made for a little more challenging riding. Thankfully the snowy / icy ground was relatively smooth.

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On-One Mary Bar Trial

Published February 16, 2009

Bob's On-One Mary Bar on my Bianchi D.I.S.S. single speed, waiting for the alcohol under the Oury grips to dry.

After getting the new stem at lunch I was finally able to install the Mary bar I’d been loaned. I’m still waiting for the grips to dry so that I can go for a test ride, but a quick lab around the basement seemed to indicate that these bars may be nice. As soon as the alcohol which I used to install the Oury grips dries I’ll take a test ride up to the post office, where I need to ship an iSight Tripod Adapter that someone purchased today.

UPDATE: Well, the ~6 mile round trip to the Post Office was interesting. It seems that I didn’t wait long enough for the Ourys to set up, and this caused a bit of slipping while riding. I’m not sure if it was this or the new bar shape which made my hands hurt a bit. Time will tell on this.

I fell once after I thought I could ride over a 1′ pile of icy snow, only to have it collapse and my front wheel stop, toppling me over. Oops. This damaged the end of the Oury a bit, and makes me think that I might fit something else (say, some spare Specialized grips) to this bar.

That all said, I’m still pretty happy with the Bianchi. It still needs a bit of fiddling (seat post binder tightness and brake pads), but I think I like how it feels. This should be fun off road once things thaw and dry out.

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HFCS in Karo Light Corn Syrup

Published February 15, 2009

Karo's Light Corn Syrup, for some explicable reason, contains High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Today Danielle and I headed over to my parents house. While there we made a double batch of caramels using this recipe from The Kitchn. While the caramels are excellent, the Karo Light Corn Syrup we used contains High Fructose Corn Syrup, whose presence greatly confuses me. I can understand the addition of vanilla and salt, but I don’t understand what business HFCS has in what should be a fairly basic product.

That said, the resulting caramels do taste excellent. Here is a photo of the caramel boiling after the addition of the cream, as we were getting it up to 248°F so it could be poured into the form. Yes, that’s a classic mercury bulb candy thermometer.

UPDATE: I emailed Karo to ask why Light Corn Syrup would possibly have HFCS in it, and I actually received some interesting replies. It seems that this has been an ingredient since the 70s in order to increase sweetness, but it was recently removed due to customer requests. I guess the bottle of it that my mom has is a bit old and we just need to purchase another.

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New Front Panel Material

Published February 14, 2009

Detail of black and white text on sample panel material. This is about 5mm tall. The detail seems limited to the grain of the metal.

Today I received some samples for a new (to me) type of front panel material which I may use on the SDrive NUXX. It is aluminum which has been colored and anodized in a manner which allows for very reasonably priced markings in black and silver (natural aluminum). As can be seen with the ~5mm text above, this method of marking has far more detail than what one sees in panels from Front Panel Express.

The downside to this new process is that I’ll have to order a fairly substantial number of panels (100) to get the price that I’m wanting, but hopefully they’ll sell.

After seeing how nice the sample piece looked, I began working up new artwork for the panels which takes advantage of this different marking method. Here is one of my first test results, showing a nicely Atari-ish font and what I feel is overall a more appropriate look for something which is to be used with 25 year old hardware. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to get the rear panel roughed in, and somehow (nicely) tie them together visually.

There is one thing I feel really guilty about, though. In my search for a good font for the button / slot / LED labeling I ended up using the font Interstate, which is the same as was used throughout the x0xb0x front panel redesign. I guess it still holds as a good stuff-labeling font.

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Lunch Which Shall Not Be Named

Published February 12, 2009

Close-up of the macaroni and cheese pizza at CiCi's Pizza.

Today my coworker Brian and I ate lunch at the place which shall not be named. That there is my second round of food, which included a cinnamon roll, some manner of apple strudle pizza, and macaroni and cheese pizza. Here is the first round of food, in which even the Caeser salad dressing was sweet.

Just like with Taco Bell I need to stop eating here. It sounds good, until I’ve actually consumed the food. It’s cheap, and one gets what they paid for. Today I paid for a painful, weird feeling in my stomach, and a salty, numb-ish, sour taste in my mouth.

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Finally a Clean Basement

Published February 11, 2009

After not picking up following far too many projects I finally took the time to give my basement a good straightening up / cleaning.

After working on all too many projects without taking the time to properly clean up my basement, tonight I did so. As can be seen in this photo taken by Marty while we were doing the MMBA website work and waiting for the forum data to migrate, I had a rather large pile of stuff to go through.

None of it was trash, just a lot of it was redundant, spare things which I had to go through, wrap up and sort, and generally find a place for or put back where they had been. I’ve also recently (Sunday) put a new shelving unit in the basement against the far wall (that one on the right), so my bike stuff can be stored down there instead of in the garage. While I don’t mind keeping parts in the garage in the summer, I don’t think it’s the best idea for longer term storage.

I’m just glad this is all straightened up. I feel much, much more comfortable working in a reasonably organized environment where I have room to do things. Now, if I could only get the terribly strong Pro Formula 409 smell off my hands.

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