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Good coffee in London

March 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I'm surprised at the quality of the coffee available in London – when I was last here in 2004 it was a big challenge.  Now, it seems that there is a small shop on every corner.  Of course the ubiquitous Starbucks are everywhere, but that's not real coffee IMHO.

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The best one I've come across so far is Taylor St Baristas – it's very much like Macrina or Fiore back in Seattle, including the wonderful pastries and fresh food available, as well as the ambiance, free large seating areas, and wifi access.  The closest one to my hotel and the office is here – literally 2 minutes from the office – you can see it down the road.

The picture above includes some wonderful banana bread, lightly toasted with butter.  They were out of the porridge and honey, or otherwise that would have been present :)

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Off to London

March 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

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I'm leaving today to travel to London for work and my new job – I'm really excited about both….

I haven't been to London in at least 5 years, and this time around I was able to schedule things over a weekend so I have one day of my own time to look around.  Every time I've been before I have had work committments and never had the opportunity to do much outside of that.

I've had suggestions from many people as to where to go, what to see, and what to eat.  I haven't made up my mind about any of them – I just hope the weather cooperates – looks sort of like Seattle weather right now…

 

 

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Honey beer bread

February 26, 2011 By 2 Comments

I gave a friend a bread of the month club subscription – I'd make whatever bread she asked me to once a month – for christmas this year.  So far it's been pretty rocky – I'm not living up to my subscription as best as I could.

This weekend, I was asked to make Honey Beer Bread, which looked really tasty.  It turned out pretty good!

image from www.flickr.com

It tasted just like beer and honey, but not in an overpowering way.  I think the beer we chose had too much yeast in it, or it wasn't warm enough when I used it, because things turned out a bit more dense inside the bread than I would have liked.   Still really good on a cold day like today!

We also made the second part of the recipie which involved grilled cheese, dijon mustard, and caramelized onions.  Super tasty once they were grilled panini-style.

I definitely would try the bread again – perhaps trying to find a milder beer, and maybe increasing the temperature during cooking to get more of a crumb on the outside and less dense inside.

More pics here.

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Motion sickness and plane blogging

February 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

For the longest time I have been plagued by motion sickness doing various things. Sailing, one of my favorite things to do, makes me sick if I go belowdecks when there are even moderate waves.
Riding in a car and trying to look at a map, or reading will end up making me terribly sick.
Flying on airplanes is just as bad.
For the last few years, I've been using the ReliefBand which is a watch style device that uses two small metal contacts to send a shock into the nerve cluster near your wrist. This has worked amazingly well.
I'm still very tired when I fly, even a short 2 hour flight. The worst time is when we slow down to land and my body realizes that things aren't as fast as they had been. The ReliefBand helps. The second worst part is the car/taxi/bus ride afterwards since its another speed to adapt to.
One great thing is how much easier this has made actual in flight experiences. For instance, right now I am writing this from my iPad, on a plane from Burbank to Seattle via gogo inflight wireless. A year ago if I tried this, I would have made some very unhappy seat mates.
There are exercises that I used to do a year or two ago that helped with inner ear development (yes k I know I owe you these) and I want to reconstitute those as well in the hopes that I might be even better when flying.
Oh yeah, and the in flight wireless is sure fun to play with. Crazy how it can work…

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Smartfish Engage Keyboard and Whirl Mouse

January 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I recently had the chance to use a new keyboard at work – the Smartfish Engage.  It's main feature is the ability to change angle and spacing at various times to reduce fatigue and RSI.  

I have had problems with my right hand for a year or so as a result of doing too much on computers at work, and have tried a bunch of things to help.  I've tried a bunch of different keyboards from all the major manufacturers, and more specialized folks like Kinesis.  Most of them helped a little, but I always seemed to go back to the usual Microsoft curved keyboard.

So when I saw the Smartfish Engage, I was very interested, given that it looked like it had the same Microsoft curve, and it was built to help reduce fatigue and RSI.

I got the keyboard around the beginning of January, and used it for 3 weeks before writing this post.  

The keyboard is very well built and pretty heavy – after all, it has motors inside that change the angle of the keyboard, and move the two halves of the keys away or towards eachother.  I really like how it all runs off of the same USB connection as is used for data.  

You can adjust how frequently the changes occur – useful if you type fast (like I do) and don't want it changing so frequently.  It only changes after a certain # of keypresses, so you can be assured that it's not changing when you're in a meeting. 

The moving motors experience gets easier with time – the first few times the motors fire up it will be quite surprising – there's no warning when it's going to happen, and the motors are not quiet.  I can now even continue typing as it's moving, which is sort of a fun game.

While the motion definitely helped in the fatigue area, the keyboard keys themselves caused me more fatigue than a normal keyboard.  They didn't always fire when I pressed them, and they took more pressure than many of the other keyboards I've used in the last 5 years.  This meant that by the end of the day, I was actually more tired than if I didn't use the Engage.  Disappointing.

There were also some strange placement choices for keys which caused me to hunt for things more than I would have liked.  Most keyboard manufacturers get creative with some of the less used keys, admittedly, but there were a few on this one that were just too obscure or mixed in with other keys.

I think as a concept, the Engage is a great idea, and I look forward to further refinements in the future with the keyboard keys themselves, and perhaps other competitors trying to do something similar. 

The nice surprise was the Smartfish Whirl mouse, which I also have been using.  I really enjoy this mouse, and it's definitely helped my hand/wrist fatigue.  It's super easy to use – no changes or training required.  So far I have not found a single thing wrong with it.  I am surprised more folks haven't developed similar products.  Very natural feeling compared to a normal mouse.

Overall I think Smartfish has some great concepts, and look forward to more great products in the future.

 

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Macbook Air – 3 months later

January 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

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A while ago I wrote about my first impressions with the Macbook Air – after 3 months of using it constantly, I can say it's my most favorite computing platform in at least the last 5 years, if not longer.  

The two biggest things that it has going for it long-term are size and battery life.  Not only is it so light that I don't even notice it in my bag, but it lasts so long that most of the time it only sees the charger when I am done for the day.

I don't seem to have any issues with the lack of a backlit keyboard, and I absolutely love the speed that the SSD's bring to the platform.   I'm using Boot Camp with Windows 7 for a couple of apps I can't run under OSX, and it seems to work there just fine as well, albeit slightly less efficiently (just like all of the other Macbooks).

I think the Air is a great system for anyone who needs portability and moderate power in a small, well designed system.  It's well worth the money.

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Bulkhead destroyed, and saga continues

December 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

It's been a while since I've written about our bulkhead permit problems, but at least on that front, we don't have to worry about permits any more.  Unfortunately, the way we got the permits issued is not one that I'd like to repeat…

Right around Thanksgiving, a bad storm swept through the Seattle area – high winds, snow, and the like.  During the height of the storm late on November 22nd, there was a very high tide.  Combine that with the highest winds my weather station has ever recorded at 53mph sustained, with higher gusts, and our bulkhead was taking a pounding.  Eventually, the weakest part facing north gave way, and the storm took over 30 large boards and more than 170 yards of our land.

image from www.flickr.com

Of course, during this time I was trapped in Seattle because of the ice and snow, but connected at one point to the camera we have inside the house.  It was bouncing around, and the microphone was picking up some crazy noises, which I attributed to the wind – most likely it was the bulkhead breaking up.

I wasn't able to get out to check on things until the 25th due to the weather and road conditions, but I was able to get a hold of some neighbors, and they said our place was OK, but missed the bulkhead damage.  

It's pretty amazing what mother nature can do – we knew that if we had a big north storm, with a lot of wind and a high tide, that things wouldn't go well.  We didn't expect it to be this bad.  The island was pretty hard hit with lots of trees down everywhere, and power out for almost 2 days.  By the time I got there to check on things, it was relatively back to normal.  

image from www.flickr.com

The good news is that within 24 hours of my reporting this to our permit folks, King County, Army Corps of Engineers, and the rest of the agencies gave us temporary permission to start repairs immediately – something we had been trying to get for over 3 years. 

Unfortunately it's going to cost us at least double what we planned on for the original repair job.  Had the various agencies involved actually done their job in a timely fashion, we wouldn't be saddled with this extra cost.  

The repair work started a few days ago – finding all of the parts and pieces to do the work took a few days, as well as lining up people to work on it.  During that time, we've lost at least another 30 yards of land.  Hopefully in a week or so, things will be better than they were before, and we can enjoy our place without worry!

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Snow!

November 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

image from www.flickr.com I love snow, bad weather, long dramatic newscasts, and everything around it.  I was at home all day today making sure a puppy was well cared for, and was able to take some pictures of the snow up on Queen Anne in Seattle.

The wind is now blowing so hard that the light poles outside and in the Safeway parking lot across the road are making horrible noises, and the snow is blowing vertically.  I wish photos would capture the snow in the lights, but it never seems to work…

My short walk home tonight was so cold because of the wind – at points I had to stop and turn away from the wind it was so powerful and full of stinging snow.  I hope it keeps snowing and blowing so I don't have to go into work tomorrow …

Full set of pictures is here on Flickr.

image from www.flickr.com

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T-Mobile G2 WiFi calling and hotspot first impressions

November 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

T-mobile-g2-android1 T-Mobile released support for WiFi calling and hotspot a week or so ago.  I've been waiting for this for quite some time since the two biggest problems I've had in recent months have been cell signal coverage, and being able to use a hotspot when I'm out and about.  

I've had the update for a bit over a week, and it's working very well on both counts.

WiFi calling has been tried before using UMA, mostly for BlackBerry phones.  T-Mobile had the Hotspot @ Home service that allowed you to use your internet connection to make phone calls from your cell phone.

To setup WiFi calling is very simple.  A new app shows up called WiFi Calling, which allows you to turn the feature on.  Once it's on, and if an appropriate wifi network is available, it logs into T-Mobile's site remotely and you're done.  

I've noticed a few things when using WiFi calling: 

Normal phone network connection is disabled – this is actually a good thing for me, since several places I frequent have awesome wifi coverage, but have horrible T-Mobile coverage.  Since the normal phone radio is off, it saves a huge amount of battery.  However, when you leave a wifi coverage area, it takes a few seconds for the phone to spin up the normal radio and get back on T-Mobile's normal network.  Can be annoying too if you're in the middle of a call – oops!

Jumping wifi AP's works fine - I've been at work and jumped across a number of similar AP's, as well as onto a completely different AP, and things work great.  You can't continue a call during these times, but that's OK.  You just have to be a bit more cognizant of when you're going to go out of range of an AP as you will drop your call.  I've also noticed going from home to work to friends house doesn't require any intervention.  My G2 was joined to all of these three networks, and as soon as I'm in range, a few seconds later I'm using wifi calling.

Battery life increases – as I mentioned above, because the normal radio is off, I'm seeing a 20-50% savings in battery depending on where I happen to be during the day.  Many times I would come home at night and be near 20% battery left.  Now, I come home with 40-50% left!  Quite a big difference.  Remember, though, that my work location has no T-Mobile coverage, and so I'm on wifi for 8+ hours.

Call quality and speed excellent – people can call me and my phone rings almost immediately, instead of the 1 or 2 rings in the past that were used while the towers were searching me out.  In addition, the speed of text messages and outbound calls connecting is much faster.

I've connected my phone to a wifi system where I can take packet captures, and from what I can see, the wifi app establishes an ipsec connection to T-Mobile through the internet, and periodically updates it's status through that same connection.  I plan on doing some bandwidth profiling and other information later this coming week and will post that information here too – I'm particularly interested in how much bandwidth it takes for a phone call as well as for text messages.

The hotspot functionality is similar to the same options available on the Droid series of phones from Verizon, and the EVO on Sprint.  However, the biggest difference is the network.  Here in Seattle near my house I get almost 10Mbps download, and 4Mbps upload, with ~40ms of ping times – that's pretty fantastic from a mobile connection, and far better than the Clearwire/Sprint 4G stuff I've used before.

I hope that more phones adopt the wifi calling like feature, including from other providers.  This will allow us to use more minutes and be more connected in many places that are completely dead now – basements, work, etc.  Unfortunately, a lot of providers are resisting the shift to internet technologies for voice – even Verizon is saying their new LTE network will not support data and voice via the same technologies.  

For me, it makes the G2 and T-Mobile's network more reliable than any other provider in all of the places I frequent.  Great feature!

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MacBook Air first impressions

November 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

  Overview_hero5_20101020 I've been a die-hard user of Apple's MacBook Pro since the first ones came out back in 2006. Prior to that, I used the older style G4 Powerbook. I'm a linux / command line person at heart, and I prefer Apple's approach to the operating system for many reasons.

Recently, as no surprise to those who know my klutzy ways, I dropped my MacBook Pro 15" – I'd only had it about a year. To say "dropped" would be an understatement. I fell while coming into my office, and rather than skewer myself on some equipment, I decided to throw the MacBook and save my own life. In reality, again as no surprise to those who know me, my life was never at risk. Sure seemed like it at the time… So, the MacBook went flying, hit the hard corner of the desk several times as it flipped over and down onto some other hard surfaces, then finally the floor. The screen cracked, one corner of the unibody case was flattened from the normal curve to a sharp edge, there were two large dents in the top near the Apple logo, and there were parts inside that sounded loose.

Thankfully I had a full backup from earlier in that day, so I was safe there. So, I needed a new primary system. Timing worked out that the new MacBook Air came out about 2 weeks after the fatal accident. I placed my order for the 13" 2.13Ghz system with 4GB RAM and 256GB SSDs as soon as I could. It took a few days for it to be built and shipped, and arrived while I was on a business trip.

So far, I'm very happy with the system. I had converted my MacBook Pro to use two Intel SSD's, and had done similar conversions on all of my work machines. The speed that an SSD adds is well worth the upgrade, not to mention the heat reduction, battery life increase, and noise reduction. The "flash memory" in the MacBook Air is extremely fast, and has more than enough space for my critical data. The screen is awesome in such a small package. I can do all of my terminal sessions, remote desktop, web browsing, and email without having to jockey too much around. The speed of the system hasn't been an issue for anything other than flash based videos, which tend to send both CPU cores up to 80-90%.

Even when the system is working hard, I never notice much heat through the chassis – it has been 100% quiet – never have heard a fan of any kind, although I see one in the diagrams that are available on the 'net. The keyboard and mouse are essentially identical to the MacBook Pro with one exception – the backlighting. I was disappointed to find out that the Air doesn't have backlit keys, but so far it's not been a huge problem.

The two amazing things that I am still in awe of are the battery life and the weight. I knew it was going to be light, but it still seems so much lighter than I would expect. I can hardly tell whether it's in or out of my bag. For the computing power and convenience, it's amazing how light it is.

The battery life is what has impressed me the most. I can go a whole day of my normal computing schedule on one charge. This means at least 5 hours of usage, potentially more depending on what's going on. I used to carry the larger MacBook Pro charger with extension cable everywhere, and it always got in the way in my bag. Now I don't even carry a charger because I know I will have enough battery for everything I need.

This is the best system I've owned since the first MacBook Pro came out in 2006. I hope that the trend everyone seems to be talking about continues, and that Apple comes out with even more portable and longer running systems of similar type.

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