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December 31, 2005
XBox 360 and Project Gotham Racing, King Kong
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I couldn't wait. I went on Ebay and bought my Xbox 360 a few weeks ago and paid double what I would have paid for a Standard unit. But it was worth it. Clearly the graphics of the Xbox 360 are incredible. I play Project Gotham Racing incessantly, just to watch the scenery fly by my car as I race through major cities of the world. Next in line is King Kong, an adventure game which follows the movie's storyline. Also very cool - to become King Kong is my goal which is what will happen a few more steps down into the island. The hype is real - the graphics and gameplay are truly outstanding. Will it get overshadowed by the new Playstation III? Buy the Premium Bundle with Project Gotham Racing from amazon.com |
Posted by dshen at 08:38 PM
December 30, 2005
Fujitsu ScanSnap fi-5110EOX Sheet-Fed Scanner with Automatic Document Feeder
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This baby is my big step into the paperless life. Everything I get I throw into it and poof! out pops a PDF which I can keep on my PC. All you need to do it load it into the sheet feeder and off it goes. One thing that I wish it would not do is jam on magazine pages. Must be the glossy coating...It would have been nice to be able to scan in magazine articles which are piling up on my desk. But otherwise, a great way to stop having (and losing) important pieces of paper. |
Posted by dshen at 06:11 PM
Apple Video iPod 60 GB
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Well I had to have the newest iPod and bought a 60GB version. I had a 40GB iPod and it was getting filled up. It's definitely very cool. Being thinner is always nice and now I've been loading it up with videos which I ripped from my DVD collection. By the way, to do that you need to use Mac the Ripper which does a great job of removing copy protection, and then Handbrake to turn the ripped DVD movie to an MP4 which is playable by the iPod. Thankfully the video files don't take up a lot of space. Apple's newest is definitely a must-have. |
Posted by dshen at 03:44 PM | Comments (1)
Powercranks
I've got this problem with unbalanced right/left legs. Then I heard about Powercranks.
Interesting concept. Each crank rotates independently. So you are forced to rotate each leg independently to keep them in sync with each other, ie. 180 degrees apart from each other. Normally, a fixed crank does this for you. But you need to exert muscular strength for that to happen here.
What does that do? It supposedly trains muscles that support bicycling motion throughout the whole cycle instead of mostly on the downward stroke. It also has been shown to improve running as well.
I hope to get on these as soon as possible. They are being mounted on my old P2K and I'm going to train on them asap. My hope is that not only will they improve my cycling, but also help my right quad cramping problem which has been plaguing me for 2 years now...
More info at Powercranks's website.
Posted by dshen at 03:04 PM
Cervelo 2005 P2 SL 54 cm
What a beaut! My previous bike was a P2K and I decided to keep to this model since I liked it so much. I retired my previous bike by putting Powercranks on it and it will sit on my trainer most of the time.
So what's different? Upgraded specs (see tables below) with Dura-Ace 10 Speed drive train, and now with an interesting black finish which is sans paint. Supposedly it saves .25 lbs of weight by not painting it. How interesting.
I swapped out the Vision Tech aero bars and put on some Profile Ironman adjustable bars. Soon I will bring it in for a fit to see if I can get some more efficiency out of the bike by adjusting the geometry.
| 78 Degree Seattube Angle (forward seatpost position) | |||||||||||
| Size | Wheel Size | Head Tube Angle | BB Drop | Top Tube | Head Tube Length | Front Center | Rear Center | Stand Over Height | Stack | Reach | |
| 48 | 650c | 72° | 43 | 490 | 110 | 568 | 368 | 716 | 461 | 389 | |
| 51 | 700c | 72.5° | 60 | 510 | 90 | 586 | 380 | 746 | 482 | 405 | |
| 54 | 700c | 72.5° | 60 | 530 | 120 | 609 | 380 | 776 | 512 | 418 | |
| 56 | 700c | 72.5° | 60 | 545 | 140 | 626 | 380 | 795 | 531 | 429 | |
| 58 | 700c | 72.5° | 60 | 560 | 160 | 643 | 380 | 815 | 550 | 440 | |
| 61 | 700c | 72.5° | 60 | 574 | 190 | 659 | 380 | 840 | 577 | 448 | |
| Note 1: | The above headtube lengths are for integrated headsets. To compare to non-integrated headtubes, deduct 20mm from the above lengths to adjust for the stack height needed for non-integrated headsets. | ||||||||||
| Note 2: | All our TT/triathlon bikes have a dropped toptube and shortened headtube to enable the rider to position the aerobars low enough for a proper aero position. This means that a frame measures smaller from the bottom bracket to the top of the seattube than it actually is and than the size would indicate. So the size is a virtual measurement, and all it means is that if you ride a 54cm road bike you'll likely need a 54cm TT/triathlon bike as well. But since all manufacturers use different geometries, this doesn't always pan out exactly either. | ||||||||||
| 75 Degree Seattube Angle (shallow seatpost position) | |||||||||||
| Size | Wheel Size | Head Tube Angle | BB Drop | Top Tube | Head Tube Length | Front Center | Rear Center | Stand Over Height | Stack | Reach | |
| 48 | 650c | 72° | 43 | 514 | 110 | 568 | 368 | 716 | 461 | 389 | |
| 51 | 700c | 72.5° | 60 | 535 | 90 | 586 | 380 | 746 | 482 | 405 | |
| 54 | 700c | 72.5° | 60 | 557 | 120 | 609 | 380 | 776 | 512 | 418 | |
| 56 | 700c | 72.5° | 60 | 573 | 140 | 626 | 380 | 795 | 531 | 429 | |
| 58 | 700c | 72.5° | 60 | 589 | 160 | 643 | 380 | 815 | 550 | 440 | |
| 61 | 700c | 72.5° | 60 | 604 | 190 | 659 | 380 | 840 | 577 | 448 | |
| Note 1: | The above headtube lengths are for integrated headsets. To compare to non-integrated headtubes, deduct 20mm from the above lengths to adjust for the stack height needed for non-integrated headsets. | ||||||||||
| Note 2: | All our TT/triathlon bikes have a dropped toptube and shortened headtube to enable the rider to position the aerobars low enough for a proper aero position. This means that a frame measures smaller from the bottom bracket to the top of the seattube than it actually is and than the size would indicate. So the size is a virtual measurement, and all it means is that if you ride a 54cm road bike you'll likely need a 54cm TT/triathlon bike as well. But since all manufacturers use different geometries, this doesn't always pan out exactly either. | ||||||||||
Components:
| Part | Dura-Ace TT/Tri Kit |
| Fork | Wolf TT |
| Seatpost | Cervélo aero carbon - 2-position |
| Shift Levers | Shimano DuraAce Bar-ends |
| Front Derailleur | Shimano DuraAce |
| Rear Derailleur | Shimano DuraAce |
| Cassette | Shimano Ultegra 11-23 |
| Chain | Shimano Ultegra |
| Brake Calipers | Cervélo Mach 2 |
| Brake Levers | Dia Compe 188 |
| Crankset | FSA SLK MegaExo |
| Bottom Bracket | FSA SLK MegaExo |
| Headset | Cane Creek IS-2 1-1/8" |
| Stem | Visiontech Sizemore |
| Basebars | Visiontech |
| Aerobars | Visiontech |
| Saddle | Cervélo TT special |
| Wheels | Velomax Vista |
| Tires | Vittoria Diamante Pro Lite |
| Specs may change without notice. | |
Posted by dshen at 02:46 PM
December 26, 2005
JVC Everio GZ-MG20U Video Camera
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I bought the 20GB model and love it! When I plug it via USB to my Mac, it mounts as a hard drive. Now, instead of relying on software to do clip separation from a stream of video from tape, you have each clip as a separate file. You just drag and drop each clip into your favorite movie editting program afterwards. The one thing I don't like about it is its low light sensitivity. There is a large amount of noise that gets into the video sooner than with other DV videocameras that I have used. There is a small light mounted on the front which helps, but it doesn't throw light very far. Otherwise, it's a very small compact videocamera that works pretty well. |
Posted by dshen at 04:17 PM | Comments (2)
December 23, 2005
Out with Norton Internet Security; In with Freeware Protection
Norton was frustrating me to no end. The last straw was its interference with Eudora on sending out email to a new address. I just couldn't take it anymore. I blew it away and installed a whole bunch of freeware protection software recommended to me by someone on a Mozilla bulletin board:
Kerio Firewall
Avast! Antivirus
Spybot Search & Destroy
SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard
I can't believe that Norton has so many problems. I hope that the open source/freeware alternatives afford better protection at a better price (FREE).
Posted by dshen at 07:41 PM
December 14, 2005
Garmin c330 Streetpilot
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GPS is a godsend. Now that I am constantly out and about, trying to get to strange places for meetings and for eats, I find that the Garmin c330 Streetpilot is a constant companion on any trip. I can't believe that they have burned the entire US into its memory, and also added a Yellow Pages feature as well. The Yellow Pages feature isn't as complete as I would like it to be, but it's better than nothing. What also amazed me was its Taiwan version. They actually were able to program in handwriting recognition so that you could write Chinese characters and it could do lookups based on that. This unit is compact, very portable, and totally useful. Much better than an old Alpine I had which cost me about $4K for the entire unit and it took FOREVER to compute a route. This baby computes a route in less than a minute and is smart enough to deal with me not following the route exactly. |
Posted by dshen at 09:24 AM
PhoneLabs Dock-N-Talk
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This gadget is amazing! My house suffers from being in one of those damn Cingular drop out zones and my mobile phone can't get reliable signal in my house. One of the few places is on the freakin' floor! Now how am I suppose to talk on my mobile if the phone only gets 2 bars when it's flat on the floor?
Then I found the PhoneLabs Dock-N-Talk. Well, it did take freakin' forever to get to me (c'mon guys, no more 6-8 weeks of shipping - welcome to the 21st century!), but I was really glad that it did. Using Bluetooth, your phone talks to the Dock-N-Talk. Then, I plugged in my regular home Vtech 5.8 GHz cordless phones. So now, when someone calls my mobile, it rings on my normal house phones! WOW! And when I call, I through my mobile too! So basically, this unit docks my mobile to normal house phones so that you can leave your phone in a place which gets ok reception (mine sits on the floor, plugged into the charger, in its most optimal-max-whopping-2-bars place) and I don't have to worry about losing reception while talking on the phone. VERY COOL. |
Posted by dshen at 09:13 AM
