Rudy Project - Sterling Helmet

Rudy Project - Sterling Helmet
By Tim Harsch on
July 16, 2011.
Worth the price to go pro!
Rating: 5.0

I recently bought some cycling glasses from Rudy Project which came with a deal for a helmet as well. Per the deal I was able to get $100 off the Titanium Sterling helmet.

The deal was too good to pass up. I went from a $20 bottom of the line deal and never imagined getting a $200 helmet, and quite frankly wasn't sure there is much of a point. So, what? It'll be a little lighter right? How much difference can a few ounces make? It's not likely to make me go a lot faster is it? Well, that's mostly true. Although, after watching a few vids and reading up about it I saw that indeed, yes, for a pro-cyclist it is quite likely to help shave a few seconds off due to its increase in aero-dynamics and such. But, a few ounces shaved off a helmet does help provide for greater comfort. The two main things that impressed me, an average rider who doesn't compete, is the comfort. Those few ounces make a small difference in that department, but it is the head band in the helmet and the increased ventilation that really add up to make the helmet much more comfortable. I'm glad I got the deal, and glad I got the helmet. Having went from the bottom end of the spectrum on up to this was worth money, and in retrospect I could have paid full price and still been happy.

Happy Cycling!

PowerPoint 2010 can't do that? Really?

PowerPoint 2010
By Tim Harsch(Google+) on
July 16, 2011.
Microsoft not addressing age-old issues in PowerPoint
Rating: 1.0

I don't usually need to use PowerPoint, but I find myself today wanting to make a slide where text wraps around and image. Being somewhat PP ignorant, I Googled to find the following article:

Wrap text around an object in PowerPoint 2010, which contains the following disclaimer at the top:

Important: Unlike in other products such as Microsoft Word 2010, text wrapping (around objects such as tables, pictures, shapes, charts, and SmartArt graphics) is not available in PowerPoint 2010. Microsoft takes the needs of our customers seriously, and we apologize for this lack of parity across our products. In response to customer demand, the procedures below might help you achieve a look similar to true text wrapping, but they are merely workarounds. They are not as stable as true text wrapping, and may cause spacing issues if you later change the position of a picture or add or remove text, for example,

You know, I thought that the latest PowerPoint seemed so powerful and have been generally pretty impressed. But when I hit this I thought: you mean after how many years? 15? or more, that Microsoft couldn't address this so seemingly basic an operation by now?

The layered Semantic Web cake

This has got to be one of the best blog posts relating to semantic web. It simply extends the original 2D semantic web layer cake to 3D, which provides a mechanism to associate some abstracts with their implementations ( e.g. Syntax --> N3/TURLE RDFa XML JSON ). @zazi goes on to providing some links to server as jump points for each of the building blocks.

http://smiy.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/the-common-layered-semantic-web-technology-stack/

Congress: Don't Cut Life-saving Funding for the National Institutes of Health

Help cure diseases. Sign the petition http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/preservenihfunding/

Sunlight Foundation - Stop Transparency Cutbacks

To quote the Sunlight Foundation: "Some of the most important technology programs that keep Washington accountable are in danger of being eliminated. Data.gov, USASpending.gov, the IT Dashboard and other federal data transparency and government accountability programs are facing a massive budget cut, despite only being a tiny fraction of the national budget. Help save the data and make sure that Congress doesn’t leave the American people in the dark."

Help Save the Data!!
Sunlight Foundation - Stop Transparency Cutbacks

Cycling update

Finally feel like I am back in the swing of it.  Did a 60 mi ride last Sunday, and a 41 mi the weekend before that.  Several 15 mi rides in there as well.  I did some minor investigation into charitable efforts as well.  Really gonna need to step that up if I am going to make this ride work.  Kind of afraid I'm falling behind on that already as time is tickin'.  Not quite sure what I need to do next.  I had contacted a couple of people who never got back to me.  Think I'll go to the SF PKD chapter meeting next.

More updates later...

Training Day 2

Same 13 mile course to Poppy Ride Golf course and back.  Beat yesterday's time by 2 minutes.  It got cold and windy on the way back and eyes were streaming coming down the hill.  May need some sport glasses for the big trip planned for PKD.  I'm going to try contacting the SF Chapter for PKD pretty soon.