tintedpane.com

Nice things:

• Slide show is great - the transitions (including Ken Burns) are really nice
• Airplay can wake it from sleep mode
• Airplay (but not good enough in it’s current iteration)

Bad things:

• fonts looks unaliased to me
• Airplay doesn’t always “just work”. maybe it’s because i’m using both the hdmi and optical output (so i don’t have to have the tv on to listen to music)
• Airplay sound quality is lacking — for non-dynamic range compressed albums like classical music, in quiet passages you can hear clicking sounds
• video quality of airplay mirroring is still not good enough for me
• lag. uncompressed wave files (which is how airplay works) shouldn’t have 3 seconds of latency
• too much loading time - flickr, etc takes too long to load (it should be buffered more)

Verdict: Returned.

Dial these codes on your phone and T-mobile will send you back your usage data:

• #MIN# (or #646#) for voice minutes used
• #MSG# (or #674#) for messages sent/received
• #WEB# (or #932#) for data used
• #BAL# (or #225#) for current balance due

Yeah, it’s a lame problem. Which case to get for phone. On the original eyePhone, I didn’t use one. So I did an Amazon smorgazbord and got 5 cases:

Mini-review:

Incipio NGP:

• Good protection, especially front glass lip
• Good tight fit
• Fit is a little loose near top and bottom (can see the bowing)
• Volume buttons too stiff

Speck GeoSkin:

• Didn’t realize there were bumps on the back

Speck PixelSkinHD:

• Can’t decide between blue and grey
• Larger opening for camera (less flare according to some reviews)

Quick Notes:

BR30 is my preferred bulb due to good flood angle
PAR flood bulbs need closer spacing and greater number of units due to tight spread
LED’s still aren’t very good at dimming (on par with CFL) — they don’t dim down very low, and some hum quite loudly

LED’s used in non-dimming circuits are good however, despite their slight turn-on delay.

Some pros and cons:

Pros - iPhone will work with 3G

Cons - higher prices from less competition, T-Mobile had good prices and service because it couldn’t compete in other areas.

Thoughts:

Since AT&T is in bed with the FCC already, it looks like it’ll probably pass. Which is just ridiculous. Wireless companies should be treated as utility companies, just as ISPs should be too since infrastructure costs are so high for these industries. Then we can regulate them as utilities.

I’ve seen a bit of misleading information for finding your target zones. Misleading because the % is supposed to be from your range, and not of your max heart rate.

E.g. If your MHR (maximum heart rate) is 190bpm and your RHR (resting heart rate) is 60bpm, your 50% is not 95bpm. It’s actually .5 x (190-60) + 60 = 125bpm. Your range is 60bpm -> 190bpm. So you should calculate based off of that and add your RHR back to get the target number.

I finished my first 10K last weekend. In VFF Bikilas. Unfortunately, I injured my right ankle due to doing too much too soon. My previous longest run in VFFs was 2.5 miles where I stopped due to a hotspot. 2.5 -> 6.2 is overkill. But I was at the point where I hated running in regular shoes. I did one run around the block in regular shoes and they just felt heavy and clumsy on my feet. I ended up taking them off and running home barefoot. Another time I ran to the park in shoes for softball practice and ended up running home afterwards in socks. So I had a dilemma for the week prior to the race. Should I run in shoes or VFFs? Shoes just didn’t feel natural or comfortable but I had not practiced enough in the VFFs. I brought both to the race and in the end decided to wing it in the VFFs. So what if I couldn’t finish due to a blister? (which I thought would be my biggest problem).

Turns out I would be late to the race and start 5 min after the gun went off. The first 3 miles were a breeze. It’s fun to pass people. Gives you good motivation. I worked on keeping my cadence up “One, two, three, one, two, three…” Felt really good. The weather was just right. Mile 4 was great. Mile 5 I felt like the hotspot was slowly coming back so I tried to find grass wherever I could to run on instead of the pavement. Nearing the end of mile 6 I could sense my form was starting to go down due to the irritation in my ankles. The hotspot however didn’t get worse. But I think my joints were starting to feel it. So I slowed my pace down until after I passed the 6 mile marker and could see the finish area. Then the sprint began. It was strange - my ankle was the limiting factor. Everything else - my lungs, upper legs, feet bottoms felt great. So I toughed it out and sprinted to the end. Not one of those sprints where you can barely tell you’re sprinting. But a full on 40-50% faster than previous pace sprint. It was great. Passing people like a blur Crossed the line. And then started to limp. RICE’d it these past few days. Did some research on the criticisms of RICE. Some say it delays healing and some say it promotes it. I’m just gonna go gingerly on it and not run for the next week or so.

First 10K. Under 60min. Minor ankle tendon injury. I can live with that!