BamaBoy

My photo
Fuquay Varina, North Carolina, United States
A guy finding out if life really does begin at 50.

Monday, January 14, 2008

What is your Power Song?

I used my new Nike + iPod for the last two days. I have to tell you I LIKE IT! If you have an iPod Nano and you run (or walk) for fitness or training you need to get one. For $30 it's a winner. At first glance it you might think you need to buy a pair of Nike+ shoes. But after reading Nike+iPod FAQ you'll see any old shoes will work. People (and vendors) have come up with creative ways to attach the sensor to any shoe. Some folks can knit and Nike+iPod Shoe Hack made a little cozy to hold the sensor. Some floks used duct tape. You can see Nike+iPod Shoe Hacks and Accessories for the ideas others came up with to attach the sensor to their shoe.


Me? I used a coin wrapper, a couple staples, and some tape. The sensor just needs to be secure and not move around. You can always shell out the $$$ for a pair of Nike+ shoes which have a compartment designed in them for the sensor. But that takes all the fun out of it.

OK so it attaches to any shoe, but why do I like it? It's small, wireless, and just plain slick. That white stub on the end of my iPod is the receiver for the shoe sensor. It's also easy to use. Best of all it keeps you company by talking with a sexy female voice as you run. And that sure helps me run! She tells me how many calories burned, time, or mileage depending on the type of workout chosen. You can choose a male voice if you want. I already knew about how far I ran, and about how long I run, so I chose calories. I entered my weight and how many calories I wanted to burn and started running. After a bit she reduced the song volume and told me "50 calories burned so far." She then brought the volume back up so I could hear the music. She repeated the process again and let me know "100 calories burned so far." She keeps it up every 50 calories until the last 50. For the last 50 she cranks up the volume and counts out every 10 calories until I reached my goal of 600 calories burned. She then told me the distance, and work out time. You can get her to tell you then workout status at any time by pressing the iPod center button. If you hold the center button for a couple seconds she plays your power song so you get that extra kick to get up that big A$$ hill. NEAT! You can buy workout playlists and even training sessions from people like Lance Armstrong if you want.

After the work out you can dock your iPod and it will upload (for free using iTunes) to nike.com the work out data and you will get a nice graph. Here is the graph for my run today. Across the top is the workout distance, time, pace, and calories. The curve bents down at the end because I stopped running and left my iPod going while I took the pictures. The dots along the graph are the mile markers. If the mouse hovers over the dot it shows you the time for that mile. The red towards the right is when I pushed PowerSong. You can set goals and create challenges for yourself. Also you can have a private running club and see your others club members runs, and challenge them - "1st one to 100 miles this month gets a free beer" - stuff like that. It's all free and easy to use.

The iPod itself stores the last 1000 workouts. You don't have to use iTunes or nike.com. You don't even have to listen to music while you run. It has a 'no music' option. You can even tell it that you are walking and it'll keep track of that activity. The only complaint I have is with the music blasting I can't hear the beep of my heart monitor watch. If you want to know how it works read EETimes article Runners get iPod virtual trainer.

So "Satisfaction" by the Stones is my power song what's yours?

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Good things take a long time...

I spend a few hours watching the NFL playoffs and playing with JBs scanner. In some ways I'm impressed with the film (aka negative) scanner. I'm not sure exactly how good the scanner is. I would say it it does beat scanning a print using my flat bed scanner. But it took me 30 seconds to scan the print using my flatbed and it took 5 minutes to scan the negative. If you have selected negatives to scan then the film scanner could be the way to go. But if you are wanting to scan a few thousand negatives then this is not the way to do. Even the preview scan takes a minute. I'm retired and I'm not willing to spend the next year scanning negatives.

So here is a sample quality comparison. The image on the left is scanned from a print. The one on the right from the negative. I did not correct or post process either. I let my flatbed scanner software to its thing and ditto for the negative scanner. Yes the flatbed scanned picture is darker. The print was dark to start with and that's how it scanned. But notice the tie. You can't even tell that the tie is a paisley tie on the left, but it's clear on the right it is. The negative has more range of exposure, and finer detail. I would say the negative scan is a bit over exposed. I remember that suit. It was a light gray-blue with a slightly contrasting weave. About one notch darker than what the negative scan produced.

I have a lot of negatives that I don't have prints for, and some negatives that are not with their prints. It's hard for me to look at a negative and tell if it's one I want to scan or not. I'm going to see if I can just put the negatives on the flat bed scanner and scan them in mass. Then invert them and see what they are. Pick the ones I really want to scan using the film scanner and ignore the rest. In effect create a contact sheet. The film scanner came bundled with PhotoShop Elements and I think it can invert. Stay tuned.

Well I caught up last night on my reading. Maybe tonight I can actually get ahead.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Sweet Adelaides ...

Today I did a bit of plumbing. At Home Depot yesterday I got a new shower head. One of those with the shower head on a flexible hose. Actually it has two heads. A 'normal' head and the one on the hose. Both heads can be used at the same time for double the fun. Neat!

I went for my run about noon and I was sort of surprised that I only saw one other person in the park. It was nice out today. 60 and sunny. When I got home I had a phone message from Larry my friend and neighbor. My iPod pedometer was delivered. I have packages delivered to Larry's house because my drive way seems to cause box delivery trucks to stay awhile. They usually stay a couple hours until the tow truck get them out. I returned Larry's call and he suggested I come over about supper time and pick up the package. I said he had steak for me if I would like to join them for supper. U bet I would. Nice, hot, juicy, and pink in the middle...yumm...that's how I like my steak.

Well the steak was very good as was the wine, but it was the after diner coffee and desert that I REALLY liked. Larry's wife Toni got out her Dark Chocolate Adelaides. Yummy! Two of those babies was plenty.

Larry and Toni sent me home all warn inside and well fed. I settled into my recliner, and watched Green Bay handle the Sea hawks. I had DVRed that game and the New England game which I'm watching as I do this post.

It is suppose to rain tomorrow so I plan to check out the PrimeFilm PF3650u film scanner JB ordered and had delivered here last month. He asked me let him know before he heads this way. No use of him bring all his slides and negatives if it's no good or too painful to use. I'll let you all know also.

There is still hope I'll finish the book. One page read in three nights. I just can't keep my eyes open. There is no motivation for me reading in bed. If I wanted to do something in bed other than sleep, reading would not be my first choice.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Who's phone is it anyway?

Well today was odds and end day. I did a bit of shopping at Home Depot, Office Depot, and of course my favorite store Wal-Mart. I dropped my my auto insurance agent's office and let them know I'm retired and no longer drive "more than 10 miles to work or school" so I'll save $60 a year.

I also got that fax sent today and added a couple more numbers to my Person-to-Person call interceptor database. This handy device shown in the picture is not for everyone, but it is for me. See I only like talking on the phone to people I like. I don't like phone spam which is what most of phone calls I get are. Well used to get. My phone rings maybe twice a week now instead of twice an hour. P2P will intercept calls and simply will not let the phone ring, or will route the caller directly to the answering machine. Only the phone numbers in it's database get to ring my phone. If you have outgoing caller ID blocked then I'll never even know you called unless you leave a message. It has a password that will allow the phone to ring if you happen to call from a unknown number. It can do time of day screening also so the phone will not ring during the hours you specify. All calls go to the answering machine during that time unless you know the password. I don't use time of day screening. Instead I just use the Sleep button which blocks all calls for the next 8 hours or until Sleep button is pressed again. Very handy for napping and when I want to sleep in.

It has other features like routing calls to certain extensions in the house. Handy for teenagers. Sends all the calls to their phone and the rest of the phones don't ring. It has a little gizmo (smaller item in picture) that you plug your phone(s) into for call routing. I don't use the gizmo. Calls come into my house on line 2 and go into P2P. Then P2P sends only the calls I want onto line 1 which is the line standard phones are wired to. Phones ring, sound, and like exactly like the P2P is not there. Even called ID still shows up on the phones in the house.

Best $129 dollars I ever spend. Check amazon.com if you are interested. I have no financial interests in P2P or in amazon etc. This is just my personal recommendation.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Mission Accomplished!

You might have noticed that I didn't post to my blog yesterday. First day I missed posting. Missing a day had to happen sooner or later. I was on a mission yesterday – I need to fax some documents and my fax machine (networked attached) is in one room and the network is in the other. Modesty and possible fire code violations prevent me from posting a picture of the temporary network strewn across my bedroom floor that allowed me access to the internet.

I like hidden wires. Notice I didn’t say I must have hidden wires. The design of the computer desk I have allows for hiding most of the wires, if a bit of engineering is applied. Using some scrap schedule 40 PVC pipe I started engineering. Schedule 40 is the heavy thick PVC not that thin schedule 20. I drilled holes for and installed super size cup hooks in the pipe and mounted it to the desk. I did this because the cup hooks threads don’t hold well in melamine which is what the desktop is made out of. I also didn’t want to drill through the metal desk frame. Using nylon cable ties captured between the desktop and the metal frame I secured the pipe.Why you ask? So I could mount my UPS which weights ~15 lbs and hang cords and those power packs from the hooks. The UPS has a bank of outlets that are surge protected only, and another bank that is battery backed. The surge protected only bank is what the power strips plug into. The battery backed bank of outlets only handle the cable modem, router, sip (VoIP), and the telephone handsets. You do know that most of the telephone handsets require power to operate? I have one old Western Electric phone line powered handset in a closet. The ringer on it can't be turned off, so I don’t have it connected. But I know where it is in case of prolonged power outage.

I mounted three power strips using the same captured cable ties technique, and screwed the super size cup hooks into the melamine. The hooks will be supporting a pound or two so the threads can grip the melamine well enough for that light load. As I’m sure you all know most electronic equipment now days use power packs that are wide and their width (or depth) means you get to use about one out of every three outlets in the strip. I solved that waste of outlets by using handy Y cords that I got mail order. You’ll never see these in stores because if they sold them in stores then they would reduce power strip sales by 75%. One six outlet power strip would support 12 power packs instead of three. I paid under $2 each for the Y cords.

One end of the desk is now very visible and that corner of course was scuffed badly.But my sister Gale on one of her visits introduce me to “Magic Eraser”.It’s one of those cleaning products that really work as you can see from the after picture. I’m sure this is not news for some folks, but just in case you didn’t know about them I thought I mention it.

Well the proof is in the pudding. Here are the before and after.


Here are the almost no wires showing.

The one small loop is a miscalculation on how far down the X10 appliance module descends. The X10 appliance module allows me to remotely turn off ALL the power strips without crawling under the desk or unplugging from the wall. I’ve used these X10 devices for years. Long before X10 became famous for using the pop up or under adds that we now have pop up blocks to suppress. The other wire is for the HI-LO-Off switch for my under desk heater which is the flat panel you see against the wall. This heater is one of those things I wished I would have purchased years ago. The front of the panel gets warm but the back stays cool so that you can mount it to the wall or desk. It’s in its stand right now until I use it enough to know exactly where I want to mount it and then I’ll mount it upside down so the wire exit the top which will then be hidden by the desk so that will be one less visible wire.


Well doing the office relocate allowed me to rearrange my bedroom so I can go on and get my new HD Flat panel for the bedroom. Just have to decide. Another 50 inch one or maybe a nice 5 footer?


While I decide I’ll give you a peek at the next indoor project - Garage cleanup. JB is coming soon and it would be good for him to have a place to work. I’ve finished one page in my book over the last two nights. I’ll need to catch up to get back to my 10 pages per night average.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

And the beat goes on...

Well today was productive. It’s not over but I thought while the tea is brewing I take a break and write a bit about something I have used for at least 20 years. When I exercise I wear a Polar heart monitor. If you are like me you exercise because they say you should. I’m sure I’ve gotten some benefit from it, but to be honest the best thing I can say about most exercise is that it’s over. The exercise I like and really gets my heart beating gets over too quick.

The picture shows my real time heart rate is 139, and I’m 56 minutes 18 seconds into my work out. The heart symbol flashes each time it picks up a beat. The vertical bar means a period of 10 minutes in the target range. It’ll show 3 vertical bars after 30 minutes. In this picture the bar represents 40 minutes since it cleared the three bars after I completed the 40th minute.

My Polar heart monitor allows me to set my target heart range. I have it set for 135 minimum and 155 maximum (shown in picture below). If my heart rate goes outside that range it beeps at me. If I stay in the target range it doesn’t beep to nag me – I get to run along in peace. It’s also is a stop watch so I know how long I ran. On top of that it keeps track of the total time my heart rate was in the target range. Then after 30 minutes in the target range it beeps to let me know I’ve achieved 30 minutes of quality cardiovascular exercise. The true beauty of this is it doesn’t matter how I keep my heart in that range. I typically have to run pretty fast on downhill grades to keep it over 135. But I can slow down and walk on steep uphill grades. This means I don’t overdo it and get burned out which is a common reason people stop exercising.

The Polar device is wireless. There is a chest strap (black in the pictures) that picks up your heart beat and transmits that to the wrist watch receiver to display. The watch does not have to be worn. I used to mount the watch to my handle bars when I rode my bike. I believe Polar is the well known brand/market leader in this area. When I traveled the workout equipment in hotel fitness rooms often worked with the Polar device. Very handy to see your heart rate on the equipment read out. Some of the equipment would increase and decrease the intensity to keep you in your heart range.

The battery in the watch last 5 years. I replaced the battery in the 1st Polar watch that I had, and it ruined it. So I purchased the one I have now. I’m still using the original chest strap that came with the 1st watch– it’s over 20 years old. Now granted there have been years at a time that I’ve not used it. I believe the battery in the chest strap is good for several thousand hours of operation. I assumed the electrical signal it picks up turns it on. Somehow it turns itself off. There is no on or off switch on the chest strap. It is totally sealed. Watch and strap can be used in the pool. The picture below shows my heart was in range for 42:50, and the workout lasted 1 hour 2 minutes (I forgot to hit stop).
If you are looking for a gift for that person that has everything this could be it. It will totally change their exercise habits. I have no financial interests in Polar. My recommendation is purely my opinion after having used one off and on for over 20 years.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Just get me to the Park on time....

A busy day today. Up at 9 and headed to RTP (Research Triangle Park) at about 10:40 for an 11:30 lunch. Commute to RTP is 65 minutes in traffic, 50 minutes in good traffic and just under 45 if the traffic is light which it was today. Only one snag – I needed to make a stop on the way to the park. That caused me to go through New Hill which is about 5 miles out of the way. Well as Karen will tell you I picked her up 5 minutes early for lunch. Let’s just say that xB starts to really purr above 4K RPM and in 5th gear. The purr changes to a buzz north of 5K RPM, but buzz and all - it got me to the park on time. The buzz was pretty loud – So loud that I didn’t hear my mobile phone ring. But talking on the phone at that speed even in light traffic is not something I would do after missing an exit in Chicago a few years ago. Hurrying to catch a flight, unfamiliar road, lots of traffic, and me talking on the cell phone is one of those ‘life lessons’ that I am thankful to still be here you share with you now and I’m happy to say I learned the lesson the first time. No repeat lesson needed. So you all please learn from me. Talking on a cell phone is not safe at speed (feel free to change that to any speed if you want).

Karen met me in front of my former office building and she had a package for me – pair of noise canceling head phones I got as a ‘Thanks’ award from Bobby. They didn’t get delivered before I left, but I had Karen my neighbor on the office cul-de-sac watching for the package. She also let me know the visiting 2nd line from Italy has settled into my old office while he’s here. We had a great lunch and as usual mine was good, but Karen’s looked way better. Good manners prevented me from asking for a taste this time. Next time we go to lunch I’ll use that “hey would you like to try mine” so out of politeness she'll offer me some of hers! hehehe - I’ve never been slow when of comes to eating.

I went by Wally’s house after lunch to showed him the headphones. Wally is the expert on them. He has several pair. Out of politeness Wally didn't tell me what he thought of mine. I also know Wally well enough to know he wouldn't fall for that "Hey, you try mine and I'll keep yours" trick - I've only been able to get one thing by Wally in the 15 years I've known him - and I have to say - when I did get something by him I didn't even know I did it until HE explained it to me. Sort of takes all the fun out of it when you didn't even know you won. Anyway, I actually have a pair of the 1st generation Bose noise canceling headphones. They are broken, and I’ve been meaning to send then in for repair for about 3 years. Never found the time. Note to self: Send headphones in for repair.

I stopped by the new super Wal-Mart in Holly Springs on the way home. I bought stuff for the house and a replacement UPS for the still underway relocate of the home office. I just shoved the stuff I piled up on the bed into two boxes. One box is what I will keep and use in the new location. The other (much larger box) is what will go to the next electronics recycling drive. I might try to sell some of it on eBay. I’ve bought stuff off of eBay, but I’ve never sold anything.

I upped my average pages per night. I’m through the 2nd chapter. Bobby, whom I assume will be the main character throughout the book, and Ted are going to try and put one over on Bobby’s mom. My guess is that is going to get Bobby into trouble. What do you Moms out there think? Your sons ever successfully put one over on you? hehehe