Category: Thinking (Page 11 of 13)

What Is Your Swim Goal?

July 1, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

The plan for today’s swim was to warmup with a 300sw/100kick/100sw. Then some sprints, 4×200, and a 200 swim down. The warmup was so atrocious that I changed my plan–technique was all over the place and I felt like I was kicking to stand still on the kick part of the warmup. Instead of the 4×200 I decided to do a straight 800 and try to find an even stride. I sort of zoned out for the whole middle portion of the swim, so I guess it worked.

Patience.

When I finished my 800 and was checking my HR, the lifeguard at the pool asked me, “What’s your swim goal?” He was asking because he noticed my soft kick off the side at the end of each length, and once I told him I was training for open water tris he understood why I was taking it easy on the turns. But still, it was a good question, and it gave me some things to think about and focus on during my swim down.

What are my goals, really?

keep my heart rate at 120-130 during the race
find someone to draft as much as possible
make it through the swim with as few strokes possible (stay on course)

Ultimately, I would like to duplicate my best in-race swim ever if possible. The only thing I really remember about that swim was getting out of the water with a huge smile on my face and thinking, “This is really going to happen!”

I’m The Mayor Of Snoozville

May 29, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

But I may have some competition soon, because Foursquare is on the fast road to becoming the most boring, why-do-I-need-this app around. Ditto for every other location based check in app.

However, I have some ideas that would make these apps way better. I only do solution formulation, not implementation…

1) Allow custom groups

Example: The guys on my rugby team could start a group that allows people to check in to training sessions and matches at the different venues we use. You could even give bonus points for making both weekly training sessions, the match, and the after match social. Tie start times in as well. This would encourage people to not only show up to get their coveted attendance badge, but also to show up on time (big issue with rugby players).

2) Allow people to throw their support behind a mayoral candidate

Example: Let’s say I go to the gym four days a week, but I can’t oust the mayor of the local YMCA because he goes 11 times, five of those being just to shower before work in the morning so he doesn’t have to use his own hot water. It would be cool if I could rally The Missus and a workout partner to throw 1/2 of their check in points towards my campaign. This would encourage people who go to the same venues often to socialize with other people who attend a lot. It would also encourage competing factions, branded t-shirts, and eventually a #4sq civil war.

3) Custom badges

It’s 2010, and there still isn’t a “Mayor of Your Mom” badge. Where are our priorities? Put the community to work building new badges and throw them out on a badge marketplace. Let the usage of the users (they could give negative karma to a badge they don’t like/want) decide which badge getting missions are worthy of surviving.

My Reaction To The Lost Finale

May 24, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

True, I haven’t seen it yet, but here are a few excerpts from my prepared statements…

“See, I KNEW it!!!! I had that figured out during Season 1”

“Wow, didn’t see that coming.”

“They didn’t answer all of my questions. Of course, every question they answer would just lead to a new question.”

“It wasn’t as bad as the Seinfeld finale, but it wasn’t as good as The Wire’s finale.”

“Finally, I can concentrate on my unanswered questions from The Tudors…I have no idea what’s going to happen on that show.”

“That’s a lot of cheering.”

I may cut that last comment out of my remarks when I deliver them live.

Now that LOST is Over, I have a Few Questions…

May 24, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

You know how pirates and outlaws who rob stage coaches are romanticized in literature and stories? Is the same thing going to happen with car jackers and smash and grab robbers in the future?

Is there a smarter person in show business than Weird Al Yankovic? He doesn’t even have to come up with original ideas. As long as 7th grade girls are changing favorite pop songs every couple of weeks, there will be 7th grade boys who want to hear parodies of those songs.

These have been troubling me for while, and now the national collective brain trust should have time to work on them.

More Picking on Facebook

May 21, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

I’m really not trying to bully up on Facebook. Really, I’m not. Besides, I’m just one guy, and they have millions of users. But, again, the scariest thing about FB to me is that they just don’t seem competent enough to handle the responsibility of possessing your personal data:

“We were recently made aware of one case where if a user takes a specific route on the site, advertisers may see that they clicked on their own profile and then clicked on an ad,” the Facebook spokesman said. “We fixed this case as soon as we heard about it.”

I’m sure Google knows more about me than Facebook ever will, but there’s a (very slight) level of trust in their competence I don’t have with FB. I’m willing to let them slide on that initial Buzz snafu. Plus, the tools they provide are way more useful and powerful than Farmville and Mafia Wars.

Feel free to “Like” this post by the way. 😛

Loss of a Teammate

May 19, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

"I live in a world without corners" --Ian Loope (1987-2010)

I got the horrible news that a former rugby teammate of mine passed away. I knew it would happen at some point in time, but Ian was only 23 years old, so this was a huge surprise. He was a physically gifted player who was also lucky enough to have a mental aptitude for the game. He had an unbelievable amount of grit and fortitude as well. Ian started playing men’s club rugby at the age of 18, and I can’t remember him ever backing down for a second against more experienced and physically mature players. He was called on by our club very early on to contribute on the field in some very tough situations, and he always delivered.

And off the field…well, there has never been and there never will be another “Colonel Kurtz”. Two things were guaranteed when you talked to him: (1) you were going to laugh, and (2) you were going to learn something. He earned the nickname Colonel Kurtz on one of the first road trips he took with the club. After rumbling for an 80 meter try, single handedly demolishing the defense of one of our most bitter rivals, Ian spent the hours following the match waxing philosophical on subjects far beyond the comprehension of most of his audience.

But man, was it entertaining.

Guys like Ian personify the list of reasons I play rugby. His passing is a reminder to ruck the ones you love every chance you get.

Ian Loope–P4L+.

More Proof By Contradiction

April 26, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

Does anyone look at organizations like this one that are doing good things in communities and think, “Why does this organization even exist? The government could perform this service with much more compassion and efficiency.”

Didn’t think so.

Happy Earth Day (1970)

April 22, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

Don’t get me wrong. I love Earth Day. Earth Day 1990 gave me the opportunity to see The Bellamy Brothers, Roseanne Cash, and Rodney Crowell all at the same venue. For free! Can’t beat that.

Luckily, there will always be some sort of environmental scare going on, so even if they change over 40 years or so, we’ll still have the opportunity to listen to some good music while surrounded by chicks who marinate in paciulli.

Here’s my favorite part from Reason’s article:

Kenneth Watt was less equivocal in his Swarthmore speech about Earth’s temperature. “The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years,” he declared. “If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”

I guess the lesson here is that we did too good a job heeding this warning and should avoid overshooting the mark going forward?

Obama Is A…

April 14, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

Inspired by this post via Instapundit, I thought I’d build a little Google Spreadsheets chart based on nothing but some semi-random words. People love charts, right?

Below are the number of Google results I got today from doing a search on “Obama is a _______”. I did this for my own amusement, and I wouldn’t put too much stock in these results. Everyone knows that popular opinion and popular vote count only matter on Wikipedia and if the guy you wanted to win the Presidency didn’t.

Feel free to suggest your own phrases in the comments, and I’ll update the chart.

Five Android Apps to Add After the Hero 2.1 Update

April 13, 2010 / Scott / 2 Comments

I’ve been waiting patiently for Sprint to update the HTC Hero to Android v2.1. First it was going to happen in March. Then April 9 was the date. The latest date I’ve heard is April 16…we’ll see? Anyway, there are several apps I’ve wanted to grab for a while, but couldn’t get because I’m stuck on version 1.5. Yeah, I know I could root my phone and do it all now, but I have too many other things to do to waste time trying to fix my phone after I screw it up.

New Google Maps

Turn by turn navigation is the big selling point. Sprint’s turn by turn navigation is atrocious. Ok, maybe that’s not fair. Once you have it running, it’s not too bad, but I’ve found it’s much more convenient to just use Google Maps without the turn by turn feature. Another reason it will be great to have Google Maps work with another little gem I want to grab as soon as I get the upgrade…

Google Buzz

I haven’t given up on it yet. In fact, I think it still has the most potential. As soon as it will let me post Buzz->Twitter it will probably be my go-to social app. But right now I can’t even use the Buzz Widget. It’s sort of ironic that it’s already out there for the iPhone, but I have to blame Sprint/HTC for using such an old version of Android (hurry up with the update!)

Google Earth Mobile

It’s just a toy. But it’s one of my favorite toys to use on a computer. On second thought, maybe I don’t want this on my phone. The ability to multitouch and fly to your current location are very cool. I’ve been in a situation recently where I was trying to use landmarks to navigate (Maps and GPS fail), and this would have been very helpful. Again, the ability to apply layers is very cool, and I’m interested to see how well the multitouch navigation works with it.

FlyScreen

FlyScreen will actually run on Android 1.6, so until the Sprint Hero is upgraded to 2.1 you can’t use it yet. But this is a really cool little app that replaces your stock lockscreen with stuff you use the most. That means fewer clicks/touches to do the things you do the most. Not a good app for people who always lock their phones, but for those of us who seldom leave the house, it’s perfect!

Thick Buttons

If you have fat fingers (literally) like I do, this app will make typing emails and texts on your touch screen a heckuva lot easier. It predicts which letters you are going to want to type next based on the letters you’ve already typed and enlarges them, making useless letters smaller. As someone who types reasonably fast on a standard QWERTY keyboard, I’m constantly frustrated by typing on that tiny screen.

What If The Federal Government CAN Make You Buy A Product?

March 30, 2010 / Scott / 3 Comments

I’m glad the AGs of various states are challenging the federal mandate that compels us to purchase health care coverage from the (“evil”) insurance companies. My worry is that they will lose. And once that precedent is set, what else could we be forced to purchase by law?

Will we be required to have bank accounts, purchased from evil banks? After all, if you have money, you must be participating in commerce, so that can be regulated.

What about funeral insurance? We’re all going to die (I’m working on this one) and there’s a cost associated with that, for now. Or maybe someone will come to the realization that since all of us will need our remains disposed of at some point, this service is a right. And since it’s a right, no one will be allowed to make money on it, making it “free”.

Proof by iteration is a concept that should be taught at around age 10.

Prenatal Care the TSA Way

March 26, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

I went through security at ATL this afternoon. Believe it or not, the story gets even worse…

As I was collecting all my carry on items after they were checked, one of the TSA sheriffs calls out to another over his shoulder, “Hey George! She says she knows you! But just for one night!”

I looked over and noticed the lady behind me was pregnant. She didn’t look very amused at all, but she didn’t raise a stink about it. That’ may be the most unfortunate part of the incident.

As for the TSA agent who made the comment, I guess it would have been too unprofessional for him to say, “Hey George! Check out this tramp you knocked up one night a few months ago and never spoke to again.”

What kind of culture exists within an agency that would make anyone think they had a license to say something like that? What would happen in your business if you spoke about a customer that way, especially right in front of them? Get ready for HealthCare.gov. I expect jackasses like this guy will be among the first to put in for a position admitting soon to be moms into the hospital. He probably is working on a bunch of fat jokes as we speak.

Three Winning Tips From a Hide and Seek Professional

March 18, 2010 / Scott / 4 Comments

I’ve been playing a lot of Hide and Seek lately with players of varying skill level–mostly friendly games, but there’ve been a few high stakes sessions too. I’ve been taking detailed notes, and am really working to refine my game. I’m not giving away all of my secrets, but here are three tips you can use to keep most opponents confounded. Just keep in mind that every game (and every round) of Hide and Seek is different, and your opponent isn’t just “It”, but the other hiders as well.

1. If you’re “It”, count as slowly as possible.
This flies in the face of hide and seek conventional wisdom. You’d intuitively think that counting faster would allow your opponents less time to hide, and, as a result, increase your chances of discovering them while they are still in an unprepared state. However, this strategy rarely works in practice. Counting slowly, on the other hand, gives the enemy lots of time to find a hiding spot, and lots of time to get restless and impatient in that spot. If given enough time, your opponents are sure to be faced with the need to scratch or cough. This small slip up will give you the upper hand.

2. Pick a hiding spot as close to Base as possible and 180 degrees away from the direction a fleet footed “It” is likely to begin their search.
This is somewhat of a high risk tactic, especially for less experienced players. But if “It” begins their search in a direction somewhere around 180 degrees away from your hiding spot, you will have an opportunity to sprint to Base early in the round, not only ensuring you won’t have to be “It” for the next round, but also giving you plenty of time to watch the current round unfold from a safe place while you plot your next hiding spot. Just make sure you find a spot that’s close–you are unlikely to outrun a speedy “It” in a distance greater than 40 yards.

3. Choose a hiding place with several intermediate hiding spots nearby.
This is easier in the later rounds of the game, when you’ve had the chance to scout out some of the other players hiding spots you may not have found on your own. Use the intermediate spots to work your way back to Base, but still remain hidden. This is an especially effective tactic if “It” has already checked these spots and cleared them.

Gov’ment Needs Some Very Special Engineers

February 24, 2010 / Scott / 2 Comments

Via Instapundit: NHTSA Has No Software Engineers To Analyze Toyota

Not only are they missing software engineers in general, they may be in need of engineers with some very special knowledge. There are potentially two different software components involved in auto electronics. First, obviously, there’s the actual firmware that runs the electronic controllers.

But another possible point of failure exists in the software that tests the electronics. To make things simple, imagine a specialized computer that interfaces with an electronic controller and simulates the inputs coming to the controller from the vehicle. This computer also measures the responses of the electronics based on these different states. These tests are developed based on a very comprehensive, rigorous, and strict set of requirements and specifications. If the setup for the tests and measurements are documented incorrectly, or if these tests were performed incorrectly or (eek) not at all, there could be a problem.

Now, let’s just say this…

In a former life, I was employed by a company that may or may not have been involved in manufacturing automotive electronics. And I may or may not have worked as one of the software engineers who programmed the testing computers. These test programs may or may not have been written in a programming language that was developed internally by the supplier and not used in any other company or industry. So it would take either specific knowledge to do an audit of this software, or at least a bit of time invested in learning how that language works.

Oh yeah…this company may or may not have been a major electronics supplier to Toyota.

I’m glad there haven’t been any issues with the model years I may or may not have been involved in testing.

New Google Maps

Gettin’ After It!