Keep Taking the Happy Pills

Personal Rapid Transit

2008-01-07T17:34:00Z

This Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) proposal is still one of the coolest ideas for improving the commuting situation that I have seen. Microsoft has a really large corporate campus with buildings spread out over many square miles. Going to meetings in another building today involves driving yourself, taking a campus bus or walking. Given the choice I'd walk rain or shine, but often you don't have enough time to leave the extra 10 - 20 minutes at each end of the meeting. And some buildings are too far away to walk too.

In any case, I'd like to see a system like this adopted for an even wider audience than just one company. Wouldn't it be great to be able to get on one of these at the end of your road and shoot all the way to work or into town. It would beat the pants of today's grubby and inconvenient mass transit systems.

The Smarter Emergency Kit

2007-10-30T20:47:42Z

Wired Magazine did an article on emergency readiness. I could not for the life of me find it on their web site, so here's what they recommend:

The House Kit

Sealed in plastic trash can or chest. For use in catastrophic situations, like earthquake, fire, etc.. You should probably be able to get it into the back of your car.

A. First aid kit. Bandages, alcohol, cotton balls, antidiarrheals, anti-inflammatories (ibuprofen), prescription meds.

B. Clothes. Full change, including warm outer layers (wool or synthetic) and sturdy shoes for each person under your roof.

C. Plastic Sheeting. Fiber reinforced, laminated Poly. film, 6mm.

D. Zip Ties.

E. Water. Gallon per person for 3 days. 16 drops unscented bleach makes a gallon potable.

F. Food. Dehydrated soups, canned tuna and veggies, nuts and candy.

G. Flashlight. LED like Inova X5.

H. Protective wear. Waterproof, cut resistant Kevlar gloves and N95 face masks.

I. Tools. Crowbar, adjustable wrench, screwdrivers, staple gun, rope.

J. Matches. Waterproof, windproof in ziplock bag with dry tinder.

The Go Pack

Keep in backpack ready to go. For use when you need to leave at a moments notice.

K. Radio & cell phones. Cheap tranny is fine, but Eton Grundig FR300 is even better.

L. Cash. $500 in small bills.

M. Documents. Home insurance, contact numbers, medical insurance card, passport, bank account numbers, photos, local map, spare keys.

N. Mylar space blanket.

O. Clothes, etc.. Hat, socks, toiletries.

P. Food & water. Sports and nutrition bars, nuts trail, mix & water.

Q. Essential medicines. Sunblock, ibuprofen, contact lens kit.

R. Duct tape.

S. Signal device. Greatland Laser's Rescue Laser and Fox 40 whistle.

T. Multitool. Leatherman with can opener, knife blade, screwdrivers.

Top 25 Greatest Science Books of All Time

2007-10-30T16:57:16Z

In December 2006 Discover Magazine did an article on the 25 greatest science books of all time. You can find them here. The list was interesting, but let's be honest how many of us have actually read anything by Charles Darwin? The reader's response was rather weak too. Personally I've only read about half a dozen of the books on the list. Perhaps there's an opportunity for someone to write a synopsis of all the books in one single easily digestible paperback.

I wrote this entry because I've been carrying around the torn out pages of the article in my notebook since last December. How sad is that.

Halo 3 Videos

2007-10-03T23:13:18Z

Amusing Halo 3 videos are starting to permeate the web. If you are not a video gamer read no further. If you are and you aren't playing Halo 3 ... ARE YOU CRAZY! Go buy a copy. A cool feature is that you can take video of a game and publish export it to the web. Check out My WiLL Be Done for an amazing lucky shot. It almost looks like a homing missile.

Dr. Who Theme Music

2007-09-04T22:17:57Z

I'm a big fan of Dr. Who. I'm not going to apologize. It's campy British sci-fi, with low budgets, cheesy plots and terrible acting, but I love it. The current series, with David Tennant, is the best ever. In my area it's being shown on CBC. Catch it if you can.

I stumbled across this YouTube vid on a re-making of the classic Dr. Who theme tune back in the 80's. This was a time, as my friend Lucien informed me the other day, when there was no digital music generation. Everything was analog, and being able to tweak the dials and sliders well was as much playing the instrument as hitting the keyboard.

What I did on my vacation (part 1)

2007-09-04T18:04:00Z

I just got back from my summer vacation. We spent a week in Puerto Rico (more on that in another blog) and a week at home. I always like to have a project that has nothing to do with computers, so I built a garden shed. I didn't use a plan or kit or anything, just scribbled a design on a sheet of paper, bought some wood and went for it. I was really pleased with how it came out. This was my first experience of putting gutters up, and it wasn't hard at all. What was hard was building the shed up against the house. I had to build the frame and the back wall with it pulled out from the house, and the push it back in before putting the roof on and the whole thing got to heavy. It's going to fun when it comes time to paint the house! The gutter was a safety precaution because I didn't want the water from the roof pooling next to the foundation of the house. I bought all the materials from Home Depot, and looking at my receipts it looks like I spent about $400 to build it. That's certainly cheaper than the $1000+ shed kits that you can buy, plus I got exactly the shed that I wanted.

The Fastest Stupid Car Ever

2007-09-01T04:52:29Z

Sorry, I'm on a bit of a Top Gear binge at the moment. Watch the fastest stupid car ever - I laughed so hard I was crying.

Second Largest Underground Car Park

2007-08-11T20:48:39Z

My company (Microsoft) is currently digging a really large hole just on the other side of the freeway from my office. It's reportedly going to be the second largest underground car park in the western hemisphere. Here's a recent TV spot about it. Parking can be a really big problem around Microsoft. Kudos to the company for spending the huge amount of money to do this just so that employees can have some open space to hang out in.

3 Really Great Top Gear Episodes

2007-08-06T19:37:36Z

I watched three brilliant Top Gear episodes this weekend on You Tube.

The first was a review of the Ariel Atom. Watch Jeremy's face deform under the sub-three second acceleration. His comments about middle aged men on motorcycles cracked me up.

The second was the review of the Ferrari F430. What a beautiful piece of machinery.

Finally there was the face off between a Mitsubishi Evo VIII and a Lamborghini Mercielago. That one is for Rich.

Chris Sharma Rules!

2007-07-25T03:38:43Z

Chris Sharma is certainly an amazing rock climber. He isn't massive or particularly graceful, but he has amazing determination and arm strength. Here is a selection of my favorite videos featuring him on YouTube.

Dreamcatcher. A beautiful traverse line on an overhanging lip with the crux right at the end.
Barcelona Competition Bouldering. Just complete thuggery!
La Rambla. A really bad camera angle, but about halfway through just look at how crappy those holds are!
Access Fund Boulder Project. This reminds me of how Johnny Dawes used to climb if anyone remembers him.

Lion vs. Alligator vs. Buffalo. Buffalo wins.

2007-07-25T02:55:38Z

If you haven't already, watch this amazing amateur video on You Tube of a baby water buffalo getting attacked by a lion. The buffalo is then also attacked by an alligator. Amazingly the buffalo herd arrives and fights off both attackers, and the baby buffalo walks away!

Sky Dive Snohomish

2007-07-25T02:23:55Z

Ah yes, sky diving. One of the few extreme sports that I have yet to indulge in. I mean I've done rock climbing, scuba diving, bungee, skiing, snowboarding, rollerblading, ice skating, mountain biking, road biking, skateboarding, BMX bikes, adventure races, triathlons, scree running, motocross, and white water kayaking. So why not sky diving? Hmmm, good question. Turns out there's a really good place to jump just up the road from me in Snohomish.

Cheapass Games

2007-07-25T02:16:50Z

Steve Carroll pointed me to this collection of cool and yes, cheap, games from Cheapass Games. I haven't actually tried any yet, and some of them look a bit screwy, but hey, at least I've blogged about it.

BoardGameGeek

2007-07-25T02:11:24Z

If you veer sharply off the Hasbro path you will find, like I did recently, that there are some really awesome family board games that don't suck. Check out BoardGameGeek for a selection of really awesome games that will keep you amused for many, many hours. My current favorites are Puerto Rico and Settlers of Catan with the Seafarers expansion.

Derailleur adjustment

2007-07-25T01:55:48Z

It's quite hard to find a definitive and easy to understand article on adjusting modern bicycle derailleurs on the web. About the best one is this one by Sheldon Brown. It just needs a few more pictures.

The best thing I can suggest if you are worried about it is to do what I did. Take your front and rear derailleurs completely off your bike and put them back on again. If you manage it once then you know you can do it again, and it will no longer intimidate you. If you screw it up, well then there's always your friendly local bicycle store isn't there?