Size Matters.

Yes, when it comes to computers, size often matters. Apple realized that and created the MacBook Air. Many Apple fanboys responded with a “wow”, Jesus Jobs had created another incredible gadget. Of course it turned out that many companies had already manufactured computers thinner than the MacBook Air, but there is a good chance that you have not heard of any of them because they lacked the hype-machine that Apple can use now: The internet.

[Dell] also made a small computer once that you probably never heard of, the Latitude X1. It’s tiny, with a decent CPU, a good screen - and the best thing - I’ve got it right here. Continue reading "Size Matters."

Preparing.

I’m now officially on vacation, even though the flight out of the country is not until five in the afternoon tomorrow. I’ve packed all the stuff I can today, with only some clothing left to cram into the suitcase.

Since I’ll spend a lot of time at airports and in the air I’ve got two books to entertain me; “The Gunslinger” by Stephen King and “Chasm City” by Alastair Reynolds. From my review of another Alastair Reynolds book, “Revelation Space“, you’ll probably gather that I’m not too thrilled about the author, but after having read the first 50 pages of Ken Macleod’s “Learing the World”, “Revelation Space” stands out as a masterpiece by comparison.

After my previous long haul, that time to Hong Kong, I swore that I would get a PSP for my next long trip but now I very much doubt that it will happen. It’s a rather pricy gadget and I’m not traveling that much these days. Initially, I’d planned to rip some DVDs and put them on the iPhone instead, but then I remembered Apple’s unbelievably stupid design that makes it impossible to insert most head phones so I scrapped that plan.

Hopefully my iPod and the two books will be enough entertainment to keep me flying.

So, to conclude; tomorrow I’m off, Oslo-London-Hong Kong-Cairns-Hong Kong-London-Montreal-London-Oslo, all in just two weeks. Keep checking back for updates, as long as there is GPRS or Wi-Fi coverage, I’ll post something every now and then.

Calibrate.

Since I’ve now finally passed on support duty to the next guy on the list, I can run with the Nike+ kit. To work well, the shoe sensor needs to be calibrated so I spent half an hour at Bislet Stadium yesterday to do it properly. I was a bit surprised to find out that the main stadium is actually open for the public parts of the year, to use for free.

Now the sensor is calibrated correctly, during the one test run I did around the track it measured exactly 400 meters, like it should. Now I can find check how long the routes I’ve been running so far really are. Excellent.

I had my first hands-on experience with an Apple iPhone today. One of the guys at work is sort of a cell phone nerd - which is a good thing since he is pretty much working with cell phone related tasks all day - and he knows a guy who knows a guy and so on until some guy is living in the US of A and that guy sent one over.

It’s thin for sure, but way too large if you - like me - sometimes have your cell phone in your pant pocket because you need both hands for something else. The phone is surprisingly fast, but then again I’m used to the sluggish Nokia and Sony Ericsson user interfaces. Still no real reason to really, really want one.

Pulse.

A while back I borrowed Gine’s Polar heart rate monitor. It was interesting to see how my heart rate affected my training, so I decided to get my own heart rate monitor.

I’m now the proud owner of a Polar CS300 Cycling Computer, “the optimum choice for a cyclist who also enjoys other cardio sports”. Among the features are

• Wireless Polar CS speed sensor - New advanced sensor measuring the cycling speed.
• Cycling Energy Output - Tracks the cycling workload as kcal/h and kcal/km.
• Estimated Time of Arrival - Enables you to foresee the time of arrival based on your cycling speed.
• SpeedPointer - Indicates the relation between current speed and average speed.
• ZonePointer - Makes it easy to stay in your target zone.
• Polar OwnCal - Counts and displays calorie expenditure.
• Polar OwnCode - Prevents cross-talk from other heart rate monitors.
• Polar OwnZone - Determines personal heart rate limits for a training session.

And quite a few other bells and whistles. I took the CS300 for its first real test today on my third trip of the season to Sognsvann. So far it looks like it’s able to do everything the ad promises and more. It will, for instance, start to beep to inform you that you’re out of your zone. I have no idea what that means, but it’s probably a good thing to stay in the zone. Staying in your zone is always a good thing.

I think I have to read more about training and exercise theory.

SleepTracking.

Work is taking too much of my time. I’m this close to popping right now, and that’s the reason why I’m writing this entry while I should’ve been working my ass off.

And now for something completely different: I’ve been using the SleepTracker for a few nights now and I’ll have to admit that it actually works. I have felt more refreshed when I have woken and that certainly is a good thing. What the SleepTracker can’t do, unfortunately, is to fill you with joy and a will to go to work. So it’s still way to easy just to turn off the alarm, move over and go back to sleep.

But the bottom line is that the SleepTracker does everything it promises. I can’t guarantee that it’ll work for you, too, so don’t come complaining to me, but I strongly recommend that you get one. If you live in Norway, just like me, buying one is a real PITA. I wasn’t able to find any stores, neither offline nor online, that sold the gadget, maybe you’re a better shopper than I am. A Danish firm has the rights to sell the SleepTracker in Norway, but they have still to get a store online. I ended up ordering it from a Swedish web shop, CoolStuff.se. Unfortunately, they don’t send to Norway and I had to have it shipped to Tomas who lives in Stockholm.

Quite the hassle, but certainly worth it.