Subscribe to
Posts
Comments
NSLog(); Header Image

Elliptical Broke… and Repaired

So, the elliptical we just got broke already. When we turned it on, the user selection screen would scroll rapidly between "USER 1" "USER 2" and "GUEST". Pushing virtually any button would stop the switching as long as it occurred, but when you let up they'd cycle through again.

Every button except one - pushing the "+" button for resistance on the right handlebar would have no effect. Disconnecting the wire to the right arm would allow the machine to function normally.

We called LiveStrong and four days later, an entirely new right arm showed up. I installed it in about two minutes and it works fine. They included no instructions to send the old, broken arm back, so we're keeping it.

Bummer that such a new machine broke already… and awesome that the company was so quick to fix the problem.

You Go, Penguin!

Religion and Intelligence

As we obtain knowledge as a culture ((I don't know that we're getting "more intelligent" but we're certainly getting more knowledgeable.)), are we seeing a decrease or an increase in the number of people who are "religious"?

Are the two related? Or is a change in the "religiousness" of the world unrelated to an increase in knowledge?

Truth is a Defense for Libel

"Truth is a defense for libel, not for graciousness." - Unattributed

I'm admittedly blunt and direct when it comes to things, but I'm softening - learning to be more gracious (("More gracious" is simply moving towards graciousness. Quite honestly I'm not sure I'll ever get there.)) with each passing year. It's tough, and I still fail a hundred times for each success, but if that number can be lowered to 98, and 94, and eventually if the second number can be larger, then that's good. Progress, that is.

Tornado Rips Hardware Store

Feynman Quote

I like this quote and think it applies to people in other areas as well, including athletes.

There are two kinds of geniuses: the 'ordinary' and the 'magicians'. An ordinary genius is a fellow whom you and I would be just as good as, if we were only many times better. There is no mystery as to how his mind works. Once we understand what they've done, we feel certain that we, too, could have done it. It is different with the magicians. Even after we understand what they have done it is completely dark. Richard Feynman is a magician of the highest calibre.

Mark Kac

QotD: Your Dying Meal

If you could have one meal, regardless of cost (both financial and health), what would it be? Describe it in as much detail as you please.

My answer is probably lame: some whole milk, corn, mashed potatoes, and a big ol' juicy slab of steak, perfectly seasoned, with some chocolate cherry ice cream for dessert.

Eye-Fi Card on the Way

Eye-Fi CardWhen I'd previously asked about Eye-Fi cards I was interested in them primarily from a tech, ease-of-use perspective.

Well, a few people using Analyzr have asked about "live capture" of swings. This has historically been done on a machine hooked up to two Firewire- or, occasionally, USB-driven cameras to capture swings immediately into the software. Some software will note impact, record the two seconds prior and the one second after, and import that as a swing.

The downsides are that this is only really feasible indoors, with cameras recording 30 to (at most) 60 frames per second, and every swing will be recorded while in live recording mode. Cameras simply aren't being made these days to support this, so the feature is slowly dying in cameras as well.

With the Eye-Fi, I think instructors can get you the best of both worlds. They can record the swings they want, in high-speed (120, 240, 300 FPS), and they can sync the video to their computer for easy importing.

Perhaps we'll do a screencast on this…

Mike Bennett and Andy Plummer at Whispering Woods

Mike Bennett and Andy Plummer are conducing a one-day school at Whispering Woods and the Golf Evolution Academy on Saturday, April 30, 2011.

Unlike the previous post, they teach a golf swing that makes sense. 😉

Jackson Straight Method to Golf

Uhm, what?

Thunderbolt Looks Cool

An article from Macworld explains all. Looks pretty awesome.

New MacBook Pros!

The long wait is over (except for those poor folks wanting a new MacBook)!

I helped a friend pick out a 13" model today. They pack a good punch and are nicely sized.

SteerMouse

Why must SteerMouse be "reconnected" every morning? Why can't it automatically poll to see if it's still "connected" and reconnect if it is not?

The software works fairly well - and is a bit less confusing than USB Overdrive ((Dead product, sadly.)) - but this "reconnect" thing is annoying.

Anti-Spam Tools for phpBB

I've recently helped a friend set up a phpBB forum, and we're wondering if there's one really good anti-spam tool available for phpBB.

I've used and am familiar with a few of the vBulletin ones, and Akismet does a pretty good job, but I'm not sure what's available for phpBB.

Any recommendations?

Mac OS X Lion

http://www.apple.com/macosx/lion/

Looking forward to:

  • Mission Control (Spaces Done Better?)
  • Gestures
  • Auto Save (not much)
  • Versions (a little)
  • Resume (nice)

Don't really care about:

  • App Store
  • LaunchPad
  • Full-Screen Apps (care a little)
  • Mail 5 (eh, whatevs)
  • AirDrop (isn't this just the public drop box?)
  • FileVault