Archive for the ‘random’ Category

Be Careful with the Laces! Better Double Knot Those Bad Boys!

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

So I normally don’t double knot my laces when I run.  It has never been a problem, until now…

I read somewhere that 90% of Vibram FiveFinger (VFF) sales happen in the United States. This figure always made me really annoyed that the VFF Speeds (the ones with laces) never got to the US. When I go for runs I like attaching my keys to my shoes using the shoe laces. like so:

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I don’t really enjoy having things in the little pouch inside of my running shorts because then my keys jingle while I am running (I have to carry 2 keys). I don’t particularly like the idea of people thinking Santa Clause is coming to town when I run by so I attach the keys to my shoes. I like running in VFF’s so before I got these VFF Speeds, that I found out are fake, I just dealt with the jingle.

But anyways, back to the statement that I opened up this post with. As I was jogging over at the Happy Valley Sports Center today I think I discovered at least one of the reasons why the US has not been enjoying the wonderful VFF Speeds. And also it may explain at least a small reason for the development of the strange Speed Lacing System that is in use on the Bikila LS 2011 model.

As I was jogging I turned around to look to see how for Crystal was behind me. I guess turning my head in that manner caused me to change the angle of my left foot. Normally this would not be a problem but the Vibrams are unique! As my left leg moved forward, my left big toe got caught in the large loop in my laces. Before I knew it I had tripped and I was face down on the floor with my big toe caught in my shoe laces. Luckily due to my cat-like reflexes I was able to catch myself before my face slammed into the track. But still quite embarrassing.

After this ordeal my brain went “bing!”, so that’s why! The United States is full of crazy litigious citizens. I think the amount of lawsuits filed in the US is just wrong. If I was a decision maker at Vibram, and this came up during testing, I wouldn’t have released it in the US either. As soon as the wrong person gets their big toe stuck in the laces, who knows how much they might have to pay in legal fees even if they successfully fought off the lawsuit (the Shadow knows). If they didn’t win the suit then it would be very annoying indeed.

But whatever, this was totally my fault I will keep wearing the shoes and just tie the laces properly. Next year when I get my Bikila LS shoes from REI I will try to get rid of the Speed Lace System and put in normal show laces.

I could be totally wrong about this but just my thoughts. It really doesn’t make sense to me that the VFF Speeds would not be available in the US, their biggest market.

But I think the most important lesson here is:

Your big toe can get caught in the laces so don’t be stupid like me, double knot your laces when wearing VFF Speeds.

The Nexus S hmm…..

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

The Nexus One is the first HTC phone I have ever owned and as far ass hardware is concerned it is by far the worst phone I have ever owned. Two weeks after I got my first phone the speaker broke and it had to be exchanged. In both of my Nexus One’s the touch screen was absolutely abysmal. But I stuck with it because I LOVED the software. And I still do love the software.

After reading that there would never be a Nexus 2 I thought all was lost and that I would be stuck with a crappy touch screen for another year. I really don’t like those user interfaces that cell phone manufacturers add on to the Android Experience. I just want the plain vanilla android. And after having to exchange my phone after two weeks I wasn’t about to void my warranty by rooting the phone to get the experience that I wanted. So I resigned myself to dealing with crappy HTC hardware. And after trying to get it exchanged for the touch screen, I now know I will NEVER buy an HTC cell phone again.

Then on November 16th, 5 days late, I found out about the Nexus S. The Nexus S is really the Nexus 2 with a mirrored 2 according to Eric Schmidt. When I heard about it I though “OMFG, FINALLY! I no longer have to feel all crappy about my phone!” Then it just keeps getting better! It’s going to have Gingerbread (Android 2.3), It will have NFC (Near Field Communication), it’s going to be coming out soon (more on the “soon” later), It will be sold at Brick and Mortar stores (Best Buy), and most importantly it is NOT going to be made by HTC! I was instantly in love.

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I know that as soon as I get back from Hong Kong I am going to throw down 600 dollars and buy that phone and junk my Nexus One on Ebay. The Samsung Nexus S with the “pure google experience” is where it’s gonna be.

So in my excitement I sat down and watched the entire talk with Eric Schmidt at the Web 2.0 Summit and actually say the bad ass phone! But then came the downer. When Eric Schmidt said that Gingerbread will be coming out in the “next few weeks” I was very sad. This reminded me of the Froyo debacle from earlier this year. Google said Froyo would be coming out in a few weeks, or soon, or when it is ready, and it took months after that announcement.

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Then I started hearing about hardware issues, and dual core optimized software. Supposedly at the last minute they decided to add a dual core processor to the device but the software is not optimized for dual core. For these reasons they delayed the November 16th release date. But in any case I hope that this phone comes out in time for the Christmas holidays. But with Google’s track record, I am starting to think that it won’t.

I really want the Nexus line of phones to continue because I enjoy the pure Google experience with tethering, no crappy UI’s, no AT&T telling me I can’t install outside applications, the ability to travel outside of the US and use my phone without having to figure out Black Snow and Cydia, and no Man with his foot on my neck! So please, please, please, do this right Google and Samsung. Please get the holiday sales so that this Nexus phone will be both a success both financially and in  terms of getting android out there to the public. I know that people like me will buy the phone no matter when it comes out because that’s how we do things. We are Android fan boys and girls haha. But you have to get the normal people on the bandwagon too!

Whenever the Nexus S does come out I will be buying it if I am in the US at the time. I won’t be back from Hong Kong until December 31st!

For all those people who think that “Samsung sucks and they shouldn’t have been chosen to make the phone and HTC makes good quality phones” you obviously haven’t suffered with the Nexus One’s abysmal touchscreen. the touch screen issue on the Nexus One is well documented and all over the internets. And HTC has done what? Zip, Zilch, Nada. In fact they make a big deal about how impossible it is to exchange the phone when you call them about problems. Then when they finally transfer you to the warranty exchange department, the warranty exchange department transfers you back to the tech support as soon as they find out you have a Nexus One. So yeah I am EAGER to get off of HTC.

Even if 99% of your products are great, how you handle that last 1% says volumes about your company. And those volumes about HTC are full of bad tech support and not taking care of their customers.

So anyways, that’s all folks I’ll write something else later!

RJ’s Last Day in the USA for 2010

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

So yeah today is my last day in the USA for 2010. Well I guess if you look at my itinerary you will see that I am actually coming back on December 31st. But in order to sound impressive I am going to stick with this being the last day in the US in 2010. Actually, since I am sitting in the airport right now for my first connection to Vancouver these are really my last few hours in the US.

Due to a very long story we had to get to the airport at 11AM since we couldn’t check our bags until 5 hours before the flight we got on the stand by list for the 4:05PM flight and checked our bags. unfortunately there is only the one flight to Hong Kong so we will just have to wait longer in Vancouver but at least we are free of our big luggage. This will serve as a slight correction to the itinerary linked to above if we get on this earlier flight.

But anyways the real purpose of this blog entry is to show two pictures. Here is a picture of all of my stuff laid out on my bed.

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As you can see I have quite a lot of stuff there but here is the next picture. This is the backpack that I am carrying with me backpacking through Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

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Can you believe that all the stuff on that bed is now in that backpack? well it is! But yeah that is 6 weeks of stuff. We’ll have to be washing clothes all the time but I think it will be fun. Oh I believe in my Recent Purchases entry I mentioned the failure of my cheap backpack. The backpack pictured above is the new one I bought. I got it for 89.95 from the REI outlet, it’s the 2009 Deuter Futura 40 backpack. The original price was 129.95 but I got it at a discount. Here is the link, if you are looking into a small-ish backpack for backpacking then this is the deal for you. I suggest that you get it while it lasts haha.

Anyways it is time for me to go! I am off to Vancouver and then Hong Kong! at some point I will have to write a bit about the Kindle 3G+Wifi that I received recently. In my opinion it is the most amazing thing that has happened to reading since the Gutenberg printing press.

Peace!