They are trying to purchase another petabox (that’s one quadrillion bytes). Donations are being matched 3-for-1 till the end of the year, so now is a good time to give them money and support digital archiving.
Statistically, 38° is the “oh-my-god-we’re-all-gonna-die slope”. An inclinometer is a useful tool to carry to help evaluate the potential of a particular slope. There’s no replacing hands-on training, but Bruce Temper’s Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain is an excellent resource for learning more than you want to know about avalanches. (If you live in the northwest, you should give money to the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center. They do good work.)
And I found some.
Over at Cold Thistle Dane muses on the appropriate use of a belay jacket. At Cascade Climbers he has an article reviewing various synthetic puffy jackets. (I’ve been using the Rab Xenon for over a year now and am very fond if it – although the Hill People Gear Mountain Serape, which I purchased last December, has replaced the Xenon in some settings.)
Flickr has launched a new iOS application. I’ve never owned a smartphone or a tablet, so I don’t have any experience with applications in the mobile space, but I was linked to a review of the application at the New York Times which discusses the future of Flickr in light of the app. It struck me with one particular statement:
The updated mobile experience now feels like a social network that focuses on photography, not a photography Web site that happens to have a social network.
I signed up for Flickr in 2007. It was my first plunge into the whole Web 2.0 thing, and the first web application that I ever payed for. As I wrote back then, what appealed to me about Flickr was that it a social-networking site that was built around something. The reason I have never gotten into services like MySpace and Facebook is that they seem to me to be websites that do social networking for the sake of social networking. That has never appealed to me. They offer no services that don’t exist elsewhere.
In contrast, take a look at the social networking websites that I am active on. Flickr is a photo hosting website that happens to have social networking features. Github is a code hosting website that happens to have social networking features. I take advantage of the primary function of those websites – photo or code hosting – but I also gain extra value with the secondary social-networking features. It surprised me to see that the inverse was true for the author of the New York Times piece.
My Flickr Pro account expired last month. As has been my habit for the past couple of years, I debated if I wanted to renew it, or to use the opportunity to jump ship to a different service like OpenPhoto or MediaGoblin. In the end, I decided to renew and put off the move till next year. If Flickr is indeed changing from a photography website that happens to have a social network to a social network that happens to have photography, my move may be expedited.
In his talk from Defcon 18 (transcript available), Moxie argues that what we were preparing for was fascism and what we got was social democracy. For me it was an eye-opening explanation, and one that I think is important to understand given the ever-increasing network effect of technologies that are a not only a danger to personal privacy but can also grow to threaten free thought.
When the book was first published I assumed it would be just another entry into the media hubbub around WikiLeaks. When I saw that John Young – cranky old man of the cypherpunk movement – gave it a positive review I decided that it would be worth a read. While the book does center on Assange, Greenberg does an admirable job of tracing the history of the cypherpunks and describing what in the future we will probably refer to as a sequel to the cryptowars. It is a recommended read.
Last March I bought a pair of Continental Ultra Gatorskin tires. Their flat protection proved to be excellent – I have not had a single flat with them – but I found the durability of the tread to be wanting. They are now worn down to the point where they are basically racing slicks, which, while fun, is certainly not appropriate for wet weather riding. I don’t own a cycling computer or keep track of my miles in any other way, so I’m not sure how many miles the tires have on them. I think it’s fair to say that I average about 500 miles a month. The tires are likely to be just shy of 5,000 miles. For a pricey tire like the Gatorskins, I’d prefer to see a bit more longevity.
The various tires in the Marathon series from Schwalbe have an excellent reputation among long distance riders, both in terms of flat protection and durability. Peter White maintains a description of the various models which helped me to understand the differences between them. I decided that the Marathon Supremes would be a good fit for my needs. They are normally absurdly expensive, but I was able to find a good deal and pick up a pair of them for about the same as what the Gatorskins would cost.
I’ve been using the Marathon Supremes for a week of wet riding now and I’m very pleased with them. They certainly offer better grip than my worn-down Gatorskins. I feel more confident when aggressively cornering with them. The reflective sidewall is a welcome addition to my dark commutes. Despite the Gatorskins being considered a “race” tire and the Marathon Supremes more of a general road-riding/commuting tire, I haven’t noticed a significant difference in speed or rolling resistance. With the Marathon Supremes, I’ve gone back to a 700x28 tire in place of the skinnier 700x25 size of my Gatorskins.
The Marathon Supremes were much easier to get on my rims than the Gatorskins, which makes me feel a little better about the prospect of fixing a flat with these tires. Of course, if I get a flat anytime within the next 5,000 miles, the tires will receive a negative mark in comparison against the Gatorskins.
The real question about the Marathon Supremes is durability. I’m looking forward to see how they handle this winter and how long they last into 2013.
