serialized.net: Ramble

Hiking O'ahu: Kealia Trail

Jul 11, 03:19 PM

So we spent a few hours on the awesome looking Backyard O’ahu but found over and over that the great looking hikes were all either illegal or needed advance permission to use. Bummer. So we found the Kealia Trail, nice and close to our rental home on the North Shore, and did a nice early morning punch.

A view from near the top:

I shot a couple of panoramas, too, and stitched them up with Hugin

Here’s the GPS data from the hike:

View Larger Map

The workflow to produce this data is a little bumpy, so I’m documenting it so I can remember it for myself, and presumably it’ll be interesting for someone else as well.
Tools

Garmin eTrex Vista HCx
Mac running Leopard

Steps

Save the track on the GPS
Connect to your computer and use Garmin Bobcat to import it.
Elevation View: Clean up the tracklog to have just the points you want. The elevation view is just a screenshot (using Skitch) of the elevation view feature of Bobcat.
Export a GPX File The export is a bit silly: You have to add the tracklog to a folder and then export the whole folder as a gpx. Ok.
Create the Google Maps compatible version: gpsbabel -i gpx -f Kealia\ Trail.GPX -o kml -F kealia_trail.kml
Load it in Google Maps. Drill down into your data set and turn off everything but the “path”
Right-click your path (very important) and say ‘email’. (Sounds nuts, but it’s the only export function I can find?) Drag and drop the file out of the email that got created and throw the email itself away.
Upload the kmz file to some hosting somewhere.
Go into Google Maps and search for the URL of that KMZ file.
Choose ‘Link to this Page’ ... ‘Customize and Preview embedded map’.

Slowing down songs on the Mac

May 29, 12:13 AM

I’ve recently been practicing some songs on my guitar, trying to get them just right. The problem’s been that, especially with a song like the one in the screenshots I’ve included in this, the beat is pretty quick. When you’re learning it and either trying to hear the notes, or play along with tab, music, or chords — you can get left behind.

Cool, so how to slow it down? On a Mac, it’s pretty easy. I’m assuming you’ve got the song in iTunes. (This works if you bought the track from the iTunes store or from any other source that iTunes will play.)

Step one, find the song, right-click (or control-click) it, and click “Show in Finder”.

Step two, right-click (or control-click) the file and open in Quicktime Player.

Step 3, open up the AV Controls Menu:

Step 4, tweak away and learn the song!

I find the playback rate especially useful — start out at 1/2 speed, and work your way up to 3/4, 7/8, then full speed, and if you really want to practice, 1.5 speed or double-speed! Also, the mixer’s not the most incredible thing, but if you’re trying to learn bass (as I have been) you can kill off the treble and throw the balance to one side, so you can listen to yourself play with the other ear and mute as much of the “rest of the song” as possible.

I also use the A/V Controls menu to watch a lot of educational/documentary movies and screencasts — ones where the content is king and the pacing is not so important (as would be the case in a “theatrical” style film.) I can get almost to double-speed and that’s a great way to absorb a lot of the technical google videos. You can always slow it down again if you’re having trouble keeping up with something.

Scootering to work is awesome.

May 8, 12:50 PM

As most of you who actually read this site know, I’ve been ~~driving~~ riding to work on a scooter.

I just added the shiny topcase, which is cool — I can store my helmet in there and it carries my laptop bag on the way to work so I don’t have to backpack-style it.

Like anything, there are some pros and cons:

Pros

FUN! I get to work every day grinning. It turns something fairly mundane or even stressful (commuting) into something exciting and engaging.

Financial. The scooter was $2,400 brand new, with a nice warranty. (By the time I got helmeted, (plus one for Amber) topcased, jacketed, taxes on everything, license, doc fees, motorcycle safety course, driver’s license upgrade, etc — still less than $4,000 all told.) That’s not a lot of car payments on a “real” car. It gets 85MPG. (Sorry, Prius.) It’s pretty simple, mechanically, so for the most part I can take care of it and repair it myself.

Environmental. See above. It just makes more logical sense to use about 250 lbs of machine to move about 200 lbs of person, instead of 4500 lbs of machine to do the same.

Time Saving. I save time because of 2 things:

Traffic avoidance. I can pretty safely cruise up between rows of stopped cars at a light, and because this thing is so lightweight, it pops off the line like a Porsche. So I can do what would be a 35 minute drive for a car (tested) in 15 minutes.

Parking. This is the secret factor. I used to take the freeway to work, but then park on the 4th floor of a parking structure quite a ways from my office, that I had to wait at a ticket booth to get into. I added, typically, 5 minutes to my drive time — but I cut 12 minutes off my parking time because I can squeeze in literally AT the front door. It also makes it GREAT for running out to lunch. Today I left, ordered, got my food, and was on my way back before people who left the same time as I did had even arrived at the spot.

Really being where you are. When you’re in a car and driving through places, it’s pretty much like watching it on TV. Your car smells like it does, you even have your own soundtrack, the only wind is coming from your vents, the air’s a perfect 72 degrees, or whatever you choose — a rolling living room. I feel the air get colder when I roll under a bridge. I smell the restaurants on the block. (And, to be honest, the garbage trucks too, but it’s still real.) I hear the sounds around me as I roll to a stop. Every sense is engaged, and that’s surprisingly enjoyable.

No audio. It wouldn’t be safe (at least in my opinion) to rock the headphones while riding — I rely on audio cues for a lot of my 3d sense of what’s going on around me. I also practice the “SEE” idea that they talked about at the motorcycle safety course I took — “Search, Evaluate, Execute.” I like focusing my whole mind on what’s going on around me — what every driver is going to do next, what the contours of the road are like, what my lines are if this guy over here hasn’t seen me and is going to pull out — and so on. In a very real sense my life depends on it. (Incidentally, so far, nobody’s done anything stupid while I’m riding. I kind of wish they would more often so I had practice dealing with it.) It reminds me a lot of a common technique in meditation or yoga — where you focus the mind on your breathing to help you quiet down the chatter of your mind. I really enjoy having that stillness now, where the only things going on are the mindful being right there.

Cons

No audio. All that being said, I do miss catching up on podcasts, and the ‘drive time’ was about the only time I did that any more. (That, and doing chores around the house. Wait a minute, I can listen to podcasts AND make my wife happy at the same time! I think I’m on to something here…..)

Weather. This one hasn’t bitten me yet, but the scooter is distinctly not air conditioned. We had one random 90+ day here and waiting at lights was un-fun. (However, you do a lot less waiting, so that works out ok.) When you’re moving, it still feels great. I’m also pretty sure that riding in a rainstorm would stink.

Staying dry is harder

I rely a lot more on road surface traction for cornering than a car does.

Increased risk, no doubt. However, looking over the stats on crashes, I’ve decreased my risk quite a bit. I

Always wear a helmet

Don’t ride after drinking

Took a motorcycle safety course where I practiced emergency evasion

Don’t go on the freeway

If my math is right, I’m statistically about as safe as a car driver now! Honestly, as long as you’re paying attention, it’d seem that bikes have a decreased risk of being in a crash. The factors are: people are coded to look for cars, so they’re less likely to see you. However, you’re small, and you stop/accelerate/swerve fast, so you can avoid a lot of accidents that would normally be inevitable for cars. Again, the key is paying attention. The problem is if you don’t avoid one it’s probably going to hurt.

Also, I am fully aware of how ironic it would be if something really bad happened after I wrote this post. Therefore, I am attempting to defuse the inherent potential irony by stating — yes, I know, it’d be ironic. (Let’s hope that works.)