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WeatherBug

Six word review: Local weather with radar, cams included

The weather app that is included on the iPhone is great, if you like to see the extended forecast. I worry more about what the weather is going to be like tonight or tomorrow, and I love looking at the radar images, probably due to a distrust of meteorologists. Weatherbug does that for me, with several local stations, providing not just the radar, but local webcams showing off the current conditions. The only downside is a limit of three saved “favorite” locations.

WeatherBug is free [iTunes link]

Datacase

Six word review: Use your iPhone as external drive

There are several “store files on your iPhone” apps, Files, FileMagnet, and there are probably more to come. Datacase is by far the slickest implementation so far. No client on the computer required, Mac and PC ready, with a great user interface. Datacase has a slick system of getting the files on the iPhone, using Bonjour on the Mac and FTP on a PC. When transferring my files from my Mac, I launch the app and it appears in the finder, I simply drag and drop, abra-ka-poof, the files are on the iPhone, viewable and everything. Simply sexy.

Datacase is $6.99 [iTunes link]

Feeds

Six word review: Well done, cheap, standalone feed reader

I am always looking for a good way to manage my feeds. I use NetNewsWire, but feed management is my Moby Dick. Feeds is cheap and offers a directory of feeds to choose from, which is a great bonus. The feed rendering is the same as Safari, with the options of opening in Safari. The nice thing about Feeds is that is has a “star” function, allowing me to save an entry for later reading. I would love if Feeds would sync with Google Reader, the star function indicates that is would be moving in that direction, but that could be reading in to things too much.

Feeds is $0.99 [iTunes link]

GuitarToolKit

Six word review: If you play guitar, buy this

As a guitar player, I am always looking up a chord that I don’t commonly use. I also need to have a tuner. GuitarToolKit is a gorgeous implementation of both of these, combined with a metronome and open neck tone representation. There are other tuners, and other chord libraries, but GuitarToolKit is the comprehensive package. If you play guitar and you own an iPhone, this is an app that should be on your phone.

GuitarToolKit is $9.99 [iTunes link]

Evernote

Six word review: Like elephant: never forget anything again.

I am a fan of the Evernote service. I can keep track of notes and to text recognition of photos on Macs, PCs, the web and now my iPhone. Evernote was available from the first day of the App Store, but I couldn’t recommend it until it had the ability to edit notes on the iPhone. Version 1.3 has given us this vital function. Keeping track of everything is important, not only random notes, but business cards that I need to search for later. That is the cool thing about Evernote, it does the text recognition on the photo of a business card, allowing me to pull it up at my desk later. The elephant logo is not a misnomer, it truly lets you never forget.

Evernote is free [iTunes link]

Instapaper

Six word review:Easy to use, read it later

I read a lot of things on the internet. A lot. There are somethings that I want to read, but don’t have time to. Instapaper is an online service that allow me to save items for reading later. Instapaper originally came to my attention as a purely web-based application that was iPhone friendly. It has a very simple look and functions well. That simplicity has been translated to Instapaper for the iPhone, which syncs with the web service and allows offline (read on an airplane) reading. It even converts webpages into text-only, so if the formatting on a website makes it difficult to read, you can read in peace.

Instapaper is free [iTunes link]

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Wednesday is now officially iPhone App-stravaganza. I will download some free, some paid applications for the iPhone and give them a short review. In this first Wednesday App-stravaganza, I am going to recap the first set of apps I have and use regularly and then review the applications I downloaded last night.

The Essentials

OmniFocus

Six word review: mobile GTD with location awareness goodness

I am a hard-core OmniFocus user. It keeps everything that I need to do organized. The only problem that I have had is that I can’t take my tasks with me. I had a convoluted sync that involved some AppleScript, some Automator actions, some FTPing, generally it wasn’t super reliable. But that only kept the home and work computers in sync. Now with OmniFocus version 1.1 and OmniFocus for the iPhone, I can keep my shopping lists, errands, and all of the other projects I have close at hand. The syncing features require either a WebDAV account or MobileMe’s iDisk, but the syncing itself is flawless after setup.

Reviews in the App Store are mixed. It has a high learning curve and it can be used independent of the desktop application but if you aren’t a full-time OmniFocus user, it may not be worth the investment of time. There are plenty of “to do” applications for much less, heck, Notes are free.

OmniFocus costs $19.99 [iTunes link]

Jott

Six word review: Simple voice powered reminders, transcribed automagically

jott.com is a free reminder / call transcription / email service. To reduce the head scratching let me walk you though how I use Jott. Things should be come clearer.

Jered is walking from his car to the grocery store and remembers that he needs to email a coworker about a project. Jered pulls out his phone, taps one of his favorites, is asked who he wants to jott. “Doug” *beep* “Doug, we need to meet tomorrow to talk about the signage project.” and then he hangs up. An email is sent to Doug and Jered with the message transcribed.

The iPhone app takes a slightly different tact focusing more on creating lists and to do items. I use it mainly to remember things that will evaporate before I have a chance to write them down. The jott service is great and I still use it to communicate with coworkers and friends, and it is a pity that the iPhone app doesn’t allow for messaging. Fingers crossed for the next revision.

Jott is free [iTunes link]

Zenbe Lists

Six word review: Sync capable, web editable, sharable lists

Zenbe lists is a list management program that syncs to the Zenbe web services. This allows for editing at any computer that has a browser, meaning data entry isn’t nearly a tedious for those of us with fat thumbs. I know you are thinking: Jered another list program? I use Zenbe as a checklist which is wholly different than a task list. These are things that reoccur, so when I check them, they stay on the list and I can uncheck them later. The thing that is great about Zenbe is the ability to share lists with other Zenbe (and non-Zenbe) users. My grocery lists is shared with Esther, so is a list of things to pack for the baby.

Zenbe Lists is free [iTunes link]

2 Across

Six word review:Slickly implemented crosswords without newsprint smudges

I have never been a fan of Sodoku, maybe it has to do with my semi-irrational fear of numbers, who knows. One thing I do love to keep the grey matter performing well is a good crossword puzzle. 2 Across is just that: a well done application on the iPhone that lets me spend countless hours trying to figure out 38 down. If I were a New York Time subscriber, I could do their puzzles using the premium subscription features, but the list of 11 news sources for available puzzles are fine for me. 2 Across is a well done implementation of something that I had written off as being purely paper and pen (yes, I’m that daring).

2 Across costs $5.99 [iTunes link]

NY Times

Six word review: Pocketable version of the Grey Lady

I used to read the newspaper everyday. My uncle says everyone should read two newspapers everyday. Unfortunately, time is scarce, newspapers are bulky and I prefer to skim to the articles that are of greater interest to me. The NYTimes app makes skimming through the entire paper easy as well as being easy on the eyes. Photos that expand to the page width, the text is well rendered, making reading the news of a dreary world a joy to read.

NYTime is free [iTunes link]

NetNewsWire

Six word review: My feeds synced across all computers

I use NetNewsWire for the Mac and NewsGator when on Windows (read about my feed journey here) and they sync very well, including a iPhone optimized web version, but with the release of NetNewsWire for the iPhone, I now have a nice option to sync my feeds with my iPhone. There are a few features that are missing from the current implementation, but I am sure they are coming in later releases. The most important of which is the ability to mark a story as new. It is nice to have a system that syncs all of my feeds so I don’t have to worry about leaving feeds on a device. Yes, I know there is an iPhone optimized Google Reader, but there is something desirable (I can’t really put my finger on what it is…) about having a client on my desktops.

NetNewsWire for the iPhone is free [iTunes link]

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I eluded in my last post that I there has been a point in my life that I changed from being Catholic to being Buddhist. That point has been a long time coming and I want to explain how I came to that point.

When I was getting ready to be confirmed in as a Catholic, the leader of the confirmation class goaded us to ask questions. This lead to long debates over spiritual topics and how church dogma related to modern living. This lead to long Socratic sessions on the role of faith, the church and religion. Most of the answers I got were satisfactory, but a number were not.

This was the same time I was in biology and chemistry, learning the physical nature of the universe and the spiritual and physical did not seem to be able to coexist. This was solidified by when I took physics in my junior year of high school.

I was not happy with a purely scientific view of the world, there are still things that are unexplained and there will always by the larger questions of “Why are we here?” and “What is the meaning of life?”, I was simply not happy with the responses I got to questions regarding the intersection of science, faith, and scientific ethics and morality.

These unsatisfied answers sat and festered. I was not religious in college, I can count on one hand the number of times I attempted to go to church. Emphasis on attempted. The things I did learn in college were continuations of things my parents had taught me. I took a sociology course with Gary Wilson, one of the best professors I had, in which he forced me, through introspection and well chosen reading, to really think about what I believed in. Themes of social justice, a person’s self worth and equality were prevalent. I don’t think this was his intention, but it really pushed me into a place of discomfort with my relationship with my Catholic upbringing.

After graduation, when Esther and I moved to Virginia, we moved in together against the wishes of my parents. It was an economic decision, and after we assured my parents that we intended to get married, they dropped the subject, although I knew it did not sit well with them.

As we picked a date to get married, we tried to go back to church, knowing that a Catholic wedding was the only way both of our parents would be satisfied. We tried five of the seven local churches and I was disappointed in all of them. Fire and brimstone seemed to permeate the ground around the pulpit. Homophobic and chauvinistic messages spewed forth from most of the priests, while the book they read from spoke of loving all of mankind, regardless. This clearly was not the place for me.

But the wedding, oh yes, the wedding had to be Catholic. There was no way around it and as I started to understand that a wedding is not about the people getting married but about the people attending, I knew that I would have to bite the bullet. We found a priest who we thought would help us through the process of getting married, but instead he insulted our choice of venue, grilled us over our living situation and made both of us feel generally uncomfortable. Not our guy. In desperation, a friend of a friend who knew a priest in a town 65 miles away introduced us to the priest who would marry us. Finally, that hurdle was over.

Esther and I were married. But something was missing, not between us, but for me. I was angry a lot of the time. Not at any one thing, but in general, a level of tension filled my life and lead to a few blow ups at home. Eventually I realized that I need to ask the larger questions again, but I need to do them in a framework that didn’t conflict with my inner compass as much. So did was I always do: research.

I looked at every religion, Judaism, Ba’hai, Islam, the varied flavors of Christianity, and the only one that I found that I could really believe in was Buddhism. It seemed to quell the festering questions of my youth and gave me a new outlook on the way I live my life and how I treat those in it. I felt like I had a things to reach for, enlightenment to attain. And even the more esoteric parts of buddhism, like reincarnation fit well with my desire for the natural to be explained by science. Energy is never created or destroyed, merely transferred from one state to another. The total amount of energy in the universe is constant. - The law of conservation of energy

Am I saying that being Catholic made me an angry person? In some instances, yes, but for the larger part, no. I am saying that being Buddhist has given me a framework to deal with my anger more effectively that before. I am more content with what I have, I am okay with my losses. I don’t hold grudges, I am more generous than I ever was before. I have found a sense of equanimity with myself, my relationships and my universe.

My choice has created a weird tension with my family. People has referred to my decision as having “issues”, which I am okay with, although it sounds like I have a rash on a sensitive body part. I would like to talk with people about my “issues”. I found a book which explains Buddhism in the least mystic terms and gave it to my parents, I don’t know if they are reading it. I know my grandparents are probably weirded out. In the end, I guess this post follows the theme of the previous. I am available in multiple ways, including the phone If you need my number, email me first. If you have some lingering weirdness in regards to my choice to be Buddhist, contact me.

I started blogging part way through 2002. I have gone on and off in my frequency of posting, but I have maintained this blog the entire time. The reason why I write a blog is to keep friends, family and the occasional passerby informed, up-to-date and entertained. I have always had comments that were open and I have read everyone, although not always responded and I have been a bad blogger in that regard. I have a sunset on when comments can be posted to any post which is only necessary to cut down on the amount of comment spam I get. I have extended that to a full year, allowing someone who finds any post to drop me a line if they so choose.

If comments have ever been closed on a particular post, I have always included a way to contact me, generally via email in the form of my contact page, but I have in the past few months included all of the other social networks that I am a part of. The comment form is probably the quickest way to get a hold of me, although, hitting me up with a message on any of the other means I provide are probably just as efficient.

I have removed a single post from this blog. It was written in anger and hurt the feelings of a colleague whom I value. It was work related and after initially sticking to my guns about posting, I recanted, realizing that the value of the vent was outweighed by the possibility that it could lead to professional trouble. Everything else that has been written, either of a serious nature or not, has been authentically me. I have been very harsh on people, but I have never shied away from the fact that they were my opinions and I would gladly stand by them.

A particular post has garnered a lot of attention lately, mainly with snarky off-site comments. It was written just under a year ago, so the comments are still open. I would gladly entertain any comments that are written, I have in the past 6 months removed all forms of moderation for comments, they get posted directly. I can understand that after posting a comment, a commenter could think that a I would delete their comment. I have only done that to spam comments, ones hawking Viagra or herbal Cialis The fact that I have included those words in my post, means I will now become the target of more spam.

The particular post I wrote was written when I was still an angry, questioning Catholic. I was researching and becoming familiar with Buddhism and its tenets and wrote the post with a half understanding of several parts of both the topic and philosophical method in which I wrote about the topic. Esther, my wife, can attest that I was a very angry man and since converting to Buddhism, my outlook and my temper have change greatly. Catholic Jered would have responded to comments that were contradictory to his beliefs with a fury, finding some flaw in his opponents logic, possibly going so low as to attack his opponents character and the things they love.

Buddhist Jered is willing to own his mistakes. I have written about plenty of things that have been heard second hand, work and personal. Buddhist Jered is also willing to admit that he doesn’t know everything, although some days at work it feels like that.

Finally, Buddhist Jered is willing to admit that 365 days can be a long time, and with the recent news that a terminal condition in one side of my family, and a health scare on the other, holding on to things in the past are futile and lead to suffering. Am I sorry for anything I’ve written, no. Not even the single post I deleted. Am I willing to admit that I don’t know everything, yes. Am I willing to make amends or atone for things that may have hurt someone, yes, that is the essence of living a fulfilling life.

If I have hurt anyone’s feeling, I would ask that they contact me in as direct a manner as they feel comfortable, either on this blog, via the contact form or in some other forum. If email is the best, please contact me: jeredb [at] gmail.com

Edited for formatting

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Intro

Today brings the start of the 2008 Tour de France with 197.5 km (122.7 mi). The stage winds from Brest to Plumelec and the last time this stage was run, it was won by Eric Zabel, who is racing today. Today’s stage is quite different with no Prologue time trial, this first stage is a real road race. This means that the man who crosses first wears the yellow jersey. This is unlike other years, and it will make for a more aggressive start. Breakaways can spoil the day, not only for the sprinters, but also for the General Classification contenders.

Stage 1

The course is fairly unremarkable, except for the uphill sprint finish. The last few hundred meters of this course cross a narrow bridge and then uphill to the line. This could kill the sprinters, or it could be good for a stronger sprinter like Thor Hushovd.

Note of Interest: When looking at the names of the category hills, Côte and Col are prefixes on most of them. After some research I have learned that a “Col” is a saddle between two higher points and “Côte” is a hillside.

Today’s Race

With Cadel Evans starting with number 1 (due to last years winner not being allowed to defend his title due to the shady past of his team, Astana), the 180 riders who started today will be looking to put their man in yellow today. Does it make sense for one of the favorites to win the Yellow today and paint a large target on themselves and their teams? An early show of strength could lead to a blow out later in the race.

An attack seven minutes into the race saw 8 riders pull away from the peleton. The breakaway includes Lilian Jegou (FDJ), Thomas Voeckler (BTL), Stephane Auge (COF), David De La Fuente (SDV), Ruben Perez (EUS), Arrieta (ALM), Lequatre (AGR), Bjorn Schroeder (MRM). The French will be happy to see their man Thomas Voeckler out in front. It is possible that he could hold onto the yellow into the second week. He probably won’t be a real GC contender, he usually blows up after Bastille Day.

The breakaway manages to put 2 minutes between them and the peleton, prepping to take the early King of the Mountains points as well as the intermediary sprint points. With 4 category climbs and three intermediary sprints, this will create an early lead in the other jersey competitions.

After the first climb, 1st going to Bjorn Schroeder (MRM), 2nd to Thomas Voeckler (BTL) and 3rd to David De La Fuente (SDV), Credit Agricole and Liquigas take over the front of the peleton and start to turn up the speed to reduce the breakaway’s almost-eight minute lead. Near the second climb, Rabobank and Caisse d’Epargne take over pulling the peleton, trying to get their GC men into a better position to finish.

The second climb points went to Thomas Voeckler (BTL), Bjorn Schroeder (MRM), and Geoffroy Lequatre (AGR) respectively, with the first sprint prizes going to Geoffroy Lequatre (AGR), Lilian Jegou (FDJ) and Ruben Perez (EUS). Remember, no time bonuses this year. How much is this going to effect the General Classifications? Have the time bonuses had a huge effect?

Fast forwarding to the feed zone, the first crash of this year. Herve Duclos-Lassalle goes down and is forced to pull out of the race with a wrist injury. 179 riders left.

An hour after the first crash, a second happens at the tail of the peleton. Goes to show that Paul Sherwin’s adage of the back is where the crashes happens is more right than wrong. Riders going down include Fabian Wegmann, Jimmy Casper, Yaroslav Popovych, Frank Schleck and Sylvain Chavanel, all who manage to rejoin the race.

The peleton starts to pick up the pace trying to reel in the escaped riders. By 151 km, they have reduced the gap to two minutes and 55 seconds.

As the gap drops, the attacks with in the breakaway start. This always seems like a stupid idea. Breakaways have a hard enough time keeping away from the peleton when they are organized, but internal fighting means there is no chance of them staying away. Gerolsteiner takes the front of the peleton, putting the pressure on the breakaway.

The breakaway has fallen apart, only two men Jegou and De La Fuente are away from the pack. With the 20 km to go, Team Columbia takes the front and starts to pull the escaped men back. As they get closer and closer to the finish various teams take the lead of the peleton, QuickStep and Silence-Lotto. As the breakaway is about to be pulled in, another crash splits the peleton, this is a big one that will keep the large group divided until the finish line.

The finish was crazy. Several attacks came and went, with Kim Kirchen appearing to get the better of the day, but in the last turn, up the hill Alejandro Valverde shot from across the gap to Kirchen, over taking him in the last 100 meters of the line.

Conclusion

All in all, a great start to this years race. A big change, forcing riders to be more aggressive, the only danger is the crash. While they are fascinating to watch and an improvement over the traditional time trial start, the crashes can be devastating to a rider or a team.

With each team knowing that they aren’t going to be able to establish large leads by starting time trials, it has forced the GC contenders to come out early, which will provide a much more interesting race. We’ll see how it works out tomorrow.

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