TV

A defense of charging more for Web TV (Q&A) [CNet] -- I don't really care, when I all want is news and NFL games. I don't have cable, satellite, or even OTA. I cannot just justify the price only to get those two program groups. When I still had the cable, I only watched news about 30 min on weekdays and an NFL games or two in a typical week. But NFL's only about for 5 months in a year. In the rest of the time, I only watched news. I wouldn't pay $70+/month for that. I really miss all the Colts games, but being out of the state of Indiana I couldn't watch all of them in the first place. I hope someone would come up with an Internet service having a news package for $10/mon + a Colts package for $20/mon = $30/mon. I would gladly subscribe on that. Till then, I watch NBC podcasts and listen to Colts radio network on the Internet. Thank you very much.

Highland A Loop

I rode Highland for the first time. I've been hearing scary stuff about this trail, and put it off for a long time. But the riding last week at Pontiac Lake warmed me up a bit and my friend gave me an advice and I decided to try it out. The advice of my friend's was "Ride A first, get the idea and ride the A again." So, that's what I did this evening. The first lap was the scariest ride next to Brighton's Torn Shirt. I was too cautious as usual as I am on a new trail, and lost momentum at the beginning of every hill climb. It wasn't fun. And then, I went for another lap. The trail looked much friendlier this time. I rode faster going down the hills and I could complete most of the climbs. At some point I started feeling comfortable, but it was a little bit far from enjoying it. At least I know now that "Highland is a mountain biker's trail" is true. I decided to go there often, so that I can start enjoying the ride. It starts tomorrow.

1-year anniversary of broken ankle surgery

It's been a year since the surgery. A year ago today, I had a surgery to have my broken ankle fixed. It was the very first broken bone and surgery in my life. And I enjoyed it. How I broke it is a legend by now among my friends, because a friend of mine had his surgery two days prior due to the same cause. I broke my ankle and then he broke his heel bone ten minutes later in the same evening after a beer fest. I got a metal plate in my ankle and he had a gigantic bolt in his heel. But we both can walk, run and mountain-bike now. We must feel lucky about it.

OSX Lion Mouse Scroll

OSX Lion inverted the direction of mouse scroll. After over ten years of the standard scrolling experience with the mouse wheel, it took me only a few minutes to feel the 'natural' scrolling natural over the weekend. And today at work, the 'standard' in Windows felt no longer confortable. So, I googled to find the way to invert the scrolling in Windows. To my pleasant surprise, I was not the only one wanted this. I found several posts in forums and ran into this@How-to_Geek. It's more of a quick'n'dirty workaround, but it works. Now I can have a peace of my mind at work.

Battle: Los Angeles

It's painfully realistic. It's not only a movie but a simulation. I don't know anything about war zone. But I'm pretty sure that it's those soldiers who will protect us from enemies, when any kind of invasion takes place. It may be tomorrow, today, or a second later.

NFL 2011

I don't care who gets more money: owners, players or NFL itself. They are making more money than me, anyways. All I care is if there will be this season and the Colts will win the Super Bowl at Lucas Oil Stadium with home field advantages all the way to the top. This is a now-or-never chance for Colts to achieve the goal. There must be this season. Please play football! GO COLTS!!!

Specialized Phenom Comp

Got a new saddle. I've been riding on a saddle came with the bike for 5 years. But I recently leaned it making my thing numb. I needed one with a big channel. I went to one of our LBS and they recommended Specialized Phenom Comp. They measured my hip bones and I was on the borderline between the saddle's size 130mm and 143mm. I picked up 130mm. I brought it to the trip last weekend and found it good but hurting by grinding my hip bones at the edge. I adjusted the angles but it didn't go away. So, I brought the saddle back to the shop last evening and asked if the 143mm would solve my problem. The answer was "most likely". They exchanged the 130mm to a 143mm. I went streight to our local trail and tested it. Yes, it solved it. Hurting no more! I think I found a good saddle in Phenom.

Shimano BR-M445

Aahhh! I finally bought a pair of hydraulic disk brakes for my mountain bike. It's a Shimano BR-M445 taken off of a brand new bike, which may be a Cannondale Trail SL2. That model is at MSRP $1,069 and I thought the brake system comes with it might be a good match for my '06 Trek 6500 SLR. I looked around on the Web and found all good reviews about the system, although it is an lower end in Shimano's line up. I paid less than $120 at eBay for levers, calipers, lines and rotors including shipping and handling. So, I guess it was a good deal. I am surprised by finding myself so excited about this. But it should be a good upgrade on my bike!

Mid Michigan Community College mountain bike trail

Whoever designed this trail is genius! Everything I want in single track is here. If you want extreme, look elsewhere. But it has bumpy twisties, small ups & downs, downhills followed by a hill climb, and a good distance in 10 mi. And you will see an abundance of wild lives. I simply could not stop smiling in excitement. I am so grateful to everyone maintaining this amazing trail. Thank you so much! I definitely will be back.

Hanson Hills mountain bike trail

Good trail. It's not twisty but comes with a lot of ups and downs. There aren't a lot of rocks and roots on the hill climbs, so it's not too difficult. But still they can burn your legs. There are a lot of branches in the routes, but very easy to follow.

Ionia State Park mountain bike trail

A morning ride is tough for me. I was just gasping in the last high-speed section, which otherwise should be very fun. The first half is a good intermediate singletrack. I ride a hardtail and had a great time. There isn't a serious hill climb but one. But adequate twisties, rocks, roots and small ups and downs make this trail a fun ride.

webOS

HP exec says webOS needs polish like Mac OS X did [MacNN] -- I want webOS to be successful. One of the reasons is that Palm under HP makes both HW and the OS. In mobile devices, that is important. And HP is targeting consumers. Mobile devices has to be designed as a consumer devices, even though it may be used in corporate environment.

Another reason I have is that the fact HP killed iPAQ while after purchasing Compaq. I feel like giving HP a chance of redemption. If they fail, I will not forgive them for the rest of my life. I know it doesn't matter to them, but still, I will do that.

Security: Android vs. iOS

Symantec says Android slipping vs iOS on security [electronista] -- The result in this study came as obvious. I wouldn't say which is better for users and developers. It's a matter of preferences. But I state that because Android offers more freedom, iOS can stay rather controlled. Those two together, we get choices on the market. And I choose iOS, because I like Apple's approach better than Google's. To me, Google's way is a lot clumsy. But again, it's just my preference.