Category: Geek

links for 2006-12-14

Bleg: Where is the quote from?

So, I’m taking a class courtesy of the Defense Acquisition University this week. There’s a redhead in the class who’s pretty stunning, and Monday morning, the quote “She had hair like ironed catsup” or “She had hair like polished catsup” sprung into my mind, fully formed, like Athena from the head of Zeus.

Where did that come from? Google’s letting me down…

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Nike + iPod kerffule

So, there’s been a bunch of flopping and twitching lately about the fact that the wonderful Nike+iPod kit can be used to track users, and isn’t that a terrible invasion of privacy, and wah-wah-wah.

Well, ladies and gents, I hate to break it to you, but the problem is not so much that Apple and Nike failed to adequately secure the device, but that the laws of physics do not have any privacy provisions, nor do they listen to lawyers from either the EFF or the ACLU (insert your branch here if you’re outside the US).

Can I let you in on a little secret that I picked up back in middle school while reading a book on radio waves in the library? Radio waves don’t care who is listening to them – they continue to radiate from their source, in all directions, and their strength at any point in space is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source.

So, yeah – given an antenna and a receiver tuned to the proper frequency (which is in Apple’s patent disclosure for the product), it’s entirely possible to hijack the radio signal from a Nike+ kit. And I, for one, am psyched that it’s been done.

Why? you might ask.

Why not? I’d answer. The Nike transmitter is absolutely freakin’ cool, extremely low power, and cheap. Hack the protocol between sensor and receiver, and you’ve got instant motion sensing for the price of a case of beer.

But what about privacy? What about it? Do you go out of the house with your cell phone? There’s a device for which you should have distinct privacy concerns. Sure, there’s laws against eavsdropping into cell networks, but if someone’s out to harass you or otherwise exploit the Nike+iPod’s miniscule signal, are they going to have qualms about jacking into your cellular signal in roughly the same radio band?

In a larger sense, you should always remember that a loss of privacy is always inherent with the use of any wireless technology. Use a wireless keyboard and mouse? Guess what – someone with an antenna can be logging your keystrokes without even being in the same room as you, or having access to your computer. In Houston, our baby monitor operated on the same band as our neighbor’s cordless phone – we could overhear their conversations, which was supremely spooky the first time it happened – I burst into the baby’s room thinking there was an intruder in there…

There are things you can do to protect yourself. Use a wireless router at the house? Make sure you’ve enabled the encryption scheme – for most routers, there’s a HTML based interface to set the password and require all wireless traffic to use encryption. For cell phones, turn them off when you’re not yakkin’ or expecting a call. Use cash instead of plastic….

The takeaway, I guess, is that, like the old saw says, be careful about airing your dirty laundry in public – if you’re using a device that transmits, assume you’re being spied upon. If you don’t want to be spied upon, send letters.

Another $80 soon to be down the drain

Apparently Nike + iPod is bluetooth.

According to AppleInsider, the folks in Cupertino and the folks in Washington are going to hawk a wristband that functions as a sweat-proof display for the Nike+iPod system

 Further features of the device, expected to be released under the name Nike Amp+, are unclear from the report. However, a single included marketing image suggests that gadget may hold potential to deliver one of the most frequently-requested components for the Nike+iPod system: a heart rate monitor.

Which is why I’d shell out the $80 in a heartbeat – kids’ college fund be darned. I’ve been asking for HRM support ever since the idea was hatched.

I’m still pretty enthused about the system – see my initial review here. It’s worked like a champ, especially since I picked up the system to tie it into my Asics. If you’ve already got an iPod Nano, I cannot recommend it highly enough. If you don’t have a Nano, look at the refurbs at the Apple Store (store.apple.com) – the first gen 1 GB Nanos are less than $100. With $30 for the sensor/receiver, and another $10 for the pouch for the sensor for non-Nike shoes, it’s a distance/speed/calorie/entertainment system for $130, delivered.

“What it Takes”

Let me be up front here and make sure that everyone knows that this isn’t a review, or an endorsement, merely a pass-on of a discount offer. Why? Mostly because I’m a sucker… Well, that, and they’re doing a simultaneous theater and DVD release, which I think is the bee’s knees, and makes me wish that someone would drop a 37″ (’cause my TV cabinet won’t fit anything bigger) LCD TV in 1080P on my doorstep. Preferably with HDMI input, and a MacMini to use as a media center, at least ’til iTV comes out. Oh, and not Plasma – the picture’s great, but they’re greater power hogs than my old tube.

Sorry, was the gear lust out loud?

Anyway, the offer is for “What it Takes”, a documentary about 4 IronMan triathletes. It’s a behind the scenes, etc, so on and so forth. What’s got me throwing this post up, without promise of compensation or even a screener for the flick, isn’t the content. The content is completely exciting in theory (the theory being that it’s written by writers half as talented as those whom I occasionally get a chance to read, and am dying to read in the future).

No, what’s getting “What it Takes” plugged here on RunMystic is this:

The movie was shot at 24 frames per second on a Panasonic SDX-900, and is presented in 16:9 widescreen format. Its rich cinematic feel and sweeping visual imagery from places around the globe – including Australia, Canada, Dubai, and numerous locations in the United States, including Hawaii – combine with compelling storylines to produce a fascinating narrative about four athletes, four human beings, and one dream, the Ironman world championship.

The camera’s off the shelf, and somewhat reasonable as far as these things go. Couple that with web and DVD distribution, and it’s a model that anyone could cop, assuming they can get a couple of months off of work, a travel budget, etc, so on, and so forth to put this together. Go out on a flier and shoot your dream, so to speak.

If you want more of the press release, let me know and I’ll forward it to you. The scope of the flick sounds great – lots of both racing and training. Not sure if they cover the part at which they separate the pain cortex from the rest of the brain. Which I’m sure they’ve got to do, ’cause 26.2 pretty much killed me. I’m probably gonna watch it to see when they get gills installed, as I’m still in the drowning phase…

Anyway, the e-mail I got from someone who may or may not be Peter Han, producer of “What it Takes”, said that I could tell y’all that the code !RONMAN96 would get you $5 off the DVD at the movie’s site. No word on how long the code is good for.

I’m interested; I may bite. If I do, I’ll let you know about it.

MacBook

So, even though I may have broken Iocelli’s heart, I am scarily happy with the new MacBook. Highly recommend it.

Right now, though, I’m desecrating it – using Parallels Parallels to install WindowsXP. Though every cloud has a silver lining – I’m using the license I bought when I picked up Office Pro for OS X. It included Virtual PC, and an XP Pro license. This hack worked like a champ. The only hurdle was that Microsoft used a Mac-only format on the CDs, so I had to use a USB stick between my iMac and the PC I was using to make the CD.

Oh, that and trying to figure out that the i386 directory is on the WHITE CD supplied with VirtualPC.

But the machine works like a champ. It’s installing XP in a VM on Parallels, playing music in iTunes, downloading the torrent for NeoOffice and Ubuntu, and grabbing a new copy of Second Life to troubleshoot that crashing on me…

Now, all I need to do is start vodcasting and I can be hip and with it.

Well, that and get the RIGHT 120 GB hard drive so I’ve got space for all this crap…

Writely Test

Wow – kool beans. Writely , Brogan ‘s favorite tool (heh, heh, I said “tool”) works as a blogging client. Pretty stinkin’ cool.

The downside? I can get all these here features inside the wordpress install on my site, so I’m gaining nothing using Writely.

Which is why Ecto is still sooooo cool – work offline is really, really nice. Throw the iBook in the bag (Soon to be MacBook! Just waiting until after the 4th of Sept in case they move up to Core 2 Duos), and write as the mood strikes.

Drive

Wow.

So, one thing leads to another (Thank You Easter Bunny), and I ended up with a promotional copy of The Crystal Method‘s “Drive” last week. As I’ve dealt with, in detail, in these pages – this weekend, running didn’t happen. Tuesday, Jon and I headed out at lunch, declared a truce, and had an exceptionally pleasant run.

This afternoon, Jake had soccer practice. Missy wanted to go (Who wouldn’t want to go sit in the late afternoon sun on a perfect New England summer day?), so I say “Hey, why don’t I run over to the field and meet you?” Kind of a reach – I hadn’t actually measured the distance to the field, but I was pretty sure it was close to the 6 I had on the schedule for today.

Took the opportunity to fire up “Drive” and see exactly how this Nike+iPod “Run” thing works.

It works well, assuming that other artists riff of TCM’s lead.

The general concept is sound – a unified sound, a biting rhythm, etc. And TCM execute it extremely well, both lyrically and musically. Just as I got to the first rise in the road, the track really kicked off with the “It’s Time” portion driving me up the first hill I came to. When I got to the just killer “wall” on Yetter Road, the remix of The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues” started – skillfully mashed up to highlight “Keep your eyes on the road” while avoiding mention of “your hands upon the wheel”. Being a huge fan of The Doors, and probably a bigger fan of recycled and remixed memes – this part rocked.

In any case, I found myself 45 minutes later running into the Library parking lot (how cool is it that the Soccer fields are behind the Library?) with the next-to-last bit of the mix (Glass Breaker) and Charlotte Martin (who I’d never heard before) crooning into my ear. Yowza. Talk about finishing strong…

I dug the experience. I’ll admit, I’m a fan of electronica when it’s done with a strong nod to sounding like, well, actual music. (Jeeze – did I just write that? This must be where High School Bill comes forward to kick Future Bill’s butt and remind me that I used to be cool) (No, actually I didn’t). And this was exactly in that vein. The beat was constant, but changed up more than enough not to be monotonous.

And what a run! Late evening, and it’s mostly downhill from the house to the Library. But, I’m guessing that having a solid soundtrack also played a role in getting me down to SUB 8 MINUTE MILES! for the evening. I kid you not.

I’m excited about the whole concept – this might be the kind of thing that could revitalize the concept of the Album and save it from the tyrrany of the Single. Instead of just making one killer track, TCM here stitch together 45 minutes of coherent sound. Tough to grab a soundbite, but taken as a whole – exceptional.

If I were to make one recommendaiton, though, it would be to get the Run released as a collection of multiple tracks instead of one massive track. That way you could tailor the run – chop out a couple of sections to make it a 4 miler instead of a 5 miler, maybe reprise “Roadhouse Blues” again at the end to push the run up to 10K. YMMV. (Your Mileage Might literally Vary) If you want to DIY that hack, I imagine the track could be burned to CD, re-imported as an MP3, and chopped up using Audacity or something, though I’d recommend checking terms and conditions of the ITMS and the laws governing your jurisdiction before doing it.

At $10, the pricing seems pretty fair to me – you are getting an entire album’s worth of music, even if it is a single track. And, unlike a couple albums I’ve bought lately, all the bits are worth hearing, especially if you’re running.

(The ultimate irony? I can’t count this as a Nike+ run, as I’d left the receiver sitting on my desk at  work.)

So, if you’re a fan at all of dance/electronic music, and have $10 to spare, there are worse choices you could make than trying The Crystal Method’s “Drive” out. Help build a market – who else do you want to hear tackle this?

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