Wyoming vacation follow along

Richele and I head up to Wyoming this Friday for a little over a week of backpacking, kayaking, and playing in the Yellowstone/Teton National Park region. If you are interested in where we are, I will be checking in with my Spot satellite messenger (see previous post) on a daily basis, so you can see whether we are car camping or hiking near grizzlies, bison, and geysers in the Yellowstone backcountry. Just check out my Spot map page to see our recent locations.

(Note: The Spot site was down as I wrote this, but I hope it will be active by the time the trip begins...)

Brown's Canyon at 3550 cfs!

This past Saturday which happened to coincide with the Summer Solstice and a nearly full moon, I headed down to the Arkansas River with Matt Ewald, Lou, Andy W. , and Andy S. to celebrate the last weeks of Matt's single days. We decided to take my raft down Brown's Canyon as a paddle rig, never mind the fact that I had never really paddle guided before or that the water was raging at a season high 3550 cfs!

By noon, we had inflated the raft, run the shuttle, I had given my safety speech, and we were on the water. We began to feel pretty good about our paddling after the first several miles of easy water, but then we entered the Canyon Doors rapid and we found out our real abilities! I steered us right at a big, crashing wave that I thought would be fun, but that instead resulted in me getting catapulted out the back of the raft as it snapped back after we crested the wave! When my head surfaced out of the water, I found my paddle and spotted the raft starting to drift away from me and the rest of the crew didn't even know that I had been ejected from the boat! I guess that I shouted a bunch of commands to get the boat closer to me and then I pulled myself back into the relative safety of the raft. Within a few seconds, our raft that had been unguided for half a minute found itself heading sideways right into a hole, and the awkward angle shot both Andy's and myself out of the raft! Uh oh, this isn't going well. Our first real rapid and we were already having major problems. The raft was left nearly uncontrollable with Matt and Lou on the same side, and the three of us castaways careening through waves and into holes. Somehow, Matt was able to pull Andy W. back into the raft, I pulled myself in again, and we headed after Andy S. to pick him up. He has definitely had better days than his swim through these rapids! Eventually, another raft offered help and to pick him up into their boat, but just as he reached for the paddle that was extended to him, the paddle was pulled away- psych! It turned out that we were as close to Andy at that point as the other raft, so we just picked him up instead, but that must have really sucked to have been that close to rescue and then get dissed like that! I was able to pull Andy in, get the boat under control, and land at the underwater beach at the top of Zoom Flume.

Wow, we were all really quite shaken up from the experience, but we all sort of kept it to ourselves which resulted in a very uncomfortable silence as we then scouted Zoom Flume and ate our sandwiches. Watching rafts go through Zoom Flume made us question being on the river that sunny afternoon, but then I bumped into John Leventhal and got enough encouragement to rally the troops for a run through the rapid. It turned out that our fears of Zoom Flume were much worse than reality. We set ourselves up on a perfect line and crashed down through the center of the rapids with all of us remaining in the boat! We stopped at the next eddy, drank a beer, and celebrated our successful run through the intimidating rapid. The rest of the rapids continued similarly in a successful fashion, although our heart rates and attention levels stayed high for fear of what would happen otherwise.

When we reached the Hecla's Junction take-out, it seemed wise to stop and gather some information about Seidel's Suckhole, which was just down river and the most formidable rapid of Brown's Canyon. Everyone said that you run it left at this water level and that it is quite forgiving. Forgiving? That's the kind of expression that is used when you go to meet your maker, but after my encounter with this rapid last year, I might have to agree that it was the correct expression. We forged on, determined to finish the run, and after two stops on river right to scout the rapid, we finally approached the beast. We ran it river left, just like everyone had indicated, and we crashed directly through the huge wave that forms in place of the hole at this high water level. Just like that, our collective stress level dropped, but around the corner we faced one last challenging rapid that nearly bent the raft in half and that got our hearts pounding once again. At around 6 pm, we floated under Stone Bridge leaning back into the raft to avoid decapitation (The bridge has to be portaged at 4000 cfs, and there was barely enough room to clear under it at this level.) and finally stepped onto dry land at the take-out! We celebrated once again with beers, packed up, and proceeded back to Buena Vista and the national forest for more beers over a big bonfire.

FIBArk 2008

Another weekend and another great time boating on the Arkansas River in Colorado. This time, Richele and I headed down to FIBArk (First in Boating on the Arkansas River), which is a very cool festival that is centered around whitewater kayaking and rafting. It is one of the biggest festivals of its type and it attracts the best of the best to compete in various disciplines, including slalom, freestyle, downriver, Class V boater-cross, and the Hooligan race.

Saturday
The weekend really couldn't have gone much better and it all started with a lunch worth of free samples at the Safeway Grand Reopening and then me winning an iPod Shuffle in the checkout line! Shortly after that, we met our kayaking hero Eric Jackson! Not only did he insist that we take out two of his Hero line of kayaks (hmmm, maybe he was the one playing up the whole hero thing...), but he also sang You Got Legs to Richele! Let's just say that I've been wanting to meet EJ for the past several years, so this was a real treat for me. So then we geared up in our kayak attire, grabbed the two big, purple kayaks (Barney the dinosaurs) and plopped into the middle of the kayak course and competition right after Assad went by us! Neither of us had kayaked this stretch from Salida to Rincon and all we really knew of it was that there was a Class III rapid called Big Bear. A short while later after getting somewhat used to our borrowed purple dinosaurs, we encountered a turbulent maelstrom (well it felt that way!) of waves crashing from every direction! We both made it through without flipping, but we were both very surprised by the power of high water on the river. After a quick eddy break, we entered the main stretch of Big Bear rapid and I turned to my left to see Richele heading almost into the big hole that gives the rapid its name! The look on her face as she skirted the giant beast could only be described as awe, although a few beers would bring out many other names during the rest of the evening! At the end of the run, our luck continued as we immediately found a ride for us and our boats back to Salida with some nice folks in a big, ole Suburban. Once back in Salida, we got to watch the Hooligan Race, drink some beer, wander around the festival, listen the Hell's Belles, and watch part of the Pro Rodeo that EJ was competing in. Maybe it was winning the slalom competition or the boater cross or the fact that he was competing against athletes half his age that led EJ to finish second in the rodeo. But after it was all finished, he couldn't even stop playing. He got back into the hole under the spot lights and proceeded to out-do his previous moves all without a paddle, AND I was lucky enough to capture it on my little digital camera and get it posted on Youtube! So check out EJ with and without paddle tearing it up under the lights at FIBArk 2008!

Hand Surfing Video


Loop, Cartwheels, & More


Sunday
The second day in the Arkansas River Valley turned out to be every bit as good as our first. This was one of those weekends that felt like it lasted about a month, but in the good way! After meeting up with Colleen and Greg mid-morning, we dropped a car at the Hecla Junction take-out, inflated and rigged the raft, and were on the water mid-morning to raft Brown's Canyon. The day couldn't have been any nicer- not a cloud in sight, low 80's, no wind, and fast moving water on the river. The first several miles went by uneventfully and I don't think we really appreciated how high the river actually was. As we approached Zoom Flume (the main rapid of the run), I opted for scouting via proxy, which amounted to yelling over to some kayakers to ask if the run looked okay. They said to run it center, then right, which is my usual line, so no biggie. Then we got to the top of the rapid and got to see what it looks like at 2800 cfs! WOW! This aint your daddie's Zoom Flume, that's for sure! We set up perfectly in the center and rode the giant green tongue like it was a roller coaster and crashed through waves that made the 14 foot raft feel tiny. The girls paddled like pros up front and Greg had the time of his life hooting and hollering in the back! We made it around the huge hole at the bottom and were drinking Tecate a bit later to celebrate our safe passage. I grabbed these photos off the web of us near the crux of the rapid, and since whitewater photos never look as impressive as the first person experience, you can only imagine what it was like to be crashing through those waves! I can't wait to paddle raft it again this coming Saturday with Matt and friends for his bachelor party. The rest of the run went equally well, with huge waves that we blasted through while hooting and hollering! When we reached the take out, we all felt a bit of disappointment that such a great ride was over. In my mind, that's the perfect way to end a day on the water and a great weekend.

Rocky Mountain 1/2 Marathon

On June 8, I ran further than I ever had before in the Rocky Mountain Half Marathon! I had been training for this race all spring with FastForward Sports in Boulder and was ready for my training (see previous post) to be over, especially after running the Bolder Boulder in a personal best time of 53 minutes. Although Richele and Arrin Katz both ran the race, we each ran at our own pace, so I had to figure things out on my own. My only goal was to finish the race and run further than I ever had previously. I expected to walk through the water stations, but the night before the race I had a dream that I ran the whole thing without stopping! Normally, when I have dreams before something that I'm nervous about, it's about showing up late or some other negative, albeit untrue premonition. I was pleased to wake up with this positive thought in my subconscience, but I didn't expect any miracles either. The race started out with cool, light rain for the first several miles despite the forecast of 80 deg and sunny and I began running at a much swifter pace than my anticipated 12 minutes per mile that I had been training at on long runs. I stopped for a quick bathroom break after the first 5 miles, but otherwise continued on at a surprisingly fast 10 minute per mile pace. And when I came to the steep hill near Invesco Field, I felt all my training pay off as I maintained my tight running form up the hill at the same pace while those around me slowed to a walk. I finished the hill short of breath but invigorated and began to initially think that my dream may have been more of a premonition than wishful thinking.

Once I was half way around Sloan's Lake, I decided that premonition or not, my dream was at least going to be a self-fulfilling prophesy, so I buckled down and decided that I wouldn't make any stops for the remainder of the race. And shortly after that decision, I realized that I had been running slightly faster than a 10 minute per mile pace for over 8 miles, so I might as well try to finish with that pace! The remainder of the race was challenging, but I just focused on my running form and my 2 new goals. I boogied down the hill at Invesco Field and a mile and half later, I finished running my first half marathon in 2 hours and 9 minutes at an average pace of 9 minutes and 46 seconds per mile! (My official time was 2:12, but I don't think it's fair to count a bathroom break as part of my race time!) The full race record according to my Forerunner 305 is available on my Motionbased site.

I have to say that I'm relieved to be finished training, but I also want to keep running on a regular basis and maybe do another one of these races in the future!

Junction Link Magic

One of the great capabilities that I have used in Unix that does not exist for the average user in Microsoft Windows is the ability to create symbolic links between files or folders. Basically, these links can be thought of as shortcuts from one file or folder to another. For example, I might have a folder called C:\PatsPics that is really just a shortcut to C:\Documents and Settings\Pat\My Documents\My Pictures. It turns out that this is incredibly useful whenever you need to change the location of data that is used by another application. If I have an application that is looking for photos in C:\PatsPics and I decide to move my photos from My Pictures to an external disk, all I need to do is re-map the symbolic link and the application will continue to operate normally. Of course, if only one application is referencing the data, it isn't such a big deal, but when it's used by multiple applications, this really makes updating the computer system much easier.

But like I said, Windows does not provide an easy method for creating these links. That's where a nifty utility called Junction Link Magic comes in. Within a few minutes, you can install it and have created your first links between folders! Have fun!

May camping and kayaking

After a long, cold winter and over two months working on my newly acquired 1985 VW Vanagon Westfalia camper van, I finally got out camping in it over the past 3 weekends with Richele and the dogs. First, we attempted a trip to Moab over the weekend of 5/16-18, but we wound up just hanging around the Colorado River between No Name, CO and Glenwood Springs, CO. Although the van was really slow over the high mountain passes on I-70, the real reason we wound up staying was that it was so much easier to go for a long, 10 mile run along the path on the Colorado River on Saturday and then kayak the same stretch (Grizzly Creek to Two Rivers Park) on Sunday. With such beautiful weather and surroundings, we really didn't feel the need to move on to Moab and as a bonus we got to soak in nice, backcountry hot springs near Glenwood. The first weekend of camping in the van showed that it was definitely well suited to the 2 of us plus our 3 dogs and 2 kayaks and associated gear! Although our steath camping in the No Name rest stop on Friday night was pretty neat, I've gotta say there are other places I would rather be than smack between I-70, freight trains, and idling 18 wheelers!

The next weekend (5/23-25) we headed off to camp and play for Memorial Weekend with friends near Buena Vista, CO. Richele and I kayaked the cold water of the Arkansas River along the stretch known as the Milk Run on Saturday and then headed up to Buena Vista to check out some of the top kayakers in the world compete in the 1st Annual Buena Vista Pro Rodeo (that's kayak rodeo). We got to seek Eric Jackson (my hero), but unfortunately he wasn't competing. However, his 14 year old son, Dane, did finish second and looked absolutely spectular on the water. Inspired by the pros, I decided to get in the water and try my hand at the new play waves in BV which were a lot of fun. Afterwards, we camped with friends on National Forest land near Brown's Creek trailhead and then went for a hike from the trailhead on Sunday up to the Colorado Trail. I really wanted to take it easy on Sunday and head back early, because early Monday morning I ran in the Bolder Boulder for my 4th time. I'm happy to say that after training with FastForward Sports all spring that I ran a personal best time of 53 minutes!

And now that brings us to last weekend, 5/31-6/1. Once again, we loaded up the van with our kayaks and the dogs, but we headed North this time to the Poudre River west of Fort Collins, CO to kayak with Colorado Whitewater Association for their annual Poudre River weekend (which just happened to be where Richele and I met last year!). We kayaked the Filter Run stretch with a friendly beginner group on Saturday, hung out in the Mountain Park group campground with our kayaking friends that night, and the kayaked a beautiful Class II/III stretch on the upper Poudre called Sleeping Elephant.

It's been a busy 3 weeks of camping, kayaking, and figuring out the Westfalia, and there will be plenty more of all them this summer! Until my next report, check out a few photos and a map from all these recent adventures...


View Larger Map

IPTC Metadata

Interesting topic, huh? It turns out that metadata is one of things that is quietly in the background making things more efficient and productive without you ever knowing it. Every time you take a digital photograph, information is stored in an EXIF header that includes the camera settings (shutter speed, exposure time, flash, etc.) and the time and date of the photo. This makes it very easy to find when photos were taken without you needing to manually record the date, time, and camera settings the way photographers used to do SLR film cameras. This information is considered metadata because it is a small snippet of the file that is separate from the digital representation of the photo that is the bulk of the file.

Now, don't you wish that there was other information associated with each photograph, like location, who is in the photo, the photographers name, and a description? Lots of different software applications are attempting to deal with this by allowing you to "tag" photos or by including a description, and this definitely is a step in the right direction that will allow you to search for photos more easily in the future. But what if you stop using Windows Vista, .Mac, or Flicker? What happens to those descriptions and tags? They disappear! That's because they aren't part of the photo and they aren't based on an industry accepted standard. This is where IPTC headers come in. IPTC stands for the International Press and Telecommunications Council. This group recognized that photos needed metadata attached to them with descriptions, photographer, etc. so that they could be easily passed from one news organization to another. The reason this matters to us is that it provides a standard format for this metadata that will remain largely accepted throughout the world for the forseeable future.

Now the question becomes, how can IPTC be used to actually make my digital photography experience better? First off, you need to be able to add IPTC headers to existing photographs. I'm sure there are dozens of ways to do this, but I will just mention a few here. Originally, I used a free application called PixVue to edit and view IPTC data for photographs from within MS Window Explorer, but it has come and gone and come again, so I can't guarantee its availability. IrfanView is a popular, free image editing software that can also be used to view and edit IPTC data, but I found the process to be somewhat cumbersome. Most recently, I found that Microsoft has released a tool called Pro Photo Tools (previously called Photo Info) that is very similar in functionality to PixVue for editing and viewing metadata for groups of photos with the additional added benefits of being able to correct camera date/timestamps and geotag photos. I think this type of tool should be included in the Windows and Mac operating systems since it is such a basic task. I'm not going to go into the details of editing this data, but basically, you just need to select a group of photos and right-click on them to be presented with a dialogue box that lets you edit their values. The toughest part of this editing process is remembering to actually do it! However, once that information has been entered once, there will be no need to re-enter it again in the future.

Once you have populated your IPTC header data, you can then take advantage of its presence. There are 3 ways that I currently used this information and I'm sure it will only expand in the future. The first way the data is useful is when searching for photographs. If you use a search tool on your local machine, you can now search for terms inside the photos instead of just browsing through your own personal heiarchy to find photos. For example, it would be much easier to do a search for "Pat" within all the photos in My Pictures than it would be to browse through thumbnails of all those photos to find pictures of me in them. Second, I use JAlbum to create online photo albums of my photographs and once the IPTC is populated, the album software is able to simply extract the description and location information and post in on the web pages without me doing a thing! Similarly, when I use RoboGeo this data is also used to create descriptions of photos within Google Earth.

That's all for now!

Update, 3/6/2011:

After a recent round of computer updates, I found myself needing to edit some photo metadata. Initially, I used the PixVue installation that was referenced above, but Windows Explorer (the file browser, not the web browser) kept crashing under Windows 7. So I moved on to using MS Pro Photo Tools, but it interspersed the metadata somewhat haphazardly between the IPTC and EXIF headers. Finally, I discovered that Irfanview can be used in batch mode to edit IPTC data and I’m happy with this new method.

Immersive Images

Today's technology blows my mind. Not only are digital cameras so pervasive that they are found in almost every cell phone, but the quality of digital photographs and the methods of presentation are amazing. I have noticed a recent trend that is attempting and largely succeeding at treating the viewer as more than a mere, outside observer. Instead, new technology is immersing the viewer into the world in which the photography was taken. I consider these to be immersive images and thought I would discuss some of the established and up coming technologies here.

1. Virtual Reality (VR) Panoramas



2. Google Street View in Google Maps and GE



3. DigitalUrban Panorama Viewer for Google Earth



4. Gigapan in Google Earth



5. Microsoft Photosynth

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VR Panoramas
The veteran technology here has to be virtual reality panoramas. These were made widely popular by Apple's Quicktime Virtual Reality (QTVR) standard and can now be seen on most realtors' web sites as an attractive way of presenting homes for sale. They provide a very inuitive and effective experience that truly immerses the viewer in the scene. Simply dragging the scene in any direction replicates moving your head and the ability to zoom is typically included as well. I have spent a little time learning how to create these objects and will discuss the methods that worked for me in a future post. In the mean time, you can check out my first QTVR based on a panoramic image I took at Walker Glacier in Alaska this past year.

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Google Street View
Google took the idea of VR panoramas to a whole new level by having cars with automatic panoramic cameras on their roofs drive the streets of most large metropolitan areas. The result is Street View- the ability to "step into" the Google Map or Google Earth street and see what is actually there. Once again, the interface is intuitive, but I will let Google describe it for themselves. Once you have Street View at your disposal, it's amazing how useful it can be to travel parts of your route before you actually get on the road.

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DigitalUrban Panorama Viewer
I recently learned that there is a way to embed VR panoramas in Google Earth so that a viewer can step into a photo realistic view of locations on the ground. I will be adding my Walker Glacier panorma shortly using the instructions provided on their blog. I love the fact that this allows a casual user to integrate two such powerful experiences together.

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Gigapan in Google Earth
Gigapan expands on the notion of embedding VR panoramas in Google Earth by insisting that they contain gigapixels of photographic data. The basic idea is to use a robotic panoramic mount with a standard digital camera to capture dozens if not hundreds of photos that are then stitched together to form amazingly high resolution VR panoramas. Although the panoramas can be viewed on their website, it is a far more enriching experience to view them in situ in their Google Earth layer. The robotic camera mount will become available to the public in the near future, but it remains to be seen how many people will invest in such a technology and then generate content for others.

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Microsoft Photosynth
Whereas Gigapan is based on an extremely deterministic, proactive capture of photos to generate a virtual representation of a scene, Microsoft's new technology named Photosynth assembles 3D scenes based on photographs that are scoured off the web. This amazing technology uses photographic keywords to locate photos of a particular scene and then it uses advanced machine vision algorithms to identify common geometric features in the photos and derive the location of each photo in the scene. And it does all this with no preconceived idea of what the scene is before hand! If you want to see first hand what I just described, check out their technology preview on their site. I imagine that the preview is intended to show the power of the technology and not the final user experience that will likely be similar to other VR photo viewers. Clearly, the power of this technology is that the amount of available web content available to generate an immersive experience is far greater than the number of intentional immersive images. It will be very exciting to see how this technology progresses and becomes integrated with MS's Virtual Earth in the near future!

Update (6/3/2008)
It looks like Google is trying to compete with MS Photosynth with their Look Around feature for select locations in Panoramio. It doesn't seem to be as immersive as Photosynth or nearly as adaptable to the everchanging landscape of the web, but who knows how it will grow in the coming months and years...

Remote Computer Access

Not too long ago, I needed a method to remotely access, view, and control computers over the internet so that I could help my parents with their computers. I also realized that it would be useful to remotely log on to my home PC for various reasons. I wound up spending about 12 hours researching and testing a variety of options and found a clear winner. After spending so much time doing this, I thought it would be a shame to not share what I learned, so here we go...

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Windows Remote Assistance
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/remoteassist/intro.mspx
Remote Assistance is included with all version of Windows XP and Vista, whereas Remote Access is only available to Windows Professional installations. Since it is free and is tailored to Windows, I decided to start here. I am not sure if it operates securely across the internet, so it may have been necessary to use a virtual private network (VPN) connection such as Hamachi (https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/vpn.asp?lang=en). The process works as follows: the person on the broken PC initiates the process by sending an email with an “invitation” to access the broken PC to another person. In this my case, my parents would discover that they needed my help and would somehow know how to initiate this whole process by starting Remote Assistance on their PC, then send me an email with the special invitation file, then call me to let me know what is going on, then I would open the invitation, and finally I would have access to their PC. Of course, if a secure connection was required, then we would both have to establish a secure connection with Hamachi before the connection was made. Surprisingly, this is one of the simpler ways to help out someone who needs help with a PC in the first place! In any case, I couldn't get this to work between their Vista Home PC and my XP Home PC, regardless of the direction of the invitation. I did discover that Microsoft says that a XP PC will not be able to remotely access a Vista PC, so I pulled the ripcord on this option.

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Ultra VNC
http://www.uvnc.com/
Ultra VNC is a great, trusted virtual network computing (VNC) software, so I decided to try this software after Remote Assistance. I have used this successfully to remotely access other computers on the LAN at work, but I had not set up a system from scratch myself. Here are the positive and negative aspects I learned about Ultra VNC:
Positives

• Free


• Open-source


• Reliable

Negatives

• Not inherently secure, so a VPN connection (Hamachi) would be required. There is also the ability to add encryption, but I found this to be a confusing process.


• Requires software separate client and server software installations. Therefore, my parent's PC would need the server software to be installed on their machine and my PC would need the client software. If you are trying to help someone who doesn't already have the sever software installed, this could be quite problematic.


• Requires IP address of the server (machine to be remotely accessed). This means that I would need to know the dynamic IP address of their computer at the time of access (assigned by their ISP), which would probably entail a lengthy discussion on the phone about how to run IPCONFIG from the DOS prompt, which is exactly the kind of thing that I should be showing them via remote control!


• Requires appropriate routing through ports 5800/5900 of their NAT firewall. If there router is power cycled for any reason, the computers on their home network will likely receive different dynamic IP assignments, which means that I now need to talk them through configuring a firewall over the phone! Remember that the whole point of the remote access software was to help them through simple tasks, like checking email, not configuring firewalls!

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Ultra VNC Single Click (SC)
http://www.uvnc.com/addons/singleclick.html
The Single Click version of Ultra VNC applies the Remote Assistance method an invitation file. However, the process is initiated in an opposite manner. The helper sends a .exe file the helpee, who then runs the file, which establishes a connection to the VNC software running on the helper's PC. This is definitely a step in the right direction for Ultra VNC, but it has serious limitation also.
Positives

• Software does not need to be pre-installed on the machine that needs assistance.


• Many of the same benefits of Ultra VNC- free, open-source.


• Firewall configuration and IP address are not needed for the machine that needs assistance.

Negatives

• Not inherently secure, since it is based on Ultra VNC. A secure connection would need to be established as described for Ultra VNC.


• Requires action on the part of the user whose computer is to be remotely accessed. Since they are probably having problems in the first place, this is not desirable.


• Requires configuration of helper's firewall. If I'm going to be trying to solve computer problems half way across the country, the last thing I want to do at that time is to make sure that my firewall is allowing connections on the right ports and forwarding them to the correct computer.


• Software seems complicated to initially configure. I spent about an hour trying to figure it out before throwing in the towel.
  

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PC HelpWare
http://www.uvnc.com/pchelpware/index.html
PC HelpWare is an offshoot of Ultra VNC that aims to provide a simpler solution to remote access, particularly in regards to firewall configurations. Still, it wasn't quite perfect.
Positives

• Open-source software similar to Ultra VNC
• Free
• Secure connection between machines.
• Can be configured to use a relay that eliminates NAT firewall configuration problems.

Negatives

• Software must be installed on both machines. As mentioned previously, this can be problematic if you are trying to help someone for the first time who doesn't already have the software installed.
• Software seems complicated to initially configure. I didn't even bother trying to figure it out, since I discovered the free version LogMeIn while reading various forums on the web about PC HelpWare.

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LogMeIn Free Edition
https://secure.logmein.com/products/free/
It took me forever to discover the Free edition of LogMeIn, but I am SOOO glad I did! It is pretty much exactly what I was hoping for all along! Here is how it stacks up.
Positives

• Free.
• Extremely easy to use. As long as the remote computer is turned on and connected to the internet, you can access it from any computer with a web browser! Just log onto the LogMeIn site, select the computer, and Voila!, you have complete visibility and control of the remote computer! Other than a random phone call or email requesting help, the person in need did not need to do a thing on their PC, and I didn't even have to be on my own machine!
• Secure. No need to set up a VPN also.
  Only need to install software on the computer that will be accessed, since the access is provided via the LogMeIn website. Since I was able to install the software before shipping the PC to my parents, this was an acceptable compromise for me.
• Painless installation and configuration of software.
• No configuration of firewalls or knowledge of IP addresses, since LogMeIn software manages this for you.

Negatives

• Not much here, except that the Free edition does not include file sharing. Since that wasn't a goal of mine, that's fine by me.
  

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Hope this saves you some time and helps you get up and running with remote computer access in no time!
-Pat

SPOT Satellite Messenger

Another GPS based device I recently acquired (also thanks to my REI refund) is the SPOT Satellite Messenger. It is generally considered a sort of personal locator beacon (PLB), but those who know better quickly point out that it is based on completely different technology, so it is really in a category of its own.

I got to use it for the first time in earnest when I rafted the Green River through Desolation and Gray Canyons two weeks ago with John Leventhal. Thankfully, even when I choked on a Triscuit, there was no need to use the emergency 911 feature that would have notified a 911 dispatch service of an emergency at our location. However, I did use the OK Check-In feature on a daily basis. I had set up a list of 10 email addresses of friends and family who I thought it would be fun and/or useful to check in with throughout the trip. I should mention that as the name of the canyon implies, it is extremely desolate in this part of the country and there is no hope for a cell phone signal while on the river. But since SPOT sends its text messages via the Globalstar satellite system, if the unit is in North America or Europe and has a clear view of the sky for sufficient time, it should be able to send out a message even where cell phones have no hope.

Each day when I arrived in camp, I would turn on the SPOT, press the OK button, and leave it for the recommended 20 minutes with a clear view of the sky. And each time, it dutifully sent a message to my friends and family that looked like this:

We are safe and having fun rafting Deso/Gray on the Green River! Will try to check in tomorrow! See you soon!
ESN:0-7368439
Latitude:39.6595
Longitude:-109.9886
Nearest Location: Fairbanks Crossing, United States
Distance: 23 km(s)
Time:04/14/2008 19:26:59 (US/Mountain)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=39.6595,-109.9886&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Everyone commented that it was fun and reassuring to see our location, but they all also said that it was unfortunate that they weren't able to monitor our progress from one day to the next by seeing each day's waypoint on a common map.

That being said, there was a way to view all the waypoints on a common map, but it left a lot to be desired. I was able to view all my waypoints on the SPOT website like the image below, but I had to enter my username and password that was also the same one that manages the rest of my SPOT account including my credit card information. I obviously wasn't going to hand out my personal information to everyone I knew, so this feature was essentially non-existent. What was needed was something similar to my Blogger account or my Motionbased.com account, both of which allow me to share my information with either a selected group of people or the whole world.


Well low and behold, as I write this I find out that all the customer requests to SPOT for a shared page has been answered! My shared page can be seen here. Unfortunately, it is only trying to display messages from the last 24 hours, so my Deso/Gray trip isn't visible. Hopefully, this will be fixed soon and I can provide an update on how useful the sharing is. Till then...

Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS for Running

I recently purchased a Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS to complement my running training with Fastforward Sports. I'm training for the Bolder Boulder 10K and the Rocky Mountain 1/2 Marathon and thought this gadget would be just what the doctor ordered.

It is feature-packed, GPS-enabled wrist-top computer that is designed to assist in training for running, biking, and other athletic endeavors. Although it is much larger than a normal wristwatch, it is very comfortable and fun to wear. The Forerunner 305 also comes with a heartrate monitor strap that is worn across the chest.

I have been using it to record my runs so far, but tonight was the first time I loaded a workout onto the unit and let it guide me through my run. It was awesome- it told me exactly what to do during the run, "60 seconds of Zone 4 running", "Your heartrate is too high- slow down!!!", "Slow jog until Lap button is pressed", "Speed up!", "Slow Down!", "Pace is just right." It is to running what turn-by-turn GPS units are to driving!

Anyway, I'm using several pieces of software to help with this:

• Garmin Training Center runs on my PC and provides nice, local storage of workouts for free, with no restrictions of any kind. Plus, it has the ability to plan custom workouts (which I did tonight) and courses. All in all, I am very pleased with how well it integrates with the unit including it's ability to provide totals of workouts based on different criteria. However, I wish it used Google Maps instead of the Garmin Mapsource maps and that it provided more comprehensive analysis of workouts.
• MotionBased.com is Garmin's procured website for training data that is soon to be replaced by Garmin Connect. The site does a nice job of presenting data analysis, but unfortunately, they offer additional paid services which limits the normal service capabilities. However, the maps are based on Google Maps which is refreshing compared to Garmin Training Center and they have a very cool feature called Player that allows you to see a point move on the map while cross hairs indicate speed, elevation, and heartrate! It seems like this will be a feature that will be incorporated in Garmin Connect. In the mean time before the transition, you can see my training history at rumitcu.motionbased.com

That's all for now until Garmin Connect comes online...

My first blog posting

I wanted to figure out this whole blogging thing, so I set up a free account with Google's Blogger service. I am going to try to replace the main.html page on my website http://www.patrickbrown.org/ with my blog. This will mean that I can easily maintain portions of my website even when away from home. Here goes...

Okay, after a few minutes I figured out that it was super easy to replace my cumbersome, manual method of adding blog-like postings with a real blog. And I was able to edit the existing post too.

Since it doesn't seem easy to migrate the pre-existing text into this blog, you can still find it in its previous format here.