Flutterby™! : Browser tabs 2008-02-27 18:48:56.24562+00

Browser tabs

2008-02-27 18:48:56.24562+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments

Closing some browser tabs:

Tara Calishain on using Google's really simple maps API for generating static maps.
Ken Kifer's Bike Pages, including the bicycle camping and touring pages. Charlene and I are trying to set up a way to take a week this summer and explore Sonoma County on the tandem, carrying camping gear and doing it just like we'd do a cross country trip, only 20-30 miles a day.
An extremely positive review of the Interphone BlueTooth Intercom system, because we're still looking for a system that'll let us have a conversation at speed on the tandem, and these folks may have solved it for the 80MPH case, not just the 25MPH case.
My Dad pointed me to the Weem s Creek Solutions Power Monitors page, including the Kill A Watt power monitor for $22. I need to adjust the contrast on the display of our BlueLine PowerCost monitor that does the whole house, 'cause after the move the display takes a really strange angle and some guessing to read, but something that works on individual devices rather than the whole house at a time would be very cool.
And we thought we'd talked ourselves out of a "flash" hot water heater, but the Takagi Tankless water heaters appear to actually have useful specs, I think their claimed temperature rise is sufficient for our climate, and they actually have some decent throughput. It kind of concerns me that the prices I'm seeing on them aren't as much of a premium as I'd expected over a sufficiently sized tank heater, so I'll dig further, but it sure would be nice to have a smaller form-factor heater rather than have to rework for a larger one, and we really do use our hot water in two bursts (morning showers, and evening dish-washing and relaxing baths) rather than continuously.

I can not speak to the absolute accuracy of the KillAWatt meter, but I found it much more useful for tracking power utilization than monitoring the house. One of its handiest features is the ability to monitor cumulative use and time as opposed to only an instantaneous reading for a an outlet. I have modified some habits and have put some vampires on switches. It works both ways -- there are a couple of items I don't bother turning off any more.

As someone who bicycled and camped 4300-some-odd miles across the U S of A a bunch of years ago, I highly recommend the practice of bicycle touring. I might offer, though, that a week might not be sufficient to really get into the rhythm of bike camping (although your relatively short 20-30 mile days would make it more doable). You might consider planning a longer trip sometime: for me it was a life-changing experience (and life-changing at 22 can be a Good Thing... not so sure about 54, but hey, you never know).

We work into these things as we have the time and ability. I'd love to do clip off hundred mile days, 30 miles is a long day for Charlene, so we'll start with touring the back roads of Sonoma and work up.

I need to get back into long rides again: I was finding 40-80 miles over a long day to be quite do-able and enjoyable, taking breaks was one of the best parts. :)