Blog

I won’t be struggling up the Tourmalet this year, but I’ve added L’Ã’tape du Tour to my mostly-in-my-head life list. I’ve heard about various tour companies which help you ride along the Tour de France course. But it wasn’t until I read the NYTimes blog The Climb that L’Ã’tape crossed my radar. I strongly recommend the blog; it’s reaching its final weeks of life, as this year’s Ã’tape is July 8th.

L’Ã’tape is one full Tour de France stage open to 8,500 amateurs a few days before the pros come through. The roads are closed, and you ride the exact course…if you can finish it. The time checkpoints are ruthless, apparently, and the organizers make a point of picking one of the legendarily difficult stages each year.

I enjoy climbing, but I’m not blind to the fact that my training would need to ratchet up to about double what I’m doing now before this fantasy race would be realistic. Convincing the wife to join me in France wouldn’t be hard, despite her personal revulsion at the catalyst for such a trip.

If you really want to soak in the ethos of cycling, specifically climbing, enjoy the guest post from former pro rider and current team director Jonathan Vaughters. Read the whole thing for tidbits like this:

…the most important parts of bicycle races are always uphill. The tactical genius of those who stealthily hide behind the dolt plodding away into the wind up front is lost on hills. Hills put bike racing back into the realm of Darwin and the grunting cave man. The laws of nature rule on the hills, and only the strong will survive.

and

Training and techniques will make you suffer slightly faster up hills, not suffer any less.

Next Sunday, I’ll try to suffer as fast as possible on Mt. Diablo. I rode the course and the extra grueling 4.5 miles up Summit Road this morning. Glad to have the lay of the land, but I’ll be thrilled to stop before Summit road next weekend.

A few weeks ago, I stepped inside Costco for the first time in years. I avoid most of the impulse purchases which inflate the bill (exception: dried blueberries, with added sugar… blech). But for less than $10, I couldn’t pass up the bundle of The Pink Panther and The Curse of the Pink Panther on DVD.

After watching The Pink Panther, I realized that most of my memories (Cato!) must be from one of the other Sellers-as-Clouseau films. Still, the Inspector’s inspired clumsiness amuses throughout. The costume party at the end included this groaner, which I loved:

[At a costume ball, a police sergeant costumed as a zebra drinks from the punch bowl]
Inspector Jacques Clouseau: Any more behaviour like this and I’ll have your stripes! (via)

Now I have to find out which is the right Panther film to match my remembered laughter more exactly.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull earned a Metacritic score of score of 65. I had to see it because Raiders is one of the best movies ever made. And because I find myself sharing the phrase “He chose…poorly” from Last Crusades all too often.

Not much more to say than Roger Ebert already did.

I can say that if you liked the other Indiana Jones movies, you will like this one, and that if you did not, there is no talking to you.

I am curious to see if these movies grab the kids the same way. USA is running the first three all weekend, which doesn’t hurt…but it’s still too early to indoctrinate them. So just our guilty pleasure.

I almost forgot I’d seen this movie a few weeks ago. Horton Hears A Who wasn’t on my must-see list, even with the kids. But when a friend wanted to see a movie, and I’d already seen The Bank Job and In Bruges, I was willing to catch this animated Dr. Seuss story. (My friend’s friend did some audio work on the film at Skywalker Sound.)

The movie is about what you expect, with visual splendor and imagination. The first glimpse of Whoville is overwhelming…you don’t know where to look. Steve Carell’s voiceover as the Mayor is more fun than Jim Carrey’s Horton. Metacritic reports a 71, “generally favorable.” I’ll go with that, and I would take the kids if I ever see it again.

After years of listening to the soundtrack, I watched the movie Garden State last night. Enjoyable small, character movie, which earned a 67 from Metacritic. That dives a bit under my score, but so be it. Peter Saarsgard, as always, sounds like John Malkovich all the way through. I wondered if they shot two (or more) endings, and then picked the obvious one after test screenings…but that’s a mild complaint.

Marvel ramps up its movie-making arm, and Iron Man is the most recent result. 78 from Metacritic feels spot on, based on what I saw two weeks ago. This is a comic book come to life, in the best way. Fun, funny, and connects the action dots pretty well. I’m not as familiar with Iron Man, so seeing Robert Downey Jr. as a high-tech MacGyver worked for me…not sure how original fans feel. When it comes to attitude, Downey’s Stork and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine would probably get along.

I’m ages behind in noting my reading and movies (pending: 11 books, 2 films), but before we head out to catch a Memorial Day parade in the Presidio, worth capturing some links in un-related paragraphs.

Obama’s Wesleyan commencement speech, via Jim Fallows.

Richard Feyman and the Connection Machine is an essay I plan to read, since I’ve read some Feynman and more about Hillis’ efforts at large-scale computing.

Future purchase: a Reelight, which I learned about from Cool Tools.

Video and accompanying New Yorker story of being trapped in an elevator. Saddest part is how this incident derailed the guy’s whole life, even though his health wasn’t threatened. Some nice history of elevators included.

Sea Forts are one more legacy of World War II. Very Neal Stephenson-ish.

While I look forward to the new Indiana Jones film (reviews be damned!), I can read “The original Indiana Jones: Otto Rahn and the temple of doom.

Why startups fail is hardly a new topic, but I’m interested all the same. Calacanis, whom I rarely read, emphasizes “the start.” As in, the finish is most important, but if you don’t start, you’ll never finish.

Far From Always Being Right, the Customer Is on Hold gently probes the surface of how bad customer service drives us crazy. Instead of talking about the weather, we find common cause with strangers in stories of bad service.

I’m a sucker for development stories, even for products like Tape Deck, which I’ll never download/buy/use.

Someone needs to tell the author of Times (via), the new Mac OS X newsreader application, about how to tell the story of his application where the user benefit comes first. Some examples where the user isn’t being considered.

“Times uses many advanced OS X technologies, like Core Animation…” (Why do I care what technologies you use? What experience do you deliver?)
“While Times is brand new, it is not shy on features. Nearly everything you’d expect in a newsreader is here, from notification of new articles to many other customizable options.” (Ummm… why not just list the features? Not because I want a feature checkbox front and center, but the category of newsreader isn’t widely understood, and not all would agree on expectations.)
On a related note, if you have “nearly everything,” I’m wondering what is missing.
I have to wonder what the New York Times thinks about the name of the application, given its news focus? From when I first looked a few weeks ago, I think the font choice has switched to something neutral — probably related.
I have not tried this application. I care about the category, so was interested in the news of its release, but wasn’t even interested in trying it from this intro experience. Here’s a review I have yet to read (but will).

Visible Borders in Designs seems niche, but maybe I’ll read the whole thing later.

Got into a discussion about how genders see colors differently. Not sure if these are definitive, but interesting: Do women perceive color differently from men? and The Meaning of Color for Gender.

People wonder whether social network advertising will prove as lucrative as the search ads which have driven Google to its current throne. I don’t have the answer.

But this morning I saw an ad on Facebook that was relevant and interesting to me, and I clicked on it. It was a text ad, “Core Perform C2 Seat: The first stability-adjustable seat for the Concept2 erg. Strengthened core muscles, improved rowing efficiency, and faster boats!” View the screenshot:

I don’t actually own a Concept2 erg, but I’ve spent plenty of time on earlier models. I won’t be purchasing the Core Perform, but glad to know it exists. I assume my mention of rowing in my Facebook profile was enough to connect the dots. Not remarkable targeting, but interesting all the same.

Only caveat to the “success” of this ad? I was only visiting Facebook to accept a friend request. The site isn’t part of my daily fabric.

Technical note: Facebook uses Javascript to obscure the (incredibly long) tracking URL and display the actual destination URL (http://www.coreperform.com/product.php). That’s a nice touch. It gives me confidence to know the actual destination URL. Of course, I checked the source, and saw the actual click URL, but few would bother. I assume Google has tested this display URL replacement technique, and decided it’s not worth the extra page load time…yet.

Two weeks ago in Phoenix, we went to see The Counterfeiters. Winning the Oscar for best foreign language film does help bring a movie some attention, and some needed distribution.

My German is non-existent, so when the film started with the subtitles half off the screen, annoyance started to rise. But the projection corrected, and the film took shape. You never forget the Holocaust setting, but you are compelled to follow the people. The story of Nazi counterfeiting (Operation Bernhard) is new to me, and the film makes me wonder just how was true, since it was “based on a true story.” Either way, the moral ambivalence of the lead concentration camp counterfeiter — himself originally a criminal — helps focus the story. In a world soaked in atrocity, Adolf Burger’s survival instinct isn’t pretty, but his choices are understandable.

79 from Metacritic.

A month ago, Vin sent me a box full of books, including several Robert Sawyer novels. I’ve enjoyed earlier reads, and Flashforward was a quick romp.

Courtesy of a supercollider experiment, the world gets a glimpse of its future 21 years out. Sawyer takes a swing at the mundane (patent office is overwhelmed with applications based on these glimpses) and the existential (can you change the future you foresaw, including your own murder?). Not all equally compelling threads, but the core premise is entertaining.