GeoTwitter Updates

I've made a few small changes to GeoTwitter.

I've added a numerical prefix to all updates so that Google Maps will display your updates in the correct order.

I modified the description to more clearly display the posted date.

The KML now includes <name> and <description> elements that will be displayed by Google Maps and Google Earth. For example, you will now see the following above the list of updates:

Twitter / maxanger

Twitter updates from Matt Hanger / maxanger.

I've also verified that you can use GeoTwitter with a Twitter username, not just a Twitter user id. For example, both of the below are equivalent:

http://mc.mttech.com/geotwitter?user=maxanger
http://mc.mttech.com/geotwitter?user=7337402

2004 Motorcycle Adventure: Day 6

Photos - September 2 2004

I wake up to the sound of rain around 5am. Uh-oh, the weather has finally changed like everyone was warning me. So I decide to sleep in. A few hours later it has stopped raining and some clear blue sky is making its way over the mountain. Breakfast, pack, and leave. The road from Yellowstone to Cody is quite pretty and little traffic at 10am, which is good because the roads are still quite wet, so spray is a problem, but the skies have developed into a promising-looking partly cloudy.

The Chief Joseph Highway is quite beautiful, winding and twisting its way up the mountain. The GPZ ticks over 20,000 miles. I pass two bicyclists taking two weeks to ride the area. One is really cooking up the mountain and the other is stopped for a break, having a really hard time. Dead Indian pass is really something to see. Do not miss this road if you're in the area.

The promising looking sky turns not-so-promising as I see sections of rain induced by the mountains. The rain is hard enough to be not-fun, so I pull in a quiet campground and stand by a stream just watching the rain come down in my waterproof suit. The sun was still shining and I could see the pockets of rain just falling down, all the way down, being blown by the wind.

If I thought Chief Joseph was great, the Beartooth Highway is even better. Magnificent. I pass into Montana at the top and they have posted a 70mph(!) speed limit sign. I like this state already. Windy, really windy. Couple on a BMW and Harley were complaining about the wind blowing them all around. I ask them if it is because of the big barn-door windshields they have attached to the forks. No, of course not. Whatever! The GPZ has little problems slicing through the wind. Cold too. A guy could have frozen to death up there I do think.

I work my way down, down, down the pass, must have been almost 3000ft down, then into Red Lodge, and it hasn't warmed up very much at all! I start working my way east, having run out of time to go to Glacier and see Chuck, but I'll hit up the Black Hills on the way home. I have to plug in the heated vest to keep warm. A bank sign says 51deg. Forecast high for today is 57deg and scattered showers. Chilly Willy.

National Radio Quiet Zone

I just watched a recent episode of Wired Science and found the segment on the "Quiet Zone" fascinating. I had no idea such a place existed.

The National Radio Quiet Zone was established in 1958 by the FCC to "minimize possible harmful interference to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, WV and the radio receiving facilities for the United States Navy in Sugar Grove, WV" (NRAO). The quiet zone covers approximately 13,000 square miles of land between Virginia and West Virginia.

Government agents drive around in (diesel) trucks looking for stray sources of radio interference. In the Wired Science episode (see below) they mentioned finding a woman using a set of wireless speakers in their home. In another case they found someone using a broken heating pad. Wow!



Follow the link to the Wired Science videos for more detailed coverage.

Wired Science Videos: The Quiet Zone
Map: Green Bank, WV
NRAO: National Radio Quiet Zone
National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)

2004 Motorcycle Adventure: Day 5

Photos - September 1 2004

I wake up to the sound of rain around 5am. Uh-oh, the weather has finally changed like everyone was warning me. So I decide to sleep in. A few hours later it has stopped raining and some clear blue sky is making its way over the mountain. Breakfast, pack, and leave. The road from Yellowstone to Cody is quite pretty and little traffic at 10am, which is good because the roads are still quite wet, so spray is a problem, but the skies have developed into a promising-looking partly cloudy.

The Chief Joseph Highway is quite beautiful, winding and twisting its way up the mountain. The GPZ ticks over 20,000 miles. I pass two bicyclists taking two weeks to ride the area. One is really cooking up the mountain and the other is stopped for a break, having a really hard time. Dead Indian pass is really something to see. Do not miss this road if you're in the area.

The promising looking sky turns not-so-promising as I see sections of rain induced by the mountains. The rain is hard enough to be not-fun, so I pull in a quiet campground and stand by a stream just watching the rain come down in my waterproof suit. The sun was still shining and I could see the pockets of rain just falling down, all the way down, being blown by the wind.

If I thought Chief Joseph was great, the Beartooth Highway is even better. Magnificent. I pass into Montana at the top and they have posted a 70mph(!) speed limit sign. I like this state already. Windy, really windy. Couple on a BMW and Harley were complaining about the wind blowing them all around. I ask them if it is because of the big barn-door windshields they have attached to the forks. No, of course not. Whatever! The GPZ has little problems slicing through the wind. Cold too. A guy could have frozen to death up there I do think.

I work my way down, down, down the pass, must have been almost 3000ft down, then into Red Lodge, and it hasn't warmed up very much at all! I start working my way east, having run out of time to go to Glacier and see Chuck, but I'll hit up the Black Hills on the way home. I have to plug in the heated vest to keep warm. A bank sign says 51deg. Forecast high for today is 57deg and scattered showers. Chilly Willy.

2004 Motorcycle Adventure: Day 4

Photos - August 31 2004

Day 4 I spent crossing Wyoming. I rode about 10,000 miles of desert, typically sticking to the only paved road within 50 miles. Lots of ranching, gas/oil fields, and semi trucks hauling everything everywhere.

It was neat in its own way. I saw a solid red line on my DeLorme Gazetteer that went through the "Great Divide Basin". Hey, when in Rome, right? The map also listed some sand dunes in that general direction. Well that "solid line" was just a big gravel road built for semi trucks. What the hell, the Geep did quite well if I kept the speeds around 60mph or so, just slow down for the semi trucks, cows, and antelope. But after awhile I gave up, as I talked to one of the gas field workers and he told me that the road I was just on was just rebuilt, and it didn't last for too much longer. He also said that traffic would die down quite a bit! What!? I saw him and 1 other guy in probably an hour. Anyway I took a break, enjoyed the immersive silence, and turned back.

I took the southern approach to the Tetons/Jellystone, which is pretty much more of the same old desert, until you get to, oh, Daniel. I took 189 north from there and went through the breathtaking Hoback Canyon. It was really quite beautiful. I don't *think* that being in the desert for an entire day has affected my judgment too much.

Anyway, now I'm in Jackson, where there are way too many people and way too much traffic and the motels are way too expensive.

2004 Motorcycle Adventure: Day 3

Photos - August 30 2004



The following is my unedited, uncut, original on-the-road report:

"Trail Ridge Road is under 2.5 ft of snow". That seemed to be the motto for Day 2. Just about every Colorful Coloradoan I mentioned my plans to told me the same thing. Enough so that it seemed like an omen.

Anyway, on Day 2 I make the trek from Manhattan Kansas "the little apple" into Denver Colorado. Friendly fellow lister "Mike in Colorado" offered to meet me for dinner and shoot the bull. In addition to that I come back from a walk around the beautiful campus of the "Mile High Inn" to find some suspicious fellow staring awfully hard at my GPZ. That fellow (still suspicious in my opinion) was Charles, and we all went out for a good meal. I tell ya, Mike and Charles are a couple of top-notch guys. Mike and his wife drove an hour just to meet me, and they all probably hung out too late for their own good, but it was fun and I got a lot of route advice from both of them. Thanks guys, I owe you one.

Finally, on the third day of my adventure, I get into the mountains. I did a few side roads, by mainly stuck with the Peak to Peak Highway and the Rocky Mountain National Park. The weather couldn't have been any better and the views were just stunning. There were only a few pockets of snow left up on the high sections of Trail Ridge Road.

Truth be told, I *almost* ditched my plans to continue north to the Tetons, Yellowstone, and on up to Glacier, spending my time in Colorado instead. But, I didn't, so I headed north on 125 through Walden. It starts out as a pretty good stretch of road, but those tar snakes are brutal. After awhile it pretty much straightens out. Avoided a speed trap when a friendly gave me the headlight warning. Thanks, whoever you are. I was cooking before that.

From there I cross over into Wyoming towards Encampment. It started getting pretty late in the day, and I had to make a decision: go towards the bigger towns/interstate and find a motel for the night, or to push on and see what happens. I though to myself "no great adventure starts with words relating anything to 'Let's hurry up and go to the interstate and find a hotel'", so I pushed on, still full of energy and desire to do some more riding. So I rode west on WY70 over Battle Pass. Great stretch of road, but it is an open cattle range in lots of places so watch out.

I almost paid the price for my "adventure" when all the deer started coming out along the roadway. I ended my day in the bustling metropolis of Baggs, Wyoming, population 345. Smack dab in the middle of nowhere. Charles warned me that there was a whole lotta nothing in this section of Wyoming, and he was exactly right. I was getting worried but the Country Inn in Baggs is a fine place to stay if you like cheap. Just remember, you're in the middle of nowhere. Next time I'll pack a tent. camping areas are *WAY* more numerous than the four-walls-and-a-roof accommodations.

2004 Motorcycle Adventure: Day 2

Photos - August 29 2004



Another travel day, another 600 miles. Felt good to get to Denver, in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains.

Met a few online friends who took me to dinner while we shared tall tales of the road. Thanks guys!

2004 Motorcycle Adventure: Day 1

Photos - August 28 2004



First day on the road was really just a travel day, eating up the miles. Left the Indianapolis area in the morning, stopped in Manhattan Kansas (the Little Apple!) for the night. About, oh, 600 interstate miles.

I really, really dislike this approach to travel... speeding through the world on a soulless slab of concrete and asphalt. I'd much rather take my time, wandering the back roads, yes, even in Kansas. But alas, vacation time is finite so we must make our choices. Mine was to superslab it through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and the wrong half of Colorado.

Reposting my big 2004 motorcycle trip

I've been busy consolidating my various online photo albums into my new Picasa site. One of my photo albums covers a big motorcycle trip I took in 2004, and includes a ride report for most days.

Since my new photo album (Picasa) doesn't really support the concept of a ride report, I thought it'd be fun to re-document that ride here and share it all over again.

New posts coming soon...

Geek tech: backups

I've long been looking for a simple, reliable, inexpensive way to backup and archive all the data floating around in Matt World. There are several options:

DVD backups
Pro: Cheap, simple, DVD burners ubiquitous, highly standardized format
Con: Size limitations, not scalable, long term reliability

Network storage
Pro: Large sizes, centralized, accessible from all computers on the network
Con: Expensive, higher maintenance, cheaper options have reliability issues, still need to backup-the-backup in case of network drive failure

Online storage
Pro: Reasonably priced options exist, high confidence for short-term reliability, low maintenance, accessible from everywhere
Con: Speed, low confidence for long-term reliability, privacy concerns

USB/Firewire drives
Pro: Reasonably priced, portable
Con: Slow, unreliable

The solution I've chosen (for now) is...



Hot-swap SATA storage
Pro: Large sizes, low cost, semi-portable, simple, flexible
Con: Requires bay ($20) in each computer, higher maintenance

In truth I'll be combining DVD backups for the smaller, quicker stuff that I want available separately, using SATA drives for the larger-scale, more automated backups.

Christmas Gadgets: Apple iPhone

Mrs Matt is now sporting a new Apple iPhone. She loves it! I think it's pretty damned cool myself.

We're both tired of clunky, difficult, slow, ugly interfaces found on almost every traditional mobile phone. Really, they're almost unusable. As expected, the iPhone far, far surpasses her old Motorola flip-phone in every single way, even as "just a phone".


Well, OK, battery life is not great on the iPhone, but I'll reserve final judgment for a later date. See, the iPhone is just too much fun and we've been giving the battery a serious workout.

Christmas Gadgets: Canon PowerShot S3 IS

My first new digital camera in a long, long time is a Canon PowerShot S3. I'm still getting used to it (and I'm an amateur, at best) and would describe early results as "acceptable". Basically, it's a regular point-and-shoot with a big zoom lens grafted on, so results have to be evaluated with that in mind.

This is what I was looking for in a camera:

• Good quality
• Easy to use
• Standard batteries (AA), no proprietary rechargeables
• Big zoom
• Small size
  

The S3 looks like a winner on all points, except for the "small size" requirement. My travel style can best be described as light-and-fast. Time will tell how much of a hindrance the bulk of the S3 will become, but I'm tired of missing all those shots that just can't be captured with a 3x lens.

Perhaps I'll find a good pocket-cam as well and cover all my bases.