Altitude Slickness (at Couloir.org)

Heading to Leadville

blog@couloir.org (Scott Upton) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:19:00 GMT

I haven’t raced all season, but I’m planning to start off with a bang. This weekend, my singlespeed and I will head up to Leadville, CO for the Silver Rush MTB, a 50-mile mountain bike race complete with 7,000+ ft of elevation gain.

I could have chosen to dabble in some shorter races or I could have ridden by geared bike, but what’d be the fun in that? Basically, if I can get to the finish line before the race banners are taken down, I’ll be a happy man. Whatever the case, the race has encouraged me to explore some new rides and test myself on some old standbys.

This is going to be interesting.

Slower

blog@couloir.org (Scott Upton) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:58:00 GMT

Things have been slow here on the blog and on my photo gallery, but only because things haven’t been slow in the rest of my life. With ski season rapidly coming to a close and cycling season ramping up, I hope to be getting out more soon.

In the meantime, I’ll be twittering and tumbling along slowly elsewhere.

Skiing at the Fowler-Hilliard Hut

blog@couloir.org (Scott Upton) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 02:19:00 GMT

It’s hard to believe this weekend marked my first backcountry hut trip since moving to Colorado in 1998. And after this trip, I can’t believe I waited so long.

Ten of us skinned into Fowler-Hilliard from Camp Hale/Pando on Thursday morning. The 5-mile, 2,000ft climb in sub-zero conditions was a challenge, particularly in the last exposed mile where visibility was poor and the winds picked up. Thankfully, there was a warm fire to greet us on arrival.

The next morning, while cold, was beautifully sunny and despite the temperatures felt considerably warmer than the day before. To warm up, we skied the trees to the North of the cabin but quickly realized we needed to make the most of the sunny weather and turned our attention to the South.

Because it had been cloudy since the last snowfall, slopes that would normally turn to crust were instead covered in light powder. Jumping in from the Ptarmigan Pass access road, we connected several glades into one long run to the valley floor beneath Resolution Peak. A steep skin up, followed by another run and one final climb back to the road and we had definitely earned our dinner.

On the way out, a few of us opted to skin up over Resolution Peak itself, careful to skirt the wind-loaded slopes below that would surely generate an avalanche if permitted. After a few runs off the back of the peak, we skied over to the trail junction, ducked into the trees along the ridge and picked up several more glades before returning to McAllister Gulch for the ski out.

Thanks to everyone for a great trip… This definitely won’t be my last! Be sure to check out the photos over on my photography site.

Racing Lessons

blog@couloir.org (Scott Upton) — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 23:29:00 GMT

Lessons learned during my latest singlespeed race in Winter Park:

Show up to the start on time
The group doesn’t wait for numbskulls who set their watches to the rhythm of the rustling breeze or the song of the humpback whale. As fun as it is to chase the rabbit, sometimes it’s better to be part of the herd.

If you can push a bigger gear, do it
Don’t let a scary-looking course profile make you wet your pants in fear. What they’re not showing you in the course profile is that you’ll spin out on the false flats and, let’s face it, still walk your bike up the steepest climbs.

Tension your chain correctly the first time
It might sound all 3rd grade, playing-card-in-the-spokes cool, but a chain between your stays and rotating tire is not a good thing.

Double-check your equipment
That rattling noise coming from the tip of your fork? That’s your quick-release. Tighten it next time, will ya? In the meantime, track down the person responsible for those little safety tabs welded onto every dropout made today and thank them. Lordy that was close.

Train
It seems so obvious to me now, but you apparently have to do more than sit in an office chair all day and race every other weekend to stay fit. Who knew?

Introducing MooPix

blog@couloir.org (Scott Upton) — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:22:00 GMT

Awhile back, I vented my frustration over the poor documentation and support around putting Flickr on Rails. After having a go with various solutions, I decided I was in over my head and decided to fall back on something more familiar and began working on a pure Javascript solution.

And although it currently works only in Firefox and Safari, I’d like to introduce MooPix.

Normally you need server-side languages like Ruby because browsers do not permit direct cross-site scripting (i.e. they don’t want hacker sites to be able to control the code on your banking site). MooPix is a way for people who don’t understand server-side scripting, don’t control what’s installed on their server, or don’t even have a server in the first place to make calls against the Flickr API.

Like my original slideshow, MooPix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.

iPhone iNsanity

blog@couloir.org (Scott Upton) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:37:00 GMT

With just a few days to go before the release of the iPhone, people are going insane. This includes Apple itself, which is pushing the boundaries of what iTunes should do. Remember when iTunes simply played and downloaded music? Now, despite its music-focused name, the application has been tasked with setting up your AT&T account and managing your iPhone syncing needs. Sure, iTunes makes sense from a deployment perspective (the app has great market penetration) but perhaps a name change is in order.

Even better are the people who have started queuing up outside Apple Stores across the country. Gotta respect that entrepreneurial spirit.

Elsewhere: JSON Edition

blog@couloir.org (Scott Upton) — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 12:51:00 GMT

I feel the need to prime the pump, so to speak, after a dearth of postings over the last month or so. Here are a few links I’ve found interesting recently:

Web Services + JSON = Dump Your Proxy
This one is old (circa 2005), but I’ve found few links as useful on implementing a basic mashup using pure Javascript in an effort to avoid a server-side proxy (be it PHP, ASP, Ruby, or what not).

JSON and the Dynamic Script Tag
More details on implementing a web service request cross-domain using dynamic script tag generation. Another interesting blast from 2005.

Dynamic Script Request API
Another from the same era and in a similar vein, this concept uses a pure JS approach to retrieving information cross-domain without using a server-side proxy. The interesting thing here is how it breaks up large requests and, I believe, attempts to handle timeouts.

JSONRequest
Crockford’s effort to build an alternative to XMLHttpRequest that is not bound by that method’s single-domain security limitations.

Vitamin: Serving Javascript Fast
Some smart techniques for serving up your client-side scripts.

Apple Profiles the Washington Post
A look at how old media is becoming (and in some cases leapfrogging) so-called new media.

Arcade Fire
Because I can’t stop listening to this band lately.

Flickr off Rails

blog@couloir.org (Scott Upton) — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 17:01:00 GMT

I have to take a moment to vent because I’ve had quite a frustrating evening. You see, after getting inspired by the famous Putting Flickr on Rails demo, I set out to investigate the FlickrAPI. Not long after I had installed the flickr.rb gem, however, I hit my first hurdle. I’m sure everyone out there knows this, but flickr.rb has long since stopped working. Like a dead cell phone they keep selling at the Verizon store, flickr.rb is no more. There are patches and workarounds, but it gets messy fast.

But wait, did you say “flickr.rb”? Perhaps you meant rflickr instead? But of course—why would I be wasting my time trying to leverage such outdated code when something so shiny and new was available? Sorry, I should have known better.

And yet, where is the documentation for rflickr? To say it’s thin is to say giraffes are tall. It doesn’t exist. And when you realize the hoops through which you have to jump just to authenticate with Flickr properly, it just gets more daunting.

All of which is to say I’m frustrated by the frequency with which Ruby code is generated and quickly discarded by the community, the lack of care put into documentation in general, and generally speaking how much less reliable external libraries like these seem in the Ruby world when you compare them to what exists for plain vanilla PHP. Ruby developers—you surely can do better. It’s not enough to stop at Rails and call it a day.

Updated: Hopefully this tutorial on Flickr authentication will prove helpful to some… But you’ll definitely need to leverage Google’s code cache for the original zip file and the very sparse documentation for rflickr.

Simplicity is Dead? Not so Fast

blog@couloir.org (Scott Upton) — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 16:44:00 GMT

Don Norman, author of such books as The Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design recently posted a piece called Simplicity Is Highly Overrated. There’s a strong current of defeatism in the article and, frankly, it’s frustrating to hear this coming from a man so many respect. Is this what we’ve come to? Has irrational consumer exuberance won the day? I have my doubts.

Make it simple and people won’t buy. Given a choice, they will take the item that does more. Features win over simplicity, even when people realize that it is accompanied by more complexity.

First off, he predicates his article on the assumption that making simple products is easy—that companies like LG and Samsung could make something dead easy but their marketing departments are steering them away from that ideal. The fact is, making complex things simple is extremely difficult and most companies take the easy way out by adding knobs, dials and buttons.

The iPod is a perfect example of a simple design that still offers powerful features without getting in your way. Those features that are not core to the performance of basic tasks can be plugged in, ensuring that my desire for an FM Radio receiver doesn’t affect your desire for longer battery life.

Second, Norman makes the assumption that there’s only one kind of buyer out there and that you have to have a single product strategy to appeal to them. There is a huge range in what people are willing to buy and many people elect to buy devices that do fewer things well over those that try to be all things to all people. To assume that people cannot make buying decisions based on future needs is, well, overly simplistic.

There will always be a market for solutions that help people get things done efficiently and with a minimum of frustration. Call it elegance, simplicity, or just plain straightforward… But don’t underestimate its power.

UPDATE: Joel Spolsky has written a response to Norman’s original article. He makes some good points, but he fails to address the cost adding new features has on existing ones. TaDa List’s RSS feed does not detract from the overall user experience… Whereas the Zune’s WiFi does reduce battery life for the entire device.

Far Coast

blog@couloir.org (Scott Upton) — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 08:42:00 GMT

Coca Cola is apparently getting into the coffee game, trying to beat Starbucks by appearing far more “green” to the consumer. The folks in Toronto, where the flagship North American store has opened recently, are not convinced:

And there’s a bonus: the shop promises eco/social responsibility, offering a fair trade choice and cups made from recycled products in a space constructed with green building materials. When things are this perfectly crafted, you have to wonder who’s behind the curtain. You won’t find out by checking the logos, but the fact is, the big name behind all this is none other than Coca-Cola…

…What we have here is the mother of all branding quagmires a company that personifies American cultural imperialism, targeted by boycotts all over the world, is trying to grow a new market out of us green urbanites.

I somehow doubt this will burnish Coke’s image in the hearts and minds of those who follow the company closely. And those who do not monitor Coke’s labor, economic, and environmental policies will probably never go far enough to find out that Coca Cola created Far Coast in the first place. It seems the green-washing of Far Coast is more about creating a nice place to have a drink than anything else. Heck, if they become successful, Starbucks may have to counter with more Fair Trade coffee and more renewable materials.