I replaced my old Canon Pixma MP830 with a Lexmark Platinum Pro905 printer (one of those multi-function devices). My primary goal was for it to help me successfully scan sheet music from old guitar magazines I’ve been keeping around since I was a teenager (I have hundreds of them–yes, it’s been a while since my teens). The old Canon did a great job at everything except for the fact that the automatic document feeder (ADF) jammed up and slipped every few pages when scanning the magazines. Note that the type of paper I’m scanning is much lighter than typical magazine paper; it’s really thin, almost newspaper-like. Of course, in addition to that goal, I wanted it to be a good general purpose printer, fax, scanner, and copier. Continue reading →

I’ve been getting more and more into riding my road bike while battling my fear of riding some higher traffic streets. For the most part, it’s transitioned from fear to just being as safe and smart as possible. Some of the riskiest scenarios (in my opinion) are when you’re flying by cars that are crawling along in a traffic jam. It always feels like they’re not expecting a bike to pass them and the fear is that they’d turn right into a driveway or street just as you come up on their right and, well, that doesn’t sound like any fun at all.

Lately, while driving, I’ve noticed some cyclists behind me because they had flashing white LED lights. It was specifically the blinking that would get my attention on my rear view or side mirrors. I figured I had to get me some lights as it managed to make me notice riders and every little bit helps when it comes to staying in one piece. I headed over to my local bike shop and checked out their selection. At first, all I saw was the larger lights that are actually meant to illuminate the path ahead of you. That seemed like overkill for me as they’re pretty big, bulky, and heavy and I very rarely ride when it’s dark outside (come to think of it, I’ve never ridden at night yet and don’t really see a reason to change that). Luckily, when I was about to give up, my wife shows up with a tiny light called the Blackburn Flea. It turns out it was exactly what I was looking for. Continue reading →

I’ve been getting into road cycling for several months now and along the way I’ve been using Garmin devices to track my progress. I started off with a Garmin Forerunner 305 but got a Garmin Edge 500 soon after they came out as it seemed like a perfect device for cycling. I’ve loved these devices from day one and highly recommend them to anyone considering them.

In all, I’ve tracked hundreds of activities (rides, runs, etc.) with these devices so far and have never had a single problem–until  yesterday. I participated in the Livestrong Seattle 2010 event and rode the 45 mile route. It was the first time I participated in an organized ride of any sort so it was a bit of a big deal for me. Naturally, I used the Edge 500 to track the ride. We looked at some of the data after crossing the finish line and then I went through my regular routine: hold down the reset button, wait for the 3..2..1 countdown, and see the numbers all zero out. I do this all the time at the end of every ride I’m on.

When I got home, I hooked the device up to my computer and headed over to Garmin Connect to upload the ride’s data. I was a little confused when it reported back that there were no new activities to upload. I checked the history via the actual device and found that the most recent ride I had data for was my last training ride from a few days prior. It’s as if the ride’s data was deleted. Not good–not happy. Continue reading →

I received an email from a long-time user of Uptime 2000 a couple of weeks ago. He was wondering if I knew of an application that showed a system’s IP address the same way Uptime 2000 showed your system’s up time transparently on the desktop. Turns out I didn’t have a good answer for him. His mail did however finally cause me to get around to updating the Uptime 2000 code to make it work with the latest versions of Windows. I also figured that, while I was at it, I could also add support for displaying a system’s IP address.

I wrote that app back in 2000 (back when Windows 2000 was new and slapping a “2000″ at the end of your app’s name was the in thing to do). Every now and then I get emails from folks asking for an updated version that works with UAC (it wrote to the registry in HKLM which requires elevation nowadays) so they wouldn’t have to run it as admin anymore. I figured it wouldn’t be that much work and it would be kind of fun to write some code again–it had been a while.

I dug up the old C++ code and was quickly reminded of the fact that it was actually going to be a fair amount of work (for me) to make it happen. I changed plans and instead decided to write an application in C# from scratch that would do it all and in what I figured would be a couple hours of work. That turned out to be pretty spot on as today I’m sharing out the first version of DeskTips. Continue reading →

I’ve been reading a bit more lately since I got my Kindle a couple of months ago. It has proven to be a good purchase as it’s been getting more than its fair share of use. My favorite aspects of the Kindle so far are its size, ease of use (especially while reading in bed), ability to quickly look up the definition of a word, and jotting down quick notes for things to look into later or remember. I really, really wish it was back-lit though. I got a nice light for it but it’s still far from great. The e-ink is nice from the power consumption side but I can’t say I’ve noticed it being much easier to read or anything. I’d definitely give a back-lit device a try if it also delivered a reasonable battery life (unlikely to try the magical iPad though–too much magic for me I think).

Anyway, here’s a quick summary of the books I read over the last month and a half. Continue reading →

Heard of K’s Choice? It’s been a while but they’re back together and coming out with a new album in a few months. That means I’m pretty psyched. Very.

Last night, we headed out to the Triple Door (awesome venue) in Seattle to watch Sarah Bettens and Reinout Swinnen play some good tunes. Clayton Senne was the opener and also played an excellent set. Great music at an awesome venue really can’t be beat. Continue reading →