Geek Cycling

For Christmas, Mr & Mrs Poade got me this hunk of plastic

I hasten to add that I did actually ask for the hunk of plastic, because it's a Herbert Richter Device Holder For HTC Hero and attached to my bike it enables me to do this

With a GPS equiped HTC Hero attached to my handlebars, I can use Google's free My Tracks app to show my speed, elevation and whereabouts as I cycle, so it's a handy free bike satnav tool. I can also upload tracks I record straight to Google Maps, like this:

View 20100206 in a larger map


You can click on any red line to see the distance for that section of recorded track. The red pins denote an end point, and clicking on them gives you all the speed and gradient averages, along with an uppity downity graph.


It's not infallible; click the red pin for the first stage and you'll find I covered 500 miles at an average speed of 1200 miles an hour. The lesson from this is to stop recording a track when you nip into a garden centre to buy bird food, or lose GPS signal for any other reason.
Also, if it rains, I'm obviously fucked, although Dahon BioLogic have a waterproof IPhone mount.


The overall lesson is that if you want to get a man to exercise more, give him some gadgetry. 

Candelabra in the Snow

Candelabra in the Snow,
originally uploaded by deadmanjones.

On Tuesday January 5th we awoke to more snow than we've ever actually seen in our lives in Stockport. This was our garden first thing in the morning, as captured by Zoe. The red candled candelabra has yet to be brought in from New Year.