Running Journal, Monday, 2007-07-30

Running Journal, Monday, 2007-07-30
Resting heart rate: n/a
Body Mass Index (BMI): (kilograms/(meters^2))
Weather: n/a
Temp: n/a
Time: 08:10-09:00
Terrain: flat

Comments: Treadmill exercise at the California Family Fitness gym at I-80 and Madison. Watched Pokemon and Ben 10.
Exercise Time: 45 minutes

Goal Time: n/a
Distance (running): 6.03 km (4.25 mi)
Total Running Distance For Year: 742.55 km (472.95 mi)
Weight (after exercise): 81.63 kg (180 lbs), 16% body fat
Any irregular feelings, aches, pains, heart rate, and so forth?: none

SomaFM Songs

San Rafael-based Two Seconds' Make A Run For It from their 2007 album Until We're Legal on the Popsmear Records label. Available on iTunes.

Seattle-based The Lashes' New Best Friend from their 2006 album Get It on the Red Ink label.

Bertrand Russell For Teh Win!!!

Late night silliness with Dawn :)

SomaFM Songs

Los Angeles-based Shiloe's The Rat from--their 2006 EP Please Remove Your Teeth From My Neck, distributed independently.

SomaFM Songs

June of 44's Doomsday from their 1998 album Four Great Points on the Quarterstick Records label. Math rock! ^_^

Tucson-based Calexico's Quattro from their 2003 album Feast of Wire on the Quarterstick Records label. Great guitar instrumentals.

Glasgow, Scotland-based Camera Obscura's Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken from their 2006 album Let's Get Out Of This Country on the Merge label. Female pop! :) Video.

Brighton, UK-based The Kooks' She Moves In Her Own Way from their 2006 album Inside In/Inside Out on the Virgin Records label.

I also heard Teddy Thompson on NPR's Fresh Air on July 18. What a voice!

SunRocket Member Bill of Rights

The founders of SunRocket moved on earlier this year and Ms. Hook took over the helm. SunRocket has a "Member Bill of Rights" page that states:

Dignity & Respect: You will be treated with the utmost dignity and respect in all dealings with SunRocket and company personnel.

Integrity & Trust: We endeavor to fully inform you of available options so you can make timely and informed choices. We will never abuse your trust through deceit, exploitation, neglect, manipulation, or discrimination

Goes to show the words in the contract only matter how well people adhere to them on any given day!

Original story

SunRocket VoIP Shuts Down Service

SunRocket Voice-Over-Internet phone service closed shop this afternoon. I began subscribing to SunRocket in 2005--I only wish they might have delayed the end until mid-August, when we finish moving! :)

Overall I found SunRocket's quality so-so, and the cost savings so-so. The service cost less--but I ended up paying more for bandwidth. Numerous people mentioned the cell-phone-like signal quality. I really enjoyed using SunRocket's web interface though--checking voice-mail anywhere, checking phone records, and so forth. SunRocket also provided a lot of extras--for free! Caller ID, voice-mail, call forwarding, call blocking, for example.

Happily, I'm moving to a location with fiber-optic internet and phone in a few weeks! :)

Regrettably, SunRocket failed to notify any customers in advance--so this afternoon the phone went dead as Dawn used it. We had advance notice of the impending closure due to rumors posted at dslreports.com over the weekend--but I'm feeling disappointment at the leaders' failure to exit gracefully.

Password Requirements

I've noticed this past month that some web sites enforce insecure passwords--even financial web sites!

Bruce Schneier writes about choosing an appropriately secure password here, capturing what the latest and greatest password crackers check for.

Some web sites fail to allow secure passwords for one of the following technical reasons:

• Only accept alpha-numeric passwords
• Passwords limited to x digits

Lame!

Running Journal, Thursday, 2007-07-05

Running Journal, Thursday, 2007-07-05
Resting heart rate: n/a
Body Mass Index (BMI): (kilograms/(meters^2))
Weather: n/a
Temp: n/a
Time: 18:45-19:35
Terrain: flat

Comments: Treadmill exercise at the California Family Fitness gym at I-80 and Madison. Watched the end of a recent (2006) Ethics In America II, Choosing Justice: Elections and Judicial Independence. Then I caught the end of Class of 3000--a hilarious episode filled with fantastic plots like a Ren-fair crowd attacking a school. Lots of fun one-liners. I used my upper legs a lot on this run--no knee weirdness!
Exercise Time: 45 minutes

Goal Time: n/a
Distance (running): 6.03 km (3.75 mi)
Total Running Distance For Year: 736.52 km (468.70 mi)
Weight (after exercise): 80.73 kg (178 lbs), 16% body fat
Any irregular feelings, aches, pains, heart rate, and so forth?: none! :)

Secondary Car Purchase Update

Dawn and I have investigated the purchase of a second daily driver car for some time as our primary car gets up in mileage (160K+). I figure better to stay ahead of the curve in case this car breaks down.

I've spent the last few days researching used cars in the range of 1999-2005, which seems to represent the price range we can afford right now. Top considerations (in order):

1. Safety
2. Reliability
3. Insurance cost
   
4. Looks
   

I first visited the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) which operates SafeCar.gov. SafeCar reports driver/passenger frontal and side impact assessments, as well as rollover assessments. Next, I visited the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) which reports similar information on impact ratings.

For local and national pricing information, I relied on Edmunds.com and their partner site, autotrader.com.

For reliability information, I visited MSN Autos which lists reliability for the current and previous years in a table.

And I enjoyed reading Samarins for used-car buying information (and reviews).

Initial picks (in no particular order, in the range of 2000-2005):

• Volkswagen Golf
  
• Five-star frontal- and four-star side-impact safety ratings from NHTSA, reliability seems pretty good.
• Honda Civic
• Nothing really needs to be said that hasn't already been said--great safety ratings and reliability.
  
• Dodge Neon SRT
• Vroom-vroom! ;)
  
• Honda Accord

I've said since college that I planned to purchase a low-emissions vehicle as my next car purchase. I still want to make that a reality--and the later-years Toyota Prius seems the likely bet, if I can afford one!

Running Journal, Tuesday, 2007-07-03

Running Journal, Tuesday, 2007-07-03
Resting heart rate: n/a
Body Mass Index (BMI): (kilograms/(meters^2))
Weather: n/a
Temp: n/a
Time: 18:35-19:15
Terrain: flat

Comments: Treadmill exercise at the California Family Fitness gym at I-80 and Madison. Watched more of Code Lyoko. First time running in about 11 days!
Exercise Time: 40 minutes

Goal Time: n/a
Distance (running): 5.36 km (3.33 mi)
Total Running Distance For Year: 730.49 km (464.95 mi)
Weight (after exercise): 79.83 kg (176 lbs), 16% body fat
Any irregular feelings, aches, pains, heart rate, and so forth?: right knee felt a bit tender afterward

Soma FM Songs

Sorel, Quebec-based Malajube's Le Crabe from their 2006 album Trompe-l'oeil on the Dare to Care Records label.

Chichester, West Sussex, UK-native Antony and the Johnson's Free At Last from their 2005 album I Am a Bird Now on the Secretly Canadian label.

New York City-natives The Natural History's Telling Lies Will Get You Nowhere from their 2003 album Beat Beat Heartbeat on the Startime International label.

Portland, Oregon-based The Shins' Reb Rabbits from their 2007 album Wincing the Night Away on the Sub Pop/Transgressive labels.

Glasgow, Scotland-based The Fratellis' Flathead from their 2006 album Costello Music on the Drop the Gun Recordings label.

Happy Canada Day!

The Logdriver's Waltz. ;) I'm told this flushes Canidians out of the crowd. ;)