2011.05.14
Posted in House and Home at 4:27 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
I tried mounting my video camera on my bike helmet for 2 commutes to and from work.
The first attempt was a complete failure. I had more or less center-mounted the camera on the top of my helmet, and angled it close to level. Of course, it turns out that when I ride my bike I end up looking down slightly, and so the majority of the 40 minutes of footage was of the pavement in front of me.
For the second attempt, I mounted the camera on the back half of the helmet, angled reasonably upwards. This time, the footage turned out well. Things are still bouncy because I don’t hold my head still when I cycle and Calgary’s roads are rather rough for a bike with no suspension, but for the cyclocross bike the helmet mount is better than the handlebar one.
[1080p HD Download (295MB)]
The next test will be to move the handlebar mount to the mountain bike, which has a suspension, and see how that works out.
Permalink
2011.04.28
Posted in House and Home at 6:50 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Well, this week I started cycling to work for the first time, since the weather looked to be smartening up a bit.
Today, not so much. But I did cycle Tuesday and Wednesday this week, and despite getting a little wet I enjoyed the ride. It also gave me a chance to test out the handlebar mount for my helmet camera.
[1080p HD Download (208MB)]
In this case, the camera was attached to the handlebars of my cyclocross bike which has no suspension, hence the somewhat bouncy ride. The quality also isn’t as good as I had hoped. Next time I’ll try the helmet mount to see if I get better results (and hope for better weather – the poor light didn’t help things).
Permalink
2011.04.16
Posted in House and Home at 4:58 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
It was a beautiful sunny day in Calgary today! I was sooooo excited to get out on the bike for a nice ride and enjoy the weather.
Oh wait. What was I thinking. This is Calgary…
Still, it was a good excuse to test out the helmet camera I recently bought. In this case, I used a suction cup mount on the windshield of the car. I was hoping to use the helmet mount or handlebar mount on the bike this weekend, but it seems it was not meant to be (just yet, anyways).
Now where did I put that hot chocolate…
[1080p HD Download (387MB)]
Permalink
2011.02.13
Posted in House and Home, Technology at 11:26 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
I’m going to take a break from my usual non-geekiness and discuss something a bit more technical than usual. OK, a lot more technical.
For numerous reasons I decided to buy a new wireless router. The features I wanted were:
- Gigabit ethernet LAN ports
- Dual radios (2.4GHz and 5 GHz)
- Ability to create a “guest” network.
- IPv6 support.
Out of the box, my new Netgear WNDR3700 supported all but the last one. I don’t understand why it’s so uncommon for home routers to support IPv6 out of the box. But anyways, that problem was pretty easily solved by switching to DD-WRT-related firmware, and the rest was a matter of configuration.
I now have a somewhat interesting setup, summarized here:
- Each radio has 2 SSIDs, one “trusted” SSID for my own stuff, and one “untrusted” SSID for when people come to visit and want to get on the internet.
- The trusted radio connections are bridged with the LAN on br0
- The untrusted radio connections are bridged on br1
- These two networks (br0 and br1) can’t talk to each other at all (the firewall drops all traffic).
- Both networks have IPv6 enabled, on their own subnets, both tunneled via Hurricane Electric.
- The usual assortment of firewall rules keeps the bad stuff on the internet out of the local networks (both IPv4 and IPv6 are firewalled).
- IPv6 connections are not masqueraded, but simply routed. So the computers on the network are globally addressable via IPv6 (though behind the firewall).
Here is a diagram of the setup which I drew for myself in case I ever have to do this sort of thing again.
Permalink
2010.09.19
Posted in Food, House and Home at 5:49 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
… I should have brought back better weather. And some lemongrass as you’ll see in a moment.
Less than a week ago I was enjoying 42C and sunshine in Palm Springs, and now I’m home to single-digit temperatures and rain. I guess autumn arrived while I was gone. At least the trees still have their leaves here.
And given the weather I decided it was time to make a good soup for supper, so while I was grocery shopping I picked up most of the things I needed for a nice lemongrass and salmon soup, except for the lemongrass and ginger (both of which the store was sold out of). No big deal, other stores were bound to have it.
I went to a total of four grocery stores. Of the four, only two had root ginger (and in one of the stores it was going moldy). None of the four had any lemongrass. Including the ones where they have it every time I look. I’m not sure why, but nobody seems to have lemongrass in Calgary.
So I made the soup without lemongrass, substituting some lemon juice and additional onions and ginger. The flavour isn’t quite the same as it should be, but it’s close, and the soup is still quite delicious.
Permalink
2009.02.12
Posted in House and Home, Travel at 11:58 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
I left my iPod on the airplane on a recent trip to Phoenix. I did file a lost and found report with the airline, but I have little hope I’ll see it again.
So, I now own a new iPod Nano.
A few days after I got home from Phoenix, my audio side of the A/V receiver in the living room gave up the ghost. Well, not completely – I had the center channel still. But that was it. A single evening of listening to music on my computer speakers pushed me over the edge and I ended up replacing that piece of hardware as well. The very next day, actually.
It’s amazing that music is such large a part of my life; I didn’t realize how important it was to me until I couldn’t enjoy it anymore.
Permalink
2009.01.01
Posted in House and Home at 8:22 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
2009 is off to an inauspicious start for me. While I was cleaning the floors, I accidentally knocked my teapot onto the floor. And in the case of stoneware teapot vs. concrete floor, the floor scored a resounding victory. This is the first dish I’ve broken since I bought my Denby about 4 years ago.
OK, so I just buy a new teapot to replace the one I broke. There’s just one problem with that – my pattern (Smokestone) was discontinued in 2006. They only actually made it for 4 years.
Luckily, I managed to source a replacement online. With shipping, etc. it winds up being a similar price to what I originally paid back in 2004. Still a very expensive little oops to start off my new year. So now I make a new year’s resolution, a day late: I will break no more Denby in 2009.
Permalink
2008.10.19
Posted in House and Home at 7:09 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
I realized earlier today that I have now lived in Calgary for over a decade. I moved here on Monday, August 31, 1998. At the time, the North Koreans were launching satellites into space, and Air Canada’s pilots were gearing up for a strike.
And Calgary was a different city.
Perhaps the biggest visible changes are a result of rapid growth over the past ten years. Since 1998 the population has increased from roughly 900,000 to over 1,000,000. As a result, the suburbs now sprawl even further than they used to, and there are many new high-rise buildings downtown, with still more under construction.
Beneath the mix of urban renewal and suburban growth, the city has also undergone a cultural shift. As much as we Calgarians love to hate Toronto, it’s hard to deny that Calgary becomes a little more like Toronto every day. The people here aren’t as friendly as they used to be; everyone is in a perpetual hurry; traffic is much worse.
Most interesting of all, we seem to be gaining a bit of attitude about the whole thing. I’ve heard many people accuse Torontonians of believing that Toronto is the center of the universe, but to me, it looks like the shoe may be on the other foot now. Maybe it’s inevitable that once a city reaches 1,000,000 people it starts to develop a stronger identity and thus a stronger ego. Maybe we Calgarians are just tired of feeling like we’re in the shadow of cities like Toronto and Vancouver. Maybe I’m just imagining things.
The past ten years have also changed me. I’m not sure I like all of the changes I’ve seen in the city, but this is now truly my home. It’s as much a part of me as I am of it, and it colors my perceptions in ways I don’t always understand.
In the final analysis, though, while I enjoy visiting many other cities, there are only a handful that I would consider making my home. I live in one of them, and that’s good enough for me.
Permalink
2008.07.17
Posted in House and Home at 8:39 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
My company moved offices this spring, and now my commute is a little bit longer. A direct route (if I drive / carpool) is just over 7km each way. Pretty short and sweet still.
On the bike, I take a more roundabout route (to avoid as many crazy Calgary drivers as I can), which runs about 8.5km each way, with a few fun hills for good measure. If all I do is ride to and from work Monday – Friday, that’s 85km / week on the bike. Depending on the week, I’ll sometimes add another 20 – 30km on top of that (a single round trip to Bowness Park is 30km).
And in other news, my gas bill is down, but my grocery bill is up…
Permalink
2008.07.15
Posted in House and Home at 6:13 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
While I was cycling home from work today, I saw a car that had a “Cthulhu Loathes You” bumper sticker. That made my day. Well, that and the fact that I wasn’t stuck in traffic, which was very nasty today for some reason.
Permalink
Older Posts »
Subscriptions