End of Month Ride – Brechfa in the snow

We had a good Ystwyth-MTB end of month ride today, even if I was the only person from Ystwyth MTB club.

We had planned to meet at the Bryngwm car park for 10am, so I set off from Aberystwyth at around 8:45 with Dave and John just behind me. The journey there was just as exciting as the ride itself. By the time I got to Llanrhystud there was quite a bit of snow on the ground, but I just made it up and over the hill. A car in front of slid off the road and into the bank a couple of times and gave up and as I pressed on I spotted a few other abandoned cars as well.

Dave and John couldn’t make it up over the hills because of the snow so gave up and headed back to Nant yr Arian for a ride there. I eventually made it and only about 6 minutes late too. Jay, Brad, Matt and Beale were there (from Bristol) getting ready and Kelvin, Jim and another guy from South Wales were there as promised as well.

We pfaffed for a bit and waited in case Dave and John turned up but in the end went off without them for a spin around the Raven Trail. I’d forgotten my phone so couldn’t contact Dave and John to make sure they were OK.

Despite the snow the trail was riding well. They’ve done some work on it and it is holding up well. It was a little sketchy in places but there was plenty of grip and the trail was easy to see most of the time. The climbs were just as hard as ever but it was a good ride. It snowed pretty heavily whilst we were out now and then as well, but it didn’t get too deep.

All in all a good day out and the journey back wasn’t too bad as I took a detour so that I could stay on ‘A’ roads. It’s a shame Dave and John didn’t make it but they had a nice ride at Nant yr Arian anyway and Brechfa will be there another day.

My photos aren’t great, as I’m not really used to my little compact camera and it keeps defaulting to program mode, but here they are anyway as the riders out there today will want to see them.

Thanks to constant pestering from Morgan we have done our Big Garden Birdwatch. Morgan sat there quietly for a whole hour and helped me count the birds we saw. There was nothing unusual and all in all it was a fairly good representation of what we normally get in the garden, with only a couple of things missing.

The results were:

• Blackbird: 3
• Blue Tit: 2
• Carrion Crow: 2
• Chaffinch: 7
• Collared dove: 2
• Dunnock: 1
• House Sparrow: 10
• Magpie: 2
• Robin: 1
• Starling: 18

Morgan now wants to do the same in the front garden!

This weekend is the weekend that the RSPB have picked for their Big Garden Birdwatch.

All you have to do to join in and help with the data is sit down for an hour (preferably with a cup of coffee) and count the birds you see in your garden. You count the number of birds of each species that lands at any given time and then submit your findings to the RSPB. You can download a counting sheet to make things easier and then submit your results online.

I’m hoping to do it today, so don’t forget to join in. Every bit of data helps.

So, the Apple iPad is here… Well, it will be soon, so do I want one?

Giant iPod

iPad

After all the hype I was initially a little disappointed. To me it was just a large iPod touch. It did of course look gorgeous, but that is to be expected from Apple, but it didn’t really seem to do anything revolutionary. Other than having a larger screen it doesn’t really do anything that an iPod doesn’t. You can view photos, movies, read books, listen to and buy music, browse the web and use iPhone apps. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want one but there wasn’t anything really compelling that made me think I needed one.

New Concept

I’ve now had a bit of time to think about it though and can see that it might indeed become a completely new concept in computing that does indeed fit in between a laptop and a smart phone and could become a useful appliances in many households.

I can imagine many households, ours inculded, having an iPad lying around in the living room or the kitchen and being used as a family computer for quick access to e-mails and thing such as calendars or address books or a quick check of something on the web. Rather than going to the office and maybe having to start up the computer or get the laptop, we’ll be able to just pick up the iPad and get on with it.

The Pros

The iPad obviously has lots going for it. The looks are great and the user interface and functionality is up to Apple’s usual high standards. The screen is super high quality and about the right size for tasks such as web browsing. The eBook reader looks good, and with so many 3rd party apps available in the app store it can do more than you would imagine. The new iWorks apps for the iPad llook good too, but it does have a few downsides as far as I’m concerned.

The Cons

First up is the lack of multi-tasking. As far as I know,  you can’t have more than one app open at a time (other than a couple of Apple specific ones). This may nor be a huge issue for general ‘living room’ tasks, but if I’m thinking of the device as a computer and trying to use productivity tools on it I could see that being an issue. It also looks as though I’d have to buy iPad specific versions of applications such as iWorks that I already have on my Mac. They aren’t expensive but it all adds up. And that brings us to the price. UK pricing isn’t being released until the product is launched, but the US price for the basic model is $499, so I’m sure the UK price will be around the £399 mark. That only gets you 16GB of storage though which probably won’t be enough for most and with no SD slot there isn’t a way of expanding the storage at the moment. The price isn’t bad, but it isn’t an inconsiderable amount to throw at a gadget unless you have a legitimate use for it.

There also isn’t any GPS which is a shame. Admittedly as a ‘living room computer’ this isn’t really needed, but people will take this out and about with them and it could make a great SatNav device in the car if it had a GPSr built into it.

I’m also surprised that there isn’t a front-facing camera. If it did have one and this was coupled with an iPad version of iChat then the iPad could become the ultimate home video chat system. I could just imagine passing it around on the sofa so that we could all chat to Granny!

iPad 2.0

It has to be remembered of course that this is only version 1 of the iPad and they have to hold some things back for version 2.0 so I guess a camera and GPS might appear in a later version.

Household Computer

So, do I want one? Well of course I do, who wouldn’t?

Do I need one? No I don’t, but I can see use for it in our house. As a Living Room Computer which is the niche that I see for this device, it has many uses. Having an iPad lying around ready to go would be great for quickly checking my e-mail or looking something up on the web. I can see us using it as a family computer for organising things, storing address books and calendars. Even in the kitchen for recipes and such like.

What’s more when not in active use we could place it on a stand and use it as a gorgeous 10″ digital photo-frame. Looks as though I’d better start saving up ready for the UK release!

Amazon is an internet success story. They weathered the .com bust and have gone from strength to strength and their fairly agressive but highly focused marketing often impresses me.

I get quite a few e-mails from them with suggested products and most of the time their suggestions are very relevant. Over Xmas, after buying a Wii as a present for the family I received lots of e-mails with suggestions of games and accessories. I often get e-mails with cyling equipment, GPS devices, Apple products and software. I can understand this, if I look at certain products then Amazon have that info, can see what I’ve bought or looked at in the past and can offer suggestions of products I may be interested in. Much better than sending me a list of random products I have no interest in.

Sometimes though I get suggestions of things that makes me think they could be stalking me! I’ve been having a few issues with a new hard drive. I think the firewire port or cable is a little dodgy and it therefore disconnects itself. I’ve done nothing about it yet (other than fiddle with cables), I certainly haven’t looked online for a new one, but today I received an email from Amazon with a list of Hard Drives for under £100. I’m sure it was just a coincidence, but maybe they are stalking me!

The world is full of Apple rumours, we now know what the iPad actually is and what it can do, but I’ve come across a source of information regarding a Apple event in Aberystwyth.

Yep, the sleepy seaside town of Aberystwyth is to host an Apple roadshow!

According to a job description on the careers advisory service website:

1 student is required to distribute leaflets and promote Student Discounts on Apple products, and pre-promote a Apple Roadshow that will attend the University on 2nd February 2010.

Sounds interesting to me, but then I am an Apple Fanboy!

It looks as though my hard work on the turbo trainer may be paying off as I seem to be making some improvements.

I did my 1 minute interval session yesterday, where after a warm up I try to do 7 repetitions of 1 minute hard and 1 minute easy. After a little bit of experimentation over a few weeks I found my limits and  could just about do these with the hard effort at 350 Watts. I have since done a few of these at 350 Watts, which normally gets my heart rate up to around 90-95% of my theoretical maximum.

Last time I did them on January 19th they felt a little easier and heart rate was only 89% of its maximum so today was the day to increase the output to 360 Watts. I had tried them at 360 Watts before and failed miserably. On that occasion I only managed 5 repetitions, but today was different. In fact, although the last one did feel quite tough it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. I managed all 7 reps and with a maximum heart rate of 162bpm I was still only working at 89% of my maximum.

This may all sound very encouraging and it looks as though there are signs of improvement, but it also means that I should try them at 370 Watts next time. I don’t think I’ll be able to complete all 7 reps at that power output, but it has to be worth a go.

I felt quite good at circuits and in the pool on Tuesday too, so maybe I’m just having a good couple of days – We’ll see how I fare in the real world on my night MTB ride tonight.

Heart rate from todays Turbo Trainer workout

I did the Mawddach Goldrush as part of a team last year. For those who don’t know, it is a charity mountain bike event in Coed y Brenin organised by Mawddach Rotary Club Trust. The event involves three approximately 10 mile long laps on the Tarw Trail.

I’m thinking of doing again this year, but this time as a solo entry. A few others that I cycle with are signed up to do it so I guess I should join them. It’s one of the first events of the year and 3o miles through the forests will be quite a challenge as I’m not feeling that fit at the moment, but it should be fun too.

I had hoped to photograph the event as well, or at least some of it, but I may well train Anna and Morgan up to do that for me instead. I’m sure with a little bit of tuition they’ll be able to do almost as good a job as me, and if the photos turn out to be of sale-able quality then this could well turn into a good partnership. I can ride the events, Anna and Morgan can photograph them and I can then process and sell the photos! I’m not quite sure what is in that deal for Anna and Morgan but we’ll see how it goes.

It’s always good to mix things up a little on the Turbo Trainer. Also, I had coffee with Jon the other day, my friend who did the various tests on me at the Sports & Exercise Department at Aberystwyth University. Whilst chatting about training he said that the session to do out of the ones he’d given me were the 3:2 minute intervals. I hadn’t tried these before so I though I’d give them a go yesterday.

The idea is that after a warm up you do up to 7 repetitions of 3 minutes at a pre-determine, hard workload and then have 2 minutes rest. John had set me a target of 275 Watts for the hard 3 minutes. I can only set the power output in increments of 10 Watts on my Tacx Flow Turbo Trainer so decided to give it a go at 270 Watts. My workout therefore was:

Warm Up:

• 5 minutes @ 140 Watts
• 4 minutes @ 200 Watts
• 1 minute @ 100 Watts

Main Set

• 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
• 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
• 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
• 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
• 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
• 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
• 3 minutes @ 280 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts

Cool Down:

• 4 minutes @ 180 Watts
• 3 minutes @ 140 Watts
• 3 minutes @ 100 Watts

Here is my heart rate trace during the workout, peaking at 164bpm (90.6% of my maximum)

Todays Turbo Trainer Workout

As you can see although it was quite hard, I still felt OK on then final repetition and actually did it at 280 Watts rather than 270 Watts. Next time I shall have to try it at 280 Watts throughout. In fact, talking to Jon last week, he was saying that if I can do all 7 repetitions of any of these interval sessions then the idea is to up the wattage immediately as they should really be so hard that you can’t quite complete them. That sounds like torture to me but I shall start increasing the wattage until I can no longer complete the whole set.

I did enjoy this set of intervals though as they seem to be working a little on endurance as well as power. 3 minutes can actually seem like quite a long time!

Hypercard

As a man obsessed with order, data and lists I’ve always had a softspot for databases. Right from the early days using an Apple Mac one of my favourite things to do was create HyperCard stacks and little apps within Hypercard for all sorts of things. I used to make my own financial recording stacks, exercise training stacks, databases of my books and music and so on. None of it was particularly good but it worked and served a need.

Filemaker Pro

Of course, HyperCard didn’t last long and I soon moved onto FileMaker Pro. Once again, I put it to similar uses and created some nice relational databases for things I needed (wanted) to keep track of.

More recently if I needed a database I was more likely to develop a quick online one using a MySQL database and PHP, and to be honest as my “Simple Life of Luxury’ has developed I’ve had less time for cataloging things I didn’t really need to catalogue and haven’t been using databases at home.

Bespoke Apps

I hadn’t used a database application such as FileMaker Pro for a few years. In most cases if I wanted to keep track of certain things such as my bike rides or my finances I would use a bespoke application – Ascent for my bike rides and other exercise, Moneywell for my personal finances. In most cases these bespoke applications are much better and have features that wouldn’t be possible with a database.

However, with the moth season approaching I wanted a way of recording my moth counts and having heard good things about Bento I needed an excuse to satisfy my need for a database! There are bespoke biological recording applications out there such as MapMate, but nothing for a Mac so I decided to give Bento a go and build my own.

Bento

Moth Trapping Record

Bento is built by the makers of Filemaker Pro but at £29.95 is much more affordable. It isn’t a cut down version of Filemaker Pro, rather it is a completely different product with a very user-friendly approach to database design.

I downloaded the trial on Saturday and had a go at building a database without reading any of the manual! The look and feel of Bento is very Mac-like and the interface resembles that of iTunes. There is a pane to the left of the window which contains your various libraries (tables), a smaller pane below this which lists the fields (columns) used in any library and the main screen which contains the records (rows). The records can be displayed as individual cards or as a list.

Adding new fields and arranging them within a record card (form) is easy and just a case of selecting the field options and dragging the field to where you want it. I was up and running with a basic database of moths in no time.

Relationships

The next thing to try was creating some relationships. Now Bento isn’t a fully-fledged powerful relational database application. It isn’t trying to be, but it is trying to be a useful database application for personal use. I wanted to have one library that contained records of the moth species, with descriptions and photos of that moth, along with another library that contained records of the moths I collect in my trap. Of course I wanted to join these together so that any recording of a particular species in my trap was linked to the description ot the moth species.

Moth Species Record

I did have to resort to the manual a little here, but once I knew how to do it this was simple. First I created the moth species library with its various fields. Then I created a moth trapping library with its relevant fields. Linking the two was then just a matter of dragging the Moth Species library onto a form within the moth trapping library. This has the effect of creating a ‘related data’ field in the trapping form that allows me to select a record from the Moth species library. You can choose which fields from the related library are shown in this related data field.

Now, when I enter a new record to the trapping library, I enter the various details such as date, species, and the number trapped and also click in the related data field and select the relevant species from the Moth Species library. This is OK, but not actually that useful. I therefore created a relationship in the opposite direction. This time dragging the moth trapping library onto the Moth Species form. I displayed this related data field as a list showing the date and quantity of moths trapped from the trapping database. This is quite useful. Now when I look up the details of any particular moth species I can also see the days that I have seen these in the trap and in what quantities.

Of course as these records are now related, changing anything in one is reflected in the other.

OK, using such a database to keep track of simple moth records isn’t groundbreaking but it was a fun way to get to grips with Bento and as far as database applications go I have to say I’m impressed.

iApp Integration

Probably the most important aspect of Bento of most home users will be the seemless integration it has with Apples iApps. The libraries pane by default contains special libraries that link to Address Book, iCal and iPhoto meaning that databases for each of these apps are automatically created for you.

You can therefore add more information to records within these apps, contacts, calendar events and photos, or integrate them into libraries of your own. It is all very slick and I’m sure I’ll find a use for it soon.

Compatibility

Import Dialogue Box

The ease of use is continued through to exporting and importing of data too. Importing data from a Numbers of Excel spreadsheet is ridiculously easy. Just drag the spreadsheet file onto the libraries pane. Bento analyses the data and up pops a diaolgue box showing you that it is going to create a new library based on the data in the spreadsheet. Bento works out that the first record in the spreadsheet contains column names so it uses these as field names in the library and then it allows you to check through the records to make sure it has everything correct. Click on the import button and Bento creates a completely new library for you containing all of the data in your spreadsheet. It couldn’t be easier.

Exporting to Excel or CSV format is just as easy meaning that Bento should be compatible with a range of other applications.

Looks

In addition to the Mac look and feel, you can customise the various forms you create in Bento using various themes that come pre-loaded. You don’t have complete control over all aspects of the form design and I found what you could do was a little limiting. You can’t change fonts for a start and there are only 5 font-sizes that you can choose from. This does of course simplify things and I guess databases are meant for storing and analysing data, not looking pretty, but a little more control would be nice. I for one don’t like the fact that I can’t make the scientific names of my moths display italicised.

Making changes to the look and layout of a form is really easy and there is enough flexibility for most users. I’d like to be able to lock the form layout though so that it couldn’t be changed. I would then be able to use it in simple data-entry and retrieval mode without the ability to accidentally edit the form. When sharing a database with others the database is ‘locked’ in this fashion meaning that users viewing your shared database can’t create or delete fields or make changes to form layouts, but they can edit, add and delete data.

Overall Bento is easy to use, works well and would suit the needs of most personal users needed a database application. I just need to find a few more uses for it now, but I think it is well worth £29.95.