Exercise Log

Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent, Istanbul

Bell Harbour Conference Center, Feb 14, 2015

Embed Test using 'embedded JS'

Embed Test using 'embed code'

IMG_1115

IMG_1115
Originally uploaded by Rob.Long

Me in Israel at the Western Wall with Ira

Tokyo Subway Map

Bellevue HS X Country 2010 Season Schedule

Mortgage Calculator

Bumbershoot 2010

Bumbershoot was really great this year. One of my favorite bands was Garotas Suecas from Sao Paulo, Brazil. I also enjoyed The Constellations from Atlanta, Bomba Estereo from Columbia, and Angelique Kidjo, who was amazing. See them below in my Playlist.

Health Care Crunch Time

Call These Congressmen and Congresswomen TODAY and ask them to support the Health Care bill:

US Representative
District Office
Capitol Hill Office

Adler, John
(732) 608-7235
(202) 225-4765

Altmire, Jason
(724) 378-0928
(202) 225-2565

Baird, Brian
(360) 352-9768
(202) 225-3536

Berry, Marion
(870) 972-4600
(202) 225-4076

Boucher, Rick
(540) 628-1145
(202) 225-3861

Carney, Christopher
(570) 585-9988
(202) 225-3731

Chandler, Ben
(859) 219-1366
(202) 225-4706

Dahlkemper, Kathy
(814) 456-2038
(202) 225-5406

Driehaus, Steve
(513) 684-2723
(202) 225-2216

Ellsworth, Brad
(812) 465-6484
(202) 225-4636

Foster, Bill
(630) 406-1114
(202) 225-2976

Giffords, Gabrielle
(520) 881-3588
(202) 225-2542

Gordon, Bart
(615) 896-1986
(202) 225-4231

Hill, Baron
(812) 336-3000
(202) 225-5315

Kilroy, Mary Jo
(614) 294-2196
(202) 225-2015

Murphy, Patrick
(215) 826-1963
(202) 225-4276

Nye, Glenn
(757) 789-5092
(202) 225-4215

Perriello, Tom
(434) 293-9631
(202) 225-4711

Pomeroy, Earl
(701) 235-9760
(202) 225-2611

Salazar, John
(719) 543-8200
(202) 225-4761

Schauer, Mark
(517) 780-9075
(202) 225-6276

Space, Zack
(740) 779-1636
(202) 225-6265

Teague, Harry
(575) 622-4178
(202) 225-2365

Wilson, Charlie
(740) 533-9423
(202) 225-5705

2010 Winter Olympics Medal Count

Bike Route from Downtown Vancouver to Massey Tunnel Bike Ferry Van

This is a route for getting from Downtown Vancouver to the Massey Tunnel Bike Ferry.

My Tweets

Tweets by @RobLong

Is Obama the reformer we need? He isnt pushing enough. Health care, climate change, energy, banking reform. It all seems to be getting watered down.

Windows Live Writer

 

This is using Windows Live Writer. I can format text. 

And I can insert a  map

 

And I can insert a table:

it has twop rows and	two columns

 

And I can insert an image:

Multimedia message

Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by Rob.Long

Multimedia message

Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by Rob.Long

Lacrosse at Skyline

Well, it was a good game but Bellevue lost 5-4 in to Issaquah. Another tight loss on the field at Skyline. Not a lot of scoring in this one. Coach says that "they pressure our ball carriers and adjacent passes making it difficult for us to settle into our offensive rotations and strategies. "

Grand Central

GrandCentral is a cool phone tool from Google. You can get a single phone number that will ring all your phones..your cell phone, home, work, etc. You can configure it by individual if you wish, so if a certain person calls it will ring your home phone or your cell phone. It also has a voice mail box. You can also use it as a privacy tool...i.e. a way of giving out a phone number w/o giving out your real number. Try it out.

http://www.grandcentral.com/

Sync your Outlook and Google Calendars

You can now keep your Google calendar in sync with your Outlook calendar. Get the sync software from Google here. You can sync one-way or two-way. A drawback is that it will only sync your primary calendar. I have multiple Google calenders.

One thing I really like about this is that my iPod keeps a copy of my Outlook calendar. Now all my Google calendar entries get sync'd to my iPod!

Gates of Paradise at SAM

Three of Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise" panels are on display at Seattle Art Museum thru Apr 6.

At left is a photo I took of one of the 3 panels last December in New York at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They are spectacular. I highly recommend seeing them.

Michelangelo is credited with dubbing them “the gates of paradise,” and sixteenth-century artist and writer Giorgio Vasari called them “the finest masterpiece ever created, either in ancient or modern times.” Three stunning panels from Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise, one of the most celebrated works of the Italian Renaissance, are on view at SAM Downtown. This exhibition marks the first time that the bronze panels have traveled to the United States since their creation over 550 years ago. Generations of admirers have praised the monumental doors of the Florence baptistery for their compelling portrayal of scenes from the Old Testament and their innovative treatment of architectural space.

The panels were originally created for display on doors leading into a church in Florence, the Babtistry. Currently, the Babtistry displays copies of the panels.

My new Nikon D40

Taken in Fremont on a sunny Sunday in February.

This is from Jott.

This is from Jott.

http://jott.com/

Powered by Jott

Memorable Ben Hur lines

Judah Ben-Hur: If that is the choice, then I am against you.

Judah Ben-Hur: If you were not a bride I should kiss you goodbye.
Esther: If I were not a bride, there would be no goodbyes to be said.

Judah Ben-Hur: No! I warn you! Rome is an affront to God! Rome is strangling my people and my country, the whole Earth! But not forever. I tell you the day Rome falls there will be a shout of freedom such as the world has never heard before!

Judah Ben-Hur: May God grant me vengeance. I will pray that you live until I return.
Massala: Return?

Judah Ben-Hur: God, help me.

Quintus Arrius: Your eyes are full of hate, forty-one. That's good. Hate keeps a man alive. It gives him strength.
Now listen to me, all of you. You are all condemned men. We keep you alive to serve this ship. So row well, and live.

Quintus Arrius: Battle speed..... Attack speed...... Ramming Speed....... Rest.

Quintus Arrius: In his eagerness to save you, your god has also saved the Roman fleet.

Tiberius Caesar: If not, there is a strange inconsistency in this man, who tries to kill my governor, yet saves the life of my consul. Come tomorrow, and we will talk of him.

Sheikh: Bravely spoken.

Judah Ben-Hur: Yes, this is the day.

Massala: The race is not over.

Pontius Pilate: A grown man knows the world he lives in. For the present, that world is Rome.

Miriam: I am afraid.
Esther: No cause. The world is more than we know.

Sunday boat ride thru Montlake

09-08-07_1635.jpg
Originally uploaded by Fleetwood100

I took the boat thru the Montlake cut yesterday at the end of the UW Huskies-Boise State football game and the place was packed with boaters and fans leaving Husky Stadium, which is right on Lake Washington. This boat here was filled with a couple hundred Boise State fans.

My Brother's 60th Birthday Weekend

Here is a slideshow using flickrSLiDR of my brother's recent birthday weekend in Berkeley.





Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.

New blog useing ScribeFire

New blog useing ScribeFire. Scribefire is really cool. Makes it really easy to add and edit posts to all your blogs, all from within Firefox.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Tips for doing the Seattle-to-Portland Bike Ride (STP)

Here are some things I learned from doing the Seattle-to-Portland Bike Ride (STP) last year:
1. Do it with somebody, otherwise its too boring.
2. Don't bring a water back-pack. Just carry two water bottles and try to get everything else under the seat, or in your pockets.
3. Toledo High School is a good place to sepnd the night, but maybe try to go a bit farther next time, like Castle Rock?
4. Only bring 1 extra tube (2 max) to save space. If you use it you can always buy another one at the next stop.
5. Bring a spare spoke or two in case one breaks.
6. Leave at 5 am or 5:30 to avoid heat and get a good start. I can just leave from my house and skip the start.
7. The air mattress is wonderful for sleeping on.
8. Eat a lot and drink a lot. Stop at every rest stop.
9. Use tons of chamois lube.
10. As part of training, in addition to a bunch of 45 mile rides, try to do a couple 70 or 80 mile rides with a 45 the day after.

DSL connect speeds with Covad

Here are my DSL connect speeds with my DSL provider, Covad.

Pretty slow I think.

How to setup your Wireless Router to be secure (Linksys router)

There are 4 basic things you need to do (this is for Linksys routers):
1 -Set the Security Mode to WEP, i.e. enable encryption. This insures all network traffic on your network is encrypted. This makes it harder for someone who is sniffing your communication to intercept traffic and obtain sensitive data that you want kept private, like passwords. WEP allow a group of devices on a local network (such as a home network) to exchange encoded messages with each other while hiding the contents of the messages from easy viewing by outsiders. All devices need to have matching keys.
2- Disable Wireless SSID Broadcast - Most routers automatically transmit their network name (SSID) into open air. This feature is intended to allow clients to dynamically discover and roam. However, this also makes it easier for hackers to break into your home network. Because SSIDs are not encrypted or otherwise scrambled, it is easy to grab one by snooping. Knowing your SSID brings hackers one step closer to a successful intrusion. In a home Wi-Fi network, roaming is unnecessary and the SSID broadcast feature serves no useful purpose. You should disable this feature to improve the security of your WLAN.
3 -Enable the wireless MAC Filter. Without MAC address filtering, any wireless client can join (authenticate with) a Wi-Fi network if they know the network name (SSID) and perhaps a few other security parameters like encryption keys. When MAC address filtering is enabled, however, the access point or router performs an additional check on a different parameter. Only machines in a list of allowed MAC addresses (PCs) can join the network. To improve the security of your Wi-Fi LAN, you should enable and use MAC address filtering.
4 - Change your router's password from the default. Every Linksys router comes from the factory with a default username and password which are well-known. So if you dont change it, anyone can potentially log on to your router. People know this. You should change it to something else to make it harder for someone to access your router's admin settings.

Here is how you do each:
(First, navigate to http://192.168.1.1 using your browser to get to your router's settings page.)
Set the Security Mode to WEP
Go to the Wireless, Wireless Security, Set the Security Mode to 'WEP'
Click the 'Generate' button to generate some WEP keys.
You will then need to enter at least one matching WEP key into each PC that you want to connect to your network. You can do this via the wireless configuration on the PC.
Disable Wireless SSID Broadcast
Go to the Wireless, Basic Wireless Settings, Select 'Disable Wireless SSID Broadcast'
Enable the wireless MAC Filter
Go to the Wireless, Wireless MAC Filter, Select 'Enable'
Select 'Permit only PCs listed to access the wireless network'
Click the button for 'Edit MAC Filter List'
Add the MAC addresses of any PCs that you want to allow to connect to your network
To get the MAC address of a PC, open a command window and type 'ipconfig /all'
Change your router's password from the default
Go to Administration, Management and reset the Password.

Useful reading:
http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/wirelessproducts/qt/disablessidcast.htm
http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/wirelessproducts/qt/macaddress.htm
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wirelessfaqs/f/wep_keys.htm
http://lifehacker.com/software/wireless/a-beginners-guide-to-setting-up-a-wireless-network-243133.php

Salt Spring Island, British Columbia

Here are just a few shots from our vacation last summer to Salt Spring Island in British Columbia. We stayed in a small 2-BR house right on the beach called Otter Cove Cottage. It was very private and peaceful. We had great views looking towards Victoria. It was a working farm and sheep would come down to graze. Here is a link to the rental prop: http://www.ottercoveonsaltspring.com/default.htm.

Tobi

Here is a picture of our dog, Tobi. We like him a lot.

How to transfer the content of VHS video onto DVD

There's lots of ways to do this. Probably the easiest way is just to purchase one of those combination VHS/DVD recorders that can burn the content of your video tape directly to a DVD. You can probably get one in the $200 to $300 range. Editing options will be limited in this case though. Here is one at Amazon that looks good that costs $275: Panasonic DMR-ES45VS DVD Recorder / VCR Combo . These can also work as a 'Tivo' and copy stuff to DVD off the TV. I should get one of these.

The other way is to purchase a video card for your PC and a DVD burner and do everything on your PC. You would get a video card that can capture video, such as the "All-in-one" Video Cards from ATI. With this, you hook up your VCR to the card via RCA cables and use software such as Windows Movie Maker 2 to play back and capture the video onto your hard drive. Then once you have the video on your hard drive, you can use a variety of different products to edit and then burn the video onto DVD. With this option you have maximum control over the whole process but its harder and more time consuming than the first option. You need a pretty beefy PC for this but I do it with a 1.3 MHz P4 with 512KB RAM and it works OK. Would be much better if I had at least 1 GB RAM and a faster processor.