Monthly Archives: April 2008

Quick rant, NBC doesn’t get it…

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I’ve seen this posted in a few places, and it’s really making me crazy.

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9920399-7.html

It’s NBC saying they want to be back on itunes, but with much stronger anti piracy measures… yeah, that’s the way to win this war, make it more difficult to watch your content. Alienate your customers, treat them like criminals, and make it more difficult to watch their shows. This is another example of big media not getting the big picture. They really don’t get it. The way to keep people from pirating your stuff, is to make it available, and make the legitimate ways to get your shows, the best way to get them. DRM doesn’t work. While the music companies are starting to get it (mp3′s without drm on amazon and itunes), why are the video content owners not listening to the lessons that music industry is just finally figuring out. I don’t understand why do they want to make it more difficult for the people who legitimately acquire their shows to watch them? It makes no sense.

It’s simple, when pirating via torrent is the easiest way to watch the content, that’s the route people will take.  Like water, content wants to take the path of least resistance.

/ rant

The DE experiment begins…

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Well I have had my first diatomaceous earth serving. I learned about this from my alpaca and chicken forums. For those not familiar, it’s essentially diatoms that have fossilized and it has the super awesome effect of being a great way to kill flies, keep stalls/bedding fresh, and generally be useful on a farm. It does this by being so abrasive that the larvae cannot survive in its midst, and it also dries up moisture.
So, I got it for the fly control, since we’ll soon have animals which will attract them. But, the twist here is that it is “food grade” which importantly makes it safe for animals to eat. I figured that’d be good because you never know what the beasts will eat… And as I began to read about it, I read that lots of people give it to their animals on purpose, and some even take it themselves. Why? It has a cleansing effect, and helps with the digestive system. People have reported great results. I was intrigued. I ordered a big bag (in the future I’ll try to find a local source to save shipping) which arrived yesterday. Tonight I transferred it to a storage bin in the barn in anticipation, and took a brand new air tight cannister for myself to bring into the kitchen. It looks and feels like flour.
What I have read on DE is that it does take some time to show its effects. It’s also advised to work up to the dosage over a few days, which is for people 1 tablespoon/day, and for cats, 1 teaspoon/day. So tonight I had 1 teaspoon with water and the kitties had 1/2 teaspoon with their yummy can food. It does not taste like much at all, but does have a texture. I had it in a glass of water. I will try it in other things too but I was pleasantly surprised at how drinkable it was.
We are all fine and no momentous moments yet. ;)
The pacs will either get free choice or 2% in their food (not sure if they’ll want it free choice). The chickens will get it in moderation as they will get other dry stuff like grit or oyster shell too. I will dust them and their bedding with it…
Anyway, I’m curious to see what if anything I notice. It’ll be a few weeks I suppose.

Tracking my progress.

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I’m a geek.  I know, big shocker, but I think I’ve crossed a new geek threshold when it comes to training. In particular, I’ve been trying to track all of my training stats. Using both a Polar f6 heart rate monitor, and a Garmin Edge 305. Together with a little bit of google pedometer, and Ascent software, I’ll be able to track my progress. That is when I start making some.
Why is this important you ask? With out looking at the numbers, how do you know you are making any progress. You may know you are getting bigger by the tightness of your belt, but you might want to know before by checking the scale. By regularly checking the scale, and tracking these numbers, you can tell when you get bigger, and get ahead the curve. Using trend analysis you can get a better understanding of what makes you faster. After reading a story about lactic threshold, I got an idea that I tried today on my ride. I wanted to keep my heart rate down, my exertion down, on the initial climbs of the ride today, and see if I could improve my overall time. By the numbers, I kept my average heartrate down 10 bpm over the average ride. I increased my average speed by .5 mph. Looking at my heart rate from the initial climbs, I did what I wanted, and it paid off.
At this point I don’t have enough data to really get a trend, or an idea how target more improvements, but I will, if I keep this up. I’ll also be certain to improve if I continue to ride regularly.