I’m trying to get into great shape this summer, and among other things have taken up riding my bike again. I’m not an avid biker, so I haven’t spent any time learning about bicycle design and engineering, but the more I ride the more I discover about the intelligent decisions bicycle designers make. My bike is a Specialized Rockhopper, circa 2005 or so, but these are general observations certainly not specific to my ride.

Most interesting is how the shifters work to help you find your way efficiently around 24 different gear ratios. My rear cog has eight gears ranging from 11 to 30 teeth, the front chainring has three gears of 22, 32 and 42 teeth. Rather than think of it as 24 “speeds,” it’s much easier to think of it as three overlapping ranges, as mapped out below.

What works so beautifully is that the shifter levers on the handlebars work together seamlessly to move you between ranges. Using your thumb on both shifters moves the chainring higher and the cog gear lower, and your right thumb can downshift the cog gear by one, two or three speeds depending on how far you push. By downshifting two or three gears on the cog and upshifting one on the chainrail you effectively change to a higher range without significantly changing the gear ratio (and vice-versa with up/down shifting with your forefingers).

So what’s all that mumbo jumbo mean? It means that you can keep the same pedaling pace and power while a simple press of both thumbs or tug on both forefingers will set you up for better gear ratios as you approach a climb or descent.

Elegant.

Book vs. Droid

I have been reading Sherlock Holmes in a book and on a borrowed iPad. I’ve never read a book on an electronic device before and I have to say that overall I liked the iPad experience of reading, though the resolution of the iPad did bother me a bit as the anti-aliasing on the type is clearly visible. Out of curiosity I downloaded the Aldiko eBook app for my Droid to see what reading looks like on a small screen.

I was shocked – it actually works really well. I tweaked the font size so that it’s about the same size as the type in the book (17pt on the Droid), and with the higher resolution of the Droid screen the type is crystal clear. The Aldiko app allows you to flick the page to turn it (like the iPad), and also lets you use the volume rocker (conveniently under my right thumb when reading) to turn pages forward and back.

I was skeptical of the small number of words that would fit on a page, but the flow felt very natural and easy.

Overall, I have to admit I enjoyed the experience. And I don’t have to carry any more devices than I already do. Wow, what a surprise!

Color negative and scanned version in Lightroom

Now that we’re only a year away from being empty nesters we’re thinking about bringing all our old photos into the digital age. The kid in this shot is now 17.

I’m testing out scanning negatives on the Nikon Coolscan V ED that I have been using for scanning slides. The image quality is coming out beautiful, but it’s taking way too long (over 3 minutes per negative after it’s done all its processing).

Next two options: shooting with my camera on a backlit macro set up and processing in Photoshop, or just paying a service to do it all for us.

One frame per letter shot on my Canon 40D and processed in Lightroom and Premiere.

See it in HD on Flickr or Vimeo. Or even better, click the ‘HD’ option in the frame above and then play it in full screen mode.

My Droid

I’ve been living with my Droid for about a month now. Friends have been asking for a review, so here it is. Note, I haven’t used an iPhone so I can’t do a comparison between them.

Why The Droid?

First question – why a Droid and not an iPhone? Easy – we’re on a family plan with Verizon and the cost to switch over to AT&T is huge. And with all the bad stories about AT&T, why would I leave a provider I’m happy with?

Things I Love

1. Google Integration

It isn’t surprising that an Android phone would integrate well with Google services, but I was astonished at how simple, seamless and complete it is. I switched over to gmail a couple years ago and use their hosted email service for anirama. My email is there, my contact list is there, and I use Google calendar not only for myself, but for our family calendar and our work calendar at the ETC. When I bought my phone at the Verizon store they entered my email address and I entered my password – and almost instantly everything was there: my email, my contacts and all my calendars. I didn’t realize how large my accumulated contact list was until I started scrolling down to find a friend.

I have since signed up for Google Voice. I currently use it just for voice mail – when someone leaves a message I get an email with the message transcribed and attached as an audio file. I can also pop up the Google Voice app to access all my messages.

I also linked my Facebook account with my Contacts, so contact info that friends put on their Facebook account is sync’d automatically with my contact list – including using their profile pictures.

I would buy the phone just for all this integration. I use the Droid as my central contact device now, including sometimes reading email on it when I’m sitting right in front of my computer with a browser open.

2. Persistant Applications

I haven’t used an iPhone, but I can’t imagine not having my apps able to run in the background. As an example, my phone vibrates whenever I get a new email (sometimes before my PC’s browser gmail updates), whether I’m using the phone or not. Another time when Sarah was driving I had the Navigator running in the background while I was reading my email – the voice came on to let us know our turn was coming up without interrupting my email session.

3. Maps and Navigation

The ‘Car’ app is standard with the Droid and is a fantastic navigation tool. It uses Google Maps, shows real time progress along the streets and includes street views for turns and your final destination. It gives voice instructions and is integrated with my contacts list and addresses that appear in the browser. Yes, with the browser – search for something and a ‘Get Directions’ link shows up next to the address, that will launch the navigator and you’re off and running.

4. Browser

Works great and the screen is beautiful.

5. Twitter

I used to hate Twitter. I won’t say I love it now, but I do appreciate it on my own terms. I use an app called Twidroid which constantly syncs in the background – it shows the number of unread tweets I have in the upper status bar. Having Twitter available to read when I’m bored is fun, and not having to check it manually makes me feel less a slave to its inanity (yeah! new word!).

5. Video Streaming

Works beautifully, though Flash 10 isn’t implemented yet so a few sites are left out.

6. Apps

Android has about 1/10th the number of apps that the iPhone has, but just about everything I want is there. Some of my favorites:

• Barcode scanner – check prices, bookmark items…
• Bubble – like a carpenter’s level.
• games – Phit, Divide and Conquer, Flight Director and Shortyz (crossword puzzles) are the ones I play with most
• Fandango/Flixster – for checking movie times and buying tickets. I bought our 3D IMAX Avatar tickets with Flixster.
• Open Table – restaurant reservations
• WiFi Analyzer – Useful for finding strong signals and debugging our home network
• Mobile Defense – I can track my phone, disable it or erase my data remotely

7. Physical Keyboard

The keys are very small for my thumbs, but I’ve gotten used to it and can type pretty fast now. I like the tactile feedback.

Things I’m Not So Crazy About

1. Camera

The Droid has a 5Mpixel camera, but the images seem too noisy. I’m playing around with a variety of camera apps to see if any of them take better pictures than the default app. I’m jealous of the iPhone camera and great photography apps like onOne Software’s DSLR Camera Remote.

2. The Design

I’ll admit it, it’s kinda ugly.

More info about how I took the picture here.