SMS in Gmail, for real!

Yay! Today we rolled out a really neat feature in Gmail Labs: SMS. And this time it's here to stay! Read all about it in Leo's post on the Gmail Blog.

One important thing to note is that standard text message fees apply for the mobile phone user, so don't get too carried away :) If you'd like to learn how to get the most out of your SMS $$$, or if you simply want to help the environment a little, talk to the IM tutor:


Tip: tutor can also hlp U wth rvrse trnsltn (IM -> En), in cse U've frnds tht insst on sendng incmprhnsble shrtnd msgs.

Man this place has been quiet for a while. In the mean time lots of stuff has happened. Obama got elected and my neighborhood's celebration (photos) made national news. My new neighbor got into the spot light and is the talk of the town. We released the awesome video feature in Gmail and a few other things. I spent a week relaxing in Belize and got to dive in the famous Blue Hole.

Now Christmas is approaching real fast, so this weekend I started polishing my Glogg recipe and picked up a Christmas tree from Ikea, that exploded in my living room when I removed the wrapping!

Couple of interesting links today:
- The Chrome Book
- Useful Google Talk Bots

RAMROD 2008

Last week, I finally rode RAMROD (course information). It was a great ride and the most fun one so far this summer. Below are some pictures I took with my iPhone (should have brought a camera!) and a short description of the race I wrote for some interested friends.


(Also, an Eatonville photo by Jon Brunk can be found here)

Drove down the evening before and had a good nights sleep before
starting at 5am. Little chilly the first couple of hours before the
sun got up and the incline started. First 60mi was just cruising with
a couple of quick stops. After that came the first climb to Paradise
which was great. The sun had come up and the weather was beautiful!
I took it real easy when climbing since it was my first time. Lots of
lowest gear and lots of beautiful scenery. It was a good workout but
still felt pretty strong when reaching the top. The decline from there
was the best part of the ride, very open and scenic, and very fast. It
wasn't very crowded at this point which was good. After that another
quick food stop, small climb up a ridge, down again and shortly after
got to the second climb. Didn't have as much energy this time and
there was some construction along the road. Kept biting of mile after
mile, but started cramping a little and had to stop for a stretch and
a cliffbar. This was the toughest part of the ride. Once I got back on
I turned a couple of corners and discovered that I had stopped less
than a mile from the top. The sharp decline from there was again
really fast and less curvy than the first decline. The fastest 8 miles
ever for me before the next food stop appeared with sandwiches and
soda. Everyone seemed to consider the race over when reaching the
second peak, and most people were just relaxing in the sun and
enjoying the food so I decided to take my time here and enjoy it. The
final 30 miles were a gradual decline with significant head-wind so I
joined forces with one guy early on and then picked up more and more
people until we were a pace line of about 15 people. This part was
pretty fun and fast, no need to save the energy anymore. The last few
miles we split up, half the gang going faster and half slower than I
wanted. I was feeling quite tired at this point so I started drafting
behind a man going just slightly faster than myself. He was
participant #2, and I couldn't help asking how he got such a low
number. Turns out they are assigned in declining age order. The guys
was 73, doing the race for the second time. At that point I felt
pretty bad about having him do all the hard work so I pulled him in
the last couple of miles. Finished ~4.40pm feeling pretty good so I
changed and drove back to Seattle.

Overall, it was a very rewarding race. Not as crowded as many other,
some fairly challenging climbing and lots of stuff to look at. The
declines were fantastic. It was also nice that it was in the middle of
the week since it probably help keeping the number of cars down.
Strongly recommend signing up next year!

Last week: Flying Wheels

7 Hills of Kirkland: Done.
Next is Flying Wheels and I just learned that I got in to RAMROD! Woo hoo!

From an interesting self critical article from the Swedish Police organization (translated to English):

Many police officers is happy on major roads in rush hour to get up the statistics on action against traffic offences. The system of quantitative targets creates pressure and injustice in the police force, and important tasks sidelined. The rule of law and common sense disappears. Eight out of ten police officers do not believe that the current quantitative targets for law enforcement is a good way to measure the police.

Mt Si Hiking

Save Energy with Google Talk!

In hnr of Earth Day (3 wks frm tday: April 22, 2K8), on tht day our Google Talk srvrs wll *t atmtclly sndng UR cnvrstns usng IM-speak instd of nrml wrds. But U can hlp sve sme cmptng pwr (& mre wstd enrgy!) by shrtnng UR cnverstns yrslf.

Note: quote above has been translated to "IM-speak". Read more on the Google Talk blog.

Base Jumping Video

Eh, wow?

Uh oh! ICQ Toothpaste!

I just had to echo this news from Gizmodo. ICQ toothpaste, how cool is that?!

ICQ was one of the first apps I really liked. But then it got too bloated. I still remember my six-digit UIN and have actually started using it again now that I can login through Gmail.

Hawaii Pics

Corbet's Couloir
After having talked about it for a long time, I finally tried the famous couloir in Jackson Hole. Graceful? No. Scary? A bit. Fun? Very!

We went twice. Below is a video clip from the second run, which went fine until my board cut into a large chunk of snow.. Didn't get the first run on video, so that one was of course a lot more controlled and stylish :)

nough said, here are some pics from within and the video:



oh, and you'll need to rotate your screen or head 90 degrees when watching this :)

Hawaii

A couple of friends and I spent Thanksgiving on Hawaii. Here's a bit of a video from an amazing night dive we did. I hope to add some more here in the near future.
more, moore, mooooore!