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Since most everyone has upgraded to systems that utilize SATA hard drives, it’s quite obvious that that technology will require an overhaul soon to ensure computer users spend money on the next-fastest storage connectivity technology. Intel has recently showcased their effort to provide blazingly-fast interconnections between peripherals and computing hardware. Codenamed Light Peak, the new technology eschews traditional copper wire in favour of fibre optic connections.

Utilizing the glass strands, Light Peak-enabled devices should be able to talk to each other at the not-to-be-sniffed-at speed of up to 10Gb/s. And that’s just for starters. With the technology expected to be shipped in the first desktop and mobile computers late in 2010 that speed could increase by a factor of ten, enabling devices to transfer data at up to 100Gb/s!

Other advantages of optical technologies include the ability to manufacture much smaller connectors and have the capability of running multiple protocols over the same medium simultaneously. That means Light Peak could become the new standard of the future, necessitating the purchase of new keyboards, mice, displays, hard drives and goodness knows what else. Both eSATA and USB 3 may become irrelevant rather quickly…

Read more about Light Peak here.

Prior to a ride last week, I inadvertently permitted all air to escape from the front tyre of the Anthem. It was a typical Dummkopf thing to do: unscrew the Presta valve head and place a pump head onto it that simply wouldn’t fit. Because the rubber seal had been turned around, the tyre was flat in seconds. And, because I had a temporary case of amnesia, I simply couldn’t figure out that I should open the pump, turn the rubber seal around and try to inflate the tyre once that had been done. My feeble attempts resulted in little else than air swishing everywhere but where it was supposed to go.

Time for the heavy hitter: the Topeak One Timer.

Unscrew the cartridge container and remove the CO2 cartridge, turn it around and reinsert. The cartridge is held upside down until needed. A quick clockwise motion has the grey part of the One Timer attached once again and the cartridge is punctured, making it ready for use. A coloured indicator at the top of the unit indicates when the CO2 cartridge has been opened – green for ok, red for closed. The pump fits both Schrader and Presta valves and all that is required is that the pump be held firmly onto the valve and the actuator be depressed. Stick it on, press the release lever and presto! A mere second or so later, and the tyre is back to the way it should be. Care needs to be taken to allow the valve stem to warm up a bit before touching it. CO2 under pressure is pretty cold and can cause an injury.

Inflating the MTB tyre doesn’t deplete the entire content of the cartridge – how long a half-full cartridge will last without an absolute seal is questionable. It’s best to carry a couple in the saddle bag, just in case.

This is one of the coolest gadgets I carry in my saddle bag – inflating a tyre in a mere second or two. What could be easier?

I’ve successfully got myself back into the saddle and, after a rather cold winter during which the prospect of getting out either early or late in unpleasant temperatures and darkness, have managed to complete a couple of kilometers.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to try out a new set of single tracks close to home. The Van Gaalen Cheese Farm is located close to the Hartebeespoort Dam, and is a part of the Magalies Meander. 30km from home, it’s a scenic drive to the well-established farm that boasts a restaurant, bed and breakfast, and cheese shop. Spreading out from there is roughly 60km of single and wider track over varied terrain criss-crossing almost 40 adjacent plots of land.

Before heading out, it’s important to pay ZAR 25 and sign an indemnity form. The track will be used as a part of the CradeQuest race in October. The 10km I cycled followed the Magalies River and consisted of various challenging obstacles interspersed with some great stretches through the trees.

The tunnel through the long grass is a favourite and runs for quite a few hundred meters.

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A surprise announcement by the Garmap team: a second edition of the 2009 Africa Series maps is available for purchase. Even better, the smaller mapsets can now be downloaded directly from the Garmap website by registered owners of the software.

The second edition 2009 Africa Series sees some improvements with regard to the mapping data, regions covered, points of interest and also some new features added that were not present in earlier releases.

From a point of view of the mapping data, more than 100000 km of new roads have been added, as has Angola and additional detail for Zambian maps. Many more points of interest have been added and updated, including 300 wireless hotspots and the names of complexes and housing estates. Being able to download the mapsets is a major advantage. Only the smaller mapsets are available as a download and these include the TMC version of the South African Streetmaps (160MB in size), topographical maps (1000MB in size) and South African Waterways (105MB in size).

A new feature is the availability of TMC mapsets. Traffic Message Channel mapsets require a newer device to be able to take advantage of traffic information, though I’m not too sure how well this is already supported in South Africa. Another benefit of these mapsets is that they are slightly smaller and more compact, consuming slightly less space on the target GPS.

As always, users of older mapsets will need to purchase a license for the update, but for owners of the 1st edition, updates should be free of charge. I would still recommend buying the ZAR 10 DVD directly from a retailer – that way, you’ll have all the maps on a single disk.

Having established yet another money-spinner, Clarkson and his intrepid crew of car nuts will once again be visiting South Africa. The 2010 Top Gear Live show is scheduled for early February 2010 and will take place at the Northgate Dome in Johannesburg.

The official website should provide more details as the event draws nearer. The 2009 show provided somewhat better entertainment value than the one I attended previously.

Posted via email from mhertenberger’s posterous

A new version of the very capable image editor Photoshop Elements has been released by Adobe. The version number for both Windows and Mac systems is the same, which is a good thing and hopefully reflects similar functionality and capabilities in the software on both platforms.

Photoshop Elements 8 is probably more than adequate for 90% of all tasks the amateur or hobbyist photographer will want to perform. The new version builds on the capabilities of the mini Photoshop by adding a number of interesting features and capabilities. These include photo recomposition from landscape or portrait to any orientation or size without loss of quality or distortion, adjustment previews that make selection of an adjustment easy to select and a bunch of templates to spruce up photographic creations.

PhotoMerge Scene Cleaner is able to blend scenes and remove unwanted items quickly and easily whilst the Smart Brush makes the modification and enhancement of key areas on the artwork a much easier process. Various quick photo fixes and filters can be accessed with a single click to enhance and correct images without application of various brush strokes or loading of additional plugins. These features were previously available only in the Windows version and have now made it to the Mac. The Mac version supports the new Snow Leopard operating system release.

I’ll upgrade my existing Mac version of Elements to get access to the new features – though I own Photoshop CS4, I find Elements a very useful and easy tool to have at hand.

The popular GMail service has been available in many shapes and forms, as well as being supported by both Google and third-party applications on mobile devices. The one feature that has been missing for some time is native push notification of new emails arriving in the inbox. Workarounds have been available, but those required additional software to be installed and in some cases, purchases to be made. Now, Google has made push notifications available for iPhone/iPod Touch users, as well as for Windows Mobile devices.

For iPhone users, the installation of the iPhone update to 3.0 is a prerequisite. One restriction that will prevent me from using this feature is the fact that one is able to create only a single Microsoft Exchange mail profile on most devices, including the iPhone.

I could easily do with three or more such accounts on my mobile device, but need to restrict myself to the most important one and then retrieve mail from the other Exchange-based accounts in alternate ways.

That’s a huge pity and something I hope will be rectified soon. If you are using GMail and don’t yet have an Exchange mail account set up on your device, the Google Sync help page provides step by step instructions on how to configure the account.

The only other limitation I’m aware of is that it is not possible to search through all mail in the GMail account – only those messages downloaded to the device are searchable. That’s no different to having a non-push GMail account on the phone.

Of course, it is possible to synchronize your Google Calendar to the device as well. See this page for more details on how to do that.

Following on Friday’s nail-in-tyre incident, another one. This time in the front right.

At the same time, a puncture just above the sidewall on the left front.

Anyone willing to trade me a hovercraft?

Posted via email from mhertenberger’s posterous

Set #10179.

The Star Wars Ultimate Collector’s Edition Millennium Falcon.

Posted via email from mhertenberger’s posterous