connectionz

at 10:38 PM

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at 3:26 PM

To the scruffy haired man on the power assist bicycle:

"Thank you, it's nice to be admired."

There are defining moments in life.

"Did she say yes?"
"You're hired."
"It's a boy."

They come in the natural order of things, rites of aging, milestones of maturity.

Markers that let you and everyone you know the gravity of the accomplish, the significance of the risk taken, the sincerity of joy interlacing the pain of desire.

To be striven for; they are a life's work.

BUT then, there are other moments of definition. Instants, where your true nature is shown.

Fractions of a second where stimulus from the outside world triggers a question, "Go or don't go."

And the answer is no less than the sum calculation of everything that you've been through up until that moment.

Who you are defines what you do and what you do defines who you are and for me that question came today.

As it flashed through my head, "you've never been passed by another cyclist on a solo Friday afternoon commute home, and you sure as shit aren't going to start now", I was already in motion.

Before I got to the profanity.

Before I understood what force had passed me by as I turned onto Johnson Street from State.

Before I could make out the scruffy haired scientist working on the prototype power assist rear wheel.

Before I even took another ujjayi breath, my legs began to pump thunder and my eyes bleed lightning and a single thought silenced all others:

"Not in this fucking lifetime."

Pedals turned, eye contact was made and before he could alter the course of inevitability I was passing him.

"Damn you're fast", is what he said, almost as if he had goaded me into the chase and the catch... just to see if I could do it. It was like poking a raptor with a stick just to see him eat the stick and you along with it.

As I flew down Johnson Street a glow of accomplishment surrounded everything in the blustery world.

I did it.

Life called on me and in a moment, I was engaged using every ounce of training, every drop of strength. Squeezing muscle, overriding pain, galloping over concrete and asphalt. Doing what I love. Today I was racing.

I defined who I am today...

And it turns out it's a guy that won't let a god damn bike with an engine pass him on the way home from work. I'm with Fabian on this one; man over machine.

And as for getting passed on the way home, I can still say: "Not in this fucking lifetime."

Fin.

www.sundaysmackdown.com

at 9:39 PM

Be proud of far you have come.

Be proud of the change.

Believe in yourself.

You are beautiful, deserving of life, of chances at happiness.

Be proud of the challenge, learn from the temptation. Understand yourself.

Be always better, stronger, note your success.

Sleep soundly, rest is important. Worry does nothing.

Make a list in the morning, you'll be alright.

at 1:58 PM

When there's nothing left to burn you have to set yourself on fire

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2314/2537444822_35b5e36a03_o.jpg

There comes a time,

when you have to set torch to tinder and begin to blaze.

Music hums while embers fade.

at 9:37 AM

I stared down a child today.

I battled his will and I won.

Some creatures are cobras. They exist in the world to maintain balance, Order...

-www.orsm.net

He was in my way. In fact he was specifically blocking my path. He was the business end of a blockade demanding that I dismount and bend to their will, for they would say, it was for my own good.

He had an entire community behind him, supporting this act of enforcement.

Shouts of encouragement, signs written and posted supporting his cause.

The entire weight of the reasonable universe stood behind him, against me, blocking my path.

He saw the world, he saw his position as righteous, he stood his ground.

And as the point came and the moment for action was at hand, I won.

The child folded, unwillingly, slowly perhaps even painfully as he let me pass.

Shouts of absolution for his action followed, cackles of indictment and indignation for my forcing him down.

Poor example, renegade, bad seed.

"That's the type of man I warned you about..."

And, I think that boy will remember that day. When the bully on the bicycle asked him to slide over and let him pass. Etched in his memory.

"Rules are made to be broken champ. One day you'll be presented with a similar choice and I hope you can show the same resolve again you showed to me and know that when it's right inside to change everything you will overcome that person that blocks your way."

-steve

www.sknurr.com

www.sknurr.smugmug.com

at 2:10 PM

Focus:Bike

**Article currently under revision.**
**Warning: This is not a short article.**
**Before Reading, get inspired.**
**This is a solution to the problems/issues raised in this "Slashdot" online forum: http://ask.slashdot.org/story/09/10/04/2125209/Open-Access-To-Exercise-Data**
**This is the overall goal of the project. : )**
**Related: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKBfuYZBG7A&feature=related, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLh5PbI4hZA, http://www.bontrager.com/node, http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/some_feedback_on_the_garmin, http://gizmodo.com/5404400/finger-touching-phone-concept-gives-you-touchtone-knuckles, http://gizmodo.com/5404824/why-us-wireless-pricing-sucks, http://gizmodo.com/5404743/how-to-make-windows-7-play-nice-with-all-your-gadgets, http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-solar-iPodiPhone-charger-aka-Might/?ALLSTEPS**

Abstract
Like Amy always said, "Start with a list of lists."
She'd always make me think: "What are the basic questions being asked right now? Start there."

Who?
What?
Where?
When?
How?
Why?

Outline
Who..?

Me, whoo else wants in?
Us, who else can we drag in. : )

What...?

Right now, It is a brainstorming being turned into a formal database diagram. It is also the multimedia blueprint of what the final product will merge into. The product, "Focus" is a collection of systems, that generate physical, electronic, and biological metric data while sharing these statistical with a user's preferred social, government, health, military, advertising, and communication networks.

Concretely, It's a database in the cloud with client apps being nothing more than browsers that treat preferentially peer to peer network connections as oppose to server-client. This will turn into XML. The XML will pass back and forth around current and future network communication architectures (WiFi, 4g, etc...) from the user's mobile device and what ever "server clouds" that the user has connected the mobile device's UniqueGENEID to.

Common Sensely, "Imagine you actually made a universal remote for every mobile device? We only have one national highway system, right?"

Shortly: This framework will support a user interface for a socially maintained database of human, demographic, genetic, location, bicycle elements. Boom!

In other words, it's the Census Architecture that makes sense for the 21st century.

Creatively. Here is a link to Photoshop Mockups of the UI. Just use your dang imagination.

Market Economically:We've got Dashboard in Macs and Cars, why not bicycles too? A lot of people ride bikes world wide. a lot of people in the world have cell phones. When they buy their next of both why not have integrated those two products together for them?

Hardware Requirements
Want:

cameras
wind sensory
altitude
SPO2 optical thumb sensory
Geo tagged locations
Light projector
Wireless (BlueTooth?) Heart Rate Monitor Sensory Receiver (Can this use the iPhone itself currently?)
Wireless (BlueTooth?) Wattage Sensory Receiver (Can this use the iPhone itself currently?)

Need:

GPS reciever (transmitter?)
HR monitor
BP cuff
UniqueGENEID
Name
DateOfBirth
Speed
Time
Temperature (Ambient)
Temperature (Internal)
Calories Burnt
Blood Glucose
Blood Lactate
Blood P/H

Software Functions
Want is Need

Database Tables, Category Lists, & Items (The start of a database diagram)
*All items are tracked over time unless otherwise stated.
*All items rated with "thumps up" "thumps down" metadata to receive & record user feedback at anytime. i.e. "Did this element, for example, HUMAN>DATEOFBIRTH, provide to be useful in your use of the system?"
*All items will have a range of "normal" values based on a moving average of the user's unique make of data elements.
*Example of parsing that needs to occur: http://bodybugghacks.blogspot.com/

HUMAN

NAME
SEX
HOME CITY
HOME STATE
HOME COUNTRY
HOME ZIP CODE
DATE OF BIRTH

DEMOGRAPHIC

WHAT ETHNIC & CULTURAL
WHAT SOCIAL AFFILIATIONS
WHAT EDUCATION, SPIRITUAL, EMPLOYMENT, CURRICULUM VITALE

GENETIC

BLOOD PRESSURE

Numeric

BLOOD TYPE

Category List

BLOOD CHEMISTRY (PH, CBC, BMPs')
HEART RATE
MASS

LOCATION , ALERT this is a high dynamic table, tracking this over time will create MASSIVE amounts of data at high rates of adoption. maintenance strategy needed. /Alert >

CURRENT SPEED
CURRENT HEADING (IN DEGREES, 360)
CURRENT GPS COORDINATES
CURRENT WATTAGE
CURRENT GEAR
CURRENT CADENCE
CURRENT AMBIENT TIME
CURRENT CHRONOMETRIC TIME
CURRENT BAROMETRIC AIR PRESSURE
CURRENT LIGHT SPECTRA (LIGHT LEVEL, LIKE ON A NIKON D3000)
CURRENT WATTS/KILOGRAM(POUND)
CURRENT ALTITUDE
CURRENT CALORIES BURNING
CURRENT AMBIENT TEMPERATURE
CURRENT INTERNAL TEMPERATURE

BIKE SPECIFICATIONS

CHAIN TENSION
TIRE AIR PRESSURE
DERAILLEUR ALIGNMENT
MAX TESTED WATTAGE
TORQUE FORCES (LATERAL DISTORTION, TORSIONAL RIGIDITY, VERTICAL COMPLIANCE)
MASS

Where...?

Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin

When...?

Phase 1 Now until May 7-9 2010
Phase 2 May 7-9 2010 to 2011

How...?

A LLC under written by a consortium of government, academic, private enterprises. Here is a cursory list:

UW
Epic
City government
State government
Federal Stimulus
Federal Research
Telecommunication (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, etc...)
Advertising & Search (Google)
Devices (Motorola, Apple, HTC, Palm, Blackberry, etc...)
Technology (MS, Mozilla, etc...)
Intellectual Property (Apple, Disney,etc...)
Transportation ( Honda, GM, Ford, Tata, etc...)
Sport (Nike, Garmin, Saris, Trek, etc...)

Focus on healthcare information technology and long term preventative healthcare strategies
Immediate financing: M&I business loan, grants, private idea purchase, corporate idea purchase
Technical Implementation: http://bodybugghacks.blogspot.com/ This will be the parsing that needs to occur, i.e. the whole point is to develop an infrastructure that is standard between all of the different database structures that Focus:Bike will share data with.

Why...?