This morning I checked my Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope Rider Donation Page, and found that donations received as a result of my 2005 appeal have exceeded $1,000. Check donations have begun coming in recently. They took longer to be processed than credit card donations did.

Thanks to everyone who is supporting the Tour of Hope again this year. I published a list of my donors for 2005 here on Operation Gadget yesterday and I'm adding the names of new donors as their donations are received.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Qualcomm has contributed its OmniTRACS fleet location network technology to the 2005 Tour of Hope National Ride. Here's an example of the kind of up-to-date progress map you can get to follow the National Team:

Tour of Hope National Ride Current Location Map: Uses Qualcomm OmniTRACS Fleet Location Network and Google Maps to display the current location of the Tour of Hope National Team. This image is was current on September 30, 2005 in the early afternoon, when the team was southwest of Phoenix, Arizona. [ Image: Tour of Hope ]

That's a really cool use of GPS technology!

If you're interested in keeping an eye on the National Team's progress across the country, visit http://tourofhope.org/ride/2005_national_route/current_location_map.htm.

When you visit that page, use the controls on the map to zoom out at least two or three zoom levels. I did this before I took the screen shot of the map showing Greater Phoenix. I doubt that most people will be able to identify the location of the National Team at the default zoom level.

I was shocked when I saw this map, because it looks so similar to the map I produced of the 50-mile Baltimore-DC Fundraising Ride Course a few weeks ago. I'm glad to see that we're employing state of the art technology.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Chris Brewer, chief operator of ThePaceline.com and 2003 Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope National Team Member, is writing a daily update on the 2005 National Team's ride across the country. Here are the reports I've found so far:

• Tour of Hope: Day 1, The Start in La Jolla
• Tour of Hope: Day 2 Part 1, Team A Rides on Interstate 10 in Arizona
• Tour of Hope: Day 2 Part 2, The Tour at 110 degrees Fahernheit
• Day 3, Dr. Harry Slocum solos to finish on Category 2 climb in Hanover, NM
• Day 4, Ride through Austin and the "Lance Thanks Austin" Concert
• Day 5, Rally at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston
• Day 6, Lance Joins the Team as they pass through Jackson, Mississippi
• Day 7, Chris Brewer views the Tour from the perspective of the chase vehicle affectionately known as "Centcom"
• Day 8 overnight, National Team groups stay on pace despite heavy rain, Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie join the ride at midnight near George's U.S. home of Greenville, SC

I will update this article as Chris publishes more reports from the road. [ Registration required to read articles on ThePaceline.com ]

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope has published a list of local events during the 2005 National Ride. These events will be coordinated with the passage of the National Team through the city. The events are as follows:

• Thursday, September 29 at 10:00am, La Jolla, California at Scripps Green Hospital
• Friday, September 30 at 11:00am, Phoenix, Arizona at Maricopa Unified Schools
• Saturday, October 1 at 4:00pm, El Paso, Texas at El Paso Cancer Treatment Center
• Sunday, October 2 at 3:45am, Austin, Texas at Texas Capitol Grounds (team transition only)
• Sunday, October 2 at 4:00pm, Austin, Texas at Auditorium Shores (Lance Armstrong event)
• Monday, October 3 at 12:00 noon, Houston, Texas at M.D. Anderson Ambulatory Clinical Building
• Tuesday, October 4 at 11:00am, Jackson, Mississippi at UMC Cancer Institute at Jackson
• Wednesday, October 5 at 11:00am, Atlanta, Georgia at Centennial Olympic Park
• Wednesday, October 5 at 5:00pm, Greenville, South Carolina at South Main Street and Camperdown Way
• Thursday, October 6 at 10:00am, Charlotte, North Carolina at Buddy Kemp Caring House
• Saturday, October 8 at 9:00am, Washington, DC at The Ellipse (Grand Finale)

If you live in any of these areas, change your schedule and plan to attend! The experience of seeing the Tour of Hope National Team is truly unique. Their motivation is incredible. Everyone I know who has attended one of these events has told me that they had a great time.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The 2005 Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope National Ride will begin today at 10:00am at Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla, California.

It's hard for me to believe that the coast-to-coast ride is beginning today. I wish the riders good luck, particularly Jeff Tredup-- a researcher at BMS from Pennington, NJ who I had the opportunity to interview two weeks ago.

We're only 10 days away from the Baltimore to DC Fundraising Ride and the Washington, DC Grande Finale on The Ellipse across from the White House. If you're in the Washington area on Saturday, October 8, come down and see about 1,000 people ride in support of cancer research.

If you still haven't made a donation to this worthy cause, visit my donation page at http://www.active.com/donate/DCride/dave_aiello and help out. You'll be glad you did.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I want to thank my friends and family who are sponsoring me in the 2005 Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope Baltimore to DC Fundraising Ride. They are:

• Kathleen Aiello
• Ernie Aiello
• Jennifer Colangelo
• Ken DeGhetto
• Carol Ann and Bradley Forrest and their kids
• Mark Graber
• Julie, Robert, and Emma Howson
• Joyce and George Kuykendall
• Mary Kuykendall
• Pat McClure
• Lisa McGrath
• Howard and Marion Medow
• Ramona Morel
• Joe and Jennifer Pilaro
• Sesh Rengaswamy
• Claude and Louise Sanford
• Ray and Carole Weisner

I'll add my other sponsors to this list as I'm told about them by the ride organizers.

So far this year, my sponsors have contributed $960 to the cause of cancer research. This is less money than we raised together in 2004, but I think that many of us donated what we could to Gulf Coast Hurricane Relief and gave a bit less to other causes that raise money at this time of year.

It's going to be a great thrill to ride on behalf of my sponsors. I'm taking their stories and those of their loved ones who have been affected by cancer with me to Washington. I'll have a lot of stories and photos from our trip here on Operation Gadget in the 2005 Tour of Hope Section.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

At a press conference today in San Francisco, Ed Colligan of Palm announced that his company will release a Treo smartphone based on the Windows Mobile operating system. It will ship exclusively on the Verizon Wireless network, and especially its EV-DO data network.

Denny Strigl from Verizon Wireless implied that the Windows Mobile Treo will not be shipped until "next year"-- meaning 2006. Ed Colligan from Palm clarified this by saying "early next year".

Ed Colligan said that the handset has not been named at this time. He called it "Treo on Windows".

A marketing person from Palm said that the handset had an Intel mobile processor and ran on Windows Mobile 5.0, but said that there would be no further discussion of hardware specifications. Seems like the shipment of this product is still sometime away.

Ed Colligan said that a Treo based on Windows Mobile for EDGE or HSDPA will not be released until the middle of 2006 at the earliest.

Bill Gates, Ed Colligan, and Denny Strigl started receiving calls and SMS messages during the Q&A as a result of the numbers for their handsets being displayed on the projection screen during the demonstration.

Technorati Tags: Treo 700w, Windows Mobile

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

While I've been grinding away on my consulting projects, Palm has apparently put the final touches on a Windows Mobile-based Treo that will support Verizon Wireless's implementation of EV-DO.

The first solid indication of an announcement was Engadget's first look at the Palm Treo 700w, published on Thursday. This was followed an announcement from Palm investor relations that Palm, Microsoft, and Verizon Wireless would make a joint announcement on Monday, September 26 at 12:00 noon EDT. This press release came out at 4:05pm on Friday, minutes after the close of the regular trading on the NASDAQ.

Palm's advisory was followed by an article in The Wall Street Journal reporting that Palm is set to use Microsoft code on Treo Phones. In my opinion there's a big difference between speculation about a Windows Mobile-based Treo by gadget-related blogs is less significant than a news article in publications like the Wall Street Journal [ Subscription required. ].

I'm very optimistic about the market prospects for a Windows Mobile-based Treo. I think that Palm would not be releasing it if it didn't meet their high user-experience standards. The Windows Mobile platform has been in desperate need of a manufacturer like Palm who are committed to adding value instead of just rolling out a compatible handset.

As for the future of Treo's based on the PalmOS, we'll have to wait and see. I don't think that Palm will ever integrate Treo functionality into the PalmOS Cobalt operating system, but subsequent PalmOS implementations based on Linux resulting from PalmSource's acquisition of China MobileSoft may be more to their liking. My experience with the Treo 650 is that there are times when it's really obvious that the phone could use an operating system capable of multi-tasking, and PalmOS based on a Linux kernel may be a good solution.

Technorati Tags: Treo 700w, Treo 650, Windows Mobile

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've had a hard time making time to write for Operation Gadget for the past week. On Friday, Kathleen and I were in Maryland attending her brother John's graduation from a three year on-the-job training program. It turned into an all-day affair because most of Kathleen's family was there to attend and celebrate afterward.

This week I've been working on two different projects for clients of my Weblog Improvement consulting business. I'm working on a huge set of deliverables for my friend Chris Nolan, a journalist based in San Francisco. It's so much work that I probably won't be done until the end of next week.

Today I finished a small project for Harris Salat, a writer and producer who blogs about food and exotic culture. He calls his blog He ate well and I've had fun reading his articles during breaks in the stylesheet and template wrangling.

I'm trying to make time to ride my bike because otherwise I'll show up for the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Ride without enough miles in my legs. So far this week, I took one afternoon when I otherwise might have written some articles for Operation Gadget and hit the road instead. I'll probably have to do this again tomorrow.

I guess it's good to be this busy, but I'm feeling pressure from every direction. Maybe I should look back at some of the suggestions I made in the Productivity and Organization section of this site.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last week I took advantage of a great sale and bought a pair of Peformance Forte Team Mountain Bike Pedals and Pearl Izumi Vagabond Mountain II cleated shoes from Performance Bike. Up to now, I've been riding with pedals that have toe clips on them, which I knew was taking away from my biomechanical efficiency.

Performance Forte Team MTB Pedal Mud-shedding alloy body, dual-sided entry, dual-force retention spring with adjustable entry/release tension. 4 degrees float. Compatible with Shimano SPD cleats. Wt: 370g/pr.

I've wanted to make the switch for a long time, but I've always been concerned about the process of acclimating myself to clicking my shoes into pedals that act very much like ski bindings. When I use toe clips, it's easy to pull my feet off the pedals. The clipless pedals, however, require you to turn your foot at the heel so that the cleat on the bottom of the shoe rotates and clicks out of the binding mechanism. You have to do this at a point in the pedal rotation where you have little or no weight on the pedal you are trying to detach from. You can fall if you fail to detach your foot properly.

I installed the pedals yesterday, put on the shoes, and rode around on the grass in my back yard, trying to master the process of clicking my shoes in and out of the pedals. I only fell once.

Today I went on my first long ride with the shoes and pedals. I rode 15.6 miles in 1 hour 6 minutes 7 seconds. I don't think I've been this nervous on a bike since I was a kid. The sensation of having my feet locked to the pedals didn't feel too weird while I was riding at a normal speed, but at times when I was braking and I needed to put my foot on the ground I felt a momentary sense of panic. This happened two or three times on the ride-- but I didn't crash.

I now realize why so many road bikers break collarbones while riding. They get themselves locked into their pedals and have difficulty getting out of them in emergency situations that call for deft bike handling.

I need to do much more riding over the next two weeks. If I'm able to do it, I'm sure I'll lose the nervousness I feel before I ride in The Tour of Hope Washington DC Fundraising Ride.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's a quick summary of the workouts that I did last week:

• Monday, September 12: Biked 9.9 miles in 45 minutes 2 seconds; Biked 4.6 miles in 23 minutes 6 seconds.
• Tuesday, September 13: Rest.
• Wednesday, September 14: Busy.
• Thursday, September 15: Played volleyball for 1 hour 56 minutes 41 seconds.
• Friday, September 16: Travelling.
• Saturday, September 17: Officiated hockey for 1 hour 42 minutes 58 seconds.
• Sunday, September 11: Officiated hockey for 39 minute 37 seconds; Officiated hockey for 1 hour 47 minutes 39 seconds.

This week I spent a lot more time on office work than I have recently. I also spent part of Thursday and all of Friday in the Washington, DC area at a family-related event.

Kathleen and I also began participating in a recreational volleyball league on Thursday. This is the first time I've played volleyball regularly, so we'll see if I can improve with practice.

For the week, I exercised for 6 hours 51 minutes, burning 4,524 calories, and covering a total of 9.9 miles on my bike.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is the Operation Gadget weekly summary for the third week of September 2005. I'm experimenting with a weekly summary so that readers who want to receive a periodic email with Operation Gadget headlines can receive the links to all of the articles published each week. I will post a mechanism for readers to sign up for this service when I work out the details.

The headlines:

September 15

• Runner's World Publishes Guide to Picking an MP3 Player
  
• Fios Favorably Reviewed by Walter Mossberg
  
• Getting My Motorola HS850 Bluetooth Headset Working With a Treo 650
  

September 14

• Alternatives to Staying in Washington, DC for 50-mile DC Fundraising Riders
  

September 13

• Map of 2005 Tour of Hope 50-Mile DC Fundraising Ride
  
• Deadline for Raising $500 Minimum for Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Ride is Monday, September 19 at Midnight
  

September 12

• Steripen Water Purifier Makes Sense for Travelers to Developing Countries, Campers
  
• 2nd Week of September 2005 Workouts
  
• Ebay Completes Deal to Buy Skype for $2.6 Billion in Cash and Stock
  

Does a weekly summary work for you? Is it a waste of time? Let me know by posting a comment. Thanks....

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Runner's World Magazine published a guide to picking an MP3 player written by Gizmodo editor John Biggs. Conspicuous in its absense from this guide is the iPod nano, but not a surprise due to the fact that the review was written for a "dead trees" publication. Of real surprise, however, is the number of MP3 players that disappeared from the market before the story was printed.

Among the other products mentioned:

• Flash-based players:
  • Apple iPod Shuffle 512MB, everyone's bargain choice unless you want the extra capacity of the iPod Shuffle 1G model.
  • Oregon Scientific MP120, includes an FM tuner.
• Hard disk-based players:
  • Mio 269, a mobile 96MB GPS system with MP3 player built in. Super expensive at well over $500 no matter where you get it, but really cool looking and possibly useful.
  • Rio Karma. Gone. The Rio player line was folded back in late August by its owner D&M Holdings. My advice is not to buy it.
  • iPod mini. Gone. Replaced by the iPod nano. I wouldn't buy an iPod mini now. The iPod nano is clearly a better device IMHO, even if it's slightly smaller in capacity.

The article also provides tips that I figured out on my own:

1. When rain is a possibility, put your portable electronics in a Ziplock bag before riding or running.
2. Don't hold a hard disk based MP3 player in your hand. This must be a tip for people that have never even borrowed an MP3 player from a friend to try it out during exercise.

I had hoped for better when I saw it was written by John Biggs, but he's a slave to the publication's lead time, so the lack of timeliness that plagues this guide is really not his fault.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Walter Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal reviewed Verizon's new fiber optic Internet access service called Fios today. He liked it. He happens to live in a town in suburban Maryland where Verizon has already rolled out Fios, so he compared it to Comcast's basic cable-modem service that's also available there. According to the article:

I ran a rigorous series of tests comparing Fios with the Comcast basic cable-modem service, using an Internet speed test site accessed from a hard-wired Windows PC. My Fios service repeatedly was measured at just over 15 mbps downstream and around 1.8 mbps upstream. The Comcast service clocked in at a mere 2.3 mbps downstream and around 360 kbps upstream....

I consider Fios a good service and a good bargain. If you are a heavy Internet user, and you can get it, I recommend you do so. That is especially true if you use the Internet over a wireless network, and stream a lot of videos, or download and upload lots of files.

I'm a bit surprised that Mossberg gave such a favorable review to Fios. A lot of people who talked about Fios at the very outset of deployment a couple of months ago said that the service didn't really make sense until Verizon begins offering television services in competition with the local cable provider in each place where Fios will be offered. Mossberg's approach was to evaluate the fat pipe on purely on its economic and utilitarian merits.

Technorati Tags: Fios

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I received my Motorola HS850 Bluetooth Headset from Amazon.com yesterday and I've already used it during a 100-mile roundtrip from Newtown to West Chester, PA for a hockey officiating meeting. The sound quality was good on my end and the people I called thought I sounded good as well. This article focuses more on the process of getting the HS850 working for the first time.

I was glad I read the Motorola Bluetooth Wireless Headset Quick Start Guide. It's an 8-page fan-folded document a little larger than a credit card that told me how to:

1. charge the headset,
2. pair the headset with my phone,
3. turn the headset on or off.

The brief explanation of how to turn on Bluetooth on your mobile phone is Motorola-specific and meant to serve as an example in the event that you have a phone from another manufacturer. I have a Palm Treo 650 and it helped that I regularly use the Bluetooth feature of the Treo to sync it with my Blogging Workstation. I already had Bluetooth turned on and more or less knew how to search for the HS850 from my Treo and pair the two together.

Technorati Tags: Bluetooth, HS850, Treo 650

There's also a similarly-sized 30-page MotoManual for the HS850 (90 pages when you count French and Spanish translations) that explains how to:

• pair the headset to additional devices (The HS850 can keep up to eight device profiles in memory simultaneously; It will attempt to pair to the last device it paired with unless you initiate the connection from another device rather than the headset.),
• control head volume,
• handle calls in different situations using the buttons on the HS850 (This includes a 3-way calling feature that may or may not be compatible with your mobile phone.),
• understand the meaning of light flashes and audio tones that occur during use.

My feeling about the HS850 documentation is that you need to read it if you want to get more than basic functionality out of the headset. I think the documentation is useful, but the booklets only present the basics. There are issues that are not covered in either booklet that will probably come up if you use the HS850 with both your PC and your mobile phone. I'm going to mention those issues here on Operation Gadget when I uncover them.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

If you're participating in the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Ride, doing the 50-mile route, and asking to be informed about shuttle services to the start line as I did, what was your reaction when you read this passage in an informational email that we all received last week?

As you know, shuttles will be made available for your convenience to transport you to the ride start locations. Many of you selected the shuttle option upon registration. However, as you will see from the shuttle schedule below, departures to the 50-mile ride start in Howard County from the JW Marriott will depart between 4:30 - 5:00 AM. If you wish to reconsider driving to the ride start, there is ample free parking on the campus at Howard County Community College. You will then be shuttled back to your car at the college campus after the Grand Finale activities on the Ellipse.

You probably asked yourself, "Are there any hotel options close to the start?"

Yes. Marriott has a number of good options. Search using the city "Annapolis Junction, MD". The rates drop on Friday night in some of these hotels because they house government workers and contractors during the week.

Hilton has a hotel in Columbia, MD. I would recommend choosing the "Search all brands" option on their site when doing a search.

Kathleen and I are staying at one of the Marriott properties and driving our car to the start. Kathleen is going to meet me at the finish at The Ellipse, so she will probably drive from the start to a Metro station and take the train in to Washington. We will have other family there with us as well.

As a reminder, the start locations of the Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Ride and an approximate map of the 50-mile ride course can be found on here on Operation Gadget.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

2005 Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Ride:
This is our best guess at the 50-mile
route map. I used Gmaps Pedometer
to convert a cue sheet to a map. Click
on the picture of the map to see the route
in a Gmaps Pedometer window.
[ Image: Gmaps Pedometer / Google Maps ]

Bryan Katz, a fellow Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Rider and Rensselaer alumnus, sent me a cue sheet for the 50-mile route of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Ride along with the following question:

OK Mr. Gadget... is there software anywhere that would translate the route sheet to a map?

The easiest way I know to do it without a GPS tracking file is to plot the map using Gmaps Pedometer, which is what I did. Kudos to Maria Norton who told me about Gmaps Pedometer back in August.

There are a couple of unresolved issues with the route as I've plotted it:

1. The route through Rockville is a little messed up. The cue sheet isn't clear on the turns when you're skirting around the downtown area. I'm guessing that the route will go from Norbeck Road/MD 28 onto Wootton Parkway, but the cue sheet doesn't say that.
2. In that same area, I followed the wrong road between Muncaster Mill Road/MD 115 and Norbeck Road. This is probably why the route length I've plotted is only 47.78 miles long.

I'll correct those problems and update the article when I have time.

Updates:

1. Bryan Katz provided the URL for the cue sheet: http://www.tourofhope.org/ride/2005_dc_ride/dc_ride_route_log.pdf.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Attention Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Ride Applicants! Cecil Ledesma just pointed out to me that the deadline for raising the $500 minimum donation is Monday, September 19, at 11:59pm Eastern Time. That's about six days from today.

The organizers impose a cut-off so they can ship out registration packets in time for qualified riders to receive them. If the organizers do what they did last year, they will count donations received after the deadline toward a rider's fundraising total.

Last year I raised $1,000 by September 15. We probably won't make it to $1,000 by the 15th this year, but we may make it to $500 by then. If you want to help out, all you need to do is click on the big Help Dave ride the Tour of Hope button. You'll be sent to a page where you can make a tax deductible donation to the Tour of Hope by credit card. Instructions are also there for making a donation by check. Thanks for your help.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Steripen is the only portable
water purifier that uses
ultraviolet light to destroy water-
borne microbes. It's available for
less than $150.00 at Amazon.com.
[ Photo: Steripen.com ]

I got a copy of Forbes FYI the other day. This magazine often talks about really expensive lifestyle products that I can't afford. One thing that stood out for me in the September 2005 issue was the Steripen. This is a $150 gadget that uses UV light to kill things like E. coli, giardia, and cryptosporidium. It operates on four AA batteries and purifies a 32-ounce bottle of water in 90 seconds.

Back in the mid-1990's I traveled to places like Brazil and rural China where the water infrastructure was iffy. A device like the Steripen would have been useful because it would have meant that I could have traveled with an empty Nalgene bottle instead of having to hunt around for places to buy bottled water every day before I left the town I was staying in.

In these exotic countries, there are a few towns that are well known for hosting young European and American tourists who travel with backpacks. These towns will have all the bottled water you could want, in most cases. The issue is what to do when your in a town that won't be the hot town for backpack travelers until next year.

I think this would be a useful item to carry on a camping or backpacking trip in a First World country as well. It's easier to bring a big supply of clean water with you when the trip begins, but you can always run out when you're on the move. I'd pack a Steripen with a fresh set of batteries just in case of emergency.

This is clearly a nice-to-have item in the sense that I'd want to have a good flashlight, Swiss Army knife, and GPS before I invested in a Steripen, but I'd definitely want to have one with me on an outdoor vacation, just in case.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's a quick summary of the workouts that I did last week:

• Monday, September 5: Biked 6.0 miles in 28 minutes 49 seconds; Biked 4.6 miles in 23 minutes 6 seconds.
• Tuesday, September 6: Rest.
• Wednesday, September 7: Biked 15.5 miles in 1 hour 3 minutes 23 seconds.
• Thursday, September 8: Biked 10.8 miles in 50 minutes 56 seconds.
• Friday, September 9: Officiated hockey for 1 hour 5 minutes 21 seconds; Officiated hockey for 1 hour 10 minutes 54 seconds; Officiated hockey for 56 minutes 59 seconds.
• Saturday, September 10: Officiated hockey for 1 hour 26 minutes 29 seconds; Officiated hockey for 1 hour 0 minutes 45 seconds.
• Sunday, September 11: Officiated hockey for 2 hours 1 minute 9 seconds.

This week I officiated 6 hockey games in 3 days. On Friday and Saturday, I officiated at the International Silver Sticks Regional Tournament in West Chester, PA. On Sunday, I officiated my first Junior B level game of the 2005-6 season as a linesman.

For the week, I exercised for 10 hours 27 minutes, burning 8,014 calories, and covering a total of 36.9 miles on my bike.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is the Operation Gadget weekly summary for the second week of September 2005. I'm experimenting with a weekly summary so that readers who want to receive a periodic email with Operation Gadget headlines can receive the links to all of the articles published each week. I will post a mechanism for readers to sign up for this service when I work out the details.

The headlines:

September 9

• DC Fundraising Ride Start Locations
  
• M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Newsletter Highlights Relationship Between Tour of Hope and Clinical Trials
  
• PalmSource to Be Acquired by the Developer of the NetFront Browser
  

September 8

• Apple Announces iPod nano to Replace iPod mini
  
• Skype May Be Acquired by EBay According to WSJ
  

September 7

• Choosing the Motorola HS850 as My First Bluetooth Headset
  

September 6

• Getting the Word Out to Friends and Family About the Tour of Hope
  

September 5

• 1st Week of September 2005 Workouts
  

Does a weekly summary work for you? Is it a waste of time? Let me know by posting a comment. Thanks....

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ebay announced a formal agreement to acquire Skype International SA for roughly $2.6 billion in cash and stock, according to MarketWatch.com. Rumors of this deal were widely discussed last Thursday, after an article about the possibility appeared in The Wall Street Journal.

EBay suggested several synergistic effects that may occur as a result of Skype's integration with the company:

• "Skype can increase the velocity of a trade..., especially in categories that require more involved communications such as used cars, business and industrial equipment, and high end collectibles."
• Paid Skype services such as SkypeOut could quickly be extended to support PayPal.

A webcast detailing the acquisition will take place on September 12 at 8:00am. More information about the webcast can be found at http://investor.ebay.com/event.cfm.

Update: Meg Whitman from EBay is emphasizing the synergies between Skype and PayPal in the conference call. There's an additional earn out provision based on aggressive Skype growth goals. Rajiv Dutta said that EBay could pay up to an additional $1.5 billion if Skype meets growth and revenue targets through 2008.

Technorati Tags: VoIP

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Another thing I found out yesterday was the two start locations of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Ride:

• 10-mile route: Glen Echo Park, Glen Echo, MD [ Google Map ]
• 50-mile route: Howard County Community College, Columbia, MD. [ Google Map ]

Those of us who need a place to stay can start looking for hotels in the area now.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night I got an email from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope regarding shuttle services between the start of the 50 and 10-mile ride routes and the finish line at The Ellipse in Washington, DC. The message began:

Thank you for registering for the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Ride. We are delighted with the overwhelming response to this year's ride. We have reached our capacity of 1,500 riders and registration is now closed.

I said to myself, "Yikes! The total amount of money that the Lance Armstrong Foundation has received from my donors is only $355 at the moment. I better not be closed out." Then I re-read the email and information about the DC Fundraising Ride on the web, and I realized that the Tour of Hope organizers accepted 1,500 registrants who agreed to try to raise $500 or more.

The question now becomes: How many of the 1,500 will successfully raise $450 beyond their initial $50 contribution?

I think most of the 1,500 that registered will succeed in raising the extra $450. Last year, about 900 riders successfully raised more than the $500 minimum required to ride. If more than 900 surpass that figure this year, we can expect to see the $800,000 fundraising total exceeded as well.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The M.D. Anderson Cancer Center published an article in its September 2005 about the important contribution that the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope is making to boosting participation in cancer clinical trials. According to the article:

The challenge of increasing trial participation is great. Of the 1.3 million Americans diagnosed with cancer (of all types) each year, only about 3% participate in clinical trials, {Maurie Markman, M.D. Anderson Vice President of Clinical Research} says: "If only 3% of our population continues to participate in clinical research trials, that’s going to slow down our ability to gather critical information to help the next generation of cancer patients."

New drugs and new combinations of existing drugs need testing to improve cancer survival rates.

"The only way to know if any of the exciting new drugs are safe and if they are more effective than current treatment is to do trials," Markman says. "We’re on the brink of a potential revolution in our understanding and treatment of cancer. We understand more about biology today, about unlocking the secrets of cancerous tumors, than we could have ever imagined 10 years ago. However, it’s slow, meticulous work that demands the absolute protection of patients who potentially are going to be research subjects. There is no cutting corners, period."

The article goes on to point out obstacles to clinical trial participation and the potential for immediate and long term victories against cancer through greater participation in clinical trials. This is why we're all riding in The Tour of Hope.

The Tour of Hope will stop at the M.D. Anderson in Houston on October 3. If you are in Houston, you can be there and make the promise.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In a joint announcement in Sunnyvale and Tokyo, PalmSource disclosed that it is becoming part of Access Company, Ltd., the developer of the NetFront browser and other Internet technology for mobile devices. The agreement is said to be a definitive, all cash deal valued at $324.3 million, approximately ¥35.9 billion, or $18.50 per share of PalmSource. Both boards of directors have already approved the transaction.

According to the announcement, "ACCESS' USD $18.50 per share offer represents an 83% premium for PalmSource stockholders based on the market closing price of USD $10.09 on September 8, 2005.... The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of 2005 calendar year, pending regulatory approval and the approval of PalmSource's shareholders."

More information about Access Company, Ltd., may be found at http://www.access-us-inc.com/. [ via The Wall Street Journal, registration required ]

Technorati Tags: PalmOS

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On Wednesday, Apple Computer announced the iPod nano digital music player. Priced at about $199 with 2 Gigabytes and $249 with 4 Gigabytes of memory and available in either white or black, it's an incredibly cool replacement for the iPod mini.

I agree with Walter Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal who reviewed the iPod nano and said:

{The} nano has the best combination of beauty and functionality of any music player I've tested -- including the iconic original white iPod.... I loaded the entire 16-hour unabridged audio version of "The Da Vinci Code" onto my test four-gigabyte nano and still had room left over for 1,128 songs, plus my 24 photos, a couple of podcast episodes and about 50 contacts copied from my computer's address book. That's more than enough material for most people....

I definitely think that the iPod nano has enough capacity for my typical uses of an iPod. (I bought a 10-Gigabyte iPod for Kathleen as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago, but I get to use it often because she tends to leave it at home during the week.) I like to listen to audio books from Audible and relatively small music playlists that are matched to some of my activities. I think I would use an iPod more often if it was the size of the iPod nano.

I like the iPod Shuffle and was considering buying one for myself, but I doubt I'll spring for it now. The nano's color screen looks amazing. With the increased capacity, cool new shape, and light weight, the nano will be hard for me to resist.

Technorati Tags: iPod

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Wall Street Journal reports in its Thursday edition that EBay is in talks to acquire Skype for between $2 and 3-billion dollars. According to the article "The talks are in a sensitive stage and could fall apart, according to one person briefed on the matter."

The article goes on to talk about why EBay would want to enter the business of Internet telephony:

{EBay is} interested in entering new businesses that could open up ways for the company to generate revenue, such as pay-per-call Internet telephony, in ways that it cannot in its current structure.... EBay has long said it plans to increase its market share of Internet commerce and would explore new areas that allowed it to do so. Skype offers the Internet auctioneer a thriving e-commerce business that benefits from so-called network effect, which is a good or service that has value to a potential customer based on the number of customers who already own that good or use that service....

Skype has been shopping itself around to a number of deep-pocketed Internet-related companies. It's also exploring an Initial Public Offering.

Some suggest that a valuation of $2 to 3-billion dollars is difficult to justify, given the limited barriers to entering the VoIP market. This is illustrated by the recent introduction of Google Talk which has some of the same features as Skype. Google probably considered acquiring Skype, balked at the price, and instead rolled out its own competing service. [ Subscription required to read articles from The Wall Street Journal. ]

Technorati Tags: VoIP

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've decided to buy a Motorola HS850 Bluetooth Headset for use with my Palm Treo 650 and my PC. I thought about this for a couple of weeks before I made the decision. Much of that delay was the result of a lack of consistency I found in Bluetooth headset reviews on the Internet.

I'd like to review a number of Bluetooth headsets, so I have to start somewhere. On MobileBurn, I read that the HS850 has the same design as the HS810. The improvements from the HS810 are better battery life and Bluetooth 1.2 compatibility. The HS820 is cheaper, but has more problems with wind noise when used outdoors, because it lacks the boom microphone.

I'm planning to use the HS850 to familiarize myself with Bluetooth headsets and as a baseline for future headset reviews.

Regular readers may ask why I didn't buy the Cardo Scala 500, which seems to be a great deal at Amazon.com? I have to admit that I was influenced by the changes that Treonauts made to their review recently. I have never used a Bluetooth headset, so I have to take reviews from major blogs fairly seriously. I think I may come back later, try the Cardo Scala 500, and compare it to the HS850.

Technorati Tags: VoIP, Bluetooth

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today I spent a lot of time emailing my family and friends and encouraging them to donate to the Tour of Hope. I wanted to get this work done a month ago when I asked readers of Operation Gadget to contribute, but I ended up waiting until after Labor Day in order to take advantage of the fact that many people would be returning to work this week.

I find that my donors last year fell into three categories:

• relatives and friends of Kathleen and me,
• fellow alumni from Rensselaer who contributed because of the fact that I was riding in memory of fellow alumnus, and
• friends and relatives of Peter Frank.

Each group has a different reason for donating, so each group got a different email message.

I put this level of effort into communicating with my previous donors because I was truly touched by the thoughtfulness of many of them last year. Some of them donated for intensely personal reasons that I'm just understanding now. I wish I could take the time to write a personal note to each donor when I ask for their support, but I find that I only really have time to write a personal note thanking donors for their contribution.

There's about a month to go before the Fundraising Ride in Washington, DC. I don't think I'll have any trouble raising the $500 minimum donation, because it's one of the lowest minimums required for any participatory event by a national charity. What I'm most concerned about is building up my mileage enough to comfortably ride the 50 miles.

If you want to make a donation to the Tour of Hope to support me, all you need to do is click on the big Help Dave ride the Tour of Hope button. You'll be sent to a page where you can make a tax deductible donation to the Tour of Hope by credit card. Instructions are also there for making a donation by check. Thanks for your help.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's a quick summary of the workouts that I did last week:

• Monday, August 29: Biked 10.2 miles in 41 minutes 11 seconds.
• Tuesday, August 30: Rest.
• Wednesday, August 31: Biked 10.2 miles in 42 minutes 3 seconds.
• Thursday, September 1: Biked 10.2 miles in 42 minutes 41 seconds.
• Friday, September 2: Busy.
• Saturday, September 3: Worked in the yard for 2 hours 56 minutes 5 seconds.
• Sunday, September 4: Worked in the yard for 37 minutes 14 seconds.

This week I didn't have any hockey games due to the Labor Day holiday. Instead I did a considerable amount of yard work on the weekend.

For the week, I exercised for 5 hours 39 minutes, burning 3,297 calories, and covering a total of 30.6 miles on my bike.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is the Operation Gadget weekly summary for the first week of September 2005. I'm experimenting with a weekly summary so that readers who want to receive a periodic email with Operation Gadget headlines can receive the links to all of the articles published each week. I will post a mechanism for readers to sign up for this service when I work out the details.

The headlines:

September 2

• Stop Blaming Each Other Over the Response to Hurricane Katrina
  
• How Out of Market VoIP Numbers Can Save Your Family Money
  

September 1

• "Treo Essentials" Debuts at Amazon.com, Offers Treo 650-Specific Tips
  
• Giant Provided Amateur Cyclists Opportunities to Ride the Courses of the Tour of Germany
  
• Donated to the American Red Cross Hurricane Relief Fund for Hurricane Katrina
  

August 31

• Thanks, Judge Bissell
  

August 30

• Mapping Race Courses with a GPS and Google Maps
  

August 29

• I'm Tired of Getting Ripped Off by Splogs
  
• LSU Professor Maintaining Hurricane Katrina Blog
  
• 4th Week of August 2005 Workouts
  

Does a weekly summary work for you? Is it a waste of time? Let me know by posting a comment. Thanks....

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm not surprised that people in other countries are shocked by the situation in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They can only react to what they see on TV and what they read.

Americans need to demand a non-political response to this disaster. Politicians need to stop blaming each other and start leading the people. Racism has nothing to do with how Americans respond in time of need. We all need to think twice before criticising because it just makes the United States look bad in the eyes of the rest of the world.

If you haven't yet made your contribution to help our fellow Americans, do it now. Give to the Red Cross at http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html. Josh Hallett has listed lots of other good charitable giving options on his Hurricane Katrina page.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Andy Abramson pointed out how he uses an out-of-market number provided by AT&T CallVantage to save his mother money on her phone bill. Andy said:

For the past few years my mom has been calling me long distance, but of late, now that I reinforced the point of my local Philadelphia CallVantage number she finally began using it. Why? She decided to trim her phone budget by some $25.00 a month eliminating unnecessary features like three way calling, speed dial and voice mail, most of which she never used....

With energy prices soaring, now is the time to help our friends and relatives find ways to economize that don't change their lifestyles. VoIP is one obvious solution.

An out-of-market VoIP number is a really attractive solution if you have a relative on a fixed-income who doesn't have broadband. If you get a number in that person's area, you can have them call that number with a local call, which is typically free. This is a way for people who don't even have broadband in their homes to reap the benefits of VoIP.

Technorati Tags: VoIP

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Amazon.com has started taking orders for Treo Essentials: Get the Most from Your Treo 650 by Michael Morrison and published by Que.

This is the first book I've seen that has come out with Treo 650-specific advice. Previous books like Now You Know Treo and to a lesser extent the Treo Fan Book were written for the Treo 600 with selected updates for new features of the Treo 650.

I'm hoping to get a copy of Treo Essentials soon to see how many useful tips it has about productive use of the Treo 650. [ via Palm Addict ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Richard Pestes of PezCycling News published an article about his experience riding the Time Trial course at the Tour of Germany (DeutscheTour) through a program called Giant Tour. Giant Bicycles apparently has a huge presence in Germany, in part because it is the bicycle sponsor of the T-Mobile Professional Cycling Team. Pestes said:

The coolest part of the Giant Tour is that regular Joe’s can sign up to ride a stage race, on closed roads – the same routes used by the DeutschTour - with police escorts, electronic timing, hot showers, hot food, roadside fans, and the feel of what it’s like to be a real pro racer. The stages run on the second half of each day’s DeutschTour route, and if you’re too slow – there’s a broom wagon to sweep you up.

Media covering the DeutscheTour who were up for a challenge got to ride team-issue bikes. Pestes' was the same Time Trial bike as the T-Mobile team raced in the 2004 Tour de France.

Check out the article. It has a lot of good photos of the bike he rode. I'm jealous.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the last two days, it's become clear that the damage done by Hurricane Katrina to the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama Gulf Coast region is one of the most serious disasters in American history. I told Kathleen yesterday that I think the destruction in New Orleans will have a more lasting impact on the United States than the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001. There are many reasons for this, but the key reasons are:

1. The transportation infrastructure of the lower Mississippi River is critical to delivery of food and energy throughout the United States.
2. The damage due to the direct impact of the hurricane and the flooding that occurred afterward is widespread and affects both commercial and residential areas.
3. The people displaced by the hurricane are likely to become refugees for weeks or months before they are able to return to their home areas.

All Americans will be economically affected by this disaster, but people in coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama have been displaced and lost many of their belongings. These people need our help and we should all step up and make some sort of donation.

I just made a small donation on behalf of OperationGadget.com and CTDATA to the American Red Cross Hurricane Relief Fund. The Red Cross has proven over the years to be effective at directing financial contributions to where they're most needed.

If you are interested in making a contribution in this time of need, you can visit the Red Cross' Donate Now! page at: http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)