Category: Recreation

Bicycle commuting weather has returned to Calgary. I commuted to work twice last week on my classic Miyata 1000, and plan to beat that record this week. This morning was a little chilly, but at least I didn’t have to scrape the frozen rain off the jeep windshield.

Back in the saddle also means having 2hrs a day again for podcasts. I’m using my daughter’s old iPod nano (also a classic), and its 1G memory just balances my consumption with new content being published.

So, fanfare please, here’s my current list:

• FLOSS Weekly (twit.tv/FLOSS), an offering of interviews with free and open source project leaders.
• The Changelog (thechangelog.com), presents interviews with free and open source project leaders, but tends to be geekier than FLOSS Weekly (but not always).
• BSD Talk (bsdtalk.blogspot.com), provides periodic interviews with those active in the BSD (UNIX-like operating system) community (e.g., FreeBSD).
• Lullabot Drupal Podcast and Drupal Voices (lullabot.com). A great way to get into Drupal CMS development. The Drupal Podcast is a theme-based group effort from the Lullabot development team; Drupal Voices is short inteviews with non-Lullabot Drupal developers.
• CBC Spark (radio3.cbc.ca) a weekly tech program for the lay person, each episode consisting of a half-dozen topics or interviews (full interviews also available for more depth).
• The World: Technology (http://www.theworld.org/technology-podcast). An interesting collection of tech-related stores from around the world (albeit with a western bias).
• CBC The World This Week. Nice wrap-up of the previous week’s global news to catch up on while bicycling to work Monday morning.
• CBC Radio 3 Podcast (radio3.cbc.ca), a theme-based weekly program of Canadian independent music. I keep a couple annual roadtrip mixtape episodes on the iPod, as well the Sweatin’ to the Indies episode, for when I just want to pedal.
• CBC Radio 3 Top 30 (radio3.cbc.ca), a weekly review of Canadian independent music. This is the first year I watched the Canadian Juno awards (Canada’s equivalent of the US Grammy’s) and recognised most of the songs and artists.

Did the multi-mode commuter thing yesterday to see the 2008 NASC (North American Solar Challenge) finals at the University of Calgary. I first drive to a Calgary C-Train Park&Ride with my bicycle in the back of the van, then rode the train downtown with my bike and gave the van keys to my daughter so the van could make it back home, and finally got back on the train to get to the University of Calgary. I reached the finish line just in time to see the U of C car cross the line (finishing a very respectable 6th out of 14 in the final standings).

When a five minute notice was given for an approaching car, everyone headed to the finish line to watch the car, with its team jogging along side, come down the timing lane and across the checkered line. After post-finish checkouts by officials, the cars were put on display and team members answered questions. The students, together with their supporters and mentors, have made an incredible achievement. Although the vehicles may not be commercially viable, the value of the gained knowledge and experience for the students is immeasurable.

It was disappointing to see the Canadian governments didn’t seem to recognize the importance of the event. Both the Federal and Provincial governments had prepared speeches read in their absence, so the sold Canadian politician attending in person was an alderman – who left me with the impression that the highlight for them was the road trip with the local media. In comparison, the US presented a speech in person, which although focusing on US achievements, nonetheless demonstrated government awareness and provided publicity for the cause. Too bad for us north of the 49th, opportunities like this don’t come often.

After watching a few more cars finish and inspecting the vehicles on display, I bought a couple shirts to both remember and advertise the occasion (proceeds going to the U of C team’s expenses), and then pointed my bike south towards home.

At the finish line ….

• 1st – U of Michigan, 51:41:53
• 6th – U of C, 75:42:53
• 14th – Oregan State U, 145:20:00

https://www.dalescott.net/photoalbums/nggallery/thumbnails

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