July 21, a new king

As Belgium gets a new king, Chris Froome is crowned the new Roi du 100er edition du Tour de France. Kittel est le prince des Champs.

I've enjoyed watching the Tour more than other years, and with reason. A lackluster Cadel Evans and the early departure of Belgium's hope Jurgen Van den Broeck aside, this Tour had a lot of excitement.

A true king
Although Chris Froome started the race as the favorite, it was not handed to him. His rivals didn't waste any time and started attacking from the first day in the Pyrenees. Unlike other years where you waited for some action only to be disappointed time after time: yes, Schleck brothers, I am talking to you. Throughout the tour the attacks kept coming. More over, Froome didn't just defend his yellow jersey. He attacked, won stages and earned it thread for thread. A calm and humble Froome rightfully crowns himself the winner of the 2013 Tour de France.

Picture: The Guardian

The battle among the knights
On the flat stages, it remained exciting. There was the battle royal between the sprinters. Cavendish got unseated by mister-needs-a-new-barber Marcel Kittel. Although Andre Greipel got a seat at the sprinter's banquet as well.

The day they attacked the castle
You would expect the legendary ascend to the Mont Ventoux or the double Alpe D'Huez stage to be the most exciting ones. Nope. The flat stage 13 between Tours and Saint-Amand-Montrond was cycling at its best. First, an unlucky Valverde got behind. Then, Froome and Sky were put on defense when Quickstep, Belkin and Saxo took advantage of the cross winds. It was fighting for every second. Finally, Cavendish finished it off nicely.

New blood

Surprises came from Nairo Quintana, the dynamic Dutch duo Bauke Molema and Laurens Ten Dam, and Jan Bakelants who won a stage and got the yellow jersey for Belgium for a couple of days. 

The jester

It was of course of no surprise that Sagan, winning the green jersey, would bring a little show as he wheelied through the mountains and across the finish lines. 

Relive the Tour with http://www.steephill.tv/tour-de-france/.

My new found digital leash

Since a few months I am tracking some of my daily habits using a Fitbit Flex wristband and Aria scale. Interconnected devices. The internet of things. M2M. Oops, I've been brainwashed recently by the IoT marketeers, but got enough antidote to escape its tentacles.

Techcrunch, Lifehacker, GigaOm all have written extensively about devices such as the Fitbit Flex, the Nike Fuelband (as glorified in Casey Neistat's Make it Count video), or the Jawbone Up.

I was initially interested in a device which tracks my sleeping habits. I know I do not get enough rest. Six hours are a blessing. I wondered  how solid the few hours I do sleep are. It is a bonus the device also tracks my steps.

Although I have a "computer-job", I do tend to walk around lot (1). Now that I can track it, I am more encouraged to hit my daily 10,000 steps. I haven't hit it consistently yet. That's my next step.

Not only am I connected most of my awaken hours, I now have my version of a prisoner's ankle bracelet, albeit a cool one. When anyone asks, I'll just mention that my parole officer doesn't allow me to talk about it.

Career development is always and at least once a year

In recent weeks I have been preparing several career development plans (CDP) for my direct reports. This is a multi-step process starting with the employee answering a set of questions, and for engineers a technical skill-set self-assessment. Typically over a lunch we discuss theses answers and review the self assessment. The next step is for me to write up my opinion on the employee: strengths, areas of improvement, and development steps.

Previously when engineers asked when the next CDP will be, my answer was simple: "CDPs are always. Don't wait for a specific HR designated time period. Let's talk in our regular one-on-one about this."

One-on-ones are typically weekly. If there is one thing I want to pass along to new managers is to have regular one-on-one meetings with your team. Talk about the projects, but also about how they see things in the company or their opinion on pending decisions. Over the last 7 years, it is my habit to have one-on-ones while walking around the company neighborhood. This is a habit I picked up from my first manager at RTI: she was pregnant at the time and wanted to include walks in her daily routine. The habit stuck with me. I must have logged hundreds of miles in recent years in the Sunnyvale area. The Northern California weather helps.

I've written up my career advise opinion -'cause that is all that really is: my opinion- for several employees now. I must admit it has been quiet complementary to the one-on-one mentoring and career advise. This is in part thanks to the guiding CDP questions and the fact that we make it a special focus. Thus I've come around: career development is always and at least once a year.

Douglas Englebart got me a $100

When in March of 2012, Robert Cringely took his family on a day through computing history, he had breakfast at IHOP with Woz, tea with Douglas Englebart, and a grabble in the Google snackbar when visiting Andy Hertzfeld. That was all before visiting the Computer History Museum in Mountain View of course.

When somebody had asked me to plan a similar trip, the same three gentlemen would be part of my trip. (I probably would have tried to squeeze in a few more folks.) All three are in the quiet geek hero category and live in the shadow of Steve Jobs. Even in the valley of geeks are some of them unknown.  I once made a lofty $100 of a bet on who invented the mouse. Steve Jobs $0; Douglas Englebart $100.

Unfortunately my trip through computer history will have one stop fewer as Douglas Englebart passed away last week.

Find my Mac - how does it work?

In follow up to my previous post on recovering my Apple computer, as an engineer passionate about networking, I was intrigued in how Find My Mac/ Find My iPhone actually works. Some of the devices have a GPS capability, some have a GSM/3G/4G capability, but my laptop has neither.

StackExchange explains the application using Wifi Positioning Systems (WPS):

The Mac can use Wi-Fi network identification for localization. This is called a Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS). The access points name and signal strength is determined and looked up in a database to identify the location. The more access points are found, the more precise the localization. Unlike GPS (Global Positioning System) or cell-tower triangulation (together called Assisted-GPS), the Wi-Fi based localization works well inside buildings. There are different databases which collect wireless access points: Google, Navizon, Skyhook Wireless, OpenWLANMap. 

I have been pretty lucky that WPS pointed me to a single house. Now that all my devices are safely at home, the online version of Find My Mac places all devices in the shed in the backyard, on the border with my neighbors. I probably would not have known which house to send the SJPD to. ... unless I used the iPad/iPhone version.

I did discover that using the web-based version of Find My Mac is less accurate in pin pointing the device than using the Find My Mac application on an iPhone or iPad. On my iPad the application actually shows the address and can provide driving directions (which using Apple Maps may or may not lead you to the right location, but that's another story).

Note: At home WPS triangulation does work thanks to the neighbors networks. I actually do not broadcast my SSID. I thought this was a good security measure: if you do not know my network is around, you are not going to try to connect to my network. As this article points out, hiding your SSID isn't such a great idea for security reasons.

Revenge of the nerds

About five years ago, burglars visited our house. Due to the vigilance of a neighbor they were caught in the act, and all goods were recovered. A damaged door and a dent our safe home feeling were the only remainders from the ordeal. Last night, misfortune struck again.

One of the items stolen was a brand new Apple Mac Book Air family laptop. It was fully backed up, so essentially the loss of the laptop was limited to some electronics in a metal case. An expensive metal case nevertheless.

Today using the iCloud Find My iPhone of Mac application, the tide turned.  At 10:28am, minutes before our company board meeting, the Macbook Air popped up on the iCloud browser window. It was located in East San Jose. The first picture showed a radius of a couple of houses. That wasn't a lot to get the San Jose Police Department excited about. I called them nevertheless. They requested I drive to the area but remained a couple of blocks of the houses and show the police officer the tracking information.

In the interim, I was able to take some action. The Find my Mac application allows you take control of the remote device: you can lock it, you can play a sound or you can even erase the Mac. I opted for locking it, without alerting the user (no sound or message was displayed). Apparently for iOS devices you can request it to send you an email when it comes online, so you don't have to poll it all the time.

To a novice user, this renders the laptop unusable.

By the time the board meeting was over, the iCloud application had narrowed the location to a single specific house. I am curious to how it was able to do this, especially since the user was locked out of the laptop anyway. I also got the IP address but wasn't able to tie that to a specific house. If somebody knows, let me know.

With this information, I sped down to the area, drove by the house twice to check it out. There wasn't any sign of life in the house. I met up with the San Jose Police Department a few blocks away. Three SJPD officers showed up. After explaining them how iCloud Find my Mac works - this was new to all three officers- , they were convinced and requested me to follow them to the house. Adrenaline, Camera, Action!

After surrounding the house, making contact with the person living there, and a long 10 minutes waiting in the car, they came out with two devices: a iPad mini (not mine) and my MacBook Air. The NASA Curiosity sticker had been removed and will be restored. Victory is mine: I got my laptop back. Revenge of technology, revenge of the nerds!

Yes, this is absolutely a plug for Apple and the Find my iPhone/Mac application. Thanks to the SJPD to follow my lead to the house and recover my laptop. I offered them gladly some training on the tracking application.

Thanks SJPD! 

Epilogue - Unfortunately, the person who was in possession of the laptop, wasn't the person who stole the laptop. He bought the $1100 laptop less than 12 hours after it was stolen, in a tire store parking lot for $150. He was interviewed for close to an hour, the house was turned upside down, but nothing else was found.

Ronde Van Vlaanderen 2013

All the discussions whether the "Muur of Geraardsbergen" or "Bosberg" should be part of the Tour of Flanders (Ronde Van Vlaanderen) aside, the last edition today has become much more of an NBA basketball game. Nevertheless all the scoring back and forth, the excitement of an NBA basketball has been reduced to the last 2 minutes. Either the game is dull where it has been decided early on and the point difference is large throughout the game. Or it is a game of time-outs, fouls, free throws or 3-point shots in the last 2 minutes. Just tune into the last 2 minutes.

That's how today's Ronde Van Vlaanderen felt as well. That's also how last year's Ronde Van Vlaanderen, the first year on the new course, felt as well. Seventeen hills and we all have to wait until the last two for the excitement: Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg.

We knew it was going to be between Cancellara and Sagan. But with exception of Jurgen Roelandts, who did attack a little earlier, and Tom Boonen who had to abandon the race early on after a crash, where were the other favorites? Chavanel? Voeckler? Van Avermaet? Paolini? Why didn't they attack early on? Your names don't even show up on the post race interview lists.

It is only the second time the new course is used, but let's hope that in the coming years, we don't have to wait until the last 20km to see some action.

Picture: www.steephill.tv

Three times is a charm

This is the third time I am packing up all my belongings. The first time was when we moved in our little house. The second time was when we replaced the popcorn (acoustic) ceiling with smooth ceiling and repainted the entire interior. This time I am packing up all the rooms to have the old carpet replaced by Brazilian cherry wooden floors. There were other packing and unpacking episodes, but they were smaller in size: i.e., when we unpacked lots of inherited belongings from our friends who were moving back to Europe. Or when we had to pack up the bathrooms, and the kitchen when we remodeled them.

This is day two of the packing. I expect at least one more solid day of packing and moving remaining. I am doing it all by myself, while the rest of my gang are vacationing in Argentina. I could have used the extra hands. It is however much more troublesome to live in a place with four while it is all packed up. All I need, is a small bag with a change of clothes, a toothbrush, a comb and my laptop.

I've gone at it systematically, starting with cleaning out the garage, where all the stuff somehow needs to fit. Next I started with the kids' rooms and then the living room. How can so much stuff fit in such a little house?  A couple of observations:

• It appears an enormous amount of stuffed animals survived the last trip to the slaughterhouse (Goodwill). 
• We got to do better and clean out old toys. I am pretty sure the wooden train tracks have not been used in years. 
• Lego is everywhere. 
• So are the little hairbands. 
• How many purses and little bags can a little girl have? Wait don't answer. I know, as with shoes, not enough. 
• How many clothes can a little girl have? See previous answer.  
• Cleaning out and packing up my daughters room, you learn a lot. For example, she loves to tie many toys together and is quite skilled at it. Note to mom: no more yarn for her! 
• Time to institute the law of Conservation of Toys: want a new toy, get rid of one first. In this house the total number of toys shall remain the same. 
• And finally, there should be a law that all mattresses come with handles.

Tomorrow I am taking a break from the real work to go back to my day job. A quick peek and I am looking at over 200 emails and a bunch of meetings. I love my other (packing) job. 

TGIF? 

Introducing the next generation to slide guitar

As we were perusing the camping equipment at REI, a new song came on the radio.

"Listen, Listen dad", my son said excitedly, "do you recognize the song?"

It didn't take me much to recognize the slide guitar from the Allman Brothers Band. (I learned on YouTube the song was called "Jessica".)

"Who?,  my son asked, "No dad, this is the theme song from Top Gear."

Of course! I must have heard it a hundred times by now, as we watch the UK shows over and over. Even though the gang of three lost all credibility after the infamous Tesla episode.

Sure, I may pretend to know all about the Allman Brothers now, but about 15 years ago, my answer would have been the same as my son. But that all changed one infamous Sunday night at the Paradise Lounge in San Francisco. It was a few months after I watched Rush, a movie about undercover narcotics agents played by Jason Patric and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Little did I know that Will Gaines, the drug lord in the movie, is played by Gregg Allman.

Back to the night in the Paradise Lounge. It was close to 1:30am Sunday night. Closing time. My roommate, his girlfriend and myself were one of the few remaining patrons finishing our drinks. As we were leaving the place, a group of well dressed folks walks in. The gents were in tuxedos and the ladies were all dressed up in elegant gowns. Intrigued they were let in at this time of the night, we dragged out feet leaving and hid in the back against the wall. The doors closed and everybody inside was asked to stay back, away from the windows as the SFPD was making sure all bars, clubs and lounges had emptied. There must have been perhaps 15 patrons and about 10 of the fancy folks. About 30 minutes past, when the fancy folks opened their cases and pulled out a bunch of instruments. They got on stage and started jamming. They seemed to know the owner of the place. The band sounded beyond awesome. My roommate could hardly contain his excitement. It took me a couple of minutes to recognize the front man: "That's the drug dealer!", I shouted, just as they paused between songs. A little chuckle here and there. But indeed it was the drug dealer. We were enjoying an almost private concert by no other than Gregg Allman and the Allman Brothers band.

And thus a budding guitar player got introduced to the slide guitar at REI.

Strade Bianche

Since Omloop het Nieuwsblad, the races have been somewhat of a dud. Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne was canceled because of weather. The next major race was Strade Bianche. The race over the beautiful white gravel roads of Tuscany started of great. I picked up a few interested twitter feeds with great pictures from the parcours along the way as well: @TourdeJose and @Soigneur_zegt.  Following the races from California isn't typically a problem following the feed recommendations from steephill.tv or on sports-livez.com. As the race went into its final kilometers towards Siena, the sports-livez webstream was cut short because of the Real-Barcelona soccer game. What a bummer! It took out all of the fun of watching the race.

Image: 2012 italiancyclingjournal.blogspot.com

Moreno Moser, winner 2013 Strade Bianche
Image 2013 PodiumCafe