Got the edge

Fiona got me a Garmin Edge 500 cycle computer for my birthday and I've finally had a chance to day to give it a whirl. Although she bought me the one with the cadence sensor as well, I haven't had a chance to attach that to the bike.
this is a cool gadget!
In addition to the normal speed, distance, time,and then the averages, with the heart-rate monitor I get all my cardiac info, once I attach the cadence sensor, I will get that data too. But since the device is a GPS receiver, I get elevations, directions and mapped locations. This means that i can finally add my Whitelees cycles from last year onto the mapmyrun site. Of course, I will have to repeat each of the cycles, but that's probably good practice for this years Maggies run which I've entered again.

Went for a short run this afternoon, just to have a quick look. Its a cycle I've done before so I can compare with the last time.
Despite not having been ot in about a month, I managed the 9.5 miles a total of 3 minutes quicker (I know, not much but I feel good about it), and now I have some data to download into the Garmin analysis tools and mapmyrun.

MapMyRun.com

Mapmyrun took the data with no problem ( after installing the web utility) Despite saying it wouldn't work with Chrome, it seemed to and imported the route and the data. Since I changed the route slightly I let it import as a new route. The Garmin recorded the normal data, plus heartrate and calories.

Garmin's Training Center

The Garmin Training Center Software seems quite bare. I know Andy at work has an Edge 300 and uses something else. I must find out what and have a go with it.
You can plot various data against time or distance and that seems quite nice, but so far it looks like mapmyrun will be the logging tool of choice.

Birthday Kindle

My parents bought me an Amazon Kindle for my birthday.
I  have been keen on getting one for a while - I tend to reread books so having books which I've already read with me isn't a problem. Plus the sci fi geek issue comes forward - these devices are very similar to Star Trek's Padds. The Kindle even has built in wireless for automatic delivery of content. i can order books from Amazon and they are on the machine when I get home.

Of course, the big issue is the usability. As someone who regularly spends 50 hours a week working in front of a monitor and then goodness knows how much personal time, I know something about eye strain. Similarly, as some one who has written more than my share of technical documentation for the "paperless office" I know that it is difficult to replace the ease of printed material.
 after using this for a few days I have to say I am very impressed. Since it uses e-paper there is no back light. The screen is an off white with dark text, the same as any paperback you might have. It is the back lighting which causes most of the eye strain so that problem is more or less resolved. The other failure for the paperless office is portability. The kindle is wirelessly enabled through email. You can send documents to the machine simply by emailing them to its unique email address (or use the USB cable...). If you email them you also get the option of having them converted to Kindle's internal format (I've tried with pdf's and I wasn't impressed, but they are heavily formatted) although the Kindle will support most office formats.

Reading on the device is actually quite easy. There is no real glare off the screen. The unit is also light enough to hold with one hand, with pagination buttons on both sides to cater for those lefties still out there. Battery life is supposed to be good - 4 weeks with wireless turned off - and the default setting is to go into sleep mode (with an image screen saver coming on) rather than being turned off. Sleep mode will also kick in if you haven't turned a page for a set number of minutes.
Organising books is a bit basic - they all appear in a simple contents list. You can add categories, and then display categories which can simplfy the display list. Sadly, you cannot nest categories, but books can be memeners of more than one category.
The last issue with paperless office is note taking. The Kindle has a keypad for making notes and the 1984 stories all show that people do use the notes tool, but i haven't tried that yet, as I'm still  only using it for leisure.
Certainly, after a week I'm well impressed.

New Boiler - Days 48 and 49

New boiler finally up and running

It was an early start on Monday. The company delivering the extra pipework for the gas line said they would deliver between 7:30 and 9:30, and he showed at 8:15. As I was signing the docket, the first of the Scottish Gas guys showed up. He came in and I showed him the job, along with the written specific instructions the sales guy originally left. I then explained about the gas feed problem and the agreed solution. At this point he said it looked like an easy job and he would get started. His colleague arrived abut 20 minutes later (having phoned to explain he was running late). Once the 2 of them were there one got horsed into extracting the old boiler while the other started to rip out the existing pipework in the loft and airing cupboard. It seems that due to the mess of the original pipework, the guys putting in my bathroom 2 years ago bypassed the storage tanks and fed sink toilet and shower from the main supply. This meant that basically all pipework in the loft could come out, which meant a fast job. Soon the two of them were fitting the new boiler while Ciaran and I had to go out. By the time we got back (well, actually out back and out again) there were 4 guys with associated truck parked outside the house. The Gas guys were joined by an electrician and a brickie. It seems the brickie was late and this held up the others who had to wait for the flue to be fitted and sealed with concrete.
By the end of day 1 the new boiler was in place and wired, though not piped for gas. All the old stuff was out and the new gas line was mostly in place (just the bit that needed to be buried was left as they didn't have the correct tape with them).

The 48 day delay - instead of running the pipe in front of the door can't you just bury it?

Just some of the recycled Copper

Day 2 started with an estimate of being done by 1230. While one finished burying the gas main, the other competed fitting the boiler itself. Once gas was available they did a powerclean of the system and cleaned all their mess away, leaving the rubbish to be collected by a third party.
Everything was signed off by 1300.

As a final shot I was advised to collect the copper waste and sell it to a scrap merchant. Since so much came out of the house it would be worth the effort. So Ciaran and I spent the afternoon going through the bags and picking out the copper, getting just over 32kg (including the hot water tank) and sold it all for just over £4 a kilo.

After being given such a hard time by the company before any work had even taken place,  have to say that the professionalism of the tradesmen present was fantastic. The care they took of their work and of my house was refreshing to see, especially since I got the distinct impression that their management weren't that bothered.