Fetch.IO is cancelling my account

It seems that I owe $0.00 to Fetch.IO. Interestingly, I have owed this money since a non-existent date from before Jesus’ birth. I think I’ll just let them cancel it…

On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 10:35 AM, Fetch.io <noreply@fetch.io> wrote:

Dear ,

This is a notification that your service has now been suspended. The details of this suspension are below:

Product/Service: Free
Amount: $0.00 USD
Due Date: 00/00/0000
Suspension Reason: Overdue on Payment

Please contact us as soon as possible to get your service reactivated.

 

One month of the Rippetoe-Ferris workout

Last month, after finishing “4-Hour Body”, I crafted the “Rippetoe-Ferris” workout. So far, it has been extremely productive, accelerating my gains far beyond my expectations.

To recap, I took the basic plan from the “Effortless Superhuman” section of Timothy Ferris’ “4-Hour Body”. I then substituted bench press with overhead press and added back squats, which constitute the three primary lifts from Mark Rippetoe’s “Starting Strength”.

For whatever reason, my overhead press got stuck at 135 lbs, but I finally completed that weight on my last workout and will be starting 145 lbs on my next.

One other thing I should mention. I have been drinking between 1/3 and 1/2 gallon of milk a day in addition to my regular meals. I think my gains are partially attributable to that change, since I really have a hard time putting on weight. I’ve gained about 4 kg (8.8 lbs) since I began.

I’ll keep you updated with how things progress.

Workout period: April 6th to May 11th

Max Working Weight

Back Squats: 255 lbs -> 315 lbs

Overhead Press: 115 lbs -> 135 lbs

Deadlift: 315 lbs -> 365 lbs

Progress

Back Squats:

Overhead Press:

Deadlift:

Mixing Rippetoe and Ferris in the weight room

As a soccer player, one of my greatest strengths when I was younger was my speed. As my top speed declined in my 30′s, I started to get frustrated and decided I would need to take some steps to slow the decline. After doing some research and consulting with my wife, who has a degree in physical education, I decided that weight training was needed.

I had a couple of false starts until a friend of mine introduced me to “Starting Strength” by Mark Rippetoe. I followed the Rippetoe method as closely as possible and made great progress. The added strength translated into huge improvements in my performance on the soccer field.

Recently, I kept hearing a lot of buzz about “4-Hour Body” by Timothy Ferris. All within about two weeks, I read about it in Men’s Journal, read of few chapters at Barnes & Nobel, overheard two guys in my office building elevator talking about it (one of them was just getting started on the “Occam’s Protocol”) and then I found out another of my colleagues had tried the “Slow Carb” diet from the book. I had to go read it.

The workout that interested me most from 4HB was from the “Effortless Superhuman” chapter. This workout was designed by a collegiate track coach to build strength for his runners while using the minimum of training effort and also keeping them ready to compete. What attracted me to this workout was how much it had in common with Rippetoe and how minimalistic it was.

My new training regimen takes elements from both Rippetoe and Ferris. I adopted the warm up, set and rep prescription from “Superhuman” and applied the three main workouts from Rippetoe to create a workout that I think will be absolutely killer for my purposes.

The Workout

1. Over-and-unders

• 1 set of 6 reps, no more than 5 minutes

2. Back squats

• 1 set of 2-3 @ 95% 1RM
• 1 set of 5 @ 85% 1RM
• within one minute, 7 18-inch box jumps
• rest 5 minutes from plyometrics to next set

3. Overhead press

• 1 set of 2-3 @ 95% 1RM
• 1 set of 5 @ 85% 1RM
• within one minute, 4 12-inch box push ups
• rest 5 minutes from plyometrics to next set

4. Deadlift

• 1 set of 2-3 @ 95% 1RM
• 1 set of 5 @ 85% 1RM
• within one minute, 7 18-inch box jumps
• rest 5 minutes from plyometrics to next set

5. Torture Twist

• 3-5 sets of 3-5 reps (30 seconds between sets)
• Start with 3 sets x 3 reps of 3 seconds on each side. Increase to 5 sets of 3 second holds, then increase time, one second at a time, up to a max of 15 second holds for 5 sets (each set = 3 holds per side).

That’s it. The whole workout takes from 30 to 45 minutes and should be done three days a week.

Cubeduel is not Hot or Not, it’s Kittenwar

Over the past week Cubeduel was released onto the Social Web where it went viral almost immediately. In the first 36 hours alone, more than 240,000 users joined the service. The service hit a temporary speed-bump on Friday when LinkedIn blocked access to its developer API due to an automated rate limit. That was all cleared up by Saturday and the service is now back online and, undoubtedly, still growing fast.

The concept behind Cubeduel is simple and compelling. When you first use the service, you are asked to sign into your LinkedIn account. From there, the service presents you with two of your LinkedIn connections and asks you to choose “who you would rather work with.” It’s a lot of fun to do and it wasn’t long before I had over a hundred duels under my belt.

Of course, as fun as it is to vote on the system, the motivation we all share is to see how we stack up against our co-workers. In order to find that out, you need to get your colleagues to rate you against other people they’ve worked with in the past. The service makes it easy to invite people from your Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn networks.

No kittens were hurt making this film

A number of articles I’ve read about Cubeduel have compared it to Hot or Not, a site where you can upload a photo of yourself and the community will rate you on a scale of one to ten based on “how hot” you are. I don’t think this is a good comparison. If Cubeduel were to follow the Hot or Not methodology, then it would show you one connection at a time and ask you “how much would you like to work with” that connection. This is a much more direct value judgement than that asked by Cubeduel.

The site that the Cubeduel service more closely follows is my old favorite, Kittenwar. When two kittens are battling it out on Kittenwar, choosing one as cuter does not necessarily mean that you don’t think the other is cute. There are certainly some butt ugly kittens on the site, but many times they are both equally cute and you choose one of them anyway. It doesn’t really matter in the end and no kittens get their feelings hurt in the process.

Cubeduel is just about as arbitrary as Kittenwar. When you choose between two people in a duel, there are a large number of factors that could go into the choice of one over the other. Did I work closely with this person? Were they in different departments? Was I friends with one of them? Are they smart? Are they inept? Are they funny? Could one of them help me in my future career? Do they look good in tight jeans? These and many more considerations will get boiled down into a slit second decision between the two people in the duel. Saying that you would rather work with Jane instead of Joe doesn’t mean you don’t want to work with Joe, it simply means, for whatever arbitrary reason (possibly tight jeans), that you would prefer to work with Jane.

I’m sorry, but your kitten is ugly

Of course, kittens cannot understand the results on Kittenwar. People will take it personally.

According to Tony Wright, co-creator of Cubeduel, “no one shows up on cubeduel lists who haven’t signed into the system and opted in to being part of the high score system.” He goes on to say, “we also suppress duel data for anyone who has lost 60% or more of their duels.” I suppose that’s a good compromise. If you don’t want to know were you stand, don’t opt-in and neither you, nor your connections will know.

At the end of the day, I don’t think the duel methodology is very efficient at getting to the more practical question of “is this person a good employee.” I would love to hear some statisticians chime in on that point. Instead, Cubeduel should be looked at as a diversion.

On the other hand, Kittenwar’s Winningest Kittens are pretty cute!

Connecting a PC to a Sony Bravia HD Display

I have had a media PC for a couple of years that I have used with a regular 26″ LCD monitor. So, when I got my Sony HDTV (model KDL-46V25L1) I thought that it would be incredibly simple to connect my PC up to my new HDTV. In fact, it was simple, but the results were disappointing and should be an embarrassment to Sony. However, with some determination, I was able to take advantage of the full resolution of my Sony display. Hopefully, these steps will help you if you find yourself in the same position.

My Sony monitor comes installed with a DSUB/RGB/VGA connector and two HDMI connectors. Sony’s instructions for connecting a PC to the monitor is to use the DSUB connection. This seems pretty obvious, but it turns out that the DSUB connector only supports resolutions up to 1400×1050. There are two problems with this. One, this is much lower than the full 1900×1080 native resolution of the monitor. Two, this is a 4:3 aspect ratio. So, the best you can hope for using the DSUB connector is a fuzzy, distorted, upscaled image.

LESSON: Don’t use the DSUB connector

The next obvious direction would be to use the HDMI inputs to the monitor. You will see below that this, in fact, will work, however, there are complications. First, Sony explicitly states in the WDL-46V25L1 Operating Instruction manual, on page 14

Do not connect a PC to the TV’s HDMI input. Use the PC IN (RGB IN) input instead when connecting a PC.

Unfortunately, they give no reason for why. I can’t imagine that this would do any damage to either your PC or your TV. My best guess is that they tell you this so that they don’t have to attempt the difficult explanation for how to properly configure your monitor to display the PC input correctly.

LESSON: Sony’s instructions sound like FUD, but, follow the rest of my instructions at your own risk.

So, without further ado, here’s what you need to do to get your PC to use the full HD resolution on your Sony Bravia HD display.

1. Make sure the video card on your PC has a DVI connector and supports 1900×1080 resolution.
2. Get a DVI to HDMI cable (male to male). You could also use a DVI cable and a DVI to HDMI adapter. I recommend the cable because it takes up less room behind your TV and should fit more snugly.
3. Connect your PC’s DVI port to one of your TV’s HDMI ports. You may need to restart your computer.
4. Make sure your display resolution is set at 1900×1080

What you will probably notice at this point is that the edges of your computer display is not visible on the TV. This is the reason I think Sony doesn’t want people connecting DVI to HDMI. However, you should know that a DVI signal is compatible with HDMI, so there is no reason to worry here. You just need to do some configuration on your TV.

Using your TV’s remote…
5. Hit the “MENU” button, then choose “Settings”
6. Using the arrows, move to the “Screen” settings tab
7. Find the “Display Area” setting and make sure it’s value is “Full Pixel”
8. Hit the “MENU” button again to save the setting and exit
9. (optional) Hit the “PICTURE” button until the setting is “Standard”. My setting was “Vivid” which make the PC’s display look really washed out. This is just personal taste, however.

That’s what worked for me. Your video card may have other settings, but you should be able to ignore most/all of those. My Nvidia card has a lot of settings related to displaying on HDTV’s, but I found most of them to be useless. YMMV.

Good luck and happy HDTV viewing!

Excellent list of online music services

What more can I say? Click the link [Mashable.com].

The Traveler’s Dilemma: What dilemma?

In the June issue of Scientific American, there was an interesting article about game theory [The Traveler's Dilemma]. I often times read the Letters section of the magazine, but I have never sent one in myself. Today, however, I wrote the following letter.

From: Christopher Taylor
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 10:26 AM
To: ‘editors@sciam.com’
Subject: What Dilemma?

Dear Editors,

With Lucy and Pete standing beside each other and facing the airline manager across the counter, “The Traveler’s Dilemma”, by Kaushik Basu, frames the question as one of Lucy vs. Pete; each traveler trying to get more than the other. What Mr. Basu seems to overlook is that Lucy and Pete are each more likely to identify with the other than either of them is to identify with the airline manager. Framed this way, the competition is not one pitting Lucy against Pete, but pitting the travelers against the airline manager. With this shift in perspective, the only “logical” choice is for both travelers to ask for $100.

Christopher Taylor
Software Engineer

It would be quite cool if the magazine publishes the letter. But, if not, at least I can still put it on my weblog.

Someone smart blogs about Furigana.jp

I was browsing through the referrer lists for Furigana.jp and I found a very nice post in the Blogosphere.

I found this awesome tool for reading Japanese from web pages and text files. If you plug a URL into Furigana.jp, the engine will turn out your text with the wee hiragana gloss that is called furigana. If you are semi literate in Japanese like me, then you can quickly read a text loaded with unknown kanji using this handy phonetic script. [erizabesu]

Quite flattering considering this person actually knows what they are talking about. Read the full post because it has some very interesting tidbits about the Japanese syllabary and even some things I had never heard about before.

Amanis wins in Footy Japan/YC&AC Charity 6-a-side tournament

For a team with a poor regular season record this year, expectations were low that this year’s Footy Japan/YC&AC Charity 6-a-side tournament would be anything more than a nice day in the sun and a chance to shoot a few balls. The weather was beautiful and we shot a few balls, but Amanis FC also came away with an unexpected tournament victory.

The excuses are endless for why Amanis FC has not made a better showing in TML 2nd Division, however there were no excuses to be had on Wednesday. We arrived at the YC&AC grounds at 8:30 A.M. ready to play, only to have to wait another hour before most other teams had arrived. Our draw placed us in the same group as BFC, which we knew to be a very strong team, but the other teams were unknown.

Things started slow in the group competition when our first opponent turned out to be the parents from a local youth team. Two of the team members were mothers who had clearly had little time on the ball. That game was followed by a challenging game against a young Japanese team. They moved the ball well in typical Japanese style, but lacked aggression and finishing which allowed Amanis to dominate.

Amanis’ third game in group play was against BFC. We had watched two of their earlier games and knew they were going to be a tough team to beat. So, instead of trying to beat them, we decided to fortify our defenses and hope for a draw. It may have been the longest 20 minutes of the day as BFC repeatedly pounded us with attacks, but our determination paid off and the game ended in a tie.

The game against BFC guaranteed our second place finish in group play. The game that followed was just for fun, but our opponent, already battered and beaten by two tough matches themselves, barely put up a fight.

Getting through the group play and into the semi-finals wasn’t too surprising, but we were happy to be there. In our last tournament at Oi Futo, we had been placed against some very tough teams and were only able to play for the plate. So, a chance at the cup was quite satisfying and the team was revved up to see how far we could get.

Our first game in the semi-finals was against a team of young U.S. Navy boys, the Yokosuka Seahawks. Both teams came out fighting, but the Seahawks were especially aggressive, eager to win and scored first. Time was winding up in the game and the Seahawks were still up by one point. The ball was going out-of-bounds on the Seahawk’s end of the field and was being shepparded out by a Seahawks player. However, Christopher Taylor was able to edge around the Seahawks defender to tip the ball toward the goal right on the end line. A quick move around the player, one-on-one with the keeper, a quick toe-flick later and the game was tied 1-1. The teams now tied, the whistle blew and the game went straight to the best out of three PKs.

Already down 2-1 after missing the first one, Amanis star PK scorer, Jorge Kuriyama was up. The expectation was definitely that Jorge would put the ball easily past the Seahawk goalie, but after about a 20 yard run up and a flaming kick, the audience was stunned to see the ball deflected by the Seahawks agile keeper. Desperation quickly turned to relief when the referee made a highly disputed call that the Seahawk’s keeper had come off of his line too early. The call was a blessing, but really put the pressure on Jorge for his second shot. After a similar 20 yard run up, Jorge faked another rocket shot, but dinked it over the keeper instead, the game was now 2-2. The game ended 3-2 after two beautiful saves by our stand-in keeper, Tim Daulat, and an effortless goal by Bruno.

After such a hard-fought win, Amanis was quite fired up to face the TML 1st Division, 3rd Place team, Sala FC. In this game and throughout the tournament, the two Amanis defensive players, Cyril and Vladimir, created an almost impenetrable fortress in front of the Amanis goal. Sala is known as a tough team, but this game definitely favored Amanis and without much drama, the game ended with Amanis on top.

Reaching the final game of the cup was completely beyond what anyone would have imagined this day. We were up against the TML 1st Division 1st Place team, YC&AC. Not only that, they were playing on their home ground. However, Amanis was relaxed and ready to play.

The game started fast and aggressively, but soon turned to Amanis’ favor on a cross that was mis-cleared by a YC&AC defender right to the feet of Christopher. A quick shot to the top-right of the goal and Amanis was up 1-0. However, before half-time, YC&AC equalized when a defensive mistake left a YC&AC player open on the left flank where the player sent a rocket past Jorge, who was in the goal.

At half-time, Amanis was at a loss for how we were going to win, but decided to keep the formation as it was. Amanis again took the lead on a beautiful corner kick by Bruno that came straight to Christopher, for an easy deflection and his second goal of the match. YC&AC didn’t back down, but the final nail was placed on the coffin just minutes later. Bruno, bringing the ball up the right, was able to pull in two YC&AC defenders leaving Jonathan open on the left. A beautiful cross followed by a powerful, left-footed volley wizzed past the YC&AC keeper and clenched the game at 3-1. Minutes later it was over and the victory for Amanis.

Victory is sweet and this was a victory that the Amanis team members are unlikely to forget. It was truly an underdog story and an exciting time.

Also see the TML write-up [Tokyo Metropolis League]

Vice Versa: Tokyo Bossa Nova

I happened upon this band by chance one night soon after coming to Tokyo. Since then, I’ve seen them a couple of times. I’m posting this link now because I always forget the name (some kind of weird mental block). Anyway, if you like Bossa Nova and you’re in Tokyo, they are a nice band to watch: Vice Versa.