Archive for June 2005
June 30th, 2005
How long has 43 Places been around? Ah, great, only 3 days. It’s apparently an extension of 43 Things, but I had the sinking feeling that I’d missed the early adopter boat and was left on the dock with the rest of the pions.
I’ve always thought 43 Things was nifty, but basically useless. I mean, for God’s sake, if you can’t devise your own aspirations, what good are you? 43 Places, on the other hand, is a cooler version of WikiTravel. That is, it’s a collaborative guide to travelling the world. We at Geeky Traveller heartily approve.
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June 29th, 2005
While at Gnomedex last week, I stayed at the centrally-located ’boutique hotel’, the Vance. The lobby was under renovation, so it lacked much of the promised ambiance (I don’t know–plywood just doesn’t do it for me).
The rooms are very European. Which is to say, small, with separate rooms for the shower and toilet. This wasn’t a problem for me, as I’m certainly not the sort of guy to laze around my hotel room for hours. I did like the style of the hotel and the rooms–kind of retro with lots of bold, solid colours (the photo is of a hallway).
They had a great-looking Dell 26″ TV in the room. Wifi was a US $11/day, which on average isn’t as vicious as it might be. I didn’t have a really thorough look around, but I didn’t spot any wire-ful connections.
At the Vance, you’re paying for the style and history as much as the room, but I’d certainly prefer to stay there than the local Mariott or Best Western.
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June 27th, 2005
I was skeptical at first about Space Island (via the Cool Hunter). It seemed to lack lot of hotel features that I was accustomed to: gravitational acceleration of 9.8 meters per second, regular toilets and attractive grounds.
Yet, after watching the promotional video, I couldn’t help but book the next shuttle up.
The interior of my room, designed by SPACEHAB, was sparse, but that meant more room to jump around in one-third normal gravity. And don’t get me started on the low-G toilet! I was unable to get a room on the preferred ‘top hub’, but the front desk clerk explained that notions of up and down are useless in outer space, so I felt better.
Everyone up here jogs! I think they’re a little too excited about the hamster-wheelness of the track. I can’t get particularly enthused. Instead, I let other people exercise and watched the micro-gravity track and field events. Pozmonavitch broke the world pole vault record with a jump of 97.45 meters.
The dining room isn’t exactly gourmet. They try to dress up the TV-dinner-style plates to look like bento boxes, but everybody knows they’re rehydrated meals. In fact, the best food I had was en route in the shuttle–I got upgraded to Galaxy class!
Space is like the Czech Republic in the 1970s: light on the accomodation and kind of bleak. I’ll give Space Island a thumbs-up, but they’d better keep an eye on their competition.
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June 24th, 2005
As you probably know, Gnomedex is the geekiest conference in Geek Town. I’m down here in Seattle, networking with fellow geeks from around the country. I’m taking notes from some of the sessions, and uploading them to my personal blog:
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June 22nd, 2005
The vast majority of North American will never stray very far from the beaten path. However, even a day hike in the woods or an overnight camping trip can sometimes require a little medical attention. Whenever I’ve been traveling, I take a small medical kit with me. It’s no bigger than a rolled-up t-shirt or two, but contains all of the essentials. There are lots on the market, but I favor Adventure Medical Kits (specifally, the Ultra-Light Traveller):
Wilderness medicine goes beyond blisters and bandaids. Our kits are designed with the wisdom and experience of Dr. Eric Weiss, an emergency department doctor who climbs, treks, kayaks, dives, and does the same things you do. Dr. Weiss is considered a leading authority on modern wilderness and outdoor medicine.
The coolest thing, as far as I’m concerned, is the small pamphlet or book that’s included with each kit, which outlines basic first aid and survival techniques.
I once used this kit to stop my wife from suffocating due to some tropical illness, but that’s another story entirely.
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June 22nd, 2005
It seems like every other week I find myself abandoned in the desert with nothing but a pig carcass and a big, shiny dish. Usually, I’d just drag myself into town for a burger. Today, however, I learned about parabolic solar cookers:
If a black cooking pot is placed at the focus it will absorb the light’s energy and become very hot. A satellite dish is an example of a parabaloid that can be made into a cooker. Parabolic Solar cookers heat up quickly and are used like a standard stovetop range to sauté or fry foods, boil water, or even bake bread.
Sweet. They’re not the most portable things in the world, but if a geek finds himself far from electricity (perish the thought), this might be a useful device (or at least fun to build). Of course, if you’re short on time, you could just buy one.
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June 20th, 2005
As you probably know, some motorcycles are configured to make as much noise as humanly-possible. This is because the asshats who ride them have very small penises.
The folks at Intelligent Energy have devised an admirable alternative–a silent motorbike powered by hydrogen:
The env bike is fully-functioning and has been engineered and purpose-built (based around Intelligent Energy’s world-beating Core fuel cell) from the ground up, demonstrating the real, everyday applicability of fuel cell technology. The Core, which is completely detachable from the bike, is a radically compact and efficient fuel cell, capable of powering anything from a motorboat to a small domestic property.
The vehicle can reportedly reach speeds of–wait for it–50 miles per hour. Hold on to your socks.
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June 17th, 2005
Via Josh Rubin’s Cool Hunting, we find Airtreks.com, a airline booking site that specializes in multi-destination and around-the-world trips.
We are one of the few travel companies in North America that thoroughly understands the global market in Around-the-World and Circle-Pacific airfares. We have been a member of the San Francisco Better Business Bureau since 1989 (originally known as High Adventure Travel), and we are always happy to provide references.
Yada yada. Never mind the marketing-speak. What’s really cool is their Flash-based trip planner. Feature request: like Google Maps, let me link to a particular route, so that I can send it to my potential (and well-heeled, if we’re going all the way around the planet) traveling companions.
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June 16th, 2005
A few months ago I saw Steamboy. Like most anime films I see, it only made about 60% sense (Hayao Miyazaki’s films are more like 40%). Among the many bizarre steam-powered inventions in the film was the protagonist’s one-wheel cycle or ‘monowheel’:
When I followed Mirabilis’s reference to the Wheelsurf, I experienced a certain anime/real-world Matrixesque deja vu. Check it out:
The site’s prose is a little purple (or a little is lost in translation?), but here’s the blurb:
The Wheelsurf is pure adrenaline. It is one of the most distinctive vehicles on the planet — a single-wheeled , ride-inside conveyance that’s sure to get you noticed. Riding the Wheelsurf is not for those seeking transport alone…
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June 13th, 2005
My American colleague Lee LeFever has some big travel plans. He’s going to document his trip, and he’s planning to do it with his i-mate PDA2k. It promises to be all things to all people–phone, camera, PDA, Bluetooth, wifi, etc. We were talking about it recently, and he sent along a link to a review:
Compared to the Samsung i700, or any other PPC Phone on the market as of this writing, the PDA2k is a hands down winner. After about 6 months of hard, dedicated, daily use, I couldn’t be happier with the purchase that I made. This is a truly awesome device…Battery life on the device could be a little better with the standard battery, but its better than I thought it would be.
That’s pretty enthusiastic. I’ll let Lee take the thing all over the planet, and see how happy he is after that.
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