Slow Progress

Posted by Jim on Nov 18th, 2014
2014
Nov 18

I wanted to add a new item to the sidebar: a graphic displaying my progress towards running a marathon in all 50 states, plus DC. Unfortunately, the image generator used by this app seems to be a little slow. I don’t want to have to increase load times for every page on this site, so for now, I’ll simply put the image here. Maybe I’ll start including it on Facebook whenever I post one of my post-marathon status updates.


Create Your Own Visited States Map

Is this a triumph?

Posted by Jim on Nov 14th, 2014
2014
Nov 14

Take a look at this new security robot outlined in this post:

K5-2.0-Green

After reading that is uses laser scanning to monitor an area, I’m a little scared to say I immediately thought of these guys:

turrets

Somebody call Chell.

A Commercial Free Experience

Posted by Jim on Nov 13th, 2014
2014
Nov 13

I was just introduced to a piece of software that will be very helpful to the staff and students of Falmouth Middle School. AdwareMedic is a small Mac utility that removes Adware from any system it is run on. In my role as computer tech for Falmouth Middle, I have seen lots of Adware. Occasionally I spend the time needed to search through the system to remove unwanted files, but most of the time, the students’ laptops are so infected, it’s easier for me to reimage the device and let the student start over. We’re a Google Apps school, so all student work is supposed to be backed up to Google Drive, which makes reimaging an easy process, although a long one. I’d rather get the student’s device back into his or her hands as quickly as possible, and I think AdwareMedic will let me do that. It’s made the same person who runs The Safe Mac, a blog I’m going to start reading.

More Cheaters

Posted by Jim on Nov 12th, 2014
2014
Nov 12

Another article that ties into my last post; specifically, about cheating in marathons.

Chickamauga Marathon Winner Disqualified for Impossible Splits

Interactive Results

Posted by Jim on Nov 6th, 2014
2014
Nov 6

I just came across this personalized results page for the Portland Marathon that I ran last month. I really like that it gives a visual representation of my position at various times throughout the race, as well as where I finished it the various divisions (age, gender, overall).

 

Portland Marathon Results Graphic

 

Speaking of running, I created an account at Athlinks, a race results community. I need to track down my results from some Smuttynose 5k‘s I ran in the mid-to-late 2000’s before it will be complete. There are some provisional results that haven’t posted yet as well, mainly because race directors spelled my name wrong in the results, or the races were so small they have never been linked to the site (I’m looking at you Moxie Days 5k).

I also keep an updated profile over at the Marathon Maniacs site, but I believe you need to be another Maniac to see it. If another Maniac comes across this post, please comment!

I was introduced to Athlinks because it was mentioned in this very interesting New Yorker article. It is about a supposed serial marathon cheater—a guy who has admitted to fabricating an entire race, complete with results. The article is worth reading even if you aren’t a runner.