Operation Gadget went quiet at the end of August. This is by far the longest break in posts in the five year history of the site. If you are wondering why, consider:

• I lost my job in September.

  This happened a couple of weeks after my family came back from vacation at Stone Harbor. I was only at that job for seven weeks, so it's hard for me to see the job loss as anything but a function of the deteriorating economy.

• I started a new audio podcast.

  Losing my job was helpful in one way: I was able to get off the ground HockeyRefCast, my podcast about hockey officiating. Episode 1, including an interview with Ian Walsh of the National Hockey League, turned out really well.

• I found a new job in October.

  Freelance writing and blogging took a backseat to finding another job. I was surprised to find that there was as much demand for my services as there was. I actually received two job offers.

  A well-known web publishing software company called Six Apart hired me to work for their professional services division in mid-October. I started working with them on November 3. This was a God-send because....

• My wife was in a car accident a week ago this past Friday.

  Kathleen was in a car accident on Interstate 95 just south of Newtown on November 7. [ Photos of the car after the accident ] This was a harrowing experience for our family, because Kathleen is seven months pregnant.

  We spent 10 hours at the hospital while tests Kathleen underwent tests to make sure that neither she nor the baby were hurt and that she was not in premature labor.

  That was a scary time, and I felt that Twitter was somehow inappropriate.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A few weeks ago, I said I'd publish my daily schedule so you readers of Operation Gadget could see what life is like for me now that I'm working full time in Manhattan. Here it is:

• 4:40am: Wake up, dress in workout clothes, drive to the gym
• 5:00: Arrive at gym, do approximately 45 minutes of exercise, shower, dress for work
• 6:20: Leave for NJ Transit train station in Hamilton, NJ
• 6:45: Arrive in Hamilton Train Station parking garage
• 6:56: Board express train for Penn Station in Manhattan
• 8:00: Arrive Penn Station, change to New York Subway Number 1 train, head downtown
• 8:10: Exit the subway at 18th Street & 7th Avenue, walk east on 18th Street, south on 6th Avenue, east on 17th Street
• 8:20: Arrive at office in a non-descript office building on West 17th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues

• 5:30pm: Leave the office, head for the subway at 18th Street & 7th Avenue
• 6:03: Board the NJ Transit express train, bound for Trenton
• 7:10: Get off at the next to last stop, Hamilton
• 7:45: Pull into the driveway at home in Newtown, PA

If all goes according to plan, the total time in transit is about 4 1/4 hours.

I get a lot done on the train. I get extra programming done. I write my articles for Inside iPhone and Operation Gadget. I've been planning my hockey officiating podcast, which I'm still planning to launch in September.

It's hard to believe, but I'm probably in better shape, more organized, and more productive commuting over four hours a day than I was a month ago when I was working at my dining room table.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 2:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I know what you're thinking. Dave was about as absent from the 2008 Tour de France as Team Astana. More in fact, because Johan Bruyneel appeared on Versus during the last week of The Tour as a color analyst.

So what happened?

I accepted a new job in New York working for a travel-related Internet company. The job started last Monday. Getting into commuting from Newtown, PA has been a huge effort for me, as well as for Kathleen and Jimmy. It has changed our lives and our schedules quite dramatically.

I'm doing the best I can to keep up. It's going to be tough again this week, because I've got a lot of hockey-related work to do in addition to the work at my job.

I did get a post published on Inside iPhone last Thursday. If you have time and are interested, check out Obvious Winners and Losers in the iTunes App Store Rollout. There I talk about an app that I think is a game changer because it makes the iPhone usable by people in a new industry, an app that surprised and delighted me, and a couple of apps that disappointed me somewhat.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

NoGrapesNoNuts.com tells a humorous story
about Grape Nuts cereal. [ Image: Kraft Foods,
reposted on my Flickr photostream ]

Jesse Gardner and a few other friends of mine sent me links to NoGrapesNoNuts.com, a website that advertises Grape Nuts cereal.

The site includes a monologue by the presentor taking a humorous look at Grape Nuts position in the marketplace and its history as a product. I think you need to see at least part of the presentation in order to appreciate it.

What I like most about this site is that it pokes fun at the notion of building a website to promote such an old-school type of cereal. This goes to show that if you think outside the box, you can promote anything.

I think the site is very well done. I wonder how many more sites like this we'll see before the end of 2008? How many are already out there?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My wife and I had some things to do this afternoon that pulled me away from watching Steve Jobs' Keynote at WWDC 2008 where the iPhone 3G was announced.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Back in April, I wrote How to Create iPhone Ringtones from TV Show Soundtracks Using Audio Hijack Pro and GarageBand '08 and created a The Hockey Night in Canada Theme ringtone for my iPhone as an example.

For those U.S.-based hockey junkies in our readership who haven't heard, several Canadian news outlets are reporting that the license agreement between the CBC and the licensor of the song has expired and may not be renewed.

The song was written by Dolores Claman in 1968 and has been the theme song for Hockey Night in Canada for 40 years. Wayne Gretzky once said that this song is the second Canadian national anthem.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Many of you know that I officiate college ice hockey, so you probably won't be surprised at my interest in a few video clips taken from interviews with four NHL Officials selected to officiate the Stanley Cup Finals:

These interviews were made available by ESPN on a website called ESPN Video.

I've never seen NHL referees and linesmen interviewed in this manner before. I think it's great because it shows the officials are human beings, just like the players.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Happy Birthday Jimmy!: My son
Jimmy Aiello turns the big "2" today.
Here's a photo of the two of us
when we were riding the new
carousel at Sesame Place a couple
of weeks ago. [ Photo: Kathleen Aiello
via Flickr ]

I've been insanely busy this week, but I wanted to take a moment to wish my son Jimmy Aiello, the happiest two-year-old in Newtown, a happy birthday.

Jimmy has come a long way in a year. He looks a lot more like a little boy to me than a baby, and he has developed a real appreciation for trucks and trains. We play with them every day.

I've been fortunate to be able to spend a lot of time with him over the past few weeks, and I see the delighted reaction of complete strangers when he tries to engage them in conversation. I know that most little children get extra attention from nice people at stores and around most towns. But I feel like he's got some combination of personality and cuteness that brings out the best in the people he meets.

Kathleen and I are taking Jimmy to the Philadelphia Zoo in a few hours. I haven't been there in at least 25 years. I'm sure we'll have a blast.

Jimmy's party is on Saturday in the backyard. Lots of friends and family will be there.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's a music video that's making the rounds of web sites I read:

The movement away from Windows and toward the Mac is still in it's early stages, so lots of people haven't seen all of these Mac applications before. My question is, does it make more sense as a music video or an ad for Leopard?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's a follow up to last week's article about Smart cars on the road in the Philadelphia area. The Boston Globe published an article on Tuesday that indicates that many owners of SUVs and pickup trucks in New England are trying to sell their vehicles because of fuel costs.

Near the end of the article the reporter relates the following information, attributed to Herb Chambers, a prominent auto dealer in that part of the country:

At his Mini dealership, Chambers said people have been turning in Chevrolet Suburbans for the tiny British car in recent weeks. He currently has a one-year waiting list for the coveted Smart Car, an 8-foot-8-inch vehicle that gets more than 40 miles per gallon.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday on my way to the Philadelphia Airport to drop off Kathleen, Jimmy, and a couple of other relatives for a weekend trip to Atlanta, I saw two Smart ForTwos on the road in less than an hour.

Smart ForTwos like this one that was seen by
fleur-design in Louisville, KY are
appearing more frequently in the Philadelphia area
too. [ via Flickr ]

I saw one in Newtown coming on to the Newtown Bypass. I saw another headed south on 95 toward Center City before the Franklin Mills Mall area. Neither of these cars were Philly CarShare vehicles.

I'm really surprised at how quickly I'm starting to see these cars popping up around here. We live in a fairly affluent community here in Bucks County, but I don't really consider this area as trend setting as places like Manayunk or Conshohocken, or some other place where more city-oriented people with money live in this area.

I guess the fact that I saw these Smarts is an indication that people with disposable income are reacting to gasoline prices, concluding that the price trend is a long-term phenomenon, and adjusting their capital spending accordingly.

These cars cost as little as $11,600 if you want a completely stripped down model. I would never buy one that's low on features because you don't even get a radio, but you can get something reasonably equipped for under $15,000.

My friend Ramona Morel used to own a Smart. I rode in it in Zürich a few times. I didn't feel unsafe in it on the highway there. I wonder what it would be like to drive one in the USA?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've noticed that the first stage of attracting followers on Twitter (beyond your actual friends) is that accounts that act like bots start to follow you. Not to name any names, but one of my followers is just reporting random things from Google News, another one is just throwing out facts and observations about dog behavior.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Merlin Mann came up with a great idea a few minutes ago on Twitter:

Craving some kind of existential regular expression that could give me one week without hearing a single syllable about the primary race.

I'd love it if this concept was embraced by Google Reader. Imagine if you could use regular expressions to filter content out of feeds that you don't want to see? Or if you could use regular expressions to help you discover new feeds you might want to subscribe to?

The possibilities seem endless to me.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was chosen to officiate at the 2008 USA Hockey Girls' Nationals last week in West Chester, PA. This was a marathon tournament that ran from April 2 to 6 and covered four different age groups:

• 12 and Under
• 14 and Under
• 16 and Under
• 19 and Under

The tournament was structured so that 12 teams could participate in each age group, and they were divided into two six-team pools for round robin play on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The quarterfinals of each age group were Saturday morning. The semifinals were Saturday evening. The final game in each age group took place on Sunday.

Amazingly, a total of 15 overtime periods were needed in the four age group finals on Sunday. This included a remarkable 8 overtimes in the 12 and Under game where Assabet Valley, Massachusetts beat the Pittsburgh Aviators.

I was impressed with all of the teams I officiated in this tournament. I was selected to work the Girls' and Women's Nationals five years ago in 2003. I must say that it's clear that the number of players and the overall skill level of each player has dramatically improved since then.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Beginning Wednesday, April 2, I am officiating the USA Hockey Girls' National Ice Hockey Tournament in West Chester, PA. I may not have time to post very much on Operation Gadget until the tournament is over on Sunday.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• For the Phinney Family, a Dream and a Challenge on NYTimes.com: This story came out last week, right before Taylor Phinney raced in the Individual Pursuits at the Track Cycling World Championships. Taylor finished eighth. His father, Davis, is a legendary U.S. cycling champ who has struggled with Parkinson's Disease in recent years. This article summarizes their recent struggles and successes.
• ScreenFlow: The Killer Screencasting App on MacTips: "ScreenFlow is the application I've been waiting for on the Mac. I've been using it recently for the MacTips Videos and I love it! It's saves me so much time because I'm able to focus on creating valuable content rather than editing videos."
• Dash’s Car Navigator Gives Smart Directions, if Others Participate, Walt Mossberg on AllThingsD: "As smart as in-car navigation devices are, they could be smarter. They could talk to each other via the Internet and share information on how fast traffic is moving on the roads they have just traveled.... Starting this week, just such a smarter navigation box is hitting the market. Called the Dash Express, this $400 product looks a lot like units from better-known firms... But, unlike any other in-car navigation device I’ve seen, each Dash Express... becomes part of a network, connected to the company via the Internet. "
• Windows XP: Going, going ... gone? on Computerworld: "The approaching death of Windows XP may upset you, but it shouldn't come as a surprise. Microsoft Corp.'s product life-cycle guidelines have foretold the fate of XP since 2001. In fact, Microsoft has been killing off one version of a product as it is replaced with another for years now. But this time around, the approaching demise of XP is getting more attention than, say, the final passing of Windows 2000."
• Coming Soon to a Phone Near You on WSJ.com: This article summarizes forthcoming developments in mobile phone voice control, improved web browsers, enhanced storage, and video sharing. [ Subscription may be required to read this article. ]
• How To Use Nokia’s Sports Tracker as a Photo Tracker on The Gadgets Page: "Ms. Jen was part of Nokia’s Urbanista Diaries Relay, which means they sent her to India to promote the Nokia N82 in all its glory. While on the trip, she realized how well the Sports Tracker (a typically exercise related feature) could be used to track the geo-locations of your photos"
• Note to readers: Today would be my grandfather James M. Lynch, Jr.'s 95th birthday. He died in 1982. He is one of the inspirations for this site, since he bought and tried every important electronic gadget that existed in the 1970s. He owned the first digital watch, desktop calculator, and personal computers I ever saw.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jimmy mistook Windows XP for
Teletubbyland: Does your toddler do that
too? [ Image: Dave Aiello, in my Flickr
account ]

I started building a Windows XP virtual machine in VMware Fusion on my new MacBook Pro the other day. My 21-month old son Jimmy was really excited when he saw it and came running over, pointing, and saying "La-la, la-la".

Suddenly I realized he thought the "Bliss" background was Teletubbyland. I started howling with laughter.

Although I recently returned to the Mac community, I always felt like an expatriate in the world of Windows. As such I never set up a Windows machine to look this way. I always made it look like the "Windows Classic" theme on Windows XP which kind of enhanced the backward feel of that operating system for me.

In this case, I was just part way into installing Windows so I could run a couple of legacy applications that I'll need for a while, like Microsoft Office and QuickBooks. This was just the way the screen happened to appear when it caught Jimmy's eye.

I switched over to the "Red Moon Desert" background so Jimmy wouldn't be distracted.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I never met Sheldon Brown, but I learned a great deal from him.

Sheldon developed a website, SheldonBrown.com, that had an incredible amount of technical information about bicycles and cycling. If I Googled for some information about one of my bikes, I often ended up consulting his site.

Sheldon passed away on Sunday, February 3, 2008, reportedly of a massive heart attack. May he rest in peace. [ via spare cycles and BikeRadar.com ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• RPI Plays Princeton tonight in the 31st Annual Big Red Freakout. RPI needs the win. In other news, the White beat the Red in the Alumni Game 9-8.
• Kipkay's Video Tips & Tricks on Instructables: "Here are 5 easy and cheap tricks for anyone who uses a camcorder. Total cost for all 5 is under $10!" [ via Lifehacker ]
• New Devices and Applications on the Wi-Fi Front on Web Worker Daily: "While many Mac-based users already have next-generation, draft 802.11n Wi-Fi technology in their homes (because they use Apple’s Airport Extreme routers) lots of other folks still use slower 802.11g Wi-Fi. This year is when official certification of 802.11n Wi-Fi is supposed to arrive, and the month of January brought some product announcements that point to what the widespread arrival of 802.11n technology might mean...."
• Review of the Nike Amp+ iPod Control Watch: "... the Amp+ isn't designed to be an all-around running or fitness watch. It's specifically designed for runners who already have the Nike + iPod kit. Similar to the Timex iControl we recently reviewed, the Nike Amp+ is a remote control for your iPod Nano, however unlike the Timex, the Nike Amp+ uses the existing Nike + iPod gadget that plugs into your iPod, so you're actually adding the iPod remote control to the Nike iPod system." [ via TUAW ]
• Crazy Apple Rumors on Hiatus on TUAW: CrazyAppleRumors.com is a site I just found out about recently. It's articles are what you might read in The Onion if they covered Apple more aggressively. Sorry to see it go dark.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sunday's New York Times had a terrific article about fighting a weight loss battle while working a full time job which resonates with me. What was most interesting was the fact that two of the three people profiled work at very athletically-oriented companies.

• Steve Madden, the editor of Bicycling and Mountain Bike magazines is 44 years old, 5-feet 10-inches tall, and weighs 198 pounds. In other words he's almost exactly my size.

  The shocker in this story is that Madden rode his bike 4,451 miles in 2007. No question that he could have journaled it all using a heart rate monitor like the one I use. How can you ride 85 miles per week, year round and not lose weight? I know. You eat what you want and never commit to a serious eating plan.

  There's no question that Madden is both fit and overweight, as I am at the moment. He demonstrates how far you can take this lifestyle as an amateur athlete.




• Marcello Aller, National Athletics Account Manager at Polar USA is 34 years old, 5-feet 8-inches tall, and weighs 218 pounds. He says:

  My colleagues think I look fine, but it’s become more of a challenge to become lean.... I’m not an endurance athlete, like a small cyclist or a runner. I have a typical, square football-player build. Sometimes it’s more difficult to regain a hard body; my metabolism has changed with age.

  Aller is an inch shorter than I am and weighs over 20 pounds more than I do. I weighed this much when I worked on Wall Street. He needs to realize that he'll have to both change his diet and work out in order to achieve the results he wants.

  I think a warning sign in his behavior is that he thinks his metabolism has changed at age 34. This may be the case to a small extent, but he'll do a lot better if he admits that the quantity and type of food he eats is a substantial part of the problem.

These two men work at athletic lifestyle companies where it should be easy for people to lose weight, keep the weight off, and stay in shape. Yet, it's obvious that doing the right things is not as easy as it should be. Most overweight people cannot lose weight by exercise alone. They have to watch what they eat and control the size of their meals and snacks. That's the key to achieving significant fitness and appearance goals.

I can completely relate to their situations. I can be an even better athlete if I have an eating plan. I made the commitment to plan what I eat again a couple of weeks ago. It's a struggle, but I hope to see the benefits by the end of the hockey season.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Wednesday morning 6:30 A.M. There's an eerie silence in The Home Office.

Over the next 10 minutes I come to the conclusion that the power supply on The Blogging Workstation, my four year old AMD Athlon 2500XP+ ATX Tower Machine that's the fastest PC in the house, has breathed its last.

This is the machine I use to sync my iPhone, and I'm only days away from buying a new MacBook Pro (or another high end Mac notebook, as soon as Steve Jobs tells us what the product line is for 2008). What do I do now?

Luckily I had a PC at the office that has been cannibalized for parts. I brought it home, took out the power supply, and initially thought that it wouldn't work with my motherboard. I found out that the 24-pin main connector for the motherboard was modular and could be divided into a 20-pin main connector and a separate 4-pin connector. I tried this and the machine started.

The Blogging Workstation still failed POST because I didn't connect the floppy drive and a few other minor things. I can fix those tomorrow. Hopefully then I can sync the iPhone and backup as much of my synced data, iTunes library, and other irreplaceable data on that PC to another machine on my network.

What a relief.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I came down with food poisoning on Wednesday night, and that threw many of my plans for this week completely off. There are few weeks during the year where a one day illness like that would be more disrupting. I was able to get most of my work done but the extra stuff that I normally do, like writing articles for Operation Gadget fell by the wayside.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I updated Operation Gadget to Movable Type Version 4.01 a few minutes ago. So far so good, but the website still says it was created by Movable Type 3.33. I'm sure I'll get the kinks worked out in the next few days.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Shortly after midnight last night, I was thinking about all the good ideas I get for stories for Operation Gadget that never make it on to the site. I get them while I'm busy at work. I'm right in front of or close to a computer, but I don't have time to write the story there and then. So I try to commit them to memory and often fail.

The thought occurred to me: Instead of coming up with a new information management strategy, just start a new story in Movable Type, type what you want to remember, and save it as a Draft.

Duh. How long have I been doing this?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here are the FedEx Tracking Details
from the $30 Apple Store order
that got shipped from China.

I crushed one of my iPhone earbuds the other day in the parking lot of BJ's Warehouse Club in Langhorne, PA. I dropped my headphones while trying to load the car during a shopping trip with Kathleen and Jimmy. I apparently ran the earbud over with at least one of the wheels of my 2007 Honda Accord.

It stinks to have an iPhone with headphones that don't work properly. I don't have the money or the time to decide which aftermarket headphones are actually better than the Apple headphones. So, I took the easy way out and ordered a set of replacements from the Apple Online Store for about $30.

Here's where the story gets interesting.

A lot of times when I order something from the Apple Online Store it ships from a warehouse somewhere in Pennsylvania, so I get it quite quickly. This time, however, Apple decided to vend this item from their supplier in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in China. I have the FedEx Tracking Data to prove it:

• Nov 14, 2007
• 12:29AM | Package data transmitted to FedEx
• 9:45AM | Picked up | SHENZHEN CN
• 2:11PM | Left origin | SHENZHEN CN
• 3:55PM | In transit | LANTAU ISLAND HK
• 1:51PM | Departed Fedex location | ANCHORAGE, AK
• Nov 15, 2007
• 12:10AM | Arrived at FedEx location | INDIANAPOLIS, IN
• ...
• 6:13AM | At dest sort facility | PHILADELPHIA, PA
• 7:59AM | At local FedEx facility | BRISTOL, PA
• 8:07AM | On FedEx vehicle for delivery | BRISTOL, PA
• 9:39AM | Delivered | NEWTOWN, PA

Of course the packaged gained a day crossing the International Date Line.

FedEx delivered the package to my house in Newtown, PA before 10:30AM on Thursday, one day before they promised. All this package contains is a set of iPhone replacement headphones. I got free shipping on this order.

Imagine how much it would normally cost an individual to ship a package of any size via FedEx from Shenzhen to here at this speed?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

November 6 is Ernie Aiello's 75th birthday. I want to take this opportunity to wish my father a happy birthday and many more.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I took an unplanned, long vacation from writing on Operation Gadget. It began when I unexpectedly changed jobs back in September. I don't want to go into what happened. I'm glad to leave that job behind and move on to a new one.

Shortly after I left my job, I participated in a tryout for the ECAC Ice Hockey Officiating Staff. I was chosen to work in the ECAC West Conference, which is NCAA Division III ice hockey for men and women. Getting the opportunity to officiate at the college varsity level has been a big goal of mine since I graduated from RPI. Kathleen and I are very happy that it happened.

I found a new job and started work in mid-October. At the time I was still finishing the paperwork from the end of my old job.

The combined effect of the job change, new officiating situation, and my normal duties as part of my family were enough to occupy all of my time. I'm coming back to writing now because I see the dust settling a bit, and I think there's room for me to write at least a few articles a week.

Stay tuned for news about how I used my iPhone to find a new job and other exciting stuff.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My father-in-law George Kuykendall pointed out an interesting article in The New York Times called The Bicycling Paradox: Fit Doesn’t Have to Mean Thin. It talks about the types of cyclists that go on European cycling trips that follow the route of The Tour de France and how older and/or heavier riders often turn out to be more successful than most people might expect. The article says:

... cycling is a lot more forgiving of body type and age than running. The best cyclists going up hills are those with the best weight-to-strength ratio, which generally means being thin and strong. But heavier cyclists go faster downhill. And being light does not help much on flat roads.

The article goes on to say that Dr. James Hagberg, a kinesiology professor at the University of Maryland, thinks that cycling is not as physically demanding as running. Anyone who uses a heart-rate monitor in their training can easily see this. There is a significant difference in average heart rate and estimated calories burned between running and cycling for 30 minutes.

This is a popular article in my office, where the all of the cyclists can more easily identify with Thor Hushovd than they can Michael Rasmussen, at least in terms of BMI .

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Jim Courtney over on Skype Journal reports that Andy Abramson and Dr. Helene Malabed got married today in France. Andy and I have only met virtually but we've both worked as administrators of the Atlantic District of USA Hockey. We have had a lot of experiences in common, including the good fortune to have each married Medical Doctors.

Andy is one of the most influential bloggers around, through his blog VOiPwatch as well as being the brains behind the Nokia Blogger Relations Program. I think the Nokia Blogger Relations Program is responsible for 99.9-percent of the buzz around the Nokia N95 in the USA..

Congratulations Andy and Helene, and we hope to see you in the Philadelphia area soon.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sorry I haven't updated Operation Gadget since my son Jimmy's birthday last week. There was a lot going on that took me away from my computer:

• Jimmy's first birthday party: We had what I consider a small scale party for Jimmy when he and Kathleen got back from the Shore-- only 25 or so of our closest friends and family attended. The preparation for it was very time consuming, but the day itself was great fun.
• Jimmy's surgery: A lot of this past week centered around preparing for and surviving Jimmy's hand surgery at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Jimmy had minor corrective surgery on both hands on Friday. This was planned a long time ago for around his first birthday so there would be fewer possible issues with anesthesia. The surgery went very well, but it was an all-day effort for the whole family. Preparing for this over the past few days was much more time consuming than I had expected.
• Major DNS problems at CTDATA: I did a big DNS server migration on Memorial Day that didn't go perfectly. The problems really started to surface on Friday morning, while Kathleen and I were at the hospital with Jimmy. (Operation Gadget and 10 or 12 other websites were affected.) Fixing the problem took up all of my time on Friday afternoon after we got home from the hospital.

I think we're back on track now, and I'll probably have more time to post the stuff I've been working on recently.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jimmy at Age 1: Jimmy is
one year old today! [ Photo: Kathleen
Aiello ]

My son Jimmy Aiello turns 1 today. Tonight we're having a small family celebration dinner. The larger party for family and friends is this weekend.

Jimmy and Kathleen are spending the week at Sea Isle City, NJ while I am up in Central New Jersey working. It's a long drive to get down there for dinner, but I'm leaving the office shortly so I can be there.

I loaded several podcasts on to my iPod before I left home. This will allow me to catch up on my web development best practices while I'm in the car.

I forgot what it's like to drive long distances while I was working out of The Home Office. I'm getting back into listening to audiobooks and podcasts again, now that I spend at least 8 hours a week in the car by myself.

Happy Birthday Jimmy! Mommy and I love you very much.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)