Operation Gadget
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Armstrong is Right: Time Trial to Alpe d’Huez Was Too Dangerous
Reading Time: 2 minutesYesterday, Lance Armstrong again demonstrated his mastery of the competition in the 2004 Tour de France by winning the Stage 16 mountain time trial to Alpe d’Huez. It was not surprising that Armstrong considered the stage dangerous because of the sheer number of fans on the sections of the course that did…
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Wall Street Journal Personal Technology Column Available via RSS
Reading Time: < 1 minuteThe Wall Street Journal is now syndicating its headlines via the RSS file format. This means that you can use an RSS aggregator to monitor the publication for newly published articles. Operation Gadget has used Personal Technology and other columns by Walter Mossberg as sources for a long time. So, we…
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Watching the Tour de France at Alpe d’Huez
Reading Time: 3 minutesOn July 17, 2001, my wife and I saw Stage 10 of the Tour de France from a vantage point on the lower slope of Alpe d’Huez. We drove to Bourg d’Oisans, the nearest town to Alpe d’Huez, from our hotel in Voreppe which is just north of Grenoble. We got up…
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Surprised that Ullrich Tried to Breakaway on an Intermediate Mountain Again
Reading Time: < 1 minuteLance Armstrong sprinted away from Ivan Basso in the last 400 meters to Villard de Lans, probably taking the yellow jersey for good in this year’s Tour de France. I was a little surprised at the move Jan Ullrich made on the Col de l’Echarasson early in the stage. It reminded…
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Got a RIM Blackberry 7230 for Long-Term Review Purposes
Reading Time: < 1 minuteEarlier today, I received a RIM BlackBerry 7230 from T-Mobile for long-term review purposes. This is a very nice integrated communicator for the price. It’s also a Blackberry through and through– no application-oriented buttons and a thumbwheel that gets a lot of use. Blackberries are a little unique in that a…
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Race Timing System for Tour de France Explained by Engadget
Reading Time: < 1 minuteI would be remiss if I didn’t point out the excellent article that Engadget published that explains how Matsport times and scores the finish of each Tour de France stage, so that the UCI can determine the winners. Diagrams and detailed explanations of the system are included in this article, as…
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Statistics Quoted in Wall Street Journal Article on Mobile Phone Safety Don’t Ring True to Me
Reading Time: < 1 minuteEarlier today, The Wall Street Journal published an article saying that the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration considers use of mobile phones with hands-free accessories to be just as dangerous for drivers as using the phone without the hands-free accessories. Steve Mushero pointed out the estimate of the number of…
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Aperto Networks Gear Providing Broadband Wireless Access for France Telecom at Tour de France
Reading Time: < 1 minuteAperto Networks announced today that France Telecom is using Aperto’s PacketWave 802.16 Broadband Wireless Access gear to create portable broadband wireless networks at the Tour de France media village as it moves from stage to stage. You can see Aperto PacketWave antennas atop many mobile television production trucks such as the…
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Johan Bruyneel Profiled in the Washington Post, Saiz Takes Issue
Reading Time: 2 minutesKudos to TDFblog.com for covering pretty much everything in the English language press that’s worth reading about the Tour de France. They pointed out the article in The Washington Post by Sally Jenkins on Friday that profiled Johan Bruyneel, directeur sportif of the U.S. Postal Service Cycling Team. It’s a terrific article…