RFID World and flying on the cheap

I spent the last few days at RFID World in Orlando, FL. We booked my tickets on cheapoair.com (not kidding) and drove to Buffalo to jump on the plane that was a LOT ceaper than anything flying out of Toronto. After all, I do work for a startup company. We were a little late getting to the airport, but I dropped my colleague off at the terminal while I parked. Over half the large lot was Ontario plates.  It was a very large parking lot.

Meeting up with MB in terminal, I find out he has already checked my bags under my name direct to Orlando on air-i-have-never-heard-of-this-airline-before (not free to check a bag-$25/bag). Wow, try that at YYZ. Flight time was in 20 minutes. MB apologizes for the middle seat as that is all that was left. Moving into my seat, I find out that it is a middle seat, but an exit row seat. Not bad, eh? Again, try that at Air Canada.

Now, MB is the king of doing everything cheap, or it is all about the deal. He books hotels on Priceline (www.priceline.com). So, I never really know what to expect every time I travel with him. For $60 US he scored us a place in Orlando near (more like IN), the Florida mall. I was really glad the GPS brought us to within a mile of the hotel as it was listed as the mall address.  It still took us about 30 minutes to find the 12 story hotel, and yes, even though we are guys, we did call the hotel for directions.  Turns out this is a 4 or 5 star place. The room as large and the bed was a huge large king size.  $60/room.  Check out the web site.  Did I mention it was $60/night?

RFID World was petty cool with just about every gadget to track you or your things down to the last meter no matter where you are on this planet. Some RFID tags are so small, you will never know you have one on you (attached to those new clothes you just bought as an example).

We also visited a supplier that deals with moving chips of silicon wafers and installs them where ever you need them. Some discussions got to the point that we were using measurements down to 250 nanometers.


One other supplier we met with was JD Teck.  JD Teck builds some really neat cell phone boosters to improve you cellular coverage at the cottage or in your basement as an example.  We use their products for some of our commercial products.  A very well run organization.

The flight home on Saturday was on Jet Blue.  Again, booked on CheapOAir, this time with a stop in JFK on the way home.  Just after checking in (you CAN check in online, but it costs $25 to do that...no kidding) and dropping our bags, I notice that there is a direct flight to YYZ leaving in 3 hours.  We find out that we can move to that flight for no charge, if we go standby.  Turns out the flight is half empty as well.  We make the change.

Get this....after making the change, we are told our bags will go on to JFK.  What happened to the fact that the bags have to go with the passenger??

Once on the direct flight to YYZ (which Jet Blue just about messed up on us by somehow forgetting us even though we do have a standby boarding pass), we are sitting just in front of the exit row in the seats that don't recline.  These are the worst seats on any plane.  There are 2 free seats in the exit row behind us.  The door closes on the plane and MB and I jump into the exit row.

Wait... not so fast.  As the plane starts to taxi, the stewardess confronts us and says we can sit there, but for $25 more each.  WTF???  Who every heard of that.  She almost makes us move while the plane is taxiing.  After take off, we move to the empty back of the plane.

Sure enough, after getting to Buffalo, where it is almost snowing, we find out our bags did go the JFK route and do show up an hour later.  MB's warm clothes are in his luggage.  I had a jacket with me.

LP sent me a link to some of the coolest pictures I have seen (and I've seen a lot of pictures). Look at the massive ash emission from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption late in the evening.  Make sure you spend a few moments paging through them.  Many thanks to http://www.swisseduc.ch/stromboli/about/index-en.html for posting them.

Mountain Biking - OK, that is a stretch

Mountain Bike in Lvingstone Park

Not really a mountain bike ride, other that I did it on my mountain bike (Trek Flue EX6). However, just meters from my house, I can get into some real trails that run for about 3k. It crosses some very sloppy low lands, has some climbs, jumps and fast (short) downhill sections.

At least I can get out in 10 minutes for about an hour or so.

More spectators than Lake Louise

Last night was the qualifying runs. It is the evening that TV gets to work out its bugs (as does timing and data). Alphasports TV has to perform. We get to pull out all the equipment that we have begged, borrowed or stole (ok, borrowed... Many thanks to Precision Sports Timing as well).

Radar is one of the technologies that should be so simple, but often isn't. It is still a black art. The particular radar gun we use now 'should' send out only the data we want (the max peak speed). However, it doesn't work correctly. After talking to the vendor, they claimed that it 'sort of' works. No kidding. Many thanks to Ken Smith in North Bay, ON who created a magic box that captures the radar data and cleans it up. Without that happening, the radar graphic on TV would be a mess.

On the CBC show tonight, you might get to see some of the trial runs. It now looks like it doesn't come on until 12:40 AM (Sunday morning - Saturday night). You can watch it live on the internet (streaming) on CBC Sports or on CBC 4 (there is a CBC 4??). That may also be known as CBC Bold. Something I am sure you have to pay for if you don't have it already.

Tonight is an elimination night. Every goes in fours. You will see different bib colours on each racer and fastest to the bottom wins. Watch for the Austrian with the coloured Red mustache.

New pictures have been uploaded to my web site.

Almost Winter and the training starts

Friday dawned with a training run at 7am. The first trip out at 6am proved that it was much colder than I thought. Back to the room. Gortex rain pants, Sypder Shell and the North Face jacket. Glad I did that as standing on the start ramp right by the Chateau Frontenac was about the same as standing at the start at Lake Louise. (Ok, not THAT bad, but you get the idea). The wind was howling off the river from the east. Still above zero, but not warm like the other days.

Training was entertaining, if you were a spectator. Many did not make it 20 feet before sliding down on their butts. Others crashed hard into the right turn near the bottom. That is the very steep part that has a 'compression' at the bottom followed by an immediate right turn. Many hit the wall very very hard. Also, it looked like that wall took some damage, as I saw the crews rebuilding it and strengthening it.

The attached video is from the start of the media race earlier today. There are 2 small jumps on the ramp down. That seems to do in about 1/2 the people. If you don't make it over those jumps, you don't make it up the ramp at the bottom. A fair number of media types did spend a bit of time figuring how to climb up that hill.

I did keep looking or Rick Mercer to be in this. Haven't seen him yet.

Just like any sports event, more and more people start to show up who apparently know more about everything. This event is no different.

Yesterday, we got most of the core items in place. Today, my goal was to spend the morning working on the start. I had hoped to get the start eyes connected as well as seeing the start gates. As I jumped over the security gate, I immediately got stopped by security. Fortunately, Richard spoke English and explained we were not allowed on the ice at all. Well, there goes my morning. Hopefully tonight.

I have uploaded some pictures (just click here for those of you internet challenged). Keep that link handy as I will add photos as the days go on.

Tonight will be the crash test dummy test (about 8pm). Tomorrow is training runs and then on Saturday morning will be the time trials.

Crashed Ice - Quebec City

So, another escape from my full time job. The boys in RFID land have allowed me the pleasure to head to Quebec City for the Red Bull Crashed Ice bonanza. Or, maybe they didn't notice as they are on a cruise in the Caribbean. You can watch the short video for an idea on the insanity. 100,000 people show up to watch this. I didn't know you could fit that many people in old Quebec.

I'm going to find out what happened to this class action law suit. One guy doesn't like it as it takes 5 weeks to set up and a few weeks to take down. However, it does bring over $11M to the city. That is hard to ignore. If Quebec City didn't want it, then there are many other cities that would love it. Montreal included. Maybe we could do it in Toronto off the Bloor viaduct!

Many thanks to CBC for the image. It is to be aired at 11:40pm on Saturday night.

Jimmy and I are there, working for Alphasports TV (aka: Andy). As timing gigs go, it is pretty simple (compared to a World Cup downhill race).

Today was a civilized travel day. My sister picks me up and drives me over to the train station in Oshawa. Arrive 30 minutes early, pick up your ticket, get back in the car for a trip to Tim's and back 10 minutes before the train arrives. No security check. I don't need to worry that my bottle of contact lens cleaner is greater than 100ml. You get the picture.

And, you get internet. However, it is best you bring your own. You can plug in your laptop as soon as you sit down, stretch out your legs and plug in your HSBA Telus air card. Now, I have as much internet as I have at home. Very nice.

The Olympics - Vanoc style

My learned friend and colleagues call it Phistler for a reason. If it isn't foggy then it is beautifully sunny and warm. The problem is that you can't race reliably in either. However, that is ski racing. It is an outdoor sport. The weather affects everyone and everyone differently. Each run is different and each delay for 10 minutes changes the course. It either speeds up, slows down, is easier to see or harder to see. That is why race courses in the northern hemisphere are north facing (for the most part). It helps to keep the sun off the course and keeps it from turning into a big slurpy.

In a World Cup race, if you've ever wonder how they decide who starts when, you need to understand the FIS magic formula. So, let me steel the words that The Mighty Skunk wrote (rather than retype it).

In order to understand this dynamic, you've got to understand the basics of the "bib draw" process. For TV and for the crowd, FIS wants the "top seed" to run with bibs 16-22. So in other words, if you're the WCSL points leader and you want to ski early because you know the course is going to turn to mush, the lowest bib you can draw is 16. If the top WCSL skiers had a choice of any number, knowing how slushy the course has been, skiers like Cuche and Riesch and Vonn and Svindal would be choosing bibs 1-2-3. Julia Mancuso has been doing so poorly this season that she's out of the "top seed" and has been "stuck" with a low bib (1-7). But when you're racing in May weather (or Pissler in February), the early bibs are the ones to have. Same thing happened today with Weibrecht as happened with Mancusco in the DH. He was bib #3, as was Mancusco. He put down an extraordinary run, which in cold weather with a consistent course would have put him solidly in the top 10. But meanwhile, the course was softening quickly and was slowing down maybe 0.10 with every competitor. The sun and the warmth did the rest. Not to take anything away from Mancuso and Weibrecht, because everybody with bibs in the top 10 and certainly in the top 5 have had the same opportunity. They were both good and lucky.

Now you know. Not that it was a big secret.

Sadly our Canadians have struggled. The pressure from the local press is just amazing. If we could get rid of the press and let them report on what happened instead of the future, they might just have a chance. Being on your home ground is an advantage, sure, but you get every cub report you can thing of hounding you.

Canadians want to cheer all our athletes. But, imagine just how hard this is for them. Most of them have given up their lives to compete for Canada. The live below the poverty line. They are dedicated and driven. They have no life of their own. And, when they don't medal, they feel like they have let down Canada. The press is just brutal on them. We need standing proudly behind them and cheering them. The fact they made the Olympic team is amazing.

The the press.. world wide... If you want to rip apart an athlete for lack of performance, go ahead, do it. Just make sure it is someone who is a professional, like an NHL Hockey player. Knock yourself out.

However, for those that are amateurs. Leave them alone. They give their life to get to this level. Most live below the poverty level just. They have amazing passion. They need to be rewarded and recognized for being there to represent their country.

The above photo is one I took in Portillo Chile in September. Manny, Julia and Robby.