Hi all

I have just upgraded this site to the latest version of wordpress – version 2.8. Everything appears to be fine, please let me know if you find any funnies.

thanks

Craig

Netathlon does not have a mechanism by which you can export the training data to import into your training software (well at least not that I could find!). So, I created a simple utility to do just that.

This very simple free utility converts the RAW data generates by Netathlon into a HRM file that can be imported into most training software (tested with SportTracks and Polar Precision Performance).

Download Netathlon to HRM.

No cost or registration (also no viruses or spyware). Just install and off you go. Download the installation here (only about 400k). The software only runs in Windows, and works on Vista.

Instructions

It is very easy to use, simply select the file(s) that you wish to convert, and it saves a copy as a .hrm file. You can then import the .hrm file into SportTracks, and all of your training data will be available. Remember to select metric or imperial units first.

DO NOT RENAME the RAW file before converting. The RAW file does not contain the date of training, so the only way that you can get the date is from the file name.

Upgrading

To upgrade, simple uninstall the previous version, and install the later version.

A few notes

• This utility was written by me, it has nothing to do with the folks that created the Netathlon software
• I have only tested it with cycling files. However, if you have any other Netathlon files, send them to be and I will have a look
• This utility is provided “as is”. While it works fine for me, I cannot guarantee that it will not do any damage on your machine. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
• You may not modify the software, however feel free to distribute it.
• If you have any comments or suggestions, please leave a comment below, or Email me – cdstrachan@gmail.com

Version History

1.0.3

• Updated to support Run and Row files.

1.0.2

• added support for Polar Precision Performance software.
• Fixed minor error with progress bar when running more than one import sequentially.

1.0.1

• first version supported SportTracks only

If you do like this software, how about making a donation to my favourite cause.

Finally, thanks to this site, and this site for the help on the file formats.

According to CNET, Apple announced yesterday that they will be removing DRM copy-protection from their entire ITunes store catalogue.

This means that you will be able to purchase music from ITunes, and listen to it on any MP3 player, essentially decoupling ITunes from the IPOD, and making the store available to non IPOD users.

Since I firmly believe that the only future for the music industry is to make it cheaper and easier to legally obtain music than to obtain it illegally, I think that this is a major move in the right direction.

The pricing of music will change, whereby current chart songs will be more expensive and the majority of the catalogue will reduce to 79c per song (the price has been $1 since they start trading about 5 years ago). I am convinced that this is only the first step, and that we can expect further price reductions.

Now, if only Apple will open up the store to users in South Africa…

This is the kind of game that I like – “many dynamics to this game but no goal”. You can play with it for hours, with no goal other than watching the sand patterns forming. You can play here.
 

Sand Game

Amazing how such a simple concept can create such dynamic patterns. If you enjoy it, there are loads more here.

Enjoy

I received the below message while surfing one of the Apple websites – www.me.com. They are being quite clear about their disdain for Internet Explorer, aren’t they?

Apple website message

Considering that yet another security flaw has been found in IE, and we are being advised to switch to another browser while the flaw is corrected, it is not such a bad message after all.

Hi all

Just a quick note to let you know that I am now using a new elist provider. Mailchimp should be a lot more stable and reliable. However, you emails may now look a little different.

I hope it all work!

Craig

Yesterday, I watched a technology presentation by Chris Anderson on TED.COM, recorded in 2004. He said that in 2008 (ie: now) you would be able to store 1 million songs on a hard drive costing about $400. Now, assuming that a MP3 is about 4meg big, you will need 4 million meg to store 1 million songs, or approx 4 Terabytes.

So I took this to the test. Currently, you can buy a 1 TB hard drive from BestBuy for $150, so a 4 TB drive will be about $600, so not too far off. In fact, it will probably be spot on by the end of the year. Hey, wait a year and you will probably be able to store 2 million songs.

Locally, a 750gig drive from Chaos is about R1600, which equates to approx R8500 for 4 TB of storage.

But what is really scary is that you can store over 1 million songs on your home computer for less than R10000, which is less than 10c per song! Now just pause and think about that. We can freely share music (mostly illegally) at no cost, and store it at an igsignificant cost. So, how is that going to affect the music industry?

Food for thought…

By the way, if the average song is about 5 minutes long, your new collection of 1 million songs will take about 9 1/2 years to play in its entirety!

Why is it that when I try to watch videos on YouTube, I keep getting the error “We’re Sorry, This Video Is No Longer Available”. I estimate that this happens to about half of the video’s that I try to watch.

According to their website “If a user removes their video, or if it’s removed for violating our Terms of Use, it will no longer be available in our search, in your favorites, nor via embedding within other websites.”

However, I have had some of my own video’s removed, which do not possibly violate their terms of use. In particular, one video is broken into three sections, part 1 and 2 won’t play, but part 3 will!

Is it just me, or are you having the same problem?

Update (15 Dec 08)

It appears that if a lot of bandwidth is coming from some IP ranges you get the error message. IE: The error is to do with the streaming and not with the video’s themselves. If you hit refresh a couple of times it should come right. I suspect that it has something to do with the limited bandwidth to South Africa.

I have had similar problems on some websites where they say that “your IP range is producing a lot of traffic, so please try again later”.

There is a great post on Seth Godin's website about how to get effective tech support. I love one of his comments "If you own a computer, back it up. If you don't, all bad things are your fault."

I am getting really sick of either lugging my laptop around with me whenever I travel, or trying to read my emails on my phone – which is just a pain!

So, I decided to look on the net and see what solution I could find – and boy did I find a fantastic solution. This is an ASUS EEEPC (easy to learn, easy to work, easy to play). It is a laptop that weighs just 800grams (that is a box of matches on the keyboard)!

This little machine packs quite a punch – although it only has 512meg ram, and a 2gig (solid state) hard drive, it has three USB ports, as well as a SD slot, so with an external memory stick or external drive, you have pretty much unlimited disk space (there is also a network and Wi-Fi port). It also has a video out port, which I will test later to see how well PowerPoint works on it.

It comes pre-build running Linux (which fly’s – even though there is not much RAM), and some great applications, including Open Office, Skype and the Firefox web browser. If you click on the image below, you can see Open Office busy loading. Of course, you can install pretty much whatever Linux app you care to. For travelling it is fantastic. If you want to , you can also put Windows XP onto it, but I don’t think that I am going to bother.

I took it to Durban on Friday, and it was fantastic. I caught up with email in the lounge, and I wrote a report on the flight home.

The best part is that you can buy it from Incredible Connection for less that R3000!