Yearly Archives: 2011

Adding overlay notification icons to Twitter’s taskbar icon in IE9

Computing

IE9 allows you to pin sites to the taskbar. I find this feature useful, and various sites, including Twitter and Facebook make use of it to make site functionality more accessible. One feature that Twitter is currently missing, however, is notification of new tweets in the icon itself. So I’ve put together a quick little bookmarklet you can use to add this functionality to the official Twitter site on your machine.

Here’s what it looks like with 1 outstanding tweet. If more than 5 tweets are unread, I class this as an error condition and show a red X error graphic instead (okay, okay, the real story is I couldn’t be bothered making my own icons, so I’ve used some from a sample from the IE9 demo site, and they only go up to 5!)

Right click Twitter Overlay Icon (IE9 only!) and click Add to Favorites to create the bookmarklet.

Formatted code for the bookmarklet:

(function() {

var fLastCount = -1;

window.setInterval(function()
{
  try
  {
   var res = document.title.match(/^\((\d+)\)/);
   if(res) {
      var nNewCount = res[1];
      if(nNewCount != fLastCount) {
        var ico = nNewCount > 5 ? 'error' : 'num_'+nNewCount;
        window.external.msSiteModeSetIconOverlay('http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/Browser/tweetfeed/Images/'+ico+'.ico', nNewCount+' unread tweets');
        fLastCount = nNewCount;
      }
    }
    else if(fLastCount != 0) {
      window.external.msSiteModeClearIconOverlay();
      fLastCount = 0;
    }
  } catch(e) { }
}, 1000);

})();

Have fun!

Luke 16

Bible, Family|Bible|More

Luke 16 is a fascinating chapter. Jesus starts off with a parable in which, at a casual read, he seems to be commending devious behaviour, then he tosses in a single sentence about divorce before launching into a story with a very metaphysical flavour which differs radically from his normal down-to-earth parables.

We studied this passage at Bible study this week and our rector John preached on it today. I struggled a bit to understand what Jesus was really saying about money in the first parable: is he really saying that using money to win friends is good, regardless of whose money it actually is? Or is he using hyperbole: even a dishonest manager can use his resources to make friends: how much more should we do this? Another alternative is that the manager was cutting his commission. Or perhaps these were bad debts and he figured by cutting them, they’d be more likely to be paid, and at the same time he’d earn the friendship of the debtors, and the commendation from the rich man for making the best of a bad debt. Interestingly my wife had no problem with the parable. She read the final interpretation.

Whatever the meaning intended by Jesus, we can be sure that he was not condoning dishonest behaviour. The Pharisees reacted badly to this parable — I guess they read it as an attack on their high regard for material wealth.

The second parable is curious because it uses Jewish pictures of heaven and hell in a way that I can’t recall in any other parables. Jesus’ other recorded parables used scenarios from life: banquets, journeys, weddings and so on. So why did Jesus choose this imagery?

He makes a very pointed comment at the end of the parable of course: “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” The message of the parable is also about the motivations of the heart: is it God or money that you are following? I like the picture and scenario: it’s very vivid! But I would still like to know why Jesus chose this imagery.

And finally, I wish I knew why Luke chose to sandwich the divorce passage between these two parables!

My first road race: Longford – Campbell Town

Cycling

Today I raced my first ever road race, a 64km flat course from Longford to Campbell Town, in Tasmania. As part of my preparation I looked up the course profile (flat, bar one small climb about 10km from the finish), and prepared a comprehensive list of excuses, which I understand are an essential part of a road rider’s preparation. Two of my friends, Phil and Rob, were also racing. We’d all ridden a lot together in Hobart and Rob and Phil had raced in Hobart. But we had heard tales that riders from the North of the state (Longford is in the North) were tough and fast — there are 5 or 6 riders in the Pro peleton from those parts — but I don’t think we really appreciated just how fast and hard they were!

Phil and I are roughly comparable in racing ability, as far as we could tell, and as Phil raced B grade in Hobart, I naively decided that was the grade for me. Rob decided to stick with D grade — a sensible choice I think! The lower grades started out a few minutes ahead, with 1 minute between C and B, and 3 minutes to A. I snuck a look at the registration sheet before the race and there were only 6 or 7 riders in B, and 20 or more in each of D, C and A. I was starting to get worried because that meant much more work in the wind, with less recovery time drafting other riders. All too soon our grade was up to start and immediately we hit 40+km/h. It seemed that some of the riders wanted to catch C grade before A grade caught us. Within 5km, we were sitting on 45-50km/h and my heart rate was on 175 as I frantically tried to hold my position in the bunch. I glanced at Phil and by the look on his face he was in trouble too. All too soon the inevitable happened — we started to drift off the back of the B grade group, and my heart rate way up high I knew I didn’t have that reserve to claw my way back on.

One other B grader dropped back with Phil and I and no more than a couple of km later we heard a toot from the chase car informing us that the A grade pack were flying up behind us. We jumped on the back of that bunch and the shelter from the wind helped a bit with recovery, as it was a much larger group. My heart rate dropped below 150 and I started to think I might have a chance to hold on. Phil and I sat on the back of the group and stayed out of the paceline. Then I made a big mistake… I thought I was doing okay and so thought I’d give the paceline a go… Oops. As I worked my way up to the front, my heart rate went right up again and I was struggling. One of the other riders glanced at me and suggested that I should just sit on the back of the bunch. I was inclined to agree…

So back I drifted and then we passed some other riders, who left a gap, and I couldn’t get over the gap with my previous effort and off the back I went. And that was that. For the next 45km I rode with one other rider, a C grade girl who had had the same trouble as I had. We worked well together and it helped… About 15km from the finish we caught Rob and 4 of us crossed the line all together at the end. It was still the fastest 60km I have ever ridden, by a long way!

My wife and daughters were there at the finish to cheer me over the line but I think they were a little surprised by how far back was!

Edit: Strava ride is now online:

I’ve got a new 10 minute power average: 355 watts…  I am not surprised.  At 22km, we had to walk across a wooden bridge (instant disqualification if you rode across…)  You can spot that in the speed graph pretty easily!

Mount Wellington Challenge

Cycling

Today I raced the Mount Wellington Challenge time trial, billed as Australia’s toughest time trial.  It’s a 21km course from Longley to the summit of Mount Wellington, with a total climb of 1141m.  I had been wanting to do this time trial for some years, but always had something come up – a cold, travel, family commitments.  This year, I registered in early February to make sure I could not back out!  This meant I took it all far too seriously.  You can just keep reading to see that for yourself!
Mount Wellington from Ridgeway
My training for the ride was really just my usual commute – with just one hard ride, the Gordon Dam Doddle, thrown in for good measure a few weeks earlier.  In that ride, we climbed 3800m over 160km, in rain and drizzle.  It was a really tough ride, definitely the hardest ride I have ever done – and very, very good preparation.  In reality, I only joined the middle day of the ride – some of the really tough boys did a day on either side of it as well!
A couple of days before the ride I jumped onto my Strava account to look up my best times for various segments of the ride.  Strava makes it brilliantly simple, using a Garmin GPS, to identify climbs and compare performance over time and against peers.  I ended up with a table of my personal best times for each segment, which apart from the first little ‘warm up’, were all between 3.5km and 4km long.   I used this table to try to understand how hard to ride each section of the climb, on which sections I could make up the most time, and where I could maybe recover a little:
Segment
Distance
Gradient
Best Time
Best Speed
VAM
1.7 km
5.7%
5:43
17.4 km/h
1039
3.9 km
5.7%
10:01
22.1 km/h
1282
3.6 km
-1.8%
5:21
40.1 km/h
N/A
4.0 km
6.8%
14:37
16.6 km/h
1126
3.5 km
8.5%
16:36
12.5 km/h
1063
3.5 km
7.3%
14:50
14.3 km/h
1048
1:07:08
(Note that the actual course is a few hundred metres longer – the segments do not all start and end at precisely the same points.)  The first thing I picked was that I was not going to match my best time from Leslie Rd – Neika.  The VAM of 1282 for this segment was clearly way above average, and so trying to match that would probably cost me too much for the remainder of the ride.  Next I looked at how to best make up time, and realised that I would be better off saving some energy and recovering on the Neika – Fern Tree segment, which is slightly downhill, because cutting 6km/h off my speed would cost me less than a minute overall.  Conversely, working harder on some of the steep sections could well help me to improve my overall time:
Segment
Gradient
Best Time
Best Speed
Speed vs Time
Longley – Leslie Rd
5.7%
5:43
17.4 km/h
Leslie Rd – Neika
5.7%
10:01
22.1 km/h
Neika – Fern Tree
-1.8%
5:21
40.1 km/h
-6.4 km/h = +1:00
Fern Tree – Springs
6.8%
14:37
16.6 km/h
-1.0 km/h = +1:00
Springs – Chalet
8.5%
16:36
12.5 km/h
-0.7 km/h = +1:00
Chalet – Summit
7.3%
14:50
14.3 km/h
-0.9 km/h = +1:00
I did not expect to match the 1:07:08 overall sum of the individual segments – these personal bests were made over the year in various shorter rides, and to get a personal best on each segment in a single ride was definitely unrealistic.  After looking at the numbers, I realised that a 1:08:00 – 1:10:00 goal was probably a good target.  Of course I told all my mates that I was aiming for 1:15:00 – no need to set expectations from them as well!
To ride 1:08:00, I had the following targets in mind:
  • 18 min to Neika (achievable)
  • 6 min to Fern Tree (within reach)
  • 44 min to Summit (ambitious!)
Now the weather for the two weeks prior to the race was atrocious – it is rare to have snow on the mountain in February and March, but we had 3 days with snow on the mountain, and plenty of other days with miserable weather.  So I was watching the weather with some trepidation – Mount Wellington is a hard enough climb in good weather, let alone in freezing rain!  Fortunately for all, the day dawned as a beautiful, crystal clear, calm and sunny – a great Hobart March day.
I hopped on my bike at 7am and rode from our house in Ridgeway gently down to the start line in Longley.  I was keen not to wear myself out before the time trial.  While waiting for the event to start, I bumped into a good number of friends – Ant, Phil, Iain, Piers, Dave, Jonno, Les – and we all ragged about how sick we were and how we probably would get atrocious times, and how it would probably be blowing a gale on top, and the usual stuff that road cyclists use to try and manage their own expectations!  Surprisingly enough, the event started on time.  Riders were going off every 15 seconds, starting at 8:45, and I was number 161, which meant I had quite a wait.  About 20 minutes before my start, my mate Ant and I started warming up on the hills behind Longley, along with many other riders.  We rolled back into Longley just a few minutes before the start.
This was the first time I’ve had an assisted start – where a steward held my bike so I could start with my feet clipped into the pedals, and not waste “precious” seconds clipping in.  Fun!  Phil was starting a minute before me, and Ant 30 seconds ahead of him.  I knew I was not going to see Ant at all, but I had some vague hope of seeing Phil in the far distance at some point on the climb.  For some reason, there were 2 riders missing between me and the rider ahead of me, so I left 45 seconds after him.  I started off pretty gently – aiming to keep my heart rate below 165 for the whole first half of the ride (my maximum HR is about 185).  This I nearly managed, with my HR just nudging over 170 for the last kilometre of the initial climb.  Once I reached the gradual descent from Neika to Fern Tree, I eased back a bit, rehydrated, and sucked down another gel.  At Fern Tree, my wife and daughters waved and cheered me on, which was fantastic!
After Fern Tree the real climbing started.  A brutal ramp greets you at the start of Pillinger Drive, which is agonising after the previous gentle section – bumpy roads from tree roots eat up your momentum, and narrow road with a car coming past meant I had nowhere to manoeuvre.  Fortunately, this rough stuff does not last long: all too soon the climb sets off in earnest, sitting on 7% up to the Springs.  From Fern Tree to the Springs the road winds through the heavily forested lower sections of the mountain, beautiful, gum trees overhead, birds calling.  Not that I noticed!  A short respite in the gradient at the Springs ends nastily with the hardest part of the climb averaging 8.5% for 3.5km.  This section is the most feared section of the climb, across the face of the mountain, exposed, with a rough surface, and long straights punctuated by gentle corners that you negotiate only to be greeted by yet more long straight steep climbing.  Plenty of agony here in bottom gear, just trying to keep cadence up, trying to stay motivated to keep pushing the pedals as hard as you can.

On the mountain top
Once I reached the Chalet, at 1000m, things got a little easier.  A section of smoother road gave me the encouragement to go up a gear.  Soon after that, the roads curves onto the top of the mountain.  Should be flatter, right?  Unfortunately not.  It stays steep until the very end, not quite as steep as the previous section, but enough to be debilitating.  A gentle northwesterly wind proved to not be too big a hindrance, and just gave a little push for the last kilometre.  I finally crossed the line with a result of 1:10:43 – far exceeding my expectations! [edit: as many riders have noted, official timekeeping appears to have been out by 3 minutes so am using my Garmin time, not official time now]

At the summit on another, more typical day!
Looking at the individual segments, I rode the first section significantly faster than I ever had before, without pushing myself.  I was pleased that I managed to make a personal best also on the hardest part of the climb, without losing too much time on other sections.  My average heart rate for the whole time trial was 164.  Note that there is a few hundred metres missing in the segments which adds up to an additional 1:20 in the overall time, and that’s why the numbers don’t add up exactly – see the ride on Strava for full details.  Campbell Flakemore, the fastest rider of the day got a sub-53 [query: this may be out by 3 minutes as well] minute time.  I’m a long way short of that!
Segment
Distance
Gradient
Best Time
Yesterday
Heart Rate
Target
Achieved
Longley – Leslie Rd
1.7 km
5.7%
5:43
5:06
163
18:00
16:48
Leslie Rd – Neika
3.9 km
5.7%
10:01
11:24
167
Neika – Fern Tree
3.6 km
-1.8%
5:21
6:04
154
6:00
6:04
Fern Tree – Springs
4.0 km
6.8%
14:37
15:08
165
44:00
46:15
Springs – Chalet
3.5 km
8.5%
16:36
16:33
166
Chalet – Summit
3.5 km
7.3%
14:50
15:08
164
Segment total
1:07:08
1:09:23
1:10:43
After a rip-roaring descent back to Longley (in which I made another best time and topped the charts on Strava, yay!) I managed to pick up two spot prizes – a Genesys jersey, and a Malvern Star coffee mug set!  After the presentations, I carted my haul of goodies back up the hill, tagging along with a bunch of TIS riders, through Neika and thence back home.  77km, 1800m.  All in all, a great day!

Descending!