Facebook

I think a centralised model for social networking is living on borrowed time.

There's no reason why social content can't have its own protocol, just like HTTP for web pages, and people can host social information where they want, set their own privacy policy. (They could use a free hosting service, and trade off how much loss of privacy / advertising they'll put up with. This would create a market in such things, whereas Facebook is a monopoly). They could also choose how they use/collate/view this information. Instead of having to view it through one web site, the whole thing would be completely open.

I hope Diaspora succeeds.

Cycling

Only been able to mountain bike once since Boxing day. Even if I had the chance to ride, the lap at Llandegla has changed a lot so I wouldn't have the satisfaction of beating my PB.

I bought a Garmin Edge 705, and it's great. I like that it shows up as a mass storage device, and the file formats are in the public domain. So it's quite a good gadget for a geek. The downside is that there doesn't currently appear to be a way to run your own firmware on it. Other problems I've found is that it loses reception under thick foliage, so the speed accuracy suffers drastically, and that the calories burned seems to be a massive overestimation. I'd hope that if I had a cadence/speed sensor, it would use this if satellite reception worsened. It's kind of important because a climb I like to sprint up has heavy tree cover and I want to know how fast I'm going so I can sustain the same speed. With a PowerTap I'd hope that the Garmin can work out calories more accurately. I don't know. Another disappointment is that my Trek Incite Team Link ANT+ sensors don't work with it. Yet the Bontrager DuoTap ANT+ sensor does work. I thought the whole point of ANT+ was interoperability?

Winges aside, it's a unique experience to go out somewhere on the bike and never have to worry about getting lost (other than equipment failure).

In an ideal world, my phone and my sat nav would be one and the same thing, so I'd only have to carry one. It would use low-power bluetooth to communicate with the cadence, heart rate, and power sensors. Some smart phones are nearly there, but there are no bluetooth sensors yet and you've got to wonder how long the battery lasts with the screen on all the time.

As for fitness, my recovery has massively improved over last year, I can ride the bash twice a week doing quite a bit of work on the front. I'm still crap at time trials, and I haven't been doing many club runs. I'm struggling a bit on the hills compared to last year. (I won one of the two club hill climbs last year, not bad for someone who regularly comes last in other time trials).

Since last year I put some Dura-Ace carbon laminate wheels on which are fantastic, and some carbon bottle cages. I've decided I'm not spending any more money on the bike.

Llandegla

Another minute off... 1hr 3min 30s

Cycling

Having problems at the moment with motivation, and lack of sleep is playing havoc with my energy levels. When the energy levels are OK, I do far too much in a week and then struggle the next week. So last week I only rode about 40 miles. The week before that it was about 200. Given that those 200 miles were no more than 10 hours on the bike, over 7 days, and this leaves me completely drained, then I'd say there's massive room for improvement.

But before this spell I'd managed to lap Llandegla in 1hr 4min 30s. And last time I rode on the bash I managed the whole loop, averaging 23.5mph.

I need to try and keep putting the miles in, do some core strength work, and some intervals on hills, and hopefully I'll see massive improvements on last year in the hill climbs. Then over the winter I'll get a training programme sorted out, and next summer I should be much quicker. Maybe even try racing.

Bash

12 miles at 25.0mph. I got dropped at about the same time as someone else so we rode the whole course together, so at least I know the whole course now.

Ten Under the Ben

I've never actually been up to the highlands before. The scenery is awe-inspiringly amazing. It's completely humbling.

Anyway, the camp site was horrible, it was just a marsh and had no running water. Registration was half way up a mountain almost the size of Ben Nevis, reached via cable car. The views were spectacular, we watched the sun set from up there, while eating the free curry.

The course was a bit technical for my liking. I was flying past people on the climbs and losing out on all the technical bits. Our team ended up in the top third, and I know with more training and technical ability I can get a lot faster.

Cycling

Llandegla: 1hr 8min. New PB. Must have lost at least a minute held up behind a rolling blockade of chavs on bikes. One was taking up the whole trail and aggressively told me to ride round him if I was so much faster than him, when I politely asked if I could get past. Nice.

Uni training loop: 21mph. New PB. The wind was working against me and I didn't feel all that fresh, so the Madone must be a lot faster.