12/18/13

Jquery sparkline does not work when loading remote HTML content

To speed the load time for a page on my site I use jquery to load a remote page that contains usage statistics and a usage chart.

By allowing the primary page to load first - and then loading the stats content separately I was able to dramatically reduce the primary page load time - improving user experience.

The page's initial design loaded the stats content in line and displayed one of the elements using sparkline.js:
class="sparkline" data-values="1,2,3"

The problem was that when I loaded this content using:

The sparkline js wasn't applying to the remotely loaded content. The solution was to fire the sparkline JS again after the content was loaded:
By applying the sparkline js function after successful load, the sparkline appeared just fine on the HTML loaded sparkline data.
Happy coding.

12/16/13

Using jquery form with TinyMCE - form content does not submit

After struggling mightily with this problem I finally found the solution courtesy of Jerome Jaglale. TinyMCE is creating (behind the scenes) an iFrame to actually contain the human visible HTML rendered content. Unfortunately the form when submitted via JQuery Form sees on 'real' textarea - making it impossible to submit the HTML friendly user visible content. The solution was simply to add this line just after the form is assigned:

// bind form using 'ajaxForm'

$('form.form-horizontal').ajaxForm(options); 

//now update the 'real textarea' with the TinyMCE rendered content
$('form').bind('form-pre-serialize', function(e) {
    tinyMCE.triggerSave();
});

Worked like a charm! Original Post: http://jeromejaglale.com/doc/javascript/tinymce_jquery_ajax_form

11/19/13

Loading iFrame external content into bootbox modal - twitter bootstrap

I used to use fancybox to deliver iframe modals but have found that the current version of Twitter Bootstrap for some reason conflicts with fancybox. The only reason I was using fancy box was that I wanted an easy way to modal iFrame external content (lazy man ajax)  - so I now had to find a way to use stock Twitter Bootstrap modals to deliver iFrame content.

Luckily this turned out to be pretty easy.

Standard modal HTML stuff by simply plugging in the iframe code within the widget content div.
The result is a frameless iframe'd content section within the standard bootbox modal window. The harder part is then connecting this strategy to dynamic content - that post will come next.


11/12/13

Going green for the cheap bastard

I have a pretty jaded outlook on carbon emissions, reducing my footprint and green initiatives in general. While I understand intellectually that we are all in this together, at the end of the day I have to stand alone and pay my bills and support my family. For this reason I approach any investment in carbon reduction strategies with a very simple question: "What's in it for me"?

With this in mind I set out this year to lower my carbon footprint and make some money at the same time.

In looking at a very wide reaching assortment of possibilities only a few rose to the top of the list when looked at in the cold hard light of the "ROI" day...

1. Buy the most efficient hot water heater you can find. In my case I purchased a heat pump "GeoSpring" heater from GE and have been mightily impressed. It drove my monthly electric bill down to $40/month from upwards of $145/month - resulting in a 10 month pay back. This is a no brainer and something almost everyone should do.

2. Seal up your basement. After reviewing many other options the one that rose to the top of my list was having a layer of foam applied around the inside of my foundation in the basement. Sealing up your basement may seem like an odd way to save money - but this prevents cold air from being drawn up into the house from your basement and can keep the whole house warmer. Since I spend upwards of $2500/year on heat - saving $500/year for a $2500 investment has the next quickest payback period (and keeps my feet warmer).

3. Up next will be replacing some of the older windows on my house and applying more insulation to the attic.

4. A high efficiency clothes washer is on the list as well. There is no real payback on this but for $400 i can get a cheap HE washer and should save roughly $50/year on electricity. In this case I needed a clothes washer anyway so it made sense paying the extra $100 for a HE model.

Sadly - this is a far as I see going. I've explored going solar and at a 10+ year payback (even with tax incentives) it just doesn't make sense. Solar hot water might have been an ok idea - but since my new high tech hot water heater (which would have been necessary even with a solar hot water heater) the payback for this investment is too far off as well.

Electric vehicles just don't work for my lifestyle or northeast climate, drill well heat pumps are really expensive and digging out the entire foundation and applying external insulation is really really expensive.

Good luck and happy dollar hunting.


9/13/13

In search of happiness

A few weeks ago I posted this on my facebook page:

I hate two things above all else: 1. My fucking complex life and 2. Slow internet.

A few people chimed in - most to basically say "quit your whining you 50 year old bastard". On one hand they were right. Compared with 90% of the world I have nothing to be sad about.

1. I have never known real hunger. I might have eaten my share of ramen and rice, but I've never really been hungry in my life.

2. I have never gone without shelter. Be it a tent or 71 VW bus or my current ramshackle house, I've never had to make it through rain or snow without reliable shelter.

3. I have never know true poverty. Even in the midst of making huge spousal support payment to my ex and working 3 jobs to make ends meet I could still enjoy good beer and skiing. That might be tough times, but it is a far cry from poverty.

4. I have never had to go without health care. Even when I broke my hand in the 80's and had to pay for the care myself, I still didn't need to worry about the quality or availability of health care.

So here is the kicker. I'm still up nearly every night staring into the darkness wondering what the fuck I'm doing with my life. Why? Because it turns out happiness has nothing to do with all the bullshit things I've been working towards.

Happiness in life - once you have the basics taken care of, require things beyond work satisfaction and affordable health care.

1. You need a stable and happy family life. If you aren't getting along with your wife or children your life will suck even if you can afford ski trips.

2. You need to feel good about your body. Groovy jackets and boots don't hide a lame and slowing body.

3. You need to get past regrets. I've got no suggestions here.

4. You need to be able to sleep reliably. Oddly enough I don't ever recall having trouble sleeping when I had a belly full of cheap ramen and rice and was sleeping on rocky ground in the midst of the Joshua Tree desert.

So while my whining seems trite compared to the plight of much of the rest of the world I'd happily eat more ramen if I could make some progress towards any of the previous 4.




7/16/13

Google online survey tool - Invasion of privacy or marketing miracle?


Your boss has just asked you to survey a representative sample of all dog owners in the US to help decide between one of two new logo’s for a new line of dog food. No pressure, just a make or break decision that might impact the rest of your career. And by the way, you have only 3 days to get the data and a total budget of $500.

For years (or maybe even centuries) marketers have faced the knowledge dilemma. Getting really good statistically valid data to inform good decision making from potential customers takes a long time and is expensive. The time and money allocated to gathering this type of data is frequently an afterthought and is rarely enough. This leaves marketers stuck with less than perfect data (usually gathered from friends, “personal experience” or the ever popular “WAG” technique).

When Google quietly launched their online survey tool (http://www.google.com/insights/consumersurveys/) earlier this month they ushered in a new era in market research – one that promises accurate, timely and affordable information to guide nearly any marketing decision. The most surprising part of this news wasn’t the creation of the tool, but rather the low key way it was announced. As you understand how the tool works the reason for the “soft launch” may become clear.

For website owners, the google survey tool offers a new way to monetize website traffic through the creation of a “survey gate” in front of protected content. The google survey tool allows website owners to force website visitors to answer one survey question in order to proceed to view the content on their websites that have been “survey gated”. This promises to generate revenue from traffic in a less obtrusive fashion than requiring payment and a more consistent fashion than the traditional low paying “pay per click” ad units.

For web visitors the act of answering a simple survey question to proceed to interesting content seems like an easy trade off – so everyone wins. Sort of.

The catch to all of this is the fact that Google pairs the website visitor’s DoubleClick cookie information with the survey answer. This means that even though the website visitor only answered one question, the survey tool can pair this answer with the demographic information that Google can glean from the DoubleClick cookie. What sort of demographic information?

In addition to raw data, charts summarize responses and insights highlight interesting differences. Using the DoubleClick cookie and the respondent’s IP address, Google Consumer Surveys infers demographic and geographic information for each response so you can easily segment by age, gender, location and more.



To see what Google means by “more” take a look at an actual survey that Google has made publically accessible:

You can see that Google has determined the survey respondent’s income level, gender, location (urban or rural) and age – all without the survey respondents having to answer a single demographic question.


As is frequently the case with Google tools – as a marketer I’m excited by the prospect of inexpensive and accurate information. As a consumer I’m concerned about the information that I’m essentially giving away online. I suspect that we will be seeing other companies follow suit with similar products and the concept of a “survey gate” will gain increasing popularity.

6/19/13

When the digital world controls the physical one...

The digital world is rapidly encroaching into our physical one... Have you been paying attention?


Not too long ago there was a clear divide between our digital world of Facebook, twitter, email, blogs and feeds and our physical world of switches and cars and "stuff". With the exception of "vibrate mode on a phone" activities in the digital world rarely had a direct impact on our physical one. As I type this the divide is rapidly closing and it isn't hard to see a future where this is virtually no divide at all.

As exhibit A take a close look at ITTT.com (If This Then That). This web service allows you to build "recipes" that blend together nearly any part of your digital world (phone voice mail, email, text messages, CNN news feeds, weather forecasts and more) into "outputs" that allow you to, for instance, create a rule that sends you a text message any time your Facebook stocks goes over $30/share (not that it ever will again). ITTT.com was cool already but now it can connect to two appliance that govern our physical world  - the Belkin outlet switch and the Phillips Hue light controller.

This allows you to create ITTT recipes that automatically turn on your hall light if you get an email with the subject "late" after 5:00pm. Alternatively you could create a recipe that changes the hue of your lights to pale blue if your tweets contain any words associated with "sad". Combining hue and switches with social and web services allows you to manage your physical environment automatically based on happenings in the digital worls.

Exhibit B takes a look at the Samsung party event hosted in NYC (http://creativity-online.com/work/samsungthump-up-next/31897) that allows party goers to control fireworks displays using their smart phones - with one lucky winner receiving the rights to control the show remotely while watching a webcast of the event. It isn't hard to see this concept taking off - giving party and bar patrons the ability to control light shows and environment aspects to their liking.

Next up? How about a remote "tap you on the shoulder" or maybe internet controlled joy buzzers strategically placed around the office or a water balloon launcher. I suspect we are just beginning to see the impacts of the intersection between physical and digital worlds colliding.


6/12/13

Lincoln Academy High school program review

On a whim I clicked on a link from AOL to the Lincoln Academy who's website proudly states:

Earn your accredited high school diploma online with Lincoln Academy today


My question was simply: How much does a high school degree from Lincoln Academy cost?

Being the suspicious type I decided to look over their site and learn more. At an amazingly low price of only $299 for a high school diploma I thought at first that I'd stumbled onto the future of online education. I do see a future where all high learning institutions will offer pure online versions of their curriculum at a fraction of their "on site" tuition costs - maybe Lincoln Academy was on the forefront of this trend...

After reading through their site and then chatting online with their customer service rep I realized that the fee only covers administering the tests. No actual education was being offered. You could order "study guided" for only $15/subject - but there was actually no education being offered for this price.

Unless the study guides say "the answer to question 12 is 3 meters/second" I'm not sure how a $15 study guide can possible prepare you for a high school test in math, science or any other subject.

The world of online education is largely the wild west and this is another example of buyer beware. Unless you have attended (and remember) all your high school classes and simply forgot to take the actual tests I'd put the LA program in the total scam category.

5/31/13

Pay back analysis - General Electric GE GeoSpring

Pay back analysis - General Electric GE GeoSpring Heat pump hot water heater


I've been working for some time to reduce my electric bill and concluded that the main driver was my very old (5+ years) water heater. I explored several options for hot water (gas, solar, etc.) and finally concluded that from a payback/ROI standpoint a heat pump based hot water heater was best.

Earlier this week I went ahead with the installation and after only 24 hours I have the first data showing my actual savings.

Rather than waiting until the end of the month, I can now (thanks to the new GMP smart meters), go into my GMP account and see my electricity consumption on an hourly basis - all the way up to this morning.

After signing into my account I was able to export my data into an excel spreadsheet and generate a chart showing my hourly kWh consumption for the past few days - and then compare my "old water heater" usage patterns to my "new water heater" pattern.

The resulting chart looked like this:

Hourly Electric Consumption (click to enlarge)

The blue line was the day before installation  the red line was the day of installation and the green line is today. You can see a dramatic decrease in my base level of consumption.

To calculate my ROI on the water heater I calculated my % savings and was astonished to see that I was saving an average of 80%!

Assuming that this continues, in 1 year i was save $1538 - for a total investment of $1500 (not counting the $300 tax incentive).

My payback period? 1 year, maybe less. The official GE website puts my total savings at only $300 per year, but this wasn't taking into consideration the age and efficiency of my very old electric water heater.

My conclusion? Take a hard look at your water heater and then shop around for the most efficient solution you can find - you may be surprised at how much you can save.

5/30/13

Getting started with the Mind Body Online (MBO) SOAP API - classic .ASP VBSCRIPT

I've been working on the Mind Body Online API for a few weeks now and finally got things to come together. My challenge was that I'm still coding in classic ASP and all the sample code is PHP - so I had to start from scratch to get things up and running.
The final collection of code is too extensive to post - but as a starter here is the .ASP code that retrieves the test class collection from the -99 test MBO account.

3/25/13

Getting the most from your "POV" (point of view) video camera

I've been using the JVC Adixxion POV camera now for a few months and have experimented quite a bit with it. I've taken some terrible videos, made the terrible mixes and some pretty good ones. I've found a few key details can make all the difference between good and better...

1. Use multiple points of view

Just shooting 5 minutes of video from the top of your head can be incredibly boring - even nauseating for some ski shots. So what can you do - given that your POV camera is screwed onto the top of your helment? The answer is simple - fake it! Use Google image search and pull up some stills showing your ski run from a distance- then mix these stills into your final video. The other alternative is to ski the same run more than once and shoot some video from your POV and then give the cam to a friend and have them shoot from a distance. The final mixed product can then incorporate both POV's into a more interesting video.

Example:


2. Mix in stills, multiple video clips to create 'video postcards'.


Rather than just have a running video - create freeze frames during the video and use them to call attention to specific events of details.


3. Create "mixes" not just runing videos

The best way I've found to do this is to use an iPad + iMovie app + iPad CD card reader. This of course assumes you already have the iPad! This combination lets you travel light and view your day's video on an iPad  - then mix in stills taken from your camera or video camera.

4. Shoot in high resolution

I set my camera to high res (Full HD) and then uploaded to youTube as high res. The tricky part is that youTube by default serves up the video in medium quality - so you have to edit the video settings to be HD... Try playing back either of the two videos above and choose the settings icon to see how HD improves the quality of the video.

5. Practice before you go out...

Nothing is more frustrating than having the perfect run, perfect shot and then pushing the wrong button or ending up with a still instead of a video. Take the time to practice with your camera - and be sure all your friends who will be shooting with you do the same!

Have fun - and let us know how your own videos come out!

3/12/13

Which costs more to heat my home in Vermont? Heating Oil or Propane?

I've been trying to figure out how to reduce my home energy bills and am evaluating propane vs. oil vs. electricity.

Getting the comparisons to actually work is tricky - since prices are always changing and comparing across sources is hard. To make it easier here are some good tools:

1. Energy cost comparison tool.
http://extension.psu.edu/energy/energy-use/making-decisions/comparison-charts

This wesite is awesome in that it gives you an easy to understand comparison between costs for all sorts of different energy sources. In order to make this chart work of course you need to know pricing - which is hard if you aren't actually getting propane or oil yet... That is where this URL comes in handy:

2. Current oil, propane costs for Vermont
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_wfr_dcus_svt_w.htm

This site automatically compiles cost data. In order to compare propane vs. oil just take the pricing from #2 and pop it into the tools on #1.

3. To determine current electricity costs use this site
http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_5_6_a

To determine our current cost per kWH


Conclusion?

It is currently cheapest for heat with oil (not counting wood...) - followed by propane followed by electric.

In terms of a hot water heater - since oil fired hot water heaters are hard to come by, a propane or gas fired HWH is probably the best option.

Good luck and happy heating!


3/1/13

Should I replace SiriusXM satellite radio with Slacker, Pandora or Spotify?

I've been looking for a cheaper alternative to paying Sirius radio (about $40/quarter or $160/year) and have been testing a variety of solutions.

My conclusion is that there are cheaper and better alternatives to satellite - but you have to be prepared to invest in some hardware to get a system that is as convenient as Sirius.

What I have now:

Pioneer receiver and older XM radio unit that can store satellite radio for offline play. The music from the XM radio unit is then sent via FM signal to the Pioneer in dash receiver.

The good: In the mountains I switch to the stored radio programming and can still listen to music. With a push of a button I can switch to different stations.

The bad: I'm getting tired of the Sirius Dj's and am finding the music kind of stale. I'm also tired of paying for radio when so many internet stations can be listened to for free from a desktop computer.

What I've migrated to:


Step 1 in making the switch away from satellite radio was to upgrade my in dash stereo to one that supported bluetooth. This was key - as it allowed me to easily connect my iPhone to the receiver with no wires (or without even having to take the iPhone out of my pocket). I've tried wired connections to my existing stereo and found that this added one other level of complexity that I didn't have with the satellite receiver. As soon as I installed my bluetooth compatible receiver and paired with my with iPhone i was able to start streaming any audio from my iPhone to car stereo really easily - and control the playback using the stereo (pause, skip, etc.).

Step 2 was figuring out how/which service to use on my iPhone to replace SiriusXM radio. I spent a lot of time researching this and ended up using a combination of three apps on my iPhone. For me the two driving factors were cost and offline playback. I live in Vermont and we have pretty poor cell coverage - so for the majority of my commute I have no signal and have to rely on offline playback mode. I ended up with three apps all of which support offline playback.

Google Music + Melodies (app).
The melodies app allows me to store playlists on my phone directly from my google music account. My google music account has 3,000+ songs - so I just create a few playlists that have genre/artist mixes and then  store them for offline play. This way I can play favorite songs easily no matter where I am and update the playlists to keep the combinations fresh. This doesn't expose me to new artists and tracks so my next addition was

Slacker Radio iPhone app
You have to pay $4.99/month for offline playback - but when you do the slacker iPhone app rules. You can store a few stations (each of which will load around 1,000 songs) to you have this massive collection of offline music for playback. Switching from station to station was pretty easy on the iPhone and the bluetooth connection streams not only the music but the artist and album as well. The only downside was the $$ for the monthly subscription - but it was still much cheaper that Sirius. You also have to allow a loooong time for station downloading (several hours) and also have a few gigs free space on your iPhone to store the station songs.


2/11/13

What the iWatch will look like and feature

I've been reading a lot about the new possible iWatch from Apple and thinking about what it might look like and provide in terms of features.


How big will the iWatch be?

Men's watches tend to be between 38mm and 50mm wide at the crown. For the iWatch to work - it will need to fall in this range.

Will there be a men's and women's version?

Given Apple's style centric design - i suspect that the answer will be yes... eventually. I'd be surprised if they can get the volume ramp up quick enough to support two substantially different sizes.

How will the iWatch strap/buckle closure system work?

I've got to guess deployment buckle - I can't imagine a rubber strap with a standard buckle closure holding on the cool new iWatch. Adding to this is the potential use of willow glass from corning. While flexible - i'm not sure I like the idea of glass anything resting directly against all the arteries and nerves under my wrist. I would guess that the glass part of the display will be topside - with the strap being made of a less expensive and more durable material with an adjustable deployment buckle.

What will the iWatch look like?

There are several "techy" watches already available - interesting to look to see what has already been done and see where the iWatch might fit in.



Blend Digital -Black Leather




Very high tech spartan view from an Italian watch designer.



Hamilton Pulsomatic Automatic Mechanical Digital Watch


Retro to the extreme this has a sleek futuristic/old school look and feel to it.


Mutewatch - Glow Swipe Vibrate - Charcoal Grey



This is one of the watches I think might be a good model for the iWatch. Note the techy buckle closure system - and the very smooth nearly invislble display (or lack of). The iWatch faces a challenge in that most watches are essentially "always on" - in that you don't have to push a button or tap/unlock in order to see the time. Given the power hungry nature of the iPhone display - always on will be a challenge - particularly since the battery on the iWatch is going to be even smaller than that of the iPhone. The solution might be to use electronic ink for a time display - or perhaps have a segmented approach - where only a portion of the screen remains always on. The other option would be to have the display cycle on and off showing only times on the minute or 5 minute mark.

The Mutewatch requires a tap/swipe to turn on and view the display - then it has a series of programmable 'vibrate alarms'. Targeted towards public speakers who need a way to track time without having to look down. It also has a built in motion sensor so you can flick it to life.




ODM Illumi Plus Hidden Digital Orange DD133-06




Love the look of this one - probably most closely approaches the iWatch in feel and design ethic. It does require a tap to turn on and view - but the display can be programmed to be either horizontal or vertically oriented. It is also (uniquely in this category) waterproof.

iWatch feature set

A laundry list of features I'd expect the iWatch to support.

1. an API. The iWatch will surely use a similar API as the iPhone - giving developers an opportunity to crush many competing devices. Wrist based GPS watches? Personal training timers? Remote controls for your TV?

2. Motion sensors.
3. GPS
4. Bluetooth
5. Vibration alert
6. GSM. Here is an interesting question. Will the iWatch be a stand alone device - requiring nothing more to support it - or will the iWatch require an iPhone to be proximate to it for use? Both options have their separate appeal. With enough volume I could see two models being available - much like an iPad with built in data plans.


No matter how the iWatch turns out I'm likely to line up to get one early - as long as they can keep the total size under 50mm. Even a geek like me would have a hard time pulling off a bracelet like device without feeling like I was wearing a superwoman bracelet...


2/1/13

Global Economy, Digital Convergence and Cumberland Farms??!!

Yesterday on my way to work I stopped at the Cumberland Farms gas station down the street from our offices in Richmond Vermont for a fill up. "Cumby's" offers the usual assortment of gas station burritos, egg salad sandwiches and the cheapest gas in town. Nothing particularly high tech or innovative about the store, product assortment or presentation. On this particular day, however, I noticed an placard promoting "Smart Pay" on the gas pump. The announcement was an invitation to install the Cumberland Farms SmartPay app on an android or iPhone device and save $0.10/gallon on fuel purchases.


Vermont traditionally has higher than average gas prices - so any opportunity to save a few cents on gas is a pretty good incentive to install a free app - so onto my phone went the SmartPay app.

What happened next was (even for a technophile like me) pretty amazing.

After starting up the SmartPay app - the app used the iPhone's GPS function to determine which store I was currently visiting and prompted me to enter the store and pump numerical ID.

Entering these numbers along with my PayPal credentials turned on the pump  in a few seconds and I filled my tank as usual.

After completing the sale - the SmartPay app determined that I was done and displayed the total spend for gas along with my savings.

So what happened behind the scenes to make this transaction possible?


My paypal account has a balance that consists of funds from multiple countries that originated in several currencies - most recently Australian Dollars. Paypal automatically converts incoming funds into American dollars - making a paypal account a sort of universal translator. This in and of itself is pretty amazing.

Next, the phone needed GPS functionality to determine the proximate store. GPS satellites are roughly 12,000 miles away so my pocket sized iPhone using a chip the size of my fingernail needed to not only receive the GPS signal from multiple satellites, but process it to determine my location within a few feet.

After that, the iPhone app needed to establish communication with the store's gas pump - requiring the pump to be networked, which required the store to be networked and so on.

Of course, the whole process required a hand held device that was useful enough to be always with me (the iPhone).

Effective technology tends to be transparent to the end user - this was no exception - allowing me to simply pay for gas, save a few cents and drive off.

Tomorrow I'll put this app to work buying an excellent gas station burrito.

1/24/13

JVC Adixxion Action Cam - with WiFi

JVC Adixxion HD video cam review and troubleshooting...





Just purchased a new JVC adixxion video cam after a good bit of review reading and comparison shopping between the latest GoPro and the Adixxion. In the end I went with the JVC because of price (for $200 WITH an SD card the Adixxion was a clear winner) and because of the promise of WiFi use.

Right out of the gate I ran into a problem with the JVC and Wifi - I couldn't get the Adixxion to connect to my Iphone  - followed the instructions and no joy.

It turned out that the installed firmware on my Adixxion was quite a bit out of date - and needed to be updated before doing anything. This wasn't too hard - you just have to visit the JVC product page and then click on the firware update link. This lets you download the updater onto an SD card (my computer has a built in SD card reader) - then when you insert the SD card into your JVC you can trigger the update. Current build is 492 I was on 385 or something.

As soon as I updated the firmware, I was immediately able to connect my iPhone to the Adixxion using the JVC iPhone app and I was in business. I was also able to upload videos directly to youTube right from the camera - which is pretty useful - since once they are uploaded you can use youTube's suite of video editing tools to trim and splice your videos together.

Then came the acid test - how is the image quality?

... stay tuned for video and still test results...

1/15/13

Comparing the Stoic microlith with the Patagonia adze and guide softshell

I've been looking for a no hood softshell that I can use under a hooded softshell for insulation/versatility. My plan has been to be able to bring two lightweight jackets when I ski out west and then layer - softshell for warm sunny days, hard shell alone for warm wet days, and both together for cold days.


The stoic microlith seemed to be the right fit between weight and features - and at only $70 on sale the price was right.

From a weight / warmth standpoint the stoic sits between the adze (very light almost wind breaker) and the guide jacket (dense softshell over mid weight fleece liner). The fit of the stoic lines up perfectly with the standard Patagonia medium I'm used to. At 5'10" 155 pounds I seem to be the classic medium. The stoic is trim but can still easily fit a fleece under it.

Comparing it to the Gucci the stoic seams are welded instead of stitched and this contributes to the very nice feel of the jacket. The stoic fit perfectly under my hard shell and felt warm down to about 20F.

The only negative? Stoic colors a bit funky - the purple lining takes some getting used to.

1/10/13

Getting to La Grave

Starting to dream about my trip next year to La Grave...

Getting there is going to be interesting...


First try figuring out how to get from the Lyon airport to the train station... So far it looks like the best bet is to fly from Montreal (YUL) to Lyon France via Paris (CDG). Then take a high speed train to Grenoble (1:15). The train station at Lyon is the "Part Dieu" station and can be gotten to via tram from the Lyon airport.







you: i'm planning on flying into the lyon airport from the states - then i'd likke to take the tgv on to grenoble
you: i would like to know what i'll have to do to get from the lyon airport arrival station to the train station.
Agnes: While I research this and prepare a response, please view some additional tours that may enhance your travel experience.
you: thank you.
Agnes: There is a tram operating between the airport and the Part Dieu station. The journey takes 30min, and there are 4 services per hour. This connection can only be purchased locally at the airport.
you: do you know how much the transfer costs?
Agnes: There is a tram operating between the airport and the Part Dieu station. The journey takes 30min, and there are 4 services per hour. This connection can only be purchased locally at the airport.
you: do you know how much the transfer costs?

Agnes: We do not have information as to the cost for this segment; however it should not be more then a few Euros.
you: OK. thank you.
Agnes: It is important to purchase your rail tickets prior to departing for Europe to avoid any language barrier, long lines at the station and sold out trains.
Agnes: First-class seats often recline, there are fewer seats per car, and there is more space for luggage. On some high-speed trains, the price of a first-class ticket includes a meal. Second-class accommodations are less expensive, but not as spacious, as there are more seats per car. Additionally it is quieter in first, since there are more business people and older passengers. For trips over 2 hours we recommend that you book first class.

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