Karl Stanton

Running again.

Here’s a run from the cnr of Spring St and 6th Ave up to 40th St and back. Nike+ is throwing me incorrect mileage, so I hope to calibrate it properly next week and hook up Nike+ to this blog for real time running love.

America.

My co-worker just posted this on his Kontainer. I thought I would share it with the rest of you.

Red Bull Manny Mania Pro 2010

Rained out! Very disappointing, but thanks to Red Bull for having me down all the same! Until next year.

I’ve been robbed.

Digitally robbed, that is. Back in 2007, I bought an RSS reader by the name of NetNewsWire for some amount I can’t remember. Maybe US$30. The company is known as NewsGator, and back then they had an amazing website where I could view my feeds online, they could sync to my iPhone and my Mac, and I felt satisfied that I financially backed this business.

From what I can tell, they couldn’t afford the bandwidth and hosting fees of all the subscribers to their services, and opted to encourage, nay, force users to sync their NNW database with Google’s. Essentially migrating their feeds onto the Google network.

Once this migration was made, the software was made free to everybody! Imagine my frustration when I shelled out money to support a product, only to have it become free shortly after with advertising!

So now the advertisers pay for the support, maintenance and development of the product, while Google flips bill for bandwidth and hosting fees. Smart move. But… the trick is, to get rid of the ads you have to pay for the privilege a second time! This is the biggest slap in the face from any software vendor (and I pay for a lot of software) that I have experienced.

Read about the rest of the subscribers angst in this thread and you will get the picture.

I know I’m late to rant about this, but it’s a rant none-the-less. Another RSS reader will be gracing my screen(s) from tonight onward.

Check the company’s website now. It has SFA of information about NetNewsWire, and it appears the entire company has changed focus, I mean check out their manifesto:

“NewsGator’s Social Networking solutions help you overcome business challenges by providing an integrated, behind-the-firewall, social computing platform that supports collaboration, facilitates communication, and improves worker knowledge.”

What the F&%K does that mean?

Screw you, NewsGator!

New Theme! New Blog!

First up, I haven’t been motivated to blog in quite a while. Work, and life in general here in New York City is very busy. I also didn’t feel like my last theme was doing much justice. I am hoping to blog more about photography and programming, and this new theme looks to be the way to go. So big thanks to WooThemes for their excellent work. Not only do you remind me of the Wu-Tang, but your themes and add-ons are really awesome.

So, here’s hoping I can keep the banter, story telling and programming quirks up.

It’s been a while (again).

I figure I might as well make use of the WordPress x Flickr capabilities and start blogging my adventures once again.

I’ve been busy.

I’ve also been in Japan… hopefully I can revive this blog over the coming weeks…

Why I’ve been quiet here…

So I’ve been really (really) busy at work these past few weeks. After getting back from holidays, I hit the ground running to work on the next installment of the Systembolaget AlkoholProfilen.se.

It’s a website where we can determine the drinking habits, health risks and advice to give to Swedes who take the 14 question survey. I wrote a fair chunk of this website, including some pretty neat Javascript components that we will be discussing over on Kontain in the next week or so.

So yes, lots to talk about, but I’m sure you’ve already caught up with my happenings on Twitter or Facebook. I will do my best to keep this blog updated whenever I can.

Nice!

Paris & Le Tour de France 2009!

Bienvenue à Paris!

I love Paris. Always have, always will. Such a beautiful old and enchanting city. I was here for only one purpose this time, Le Tour de France! I spent most of my time in the hostel cooking food, meeting other Australians and Americans who where here for the Tour as well. Since I have been here serveral times before, I wasn’t fussed about the sights, more so than saving money, eating and drinking well, and seeing the tour… but that didn’t get in the way of me having a little fun with the locals.

Everyone in the foreground (apart from the guy on the far right) were staying in the same hostel as me. Last time I was there I managed to wrangle a group of people together to head to the Sacré-Cœur to drink wine and watch the sun set. Seeing as I had such a great time doing it 3 years ago, I thought I would try and conjure up a group to do it all again.

We spent several hours drinking wine, eating cheese and discussing where we were from in Australia or America and life in general. Always good times spent on those steps, well, apart from the last night we were up there and we were almost robbed! Lucky 3 Australian blokes don’t take much nonsense from a lowly Parisian rat!

All of that aside, nothing could take the hype, excitement and thrill away from watching Le Tour de France live in the flesh. I am still coming to grips with the whole ordeal.

We got to the Place de la Concorde at about 12pm, ready and willing to wait the full 4.5 hours until the peloton screams by. It was already getting crowded and the streets were lined with people, also happy to sit the 4.5 hour wait. I was getting nervous at this point as I wasn’t yet willing to gamble on trying to squeeze in a spot on the Champs-Élysées, so my hostel friends went on without me while I tried to find a bank, some food, and a great spot for photos.

View Tour Nightmare in a larger map

Well, 30 minutes went by and I was on my own, playing chess on my iPhone with nobody to talk too. I figured that I couldn’t stand another 4 hours of this, so went on the mission to find my hostel companions. It was a decent 1km walk from where I was to one of the secure entrances to the Champs-Élysées, and by that time there was already litterally thousands of people storming their way around finding spots.

I knew I was screwed.

I walked towards the Arc de Triomphe, in hope to find my hostel mate (who was wearing a Le Tour de France 2009 gold shirt, like the 1000′s of others). It was shoulder-to-shoulder, step-by-step movements up the Champs-Élysées. At one point we were standing still waiting for the hordes of people to sort it out and keep moving.

I walked around the Arc de Triomphe, and back down the other side of the Champs-Élysées, this had taken an hour to walk 1km already, and as time was ticking closer, me without any sort of decent view of the street and no friends, I was getting rather annoyed with myself.

I ended up right down the other end of the Champs-Élysées, near the big monitors and finish line, when I decided to call my hostel friends one more time to see if I could get their where-a-bouts. Turns out they were on the exact opposite side of the Champs-Élysées as me, which meant I had to make some life changing decisions. 1, I walk all the way back, waste another hour and hope that by then I can squeeze to the front, or 2, try and get across the Champs-Élysées.

Some police walked by and after we both realised we don’t want to talk in our own respective languages, I managed to find out that the subway below the Champs-Élysées is my only hope. I walked into the subway, and of course, this subway doesn’t go under the street, you must ride the subway!

So, I took the subway back to Place de la Concorde, and there I was, back where I started, with little over 1 hour to get back to where my friends where.

I high-tailed it, managed to find my friends who were already 10 people deep (as you can see, and yes, that’s the Arc de Triomphe in the distance…)

We waited for another 30 minutes, however we were entertained by all the official sponsors of the Tour riding past in their floats. Lots of hilarity to be had, giant squirrels, giant cyclists, lots of off comments from the crowd and horrendous bad French breath!

The wait was over, and it was worth every second. We were watching the super giant TV of the live race coverage, and the excitement of the crowd as the peloton rode into Paris erupted. The crowd surged forward about 10 meters, and we all waited silently for the peloton to reach the Champs-Élysées. You could have closed your eyes and seen the peloton scream past, as there was a thunderous roar from the crowd following them throughout the entire 7 laps. Silence, then as they approach, cheers, screams and applause for the 5 seconds you see them, and then the roar moves up the Champs-Élysées like a mexican wave. Like nothing I’ve ever witnessed before! Incredible!

We did that 7 times, I tried my best to get close and take photos, however my wandering of the Champs-Élysées for 2 hours rendered that exercise useless, and I was just happy to be there at the end of it all.

Turns out our position was right in front of the podium, and we got to witness the top riders of our lifetime graciously accepting awards from the Tour organisers etc.

Until next year, Vive Le Tour!!!!

Luzern & Interlaken

Visa större karta

First up, Luzern.

Yesterday, I was exhausted after the mission out to Mount Säntis, and I wanted to explore Zürich a little more. After covering this tiny town within a few hours, I decided to take the advice of Al & Jules and head to Luzern.

I was very surprised when I walked out of the station to find a buzzing, charismatic and alive city. Zurich is a sleepy sea-side town compared to Luzern. It was absolutely packed with tourists, and it was also the middle of the Blue Ball Festival (beware, the website is hideous, but worth a laugh).

The harbor was lined with eateries, markets and music all with breathtaking views of the alps that surrounds the normally sleepy hollow.

Like most Europian cities, it has an old town, and once you’ve seen one old town, you’ve seen them all, so I spent my time looking for food and taking photos of the lakes. Unfortunately I was too late to catch the cable car to the top of the peak that overlooks the city, so I made a hike back to Zurich and bunked down for the night.

Visa större karta

Interlakin! (That’s some of the alps you can see at the bottom of that map).

Last night I was scrambling to find one last day of hiking and photography. I remembered a friend in London mentioning Interlaken, which is kind of in the middle of Switzerland, only 2 hours from Zurich (I really forget how small it is between major Europian cities compared to Australia!).

Well, it wasn’t the most exciting day. There was a horrid sky packed with clouds, high winds and humidity. I wanted to get to the top of Jungfraujoch, which is the highest rail in Europe, and take amazing photos of the alps, however it was a complete wipe-out and at CHF$185 (AUS$200), that was a risk I wasn’t willing to take.

So, I ended up walking around Interlaken until the weather cleared up a bit, turns out it was really patchy, so I bit the bullet and went up the Harder Bahn to Harder Kulm, which is about 600m above sea level and shows the amazing view of Jungfrau and the surrounding regions.

I ate lunch, had a beer and trekked through the mountain forest until I couldn’t bare the heat no more. I came packing jeans and warm clothes expecting to spend the day at 3ºc, but it was not to be.

I am no back in my hotel, getting ready for the next step of my Tour de Europe, Paris tomorrow! The weather looks shaky, but should be clear enough for some action shots of the Tour de France on Sunday!

Can’t wait.

x

Mount Säntis

View Larger Map

That’s my mission from Zürich to Säntis, and back again today. It looks far, and it actually covers almost half of Switzerland, but it’s only 105km’s according to Google. My, what an amazing view.

The mountain is 2500+ meters straight up, and don’t go if you’re scared of heights, the cable car is out of this world! Pretty much going straight up. Very scary! The country side is picturesque, the the train running all the way down Lake Zürich and into the hills. The weather is warm and the sky is a lovely deep blue. The air was so fresh out there that I was almost choking (no thanks to the London air I had been breathing for 10 days before hand).

It’s hot as well, 30º as I sit here at 11pm with my doors and windows open. My hotel has a lack of fridge and air-conditioning so I’m drinking warm beer with the fan blasting… not my real idea of a Swiss holiday, but it is summer in Europe! They forecast this week to be the hottest week of the year, with Spain spilling into the 40º zone. Hense the fires in Barcelona at the moment.

I plan to check out the town some more tomorrow. I want to sleep in and relax a little. Apparently there is a beautiful old town and a peak with a lovely view of the city that I’m keen to check out. The public transport system here is unbelievable with trains and trams leaving on the second, going all over the city and the country, so getting around is super easy.

I will head to the alps on the other side of the country (where the Tour de France passed through) on Thursday and probably hit Mürren or the like, somewhere close to the French border.

I fly to Paris on Friday and I can’t wait to see Le Tour de France. Al & Jules will hopefully be joining me on the Champs-Élysées, which I hope happens as I’m going a little crazy not talking to anybody, though the time out is enjoyable.

More news as it comes to hand! Make sure you check my Flickr stream for more photos! Speak soon.