Archive: August 22, 2010

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Cool Breeze 200K was

Sunday,  08/22/10  10:58 AM

Yesterday I rode the Cool Breeze 200K, for the second year in a row, and it was ... a great ride.  Starts in Ventura, up the river along the bike trail, back into the quiet neighborhoods East of Ojai, then the climb above Lake Casitas and descent into Carpinteria, through Montecito, up into the hills above Santa Barbara, down into Goleta, and back along the coast via Hope Ranch, downtown Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, the 101 Freeway (!), and the coastal bike path.  The weather was perfect, and I rode most of it with some good friends from the Conejo Valley Cyclists which made it even better.

Some pictures, of possible interest:


the route: 126 miles, 8,100' of climbing, and yeah a cool breeze along the coast


self portrait in the early morning light of Ojai


my CVC compatriots Jim, Richard, and Gary climb the Lake Casitas grade


above Lake Casitas - wow! - all the climbing pays off


view of Santa Barbara and the Pacific Ocean from East Mountain Road


paceline through Hope Ranch - amazing properties


bike path along the Four Seasons in Montecito ... a perfect day


Rincon Beach checkpoint - all I needed was a book and a beer


riding the 101 is not my favorite part; traffic to the left, ocean to the right, paceline ahead


feeling great on a perfect day

And when I was all done?  I'd done it in 7:12 riding time, the fastest 200K ever for me.  Yippee.

 

Sunday,  08/22/10  03:16 PM

A quiet Sunday, we had a nice brunch down by the Lake, and I am still pleasantly worn out and buzzed from my 200K yesterday.  And tonight Alex and I are off to Seattle for a visit to University of Washington aka U-dub; I plan to visit a couple of customers as well...  but first, blogging!

Faster please!  Digital textbook startup Inkling scores Sequoia funding, publisher deals.  Using the iPad for textbooks is such a no-brainer, you can totally see the writing on this wall.  Textbooks are *so* expensive, and it is such an inefficient market.  Of course the challenge is that unlike novels and the like, textbooks must be "rendered", the formatting must be preserved via PDF or HTML or something like that... but it is doable, and it shall be done. 

iPad: then this happenedMeanwhile: Then this happened
The iPhone happened, and smartphones changed. 
The iPad happened, and ... laptops changed?
I'm not sure I believe it, but it's cute. 

An interesting think piece from Brad Feld: should you charge more for your product?  The conventional wisdom is no, you should charge less, and make it up on the volume.  But... yeah, you might be leaving money on the table, and yeah, you might be cheapening your brand.  Pricing is tough

I love it: One more reason to ride a bike.  Most encounters between cars and bikes end badly, but not this one... 

From LGF: Cactus bloom.  I find the lifecycles of desert plants to be amazing, wherein they wait patiently for weeks or months or years for a teeny bit of rain.  And often the blooms are equally amazing. 

Here we have six fascinating underground homes that go above and beyond.  Just when you think you've seen it all, you realize "it all" is so much more than you thought!

 

 
 

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