Lightroom 3 is out, and I'm really surprised at the feature list. Mostly I'm surprised at what's not there: soft proofing. It's been a glaring omission and it's unforgivable that its still missing in the third major incarnation of the software.

I mean, I get that they want people to double dip and buy every Photoshop release too, but I want to do my corrections and printing without leaving Lightroom. Guys, I'm going to buy Photoshop anyway. Can I please just not have to launch it when I don't need to, other than to see WTF is going to come out of my printer?

It's maddening enough that I even considered skipping the upgrade for the first time in the program's history. I decided that I'll hold my nose and upgrade anyway; $99 is cheap enough that I'll bite.

I can't believe that fucking video support made it into a photo application before soft proofing though. I'll use a video program to work with my video, thanks!

Boo.

For those friends with bikes who also live in apartments. A bit kooky, but would be fun to see in action.

More reasons to love AT&T. (And another "feature" of the WiFi iPad.) :/

I recently got a chance to watch a demo of a 3 DTV for the first time. The setting was a Sony Store, watching their high end model in one of the demo rooms. The content was a demo played from a Sony Blu-Ray player. I always assume demo content like this was hand-picked to show off the system in the best possible way.

My very first impression was that it was stunning. The clip was from a football game, and shots from the sidelines showed a depth that was truly impressive. It was easier to discern the angles and positioning of the players than on a traditional TV.

After watching for a few minutes, and seeing a few different media types, I was less impressed. First, I was increasingly distracted when the 3D effect was applied in situations in which it didn't enhance the subject on screen. For instance, in dialog scenes, the 3D effect made me pay less attention to the dialog. This might be because I was conscious of this being a 3D set and this might diminish over time.

The glasses get annoying pretty quickly. As glasses go, they're bulky and obtrusive. They'd definitely get in the way of a shared viewing experience, since they block a good deal of your peripheral vision.

Most importantly I became aware of, and distracted by, a really annoying flickering. Now this might be this particular TV, but since it was a flagship model in a brand store, I imagine that it's likely an effect on other sets too. I'd compare the effect to looking at a computer monitor with the refresh rate set very low, but this was more pronounced. I was in a good demo environment: sitting down, directly in front of the TV, about 12 feet back. The light was a bit high since it was a store, but I wouldn't say it was overly bright.

The effect was severe enough that once I got past the "wow" factor of the initial football clip, which was easily the most impressive and compelling demo on the reel, I would have walked away were I in the market for a new TV.

This is a nice HTML5 app that gives a visualization of various time zones relative to your local time. It can be used offline from the iPad too.

I worked from home today (in San Jose) and after I finished up for the day decided to try a ride at a place I'd never been before: Santa Teresa County Park. For the tl;dr crowd, it's a nice park with some singletrack, nice views and at least one nicely technical, rocky trail. It's worth a trip if you live somewhere in the south bay. I'm not sure I'd recommend it, based on what I rode today, if one had to drive any real distance to get there.

Somewhat embarrassingly, I've lived in the SF Bay Area my whole life and in San Jose for almost three years, but I really haven't explored many of the south bay biking options. Last year I spent quite a few rides exploring the Soquel Demonstration Forest ("the Demo"), and it's one of my favorite places to ride now, so I know I really need to explore more down here.

I recently came across a site, Bay Area Bike Rides, that details quite a few rides in the Bay Area, including GPS tracks, maps, etc. I picked Santa Teresa based on the details on that site, and found it to be useful.

Getting there was straightforward, although the parking was frustrating. I knew there was a fee to park there, and the park's site stated that you could self-serve via a machine with credit cards or cash. Once I got there, there was only one machine I could find, and it didn't take MasterCard, which was the only card I took with me. It also wouldn't take the various bills I had on me. Luckily (after wasting a few minutes of light), there was a ranger in a truck who told me not to worry about paying, so I set out.

Here's where embarrassing admission #2 of this post comes in. I've had the Edge 705 cycling GPS for a few years now, but I'd never used it to follow someone else's track before. I set the track as a "course" in Garmin's parlance, which showed me where the person who created it rode, and I'd be able to compare my ride to his.

Unfortunately, I misread how the ride started and didn't realize my error until I'd climbed quite a bit of a rocky, technical trail called (appropriately) Rocky Ridge Trail. I pressed on climbing. By the time I got to the top of the trail, which was a challenging climb for a first timer, I realized that there was a fire road leading to that point, which was probably the route I meant to take. (As a quick aside: the site mentioned earlier says this about my accidental climb. "In my opinion, you'd have to be either nuts or masochistic to do it in the opposite direction." Oops.)

Instead of descending the fire road, I turned around and descended Rocky Ridge, retracing my steps. It was a fun, technical downhill and the vista on the way down was nice.

Once at the bottom, where I started, I talked a bit with a guy on a cyclocross bike who said he rode at Santa Teresa daily. It was getting late but I wanted a little more of a ride, so with some new tips in mind, I climbed the fire road I'd seen earlier. It's challenging because of its slope, although smooth. Once at the top, a radio antenna on a peak called Coyote Peak, I connected back to the Rocky Ridge trail and took another shot at that downhill. It was even more fun a second time.

It was too late for more, so I got in the truck and went home. I wouldn't call it an unqualified success based on my missteps, but it was fun and I now have more info to explore more another day. I'd recommend it as a good before or after work ride.

As some of you know, I've committed to riding in the Livestrong Challenge each year. The ride benefits the fight against cancer, something that has affected the lives of several of my family and friends. I hate asking for money from friends, but I do like that it supports a great cause and hope that you agree and choose to sponsor me.

Any little bit helps!

AT&T just announced a near doubling of its Early Termination Fee for canceling your contract. It takes effect for all contracts entered into starting June 1. I guess they're trying to lock in people who buy the likely-upcoming fourth-generation iPhone for those two years. If the rumored Verizon iPhone comes out, or Android phones get too attractive, they want their pound of flesh.

I love the title of the letter: "An Open Letter to our Valued Customers".

For customers who enter into new two-year service agreements in connection with the purchase of our more advanced, higher end devices, including netbooks and smartphones, the ETF will increase to $325, and be reduced by $10 for each month that you remain with us as a customer during the balance of your two-year service agreement. After that, the ETF will no longer apply.

He's either stupid or he's lying.

The Google TV announcement has some really interesting stuff in it. I enjoyed the Engadget demo of the Logitech box with Google TV. One feature that seemed particularly interesting:

> When we got to Logitech's demo space, we expected to see a keyboard and mouse. To our surprise, the Logitech product manager pulled out a Nexus One and iPhone. He explained that the companion box has all the technology of Logitech's $400 Harmony 900 remote and extends it to your handset over WiFi.

Love it.

The San Francisco Chronicle's web site, SFGate, sometimes does this annoying ad behavior too. So annoying that it's worth navigating away immediately.

Erik and I decided that we needed a long (for us, in our current shape) ride, compared with the quick after-work rides we've been getting in. We settled on Skeggs (El Corte de Madera). It sure did feel good to get a long one in--I need more of that to get into shape. I think we'll probably add Skeggs--and its requisite long climb out-- to the after-work lineup.

I took the Spot out again today. I was enjoying the ability to change the front fork's travel for the climbs, down to 110 mm from 140. We ended up climbing Manzanita, a trail I rarely ride and never in that direction, and I forgot about a fairly hairy, rocky descent. I also forgot that I had my fork dialed down so low. That, combined with an ill-timed tap of the front brake, sent me over the bars. Other than pride and a skinned knee, I was fine. More of a bummer was that I broke the little clear window on my twist shifters. Those damn things are only 3 rides old and I already damaged them. :( At least nothing serious was broken.

In any case, I'm enjoying the bike and the differences from my RFX. I think the deeper front suspension and slack head tube angle might have saved my dumb ass from the OTB experience, but oh well. I need to spend more time on the Spot to get more comfortable on it, although I had a great time carving it along the North Leaf trail. It's a great bike.

The weather today was gorgeous. Clear skies, and early enough that there were no bugs out--a common annoyance at Skeggs--and the water running through the creek at the bottom was nice.

Check out this preview of some very nice functionality in the upcoming Lightroom 3. It's demoed in Adobe Camera Raw 6, part of Photoshop CS5, but will also be in LR3. Very cool that they're releasing the tool to allow users to create custom profiles for lens and camera combinations that they don't cover out of the box.

I finally had my Turner 5-Spot rebuilt. When I bought the RFX, I used some of the parts from the 5-Spot to finish it, stripped the 5-Spot down and sent the frame back to Turner for a program they have to get it repainted and have the pivots replaced. It's been back for a long time, just sitting at home waiting to be built up and ridden. Over the course of the months it's been since then, I've collected new gear to outfit it with.

It's got new wheels, built lighter than the ones that are now on the RFX. It's got an all-new drivetrain, mostly X.0 and XTR gear. The Pike 454 Air was pretty new when I decommissioned the bike, as were the XTR brakes, and so they're back on. The only thing I need to do to finish it off is replace the Romic coil rear shock and put a lighter air shock on it. It weighs 28.6 pounds now, down from over 32 before and I imagine that rear shock will take a bit more off of that. I also put on a set of Push rear rockers to balance the Pike some.

Now that I've been riding the RFX exclusively for almost 2 years, it's interesting to go back to the Spot. I was worried that the differences might not be enough to really matter, but those differences can really be felt on the trail, although they aren't surprising. The Spot is definitely more nimble and climbs better, and I'd say is the more versatile bike of the two. The RFX's suspension is superior in every way--very confidence inspiring--making it a solid descender. I'm happy to have them both, as it's nice to have an "extra" bike when one needs a repair, and they're both versatile enough to be ridden anywhere.

I plan to ride the Spot as my main bike again, and pull out the RFX for rides with more downhill or stunts, like Demo, Downieville or Pacifica. I'll take it to Canada again, of course. But I'm very happy the Spot is back in the stable.

Man, I remember having to do this kind of thing "manually" back in the day. (Where by "manually" I mean drawing masks with a mouse and by "back in the day", I mean with PS 2.5. It could have been worse, I suppose--at least I was always working digitally.)