Tool of the Week: Performance Air-Filters

Posted on by mrsoltys
Living in colorado, my car sometimes struggles at high elevation on hills... especially when loaded down with friends and gear. I did some reading about how I could improve performance, and came across performance air filters. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="384" caption="About to head out for some adventures in Suzi"][/caption] Performance Airfilters are pretty cheap (compared to many car upgrades), but can increase...Read More

Tool of the Week: LaTeX

Posted on by mrsoltys
Think of LaTeX as the nerdiest word processor you'll ever see. LaTeX focuses on content, and does all the formatting for you (kind-of).  The end result is beautifuly typset documents based on style sheets with auto labeled equations, figures, and tables. I love using LaTeX in conjunction with BibTeX to automatically format my citations and build my bibliography based on the citations I've used...Read More

Trip Report: Kalalau Trail

Posted on by mrsoltys
[caption id="attachment_380" align="aligncenter" width="1024" caption="The view at Kalalau. Our campsite is in the hole in the trees to the left, and the beach is on the right."] [/caption] The kalalau trail was one of the most magnificent trails I've ever hiked. Every turn offered breath-taking views of magnificent cliffs, huge jagged mountains, and 1000 ft waterfalls. The trail is lined...Read More

Tool of the Week: Mint.com

Posted on by mrsoltys
Mint is an online personal finance tool, and the most helpful and easy to use budgeting tool I've ever used.  Simply enter in your user-names and passwords to the accounts you want it to track, and then Mint will automatically download your transactions and assign them to budgets. It also does a great job tracking investments. Mint is complete with...Read More

Trip Report: Honolulu, Hawaii

Posted on by mrsoltys
[caption id="attachment_374" align="aligncenter" width="1024" caption="View of Hanauma bay"][/caption] We didn't have a whole lot planned upon arriving in Honolulu, which, in my opinion, can be a very stress free way to travel if you have like-minded travel companions. William and Randy stayed in a hostel near Waikiki beach and my brother and I stayed in a hotel near the convention...Read More

Tool of the Week: NOAA hourly weather and point forecasts

Posted on by mrsoltys
[caption id="attachment_354" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Example of hourly weather for Boulder, CO. Notice temperatures falling from the 70's today to snow in 48 hours... typical Boulder weather!"][/caption] Weather you're a data lover, or a flexible planner, I love using NOAA's hourly weather graph feature. Go to www.noaa.gov, type in your zip code (or city and state), and then scroll down and...Read More

Tool of the Week: LMGTFY

Posted on by mrsoltys
Let Me Google That For You is a real awesome way of telling people not to bother you with dumb questions that they could ask google.  Just type in a question, get the link, and e-mail it to them.  It will show them how easy it is to search for things in google, instead of asking you. Here's an example scenario:...Read More

Trip Report: Hidden Valley Backcountry Skiing

Posted on by mrsoltys
UPDATE: If you're looking for more current trip reports, current avi conditions, other backcountry ski areas, or backcountry ski weather, please check out my new website (which is under construction) at www.PowProject.com [caption id="attachment_343" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Courtney Making some Tele Turns in fresh snow at Hidden Valley"][/caption] This past weekend I had a great time backcountry skiing at Hidden Valley,...Read More

Tool of the Week: Web of Knowledge

Posted on by mrsoltys
Research can be a real pain.  I've already given a tool to keep track of where you've been, but sometimes it seems hard to know where to go. Web of Knowledge is not only a useful tool for searching through loads of journal articles, but it has really useful citation linking.  Once you find a relevant article can search backwards...Read More