Determining Proper hose length for your Kegerator

Posted on by mrsoltys
You can imagine my glee when my good friend Andrew asked me a great fluids problem this weekend: He just built a new beer tap system converted from an old chest freezer.  He wants to have nice head on his beer, so he doesn't want it coming out of the tap to quickly.  He was also unsure about the pressure to keep...Read More

Understanding Heart Rate

Posted on by mrsoltys
So I just got a Garmin, mostly to record long rides on strava without killing my phone battery. But I'm also a bit interested in the Heart Rate data craze.  So far, everything i've found on heart rate training seems anecdotal at best: "Subtract your age from 220..."  That's about where I stop reading.  It seems like this formula is a good guess,...Read More

Exporting Garmin .fit files to Excel .csv files

Posted on by mrsoltys
I'm new to owning a Garmin, but I wanted to do my own analysis on my heart rate data outside of Garmin's analysis. To do this, I had to export a Garmin .fit file to a Excel csv file. I could then import the data into MATLAB to do my own analysis. After searching some forums, I found no great...Read More

Tool of the Week: Airfoil

Posted on by mrsoltys
[caption id="attachment_976" align="alignright" width="200"] Listening to music from my macbook on my iphone[/caption] Here's the scenario: You're in the kitchen on your laptop.  Your speakers are in the livingroom.  You want to listen to something off your itunes library (or even pandora), but the speaker cable won't reach... And why should it? We're in a wireless world, right? Using Airfoil,...Read More

Tool of the Week: Google 2-step verification

Posted on by mrsoltys
The things someone could do with access to your e-mail is a bit scary. Not only do have access to any linked bank accounts and other personal information, but also your friend's and families' contact info, where they can start phishing and trolling from a trusted source.  Your e-mail is used to recover lost or stolen passwords to all sorts...Read More

Tool of the Week: Gmail, google Calendar, and Google Docs offline

Posted on by mrsoltys
[caption id="attachment_962" align="alignleft" width="214"] In a new tab, apps that will work when disconnected from the internet appear in blue, while others are turned gray. Be if you don't see app icons, be sure you're on the "Apps" tab at the bottom.[/caption] Sorry to post two Gmail tools in a row, but google offline is awesome.  After being gone on...Read More

Mike's beginners guide to DIY bike maintenance

Posted on by mrsoltys
It always surprises me when people think you can buy a bike and then not service it for a year, and wonder why it's creaking and hardly working the next summer.  Then, upon a trip to a local bikes hop, people seemed shocked at the price to repair it, and usually the bike ends up collecting rust in a garage until it gets trashed...Read More

Tool of the Week: Key Rocket for Gmail

Posted on by mrsoltys
Today I stumbled across a really cool extension for google chrome (A really amazing web browser for Windows and Mac), that works with gmail to make your gmail experience quicker and more productive. It's called KeyRocket, and anytime you do something in gmail that has a time saving keyboard shortcut, KeyRocket pops up (un-obtrusively) to tell you what that shortcut is for...Read More

Trip Report: Glacier National Park

Posted on by mrsoltys
This past weekend Courtney and I drove to Montana for a family Reunion in Glacier National Park.  I had an awesome time, but 3 Days didn't seem like enough time to fully explore Glacier.  Here's what We did do: Friday I started the day fly fishing with my uncle in two medicine lake.  I caught a 9" bull trout and...Read More