2009 Grasshopper Adventure Series

A really fast bike ride or is it a race? you choose

The schedule for 2009 Grasshopper Adventure Series is out!

• 2009-02-28 Old Caz
• 2009-03-07 Chileno Valley
• 2009-04-11 Lake Sonoma 
• 2009-05-09 King Ridge 

this year there is actually an entry fee - times they are achanging

read more here 

Best binoculars for birding

Well the best binoculars for birding are probably Swarovski or Zeiss, but both of these are very expensive and if you want to get really close to the same quality but for a third of the price I highly recommend Savannah Phase-Coated Waterproof Binoculars from Orion. The Savannah comes in at less then $400 vs over $1000. 

Don't get me wrong, a good friend of mine has a pair of Swarovski and they are excellent! The key difference is in low light conditions the Swarovski do out perform the Orions but for most of the birding I do the Orions do the job and do it well. I have been using the 10x50 for over 4 years now and they are great for birding from the car, a smaller pair would be more ideal for hiking or other on the move activities.

• Savannah 8x32 Phase-Coated, WP Binoculars
  
• Savannah 8x42 Waterproof Binoculars

Not sure why they name those two models differently they are both Phase-Coated and waterproof - they are the exactly the same just different size. Also, looking around on Orions site I do not see the 10x50 available anymore (one pair left over at Amazon)? hopefully they have not discontinued those. There is the Savannah Porro 10x50 but I am not familiar with that model, it appears to be less expensive and might be great buy for the money?

words to live by

this quote really grabbed my attention

from the NOOP.NL blog; an article called '5 easy Questions for Ron Jeffries'

...look for the good in every moment, and love it, while avoiding the bad without hating it.

 - Ron Jeffries

easier said then done but definitely a goal worth pursuing.

Coding Cheat Sheets

This is for personal reference: some links to helpful Cheat Sheets for coding

• jquery 1.2 (posted 2007-12-23)
  
• jquery 1.2 (posted 2008-01-11)
• jquery 1.3 (posted 2009-03-10)
• subversion (posted 2008-08-07)
• mysql (posted 2007-04-??)
• To be continued...

Check out this is a great post - tons of links to good stuff

'Testing is Overrated' on InfoQ

This is a good presentation
http://www.infoq.com/presentations/francl-testing-overrated

just over 22 minutes and worth the watch; I had to take a screen capture of one of the slides about doing code reviews, just too funny