why the iPad might eventually matter

These are the instructions we gave my wife's Grandma to check email on her HP desktop machine.  These don't include turning the computer on, by the way.  iPad instructions would look like: 

- Touch "email" 

- Touch the messages you want to read. 

- If you want to reply, touch "reply"

Not too bad. And only $500.  And we don't have to worry about everyone reconfiguring her machine when they fix the network.  

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 4

Ran in various combinations of snow, fog and wind with visibility ranging from tens of feet to crystal clear all the way to Spanish Fork Canyon.   My favorite image of the week is looking across Provo Canyon to the south at Cascade Peak in the clouds.  There's just enough of Cascade there to make it visible way off in the distance.  Elk/deer (whatever they are) made an appearance down low but were too far away for someone as ignorant as I am to figure out which they were.  My guess is elk.  

Shin splints fully healed.  Off-trail running on the ridge from the gun range trail was suboptimal as the crust is thin enough to break through but thick enough to give pause before breaking.  It's quite a bit of work.  The days of bounding through the knee deep powder may be gone for quite some time unless there's a big melt or a big snow or both.  

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 3

Dry, hazy and cold week in the foothills.  Old snow hanging around from the last storm a few weeks ago.  Patchy on south facing slopes.  Pounded down to a slick icy sheet on the water tank road.  It was a good day to be wearing spiked running shoes made by screwing hex head sheet metal screws into an old pair.   No wildlife seen this week.  Saw 4-5 people and a couple dogs though.   Shin splint keep this to a 1 running day week.  Ibuprofin working just fine though. 

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Allison pole vaulting

These were taken at the BYU invitational in January 2010.  The cool thing about these pictures is Allison is pole vaulting one year later at exactly the place where she tore her ACL.  First step back: done. 

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 2

Week 2 included just a jog and walk up the road to the repeater (it's about 1.5 miles round trip) after class Thursday.  Turns out I picked up a shin splint somewhere last week so that was about it for that.  The sunset was nice and the elk herd was crossing the road up from the golf course.  I don't know much about elk, but the antlers on that one looked big to me.  

I'll sit out until next Saturday to give the shin splint time to heal.  It's feeling pretty good right now.  

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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52 weeks in the foothills: week 1 (take 2)

This time with pictures!  (not sure what happened there, I used firefox with a drag and drop plug in to attach the files, which weren't attached to the final sent mail.  This time with chrome and file dialogues...).  Anyway, the plan is still the same:  running in the foothills once a week for 52 weeks, take pictures, post them.  

On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 8:51 PM, Michael Jones <senojekim@gmail.com> wrote:

The plan is to run up in the foothills each week this year.  While I'm there I figured I might as well snap a few photos and post something from each week.  I thrive on structure, so there will be 1 flora close-up, one shot aimed at Mt. Timpanogos and one shot aimed back into the valley. 

This is week 1 (December 27 - January 2, 2010).  The sunny day shots from this week were cold.  Very cold.  I went up the gun range trail, free ranged it south on the ridge and then glissaded onto the water tanks road (using Kris Nosack's map and names I don't know that Kris invented all the names, but he's lives in my neighborhood and he's an all around great guy so I'm calling them Kris' names and map). 

The cloudy day shots, taken later in the week (on December 30) were also cold.  It was a little disorienting being up there in the fog.  I especially liked the shot with the power lines fading into the fog.  I stuck to the road that day. 

Mike Jones
801 422-2217 (office)

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 1

The plan is to run up in the foothills each week this year.  While I'm there I figured I might as well snap a few photos and post something from each week.  I thrive on structure, so there will be 1 flora close-up, one shot aimed at Mt. Timpanogos and one shot aimed back into the valley. 

This is week 1 (December 27 - January 2, 2010).  The sunny day shots from this week were cold.  Very cold.  I went up the gun range trail, free ranged it south on the ridge and then glissaded onto the water tanks road (using Kris Nosack's map and names I don't know that Kris invented all the names, but he's lives in my neighborhood and he's an all around great guy so I'm calling them Kris' names and map). 

The cloudy day shots, taken later in the week (on December 30) were also cold.  It was a little disorienting being up there in the fog.  I especially liked the shot with the power lines fading into the fog.  I stuck to the road that day. 

Mike Jones
801 422-2217 (office)

Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

"To Help Other People at All Times"

It didn't look like this today,
but you get the idea.
Image via Wikipedia Today I was riding my bike along toward Lehi north of Utah Lake. I hear a motorcycle approach but it doesn't pass. A lady and a little boy pull up next to me and match me speed. She says "do you know where we are going?" I reply that we are headed toward Lehi. Turns out that she's trying to get to the other side of Utah Lake. So I encourage her to follow the Utah Lake Century Epic Ride (ULCER) markings then start turning left.

I was amazed that she could keep her motocycle straight and upright at my slow bike speed.

Hopefully they found what they were looking for and it was nice to be helpful even while out on a ride.

Close call for BYU Football

This morning while driving across BYU campus, I stopped at a crosswalk to let a guy finish crossing the street. Consensus between my wife and I was that it was one Bronco Mendenhall (he looks even younger up close). The guy in the other lane almost didn't stop and almost ended all discussion of whether or not Bronco would stay at BYU by taking him out in a crosswalk.

Fortunately all ended well and we are looking forward to seeing him (on TV) at the game against NIU this weekend.

Most of my Personal Money Management Dreams Have Come True

Image via WikipediaThanks to mvelopes.com which is everything I hoped MSFT Money would be in 2004. It slurps in all my credit card, retirement and savings account info. It lets me categorize spending, it lets me make an envelope-based budget, it lets me track spending. It runs in the cloud. It's awesome.

That said, there are some issues. The user interface is pretty good but not great. Classifying new transactions is oddly painful due to a clunky drop-down menu system. The report functionality is laughably bad. The excel reports seem to use some kind of multi-column merge thing to get horizontal lines. That's fine except it makes actually working with the report impossible. In some panes, clicking an envelope opens the envelope, in other panes it does nothing. The process of funding a spending plan is bizarre and confusing.

Even after all that, we signed up (but only 3 months a time, going to need some more history before I commit more money in order to save money).

Oh, and a friend of mine claims that his home teacher is the CTO or CIO or something. So they are a Utah-based company. Keeping it in state--even better.

More Free Time in July

Image via WikipediaI put professional cycling on a 5 year doping ban and have made no effort to follow, watch or even know the stages in this year's Tour de France. That certainly frees up a lot of time in July, it's been nice.

Bangkok Grill in Orem

"A rural scene in Utah County"
Image via Wikipedia
In our never ending quest to try all the Thai restuarants on the Wasatch Front, we visited Bangkok Grill in Orem last night with the Barney's. We deviated slightly from our control order which was pad Thai, massaman curry, green cury, tom kha gai and a surprise dish. It was hot and a hot bowl of soup didn't seem to fit the bill so we got satay and a waterfall beef salad instead of pad Thai and tom kha gai.

Anyway, the first thing you should know is that Bangkok Grill is not at 852 S State St, Orem. Here's a picture of where it used to be.

Bangkok Grill is actually at about 344 East 800 South in Orem and here's a picture of that location while it was still a tanning salon. Well, as soon as Evernote comes back, I'll put that up.

The massaman cury, beef waterfall salad and satay were divine. It made me glad to live in Utah County again (I was a little worried that I would never find good Thai in Utah County after the Mekong Grill and that one place in American Fork). The green curry was best described as "tom kha gai with green dye in it." The seafood king was bland and uninspired--and I even like bland food.

But the massaman, beef waterfall and satay were very good. We'll be back for the pad Thai.

Thank "U"!

Image via WikipediaIt looks like the University of Utah has lost my identity information for the second time in 6 years. The good news is that I keep getting a year of free credit fraud monitoring! No identity theft detected yet, though we did have quite a scare a month or so ago. That turns out to be a case of mistaken Mike Jones identities (who knew that two of us would live in the same city).

Voters may have got one right

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeI think the voters got the Cannon/Chaffetz race right even though I voted for Chris Cannon yesterday. I started to think that when I read this in the Des News this morning:

"If I don't win I'll do exactly the same thing I did before and essentially what I'm doing now. I'll go out and make money, which I can't really do now"

Hopefully Jason Chaffetz will work out well as our new representative.

Oh, I mean, assuming he beats the Democratic Challenger. Hold on a sec while I look that up... looks like it's going to be Bennion Spencer. Should be a fun race.

Welcome Back Lee!

Image via WikipediaLooks like Lee Cummard will be playing in the Marriott Center again next Winter. Works for me. Cummard's a great work-hard player. A friend of mine is in the Cummard's ward. They tell us that the Cummard's are a solid student family.

Deseret News | Cummard is turning NBA heads: "Said Rose: 'He's out to find what the likelihood of his going in the first round is. There are three to six teams that have a lot of interest in him, but if he's going to be a late second-round selection, I think he will decide to come back and finish his career at BYU.'"

Graduation rate woes?

Image via WikipediaDespite all our consternation about lowest per-pupil spending, it looks like we have only the eighth highest graduation rate in the nation now, down from the first.

Don't get me wrong, I think we should increase pay for teachers and supplies, but I also think that that's pretty darn efficient.

Maybe other states should try to figure out why we spend so little yet do so much better

From the SL Trib... "The future might not be as bright for many other Utahns, according to an Education Week report released Wednesday. Utah's graduation rate is still higher than the national average, but it no longer is the nation's highest, according to the report. Utah's graduation rate of 78.6 percent is now the nation's eighth highest, based on 2005 data, the most recent available. The year before, Utah topped the country with a rate of 83.8 percent."

Memo to Flashers in Provo

Apparently, some guy allegedly flashed two women on the Provo River Parkway Trail. I happened to ride by, apparently, while they were on the phone with 911 and later while the police were on the trail. I stopped and talked to the police and later to the two women.

Frequent trail users, such as myself and several other people out this afternoon, are going to be watching a little more closely. We'll do our best to make it harder for flashers, drug dealers and other law-violating citizens to ruin this resource.

Best Thai Food on the Wasatch Front

Image via WikipediaWe've been to two Thai restaurants so far in our quest for the best on the Wasatch front. Restaurants are judged based on their Tom Kha Gai, Green Curry, Massaman Curry, Pad Thai and a randomly chosen entre.

Of the two we've officially visited so far, Mekong Cafe in Midvale (Hat tip to Gazelem) at 7777 South State St. is the current clear winner.

My personal favorite is the Thai Chilli Garden in South Provo. But we haven't made an official visit yet, so it's not on the list. I am little scared for the Thai Chili Gardon becase the Mekong Cafe was so good.

Cycling in north Orem Utah--even on the Provo River Parkway

Image via WikipediaJason, a scout leader, is wondering where to take some scouts on a 15 mile (I would guess) ride. He's thinking about the Provo River Parkway but my comments from last year made that seem like a less-good idea.

Here's an 18 mile loop in Orem:

Start at 1600 North and 400 East in Orem. Ride down to 400 West (where the new goofy light is next to State St). Turn right and head over to 2000 North in Orem. Turn left and ride/coast all the way to the dump at the west end of 2000 North. Turn left and ride along Utah Lake to 400 South. This will involve a few left and right turns. Generally keep heading south to 400 south. Then turn left onto 400 South and ride East back to 400 East. Remember that fun descent along 2000 North? Now is when you pay for it. It's not bad, but some climbing. Turn left onto 400 East and ride north to where ever you left your car (or wherever you live).

I've been riding the Parkway trail in the canyon this Spring. It hasn't been too bad in the afternoon on weekdays. The worst of it is the section before and after Bridal Veil Falls which can be avoided by taking the road on the west side of the river then crossing the bridge at the parking lot beyond the old tram station. It's also a good chance to teach scouts some manners.

I did the cycling merit badge with my scouts 2 years ago. I loved the Provo River Parkway trail because traffic was not an issue. I am very very conservative about taking risks with other people's kids and the Parkway trail was great that way. We did a 25 miler and a 15 miler on the parkway trail including riding up south fork and down to Utah Lake both starting from north Orem.

Just this week, some kid on a sweet mtn bike chased me down on the Parkway Trail. Turns out it was one of my former scouts. He's really into mtn bike racing now and seemed genuinely out of breath when he caught me. I felt pretty good about that because one time I had to chase him down on the White Rim Trail after he rode right past our campsite. I was pretty out of breath then. Good thing he wasn't racing then or I might not have caught him. Scouting made a difference for him. It felt great.

Fake picture of Mt. Timpanogos

If you took photographs of a mountain for a year about 20 times a day and recorded the weather and time for each shot, then you could use machine learning to learn what the mountain should look like as a function of the date and time.

If you did that using 3 perceptrons per pixel to learn linear functions for hue, color and saturation for each pixel, then you'd get this image for May 20 at 2:20 pm. Not quite convincing yet, but not bad for such a simple model.

That's in 10 days. And for it to be correct for this year, a lot of snow better melt!

Algorithm and image by CS 658 student Ilya Raykhel who is a graduate student in machine learning.