Heat: Everyone knows that when there’s too much of it, things can get very uncomfortable, especially if there’s an accompanying high humidity. However, a high temperature is also something that needs to be considered if you are training under these conditions. Besides the general notions to drink plenty of fluids and stay hydrated, excessive temperatures can also adversely affect your performance, so any benchmarks or goals you set for yourself need to be adjusted depending on the conditions.

Take, for example, the route that I have been running for the past several weeks. During that time, I’ve kept records of my run times along with the conditions that day. (Specifically, the temperature, dew point and relative humidity)

On days where the temperature was above 25C my run times were averaging between 45-46 minutes. On days where the temperature was 20C or lower, average times decreased to around 43 minutes. That’s roughly a 4-6% decrease in time when going from 25C to 20C, or conversely, a 4-7% increase in times when going from 20C or below to 25C or higher.

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I’ve talked about the Google Maps encoded polyline format before. While there’s some nice utilities for encoding polylines that take the work out of implementing it yourself, I couldn’t find many polyline decoders.

This made it somewhat tedious to decode them, as the only way to get the original list of points was to create a GPolyline and then pull out the points from that object. This is not ideal since the work must always be done on the client side with JavaScript and using Google Maps.

To solve this, I quickly ported the algorithm over to PHP from the JavaScript source. Please feel free to download/modify/use this script.

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After discovering that Rock Band for Wii turned out to be a disappointment, I recently decided to sell it off and save up for a Playstation 3, which I bought last week. I also picked up a copy of Rock Band for PS3 and am now playing Rock Band the way it was meant to be played: With downloadable content (DLC), properly-rendered gameplay and character creation. (I actually bought a used copy of just the game and then forked over $100 for the PS2 special edition, taking advantage of the current promotion and saving about $40 after taxes)

Does this mean I’ve lost faith in the Wii? Well, probably not. My disappointment in Rock Band for Wii was not entirely Nintendo’s fault, even if they have acknowledged storage/space issues, since many have pointed out that Harmonix may have cut a few corners by simply porting the PS2 version over to Wii, saving time but perhaps selling short its full capabilities. This point is further underscored by the fact that the upcoming Guitar Hero IV: World Tour, will feature DLC in the Wii version – though perhaps we’ll see if that’s the case when it arrives later this year.

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I recently changed my WordPress install over to an SVN checkout in order to get rid of the tedious steps required to upgrade every time a new version is released.

Thankfully, following the well-written guide on the WordPress.org Codex was easy and straightforward – both for changing this existing installation over to SVN and for setting up a new blog for RunTrackr. I now look forward to updates, just so I can relish in the ease of upgrading. 🙂 Continued

I’ve just launched RunTrackr. It’s a site where you can create a running route in order to track, among other things, distances. It’s designed to be a tool to aid anyone who runs/jogs a lot, either recreationally or for training. A training log is also provided so that you can easily keep track of your running records and record your progress during training or just to watch your personal improvement.

Here’s a quick overview of what’s possible with RunTrackr as well as what we have in store for the future in terms of improvements to the site.

Adding/Creating a route

Creating a route probably the main reason you’d want to use RunTrackr. By creating a running route, you can measure its distance and keep track of it in your training log every time you run it.

Plotting a route is very easy; all you need to do is enter your location (Eg. “Belleville, ON”) and then click to add points. Existing points can be dragged around to alter the route. When you’re done, just click “Save Route” to finalize! You can also choose to enter a short description, tag your route with descriptive labels or rate your route’s difficulty.

Later on, I plan to add support for uploading automatically-generated routes/plots from GPS devices like those from Garmin, et al. This will make adding routes even easier for those who have access to such devices.

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I haven’t been posting updates or writing as many articles here as I’d like to, and it’s mainly because I’ve been busy putting the final touches on a website I’m about to launch. I don’t want to give away too many details or build too much hype, because frankly it’s not that big of a project and was never intended to be.

However, it was a project that I intended to learn from, and in that regard, I think I’ve succeeded – and that’s really what I want to continue doing for the rest of my life. Furthermore, while the project was an exercise in improving my web and software development skills, the end result will also be something that I will actually use myself – not just some pointless academic exercise. Another nice effect was the experience of seeing a self-directed project come to fruition over the last few months – albeit at a slow rate, usually only several hours per week, but nonetheless I’ve improved my self-discipline as a result. Continued

With the recent rumours that Beatles representatives met with both the makers of Rock Band and Guitar Hero to discuss the possibility of a Beatles-themed game, I’ve been more than a little excited at the prospects of rocking out to these tunes. (See more coverage at Wired and the original FT article)

Whatever the outcome, it could be a deciding factor in what console (if any) I decide to buy. I’m already feeling the pain of no DLC for the Wii version of Rock Band, which is putting doubts into my mind as to whether I should have bought the Wii version.

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I’ve just starting playing around with the Google Static Maps API as a complement to the regular Google Maps API, which as you probably know, is for JavaScript. The Static Maps API, on the other hand, provides a way to display static map images. This is useful in situations where you just need a non-interactive map and don’t want the overhead of an Ajax/JavaScript-based one.

However, I ran into some minor problems related to the API key usage with the Static Maps. Basically, an API key is tied to a certain domain name so that Google can keep track of your site’s usage. This means that the API key is tied to the domain name of the web site where you’re using the Google Maps API.

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I ran into a weird problem while testing one of my sites that used jQuery with Opera 9.26. (I happened to be using this older version of Opera because I am lazy to upgrade; I’m still using Firefox 2 despite the successful launch of FF3)

The issue was with an Ajax request I was sending. The return value was an array in JSON form. More specifically, the server was returning something like: Continued

I’ve waited for this day – June 22nd – for a while, since today is the day that Rock Band finally comes out for Wii. While my PS3 and Xbox 360-owning friends have had access since last November, I had to be content with Guitar Hero III while I gazed with jealousy at the wonders of Rock Band and its superb multi-player aspect.

Was it worth the wait? For me, it was. However, there are some obvious shortcomings when comparing the Wii version of Rock Band to those on the Xbox 360 and PS3, most of which were expected. Whether these were the fault of Harmonix (the developers) or Nintendo is a matter of debate.

Continued