Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Tulip Ride 2013

Approximately 3 hours after we signed up for a baby class, the annual Tulip Ride was scheduled on the same day. Thankfully we ended up taking a different class and Tyla was ok with me going on the ride without her this year.

This was my fifth time on the Tulip Ride. The first time I went it was about a dozen bikes. This year we topped 200 and raised over $5000 for charity before any company matching! There were police escorts both in Redmond and in Tulalip along with media coverage leading up to the event. It’s turned into a big production!

This was also the first year that we had some celebrities on the ride. Tricia Helfer and Katie Sackhoff of Battlestar Galactica fame were there riding some Harleys donated by Eastside Harley and taking pictures with a bunch of motorcycle riding geeks. And yes, I asked Tyla’s permission before taking a photo with Tricia.

On a sidenote, that’s probably the first time I’ve ever had my picture taken with a celebrity, at least that I can remember. It’s weird. I’m not sure I like it. “Hi, we both know I’m here just to take my photo with you and then we’ll never talk again. We both have jobs and yours just happens to put your face on TV, but we could argue about who’s job has a bigger impact on people’s lives. There’s nothing I can say that you haven’t heard a thousand times before and given the long line of people, you must just want to get this over with.” And then seeing the photo isn’t too encouraging either. Sometimes I look in the mirror and think I’m not that ugly. But then I look at the picture and it’s not hard to figure out who gets paid to look good for a living.

But back to the ride…

We started at Blazing Bagels in Redmond. Tyla and her family surprised me by showing up to watch us all leave. They weren’t alone as we drew quite a crowd of onlookers wherever we went. About 120 bikes left Redmond and we made our way up to Tulalip without staying in a super tight group. At Tulalip we picked up about another 80 bikes and then held the pack together for most of the way to the tulip fields before a car pulled into the middle of the pack and then let enough cars get in front of them that we completely lost touch with the pack. Thankfully between the four or five of us at the front of the second pack, we were able to remember the way to the tulip fields.

It started to rain near the end and since I’ve seen the majestic tulip fields many times before, I drove right past and headed home. It was a fun day but it I missed having Tyla along!

I geeked up a perfectly good motorcycle by putting two GoPros on the bike facing forward and backward. You can see the video on YouTube or embedded below. In most places it runs at 1000% of normal speed. I posted some of my photos to Flickr to share with the other riders.

I wonder if my son will want to go on one of these rides with me in the future?

benmartens May 6, 2013 Motorcycle, Video

LED Light Bulbs

Shopping for CFL or LED bulbs instead of incandescent light bulbs can be confusing. Do you want bright white, warm white, or one of the other white colors? Forget the names. There’s a more precise way to know what you’re getting and it’s called the temperature of the color. Color temperatures are measured in kelvins. A standard incandescent bulb is between 2700 and 3300K. So if you want a CFL or LED bulb that matches that color, look for the color temperature on the box. Some of the bulbs are much whiter, and to my eye they’re very unpleasant.

LED bulbs have been around for a few years but they’ve been cost prohibitive. They’re better than CFL and incandescent in pretty much every way. They use less power, warm up instantly, produce less heat, are dimmable, and last forever (or ~25,000 hours, whichever comes first.) You can find good LED bulbs for $10-15 each at your local store so there’s still a pretty big premium.

On Earth Day, my employer teamed up with PSE to off us a four pack of LED bulbs for $10. It seemed like a good way to test the waters with LED bulbs. I put one of them in the lamp in our living room and three of them in our outdoor lighting since those are the lights that are on the most in our house. It’s really an anticlimactic event. I excitedly screwed in the bulbs, they work, and we rarely think about them.

But it got me to wondering, are they finally getting cheap enough that I should be replacing all my bulbs with LEDs as the old bulbs die out? What’s the break even point? It’s time for some math!

With our fancy GPS-based outdoor light timer, I know that my lights are on specifically between sunset and sunrise every day, even as those times shift. I looked up a full table of rise and set times for Seattle and then calculated how long the sun is up. That in itself was interesting. It turns out that in Seattle over the course of a year, the sun is up 51% of the time. But for our purposes, we just need to know that the sun is down for 4290.75 hours in a year.

Here are how 60 watt equivalent bulb costs would play out over the course of 10 years. Note that I’m prorating the cost of the bulbs that are used so the cost of the remaining lifetime of the last bulb is not included in the total cost.

I didn’t know what to expect when I started those calculations, and I’m impressed that the LED bulb came out ahead! It takes many years for the LED to overtake the CFL, but eventually it at least breaks even. Also note that I was basing the LED numbers on this bulb. Different bulbs have different power requirements, but this is a respectable model/brand.

So from all this we can conclude that at the current prices, CFL and LEDs are just about a break even on cost at least with the models and prices I used in my calculations. In terms of actual use, the LEDs come out ahead because they don’t have the same warmup period as the CFL bulbs and they are dimmable. And the cost tradeoff will vary depending on what you’re comparing. The other caveat is that I don’t know if these bulbs are rated for the temperature swings associated with outdoor use so it will be interesting to see how long they last.

Don’t go running around the house throwing away CFL bulbs since that’s a waste of money, but as they die, you can replace them with LEDs and know that you’ll get your money back over time assuming the LED bulbs live as long as the makers claim. If you want to see it for yourself, check out one of the many online bulb price calculators. We have a stockpile of various sized CFL and incandescent candelabra bulbs, but as those run out I think we’ll be switching to LED.

benmartens May 3, 2013 Home Improvement

Yellow Pages

You know that feeling of guilt/frustration you get when those yellow pages come to your door and you drop them straight in the recycle bin? It’s such a waste of energy and resources. I just learned about a site called YellowPagesOptOut.com. Just as the name implies, you can opt out of the various phone books that you receive. Type in your zip code and the site will show you which directories are normally delivered. For our area, there were six books on the list! I opted out of all of them and hopefully it means that there will be one less thing getting tossed out at our house.

benmartens May 2, 2013 Commentary

Zane Lamprey’s New TV Show

For those of you who were fans of Three Sheets and Drinking Made Easy, there’s good news: Zane Lamprey is attempting to launch a new show! It will be in the same vein as the previous shows. He travels around the world, enjoys local alcohol, learns a bit about the culture, and has fun doing it. He’s a got a good formula and it’s been frustrating to see him have such a hard time getting a network to support him.

He’s finally given up (?) on the networks and decided to fund this effort through Kickstarter. The show is called CHUG and they’re trying to raise $500K. It’s a lofty goal so I hope you’ll join me in pledging a few bucks to help him out. If you’ve never done a Kickstarter project, it’s pretty easy. The site lists out what you’ll receive for giving various amounts of money and you only pay out if the project hits it’s fundraising goal. There’s no guarantee that you’ll actually receive any of the rewards though! It’s possible that whatever you’re sponsoring will go belly up and fail completely so keep that in mind. I don’t have any fear of that with Zane’s project as he’s a pro at this and has been doing it for a long time.

Starting a project like this also means that once he reaches his goal, he can walk into a network and say “Look, I’ve already got the money to produce the show. All you need to do is pony up the cash to promote it and give me a time slot.” That’s a pretty interesting offer, especially with all the new Internet networks that I blogged about yesterday.

Good luck Zane!

PS. If you are a fan of Zane, be sure to listen to his weekly podcast!

benmartens May 1, 2013 Commentary

New TV Channels

We’re all familiar with CBS, ABC and NBC, but the new “TV channels” are shaping up to be Amazon, Netflix and YouTube. All three companies are purchasing exclusive content for their sites. And these are some pretty big deals with names like Kevin Spacey, Bill Murray, and John Goodman. When you stop and think about it, if you have a Roku box or some other way to watch these sites on your TV, there’s very little difference between watching a show on Amazon or watching a show on NBC. House of Cards was released recently on Netflix and got great reviews. There are a lot more shows in the pipe including a new season for Arrested Development which I’m thrilled about.

Looking ahead 5-10 years, it’s pretty easy to imagine this type of “TV” taking over the traditional television model. On Netflix, Amazon and YouTube, producers can create the exact show they want. There’s no need to break at specific points for commercials or create a 1 hour show that is exactly 42 minutes long so that all the commercials fit. Plus, all the episodes can be released at once which is increasingly how people like to consume a series.

It’s all very intriguing and there are plenty of people cutting the cable cord to consume their TV completely online. While I love the idea and do consume content from the web, I’m still happy with cable TV for the sheer ease of use. Cable comes into my house, gets recorded by one of the four tuners in my Windows Media Center PC and then gets streamed out to the various TV’s in our house, computers or even our phones. Doing something similar without a cable subscription requires us to remember which app we open to watch which show and right now it’s not worth the hassle for our household. Kudos to those of you who are blazing a trail for the rest of us!

benmartens April 30, 2013 Commentary

GoPro Clamp Mount

There have been numerous times when it would be useful to attach a GoPro using a clamp, but the only thing I found on the Internet was around $40 and that seemed ridiculous. After searching around for some homemade solutions, I built this:

All of the parts came from Home Depot and the total bill was less than $2. The only specific part that you’d need to copy is the bolt. A standard camera mount accepts a 1/4” bolt with 20 threads per inch. That was the standard number of threads in the bolts at Home Depot so it all went together very easily.

Don’t pay more if you don’t have to!

benmartens April 29, 2013 Uncategorized

Newborn Photography

We’re getting closer and closer to meeting our son, and we want to document his arrival with some photographs. Tyla found a bunch of great newborn photographers in our area, but for the prices felt much too high for photographers ones she liked. Obviously they can charge that much because they are fantastic at what they do and it’s very difficult to photograph newborns, but we’ve decided to take on that challenge ourselves. HeatherW does this for a living and I can see her shaking her head! Yeah it’s crazy, and yeah, it won’t come out as good as if we had a pro, but here’s how we’re tackling the challenge.

  1. I bought a Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 lens for our camera. It’s a fast zoom that takes incredibly crisp photos. The only other lens I have that could have worked was the Canon 50mm f/1.8 but the zoom felt like it would make things easier and it will probably the lens that stays on the camera most of the time when we’re done.
  2. Tyla has been hitting up a bunch of the local secondhand shops finding some great fabrics and props. I “helped” by picking up a prop too: a John Deere truck. She’s found a lot of great items including heavy white and black fabric to use as a backdrop, and we’ve spent well under $100 in total.
  3. The internet is full of tips for newborn photography and we’ve got a pretty good list built up.
  4. Tyla has a Pinterest board full of newborn photos that she loves. I don’t have a “good eye” for baby photos, but I feel like given the right props, I can recreate just about any photo that she finds.

Maybe I’m overestimating my photo abilities, but our backup plan is that we rush out at the last minute and find a photographer who is available. We’ll end up spending extra money but this lens is something that we wanted anyway. So don’t worry, we know this is a bit insane and maybe we’ll regret it, but we’re heading in with a plan and I feel like we’ve got a good chance.

benmartens April 26, 2013 Commentary

GoPro Wireless BacPac

In an earlier post, I explained that my new skis were partially paid for by my company with a new part of our benefits package. You only get the credit if you decline the gym membership, and since the gym membership is quite a bit more money than the credit, I think HR wants more people to pick this credit. They recently contacted me (and some other people) about doing a short video on us and sending it out in a newsletter to all the employees. That in itself seemed pretty cool to me, but they also said they would send us GoPros to capture footage of us using whatever athletic equipment we bought with the credit.

My camera arrived in the mail, and while it wasn’t the new Hero3 model I was hoping for, it did come with the Wireless BacPac. There are a variety of BacPacs that you can attach to the back of the camera, and obviously this one provides wireless capabilities. You can connect to the camera via a phone app or a remote control (not included). It lets you control all the various settings of the camera as well as starting and stopping recording. If you’re using one of the phone apps, you can even see a live view of what the camera is seeing. This is incredibly useful for setting up shots since there is no viewfinder on the camera.

I was originally a little bummed about the wireless kit because GoPro currently only has an app for iPhone and Android. A Windows Phone app is supposed to be in the works and was demoed at CES, but it’s not out yet so it doesn’t do me much good. The wireless protocol must not be too difficult to decipher because there were a few homemade GoPro apps for Windows Phone and to my surprise, they actually work quite well. The UI design leaves something to be desired, but hey, it works. Basically you start up the wireless on the camera and it creates a WiFi network. You have to switch your phone to connect to that network and then you can communicate with the camera. The BacPac contains it’s own power source, but if it runs out then it will suck power from the main camera battery.

I was also able to try out the proper GoPro app for Android thanks to Ken. He traded me one of his old Android phones (HTC Thunderbolt) for one of my old Windows Phones (HTC Trophy.) And additionally I’m finally able to experience the world of Android.

As for the HR video, I’m hoping that when it’s completed, I can get a copy of it. But since it’s an internal video, I doubt I’ll ever be able to post it publically. It’s probably for the best. They want us to interview ourselves and no matter what I do, I end up looking like a complete tool. There’s a reason I prefer being behind the camera.

benmartens April 25, 2013 Gadgets

Gun Safe

With a munchkin arriving soon, I figured it would be a good idea to have the guns behind some kind of a lock. I don’t have anything special enough to worry about theft, so I went with a fairly inexpensive cabinet from Stack-On. Cabelas had it on sale so be sure to check them out.

The safe isn’t anything fancy, but it has room for eight guns as long as they aren’t too bulky and there’s a shelf on top. The bottom is padded and the barrel rests are made to not scratch your guns. The unit has a few points where it can be bolted to the walls and/or the floor. I thought that was just for security, so I didn’t care too much, but you really do need to bolt it in to keep it from falling over. The holes didn’t align with the studs so I drilled my own holes through the metal. It only took about 30 minutes to finish the assembly on the unit and get it installed.

It’s not going to keep out someone with a crowbar who’s really determined or anyone with the most basic lock picking skills, but it’s more than enough to keep a toddler from getting into it.

Additionally, I haven’t been blogging about one of my biggest recent projects, but let’s just say that I’ll be hooking the cabinet up to my new security system. So even if someone gets into the cabinet when I’m not around, they’re going to wish they hadn’t.

benmartens April 24, 2013 Home Improvement

Featured Application

I was perusing the Windows 8 store the other day and noticed that CascadeSkier is one of the featured applications in the sports section! After spending many months in the top five apps of that section and almost a perfect 5 star rating, it’s nice to get picked as one of the featured apps. I’m not in the top five any more as there are a bunch of team-specific soccer apps taking up those spots, but that’s kind of expected since ski season is winding down anyway. Over 1100 people downloaded the Windows 8 version of the app this winter and about a quarter of them purchased the app. The phone version did quite well too in it’s third season and sold over 500 copies. It’s not going to help me retire any sooner, but it’s still the only hobby I have that creates income!

benmartens April 23, 2013 Geek