Archives for 2008
It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since Dan Osman passed away while rope jumping in Yosemite at the Leaning Tower rock formation. I recall reading the rope he used was left out in the rain or snow and may have contributed to the equipment failure. Dan lived a pretty nontraditional life, often living [...]
Many moons ago I wrote about the Airpod, a device you wear while snowboarding that measures hang time while pulling airs. Now an application for the iPhone does that and adds a few more bells and whistles to boot. HangTimer for the iPhone uses the iPhone’s accelerometer and “hairy math” to calculate air time from [...]
Tides don’t affect the breaks I surf all that much, but at my favorite spot, low slack tide (between low tide and when the incoming tide starts) is probably slightly better. That’s all the reason I needed to go out and plunk $95 on a new Quicksilver Moodak watch. Even though I carry my iPhone [...]
Surfing in the Northeast really picks-up in the Fall, with better wind direction for most breaks and storms that kick-up the swell to head / overhead conditions. To enjoy the quality surf, you have to endure the elements. When I decided to buy the O’neill Mutant 4/3, I chose it for it’s reputation for comfort [...]
We had a beautiful weekend here in New England. On Saturday a friend and I headed to the beach with our families with no expectation other than to paddle and keep fit for an anticipated swell later this week. We headed directly out to a point several hundred yards offshore and watched the blues feed, [...]
After nearly 20 years of research I finally bought a new surfboard – a 9′ Infinity Rad NoseRider. While not exactly a gadget, there is plenty of technology at work here worth mentioning. For starters the Rad NoseRider (heretofore known as the RNR) can be configured as a single fin or [3 fin] cluster. With [...]
Bitness went on hiatus this Summer, but only we sort of didn’t intend it to last the entire Summer. Bitness was hacked by some crackers who had nothing better to do than waste our time and piss us off. After tediously extracting all the evil scripts that littered the majority of posts, deleting rouge directories [...]
Man vs. Wild star Bear Grylls is no doubt a surviver. Consumption of live snakes, sheep’s eyeballs, decomposing Zebra, still-warm Yak livers and worse, but a man’s gotta eat! He free-solos cliffs, wrestles wild beasts, drinks from elephant dung… face it, the man survives. Certainly Bear doesn’t need to risk life and limb by down-climbing [...]
Life takes hold and just zips by. I turned 40 on the 11th and realize I’m starting to slip. Can someone please tell me what the hell The Hills is and who these plastic people are? I don’t know anything on regular radio anymore – it’s all classic rock for this old man. Work is [...]
Yeah, we missed the whole damn month. But to be fair it was only 30 days long so… We appreciate the patience (and encouragement), so stay tuned! Posted by: The Slackers
When the Nike+ system came out a few years ago I had a hard time buying one for myself since I had just purchased my second Garmin Forerunner. But clever me, I magnanimously bought one for my wife, also a runner, for our 10th anniversary. I like to run with music, but early-on Nike announced [...]
For a company as secretive as Apple, it has to be frustrating for Apple that the Cindy Brady of the Web, the US Patent Office, makes it fairly simple to find and view patent filings online. AppleInsider did a little digging and revealed Apple’s patent filings to develop a digital lifestyle fitness companion. Plans include [...]
With Spring around the corner and very little winter training under my Fuel Belt (I run some maintenance miles but I’m not a fan of the treadmill), it’s time to think about getting back into running shape. As a long time Runner’s World reader, I’ve read numerous articles on training and performance that assume I [...]
It’s been a while since we’ve written a survival post. To be honest, it’s been a while since we’ve written any post, but that’s the price we pay when working for the man. Survival situations are essentially wort-case scenarios. How you play them out is often times a matter of life and death. A site [...]
Every once in a while, we all get an itchy asshole. It’s nature, don’t deny it. Usually the yen to satisfy this itch is at work. We pretend to shift in our chairs to get comfortable, when really we’re just stealthily trying to rub-out that itch. What if I were to tell you there is [...]
Back in November I told readers about the new climbing soft goods company VLINE Climbing, which was started by an old climbing buddy of mine Brandon Gonsalves. Most climbers I know are frustrated by the lack-of-quality some of the larger name climbing gear companies are putting out. With VLINE you get what you pay for [...]
I saw this a few months ago but still keep it bookmarked and watch it every-so-often. So why not share? Posted by: Frank
One of the main reasons I like to run is to shed the stress of work. But if you’re different and want to keep on working right through your workout, check out the StepDesk. Keep in mind you can only go 2 miles per hour (about 200 calories per hour) when using the StepDesk. For [...]
Mountain Hardware’s Red Savina Heated Glove reacts to the temperature of the hand to maintain a comfortable climate. The light and flexible heating layer is housed in a protective polyurethane film within the glove. The system is made up of three lightweight, low profile and flexible lithium polymer batteries, each weighing about a quarter ounce [...]
A few of us at Bitness HQ have been told that someone learned of a product on Bitness and bought it as a result of our recommendation. So here we are in phase 3 of operation money grab (or didn’t you notice the Gadget Funds Generator?) to announce the arrival of the Bitness Gear Barn, [...]
Timex has introduced a few watches that allow the wearer to control their iPod. The Timex Ironman iControl and Timex Midsize Ironman iControl communicate to a receiver plugged into the iPod (like the Nike+ device). Not only aesthetically pleasing, the iControl watches have resin wrist bands to ensure they stay put and resist damage from [...]
You may not know it by name, but you’ve all seen and marveled at the art of Parkour. If you saw the new version of Casino Royale or Live Free or Die Hard, you’ve seen Parkour. The main premise of Parkour is for the practitioners (called traceurs, or traceuses for women) to get from point-to-point, [...]
Fire, shelter and water are essential in any terrestrial survival situation. When it comes to fire there is an art to getting one started with available resources (sticks, glass, flint, etc). Shelter is a little easier if you know where and how to create it. Potable water is perhaps the most elusive of the three, [...]
The Potenco Pull-Cord Generator (PCG) looks like a deranged Yo-Yo with a mouth piece. But put it in the palm of one hand and with your other pull the cord and you’re a one man or woman power plant. The PCG can charge your cell phone, radio, camera, GPS, PDA and other portable battery-powered devices [...]
