Category Archives: Tech Gadgets

Free Motorcycle Weather App for Android

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There are folks who have no choice. They have one mode of transport and it is a motorcycle. They either ride in the rain or they stay put.

For those of us who have a choice, and who would prefer not to ride when the weather is at risk for deterioration, there’s the handy free Motorcycle Weather app for Android based smart phones.

For the last few years I’ve made it a habit to check the weather via my smartphone when I wake up each morning. If there’s more than a 30 per cent chance of rain, and/or wind gusts of more than 25 miles per hour, I drive the cage to work and leave my beloved Moon Shine in the garage.

It only takes a minute to read through the forecast, but when you’re running late a minute is frustrating. Last week I found a handy app that cuts that time down to about 3 seconds.

Motorcycle Weather allows you to preset your weather preferences (thresholds for comfortable riding, I call them) and checks the forecast for you. When you tap the Motorcycle Weather icon the app checks the forecast and if any of the predicted weather stats are not within your preferences it displays a large car icon, letting you know you should drive the car to work that day.

Conversely, if the weather is going to be within what you will tolerate, it displays a motorcycle icon.

No thinking, no mistaking tomorrow’s forecast for today’s, no misreading the temperature. It simply tells you to ride or not to ride with a single tap of its icon.

Foolproof, for people like me who never went to meteorology class.

And in case you want to see just how hardcore a rider I am, here are my preference settings:

Minimum low temp: 30 degrees – I know that’s below freezing, but in my region of Texas it’s got to be below freezing for a couple of days before anything really sticks other than on bridges.
Max high temp: 100 degrees (who am I kidding? I’d ride naked with 30 spf sunscreen above that)
Max chance of rain: 25%
Max wind: 40 MPH (My triumph Rocket III doesn’t blow all over the road like those tiny Harley baggers)

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Android App Calls Cavalry If You Crash

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Thanks to Doug at Forty Years on Two Wheels for this tidbit on an automatic crash reporting app for our Android phones.

RING…RING…

“Hello?”

“Help, I’ve fallen because my owner bi-sected a deer with his motorcycle at 90 miles per hour! He’s currently lying unconscious and bleeding in the bar ditch at latitude 32.212801, longitude -98.10791. Send an ambulance and a Gorilla Glass repair kit with a capacitive touch screen stylus, STAT!”

Imagine your phone automatically dialing up your spouse or buddies and saying that.

Well, it won’t actually describe the conditions or speak over the phone, but the CRADAR (for CRAsh Detection And Response) application will send a message to a mobile phone you specify stating that you may be in trouble along with your exact coordinates and a link to your location on Google maps.

Using the gyroscopic sensor in your Android smartphone, the app determines that a crash or fall may have occurred and immediately displays a prompt on it’s screen asking if you are okay.

If you don’t tap the “I’m Okay” button to abort the message, it sends the mayday call out automatically after a pre-configured number of seconds specified by you to a pre-configured mobile number specified by you.

Best of all, the app is free from the good folks at Actionxl.com.

While I have Google Latitude configured on my HTC Thunderbolt as a result of Robin having a difficult time tracking down which trauma center I was taken to after my November 2009 motorcycle crash, I now have the additional peace of mind that she’ll know even sooner if I come to a sudden stop. I can rest assured help is much more likely to be en route if I have hit that pesky deer on a dark and lonely road along the ridges of the Ozarks with nary another soul in sight.

This is one of those apps that will literally become a lifesaver for multiple people.

Want it?

Aim your Android phone’s bar code reader at the handy universal code image to the left or search for CRADAR in Android Marketplace.

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Give Linux a Chance

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May I digress from motorcycles, guns, and liberty for a moment to discuss operating systems?

Bill Gates is a very smart man.

Steve Jobs is a very smart man.

All those other guys and gals who have made killings off proprietary computer operating systems are very smart people.

Most of the world’s users may not be stupid, but I have to question why so many businesses and individuals continue to use an expensive, bloated, virus infested operating system like Windows when there are literally hundreds of Linux distributions that can be installed more efficiently and faster than Windows.

Linux distributions that require no anti-virus software, run faster and more efficiently, and that can have applications and updates installed without being rebooted.

Is it just that there’s no marketing for Linux? People just have no idea about how easy and efficient and stable it is because they’ve never heard about it?

Do yourself a favor:
Go to http://www.redhat.com/fedora and download a live cd image. Try it out for a day for free (or forever for free) and with no need to blow away your current beloved Windows installation. You might be very, very surprised at what hundreds of thousands of passionate volunteer developers can put together over twenty years vs. what a few dozen underpaid attrition-plagued Microsoft programming teams can do over the same period of time.

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Google Plus Reportedly Tops 18 Million Users

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According to another statistic I just made up from rumors I started, Google Plus has now topped 18 million users and it’s still in “invitation only” mode.

For the past several days I’ve had invitations to send…there does not seem to be a limit, so if you want one and I know who you are send a request to tim@4fraziers.com and I’ll shoot an invite to you as long as I have them available.

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Bilt Evaporative Cooling Vest for Texas Summer Rides

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Bilt Evaporative Cooling Vest

Growing up in Greenville, Texas, just a hundred miles or so west of the louisiana swamplands, my first 14 years or so were spent in a house that had box fans and a lone refrigerator sized “swamp cooler” for summer climate control.

The “swamp cooler” is a poor man’s version of the air conditioner. It lowers the air temperature by blowing air through a mesh that is constantly being soaked by water. The evaporation causes the air to cool and if you sit right in front of the thing you’ll eventually be soaking wet, but you’ll be a little cooler. Just don’t try to keep an open bag of chips or soda crackers crispy for more than thirty minutes in the house while the swamp cooler is running. And plan on the salt becoming one big rock inside the shaker.

The evaporative cooling vest from Bilt works on the same principle. Soak it in water for a couple of minutes, blot it dry, put it on under your mesh jacket and ride. As long as you’re moving and air is hitting the vest it will feel like your torso is being exposed to an air conditioner.

When you stop for a couple of minutes it loses a lot of it’s cooling effect, and despite it’s claim that it’s protective inside layer will keep your shirt dry you will find that some dampness finds it’s way to your shirt and skin. But it’s just water, and for thirty bucks (on sale now at Cycle Gear) it can’t be expected to be perfect.

I found it slightly disconcerting to have the contrast between hot arms, neck, and head while my ribs were chilling, but it was much better than being hot all over.

The Bilt cooling vest works very well, and I feel it was worth more than the thirty bucks I paid for it.

Tip: If you buy one, be sure and get a size that fits snug. It needs to be in contact with your body to work, and will have little effect if there’s a pocket of air insulating it from you.

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