Posted: July 30th, 2009 | Author: Anuradha Uduwage | Filed under: Cycling | Tags: Cycling, Trek | No Comments »
Getting ready for Saturday Tour De Tonka 75 mile bike ride. Did a 30 mile ride starting from my apartment and got into Regional Trail and rode to downtown Minneapolis and came back via same route. It was a good fast ride since pretty much entire route was a flat one. Last week I did a tune up on my Trek and this is the third ride I am doing after the tune and bike sounds excellent
If you would like to check out the ride, here you go, Enjoy
View Ride to Downtown Mpls in a larger map
Posted: July 30th, 2009 | Author: Anuradha Uduwage | Filed under: Microsoft, Tech and CS, Technology | Tags: Microsoft | No Comments »
Day after Microsoft release Bing Search Engine or as they call it decision engine I put it bing to test. Search was ok but I didn’t find it smarter than Google, then I checked the Maps option and it was horrible. But its been few weeks and today I went to bing after I saw its travel option on the television addvertisment. And let me tell you its impressive and I think its one step ahead Google. So this is what I did, I just typed
Bing Search Box
on the search box, and following result shows up as the first result among many others.
Bing Travel Prediction
. I would say up to this stage Google and Bing are neck to neck on this but after you click above option Bing kicks to the next gear like Alberto Contador climb mountains by dancing on his saddle. Yeap, as person who is in the field of HCI and Data Mining, I was very impressed on what I saw in bing. It has predictions on ticket prices such as if they were to stay steady or to go up. Yes it says that
Note that deals are compiled on yesterday’s lowest airfares and can change often.
but its still ahead Google at least on this matter.
Not only that it gives nice graphical representation of the price fluctuation along with the prediction of the price with respect the date.
So, its True that this is no ordinary search engine, but Machine Learning at its best. So if I was Google I would be bit worried about bing. Google as new era technology company had the advantage of learning from all the mistakes made my giants like Microsoft, Yahoo, etc. But I guess for the first time, Microsoft using it potential and capability and thinking out of the box. And the best thing is they are simply try to match everything that Google does where they have been doing it for the past decade. I am not a big Microsoft fan but I have to give props for this to Microsoft, Bravo.
Posted: July 21st, 2009 | Author: Anuradha Uduwage | Filed under: Cycling, Its all about me | Tags: Trek | No Comments »
Yesterday, I was doing my regular ride around Lake Medicine, I had already completed 2/3 of the ride. If I had to take a guess, I think I had about 3 miles from the place where my tire got punch to my apartment. Rear tire of my Trek 1000, 2007. I didn’t have repair kit or cartridge to pump and see what really happened luckily I met two gentlemen who were riding (Laszlo, Former Pro-rider/ Dave) and they helped me by providing their extra tubes and helped me to get the bike on road in no time. If it wasn’t for them I would be walking with clip-on shoes for about three miles.
Nike t-Speed
Posted: July 20th, 2009 | Author: Anuradha Uduwage | Filed under: Cycling | Tags: Alberto Contador, Lance Armstrong, Tour De France | No Comments »
What a sweet ride by Alberto Contador, If you are a cyclist or a cycling fan, its really hard not to love this guys riding style. He gets up in the saddle and ride mountain stages as if riding on a flat stage. Ever since Lance retired I have been supporting Contador, but this year I am behind both Lance and Contador and hope the best man out of two will hold on to “maillot jaune” (Yellow Jersey in French). I got so much respect and admiration for Lance Armstrong. I don’t think anyone can do what he is doing right now, to be out of the game for four years and then come back and ride the way he did tells us that he is a super human. At age 37 he did mountain finish at 9th position, and some of the younger rides couldn’t even finish it within qualification time to stay on the race.
Posted: July 16th, 2009 | Author: Anuradha Uduwage | Filed under: Dribble and Shoot | Tags: Lakers, NBA | No Comments »
As a Laker fan I hate to see young talent get slip away from Laker Locker room. I hate Ron Artest but thats a different story, beside that I think it was a bad deal for Lakers in the long run. He had the potential to be a franchise face for Lakers. I think entire story was controlled by Ariza’s agent. It was all agent not willing to agree for little bit less money. When you compare the two deal it was not much different.
This is where you can test real ethics and moral behind a basketball player even though we all know all these players only care about Green. If you take a look at Ariza’s basketball career, He was a part of the deal that happen with Orlando and when you compare Ariza with the names in that deal (Brain Cook & Evens, I think), Lakers made Ariza’s career from just another NBA player to high paying NBA basketball Player. Lakers cant take the entire credit but its substantial enough. So, Ariza should have the decency to agree for a smaller deal and stay with Lakers because having the opportunity to win his second NBA Championship ring is priceless.
Posted: July 12th, 2009 | Author: Anuradha Uduwage | Filed under: Cycling, Food | Tags: Cycling | No Comments »
It was a perfect weekend. Since weather was perfect so I had to kick off the weekend with a nice long ride. Completed 24 mile ride on Saturday, this time I rode on Luce trail came back and took the turn towards to the Medicine Lake and went around Medicine Lake. Did some laps in the pool for about hour. On Sunday, ran for 4 miles, did some upper body workout and did grilling out side my apartment with my good friend. Yummy, Chicken burgers
Yummy
Posted: July 10th, 2009 | Author: Anuradha Uduwage | Filed under: Cycling | Tags: Cycling, Trek | 3 Comments »
Started from out side of my apartment, and ride along the Luce Line Trail and went around Medicine Lake and got in to Chippewa Trail. Overall it was mostly hills so I was able to test my climbing ability. One thing I realize during flat areas, looks like I need take the bike (Trek 1000)
My Bike Colors are Orange and Yellow
for a tuneup because when I am on my higher gear its making a noice, I may be wrong my be great wheels need some adjustments.
View Ride around Lake Medicine, Chippewa Trail, Luce Trail in a larger map
Posted: July 8th, 2009 | Author: Anuradha Uduwage | Filed under: Tech and CS, Technology | Tags: Google | No Comments »
Everyday I login to Gmail, everyday I see the beta sign along with the Google Gmail logo. I always wondered, Are they really going to do release this beyond Beta or is it Google’s way of staying out of reliability issue saying that, “Sorry guys we can’t guarantee your emails are safe with us” (As if Google had any down time in their history – respect to Search engine).
Gmail out of Beta
But Today, I saw something different, when I logged in No Beta sign along with the Google Gmail Logo, I thought something wrong. But it was same for my calendar so looks like Google has finally out of its Beta cave.
Posted: July 7th, 2009 | Author: Anuradha Uduwage | Filed under: Cycling | Tags: Cycling, Trek | No Comments »
This is my first summer in Plymouth, MN Technically second summer but I moved to Plymouth last year End of August so in Minnesota we call it that is end of Summer. So, I recently explore some bike trails out around lake Medicine and it great. Today after hard day at work I got on my saddle and took a ride along the Luce Line Trail.
View Short Ride after Work in a larger map
I was riding with my friend and she doesn’t do well when it comes to climbing so had to cut the ride in half and return (hope she wont hit me with her bike).
Posted: July 7th, 2009 | Author: Anuradha Uduwage | Filed under: Cycling | Tags: Cycling, Lance Armstrong, Tour De France | No Comments »
As I mentioned in my previous post Lance is back and his back in fashion. It was so great to see Team Time Trial Back in Tour De France. Every one know that on Paper Team Astana has the best team but they proved it today that they are not just good in paper but also on the road. Lance did lead the team during the most of the technical course of todays ride and it paid off. It was a fabulous ride to watch. I have been watching Tour De France from 2001 and have never seen someone missing a Yellow Jersey with such a small time gap.
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