A Leslie Wong Blog

VeloNews and other major media have stories on Jan Ullrich’s retirement from cycling today.

Ullrich is one of the great riders of cycling’s current era. He was frequently a threat to Lance Armstrong in many of Armstrong’s Tour de France victories. Ullrich won the TDF in 1997 and finished second five times to Armstrong.

Ullrich’s other major victories were a Gold medal at the 2000 Olympic Road Race, a Silver medal in the 2000 Olympic Time Trial, a victory at the 1997 Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain), two wins of the Tour de Suisse (Tour of Switzerland) and two (1999, 2001) UCI World Time Trial Championships.

I’m sure the sloppy sample collection and the inconsistent scientific testing procedures done in the name of “fairness” by the World Anti-Doping Agency and their regional organizations in professional cycling have had an affect on Ullrich’s decision.

Having unproven accusations of doping have negatively affected the careers of many other athletes in cycling (and other sports), e.g. Floyd Landis, the current 2006 Tour de France title holder.

(Photo courtesy www.janullrich.de)

If you still work in an analog mode and use Post-its as reminders to do things, download this template from Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio at Outdra.ws, print a few Post-its, get your Sharpie out and start reminding your own self. (via lifehacker)

It turns out those leftover slices still sitting in the box on your coffee table from that pizza you got delivered, should have been thrown out a long time ago, but those steaks in the freezer are good for 6-12 months.

At Makezine.com’s Tools-N-Tips, there was a link to AlgerWiki, containing a good reference to expiration dates for food items.

(The link no longer works September 23, 2009; here is Google’s cache of the page)

The second annual Amgen Tour of California started in San Francisco yesterday with the prologue running from the Ferry Building to Coit Tower.

Unfortunately, last year’s winner and 2006 Tour de France champion, Floyd Landis, will not be riding in this year’s Tour (both), but you can follow the teams in the peloton virtually, in real time, thanks to CSC’s Omnilocation and Google Earth.

Seven riders, plus the lead vehicle and broom wagon will carry a small GPS tracker. Using dynamic mapping developed by CSC, cycling fans to track racers and the peloton using Google Earth. This is a link to the Google Earth tracker and this is a link at CSC’s web site using Google maps.

If you want to try repairing your LCD display, you can check the Google or view my experiences with an HP f1703. There are over a hundred comments too, many people are successful, some aren’t.

If you’ve given up, Luke Sluder recycled his display like this. (via Make: Blog: Why throw stuff out?).

Today’s (Feb 5, 2007) news update at Macwindows.com (http://www.macwindows.com/) has a link to a freeware java app, HFSExplorer 0.11, written by Eric Larsson, that allows Windows users (e.g., Boot Camp) to access Mac OS Extended (HFS+) volumes.

read more | digg story

I’ve been eating Kraft Macaroni & Cheese since I was in elementary school. Over the years, (since I think I can cook, some things) I’ve tried to make more elaborate Mac and Cheese recipes.

In my recipe folder I have 7 recipes for Mac and Cheese that I must have got some positive response from (Kenny NLP). They range from Top Secret Recipes’ KFC Macaroni and Cheese – which used to be free :( – to a Gourmet Magazine Spicy Macaroni and Cheese, with Jack, Cheddar, Parmesan, Plum tomatoes and jalapeno chilies among other things.

I’ve seen some recipes that incorporated a Bechamel sauce and cheese – a Mornay sauce (give me a break). For me, it comes down to liking Best Foods Mayonnaise (I grew up west of the Rockies) over real mayonnaise. Or New York pizza – the place you like is where you ate all the time.

The reason I’m writing now is because tonight, I had a Kraft Shrek Macaroni & Cheese Dinner. I was curiously unsatisfied. When l looked at the box, which is the same physical size as a regular Macaroni & Cheese Dinner – The Cheesiest, I found a 25% difference in weight.

The discrepancy was 1.75 oz. The Shrek box’s net weight was 5.5 oz./156g. The normal Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Dinner, The Cheesiest, net weight is 7.25 oz./205.53g. So my Shrek Macaroni & Cheese was approximately 3/4 of the regular Macaroni & Cheese Dinner – The Cheesiest. It’s like the No wonder I’m still hungry.