Jill and Eric Penne

You’ve probably guessed that gold-plated cables for your home theater are entirely unnecessary. Still, there must be some small quality difference for all that price, right? Mint.com’s blog lays out the answer: No, not at all. More »

This is not an original post by Eric and may not contain all the text. Click here for the full article.

Do you know anything about the Linn County Trails Association? Ever heard of it? Do you use the trails in Linn County, Iowa?

To get the answers to those questions, and a few others, LCTA is asking for your help. Just click here and complete the survey. It’s that simple.

Thanks!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Help pave the Cedar Valley Nature Trail (bjsmith.wordpress.com)
• Cycling group will match gifts for trail work, STR signs (bjsmith.wordpress.com)

This is not an original post by Eric and may not contain all the text. Click here for the full article.

Shared by NoyzSource

What a maroon.

Iowa Representative Latham suggested that “real transportation needs” were being swept aside when funding is spent on bicycling and walking.
This is not an original post by Eric and may not contain all the text. Click here for the full article.

I am typing this post with a digital TV antenna stuck in my ear, and all because nobody told me that this wasn’t the right way to install it. Ow! Apparently Antennas Direct of Missouri knows that there are people like me out there, because they’ve included some very specific warnings on their installation instructions (PDF). (Thanks to Billy!)

This is not an original post by Eric and may not contain all the text. Click here for the full article.

Epic, Kludge, Photo – Latest In Hobo Transportation
This is not an original post by Eric and may not contain all the text. Click here for the full article.

This is not an original post by Eric and may not contain all the text. Click here for the full article.

LG enV3 VX9200 phone power off shut down problem.

My phone has been randomly powering off for about a year. Everything on the web says it’s software, hardware, and various things fix it.

I normally store my phone in my jeans pocket which gets pushed, squeezed, twisted, and lots of different pressures during the course of my day. I would pull my phone out and realize it was shut off. I found that if I pushed on the battery near the bottom of the phone (close to charger connector) the phone would shut off instantly. My solution was to put sticky notes between the battery and the phone.

1) Remove battery.
2) Put 10 sticky notes in the battery slot. No folding, cut to size. Don’t cover the metal springy contacts.
3) Try to reinsert battery. It shouldn’t require a large squeeze to get it to latch.
4) If it is too hard to latch remove a sticky note and try again.

I kept going until I had 6 sticky notes in there. Now when I push on the battery it doesn’t shut off the phone. I think that solved my problem. Your mileage may vary.
This is not an original post by Eric and may not contain all the text. Click here for the full article.

They sure torque ‘em up over at Gaskill’s Hop Shop. Check out these rat rod inspired bike mods. They may not be built for speed, but they sure look like it. [via bikejuju]

Read more | Permalink | Comments |

Read more articles in Bicycles |

Digg this!
This is not an original post by Eric and may not contain all the text. Click here for the full article.

When Pat and Tamara Thomas moved to Cedar Rapids from Des Moines in 2007, they brought Farrell’s eXtreme Bodyshaping with them.

Just three years ago, the couple was making their annual holiday treks from Des Moines to Cedar Rapids and Mason City to visit family, says Tamara, when her husband turned to her and asked, “What do you think about opening a Farrell’s?”

She knew what the program had done for Pat, and how passionate he was about it.

“Seeing him go through the transformation was eye-opening. He was always athletic – even running marathons – but he liked to eat,” laughs Tamara. During the 10-week program, Pat lost 30 pounds. Four weeks later, he had dropped another 30.

So the couple took a risk. They stepped out of their successful IT careers and expanded Farrell’s beyond Des Moines, where the chain started less than 10 years ago, to Cedar Rapids.

“Pat believed in it, so we never looked back,” says Tamara. “When we first came to Cedar Rapids, Pat taught the 5 and 6 a.m. classes, then went to work (remotely for his job in Des Moines), then taught the 5:30 p.m. class. When you start, there’s no cleaning crew or anything – it was all Pat,” she laughs.

She admits that it was challenging, especially with a young family (they have three boys and one on the way).

“But any business, starting out, is challenging,” she says.

The interest they saw in the program made it worthwhile though.

“We could see people making progress and getting results, and that alleviated our doubts,” she says.

Today they own four Farrell’s locations in Eastern Iowa.

Based on kickboxing, resistance training and nutrition, the 10-week class is offered four times a year (check out The Farrell’s Workout, below, for more info).

To emphasize an “if-he-can-do-it, so-can-I” way of thinking, instructors are former Farrell’s “graduates.”

“Because our participants are diverse, there’s going to be at least one instructor they can relate to,” says Tamara.

Farrell’s also emphasizes a lifestyle change versus a quick fix. Bonus: There’s a $1,000 incentive for the best-faring male and female participants.

“People see results and changes,” says Tamara.

After the 10-week course, participants can continue with Farrell’s as part of its FIT, Farrell’s Infinite Transformation, program; 75 percent choose to do so.

But Pat and Tamara’s concern isn’t that people stick with Farrell’s. Instead it’s that they do something to maintain the lifestyle they created when they joined Farrell’s.

“When you’re done here, maybe you join a gym or you start running. Farrell’s is a kick start to a lifestyle change, whatever that may be. We want people to keep it going,” says Tamara.

— LEAH

The Farrell’s Workout

The 10-week program is offered in the winter, spring, summer, and fall. Participants are evaluated three times (via a photo, a one-mile walk/run, a weigh-in, a body-fat assessment, and body measurements). The first assessment comes at the beginning; the second happens at week five, minus the photo; the third is at the end.

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are dedicated to kickboxing. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays focus on weight resistance. Nutrition is covered throughout the 10 weeks. “The nutrition program isn’t a fad or something you have trouble maintaining,” says Tamara. Farrell’s emphasizes balanced, healthy meals made with everyday food items.

Each class has room for about 45 people. Those 45 are split into groups of 5 to 10 and assigned to a coach who answers questions, provides recipe ideas, offers fitness tips, etc.

Find Farrell’s

576 Boyson Rd. NE, Ste 108

Cedar Rapids

(319) 362-0075

5761 C St. SW

Cedar Rapids

(319) 841-2233

5240 Edgewood Rd. NE

Cedar Rapids

(319) 832-0000

2761 Oakdale Blvd.

Coralville

(319) 626-2285

Shape Up for Summer

As the weather warms up, keep these tips in mind as you start or continue with your fitness routine:

• Take a cold shower before you exercise. A cool down will improve fitness performance in the heat. If a cold shower won’t fly, try an ice pack on your neck instead.

• Stay away from asphalt and gravel. Walk, run, and bike on dirt or gravel to stay cooler. Or swim!

• Use peppermint or eucalyptus oil on the back of your neck and your temples before you exercise outside to cool you off and open nasal passages, making it easier to breathe in humidity.

• Don’t forget about all the activities you can do now for exercise that you couldn’t a few months ago: wash the car, pull some weeds, throw a Frisbee with your kids, play badminton with your neighbors, walk your dog, or mow your lawn.

This is not an original post by Eric and may not contain all the text. Click here for the full article.

Gandalf took some time off and traveled the country, wound up in California, got really into the atmosphere there, found out they had medical marijuana, discovered longboarding, and pretty much forgot all about those little hobbits.

California

This is not an original post by Eric and may not contain all the text. Click here for the full article.

Shared by NoyzSource

IPad competitor? OMAP3 running some Open Source OS. Very nice. I think I want one.

Always Innovating: Introducing the Touch Book
This is not an original post by Eric and may not contain all the text. Click here for the full article.

This is not an original post by Eric and may not contain all the text. Click here for the full article.

Shared by NoyzSource

Tech centers at churches teach computer skills to the poor. This is how it should be done.

Aaron wasn't much interested in what his friends were doing.  They were busy trying to choose a game to play on agame.com.  Aaron wasn't having any of it.  He stood beside me as I coaxed the wireless connection to life on another machine and asked me if there were any math games.

Arron is 7.

The Little Ebenezer Baptist Church in Hutto Texas is the newest home to a HeliOS Project Linux Learning Center.  The center is built in a small church annex but all area children are allowed to use the computers, regardless of their affiliation.  Skip Guenter Our Director of System Engineering is the driving force behind  making this happen…because as it happens, Hutto is his home.  Skip knows who is in  need in Hutto and he saw to it that need was met.  While it isn't anywhere near our biggest project, it is going to have an impact.

“Are there any math games in that computer sir?”

You bet there are Aaron.

Skip is working with the manager of the Annex to arrange weekly classes for local people who want to learn how to use a computer.  From what we have seen at The Bruno Knaapen Center, we will have equal numbers of adults to kids.

That’s fine with us.

                                                                         
While most children Aaron's age are more than happy to make bunnies jump over mushrooms and race little cars around a flash-based gamescreen, kids like Aaron inspire us to get stuff like this done.  As of now, there are only 4 machines in this center.  Judging from the competition between kids vying for computer time, I'm thinking we might have to adjust some table space and install two more.  That will take up the remaining space comfortably available for machines there.

Flash back 60 minutes that same evening…

The Bruno Knaapen Technology learning Center is a hub of activity for us on Wedensday nights.  That is the night our Directors go there to teach basic computer and Internet skills to those who need to learn them.  Most of our students are Hispanic and not native English-speakers so we rely upon the good nature of Christine and Ceasar Collazo to translate our lessons into Spanish in real time.  Non-English speakers are clustered into groups of three to make it easier to teach.

It gets interesting to say the least.

Tom King, our Network Director is currently working with Caesar and Christina in setting up a project for the summer to teach kids to build their own computers.  We've had a great response from some of the parents in the area for Tom's idea.  As Linux Against Poverty 2010 enters it’s hard planning stage, we are hoping to have plenty of machines to work with for this project.

As of now, we are critically low of both machines and funding so any further efforts are going to rely upon the good nature of this community to get it done.  While we have no shortage of grants that now want to pay for vechicles, office space and computers for our administrative use, we are finding it difficult to nail down funding for day-to-day operations.  We don't want to apply for grants for things we already have…that just makes those resources unavailable to someone that really needs them.  We already have the things they are offering.  If you can give us a hand, it would be greatly appreciated.  As of now, we are to a point where we just can't do much more without some help.

I will be meeting with Lynn Bender, the creator and force behind Linux Against Poverty this week.  Once we get some things ironed out, I will publish the information here.  We already have a greater number of volunteers to man the triage and repair tables than last year.  Of course, our goal is 100 computers more than the 200 we put into service from Linux Against Poverty 2009.

…And that’s a good thing.

All-Righty Then

This is not an original post by Eric and may not contain all the text. Click here for the full article.