The spare tire around my middle has expanded to a maximum allowable level! After a multi-year hiatus, I started running again a few weeks ago. I really want to keep it going and make it a regular activity. I used an old pair of Nike running shoes, which were fine except being just a little broken down. After the first few runs they started wheezing due to an apparent pop of the air chamber, so I decided to buy some new running shoes.

On Saturday I tried on a bunch of shoes at one of the local sports stores and found a pair that felt good... nice and soft with lots of cushion... they way shoes are supposed to feel, right? I came home, went for a run, and within 5 minutes had terrible pain in my calves and feet. The pain continued and was so bad that I had to ice my feet and calves later that evening. This is exactly the opposite of my expectation for a "shiny new shoes" experience.

I started doing research on the Internet, trying to figure out what kind of shoe I should buy, thinking that the pain *must* be due to my choosing the wrong kind of shoe for my foot. I have a high arch and think I have a tendency to over-pronate. The shoes I had purchased were supposed to be ok for this. I became discouraged. However, during my research I stumbled onto some barefoot running sites. The concept of mid-foot strike rather than heel strike really clicked with me. I tested this in the back yard, running around barefooted and had no pain whatsoever. The fact that native peoples have been running long distances barefoot or in minimalist footwear for thousands of years also struck me as significant (see the sites below for lots of information and references).

I returned the big cushioned running shoes in favor the Nike Free Run+. These were the only "barefoot" shoe available at our local sports store (I was eager to get running again and was not ready to go completely shoe-free).

On Tuesday I started alternating between running barefoot and shod with the Nike Free Run+. These shoes are very light, easy to carry, and do not require socks so I can just stop and slip them on if needed. They do feel like they have arch support, which I think my feet appreciate until the foot muscles get stronger. Here is a picture of my Nike Free Run+ shoes:

Here are some running links (most of these are on barefoot running):

http://thatlinuxbox.com/blog/links/in...7094146194

Dealing with proprietary software (especially buggy proprietary software, proprietary software where the company has disappeared and released no source code, proprietary software where the company has just decided to kill off the product for marketing reasons and released no source code, proprietary software licensing, proprietary software license key activation, difficult license renewal processes, license management servers that inappropriately lock the customer out of the software, etc.) can occasionally put me in a foul mood.

Over the weekend I found some images that are fitting for such occasions...

(Proprietary Software Toilet Paper)


(Proprietary Software in Quarantine)



NOTE: Images originally found at http://www.openstickers.com/ with the following license:
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Copyright 2006-2007, Javier A. Albusac Jiménez
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this book and associated files, to deal in the book without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the book, and to permit persons to whom the book is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or different versions of the book and inside images.
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The Alachua County Friends of the Library spring book sale has come and gone.  I love that sale!  I had my Droid with me so I could look up book reviews using the Amazon shopping app for each book before buying... thus I bought a few more books than last time.  Monday through Wednesday were very convenient for me since I work just down the street from the sale.

I think I only spent about twenty bucks total.  I was happy to pick up some copies of books that I had already read but did not own.  I also found a few books that I had on my reading list to watch out for.

The most interesting looking titles (that is, the titles themselves were interesting) were Great Mambo Chicken & the Transhuman Condition and The Millennial Project - Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps.

Here is the complete list of the books I bought at the sale:

Our digital media collection was ready to exceed the disk space of the old home file server. For the past few years I used a small, quiet, low-power PC to function as the home file server, print server, and staging/Intranet web server. This machine was powered by a Via C3 Samuel 2 processor and just couldn't keep up anymore. Most of the current Linux distributions are not compatible with that processor. I also wanted to get a faster computer in the house to make video transcoding less painful. I decided to solve all of these issues by buying an all-new Shuttle Small Form Factor (SFF) computer to be the file server and also function as our media player / HTPC (Home Theater PC).

Our home network consists of Linux, Mac, and Windows client computers. I bought a Samsung ML-2571N network laser printer for 70 dollars from http://geeks.com to eliminate the need for a separate print server computer. This printer is SO FAST and works with all three platforms. My Linux desktop computer has a color printer/scanner attached to it so if we do need to scan or print in color we just power on the desktop computer. Eliminating the print server functionality allowed me to put the new server in the entertainment center.

Our digital movies and music are now right there with the sound system and HDTV. The new machine allows us to watch full-screen flash video (such as Hulu.com). Video transcoding is about four times faster on the new server than my desktop computer (which I described in My Home Desktop Computer Runs Linux ).

Here are the specs of the new Server / Home Theater PC (HTPC):

Another festival... another bottle of hot sauce. I bought this one at the 1st Annual Melrose Butterfly Festival. Kato's Island Sauce with Habanero & Mango is sweet, spicy, and delicious! It was great on chicken, steak, and black bean burgers.