15 June 2003

To RSS or not to RSS My Radio Userland license comes up for renewal real soon. The software's been good, I think the site looks nice and I like the ease of posting. But the reality is that the RSS side is overkill - I don't think anyone is subscribed to my site. This is mainly because HG pilots have better things to do (flying) than browse their news readers. I rarely look at mine; and there aren't any other flying RSS blogs to my knowledge. (The OZ Report is a blog of sorts, but it's pushed rather than pulled.) So this blog is in fact "just" a web site. Do I really need RSS? (Basically, no) Do I need RadioUserland to host it? (Not if I don't need RSS) I think I'll go with it one more year and try and get my site hosted elsewhere. This doesn't mean blogs aren't useful or RSS a waste of time. But I can't see this being used in industry since it's too open, to personal, not groupware, not controlled. Groove would be way ahead, I guess. comment [] 3:16:39 PM     Brauniger Compeo Davis has been reviewing the Brauniger Compeo. He's pretty positive, although it seems a mite-complicated. But my biggest dismay upon seeing it was the size. Huge. Brick. Admittedly, it's smaller than your average streamlined pod with vario and GPS. And maybe simpler, unit-wise. But why not have a Dell Axion on your base bar, bluetooth GPS inside the wing, and some solar cells on the top of the wing? Or at very least on top of your harness? Putting the GPS there keeps bulk out of the air flow, and you can have nearly everything you need on the Axion, which is maybe 1/4 of the size of the Compeo. Add a Brauniger Sonic for audio (or a Solex), and you're away. Trouble is, the two packages I've seen (WinPilot and another one, can't recall the name) seem too focused on the demands of sailplanes and not really relevant to our stuff. In fact, I've got everything - for XC, maybe not for competition - I need on my Garmin eTrex Vista except the vertical speed averaged. If I could have that, then I'd drop my Flytec 4005... and just go with the Sonic and the Vista. In a way, having full on board calculation of Macready speeds would be cool, but what real value? Air is so rarely that stable, I'm still flying by experience and gut feeling to do more than speed up in headwinds and sink and slow down in lift and tail winds. I've still only got <5kph difference in SeeYou stats on climbing and gliding...    comment [] 3:11:06 PM

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