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O2 Pay & Go with an iPhone

So I’m working in London for the week and decided to pick up an O2 Pay & Go SIM card to save a bit of money over AT&T’s roaming charges.

Picking up the SIM card was easy at a Carphone Warehouse but the sales rep was useless so I ended up doing all the work myself. First off I changed to the Text & Web tariff to get free texts and 3G access when I top up £15 or more only to find out that it takes up to 48 hours to switch tariffs.

Once my tariff finally got switched over and I tried to use 3G on my iPhone I kept getting a message box telling me that I wasn’t subscribed to 3G Network Access. After a quick bit of Googling I found out that the default Carrier config (carrier bundle) on the iPhone is set to use the regular O2 APN (Access Point Name) and not the Pay and Go one. Essentially you have to update the Carrier Bundle on your phone to use payandgo.o2.co.uk instead of idata.o2.co.uk and then enjoy your 3G.

Vibram Five Fingers

I’ve needed a new pair of every day shoes to replace my tattered old NewBalance MR1224’s and three weeks ago I decided to hit up ZombieRunner in Palo Alto and try on my first pair of Vibram Five Fingers. The staff at ZombieRunner were very pleasant and helped me get sized correctly for the VFF’s which use European sizing and on top of that, differ from most other shoes. I ended up finding out that my left foot is a 41 and my right a 40 – not a total surprise, but I guess this explains why my hockey skates have never fit quite right.

I tried on three different pairs of VFFs and one thing was immediately obvious: my toes weren’t used to being spread out. It takes quite a bit of wiggling and maneuvering to get your toes to cooperate and spread out enough to get them in the little toe pockets in the VFFs and yes, it does feel a bit weird. I was starting to feel a little embarrassed that I was struggling so much to get these things on but two other people came into the store looking to try out the VFFs while I was there and they all suffered the same fate – especially the guy that walked in with dress shoes on. When I actually did get them on and started walking around the store it immediately became obvious to me that we get conditioned to walk “heel-toe” in normal sneakers and when you do this in VFFs you sound like an elephant stomping around due to the lack of shock absorption. Having done some research on the VFFs before I went in to try them out I knew to walk on the balls of my feet and let the action of the front of my foot splaying out absorb the shock instead of my heel. If you’ve never tried this before it feels very weird and unnatural when you’re used to wearing sneakers all the time – I assume you ladies who wear heels have a distinct advantage over us men in this regard. After a few trips around the store I decided that the VFFs were worth a shot so I snagged the last pair of Sprints in size M42 since they didn’t have a pair of KSOs (Keep Stuff Out to the uninitiated) in my size – apparently they burn through their stock faster than they can get them delivered.

After leaving the store, I put on my Sprints as soon as I got back to the car and wore them for the rest of the day. I didn’t have any of the ankle pain that some people report after their first day wearing the VFFs but my shins were a little tight as was the lower part of my butt. The tightness went away after a couple of days and I’ve been wearing them for about 4 days a week since then with no issues… except for the stench.

The stench seemed to start after taking photos at the Lake Stevens Ironman 70.3 when I stepped into the lake to get a better shot of a friend swimming to the finish. I followed Vibram’s directions and washed the shoes in my washing machine and then dried them in the sun which worked, but the stench came back after a week or so of wearing them. I recently found a few threads on the net talking about “Vibram Stench” and the consensus seems to be soaking them in vinegar for a few hours and then rinsing them. I’m about to try this now as the repeated washings have to be shortening their lifespan.

After about two weeks of wearing the Vibram Five Fingers I can happily say that my toes spread apart and now slip easily into the VFFs which are now quicker to put on than tying shoes. One neat side effect is that after about a month of use, I seem to have more dextrous control of my toes and my arches haven’t hurt a bit. I think I’ll pick up a pair of KSOs to take on my next hiking trip.

Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter

For some strange reason Apple hasn’t deemed it necessary to produce a mini Display Port to HDMI adapter for their line of MacBook and MacBook Pros like they do for DVI. After a long wait, in steps MonoPrice.com with their take on this adapter for roughly half of what Apple charges for its adapters.

Since I use my MacBook to watch video on my 52″ TV at home, I picked up this little guy and naturally felt the urge to tear it apart after its packaging declared “Powered from Mini DisplayPort Source”.

Inside we find a ST Micro STHDLS101 – an “AC coupled HDMI level shifter” and a few passives to support it – not quite as exciting as I was hoping for. Here’s the STHDLS101 Datasheet if you’re interested.

In the end, it’s a great little adapter that does its job well for video but sadly since Apple doesn’t pipe audio out of its mini Display Ports yet, we’re stuck with just video.

Oh, and MonoPrice, nice touch on the Apple-esque packaging

Honey-Curry Pork Tenderloin

One of the dishes that I enjoy both cooking and eating is Pork Tenderloin. I forget the exact origin of this recipe but I got it from my mother who started cooking it this way a few years ago.

Marinade, for one good sized loin:

• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp hot curry paste
• 1 tbsp honey
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 tsp dried ginger
• splash of olive oil

Combine the marinade in a mixing bowl and then add the loin to the marinade, kneading it so that it is thouroughly coated. Transfer the loin and all of the marinade into a ziplock bag, purge the ziploc bag of air and refrigerate. Plan to let the meat marinade for 8 hours or so, with flipping and kneading the bag once or twice during that time.

Remove the marinaded meat from your fridge about half an hour before you’re ready to cook it to let it get up to room temperature. At this time you’re going to want to set your oven to 375 degrees farenheit and also warm a non-stick pan to medium-high heat. The first thing we’re going to do is sear all sides of the loin for a total of about 5 minutes in your non-stick pan. After the loin is good and seared transfer it to the oven in either a roast pan or your searing pan if it is oven safe. We’re going to let the loin bake for 25 to 30 minutes until it reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees farenheit and then remove it and cover it with foil. The temperature inside the loin will continue to rise another 5 – 10 degrees while under the foil over the next 5 minutes.

That’s it, you’re now ready to slice, serve and enjoy!

Power Consumption