I recently used my Garmin 305 for an unintended use.

You see, the Garmin 305 is meant to "log" your jogging/running routine - it includes a heart beat band/monitor and has great software that tracks your location as "laps".

But you see, I wanted to use my GARMIN as a watch based GPS device.

And I recently did - I took it with me last weekend to Ski Santa Fe to see how well it would work skiing.

I am glad to report it works great - although I only had it log one run - you can see it form an satellite image here -


and using a translator website - GPS Visualizer - (to take it from the watchtes .tcx format to GoogleEarths .kml format) I was able to map it out in Google Earth in three dimensions - overlaying the gps coordinates on top of the satellite imagery showing where the ski runs where.



It could only get better if Google Earth labeled the ski runs as well as it does the roads!

Microsoft showed this off recently... what our future might look like in 2019

Click here to see it

I recently ordered the Mimo 710 USB powered 7" LCD monitor and I have to admit its a great addition to my setup.



I can throw this monitor in my backpack with either of my 2lb laptops when I am on the road and have expanded screen real estate - which allows me to read PDFs, scan faxes, or review documents in one screen while I work on the response document on the main monitor of the laptop.

At only $129 for the 710 model (ohter models have web cams and touch screens), the screen is a good value, and it is very versatile when you spin its 800x480 resoluion potrait or landscape.

When its at the office, I dock my outlook calendar in that screen, always having it available to schedule appointments.

As always, screen technology continues to evolve, but this should tide me over until Sony releses their virtual monitors.

Although I would like to be an avid runner, I orignally purchased my Nike+iPod for walks and hikes and more for the iPod controls than the workout tracking feature.

This ski season (our family has had 17 days of skiing and counting!) I wanted to be able to hook

Giro Ski helmets speakers into my iPhone.

But what I found was that I was pulling my iPhone out of my ski pockets to change songs, and since I had thick gloves on, this seemed a likely way to drop my iPhone in the snow.

So I pulled my old iPod Nano out of the drawer, hooked up the Nike+iPod control bracelet and tucked the nano in a secure pocket.

Now I can listen to my tunes, pause them and adjust the volumne all from my wrist.

Microsofts Technet
What Microsoft is telling IT proffesionals
and Microsofts press releases on Window 7