I’ve been quite busy with work, and TWN projects lately so I haven’t been able to get this site where it needs to be. However, yesterday I took care of one issue that has needed some tackling. I added some RSS feeds to the site! I should clarify that. I was already dishing out RSS 1, 2, and atom for those self-discovery FireFox/Opera/etc. kids out there. What did I change? First, I wanted to put a visible link to my RSS feed(s) on the site. After deciding where I’d put them (in the sub-content section and in the footer) I needed to know how many feeds I’d have. Well, I wanted a feed for the blog, obviously. There’s one. I decided to add one other feed as well.. for now at least (I may add twitter soon). The second feed is for my “Recommended” links section. Speaking of that.. I need to give a run down on how I’m serving those links up. I’ll post another entry later about that. So, subscribe to my RSS feeds and you’ll know when I post that entry.

Ok, we know how many feeds you have and where you put them. Fun. Got anything else for us? Actually, I wanted to talk a little bit about what kind of feeds I’m serving and how. Like I said before, I used to served up RSS 1, 2, and atom.. albeit-was “behind the scenes”. Now, I serve up only RSS 2. However, for you atom pushers out there (0) you’ll still get your atom feed. How? I’m sending my feeds to feedburner. I then have feedburner set up to send out RSS 1, 2, or atom based on what kind of RSS reader you’re using. That’s cool, eh? The other advantage to using feedburner is that I can get some statistics (subscribers, views, etc.) from my feeds. It seems like a pretty sweet setup so far. We’ll see how it works out.

Some other details.. I’ve got Wordpress set up to dish out the full entry each time, rather than a summary. I did this because it puts ALL of the content in your hands via your RSS reader rather than simply a summary. Any hoot, grab my feeds and look out for the next post where I share how I’m dishing up my Recommended links section.

I’m in the middle of re-designing my site, folks. I’m playing with this whole gray scale.. keeping focus on typography, printed page, minimal images, kind of thing. Also, i’m working on some ajax animation for the top nav.. so that essentially when you click a link in the top nav.. all four will slide to the left and the one that is clicked will be placed in the “tab” area. So, that’s just a heads up to let ya’ll know I’m working here. Again, this is a “playground”.. so don’t come at me with pitchforks for launching “prematurely”.

It’s true, folks. The guys over at Mac Daddy World have written a hack / app that allows two-way video conferencing for the Apple iPhone.

But, the camera is on the back of the iPhone! How’d they do it? Well, they.. ehem.. thought outside of the “box”. They attached a couple of mirrors to the back of the iPhone. Incredibly cool that they were able to video conference on the iPhone.. but, uhh.. wow. Incredibly impractical to carry mirrors. Not to mention, it completely takes away from the aesthetic appeal of the iPhone. I wonder if the iPhone could be modded.. Cut a hole in the top right of the face and flip the camera around inside. Now that would be cool! Too bad Apple didn’t do this to begin with. A camera in the front, and one in the back would have been nice. Oh well.. maybe next time. However, I can imagine an external piece of hardware that attaches to the bottom of the iphone.. complete with a forward facing camera. Still, takes away from the aesthetics.. But, it sure beats a couple of mirrors!

I purchased a pair of Panoptx riding glasses about two months ago from Colonial Harley-Davidson, in Colonial Heights, Va. Recently, on a trip from Virginia back down to South Carolina, the fabric on the outside of the eye-cup started to come loose. Within a few miles it started to flap in front of my eye. To make a roadside “repair” I snipped it off. It worked to get me home, but now the rest of the fabric is starting to peel off. Today, only about 25 minutes ago actually, I sent Panoptx an email to see what could be done about it. Within 5 minutes, yes.. FIVE MINUTES.. I had a response, asking for my mailing address so that they could send me a replacement eyecup at no charge. Hell yea! Go Panoptx! Aside from this little fabric issue, these glasses have been rock solid. I don’t know how I ever rode without ‘em….. I see Panoptx advertisements in my future. (no pun intended)

Do yourself a favor and check ‘em out: Panoptx.com

Andrew Skurka set out on April 9th 2007 to be the first to hike the Great Western Loop, a 6,875 mile trek. This is the same guy that became the first to hike the 7,778 mile Sea to Sea Route back in 2005. During that trip he phoned home to his mom, who updated his website. This time around backpackinglight has in-depth coverage, including video and audio updates, photos, and an interactive map. Also, GoLite who is one of his main sponsors, has also dedicated a portion of their website to his trek.

I first came across the name “Andrew Skurka” back in 2004, when I was planning my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. His ideas and detailed explanation of gear choices greatly influenced the gear and ultra-light hiking philosophies I took along with me on the AT. I’ll be keeping up with his trek, and thinking about my next adventure as I do. I encourage you do to the same. Happy Trails!

• AndrewSkurka.com
• Backpackinglight’s coverage
• GoLite’s coverage