Blogging from the Sky after NASCAR's 2010 Ford Championship Weekend

So I've been in Miami this past weekend. It was my annual pilgramage down to Homestead for NASCAR's Ford Championship Weekend. This year was a good one. Kyle won back to back in the Trucks and the Nationwide Series, and I finally got to see Carl's victory flip in person, while Jimmie gained enough ground, finished section and clinched a record 5 straight national championships. Downside... was for Kyle... I would of like to see him win the sweep this weekend. I really don't like Kyle, but he can drive... so much to the point he didn't want to get out of his car while flame were pouring out the back (he did, but only after completing another half lap.

So typically I wouldn't blog about this weekend, but how can I now... Google is providing me with free in the air wifi, that plus it was a historic weekend. I've been to every one of Jimmie's crowning ceromonies now. I've been to every NASCAR race since 98 at Homestead, starting back when it was only the Trucks. I did miss the first Penzoil 400, but only 1... been to every race since.

But back to the inflight WiFi... really I'm not sure why we have it... you'd think we could stay disconnected for a few hours aboard an airplane... but what the heck. Its here, and its free. might as well use it. Speed... pretty impressive considering I'm how far up....high enough. Via "http://whatismyipaddress.com/speed-test" it doesn't look like there is enough speed, but there is plenty for blogging and email, with a bit of Google reader going. I'm impressed... I don't think I'll ever pay for Wifi in the air...well maybe on an international flight I'd consider it, but... its FREE till Jan 2... check Google for more details.

From FordChampionshipWeekend 2010

update: upload speeds not so good.... trying to upload slideshow via Picasa for this post and its taking forever... flight now about to land and will have to shutdown... I'll finish upload later.

update2: upload complete on second flight... speeds are much faster if you get on early ... as more users connect speeds definitely decrease.

Reblog: G1 at the Races

This weekend I was in Homestead for NASCAR's Ford Championship weekend. While maybe we might think that gadgets and NASCAR don't go together but you'd be surprised. Between the radio scanners and 'FANVIEW' (a great handheld tv screen to catch all the action)... and then the variety of cameras, and binoculars... and then the phones. NASCAR premier league, the Sprint Cup Series is sponsored by Sprint (was Nextel before the merger, and historically the Winston Cup). So Between Sprint advertising the Samsung Instinct everywhere, the numerous people with iPhones (and there were a lot) and then almost every make and model of phones out there... well I think my point is made, gadgets and NASCAR tend to go hand in hand.... This said, I was probably the only person I saw with a T-Mobile G1 at the track, and I did notice a number of 'curiosity' looks from people around me anytime I pulled out my phone.

So like I said, this weekend I was back home in South Florida for the NASCAR weekend. My first surprise was the phone reception... historically I've been with AT&T (well Cingular and Bellsouth Mobility before that) and I always had great reception, then last year when I went down after switching to T-Mobile, my Treo 650 had no reception (it worked perfectly fine the year before). So this year when my new G1 worked flawlessly I was amazed, I even had 3G.

Then secondly, I've heard many a complaint about the G1 and the camera, and actually I've heard similar complaints about the iPhone camera. Most of these complaints I heard relate to speed of taking a picture... well what do you expect a DSLR experience... so anyways I was not worried. I'd taken a number of pictures from the G1 already and I new that it was slow but it worked. At the same time, I like to watch the race with both eyes not through a camera lens... so I wasn't worried about taking a regular digital camera with me. Then when there I decided, heck why not try the camera out. This was my big surprise... well it didn't work well when the cars went flying by at 130MPH, but overall I was pleasantly surprised... the 3MP camera took some great shots, not perfect, but I can definitely live with these.

here is a collection of photos I took this past weekend, all from the G1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickc_321/sets/72157609359728904/

Newman wins thrilling Daytona 500

Another thriller, another heartbreak at the Daytona 500. The 50th running was as great as always. Stewart will get his eventually... But that all said, it was a great race, and those Toyotas.. well I think we'll be seeing a lot of them this year in the winner circle. But yesterday was for Newman and Penske. Newman's win gave Roger Penske (a standard in the name of racing) his first Restrictor Plate win and his first Daytona 500 win.

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NASCAR's Busch and Stewart on probation - CNN.com

Season hasn't even started and players are already going at it. Busch and Stewart have been placed on probation for the first 6 weeks of the season which starts this Sunday the 17th in Daytona.

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