PolarLava::Blog

A long time ago I began tracking my gas mileage on my Palm IIIx using something called FuelLog.  This worked well and gave me a running average and a neat little graph.  Development had stopped on that and a while later somebody branched it and started pFuel.  But it required a newer Palm OS version than I had.  And around this time I upgraded my to Treo 90 (a freebie that was given to me) and it's nifty color screen.  But it too had the same Palm OS issue.  Thus I exported my data and began to track it on scraps of paper and eventually in a small notepad.  I did this with the idea that I would eventually find (which I haven't) or build (which I haven't either) a web application to track it.  And since adding graphs to my CycleLog, I recently have been contemplating starting to work on that.

But then along came FuelFrog.  I looked at it and initially was unsure if I wanted to go this route or not.  But this weekend I signed up for an account and began to look at it.  I'm not certain this is going to work for me in the long run, but once I saw that it appears I can enter my old data, I thought I'd give it a try.

So I've rounded up my written logs dating back to April of 2005.  I thought I had exports of my data prior to that, but I can't seem to find it.  Thus I may have to resurrect one of the Palm units to see if I can export it again as I believe I have the data for the Palm.  In any case, I also need to convert the data to the format that FuelFrog likes and then try a test with a few entries.  If that works I will then write a quick utility to import the data for me.  From there it gets real easy as I can enter it online or even better, enter it via Twitter when I fill-up.

Time will tell if this works for me or not.  In any case, it's worth a shot because then I can move on to something else and no have to reinvent the wheel.

I've had this link laying around for months and as usual, never got around to commenting on it.  The last paragraph here pretty much sums up my thoughts on toolbars.  I just don't get why so many people like and or use them.  The only add-on toolbar I use is Web Developer for Firefox.  And if you don't do web work, you don't even need that.

If you eat, you should find time to watch this video.  And if you don't know anything about him, you should learn more about Michael Pollan.  Now I just need to get off my duff and read his books.

Maybe it's just because I'm old, but this "new math" just seems stupidly wrong as illustrated in this clip.



I find this as yet another example of "change for the sake of change" that seems so prevalent in schools these days.  About the only thing I find better is the insistence on teaching to pass "the test".  Forget critical thinking, it's all about passing the standardized test.