ztraffer

After a long hiatus, I went hiking again. The Mount Si trail was much less streneous than I expected, and quite fun. Along the four mile climb, there are a few places to stop and take in the views. Close to the trail head there is a stopping area with natural history signs describing the different species and ecosystem. At the end of the four mile hike, lays the rocky peak, called "the haystack". As rock-climbing goes it is pretty easy, but you still need hands and feet to climb it. At the top, you have a rewarding view. As usual, the way down had its own difficulty -applaying the brakes for 4 miles left my legs and feet a bit sore, but all in all a satisfying first hike of the season. There is something about hiking that is extremely rewarding -perhaps it is the sense of total immersion in nature, as you see trees, moss-covered rocks, streams, ferns -and when you reach a high viewpoint- the forest and mountains extending all around. Perhaps is the very tangible feeling of

At first, I thought it'd be a simple task; after all, I am surely just one among hundreds of thousands of people -if not millions- who use their phones as digital music players. All I wanted was to find a headset which was: -Bluetooth (to avoid the messy tangle of cables and occasional snags) -Passive noise-blocking (for use at the gym or outdoors active systems aren't good enough) -In-ear (I don't want to walk around with two pounds of gear around my skull) -Dual Use -for phone calls and music (who wants to swap headsets every time you get a call?) -A2DP and AVRCP capable (for stereo sound and remote control functions) -Boom-mounted mike -ideally retractable- (so that callers can hear me better in noisy environments, such as outdoors, or on a bus) After hours spent researching this, it turned out there isn't a single product in the market that matches my wish list. I have to say I was a little disappointed -one would think the global electronics market big enough to su