<![CDATA[Alexander Popov - Blog]]>Sat, 07 Mar 2020 03:37:47 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[All Season Tires]]>Tue, 31 Oct 2017 18:35:24 GMThttp://www.alekpopov.com/blog/all-season-tires I have lived in the mountains of Colorado for a long time and here are a few things about tires people should pay attention to when the weather gets cold: 
1. There is no such a thing as an "all-season" tire. That is just a marketing term which is misleading at best and dangerous at worse.
The closest thing are the two "all-weather" tires Nokian WRG3 and Toyo Celsius which are actually winter tires with a harder compound which can also last the summers but with major handling compromises. All Terrain tires on offroad vehicles are even worse because they have harder compound in order to deal with rocks without tearing to pieces.
2. AWD, 4WD, 4Matic, 4Motion etc, do nothing for you when it is time to stop. The only thing helping you to stop are the four small patches of rubber on the road.
3. Ultra High Performance All Season is just as misleading for track driving in the summer as it is for winter driving on snow. They overheat easily turning into soft mush which are very slippery. If you are going to drive on track get UHP summer or better yet DOT legal track tires.
4. The reason why we now call them "winter" tires and NOT "snow" tires anymore is described best in the picture above. It is all about the right tool for the right job. Good skills are also important but will only take you so far.]]><![CDATA[General Altimax Arctic Winter Tires]]>Fri, 31 Oct 2014 20:00:40 GMThttp://www.alekpopov.com/blog/general-altimax-arctic-winter-tiresPicture
The General Altimax Arctic is a re-branded Gislaved Nordfrost 3 tire which is manufactured by Gisvaled in Germany. Both companies are owned by German Continental AG GmbH. That's right, it says Made in Germany right on the sidewall and those of you who are familiar with Gislaved know that they make some of the best studded winter tires money can buy. The quality and technology is right on par with Nokian, but Nokian charges three times as much for their tires. I have had 4 sets of these tires on 3 different vehicles. All FWD cars driving thousands of miles in winter conditions in the highest elevations of the Rocky Mountains passes and I-70. When it comes to winter driving it does not get any tougher than this in the continental US.

About the tires, I'll start with the not-so-good things first. Soft rubbery compound and studs make for sloppy steering feel, so I run a higher tire pressure in order to offset this effect a little. Noise with any studded tire is always an issue. Because of the soft compound and studs these tires have a lowly Q (99 mph) speed rating, so it is not intended to be a winter performance tire of any sort. If you get just a little bit of snow a few times a year, this is not the tire for you.

Now with the great things about this tire and reasons why I like them so much and keep buying sets of them. The rubber compound and thread pattern give you absolutely incredible traction in snow and ice. Deep snow is handled with ease as the thread clears itself while rotating. The compound stays soft and pliable in the coldest temperatures and the sipes stick to ice securely. Add studs and this becomes the absolute best value for the money on the market if you need a tire to handle the toughest winter conditions. They also last a very long time if you take care of them and keep checking the pressure as you should. Buy these tires if you drive on snow and ice frequently at least 4 months a year. Look elsewhere if you need a performance winter tire that can handle occasional snow.

]]><![CDATA[What Happened to Universal Sports?]]>Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:35:08 GMThttp://www.alekpopov.com/blog/what-happened-to-universal-sports_In case you are wondering what how come you can't watch Universal Sports anymore as of January 1, I hope I can clarify this for you. Universal Sports had a big campaign telling everyone to call their service provider, but strangely enough they did not tell you what to do if you are watching Universal Sports OTA (over the air). That is because they stopped multicasting.   It is Universal Sports who choose to pull their programming and stop multicasting. The greedy execs at NBC Universal pulled their broadcasts off the air because they want more money.
_If you were receiving your Universal Sports signal (Over The Air) you can no longer do so. So essentially Universal Sports choose to reduce their own viewing audience drastically. "Smart" move, now just watch their ratings plummet.

Comcast or any other provider is under no obligation to pay them any money for content which until a few days ago was free.

This is a part of a long line of dumb decisions by Universal Sports. First they would let you watch events for free on their website. Then they made it so you can pay per year or monthly and now you have to pay an exuberant amount or money for each event and no monthly or yearly options anymore.

I will miss watching alpine skiing, but I hope Universal Sports comes to their senses after their ratings drop so low that no one would want to advertise on them anymore.
]]><![CDATA[Need a ride to Vail or Beaver Creek?]]>Sun, 04 Dec 2011 04:04:13 GMThttp://www.alekpopov.com/blog/need-a-ride-to-vail-or-beaver-creekIt's winter and you are coming to Vail Valley for your winter vacation with your family and friends. Do you wanna deal on a ride to Vail or Beaver Creek from Denver or anywhere else. Check out this website and let them know that you saw it on my blog for an extra 10% exclusive discount!
http://www.get2vaillimo.com/
This is the best deal around you are going to find, but don't take my word for it. Check for yourself!
 ]]><![CDATA[Goodbye Steve!]]>Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:06:47 GMThttp://www.alekpopov.com/blog/goodbye-steve Yesterday I was watching all the tech blogs of the iPhone event in Cupertino and something seemed amiss. Don’t get me wrong, I like Tim Cook and he seems like a smart guy and all but he’s no Steve Jobs.

For all his personal shortcomings and lack of personal interaction skills, Steve was an absolute genius when it comes to technology and marketing and not just Apple technology. Steve changed every business he ever interacted with. After he left Apple in 1985 he went on to create NeXT Computer Corporation that in turn created the object oriented Nextstep operating system the granddaddy of OpenStep and in turn OS X, the operating system on which I am writing this as we speak. Later on he went to acquire the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd. which he named Pixar and became a company that changed the movie industry with the movie Toy Story. My kids and millions of others enjoy watching every frame of this movie ‘till this day.

Even if you did not own a single Apple product, the fact that you no longer use floppy disks or USB connections and buy your music in a digital format can be attributed in one way or another to Steve Jobs.

I had a boss ones that was an absolute perfectionist and no one liked working for him, but everyone respected him because he was the best at what he did with computers and technology. He thought me a valuable lesson: “It’s OK to be an asshole only if you are the very best at what you do.“ Respect is more valuable than sympathy. The day I go, I want people to say that SOB was really good at what he did.

Well, Steve Jobs was the absolutely very best at what he did and people respected him for it. His vision of technology made Apple devices accessible to people who didn’t even like technology. Now that is true genius, make things simple, but useful. Someone once told me that the best programmers are not those who can write millions of lines of code, but those that can write only a few lines that do one thing right every time.

Om Mailk at Gigaom.com writes “Why doesn’t the world realize that my Elvis is dead!” and I have to agree. Everyone knew that Steve was battling cancer for years, but no one was preparing for his passing. We all wanted to believe that “Teh Steve” will live forever and will keep presenting us with his “magical” vision of technology that changed everyone’s life.

You changed the world Steve and your legacy will live forever!

]]><![CDATA[True Security in the Cloud. Are your files in the cloud absolutely private?]]>Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:11:34 GMThttp://www.alekpopov.com/blog/true-security-in-the-cloud-are-your-files-in-the-cloud-absolutely-private So, you keep hearing and reading all the buzz about storing your data in "The Cloud" and synchronizing your data between your multiple devices such as work computer, home laptop, smart phone and tablet. However if you are like me you are concerned about privacy.
The fact is that storing your data in "the cloud" simply means that you are uploading it to someone else's server through the Internet. The main question is, does the admins or owners of that server have direct access to your data? In other words can they see your actual files and folders? Most tech people have probably heard of Dropbox, which is probably the most popular cloud file storage solution to date. As far as privacy goes however Dropbox recently amended their TOS to say if a legal request is presented they will give up your data to the authorities. I have no problem with law enforcement, however that statement shows that your data is indeed accessible by someone other than you. Bummer ... Even though it is encrypted on their server and your transmission is also encrypted, Dropbox simply knows the encryption key.
So what is the answer to true cloud encryption to the point where truly no one but you has the encryption key? It turns out it is possible to encrypt your data on your device and then transfer it to the cloud, while keeping the encryption key only in your possession. Another cloud storage company called SpiderOak uses what they like to call a "zero knowledge" system. In other words, you and only you have access to your data. Loose your password and kiss that data good bye! No recovery aside from a password hint that you can setup if you want to. They also work on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android and offer the first two gigs free. So if you are truly sensitive about security and privacy there is an answer for you. Just make sure you remember your password and pleeaaaseee don't make it something stupid like your kids names or your birthday. Please create a real password that cannot be guessed through a brute force number or dictionary attack. Otherwise this defies the purpose of the entire exercise. Oh, and don't write it on a piece of paper on your desk ... ;-)
]]><![CDATA[Skype for iPad finally available!]]>Tue, 02 Aug 2011 22:26:11 GMThttp://www.alekpopov.com/blog/skype-for-ipad-finally-availablehttp://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skype-for-ipad/id442012681?mt=8

Finally get your Skype App for iPad while it is hot. Works great, Enjoy!

After months of rumors we finally get a native App for iPad.
]]><![CDATA[How does the Internet Work?]]>Fri, 22 Jul 2011 21:50:19 GMThttp://www.alekpopov.com/blog/how-does-the-internet-workI know you know how to use your browser but have you ever wondered what happens beyond your computer. Find out what are the basic building blocks of the Internet and how do they interact with each other and everything else. This of those building blocks as the engine, transmission and tires of the Internet. Interested?

Take a look at Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson at the Twit Network explaining this and other cool things, such as the lame phone "hacking" scandal that is rocking Rupert Murdock:

Play Video ]]><![CDATA[Multiple user accounts on iPad! Finally!]]>Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:16:55 GMThttp://www.alekpopov.com/blog/multiple-user-accounts-on-ipad-finallyNow check this out. After you jailbreak your iPad as described in the previous post you can now add a program called iUser that will let you have multiple user accounts on your iPad. This is absolutely great and needed feature for those of us who share our iPads with other users.
iUsers is designed by Pedro Franceschi. If you would like to try it add http://cydia.iblogeek.com/ as a source and install iUser.
Credits for this news go to Cult of Mac: http://www.cultofmac.com/give-your-ipad-support-for-multiple-users-with-iusers-cydia-tweak/

]]><![CDATA[Jailbreak Your iPad 2 with one click!]]>Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:41:06 GMThttp://www.alekpopov.com/blog/jailbreak-your-ipad-2-with-one-clickIf you have been waiting patiently for Comex to release his jailbreak for iPad 2, your wait is over. Just go to http://www.jailbreakme.com/ and Enjoy JailbreakMe 3.0! This will allow you the freedom to install any programs available on your "i" device, not just those approved by Apple.

Have Fun!
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