Lots of sightings...not a lot of results

Well it's been really busy over the last few weeks so I haven't had time to post about my adventures.  This new hunting spot that I've been sitting on has had it's ups and downs.  Towards the beginning of Oct. I could sit out there and see all kinds of deer.  Mainly in the afternoon hours...which is strange because it was quite warm.  I think they really liked the acorns that were scattered all around the area.  I was up in my treestand (about 25ft high) and I had a buck walk around me and at one point right underneath me.  Unfortunately my aim was off with my bow and I missed not once, but twice.  It's a learning experience and I'm getting better as I go.  Now that those acorns have dried up however I haven't really seen much activity in the area so I'm thinking it's time to relocate.  We are just starting to get into "the rut" where bucks start chasing after does to mate. 

I have one more Saturday of bow hunting planned before the state-land shotgun season starts and I plan to make the most of it.  I'll probably go out early to make sure I get the parking spot that I want and then walk in slowly trying to be as quiet as possible.  If I don't see anything by say 9:30am then I'll get down out of my tree and start looking around for rut activity. 

During the "rut" bucks start rubbing their antlers against trees to mark them and remove any velvet they may still have on their antlers.  Below is an example of a typical tree rubs along with an idea of how it got there.

In addition, I'll look for any ground scrapes that might be in the area.  These are places where whitetail tear up the ground, removing leaves and making it very apparent that something big was there.  They will typically relieve themselves in these scrapes in an effort to attract mates to the area.  Potential mates may also relieve themselves in these scrapes to let the bucks know they're around.

Tracking deer is one of those arts that really get developed over time.  Deer population and hunting pressure also create an increased challenge to locating the deer in the area.  When all else fails...there always just plain old luck.

If I come across anything on my scouting mission or if I happen to come across some whitetail this weekend I'll be sure to post.

Liveblogging...from my couch. Reaction to the iPhone event

8:49pm - Tim Cook is kind of boring and pauses to much.  But the numbers he's presenting are pretty astounding.  100,000 visitors to the new Shanghai Apple Store in the first weekend.  Comparitively it took 1 month for the L.A. store to reach 100,000 visitors.

8:52pm - 357 Apple Stores in 11 Countries

8:53pm - Discussing Lion...mentioned fanboy Walt Mossberg...meh.  6 million copies of Lion downloaded

8:55pm  - Showing a bunch of stats showing MAC sales growth vs. pc's.  Numbers are skewed slightly if you consider the install base.

8:57pm - Why isn't Tim Cook wearing a turtleneck? 

8:58pm - ipod has 78% of the music player market

9:00pm - 20M songs offered on iTunes.  16 Billion songs downloaded

9:01pm - Getting to iPhone...finally!!!!  #1 Smartphone in the world.  125% growth y/y  92% of the Fortune 500 businesses are testing or deploying iphones.

9:02pm - iPhone is only 5% of worldwide mobile phone market

9:03pm - Little iPhone teaser (saving the best for last).  Now moved onto iPad

9:04pm - Over 1000 Universities have iPad programs.  Pilots replacing 40lb flight bags with iPads.  Over 80% of the top hospitals are testing or piloting iPads.  iPad is the #1 tablet in the world.  3 out of 4 tablets sold are ipads

9:07pm - 250 Billion iO/S devices sold. iphones itouches ipads

9:08pm - Finally Scott is on.  Much more exciting.  iOS is 61% of the mobile browser usage

9:09pm - 1B apps per month downloaded.  3B $$$'s to developers.  New App!!!  Cards

9:10pm - Cards allows you to make your own card and apple will print them out, put it in an envelope, affix postage, and smart code it to send you a text message when it arrives (us only)  2.99 in US.  4.99 foreign

9:11pm - Intro iOS 5.  New notification center by swiping down from the top.  Notifications don't interrupt you.

9:12pm - New App - iMessages.  Essentially an IM client for iOS devices.  Synced between all your iOS devices.  Securely encrypted end to end

9:13pm - New App - Reminders - Simple reminders that work like an alarm.  You can also set up a reminder to do X "when I leave" and it will set up a geolocation for where you are and alert you when you leave that area.  Cool.  Can do lists like for groceries.  Can save to the iCloud

9:14pm - integrated with Twitter.  Tweet photos, links, locations, etc right from within apps

9:15pm - New App - Newsstand - Access your subscriptions right on your iOS app.  App store gathers all subscriptions into one loaction.  Auto downloads new editions

9:16pm - Camera - From home screen can get right into camera without unlocking.  Lots of new features.  Can use the volume button to take the picture.  Editing right on the phone. 

9:17pm - Game Center - 67M users.  Adding photos and acheivement points.  Friend recommendations and game recommendations.

9:18pm - Safari - Reader Button - Take the story you're reading on a webpage and formats it with the extra webpage stuff removed.  Can also save and sync stories in your reading list.

9:19pm - Mail - Added Rich Text Formatting.  FLAG MESSAGES OMG!!!!!  Been asking for this forever!!!!!

9:22pm - PCFree - Wireless updating of iOS.  No computer required

9:23pm - iOS 5 available Oct 12th!!!

9:24pm - Moving on to iCloud.  Stores your content and pushes it to all your devices.  FREE.  Take that MobileMe.

9:25pm - Can redownload previously purchased songs to your new device.

9:26pm - Documents in the cloud.  API's available for the developers to put their documents in the cloud too.

9:27pm - Backup - iphone does a daily backup of critical data on your devices.  Calendar and Contacts synced.  Can even share calendars.

9:28pm - New App - Find my family and friends -  AKA the Stalker app.  Can share your location with family and friends.  Can temporaily create and event like if you were going to the beach and want to be able to find each other, but end sharing after the weekend.  Parental restricts to keep kids from shutting off the Stalker app.

9:31pm - iTunes Match - Will match the music you have on your idevice so you don't have to upload all your songs.  Streams any song or playlist.  Matched songs updated to 256 bitrate.  Costs 24.99 a year...OUCH.

9:39pm - iCloud Oct 12.  iTunes Match by the end of the month.

9:40pm - Video time (iCloud)

9:42 - Phil Shiller - iPod talk.  Nano gets easier navigation, improved fitness experience (no sensors or special shoes), upload to Nike+, new clock faces or people that like to wear it as a watch, character watch faces.  7 colors.  $129 8GB   $149 16GB

9:45 - iTouch talk.  iTouch gets iOS 5.  Expanded features with iCloud.  Black and White now available.  $199 for 8GB  $299 32GB $399 64GB

9:48 - iPHONE TIME!!!!  iPhone4S.  Inside it's all new.  New A5 processor.  Dual Core.  2x faster and dual core graphics.  7xfaster graphics.  Amazing benefit for games. 

9:50 - iphone games demo.  President of EPIC.  Infinity Blade II!!!!!!!  New graphics.  Dual wielding swords.  Combo attacks.  IB2 available December.

9:54 - more iPhone stuff - Battery life.  8hours talk 3G talk time.  9hours wifi.  10hours video.  40 hours music.  Wireless System - Can switch between antennas for send and receive.  Can download data twice as fast.  From 7.2Mbps down to 14.4Mbps down.  Just as fast as what some claim is 4G.  Not LTE though...

9:57 - iPhone 4S is now a world phone.  GSM and CDMA

9:58 - iPhone Camera now beats all others for camera popularity for uploading to sites like Flicker.  New 8MP sensor.  60% more pixels than iphone 4.  Also addes backside illumination.  33% faster picture shutter.  Hybrid IR filter.  Better color.  Five element lenses.  30% shaper.  f/2.4 aperture.  Face detection - up to 10 people.  26% auto white balance.  1.1 sec for the first picture. 0.5 seconds for each picture after.

10:03 - showing lots of picture samples from the iphone camera

10:04 - video recording.  1080p HD recording.  realtime image stabilization.  Temporal noise reduction.  Really nice video demo

10:06 - airplay - a feature I use a lot via appleTV.  Actually i'm using it right now to stream the keynote to my TV.  Can do dual streaming where you can see your video on the source and on the destination device.

10:08 - Voice Control - Want to be able to talk to our device.  i.e. What is the weather like tonight?  Phone can figure out what you want to get done.  Siri!!  Company Apple bought. 

10:09 - Siri Demo - Beta software.  Ohhh Apple is so daring.  lol.  Hold down the home buttion to activate Siri.  Scott asked "Do I need a raincoat today" and it answered "It sure does look like rain today" and then showed the weather report.  Although it was really only cloudy.

10:11 - More Siri - "What time is it in Paris?"  Gave the time in paris.  Impressive

"Wake me up tomorrow at 6am"  - It set the alarm for 6am.  Pretty cool too

"How's the nasdaq doing today"  - Reads back that the nasdaq is down and the amount with a chart displayed

Integrated with Yelp - "Find me a great greek restaruant in Palo Alto" - Response "I found 14 Greek restaurants.  5 of them are in Palo alto."  Then it diplayed them sorted by distances and ratings.

Integrated for maps - "Give me directions to Hoover Tower"  -  Loads them right into maps. 

If you get a text message - Ask Siri to read your message.  Can activate it from bluetooth headset.  Can also check your calendar and then reply right to it.  Basically just having a converstation back and forth with your phone.

Can also have it schedule things on your calendar hands-free.

Can set up reminders, and even set it to use a geofence for "when you leave"

Can say "Search wikipedia for Neil Armstrong" - Take you right there.

Can ask it for definitions via voice.

Can ask it "How many dollars is 45 euros"  - Automatically displayed chart and current conversion.

Can ask it "How many days are there till Xmas" - 82 days till xmas

There is a guide of what you can ask built right into the app.
Call
Play Songs
Play Album
Play Genre
Send Text Message
Manage Calendar
Set Reminders
Ask for Traffic/Directions
Can compose and dictate email
Can ask about weather and stocks
Can set timers and alarms
Can set notes
Can search the web/wikipedia/wolfram alpha
Can as Who is Siri - "I am a humble personal assistant"
Dictation is now available anywhere there's a keyboard onscreen

REALLY IMPRESSED WITH THE SIRI UPGRADE TO VOICE CONTROL!!!!  Although its kind of like SkyNet.

10:25pm - Hmm...is it only on the 4S?  That would suck...it's software.

10:27pm - playing an iphone 4S video

10:32pm - 16GB $199 32GB $299 64GB $399

iPhone 4 - 8GB $99
iPhone 3GS - 8GB Free

Preorders start on Oct 7th and ship on the 14th

ATT, Verizon, and now Sprint

10:34pm - iphone 4S - Available in 70 countries by the end of the year


10:36pm - Tim Cook recapping.  What sets Apple apart is all these things working together.

No iPhone 5.....No iPad 3...........BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

10:37pm - That's it. 

Big Day Today...iPhone 5

Today's the big day everyone's been waiting for.  Apple will be hosting it's invite-only "Let's talk iPhone" event beginning at 1pm Eastern Time.  Apple is expected to make a variety of announcements including the release of the newest upgrade to their much loved phone...the iPhone 5.  In addition they are expected to announce a new lower cost iPhone called the iPhone 4S which has only 8GB of memory instead of the standard 16GB or 32GB.  There are also rumors that they will announce a new white iPod touch where the only difference is the color.

Engadget will be live-posting throughout the event.  I highly recommend checking it out.  Here's the direct link.  http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/04/apples-lets-talk-iphone-keynote-liveblog/

Also check out Apple's webpage after the event.  You can typically watch video of the whole event after it ends.  www.apple.com

About me - Self Profile

You know a little about me so far from my profile and this blog.  I mentioned in a previous post that I didn't grow up with hunting nor did I ever imagine that I'd be blogging about it on the internet.  But hunting isn't my only interest.  My true love is technology.

I've grown up with technology my entire life.  The first experience with technology that I can remember is when I was 2yrs old (1982) and playing my Aunt and Uncles Atari 2600.  From that point I was hooked.



When I was 5 years old my dad bought me my first computer from Radio Shack.  It was a Tandy Color Computer 2 and I used it to play games and write programs in BASIC out of the book.  How many 5 year olds are programming even today?  None that I know of.  I literally grew up geek.  And my computer was rocking with 64K memory.  By today's standard you could barely open up one program on 64K memory.  By comparison most computers come with ~4,000,000K today and the next default is going to be 8 million K.



The CoCo 2 really set me on the path.  Throughout elementary, middle, and high school I was always involved with anything computers.  If the computers at school broke, you didn't call Josten's (the consultant at the time) you asked Brett to stop by after school.

Technology evolved into a career for me as well.  My first job at age 15 was providing computer support at Yale New Haven Hospital.  From there I moved to New Haven Savings Bank which became New Alliance, which is now First Niagra.  Some of the systems I worked on there over 11 years ago are still in place.  After studying at UConn I landed a job as an Onsite Systems Engineer for Dell, and finally 5 years ago moved back to UConn to work as a System Admin and Project Lead in the Procurement Department.

If you were to search for me on Google or Bing and cross-reference me with Dell or UConn you'd find a lot of information related to some of the committees and projects that I've worked on.  The most common hit being my involvement in the SLG, or Software Licensing Group, at UConn.  You know all those Dell computers you see on campus, or all that software that students get for free (like Symantec Antivirus) or near free???  SLG is responsible for that.  In fact I've been of the opinion that SLG has probably been one of the most successful and influential committees at UConn.

Some of the other hits you'll see are my involvement:

• In the Univ of CT Professional Employees Association (UCPEA).  That's the union for all the professional staff at UConn.
• The development of the ATA Tool.  A system we use for delegating signature authority for financial transactions at UConn.
• The Technology Implementers Group (TIG) - A group of IT people from all over UConn that get together on a monthly basis to discuss tech topics affecting the University, and to showcase IT projects that we've implemented that have benefited our individual areas

My life isn't 100% tech and hunting though.  I also find time for my lovely wife and 3 cats which demand attention.  My wife is actually jealous that I'm able to go to school.  She loves school and wants to go back and get a second masters.  I think I'm okay with doing the part time thing for now.  The cats could care less. :-)

Other than that I try to find time to hang out with friends, watch football, and kick back and have a few beers.   I ski in the winter, hike and fish in the summer/fall and overall really just love life experiences. I love to cook and try new flavors.  I also love to travel, most recently visiting Greece, Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Malta, and Sicily.  Spain and Japan are next on the list of places I want to go, but I guess I'll have to settle for exotic locations like Baltimore, MD around Thanksgiving.  

Atop Alta Mtn in Salt Lake City, UT

Inside the Roman Colosseum

It's getting dark early

As a hunter one of the things you really have to watch are the sunrise and sunset times.  In CT legal hunting hours are from 1/2 hour before sunrise to sunset.  I noticed today, when I ran out of time to mow my lawn, that it really has started to get dark much earlier than normal.  A week from last Saturday I was out and "legal hours" ended at 7:00.  Now we're down to sunset being at 6:30.  Once we return to standard time we'll "fall back" another hour and sunset will be closer to 5:30 and slowing rolling back even further until we'll all be getting out of work when its dark.  Kind of depressing, but with the earlier hours comes colder temperatures.  And that means more opportunity for whitetail...and skiing if you're into that.  I guess some conflicts are a good thing.

A new season - whitetail 2011

Archery Season, that's bow and arrow for all you city slickers, has been open for a little over a week and a half and it's already been an eventful year.  Prior to the opening of the season I spend a few days here and there scouting the areas that I commonly hunt for any sign of deer in the area.  Scouting for deer is one of those skills that you really develop over time.  This being only my 4th season, I'm still honing in my skills.  Typically when scouting you go out and look for things like tracks, droppings, rubs, and anything else that would let you know a whitetail is in the area.  Because the deer aren't under any pressure (predators or hunters) during the summertime they typically keep to the same routine and stick to familar bedding and feeding areas.  This means that to really be successful during the early archery season you have to be right on the deer.  You need to know where they're eating and sleeping so you can be prepared for them.

Much to my surprise, there has been a lot of deer activity in the areas that I frequent.  Not only did I see lots of sign, but I had a few deer sightings as well.  I was careful though not to let them know I'm there.  Instead I sat back and watched their actions, see where they liked to enter and exit the area, and noted them on my iPhone.

The iPhone has been quite handy in hunting whitetail.  I use an app called GPSKit which lets me drop pins on a google map which mark things like spots I think would be good for a treestand, or places that I noticed a large rub or scrape.  In addition, this app has helped guide me in pitch black, right to the tree I wanted to climb, and just recently out of the woods after tracking a deer into unfamilar territory.  I highly recommend it or something similar if you have a smartphone and plan on hunting.  Maps and compasses are great, but when you're lost and in pitch black conditions, you want to find your way out quick.

After scouting for a few days I selected some areas that would be good for potential treestands.  Because I hunt on State property, I use a climbing stand which I carry in with me every time.  Some people like to put stands out in the woods and leave them there, but I can't see spending $75 on something that might get stolen if discovered.  The climber also affords some other benefits which I like.  1. I can climb a tree as high as I like as long as the tree doesn't have any branches in the way.  The higher you are the less likely the deer will smell you (Typically the first and only thing they need to do to take off).  2nd.  Call it A-D-D, but I like variety and the climber gives me just that.  If I'm out in a location all morning long, sometimes I'll decide to switch it up a bit.  With the climber, I just climb down, find another location, and climb back up.  The climber I use is the Summit Viper Ultra which I bought at Cabelas.  The only disadvantage with the climber is the fact that it weighs 23lbs and you have to carry it in along with all your other gear.

Speaking of gear, I have a lot of it and it seems like I grow my collection every year.  There are two kinds of hunters.  Ones that use a very small set of gear and that's how they've been doing it for years.  And others that have every kind of gadget you can think of.  I'd like to say I'm in the first group, but I've been mostly in the second lately.  I've got headlamps, deer calls, deer scents and all other types of things.  But really the key when you have all this stuff is using it properly, and not using it in excess which I'll sure I'll discuss in a later post.

Wrapping up....I've got a lot of hunting in this year and the season has already started.  I went out opening weekend, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday Sept. 15th - 17th.  And I've already gotten some good looks at some whitetail.  This weekend was supposed to be a rainout, but mother nature decided to cooperate, unfortunately I made up my mind that I wasn't going to go out so I didn't prepare.  I don't think I missed out on anything however.  It was really hot and humid out and deer are mammals just like us.  And if you were outside in the heat you would probably not do much but sit in the shade and keep cool.  If the deer aren't moving around, it's not really conducive to hunting anyway.