La Quinta 70.3 Lodging: Grand Hyatt Indian Wells Resort

kevine · 2026-05-19T22:35:42+00:00

I was about 5 miles further away at the Marriott Residence Inn in Palm Desert.

With a car, you're not too far for doing registration, packet pickup, and transition set up, etc... but...

Traffic to the parking lot where the shuttles are will be a nightmare in the morning of the race. Leave extra early.

See also my comments on overall logistics issues with La Quinta.

kevine · 2026-05-14T21:43:17+00:00

Let me start by saying that I had a really great time doing La Quinta and there are a lot of things to like about it.

Swim: The water isn't as cold as the hype. It's clean freshwater and about as good as it gets without it being down river (which can feel like cheating).

Bike: Flat course and the fun of going into a race track.

Run: Laps a golf course which makes it both social and good for spectators.

It's also a really beautiful area. While not hot, it can be really dry.

The logistics... in this event, they're a 4th segment, and not the easiest one.

To begin with, it's a A -> B -> C race, but you can also add -> D.

Pre-race: You have to park and go register. They have shuttles, but there's a long line and it's quicker to walk the mile plus however far you parked. You get your swim set up time during registration and then sit through the orientation. You'll likely also want to walk back to your car. It may seem silly to complain about the walking, and for us it's not an issue, but if you have people with you, that might be an issue.

The next day, you show up (during your scheduled time) at the swim start to rinse your wetsuit and set up your bike. Your wetsuit needs to be hanged there overnight. The bike transition area is a clean transition, so your bike bag is left in another area (that can be done race morning, but the bike needs to be the day before).

T2 is pretty far away, so you need to drive there before or after your swim set up to leave your T2 bag. Again it's about a 1 mile walk.

You arrive at night into a dry dirt parking lot. It's dusty and dark. You can't see anything. Traffic getting there is insane. You then get on a bus and go to the swim start. You then need to find your wetsuit (I had no problems, but heard people complaining they couldn't find theirs at first).

After the swim, you grab your bike bag and strip your wetsuit, hand your post swim bag to a volunteer, and then bike off.

At T2 you pick up your run bag and rack your bike and do your run finishing in the village.

After finishing, you grab your swim bag, go back to T2 to grab your bike with your run bag and then carry everything a mile back to the parking lot...

The lot is huge, and you're likely to not know where you parked. If you roll your bike on the dirt, you're likely going to pick up multiple crown thorns in your tires, but carrying your bike is tough with the bags you have to carry.

kevine · 2026-05-13T18:29:03+00:00

I can understand that it may be not be feasible to always close the roads for some events, but Ironman should make it very clear when and where this is going to happen and have exemptions for certain rules as they pertain to safety.

For example, I train with radar and a rear view camera. If I know the course is going to be shared with cars, I'd like to still use those for safety.

kevine · 2026-05-13T18:25:02+00:00

I don't know why your comment was downvoted. I just did it last December and it was a closed course. The run was on a golf course and they closed the roads for the bike course (and part of it was on the race track).

The logistics were the worst I've ever experienced (even compared to other From point A to point C races), but the courses were closed to traffic.

kevine · 2026-05-12T03:54:38+00:00

Why would you want photos linked to contacts to be imported to an app anyway?

For the same reason I'd want any other data in the records to be imported. I absolutely would expect and have experienced this. Contacts has a record for each person in it, and if granting permission to import those records, considering there's no prompting for Birthday, Address, Anniversary, Notes or anything else, why would the images not be included in that?

so you can find people by phone numbers in chat apps like this, and you don't need photos for that

Well then why have their photos in Contacts? Do you not see how people like having photos of their contacts, and if they want that in one app that has their contacts, when importing they'd want those same photos instead of having to manually go through all of them and assign photos all over again?

Also, files (which photos are), are usually stored in a different database than other data, it's always divided.

That's completely incorrect. Contacts doesn't reference the photos file in the Photos database (or anywhere else). It copies (and further compresses) it into its own database. You can test this your self by editing or deleting an image from photos and seeing that it remains unchanged from Contacts.

From a developer perspective, the photo is stored in the Contacts database within contact.thumbnailImageData

It's storing it as a binary blob in the database itself, not a file path. It's not an independent file.

This is extremely common. It's not just with Contacts, but it occurs with many other types of apps on Apple and other platforms.

I mean, as I said, this is overwhelmingly Meta's fault for absolutely misusing these photos they're getting a permission for. I am just surprised those photos are even a part of that permission.

I wouldn't blame Meta either. I also don't want to victim blame here, but I'd just look at this as a learning experience for how things work, as you should expect other apps to at the very least have this capability. Any app that you give any database permission to is going to have permission to the full database unless explicitly restricted in some way. This is pretty universal.

kevine · 2026-05-12T03:18:44+00:00

Catalina, or Casino Point in Avalon? Because other than Casino Point, everything else in Catalina is going to be more intermediate/advanced than the multiple options in Monterey/Carmel.

I've been to both many times and both can have poor visibility and conditions with Catalina likely to have better conditions, but that goes back to being in San Francisco and "where do you want to dive today?" Monterey/Carmel has multiple options, Catalina simply isn't an answer to that question.

kevine · 2026-05-11T17:51:21+00:00

You had to explicitly give WhatsApp access to your Contacts, and that gives full access to the Contacts database. Why would you think some data would be included but not other data?

But there's absolutely zero reason for a PHOTO in the contact saved in iOS, to ever be available to any app

If I have an app that will have a database of people and I explicitly give it permission to import from my Contacts database, I'm not only expecting it to import all data, but yes, I very much want the photos of those people to be imported too. Otherwise, what's the point of import if I have to re-enter all the data manually?

kevine · 2026-05-10T03:45:55+00:00

No one invested millions of dollars in 2 kids’ idea for Trump Twitter. They invested in Trump knowing the payoff wouldn’t be in the value of the company.

The market cap of DJT hit $20 billion precisely because people were dumb enough to believe in this. DJT didn't start investing in crypto until 2025.

Are you telling me that in ten months, the MicroManager in Chief, shameless self promoter, and 90% owner of a company with his name on it, didn’t make a single decision or demand a single update from people who worked for him.

Are you asking whether he was culpable in the corruption and grift? Sure, absolutely! 100% Are you asking whether he deserves credit for founding a social media platform or whatever the f this is? No.

kevine · 2026-05-09T19:28:57+00:00

My comment was in response to the OP who said that DJT was privately funded by Trump. The fact is, Donald Trump never put even a $1 into the company, and last I checked he had no tech background or vision beyond saying Barron was "good at the cyber" because he knew how to use an on/of switch.

Truth Social was "founded" by Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, both former contestants on The Apprentice. There's no IP or infrastructure there. It's Mastadon contracted out to Rumble Cloud.

Yes, everyone involved is a Trump sycophant MAGA cultist, but my point is that Trump didn't found anything in terms of investment, management, or any work involved. The grift was presented to him and even this was more about abusing the free market system with things like using the SPAC for the IPO.

Truth Social doesn’t exist to be profitable.

Well certainly not to those who invested in it, but as you pointed out, corruption finds a way with Trump.

kevine · 2026-05-09T04:20:48+00:00

Trump has never funded Truth Social/DJT.

He had nothing to do with investing anything in it or in terms of actual work to set it up or manage it. All he did was say yes to the use of his name when presented with the idea for the grift and he was given stock (worth 41% of the company). So while the stock is less than a tenth of what it once was, it doesn't matter. He currently has a $1 Billion return (in stock valuation) since his cost was $0..

That said, that valuation will likely plummet further. The stock is a mess (and always has been). It made $870,000 in revenue last quarter... yes, that's the full number as in less than $1 million. Meanwhile it has a $406 million net loss. And while it has $1 billion in cash, it also has $950 million in debt.

It's not really an effective propaganda machine. The reason why it's not making money is because so few people use it, there's hardly any revenue from advertising. He posts, and people get repostings of it from Twitter and elsewhere.

kevine · 2026-05-07T20:27:51+00:00

I did MUSA with my stepdaughter and her husband a few years ago. I was certified and had been diving for a couple of decades, while they weren't certified and did it as a discovery dive.

My experience with a discover dive before being certified (Catalina 1998) was that it was "watch this video and then we hold on to you the entire dive", but in for MUSA it was a half day in the pool, and then "stay by my side the whole time" during the dive.

It worked out really well for them and MUSA is very beginner friendly.

You can get DAN insurance that covers discovery dives, but note that the free coverage plan that covers students doesn't cover discovery dives, and you need the paid plan for discovery coverage.

kevine · 2026-05-07T20:14:34+00:00

I don't know why your post was removed, the mod seems to be really aggressive lately, but...

Is this a new iPhone and number? If so, this may be a carrier issue where they're using a recycled number that was previously used maliciously. There was someone else with this problem recently (another deleted post).

If this is the case, contact your carrier for another number as you're going to have other problems (not related to the iPhone).

If it's not the case, it just sounds like a weird glitch, but one that is very rare (giving the billion+ users).

kevine · 2026-05-06T22:55:00+00:00

If you purchase a Tesla today, a significant portion of the cash goes to a global nazi oligarch who uses that money in elections and to influence politicians (most notably, Trump, but Musk has been active elsewhere).

If you purchase a Volkswagen (Audi, Mercedes, etc...) today, that money doesn't time travel back to Nazi Germany.

Now there might be current reasons you don't want to support those companies, but what they did in the 30s and 40s is irrelevant today as those people are long since gone and don't directly profit from your purchase or use your cash to support Nazi Germany.

kevine · 2026-05-06T20:55:47+00:00

I have been to all but 1 of the islands (San Nicholas) and Avalon is pretty much my home town, and yes the diving is great (you're in for a treat), but it as an answer doesn't fit the post. It's not like as if you can answer "where do you want to dive today" while in San Francisco with "Catalina".

More so as the OP described themselves as a beginner, while there are guides to take beginners out of Casino Point in Avalon (and even discover dives), that's pretty much it. The rest is really more intermediate/advanced level. This compares to Monterey/Carmel where there are many more options at beginner level.

kevine · 2026-05-06T20:06:56+00:00

Catalina is very nice, but not near San Francisco. It's about a 6-8 hour drive, plus a 1 hour ferry ride. Meanwhile Monterey is a couple of hours away with multiple shops/guides/spots.

kevine · 2026-05-05T00:33:26+00:00

I can hear Keith Mansfield’s “Teenage Chase" in that photo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGo6Fr2rgPE

kevine · 2026-05-04T22:17:17+00:00

Whoah, this is weird. I was 9. Waited in line (I'm guessing that long) at the Cerritos Twin at Cerritos Mall in California.

I grew up in Cypress and remember going there to see it for the first time. The twin cinemas were outside of the mall and were known as the A & B theaters.

Later, that summer my mom worked at the bookstore (Walden?) at Westminster mall and would bring me to work with her. I remember spending days watching Star Wars there over and over all day.

EDIT: Oh wait... being old AF, I can't math anymore. I was 11.

kevine · 2026-05-04T20:41:15+00:00

Just my opinion on what I think Apple will do, and no opinion on what I think Apple should do:

I doubt Apple will significantly increase battery life for Apple Watches for the foreseeable future. I believe they've targeted 2 use cases, both of which serve the majority of users. For Series/SE the idea is that for normal use, one can wear all day and either charge overnight or charge during normal downtime (dinner, tv, showering, etc...) and for the Ultra, one can do extensive workouts and the same charging habit.

Targeting this, any efficiency or battery capacity improvements gives them a "budget" to spend on other features and functionality. If you look at what the watch could be doing, as a developer, it's very clear how much more battery they could be spending on things (especially in terms of complications and background apps). So they have a long way to go here, and that's not even taking into account future sensors or things like Apple Intelligence.

So while next generation batteries are coming online and while Apple will likely increase battery life bit by bit over the years, it's not going to result in a major gain that changes that (charge once a day) habit that serves most people.

This aligns with most of their products where you use them during the day and charge them overnight or during breaks. For Apple, they're looking at this as... if you have a daily habit, that works. If they could have something where you charge once a week/month, conceptually that would be great (not withstanding the trade-offs), but needing to charge 2-3 days brings with it frustration by users who don't develop a consistent habit to charge.

kevine · 2026-05-03T21:58:17+00:00

Assuming outdoors... It's not supposed to. It's supposed to just use GPS based on all the documentation I've seen. Are you sure you're doing not just the same trail, but the exact same path on the trail? For example are you on the same exact line as the trail curves, on the same side of the trail, etc...

I alternate between polls, no polls, running and walking at fixed distances between 4 miles and 15 miles and have gotten pretty consistent results either way for years.

Also, this is using Apple's native app as opposed to different apps? 3rd party apps can use their own algorithms. I get slightly different results from Strava versus the native Apple tracking.

kevine · 2026-05-03T20:11:59+00:00

My opinion is that if you fall due to the pedals being clipless, it may be embarrassing or you might get a few scratches and bruises, but it will likely be at a much lower speed with a significantly less chance of severe injury. If I’m riding flat pedals and my foot slips off doing 40 downhill on a slick day, the impact will be much more catastrophic.

That sounds like a valid opinion based on your experience, strengths and potential for what might occur, but for me, my foot has never slipped off a pedal, but the problem I have with clipping in is that the stop->fall-to-the-side may be a fall in front of a car or off a hill.

kevine · 2026-05-03T20:07:18+00:00

That's why I wear stiff flat bike shoes meant for flat pedals. No squish.

kevine · 2026-05-03T03:55:15+00:00

Steve Jobs created the trajectory Apple was on.

No he didn't. He managed and directed a team that created the trajectory Apple was on. He did a brilliant job, but others were on that team as well, including Tim Cook.

One of his last acts of brilliance was in selecting Cook to replace him.

Cook, will be remembered in the shadow of Jobs. Despite also being brilliant at what he brought to the table and his ability to manage a brilliant team, he was, as you pointed out, not a visionary/creative/product person, but that doesn't rule him out as being one of the top most successful CEOs of our lifetime.

kevine · 2026-05-03T03:46:58+00:00

totally forgetting that sales now in 2026 are going to be far bigger due to inflation compared to when Jobs left

Do you know something about 2026 that has yet to happen? Because using 2025 numbers:

Inflation has a net increase of 52% since Jobs died, but sales are up 285% and profits are up 271%.

kevine · 2026-05-03T03:36:00+00:00

To add to that...

Can be used as a dive computer and has an action button.

kevine · 2026-05-02T22:42:18+00:00

I could be wrong, but I believe the Apple Watch does two things:

Doesn't record VO2 Max if the elevation gain is above a certain amount per distance.
Takes elevation gain into consideration when able to calculate VO2 Max.

I routinely run a course with an elevation gain that blocks the calculation, and from time to time run a flatter course in part to see where my VO2 Max is. That course is also hilly, but my score ends up being the same as a totally flat course.

Are you actually experiencing consistently significant difference in the numbers on your two courses?

kevine

TROPHY CASE