Devil's Racetrack (Utah OHV)

Kenny on the Devil's Racetrack (San Rafael Swell)

For this Memorial Weekend, we road an extended version of the Devil's Racetrack in San Rafael Swell. Our total distance was 71 miles round trip.  We started at about 11 am and finished at about 8 pm, just a little under 9 hours.

We had two options to start our adventure.  The first option of starting in Ferron (only 2 hours from Provo) and riding the ATVs about 45 minutes to the top of the Devil's Racetrack loop.  Or the second option of driving clear around to I70 (about 3 hours from Provo) and starting at the bottom.  We choose Ferron, the route that got us onto the ATVs the quickest.

Daniel dropping down the "Steps"

The most difficult part of the trail is a little section on the Devil's Racetrack.  You dropped down a set of steep steps (semi difficult to go down, much more difficult to go up), only to go around the corner and find the "Pits", a pretty technical set of steps and pits to cross.  Once you are in the middle of these two, there isn't much chance of backing out now.  The two are next to the canyon ledge, which doesn't help the nerves either.

Kenneth entering the "pits" (cliff in the background)

Kenneth stuck in the "Pits"

The entire route can be summed up in the following map:

Map of our trail - 71 miles round trip

The trail varies greatly.  The ATVs preferred the dusty and sandy wash sections.  The motorcycles preferred the roads, rocky and technical sections (and very much preferred to say out of the sandy washes).

Susan on the dusty trails

Bonnie on rocky trails

GPS Tracks

I recorded our progress on a Garmin GPS tethered to my motorcycle.  With a bit of touch-ups the GPX (GPS XML) and KMZ (Google Earth Keyhole Markup Language) are available here:

Description	GPX	KMZ
Devil's Racetrack Trail (Full Loop)	GPX	KMZ
Devil's Racetrack Trail (Full Loop) - Light Version (reduced points)	GPX	KMZ
Devil's Racetrack Trail (Segmented Version)	GPX	KMZ

Photo Book

I also put together a photo book that includes other photos of the adventure.

Google Self-Driving Car

Google introduces their self-driving car prototype.

Read more at: http://goo.gl/qDUtgq

Evermore Theme Park Coming to Pleasant Grove Utah

Evermore Theme Park

A new theme park, by the name of Evermore Park, was announced last week at the Salt Lake Comic Con FanX (April 17th-19th, 2014).  Evermore Park will be a fantasy theme park in Victorian London Era covering more than 45 acres.  Evermore is being described an adventure park, with a fully immersive theatrical experience to rival Disneyland.

Evermore will be opening in 3 phases, with the first phase to be completed in 2015.  Evermore will be open year around and covers 3 seasons: autumn fest (haunt attractions), winter fest (lighting displays), and summer fest (fantasy carnival).

The Park will include elaborate gardens, attractions, a bay and retail shops.  "The park will also feature a three acre lake, a 2 acre town square with a performance stage, four elaborate gardens, and five large attraction spaces, all staffed by a large cast of professional performers."  The main courtyard and retail shops will be free access with the individual attractions will be ticketed separately.

The Evermore Park vision comes from Ken Bretschneider, the creator of the Evermore Pumpkin Fest.  Ken registered the Evermore Park, LLC in September of 2012.  The Evermore Pumpkin Fest hosted more than 5,000 people at Ken's home in October for the Pumpkin Fest, to celebrate the announcement for the Evermore Park.

Area just north of Pleasant Grove Boulevard and North Country Boulevard

Evermore will be built in Pleasant Grove, just north of just north of Pleasant Grove Boulevard and North County Boulevard..

Construction is expected to start this spring with a goal of having a good portion completed by Christmas.  It is expected to fully open in 2015.

See also:

• Evermore Facebook
• Evermore Park | Salt Lake Comic Con
• Pleasant Grouve Council Minutes - Review of Conceptual Site Plan for Evermore Theme Park

VMware OpenSSL (Heartbleed) Security Issue

VMware Security Advisory

VMware Security Advisory VMSA-2014-0004.6 reports that a number of VMware product suffer from the OpenSSL "Heartbleed" security vulnerability.  This includes ESXi 5.5, vCenter Server, VMware Workstation and a number of other products.  Patches are now available for download.

The ESXi 5.5 patch is available for download here: https://www.vmware.com/patchmgr/download.portal

The vCenter Server patch is available for download here: https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_vsphere/5_5

One can sign up for Security Advisory notifications by visiting: http://www.vmware.com/security/advisories

Video Games Live in Utah - Tickets on Sale Today

Video Games Live

Video Games Live is coming to Utah on September 6th.  Tickets have gone on sale today.  The event is being hosted by the Utah Symphony at the Abravanel Hall.

Tickets can be purchase for Video Games Live! at ArtTix.  There is an 11am and 8pm showing.  Prices start at $18.

3.2 Magnitude Earthquake NE of Tooele, Utah

3.2 Magnitude Earthquake NE of Tooele, Utah

Not that a 3.2 magnitude earthquake is anything to talk about, but it felt like something to me.  ;-)

"Geological Survey reported a magnitude 3.2 earthquake that was felt in the Salt Lake Valley Saturday night.

The incident occurred at about 9:23 p.m., and a follow up press release form the USGS stated the earthquake occurred about 4 miles northeast of Tooele."

Bethany and I believe this may have been the first earthquake either of us can ever remember actually feeling.

References:

• fox13now.com
• EarthQuakeTrack.com
• UUSS ShakeMap
• quake.utah.edu

---

M3.2 - UTAH

Preliminary Earthquake Report

Magnitude	3.2
Date-Time	20 Apr 2014 03:22:51 UTC 19 Apr 2014 20:22:52 near epicenter 19 Apr 2014 19:22:51 standard time in your timezone
Location	40.581N 112.215W
Depth	6 km
Distances	8 km (4 mi) NE of Tooele, Utah 16 km (9 mi) WSW of Oquirrh, Utah 17 km (10 mi) SW of Magna, Utah 17 km (10 mi) WNW of Herriman, Utah 33 km (20 mi) SW of Salt Lake City, Utah
Location Uncertainty	Horizontal: 0.4 km; Vertical 0.5 km
Parameters	Nph = 68; Dmin = 8.3 km; Rmss = 0.28 seconds; Gp = 68° Version = 3
Event ID	uu 60065467

For updates, maps, and technical information, see: Event Page or USGS Earthquake Hazards Program

Reported by University of Utah Seismograph Stations

http://www.seis.utah.edu

Untrusted - Hacker Puzzle Game

Untrusted - Hacker Puzzle Game

My brother introduced me to to this simple online hacker puzzle game by the name of "Untrusted" (or "The Continuing Adventures of Dr. Eval"). The game was written by an Alex Nisnevich and a Greg Shuflin.

Although the game is a "rougelike" game, there is a fundamental difference. Rouge was a dungeon crawler. Untrusted is a puzzle game requiring simple hacking skills.

The objective of each level's puzzle is to write Javascript code to hack the level's Javascript code, and allow the player character to reach the exit. As the hacker, you are only allowed to edit/add code in certain sections, marked by a black background. Code marked with a red background is not modifiable. You might think you could just simply modify the code to say "go to exit" (or placing an extra exit next to player, as you can on earlier levels), but the difficulty is that each level also has different validation and constraints that you must work around.

Author's Description of Untrusted

"Untrusted —or— the Continuing Adventures of Dr. Eval is an exciting Meta-Javascript Adventure Game wherein you guide the dashing, steadfast Dr. Eval through a mysterious MACHINE CONTINUUM, wherein, using only his trusty computer and the TURING-COMPLETE power of Javascript, he must literally ALTER HIS REALITY in order to find his freedom! You must literally edit and re-execute the very Javascript running the game in your browser to save Dr. Eval from this dark and confusing reality!
The game presents you with a roguelike-like playing environment and a console window with the JavaScript code generating each level. As loaded, each level is unbeatable, and most of the JavaScript is blocked from editing. The challenge is to open a path to the next level using only the limited tools left open to you." [source]