- What is this site all about?
- It's just a hobby site that tries to fix and extend various features from the nikeplus.com site.
Think of it as the ultimate Nike+ widget in the form of a web site. It uses nothing but the public APIs that Nike's own
Flash-based interface uses.
- Thanks to...
-
The folks at Nike for being cool about me using and abusing their API to create this site. And also a
big thanks to Ben Klinger for the new and improved look
to the site. He sent me a great mockup and pointed me to famfamfam.com for many of those little icons you
see around the site.
- Where do I enter my NikePlus password?
- You don't! You should never give out your NikePlus password to any site other than the
actual Nike site when you log in there. Slowgeek will never ask you for it. The login mechanism
on the Slowgeek site is completely separate and you shouldn't use your NikePlus password here.
- Whoa, why are you stealing all my private data?
- I'm not actually. This site is only able to show data that anybody can pull from the Nike+ site. If you
are uncomfortable with the data that is available, make your Nike+ profile private and the Slowgeek site will
stop showing any of your data.
- I am afraid of making my Nike+ profile public. What sort of information is in it?
- The most sensitive information in it is the name of the city you live in. Your zip code used to be exposed,
but that is no longer the case. If you are worried about being stalked, pick a city near yours and not the
actual one you live in. It's nice to have it somewhere in the vicinity of where you live for the mapping
functions. Here is my public profile
in case you are curious to see exactly what it looks like. Depending on your browser, you may need to do a "View Source" to see
the actual data. The data is in a machine-readable format called XML, but it should be self-explanatory.
- I don't want everyone to see where I live on the map!
- That's related to the previous question. Again, if you don't want people to know where you
live and run, make your location in your profile less precise. The fact that Slowgeek plots it on
a map really isn't making it any more public. Anybody checking out your profile would see the same
information and would be able to plug that into any of the mapping sites to figure out where you are.
You don't have a cloak of invisibility when you run. People will see you running and they could even
follow you home. That seems like a much bigger risk than exposing an imprecise location in your Nike
profile. And I think the benefits of being able to send messages to people in your general area for possible
running outings, invite them to geographically relevant challenges and create interesting location-aware
challenges far outweigh the negatives. However, if it really worries you, and you want to be
completely excluded from being listed on slowgeek, email me at rasmus@slowgeek.com and I would be
happy to filter you out.
- Why would I login at Slowgeek?
- You don't need to. Most of the features of the site are available without logging in.
The only reason you might want to create a Slowgeek password and "claim" your
Slowgeek profile is to be able to post to the Slowgeek Forums
and eventually there will be other features such as a way to edit your run metadata which will
require you to log in.
- What do you mean by "claiming" my profile?
- This is a process where the Slowgeek site will send you a Private Message (PM)
to your NikePlus Forum account. If you have never used the NikePlus forums, you need
to go and activate those first by logging into your NikePlus account and going to:
http://forums.nike.com/. Once you have clicked on
the disclaimer and you can see the various forums, you will be able to receive private
messages. There is a link in the top-right area of the screen which will turn bold
when you have messages waiting.
Once Slowgeek has sent you a short magic word, you enter that on the login page and you
will then be able to set your Slowgeek password. This process of sending you a PM ensures
that people can only claim their own profiles on Slowgeek.
- What if my Private Messages don't work on my Nike account?
-
Nike has a few problems with duplicate accounts, so in certain rare instances messages sent
to your account are delivered to someone else. Hopefully we will see a fix for this soon. You
can send a PM from your Nike account to rlerdorf with an email address and I will email
you your Slowgeek signup token.
- Why does my browser say the Slowgeek server certificate isn't trusted?
- I refuse to pay the Verisign ransom for one of their certs. I think it is one of the biggest
scams ever. I use certificates from an open certificate authority called
cacert.org. The certificates are just as good and provides similar security on the connection,
but unless you install the cacert class 3 root certificate by clicking on
http://www.cacert.org/certs/class3.crt then you will get a warning when you go to an https link on Slowgeek.
- Who are you?
- I'm a web developer trying to motivate myself to keep running by combining running
with my inner geek. My Nike+ id is rlerdorf and
you can reach me at rasmus@slowgeek.com
- My run uploaded but it isn't showing up in my challenges
- Hold your horses. The Nike+ site can sometimes take up to 3 hours before your run
shows up in all your challenges.
- Cool weather data and images, where'd you get it/them?
-
The weather data comes from Weather Underground and the weather icons you
see on the run charts are (c) 2003 by Stardock Corporation and used with
permission according to these terms.
- Why don't my run graphs have weather data?
-
There are three levels of missing data. First, the system may not have gotten around to finding your nearest weather station.
If you are very new, wait 24 hours and check again. Second, the system may have tried and failed to find it. All it has to
go by is the city, state and country information from your public Nike+ profile. Make sure that is somewhat accurate and spelled
correctly. Or third, the weather station assigned that was found isn't working or is providing incomplete data. There will be a
mechanism for you to fix this yourself eventually, but for now you can email rasmus@slowgeek.com and I can fix it for you.
- I synched like I always do, but my run didn't seem to upload. It's not listed under "My Runs"
and I just see my previous run on the site. When I try to re-synch nothing happens.
- Yeah, this happens occasionally when the Nike+ site is being especially temperamental. The first thing you need to do is to
mount your ipod and enable disk access. If you don't know what that means, read this:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61131
Next you need to go find the run files on your iPod. If you are on a Mac I usually just do this from a Terminal window. cd to
/Volumes/<Your iPod>/iPod_Control/Device/Trainer/Workouts/Empeds/<Your Emped #>/synched
If the idea of a Terminal window scares you, you can install http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/mac/14722 to make the finder show you hidden folders and click your way to that directory.
If you are on Windows instead of /Volumes/<Your iPod> in the above, your iPod should have a
drive letter once it is mounted in disk mode. Make sure you turn on "View Hidden Files" in your File Explorer and make
your way to the synched directory.
The hardest part is done if you found your run files. Now simply find the file that didn't get uploaded and move it to the
latest directory which is up one level. As in ../latest.
Once you have moved the file, leave the directory and unmount your iPod by whatever means you usually disconnect it and then
plug it back in. If it won't let you unmount it, it is because you still have the Finder/Explorer/Terminal window up browsing
the directory, so get rid of that and try again. Once you have it unmounted, plug it back in and it should upload the missing
run.
At this point you may see a weird empty run on the Nike+ site and a "NaN" (which means Not a Number) title for
your run. That means the Nike+ site has lost its mind again, but your run is probably there. Click to "My Runs" and
poke around a bit, and it should show up. If it still isn't there and you still only see the previous run, follow these steps
once more. I have had to do this up to 5 times in a row before it worked.