In my case, it is the same colour as my bike frame, right down to the flecks of rust it has picked up in service as an all-season commuter in Toronto.
Oh yeah, it's back... and it rides like a freakin' dream!
I had the crank replaced (which was due after the beating it took one Friday night in Burlington last winter... damned sand and gravel) and the new crank is a much better match with the shifter. It's a new bike.
I am so cheerful right now that not even my bruised ass can bring me down.
It's good day.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Happy Monday
Got out of bed, started down the stairs to the bathroom, fell ass first halfway down the stairs.
TTC running with serious delays on the southbound University-Spadina line... and it has been pissing rain for close to 12 hours.
On the other hand, the day can only get better...
TTC running with serious delays on the southbound University-Spadina line... and it has been pissing rain for close to 12 hours.
On the other hand, the day can only get better...
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Remember Palm?
Readers of the Register do, and not very fondly.
With reason. The Palm family of devices (especially the Handsrping Visor) were at one point the handheld device of choice.
I had one in those halcyon days... A Handspring Visor: sleek, nice screen size and expandable.
At the time I was wearing a lot of hats working in an industrial shop. One of my roles was that of the "management" rep on the Joint Health and Safety Committee. The Visor made publishing the weekly reports on the state of the floor a breeze; write (not type) the damn thing on the handheld, pull it into word when I got back to my desk and email the bugger off.
I cannot even begin to tell you how much I sneered down my nose at PokcetPC/WindowsCE/Windows Mobile/whatever the hell it's called this week users. Their battery life was shite.
Their colour displays were cluttered with a UI ripped from a desktop OS designed for a 17" monitor.
Their hardware crashed often where I had to work to crash mine.
But it all came crashing down. The reasons don't matter at this point, only the result.
They had the handheld market by the proverbial short and curlies and did jack about it.
To paraphrase the movie adaptation of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting: What I am trying to say is that the Treo is a blip on the radar, a high point on an otherwise uninterrupted downward trajectory.
And as far as gadget quality goes, I think its a damned shame.
With reason. The Palm family of devices (especially the Handsrping Visor) were at one point the handheld device of choice.
I had one in those halcyon days... A Handspring Visor: sleek, nice screen size and expandable.
At the time I was wearing a lot of hats working in an industrial shop. One of my roles was that of the "management" rep on the Joint Health and Safety Committee. The Visor made publishing the weekly reports on the state of the floor a breeze; write (not type) the damn thing on the handheld, pull it into word when I got back to my desk and email the bugger off.
I cannot even begin to tell you how much I sneered down my nose at PokcetPC/WindowsCE/Windows Mobile/whatever the hell it's called this week users. Their battery life was shite.
Their colour displays were cluttered with a UI ripped from a desktop OS designed for a 17" monitor.
Their hardware crashed often where I had to work to crash mine.
But it all came crashing down. The reasons don't matter at this point, only the result.
They had the handheld market by the proverbial short and curlies and did jack about it.
To paraphrase the movie adaptation of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting: What I am trying to say is that the Treo is a blip on the radar, a high point on an otherwise uninterrupted downward trajectory.
And as far as gadget quality goes, I think its a damned shame.
Floating hub blues
A short while ago, I noticed that something bad was going on with the bike... the ride felt seriously unstable and when I looked down, I could see the rear wheel wobbling left to right.
Bugger, I said.
Took it to the shop yesterday to get someone to check it out. I was expecting one of two diagnoses:
Fortunately it was neither. What it was was a loose hub. Which explains the travel. And the fact that the tire and tube were both shredded to ribbons (yes, I was riding with an underinflated tire and yes, for that I deserve what I get but shit man... a loose hub on a new wheel? Whaddafuck...) by the moving rim.
Ah well. Tuesday I'll be back on the bike and I cannot wait...
With my luck I'll get packed off for 4 weeks in Sudbury come Tuesday.
Bugger, I said.
Took it to the shop yesterday to get someone to check it out. I was expecting one of two diagnoses:
- Loose wheel; or
- Warped rim
Fortunately it was neither. What it was was a loose hub. Which explains the travel. And the fact that the tire and tube were both shredded to ribbons (yes, I was riding with an underinflated tire and yes, for that I deserve what I get but shit man... a loose hub on a new wheel? Whaddafuck...) by the moving rim.
Ah well. Tuesday I'll be back on the bike and I cannot wait...
With my luck I'll get packed off for 4 weeks in Sudbury come Tuesday.
Memories of Biz School
I see my friend Pete (currently doing his MBA at Tuck) has quickly learned the first lesson of Business School: party photos are ideal for blackmail...
...and the next time you see Acker, ask him about the bus in Peru...
...and the next time you see Acker, ask him about the bus in Peru...
FreeBSD, beer and possessed hardware
Warning: the following is rife with geekiness and profanity. So just fucking deal with it.
All right... So my flatmate's computer is fucking possessed. I have no other words to describe this.
It all started about 3 weeks ago when Windows Me (that being the most modern Windows operating system his accursed machine would run) up and decides out of the blue to stop recognising the wireless NIC that was installed.
So he reinstalls it, reboots... and discovers that Windows has removed TCP/IP entirely. What's that mean? No networking. None. The machine has decided to become a hermit and forswear the company of it's own kind by isolating itself.
After much ado, and fairly gratuitous use of the word "fuck", he gave up on Windows Me, and asked me if I had any ideas. So I gave him the install CDs for FreeBSD 5.4...
...and it was good. The OS is fairly solid (this is a direct descendant of BSD UNIX... as is Solaris, AIX... this is real UNIX, not some userland lashed to a kernel with duct tape... that's right, I said it you Penguin-minded dogmatists... accept it, that's your development model), the KDE GUI is easy on the eyes and surprisingly modern... expect the fucking drivers for the wireless card won't load... the damn thing cannot seem to get an IRQ.
I should back up and mention the hardware. This is an old school Pentium II 266 MHz machine. How old school? EDO RAM. I shit thee not. But it runs the newest RELEASE of FreeBSD and does so well, so who cares?
At any rate, there was further gratuitous use of the word "fuck" on this revelation. So, we did what was necessary. Grabbing 3 cold beers each, we built and installed a customised kernel for the hardware in question.
And then there was yet further gratuitous use of the word "fuck", this time employed with "motherfucker", "rat-bastard" and "ill-tempered son of a bitch".
Well, the upshot is dude has a working machine with absolutely no networking... so I borrowed a crimper from work, made sure the box of bulk Category 5e cable still has enough on the spool (thanks for the gift Jer...) and I'll be grabbing some cable ends on the way home.
If I can't make the sonofabitch network the plan is to overclock it to death. This should be fun.
All right... So my flatmate's computer is fucking possessed. I have no other words to describe this.
It all started about 3 weeks ago when Windows Me (that being the most modern Windows operating system his accursed machine would run) up and decides out of the blue to stop recognising the wireless NIC that was installed.
So he reinstalls it, reboots... and discovers that Windows has removed TCP/IP entirely. What's that mean? No networking. None. The machine has decided to become a hermit and forswear the company of it's own kind by isolating itself.
After much ado, and fairly gratuitous use of the word "fuck", he gave up on Windows Me, and asked me if I had any ideas. So I gave him the install CDs for FreeBSD 5.4...
...and it was good. The OS is fairly solid (this is a direct descendant of BSD UNIX... as is Solaris, AIX... this is real UNIX, not some userland lashed to a kernel with duct tape... that's right, I said it you Penguin-minded dogmatists... accept it, that's your development model), the KDE GUI is easy on the eyes and surprisingly modern... expect the fucking drivers for the wireless card won't load... the damn thing cannot seem to get an IRQ.
I should back up and mention the hardware. This is an old school Pentium II 266 MHz machine. How old school? EDO RAM. I shit thee not. But it runs the newest RELEASE of FreeBSD and does so well, so who cares?
At any rate, there was further gratuitous use of the word "fuck" on this revelation. So, we did what was necessary. Grabbing 3 cold beers each, we built and installed a customised kernel for the hardware in question.
And then there was yet further gratuitous use of the word "fuck", this time employed with "motherfucker", "rat-bastard" and "ill-tempered son of a bitch".
Well, the upshot is dude has a working machine with absolutely no networking... so I borrowed a crimper from work, made sure the box of bulk Category 5e cable still has enough on the spool (thanks for the gift Jer...) and I'll be grabbing some cable ends on the way home.
If I can't make the sonofabitch network the plan is to overclock it to death. This should be fun.
Friday, September 02, 2005
Long week, the perfect segue to a long weekend...
Ay ay ay...
The week didn't suck. Seriously. It was just long and injected with uncertainty, though heard some good news today at the office.
Well, I stood up in front of a number of my fellow geeks and yapped for 10-15 minutes about the Shmoo Group's Defcon talk, specifically developments in Rainbow Tables and Exploits for Exploits. Apparently a few people were paying attention and found it interesting... I was given props when I went out for a smoke during intermission and that's always cool.
Hell, it was just nice to know that my part of the presentation was not teh suck.
In a few short hours I shall be the proud owner of a new Mac Mini. I cannot wait. Bring me the pretty UNIX, yes... let the fun begin.
Ack's blogs (both the fiction and the op-ed) are some good reading of late. I suggest you check them out.
The week didn't suck. Seriously. It was just long and injected with uncertainty, though heard some good news today at the office.
Well, I stood up in front of a number of my fellow geeks and yapped for 10-15 minutes about the Shmoo Group's Defcon talk, specifically developments in Rainbow Tables and Exploits for Exploits. Apparently a few people were paying attention and found it interesting... I was given props when I went out for a smoke during intermission and that's always cool.
Hell, it was just nice to know that my part of the presentation was not teh suck.
In a few short hours I shall be the proud owner of a new Mac Mini. I cannot wait. Bring me the pretty UNIX, yes... let the fun begin.
Ack's blogs (both the fiction and the op-ed) are some good reading of late. I suggest you check them out.
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