Month: August 2008

Crooked Tree

Published August 15, 2008

I really like riding past this tree on the portion of the mountain bike trails known as The Snake at Stony Creek Metropark. This tree keeps leaning further and further over, and I imagine that soon it’ll actually fall and make for a log to be crossed. There’s something I really like about coming around that corner and having to lean under it.

Yes, I know the photo is really blurry. Sorry, it was getting dark and 1/7th of a second is hard to hand hold, especially after climbing a bunch of grinding hills. Here is a clearer photo of the same tree and my bike, but from an angle which doesn’t show the tree and trail as well. Also, a few more biking photos have been posted to my catch-all biking around local places album, if you’d like to see them.

Next time I’m out I’ll try and take a picture of the corner at the top of The Snake which I previously couldn’t make it past, but was able to easily ride through twice (out of two attempts) tonight.

A friend of mine is having problems with his Garmin Edge 305 GPS. He’s reported that it will periodically turn off while riding, which seems to be attributable to the battery contacts in it losing contact briefly, so he asked if I’d take a look at it. It seems that the unit has a set of pressure contacts which connect the battery, speaker, and USB connector to the main board, held in place when the unit is glued shut. This set of flexible pins has to make contact with this PCB while the whole unit is mounted on a bicycle bouncing down rocky and rooty trails.

I think that to fix this I’m going to fit two wires for power from the non-contact part of the pads on the back panel to test points on the main PCB. This should ensure that the power connectors are always good. USB and speaker probably aren’t as critical, and I don’t want to try and cram too many wires into a housing not designed for them. I’ll give this a go tomorrow as tonight I’m relaxing.

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Nokia E51 Fr1st Post

Published August 14, 2008

The first image taken with my new phone, a Nokia E51.

My new phone, a Nokia E51 arrived yesterday, but due to some issues at work I didn’t have enough time last night to open the box.

Tonight I did so, took some photos (to be posted later) and dropped my SIM into the phone and tried it out. So far, it’s great. The casing is nice, it’s reasonably sized, the buttons feel good, and the camera works great. The image above is scaled down to the same resolution as my old phone did natively.

If you’d like to see the full-res image it’s here, while this page contains the resized version. Note the EXIF header, which has been confirmed by jhead and will make sorting images captured for my moblog album much easier:

c0nsumer@reason:/Volumes/MMC/Images> jhead 14082008.jpg File name : 14082008.jpg File size : 310470 bytes File date : 2008:08:15 01:58:28 Camera make : Nokia Camera model : E51 Date/Time : 2008:08:14 21:47:38 Resolution : 1600 x 1200 Flash used : No Focal length : 4.9mm Aperture : f/3.2 Whitebalance : Auto
c0nsumer@reason:/Volumes/MMC/Images>

Now it’s time to relax, particularly after this last week of work. Hmm, maybe more poking with the phone, though… It’s nice to see OBEX working via Bluetooth.

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New Phone Ordered

Published August 10, 2008

I’ve brought up the possibility of acquiring an iPhone a couple times previously. While I still feel they are really nifty devices I’ve decided to instead replace my failing and almost four year old Nokia 6600 with an unlocked Nokia E51 purchased from Amazon for $249.99.

I currently have T-Mobile service, out of contact, with me paying around $40/mo for 600 anytime and unlimited night and weekend minutes. This price is right in line with other contract-based deals, but is without the contract restrictions. I should just be able to drop the SIM from my 6600 into the E51 and have it work. If I were to purchase an iPhone I would have to sign on with AT&T for ~$70/mo (plus taxes and fees) for the next two years after spending $300 on the phone. This is lots cheaper and should still meet all my phone wants and needs.

The E51 has received good reviews, and seems to be a descendant of the 6600. Beyond the basic modern phone stuff it has/is:

· (Supposedly) supported by iSync.
· 2 megapixel camera.
· 802.11b/g with VoIP (SIP endpoint, I believe) support for on WLAN.
· Browser / email client / multi-platform IM client and some office-type apps.
· Metal case.

It seems like it’ll be a pretty nice phone. I find it strange that none of the US providers offer this as a bundled / packaged phone but that might be because it’s a basic office-type phone without full keyboard, shiny (and very profitable) media service tie-ins, or a particularly shiny UI. I anticipate it’ll just be a decent, usable smartphone without being overly large or expensive.

I hope I can use the VoIP (SIP?) client, but I think I might have to talk with about that, as he both knows scary amounts of telephony stuff and can provide such a service.

If you’d like to read more about the Nokia E51, here is its page at Nokia’s US site.

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Dogfish Head Exclamation Mark Cap / Niner YAWYD

Published August 10, 2008

Looking down on the stem, Niner YAWYD top cap, and Dogfish Head exclamation mark bottle cap on my bike after fitting the cap. Once I get a less worn cap I may change it out.

After fitting the Niner YAWYD last night and drinking the 120 Minute IPA at IPM I had a nice yellow Dogfish Head exclamation mark cap for my bike. It is a bit more worn than I would like, but it was the best looking bottle I could find yesterday.

After test fitting the cap on the Niner YAWYD I carefully bent the crimped edges of the crown in a bit further then snapped it back on. It works pretty well as can be seen above or here with the cap staying nicely in place.

Being yellow the cap is the most obvious thing on my bike. I was originally hoping to get a nice black cap with the Jolly Pumpkin logo on it, but it turns out that all of their caps are plain ones. Oh well. There is something nifty about a warning sign on a bike, though…

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Niner YAWYD

Published August 9, 2008

Despite its horrible name the Niner YAWYD (You Are What You Drink) seems like a pretty nifty device. It is a replacement top cap for one’s bike which allows a bottle cap to be snapped into place. Yes, I will freely admit that it’s a hokey way of meeting both the good beer and mountain biking cross marketing cross section which I seem to fall in. That said, it does strike me as a bit more interesting than some of the other decorative bike accessories available.

Tonight I’m hoping to have a bottle of Dogfish Head’s 120 Minute IPA and use the nice yellow dogfish exclamation mark cap on my bike. This cap can be seen in my photo of a glass and bottle of 120 Minute IPA here.

This was purchased from Paint Creek Bicycles in Lake Orion, MI when Danielle and I headed up there today to see what they had on sale. There was a really nice looking (but red) Raleigh XXIX fully rigid 29er single speed mountain bike for $500 which I took for a few test rides but couldn’t bring myself to actually purchase. I need a new phone more.

Anyway, once I get the aforementioned cap, or possibly another one fitted to the bike I’ll post more photos of it. In the mean time, here’s the ones I took of the Niner YAWTD and my bike today:

· Front of the Niner YAWYD (You Are What You Drink) pacakge.
· Back of the Niner YAWYD (You Are What You Drink) package as purchased from Paint Crek Bicycles for US$13.50.
· The bottom of the Niner YAWYD, which appears is milled from 6061 aluminum.
· Top of the Niner YAWYD. This is the side the bottle cap snaps on to.
· Detail of how I found to best remove bottle caps without damaging them…
· Looking down at my bike’s handlebars showing the original plain top cap, computer, etc.
· The screw holding the top cap in place is removed with a 4.5mm hex (allen) wrench.
· Looking down into the steerer tube showing the star nut.
· Detail of the screw and original top cap.
· The Niner YAWYD top cap on my bike, ready to have a bottle cap snapped in place.

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Car-Based Data Tank

Published August 8, 2008

I look forward to Wireless USB becoming a reality because then I can easily put some sort of large flash-based device in my car, powered from the car, and use it for backups. As my car is generally where I am I think that it would be reasonable to use such a device for backing up personal financial data and other things like that.

Sure, I’ll have to incorporate some manner of both encrypting the communication and the data on the disk, but that shouldn’t be too difficult.

It’d be interesting to try it now via Bluetooth, but it’d make the availability as a disk volume (for easy backups) a bit more complicated.

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Zoo Millage

Published August 5, 2008

So, how many of you went to vote for the Detroit Zoo Millage today?

Sure, the local election primaries don’t matter much (most seats are uncontested or don’t have multiple people running for them from the same party), but the zoo is kinda important and special. Then again, I guess as long as you don’t vote against it you’re not doing that bad, so maybe apathy wins this one?

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Point Hope, AK

Published August 4, 2008

The person who won the 8GB iPod Touch auction I had posted lives in Point Hope, AK prompting me to ask how they ended up living there. Hopefully they’ll reply, because a place that remote is simply fascinating to me. In case you don’t know, Point Hope is a tiny place of 750 – 850 people located here, quite a ways north of the Bering Strait.

Beyond the aforementioned Wikipedia article, here’s another interesting article about Point Hope from the Tikigaq Corporation, and here’s a short story from a missionary about flying in and out of the town.

I guess it’s safe to say that I’ve now shipped iPod Touches for .11% of the residents of Point Hope.

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When Bridges Fail

Published August 3, 2008

One of the bridges in The Pines at Stony Creek came apart while I was riding across it. My front wheel went between the planks and I went over the handlebars.

Today’s bike accident was clearly in honor of Minneapolis. When riding through the Pines at Stony Creek with my sister (her first time on the single track there) and heading across a bridge, one of the boards slid to the side and my front wheel dropped down about six inches between it and the one next to it. As expected I hit the next supporting timber and went right over the handle bars. Whoops.

The board appeared to have nails holding it to the timbers, but they no longer extended through to the other side. In order to keep someone else from suffering the same fate I set the loose board off to the side of the trail. Hopefully others won’t have a problem riding on just two of the three boards.

Oh, and yes, I did email the listed maintainer of the trails there so he’d know about it. Hopefully it’s not a problem.

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I Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore

Published August 3, 2008

My bike at the end of the path at Metro Beach. Downtown Detroit can be seen in the distance across the water.

Yesterday my friend Brian () and I rode from my house to Metro Beach and back, taking the slightly longer (46.6 mile total) route. Brian has my old Forte FastCity ST/K tires on his bike and we wanted to take paved surfaces as often as possible because they are nearly unrideable on grass / dirt.

The ride was a little difficult through Dodge Park because of Sterlingfest. This three day outdoor party / fair had REO Speedwagon playing last night, so making our way both directions through the park involved lots of walking bikes through crowds. Other than that, the ride was pretty uneventful. There was a good bit of wind and not haven ridden for a month Brian was pretty exhausted at the end, but it was otherwise good.

I used my new CamelBak for this ride which worked out pretty well. One fill of water lasted the whole ride , and thanks to easy use of ice and insulation, having icy cold water was nice. Being able to carry a camera was once again nice, although I think I need to find a way to make it more accessible.

I did get a couple interesting photos and a couple dull ones. I’ll let you decide which is which:

· Brian standing with his bike in front of Freedom Hill park when we stopped in the shade.
· My bike at the end of the path at Metro Beach. Downtown Detroit can be seen in the distance across the water. (As seen above.)
· Brian checking his bike computer in the gazebo at the point while some families ride past and sit on the benches.
· Stopping near the McDonalds at Metro Parkway and Crocker to eat a gel I found a bunch of cheap vodka bottles in bread bags in the trash.
· Brian reading the nutritional information from a Gu-brand Vanilla Bean gel.

When first taking the photo of Brian reading the gel packet I got some really odd CCD noise which almost looks like, but isn’t, lens flare. Unless maybe somehow it’s lens flare caused by only yellow-ish light, but not.

I also found that my bike is having a hard time shifting between two of the gears in the middle of the cogset, but when I went to adjust things this afternoon I found that it only happens under load. So, I think that the chain and maybe cogset are finally wearing to near replacement. I guess it’s understandable as I’ve put more than 941 miles on my bike since its purchase.

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