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Xerox Phaser 6130N

Published October 7, 2008

Xerox Phaser 6130, which was $249 via Costco.

A few weeks back I mentioned that I really needed a new printer, as my old HP LaserJet 5L had mostly ceased working. Well, last week Costco had a Xerox Phaser 6130N listed on their site for $249 shipped, with a Tripp Lite surge protector and USB cable.

I ended up jumping on this deal, because it has all the features I was looking for in a printer, except a duplexer, which really isn’t that important anyway. In short, this is a networked color laser which speaks real Adobe PostScript 3 (Wikipedia PostScript article), making it properly usable from any OS without silly Gutenprint (GIMP-Print) drivers and their crappy dithering.

The price was also outstanding, as Newegg sells this printer for $359.99 and most other places want even more than that. I also made a quick trip over to Crucial for a $16.99 piece of CT12864AC53E should bring the total RAM in the printer up to 1152MB. That ought to make printing complex documents fast.

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Budweiser American Ale

Published October 7, 2008

Budweiser American Ale poured into a glass. This is actually quite good for a macrobrew beer. Just as good as Sam Adams beers.

I have a confession to make.

This beer?

I like it.

It seems that the venerable old (and now non-American) Anheuser-Bush has decided to take on mid-size decent brewers like Sam Adams (Boston Beer Company) by actually brewing a decent, widely available beer.

While it’s not the best beer I’ve ever had and would probably find itself near the bottom of a beers-I-like scale, it’s just as good as any of the relatively easy to find in bars smaller beers like SNPA, Sam Adams’ Boston Ale, or the Goose Island beers.

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Cedar Point

Published October 6, 2008

Looking up at Wicked Twister as we waited in line to ride it.

A few months back Danielle and Sarah had received free tickets to Cedar Point for donating blood at an American Red Cross event at Eastern Michigan University. So, on Saturday Danielle, Sarah, Bo, and I drove down to Sandusky, OH and the park.

After a breakfast at Perkins (sort of like Denny’s or IHOP, but not crap) we headed into the park.

Part-way through the day we were going to take the train back to the front of the park, visit the car, then get some food, but weirdly we ended up running into Brian Cors and his wife Debbie. They were waiving to us from the train and while it took us a few minutes to recognize them from that far away, eventually we realized who they were and made arrangements to meet up with them. We all wandered around together for the rest of the day, in and out of the HalloWeekends haunted areas, and on various rides.

Here’s the list of rides and attractions visited between Danielle and I, in order:

Troika (Thrill Ride)
Wicked Twister (Roller Coaster)
Corkscrew (Roller Coaster)
Witches’ Wheel (Thrill Ride)
Gemini (Roller Coaster)
Cedar Creek Mine Ride (Roller Coaster)
Mean Streak (Roller Coaster)
Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad (Tranquil Ride)
Iron Dragon (Roller Coaster)
Mantis (Roller Coaster – Steve only)
UNDERTAKER U (Haunted House – Danielle only)
Terror Island (Scare Zone)
Raptor (Roller Coaster)

In order to get a better feel for using the Olympus Stylus 850 SW I brought it along on the trip, so there’s a few photos of the rides and such available. These photos can all be seen here in the album Cedar Point (October 2008) if you would like to see them.

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NiteRider TriNewt Beam Shots

Published October 5, 2008

NiteRider TriNewt Wireless: High

Having acquired a NiteRider TriNewt Wireless headlight for biking I wanted to compare it to my other lights, so I put together a small setup in the garage to see how they all compare.

In short, none of the other lights I have compare to the TriNewt.

These test shots were taken in my garage with both the light being tested and camera set up on my workbench 30 feet from the garage door. A Robin Myers Digital Imaging Gray Card (buy them here) was propped up along the base of the door for use as a color reference, if needed. All comparison photos were taken with a Canon EOS 20D and a Canon 24-70 f/2.8L lens at 24mm, ISO 100, f/11, six (6) second exposure, with the white balance native (aka “As Shot”). This exposure was based on an automatic test exposure of the target using the NiteRider TriNewt on high and chosen to set an upper limit of brightness.

Here’s the items and their results:

NiteRider TriNewt Wireless: High · Low
Planet Bike Blaze: Single Setting (On)
2D Cell Mag Lite w/ OEM 3W LED Upgrade: Single Setting (Focused As Narrow As Possible)
Planet Bike Superflash: Steady Mode
Reference Overhead Lighting: Two 300W Incandescent Bulbs

It’s pretty obvious that the TriNewt on either Low or High blows everything else I’ve had away. I can’t wait to try this out in the woods.

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NiteRider TriNewt Wireless

Published October 3, 2008

NiteRider TriNewt mounted on my helmet. It's a bit heavy, but should work well.

Today I received my new bike light, a NiteRider TriNewt Wireless. I’ve been needing a head light of my own if I want to do any riding after work and this one should work pretty well. It’s a lithium ion battery powered helmet or bar mount 486 lumen LED-driven bike light, and based on my initial tests it’ll work very, very well. The on/off switch is on the battery itself, which would normally be a hassle, except that this version comes with a keyfob-like remote control switch and hardware for mounting it on the bike.

I plan on posting beam shots comparing it with some other lights I have around the house later on, but for now if you’d like to see photos of the bundle as I received it, please feel free to take a look at my NiteRider TriNewt Wireless photo album. Here’s one photo I find particularly interesting, a macro shot of the LEDs themselves in the lamp assembly. I don’t dare look at these while they are illuminated.

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Dead Owl

Published October 2, 2008

A truck with a dead owl hanging from the front bumper.

This morning I was told about a truck which supposedly had a dead owl hanging off of the bumper. Yep, that’s definitely a dead owl.

This must be a rare occurrence. Not only is it rare to see an owl, I imagine it’s even more unlikely that one would hit one, have it stick in the bumper, and have it end up in such a photogenic pose.

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Server Issues and Rainbows

Published October 1, 2008

A rainbow above Stony Creek High School before a wednesday night MMBA group ride.

As some of you may have noticed before, all sites hosted on my new server was inaccessible for a brief while this morning. It turns out that there was a slight issue which led to the switch port being turned off for a while. Everything had remained up, but the server was unavailable until it was turned back on. So, it’s still fine. This is a huge relief.

Tonight was also the normal Wednesday night group ride. I was a bit cold at first wearing just a long sleeved Target running shirt and shorts, but after we got going I was fine. This (intentionally saturated) photo was taken from the parking lot where we meet right after the rain before the ride stopped.

Thankfully some friends loaned me a head-mounted HID light so I could ride in the dark. This was definitely needed in the latter half of the ride, and particularly after the rain moved in. The ride back to the car was a quick 1.5 miles, but a bit unpleasant being in 50°F weather and down a muddy dirt road with rain coming down. At least it stopped once we got to the parking lot, making loading my bike into the car easier.

Now I’m home, relaxing, doing some laundry (yay, clean socks!), debating turning on the furnace, and generally thinking about bed.

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