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LiveJournal Is Dead

Published September 7, 2010

For as long as I’ve been making posts on nuxx.net/blog, since back in March 2008, I’ve been automatically cross-posting things to my LiveJournal account ‘c0nsumer’. In recent years LiveJournal (LJ) has become markedly less interesting as folks move to other social networks and abandon the blogging format. I’m not about to give up a place to post random thoughts, images, and technical info, but I don’t think that I’m going to keep contributing such things to LJ.

I’m currently working on backing up my LJ account so that I can archive it somewhere, but as my account became unpaid this evening I suspect it won’t be long before I abandon LJ entirely and post solely here. I may even consider using Facebook, where I’ve maintained a minor presence so that I could view other people’s pictures. I’ve been a bit hesitant to use it for any real content, but as it reached critical mass a few years ago I really shouldn’t continue to ignore it.

So, I think that’s it. While LJ does offer some benefits such as ACLs to restrict access to posts (which I don’t use) and email notifications of replies to comments, I think it’s time to move on. Within a few days I’ll likely uninstall the LJ crossposter from WordPress, make a final post pointing back here, and bid the online social blogging platform that I’ve used since May 28, 2002 goodbye.

UPDATE: It turns out that the expiration of my LJ account does not remove my ability to automatically cross-post. So while I no longer have much of an interest in using LJ, I may as well continue cross-posting to make it easier for others to read.

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New Tires!

Published September 3, 2010

I’ve been noticing some odd vibration from the rear of my car lately, and on Wednesday it was noted that my rear tire was starting to look a bit low. Today was a good day to take my car into the shop, and it was found that my rear driver’s side tire was super-worn on the inside edge, with intermittent vibration wear, and had a nail in it. With 54,134 on the set of tires they’d also lived their life, so I didn’t mind getting new ones.

My car rides much better now, doesn’t have an odd vibration from 69MPH – 74MPH, and it should be much nicer to go into winter with fresh tread to drive on. I do think I need to rotate my tires a bit more this time around, though.

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MySQL Help (phpBB and aMember)

Published September 2, 2010

As some of you know, I do many of the “webmaster” activities for the Michigan Mountain Biking Association. As part of this, I’m trying to do some MySQL stuff, but I’m really not sure where to start since it seems to be way beyond my abilities. So, I’m going to write it up here and hope that someone can help. Please? Help?

Thank you very much in advance for any help you can provide.

I’ll put it below the fold…

Continue readingMySQL Help (phpBB and aMember)
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Australian Yogurt (Yoghurt?)

Published September 1, 2010

This morning I ate a cup of Wallaby Organic Yogurt which Danielle purchased on clearance at VG’s. While tasty, I was a bit confused by the printing on the lid claiming that it’s inspired by “Australian yogurts”. Prior to this I’d never heard of such a thing, and apparently I’m not the only one confused by this designation.

I figure that this wording is simply a way of making a food sound more interesting by implying that it’s foreign. After all, foreign foods are better; especially those from exotic lands like Australia.

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Bad Avocado!

Published August 31, 2010

The avocado that I purchased yesterday from Whole Foods to eat today for breakfast is bad. It’s weirdly stringy, tastes salty, and is of an overall not-avocado color. Oh well. I guess that’s why they were 10 for $10.

No breakfast avocado for me, I guess. At least the peach that was purchased at the same time is good.

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Aurelio’s Italian Grill

Published August 30, 2010

Last night Danielle and I went out to Aurelio’s Italian Grill, located in an old car wash at 19 Mile and Garfield in Clinton Township, stuck between a Wendy’s and National Coney Island. While the location seemed a bit strange at first, the narrow building and large number of windows made it feel bright and comfortable inside, all without much artificial light being needed.

Between the four of us we ordered the following minestrone soup, tortellini soup, Italian salad, fettuccine alfredo, spaghetti w/ meatballs, spinach & ricotta rigatoni, and chicken cremosi. All of the food was excellent, and very clearly well made. Portions were immense, with each of us bringing home more food than we ate during our meals. The photo above (and here) shows three dishes after we ate our fill of them, and here is the remains of Danielle’s chicken cremosi. Most of this should reheat well making for outstanding lunches. Prices are also quite reasonable, as for the four of us our total ended up being just under $60, including $10 in tip.

The only bad thing I could say is that the website for Aurelio’s Italian Grill seems to require both IE and the Windows Media Player ActiveX plugin to view the menu. Still, even if you can’t check out the menu before you go, give this place a try. If you’re wanting some nice Italian and live in the area, you’d do well to give this place a try.

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Garmin’s Incomplete Edge 305 Fix

Published August 27, 2010

As you may have noticed by now I occasionally fix Garmin Edge 305 cycling GPSs that have a known problem where they will suddenly power off during use. This is caused by the spring contacts for the battery bouncing free from the battery contact and the device momentarily losing power, leaving it in an off state. To remedy this I move the battery wires from the contact PCB directly to test pads on the main board, completely bypassing the iffy spring contacts.

It appears that Garmin is aware of this issue and has tried to remedy it in recent versions of the Edge 305. Tonight when I pulled apart another one apart I found foam rubber stuck under the contacts apparently to provide additional pressure and avoid the problem. Clearly this did not work as otherwise I would not have been repairing this one. I can only hope that Garmin has a much better design in the Edge 500 (and future models) to completely avoid this issue.

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RTV Explosion!

Published August 27, 2010

While filling a syringe with RTV I accidentally squeezed the tube in the middle instead of the end, applying enough force that the end of the tube burst all over my arm. Oops. at least I had enough silicone in the syringe to finish up the Garmin Edge 305 that I was fixing.

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New Chainring Time

Published August 26, 2010

I’ve dropped the chain on my single speed a few times lately, noticing that the chain has become more and more slack. Since I’m not noticing any dropout/wheel slipping since sorting out the sliding dropout issue I decided to measure the chain. Lo and behold, when using my trusty Park CC-3 I found that it’s stretched .75% in some places, 1.0% in others. When I went to swap the chain tonight I decided to clean the chainring, only to find the telltale burrs and hooked tooth pattern indicating it’s time to replace the chainring. Being aluminum this Spot chainring was bound to

I think I’ll just get a nice stainless steel Surly 104mm BCD x 34t then reassemble it all without the Salsa bash guard, although the bash guard may be worth keeping just to protect everything. Hopefully between with the new chainring, proper tensioning, and a new chain everything will stay in place and the chain will remain nicely tensioned.

At least these aren’t the kind of problems that I’d have with carbon fiber chainrings.

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