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New wheels

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2011 Masi Speciale

This is the coolest bike I found after starting to search for one in earnest. Picked it up at Arizona Bicycle Experts. There are some custom / by hand frame builders that put together some fantastic stuff, but those are *way* outta my price range. Got it under MSRP since it is an older model, but I’ll still be paying for it for a while. These things is expensive. I actually went in to look at aluminum Masi’s, but this one fit and I’m glad it did.

Before jumping in the water I got my road bike toes wet on an aluminum Schwinn Empire from Wal-Mart. Not a bad bike on the cheap. Not a great one, either, since the components are all pressed steel not machined aluminum. Took quite a bit of tweaking to get it rideable. Although you could easily get your monies worth out of it, it never felt… I dunno, permanent I suppose. The Masi does. Could be that having years of experience with a quality steel frame helped me develop a bias.

Now to get my fat ass out there more often. The main reason for starting on this was to lose some weight and get in better shape. Hopefully even commute to work this summer. Used to love the road bike I had as a young teenager, so I’m looking forward to it.

MTB conversion

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In my quest for a better street bike I can either spend a few hundred on a used better model bike or a new low end model bike. Or I can convert my aging, better model MTB, a 19″ 1992 Trek 930 hardtail.

Tires were 1.95 knobbed, now 1.5 road tires. Makes for a noticeably stiffer ride. Though it actually seems harder to pedal. Since I’m as out of shape as I’ve ever been I cannot rely on this assessment.

Chainrings (110BCD) can be replaced with some slightly larger ones. Outer chainring is already 48t, but I can fit a 54t on it. They really do need to be replaced as it is, so why not go a little more road worthy? Sugino makes a set that will increase the outer and granny gear, letting me keep my crank and derailer.

Handlebar (upright) will likely not be replaced with a drop bar since I would need to replace the stem as it’s a one-piece high rise, but an aerobar might help.

In the end I’m still torn because I’d be making a workable tank of an MTB into a Frankenstein road bike that never will be one. At this point, I think stopping at tires is enough.

iPhoto ’11 is a PITA to use

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Photo metadata. Keywords, description / caption:

ExifRenamer (have)

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ingestamatic/id476718466?mt=12

Straight-up iPhoto competitors:

http://www.kavasoft.com/Shoebox/ [This has gone the way of the cloud. Boo!]

http://www.lynapp.com/index.html

[added 2015-01-23]
http://www.pixa-app.com

Too bad UPnP / DLNA is such a shambles. Network photo streaming is where iPhoto has [had] them all beat… so long as you connect via OS X, iOS, or TV. [Sharing iPhoto to iPhoto has been removed. You’re supposed to rely on iCloud photostream sharing. This “solution” is ass.]

Nintendo’s Tech Support Forums: How do I get what I pay you for? [UPDATE]

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[UPDATE]The “November Update” of 2011 has rectified this situation. You can now add only the amount necessary to make a single purchase. Way to go Nintendo. Very happy to be able to use it again. My wallet not so much.
………………

Nintendo’s Tech Support Forums: How do I get what I pay you for?.

Me bitching about the way the 3DS eShop works.
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Put a fork in the old site…

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While I sob quietly to myself. 🙁

I’ve run into a deadly (to Apache2) bug in my code that I cannot figure out without significant time and effort, with no guarantees and little hope for success. FML.

But I hate to let the old girl go… I *could* work around it, but I know I’d never stop being bothered by having to. Security worries, here I come. *frets*

Hosed by MacMall

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In late march this year we bought an iMac from MacMall to replace a dead PowerMac G5. Called bank to clear the purchase amount. They didn’t have the exact model, but could ship immediately one with a larger HDD. Fine, let’s giterdun.

Turns out they forgot to charge the difference till the other day. Turns out they send you notice of this from the same domain they send their junk e-mail from. Dummies.

We’ll definitely think twice before going through them again.