Monday, December 17, 2012

[Wow IC] How retirement has been treating everyone

Hooff brought the ale to his lips, listening offhandedly to the conversation at a nearby table. The two Tauren were trading war stories back and forth. Some battle Hooff recognized, some he did not. Hooff listened more intently to the battles he didn't recognize. Ever since Hooff retired from the War with Deathwing, he'd lived a quiet life.

He decided to settle in Mulgore. After the guild had disbanded, he decided to retire. Hooff still thought of himself as a Drainei, regardless of what the mirror showed him every morning. Unlike other Drainei who were born too recently to remember before the crash, Hooff remembered the trip vividly. The Exodar held no more solace for him than the broken world he had left. There was pain and sorrow everywhere. A land filled with prairie grass seemed as good a place as any. Hooff quickly gained respect for the naturalistic Tauren. They too got used to have a "Belf" living in Mulgore.

Hooff made himself useful. He helped his neighbors, though they were few and far between. Sometimes he would even help some of the instructors at Thunderbluff, to train new recruits. He didn't do this often. It doesn't pay to get too attached to new soldiers in a time of war, they just don't last long enough. But he did what he could, taught what he could. The recruits needed all the help they could get.

Still, Hooff felt like more time had passed for him. It seemed ages ago that he was helping fight the invasion of Ogrimmar by fire elementals, though the calendar says it was barely a year ago. Barely a year ago when he saved the life of a young warlock. Fitting it seemed, to save the life of a young warlock, when his own life was saved by a warlock when he was young. Hooff thought of his old friends, his old family.

"Do you ever regret coming for me?" Hooff asked to his companion.

"Nope, I wasn't doing anything anyway... " a young Tauren sitting across the table replied. "Besides, who else would cover your back?"

Waash had arrived about a few months after Hooff arrived on this Azeroth. He travelled through the same interdimensional portal, had undergone the same transformation Hooff had. Outwardly a young Tauren, Waash's soul was still that of a Night Elf. Similar to Hooff, Waash had little ties to the old world, other than the "family".

Both of the companions were dressed in the drab, dull clothing of farmers and merchants. No one in the inn would have guessed that These two simple townsfolk had once fought with dragons and demons. That they had traveled to the heart of the maelstrom and done battle with the very elements themselves. Had assisted in the rebirth of Cenarius, and had helped liberate the Stonecore. No, these were simple townsfolk, listening to the tales of "true" adventurers, like those in the table near by.

------

Playstation Vita

Picked up a Vita because of work's Xmas deal. Received it a week ago, and its been a mixed ride. Long story short: Great system, good games, nice handheld. But burdened by price, proprietary memory cards, overly complicated routines and inept bundling. 

Long story:

Received the Vita on a Saturday. Unfortunately I was also getting sick, so I just pulled open the package and turned the system on. I plugged it into my PC, hoping it would charge, and it seemed to. Woke up a few hours later, grabbed Unit 13 ( game from work) and stuck it into the Vita. Updated the firmware and ... got a message saying that I needed a memory card to play Unit13. No problem, I'm sure they stuck a tiny one in the package somewhere, just enough for a small saved game.

Nope, nothing.

Read online, and most games do require a memory card. I can't believe they'd sell a system that was so incomplete, that you couldn't play it RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX. I can see this as a major disappointment on Christmas morning. Kids opening up the package, sticking a game in, and finding out that they can't play until they head down to the store and buy a card. Not a great first impression.

Unfortunately my Vita was a big, pretty, paperweight until I was able to borrow a card from a friend. I ordered a card for myself, but the order got screwed up ( which is a whole other fun story).

Memory Card:

Let's take a moment and talk about these memory cards. Even though they look very similar to mico-sd they are in fact a propreitary Sony memory card. Not just a Sony card, but a VITA memory card. Sony created a whole new, incredibly expensive ( currently), memory card format just for the Vita. Again, not a great way to gather good will from your customers.

There's a good write-up on the possible reasons why Sony did this: The Great Flash Memory Controversy.
I see that their points are valid, but the memory is still obscenely expensive. Currently the 32GB card is the best value at MSRP $100 ( $80 or so on a sale). With only Sony making the memory, prices will probably stay high.

Looks:

The fit and finish of the Vita is top-notch. It sports the same black and glass look that the "Fat" PS3, and PSP has. The front OLED touchscreen is gorgeous, and responds well. The buttons feel substantial and have a satisfying action when pressed. The back touchscreen seemed responsive as well. I only, very briefly, tried Dungeon Hunter which uses the back touchscreen. It was very brief so I can't comment on how well the touchscreen fits into the control scheme.

My only gripe so far with the control is that, its difficult to use both thumbsticks and hold the Vita up at the same time. For Unit 13, you need to use both triggers, both thumbsticks and a few of the buttons. This leaves precious little room on my palm to support the (surprisingly substantial weight) of the Vita. I might look into a grib to give the vita a little bigger footprint. Something like the Sony Trigger guard possibly. I'm hoping I'll just get used to it and settle into a comfortable grip.

Graphics:

The graphics are great. The screen is wide and bright. You're not going to get 720p looks, but they're still pretty good. I tend to hold it up pretty close to my face, so its easier to see the individual blocks, but someone more normal won't be bothered.

Game Selection:

From what I've been reading online, there are 3-4 "must have" games for the Vita. 2-3 of those I already have, so I'll be playing those when I get time. So far I'm about 1/3 of the way through the Unit 13 campaign. I'll be trying Uncharted next, then Gravity Rush and maybe Resistance. I was skeptical about playing an FPS on the Vita, but it hasn't been that much of an issue. Unit 13 has a fair bit of stealth, so that probably helps with things. I'll see how Resistance ( which is a more classic, run and gun game) fares on the Vita.

I'm also keen to try Assassin's Creed, which I've heard is also very good. But it's more of a sandbox game, which I don't do well in.


Quirk:

One quirk I've noticed is how unnecessarily complicated charging the vita is. The normal charging process, Vita into charger into the wall, that's easy enough. The indicator is solid orange when its charging. If its flashing orange, then there's not enough juice for the vita to turn on.

Things get more complicated if you're plugging the vita into a PC to charge. Plugging the Vita into the PC to charge when its off, will function basically like the wall plug. If your PC does NOT have content manager installed, it will charge normally when plugged in, on or off. But if it does have it installed then it will TRY to charge when its on, but it MAY not have enough power to charge. This is because with content manager installed, the Vita will make a connection to the PC and will be using more power. If you have content manager installed, the easiest way to charge it is to turn the Vita OFF ( not sleep).

Its not that complicated, but its much more complicated than it should be. It should charge or not, regardless of what software is installed. Having things silently change behavior is a recipe for frustration.

Conclusion:

I'm liking the Vita more and more every today. It excels at its primary focus: playing games. There's nothing quite like having dedicated controls that are designed from day1 for the game you're playing. It runs youtube app pretty well, and has a decent camera. I am even less likely using the Vita to take pictures around town, but its handy for games. Some games are already using it for Augmented Reality, which is cool.

I think Vita would do very well if it was $50-$75 cheaper, and you could use normal memory cards ( or the cards themselves were half priced). The games are reasonably priced ( $40 or so) and there's enough to have a good starting point.

Disclaimer: The views here are obviously my own, and are formed based on my experience as a consumer, with retail equipment. These views are not endorsed by Sony, or any other company I may or may not be affiliated with. Blah blah don't sue. 

Friday, September 28, 2012

[WoW] Back on the crack

Yup, I'm back on WoW. The new expansion lured me in, and some friends finished the job. It was a bit surreal logging back in. Quite a few of my toons were logged out at random inns in different cities. Because of the patches and whatnot, most ended up in their respective main cities. Ogrimmar for the Horde and Stormwind for Alliance.

Playing without addons isn't as bad as it used to be. Before you could barely play if your addons weren't working well. I've gotten to the Jade Forest without addons, and done a few quests. Having said that, I died multiple times because I didn't have any healing spells on my bars ( no healbot). At one point I resorted to typing in "/cast Flash Of Light" to heal myself. Its going to take some time for me to rebuild my interface.

System requirements must have been raised. Even with my new SSD, MoP isn't running near as smooth as Cata did. I had to drop down the settings to "Good" instead of "Ultra" to get smooth gameplay. I can jack it up to Ultra and still get mostly 24-30fps, but as soon as action starts, it drops to the teens with a bit of a stutter. I've gotten very annoyed at that stutter so now I'd rather run at Good and always be at 25+fps. It could of course be because I haven't updated any device drivers, and am running in full screen windowed mode ( to be able to read guides and such on my 2nd monitor).

Most of my characters on Blackwater Raiders are level 80 and below. Some of my old guildies are playing their, but in order to play with them, I'd need to get into the 85-90 content. The prospect of leveling through the cataclysm areas yet another time is not appealing to me. Plus all my money making toons have been transferred to Forgotten Coast. I have my 80 Warlock, 80 Death Knight, and 74 Shaman.

Forgotten Coast has quite a bit more money, and money making toons. My scribe is over there, plus my gathering toons. I have 3 85s there ( Pally, Priest, Druid) and a 74 Warlock. I think I'm going to mainly focus my efforts there. I dont' feel like releveling my toons on the other server, plus I'd feel like I'm handicapped by not having my other toons for support. But we'll see.

Friday, September 21, 2012

[WoW IC] Waash Arrival

Waash, Level 80 Tauren Druid. Day 2

I've been here for 2 days. I'd like to say I've been productive or even getting used to the "new" me. But I'm not. The best I can say is that I haven't killed anyone, or myself yet. I arrived in Thunderbluff 2 days ago, stepping out of the portal very disoriented. I made my way to the nearest Inn to take stock of what I had with me, and what I have become.

I'm surprised that losing my face hasn't affected me as much as I thought it would. Maybe seeing the "old me" held more pain than I thought it did. I'm a Tauren now, and for the foreseeable future. I have the letters for Master Hooff, as well as the bit of gold that I was given. I also have my armor and weapons, though they somehow have matched my more sizeable girth than they used to. I guess I shouldn't expect any less from a Mage as powerful as Ronin. I even somewhat resemble myself, though that might be just wishful thinking.

I have yet to track down the young Warlock that Bob's Felguard mentioned. That will be my next order of business. In the past 2 days I've walked around Thunderbluff, trying to get my bearings. I only recognized it was Thunderbluff from the stories that Bob used to tell. How he knows what Thunderbluff looks like, I guess I'll never know.

If I'm reading this Tauren calendar correctly, its been a month since Ogrimmar was attacked by the Fire Elementals. A month since Master Hooff saved that young blood elf warlock. 

Ronin mentioned that Hooff had joined a guild of other travellers. From different dimensions they had gathered to this one, to aid this land in defense against Deathwing. I stopped by the Guild Registrar, found the guild in question. "From the Ashes". A rather ominous name for a guild. I guess optimism doesn't run rampant here.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Achievement Unlocked: Rode to Work

Rode to work on the bike for the first time on Tuesday. It wasn't completely smooth, but I made it. I left early to try to beat the traffic. That worked out decently well. I avoided some, but not all the traffic.

The whole trip was about 14 miles each way. Three major streets, and 2-3 smaller streets in between. The 3 major streets all had a max speed of about 50 mph in certain parts. Two involved decent hills, and all were very busy. I had to sit in traffic on the way to work and on the way back ( with the way back being much worse). I lucked out a few times, in that when I got to an intersection, it was either green, or just happened to have no traffic at that instant.

Good:
  • Engaging: Because I'm riding to work, the whole trip has your full attention. Whereas if I was driving, I'd basically just be annoyed at the traffic, or hoping to find a path to get to where I'm going as quickly as possible, when you're riding your thinking of everything all the time. This keeps you very alert, and its never boring. 
  • Riding: After all is said and done, I'm riding to and from work on a motorcycle. That's pretty cool no matter which way you cut it. 
Bad:
  • Heat: Even though it was a cool morning, by the time I got to work I was still decently sweaty. Same for the trip home. It had rained a bit, and cooled down, but having to sit in traffic, I was in need of a shower by the time I got home. Any warmer and I might not have been able to get home!
  • Traffic: Sitting in traffic is horrid. The normal annoyances of being in traffic, plus no AC, plus having to feather the clutch and throttle, plus making sure not to get run over by inattentive drivers. I now know why motorcycles all seem to filter to the front of the line during red lights. Its not just to avoid waiting, its to keep themselves cool (by moving), its almost necessary. The slow meandering in first gear is much easier to do than the constant stop and go required for siting in traffic. I'll have to learn this skill soon.
  • Versatility: I had to walk to get lunch, simply because it wasn't worth riding. Bringing the food back to work would have been difficult, even if I brought the backpack. Having a mesh of some sort might have helped the situation, but having to ride through the area just for food was still a chore. Walking to lunch resulted in me being sweatier from the walk than the ride to work!
All in all I had fun riding to work. Its different, and I have much much to learn still. I'm not sure if I'll ride to work again this week. The earliest I'd be able to is friday possibly. But with the amount of work needed, and me possibly having to stay late, I might not have the energy to ride back home.


Monday, August 27, 2012

Fudruckers



Went for my longest ride yet on Friday. Took the day off, and decided that I would be riding to Mira Mesa ( a very busy, 3 lane each way street). Its one of the main streets I'd need to get to if I want to ride to work. Original plan was to head out around 10:30, and just ride for a while, taking breaks, and then meet up with some people for lunch.

Plans changed a bit and it ended up where my riding buddy was in the area, so we met up and headed out to Fudruckers together. It made it easier traveling in a group, you could ask questions and was easier to be seen. We headed out about 11:15 and made it to Fudruckers about 11:55. Not too bad, considering by car, in a bit of traffic thats normally a 30-35 minute drive.

The day was very overcast, so it kept me nice and cool. I decided not to bring a backpack since I wasn't going to be riding as long as I thought I would be. Plus I didn't bother wearing the tinted visor because it was so overcast.

The ride itself wasn't too bad. The two parts I was most worried about, weren't bad at all. Black Mountain Rd, which is a big hill and can get to 50mph had a decent amount of traffic, so the fastest I got was about 45mph. The trip back was equally uneventful. I did stall getting out of the parking lot, surprisingly NOT from a standing start.

I went to get gas at a Mobil station and the bike wouldn't start cleanly after the fill-up. I could get it to start with a bit of throttle while starting, but its never had that issue before. This was before I dumped the rest of the carb cleaner into the tank after I got back home. I'm hoping that will help with clearing up whatever is gumming up the engine.

Update: Started it up again on Sunday and it fired right up. It did stall after a few seconds because the idle went too low. A bit of choke and it kept up and warmed up. I'm not super concerned about it because its stalled on its own before. It looks like adding the gas must have stirred up the tank and gotten some stuff into the fuel filter, or something like that. 

Update 2: Checked the oil level and it looks completely empty in the window. Will have to pick up some oil and top it off before riding it again. 

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Solo Ride

Went for a longer ride tonight. This will be a shorter entry. I basically went almost as far as we did last friday. I got near a VONS and stopped there for a bit. I actually thought I was farther than I was, but I took a short break there, then headed home. Before that I did my lap twice. All in all about 11 miles.

Tomorrow I'm going to be trying to ride from the Apartment to Work. I'm taking the day off, so I don't have to ride during rush hour, and I don't have to worry about being late. I can take my time, and get used to riding that far ( 15 miles 1-way), and for that long ( 30 mins or so). I basically drive the route on autopilot in the car, but it'll be a challenge on the bike. I'm both nervous and excited about it. Looking forward to it, and dreading it. I've built up some confidence from the last few rides, whats why i'm challenging myself to do this. I figure if I don't, I'll never get anywhere with my riding.

Monday, August 20, 2012

First Impression: Bilt Air Demon Hybrid Mesh/Leather Motorcycle Jacket

Its on sale from Cycle Gear for $129.

I noticed it while browsing the Cycle Gear website. Bilt is apparently the in house brand for Cycle Gear. Explains why I don't see it sold anywhere else. At $129, its a good value. Most comparable leather/mesh hybrids start closer to 180-200. Full mesh is better in the heat, but doesn't provide as much abrasion protection. I even like the look of the jacket.

  • Fit: Its a "sport" fit jacket. I recently found out this means its TIGHT. I've never had to wear anything this tight short of a rash guard. I got the size 42. Last time I got measured for a jacket, it was a 44. I had the guy at Cycle Gear help me with fit and he said the 42 fit me better. I tried on the 44, and yes i was more comfortable, but I could see it being loose enough that it would start to flap at higher speeds.  
  • Looks: The looks was one of the first things that drew me to the jacket. I wanted something that I wouldn't mind wearing, even while not riding ( or more likely, wearing when I got to wherever I was going). The jacket wouldn't be mistaken for anything other than a motorcycle jacket, but it doesn't have crazy patches or anything like that. It looks like a basic jacket, that wouldn't look out of place on a sportbike, standard or cruiser. 
  • Protection: Obviously being leather/mesh hybrid, this would have better abrasion protection than the full mesh jacket I was using before. The jacket looks pretty hefty, we'll see how well it performs. 
  • Heat: This is my biggest concern, next to fit. With the leather, its going to be much warmer riding around in this jacket. Again, I won't know until I try riding with it on, but we'll see how it goes. There's a lot of potential air flow, so I think if I can keep the bike moving, I should be ok. 
The jacket also has a 5-year warranty, so that should help with anything that goes wrong with it. I noticed some of the stitching was already coming loose, but with the warranty I didn't sweat it as much. 


Sunday, August 19, 2012

SV650s vs SV650N

Cousin came over today, he brought along their SV650. Their SV650 is the same year as mine, 2002, but it's the S version, which means full fairings, lower bars ( clip-ons), and slightly different gearing. I never really thought about just how different the two models would "feel". I knew that the fairings drastically changed the looks, but other than that, I always figured they'd feel the same. Apparently I was mistaken.

Notable Differences:

  • Lower: As soon as he got on my SV650, he commented on how much higher it was. I sat on his SV650 ( I didn't feel comfortable enough in my riding ability to take it out for a ride), and confirmed that his was at least an inch or two shorter than mine. 
  • Handlebars: The "S" model has clip-ons, whereas mine are the higher handlebars. Again, I didn't think this would affect the bike so much, but having the clip-ons changes how much you lean quite a bit. The "S" version lends itself to a much more sportbike stance, whereas mine is a more upright, standard position. 
  • Throttle/Acceleration: He commented that mine had a more sudden acceleration. Whereas his was a linear progression, mine would start slow and build slow until a certain rev range. Then once it hits that rev range then the bike takes on a different profile and the amount of power increases drastically. We're not sure if this is because of the exhaust, or because the carbs/plugs need servicing. 
  • Exhaust sound: I don't think this was particularly influenced by one being the S and the other being the N model. Because my exhaust was a modified aftermarket exhaust, the note was quite a bit different between the two bikes. Mine is a deeper rumble, while his is a higher pitched whine. This plus the backfiring issue, makes my bike sound even more like a cruiser than a sportbike. 
  • Feel: The overall feel of the two bikes are very different. His is much closer to the sportbike side of things. The sitting position is crunched down, the exhaust whine is higher, and the full fairings really give it a sportbike look and feel. Mine has a higher seating position, the bike itself is taller, the exhaust has a deeper rumble and backfires. This is much closer to the "cruiser" side of things. 
I'm hoping once I get the carbs cleaned and the plugs replaced, that will eliminate some of the backfires and straighten out the throttle response. A more linear response would help with my stalling issues. I like the IDEA of a more crouched position, for aerodynamics, and looks, but I can see my back hating it quickly. I really just need to get more used to my bike.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Major Road and another Night Ride

Went out on my first ride on a Major Road on Friday. It was fun. Being around traffic is definitely a new experience. Also, having cars merging into your lane was also a new experience.

Here is a rundown of the things I've learned:

What I've gotten better at/learned:

  • Shifting: I've gotten quite a bit better at downshifting. One of the things that I truly had to learn on the bike that I never had to worry about in the car was downshifting when slowing down. I guess if you've driven a manual car, then this would come more natural to you, but I've driven an automatic my entire life. It finally "clicked" and I figured out that I should stay in gear, with the throttle on most of the time, even while slowing down. Let the engine braking slow me down, and if I ever need to speed up, I just need to open up the throttle a bit. Before this I would simply clutch in, and use the brakes. Then when I stopped, I'd downshift all the way to first, and get ready to launch. This never felt natural, so I'm glad I know what to do now.
  • Launching: Speaking of launches, I took my friend's advice and have been giving the bike more, smoother throttle. Its helped quite a bit with my launches. I'm more prone to dumping the clutch with a bit more throttle than I should, but its cut down on stalls quite a bit. I think the next phase will be for me to find the right amount of throttle, but not stalling is having a good impact on my confidence level.  


Things to improve on:

  • Distractions: I noticed I get just as distracted riding as I do driving. My amount of distractions when driving is pretty low, but I think its still too high for if I'm riding. Riding requires 2x more concentration than driving does. I need to be a bit more focused when riding. But not soo focused that I'm over analyzing and actually working against myself.  
  • Speed/Follow distance: Follow distance is something I haven't had to worry about before. Usually I'm going pretty slow in the residential areas, so any cars in front of me will leave me in the distance quickly. In traffic, I'm keeping up and trying to maintain speed. I had to remind myself a few times to keep more distance between me and the next car. But not so much distance that its an opening for another car to fill the space. 
So things are improving I think. I want to ride to work within a month or so. A few more runs through some major roads and I think I'll be ready to try the apt->work route on a weekend. After that I'll try riding to work.


Thursday, August 16, 2012

First Group + Night Ride

Got out on the SV650 again last friday. I wasn't doing great at first, was shifting badly, and stalling out like crazy. Even had a panic stop in for good measure. A friend came over with his Victory and we rode around together. I showed him the little loop I've been doing, and we stopped at the park I've stopped at before. He tried out the SV and gave me some tips on things he noticed I was doing, and little quirks of the bike that he found.

Tips

  • More Gas: Specifically, more, smoother, gas. He noticed I wasn't actually giving it continuous gas from the start. I'd give it some gas, let off, then give it even more. That little blip is enough to bog the engine down. I should just give it gas, and keep that gas on as I let the clutch out. I tried that a few times and it's worked better.
  • Look Up: I've been looking down more, and trying to look when I'm trying to stop and brake. He said that will unbalance me and just look up. If I stop short or a bit far, its no big deal.
We headed out after the loop and went to get something to eat. We went through a side street, and crossed the main street. He stayed behind me until the cross street ( so I had plenty of time at the light in case I stalled). Once we passed that he got in front because I didn't know where we were going. 

Following someone is a new experience for me. I had to figure out how far away to keep him. For a bit I was target-fixated and kept steering towards his bike. It was nice following someone because I didn't have to worry too much about how fast/slow I was going for the road. I just matched his speed, and kept a cushion. We also hit quite a few green lights, so it was one of the longer stretches of uninterrupted riding I've done. 

We headed to Ogge's Pizza and had some dinner there. By the time we were done eating it was dark, so it was my first night ride. I still had my tinted visor, so I had to keep that up, but other than that, night riding is fun. There's less cars, its cooler, and seems peaceful. When I'm more experienced I'll definitely have to do it again. 



My first time parking somewhere for real =). 


Monday, August 06, 2012

More Road Time, and some lessons

Stopped at a parking space near a residential park. Had to check the GPS to see where I was. 

Got back out on the road with the SV650 today after work. I actually had to work myself up before I could get the courage to get on the road again. That drop, even though it was very calm and controlled, still shook me more than I thought it did.

Once underway I made about an 8 mile ride around the neighborhood. Yes 8 miles isn't much on a motorcycle, especially considering I stopped twice, but I'm taking it very slow.

I expanded on the route I took last Friday. I did a long loop around the neighborhoods surrounding my apartment. Got onto a night curving straighaway that got me up to 35mph ( flying I know!) in third gear. I went up a hill, which included an incline hill start from stop. I had my first experience with a long downhill, and a long uphill.

I even did my first stop light, crossing a major street, and had cars next to me. After my first lap through the residential neighborhoods, I got ambitious and headed towards the main street. This street is on another hill, incline. I ended up being at the light, with no cars behind me ( fortunately). There were cars next to me though. I was nervous waiting for the light to change. When it did, I almost stalled it but I clutched in a bit to give the carbs some time to get the fuel and then let it out once the revs came up. I even made the left turn into the AAA strip-mall. Woots.

I went back and did the loop once more ( but without passing my apartment and heading to the main street again). It was a new experience being around cars on my sides. Up to now, my only experience was having them behind me ( which feels sooo much closer on a bike than in a car), and a few times, having them in front of me.


Lessons I learned today:

Parking lot = First gear:

When heading back into my apartment's parking area, I was in 2nd gear from the decent climb up the hill. I figured that I could probably stay in 2nd gear, all the way to the parking spot. This would have been true, had I kept up the speed I was going. Unfortunately right before the ramp into the parking lot, I slowed down to less than 10mph. 

At some point I was going slow enough, that I had the clutch all the way out, no throttle, and in 2nd gear. The bike promptly stalled when the revs got low enough. Since the clutch was all the way out, that LOCKED the tires. I skidded to a halt before I could even think to pull the clutch in. 

This could have been a very dangerous situation if I was leaned over in anyway, or if I was going faster. Fortunately I was straight up, so after it stalled I simply skidded to a halt, nothing hurt but my already beaten pride. If I was leaned over enough, I would probably have dropped the bike or worse slid out. Had I been going faster, I could have been propelled over the bars. Though this is a fallacy since if I was going faster, I wouldn't have stalled out in that situation anyway.

Lesson learned: If I'm in a parking area as tight and slow as my apartment's, its time for 1st gear. 

Grabbing is bad:

On the hill during my first or second lap, I was trying to make sure I didn't stall. I was at a stop sign, on an incline, and no one behind me. I was feathering the clutch, and trying to keep the revs up to not stall. I kept the revs up a bit too high and grabbed a handful of throttle. This jumped the revs from a manageable 1.5-2.5k to a hurried 3.5-5k. I had to hold on to the bars in order to keep on the bike. This of course caused me to yank on the throttle even more. I regained control pretty quickly, and let off the throttle. 

It wasn't that dangerous because I did still have the clutch half-way in. If the bike really did get away from me, my instinct would have been to grab the clutch as well, which would have stopped the surge of torque. 

It would have been much more dangerous had I been on a 600cc inline-4 supersport, or worse a 1000cc superbike. I could easily have wheeled the thing and gotten into some major troubles. Thank you Reddit, and everyone that told me to start out on a small bike. Yes a 250cc bike would be lighter and more manageable, but I don't think the 650 is that unwieldy, and my back appreciates the larger frame. 

Conclusion:

I'm slowly building up confidence in my clutch control, and overall control of the bike. My stops still leave a bit to be desired ( they're not all that smooth and I tend to put my feet down too early). I also haven't had very much sustained riding. Most of the riding I've been doing have been short bursts, since there's not a lot of long uninterrupted straightaways in residential areas. I don't think I'm quite ready to tackle a major street yet, but I do think I should try stopping less. Today I stopped twice, once to look at the map to see where I was, and another simply because I didn't know what else to do. I think it might help if I try actually having a goal to get to, instead of just riding around. 

Its certainly coming along. 


Friday, August 03, 2012

Instagram

I've been really getting into photography the past few months. Today I rediscovered Instagram. To most people those two should be mutually exclusive, but hear me out. I think I finally see what the appeal to instagram is. It lets you make snapshots look... composed.

By "composed" I mean it looks like you took a few minutes, to think about what you were taking. Good or bad, it give sit a bit of a processed look.

Composition is my weakest trait, photographically speaking. I tend to just shoot, and try to fix it in post more than anything. I'm horrible at it. I'm just starting to actually take a few seconds, and think about what I'm shooting. My photos have gotten better for it, but they're still not what I would consider good. They're informational, rather than artistic.

With instagram, you can fake it. It lets you "fix" that image afterwards. It gives the illusion that you took the shot with something in mind. People will still judge whether you actually succeeded, or what the heck you were thinking, but it does make them think. I guess in a way its a shortcut.

Don't get me wrong. People can create amazing things on instagram. But I'm just saying it lets people cover up their mistakes, me included. I might start using it more, simply to set myself to take more pictures.

Recently I've noticed, I don't upload a lot of what I take, simply because the post processing seems a bit daunting. I can make the image look technically good, but there's nothing interesting about the picture.

A few minutes ago I took a shot of the sv650 I took on my first street ride. Ran it through instagram, and added some minimal processing. Made it look a bit over-saturated ( a guilty pleasure I'll admit) and posted it up. Maybe I'm comfortable showing that because thats the norm in instagram?

Either way, bottom line, anything that makes people take more pictures and share them, can't be all bad.


iPhone/iPad/iPod Calendar + Google Calendar not all calendars sync...

I had a problem with my Google Calendars. Some would sync with the Calendar app on my phone. Some would not.

I tried different things, but apparently its buried in this web address:

http://m.google.com/sync

Go there, find the device you'd like to edit, and find the calendars you want to sync.

No fuss, no muss.

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

SV650

The past few weeks have been motorcycle fever at the old homestead. For a few years now I've wanted to learn to ride a motorcycle. I've also been putting it off, mostly because of time and money. Those concerns have ebbed and waned, but I've always put the motorcycle off. I literally woke up 3-4 weeks ago and the first thing I thought of coming out of my sleep induced stupor was...

"Today's the day. I'm going to sign up for the MSF...".

That as they say, was that. Signed up for the earliest one I could find ( which was last week). The class in general went well, I did better on somethings than others. In the end I passed the course, and was able to get my skills test waiver. The friday previously I went to the DMV and got my motorcycles permit.

Fast forward to Monday and I found a decently priced motorcycle on craigslist. It was the model I liked, looked to be in generally good shape, and for the price range. A friend from work was free to come with me to take a look ( he's been riding for ages). The bike was rough, but the seller assured me that a carb cleaning was all it needed to get it running in tip-top shape. ( More on that later). Negotiated a decent deal, taking into account the future work needed for the bike.

My coworker was gracious enough to ride the bike home for me. The ride improved on the way back, but it was still rough. Still it looked awesome sitting in my parking spot.

2002 SV650N - new to me



Update: Tried riding it the next morning after I got it. Went ok. Its running pretty rough, so I stalled out quite a bit. I was uncomfortable revving the engine because it was early in the morning. I was uncomfortable going down the slope on it, so I ended up walking it. I had issues riding it up the incline. I stalled out and was having trouble getting going. I eventually just gave it more gas than I wanted to and that did the trick. Unfortunately on the next lap I decided to go the other way. I was going slow, went over a speed bump and the bike started to lean. It went farther than I could save and it dropped. I got it down very gently, but I couldn't save it. Getting it back over again took quite a bit of effort, but I was able to do it. It was quite embarrassing.

Update 2: Originally I thought my back took the brunt of the drop. I was wrong. It is in fact my wrist that took most of the hit. I decided to take the rest of Thursday off from riding, help me recenter, and shake off the drop.

Update 3: Called a shop and its going to cost $500 to get the carbs cleaned. Another $500 for the tune-up. That's crazy. I haven't decided what to do, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to do SOMETHING. I want the bike in tip-top shape, mainly to ease my riding and to help with safety. I really wanted to go to THIS shop because it got really good reviews on yelp, and also its very close by to me. Riding on the streets seems a much more attainable goal than riding on the freeway.

Update 4: Had a decent outing on the bike. Finally got on the street ( woohoo ) even if it was just a small side street next to my place. Still it had plenty of hills, stop signs and even had to start on a hill, and make a left. That took a few tries and a few stalls, but I got it done. It was nice to build some confidence in the bike. Still really need to work on my smooth stops, but its coming along.

Monday, June 11, 2012

35mm F/1.8

Broke down a few days ago, and decided to get the 35mm F/1.8. Going to E3 was what really put me over the edge in getting this lens. The kit 18-55 F/4-5.6 lens did much better than I was expecting in the low light of the exhibit floor. I had the auto ISO on, with a max of 6400. It did actually go all the way to that ISO a few times. It worked out pretty well, because of how dark the whole scene was, it really helps mask the grain. It was the first time I was really able to see how to work with what I had. I took enough pictures, and had enough time, that I could think about what I was doing.

After reviewing the pictures afterwards, I was able to salvage quite a few with lightroom, but it was pretty clear that a faster lens would have been great. That, plus the unanimous praise I'm always reading about the 35mm finally pushed me over the edge. It is normally $200 everywhere, but recently its actually gone up to $220. I found it locally at Best Buy for the original $200, and I had a $25 Gift Card for Best Buy. It seemed destined to be. I bought it on friday and have been playing with it ever since.

 Lens:

 It's pretty tiny. Its amazing how small it makes my D5100 look, compared to when the kit 18-55, or especially the longer 55-200 is on it. I can only imagine how tiny it would make a smaller bodied DSLR, such as the D3100. I do agree that the lens is very "plastic", there's no doubt that its plastic through and through. This isn't really a negative for me, since all my other lenses have the same feeling ( the 55-200, feels super light compared to its size), but I can imagine how "cheap" it must feel for someone used to the more substantial metal bodied lenses.

 Pictures:

 The 1.8 aperture creates a razor-thin DOF. Its taking some getting used to. I naively though, her thats a wide open aperture, that's great for low-light. Just shoot wide open, never need a flash. I was sorely mistaken. I've taken to stopping it down to 2.8, which gives me a decent amount of DOF. Its still much faster than the 4-5.6 of the kit. It's also weird to be shooting with a prime. I knew this would take some getting used to, but I never imagined I used the zoom so much. The first few shots I took, I actually unfocused the camera because I was trying to find the zoom ring. I'm just now remembering to frame using my feet, instead of sitting in one place and trying to zoom. I've been reading online, how using the same focal-length gives your photos a bit of uniformity. I didn't think that was big deal, and to be honest, I still don't. But since I've been shooting so much at 35mm, then I could imagine that it would. Whether this becomes a significant thing, we'll have to see.


 Pics to come later.

Monday, May 28, 2012

RAM issues

Been fighting this all weekend. Having major RAM issues with the quad. I bought another 4GB of ram to up my total to 8GB. Unfortunately I still have DDR2, so I had to buy 2x2GB sticks. This means that all 4 of my slots are now filled. It seems that motherboards are a bit fussy when all 4 slots are used up. I've tried upping the voltage on the RAM and upping the voltage on the chipset.

The problem is I have no idea when its actually "stable". I've been getting file corruption issues since I installed the ram but I have no idea when they were caused. I thought I had it completely stable, even running Prime95 and Intel Burn Test multiple times without any issues. But I then got a "No entry point" error running Premiere and another corrupted wallpaper. I've tried the new ram by itself, in slots 0 and 2, and that seemed to work ok. But I didn't memtest it very long. I tried the old ram in slots 1 and 3, and that didn't allow the motherboard to POST at all.

I would think this is something bad, but it could just be that its not designed to run with memory in those 2 slots only ( though the motherboard manual mentions that configuration as valid). It could be that those 2 slots are just not quite good.

 I've gone back to Square 1. I've put everything back to stock. All 4 are in, running at DDR800, with stock voltages. I've been running Memtest for the past few hours, and so far no errors. This is a bit distressing because I know this configuration before caused windows not to load properly. This may mean that memtest just cannot detect the errors ( or the errors aren't memory related).

Update: So memtest cannot find the error. I ran it for about 3 hours. Which isn't much for memtest, but it was enough to get full coverage once. It passed fine. I rebooted into windows to make sure I was still seeing the errors and as soon as I did, stuff would refuse to load, and programs crashed. So I'm thinking this isn't a memory issue at all. Its a chipset issue. I've upped the chipset voltage to +.150V. I also overclocked the processor a bit to 2.8Ghz ( from 2.6). I probably shouldn't do that, but its annoying me now, so I figure why not.

I've run Prime95+ for about 18 hours, and it was fine. Now I'm trying Intel Burn Test 10x to see how that goes. I haven't seen any file corruption in the wallpapers, so I'm hoping if this gets through IBT. I can call it stable and just reinstall windows again to get rid of the file corruption. Update 2: So IBT returned an error. It said that it might be because of instability or UAC. I tried upping the voltage a bit more, but it turned yellow and wouldn't POST. So I kept the voltage at +.175 ( I was wrong before it wasn't at .150) and upped the FSB one notch up. Now I'm rerunning IBT, as administrator and seeing how things are going.

Monday, January 30, 2012

BTGuard [Follow up]

Speeds did take a hit. Some torrents aren't as bad as others. I used their testing torrent ( which is really just ubuntu 10.04 iso) and the speeds maxed out my connection. But for my day-to-day downloading, speeds are cut about half. Some torrents were especially hit. Whereas I was getting 100k-200k/s before, I'd be lucky to get into 60k/s with BTGuard.

Usually this isn't such a big deal. For the average 350MB file, this means that it takes 20 minutes instead of 10 minutes. But if you're downloading something closer to the 8GB to 20GB range, then this could be a significant increase in how long you're in the swarm.

I haven't quite decided if BTGuard is worth it. I was originally getting it so that I could get the bigger torrents without worrying about having to be in the swarm for a long time, unprotected. But if BTGuard's speeds are so slow that I end up being in the swarm 2x-3x longer, then the protection its proxies give me may not be worth it.

Friday, January 27, 2012

BTGuard

Started subscribing to BTGuard. All the recent privacy and idiocy with what Congress and the House are trying to do with the internet has annoyed me enough in order to pay for anonymisation. I'm not going to say what I download, but I figured its worth the $6 a month for other people not to know either.

So far its worked decently. The speed is slower than I'm used to. On torrents that used to scream by at 1.1MB/s, now plod along at 300-400 KB/s. Still fast, but there certainly is a hit. With it being more anonymous, I'm not as worried about keeping it on longer.

We'll see if I keep it going after this month.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

utserver and webmin

Found something interesting when trying to install webmin on the ubuntu server.
I recently installed utserver ( uTorrent Linux Alpha Server). Apparently, regardless of what port you specify it uses for the webui, it will also bind and use port 10000. This is a problem because webmin likes port 10000 and will not install if it is already taken.

From the utorrent support forums. The way around it is to shut down utserver ( thus freeing port 10000). Then install webmin. After that, re-run utserver. utServer will find that port 10000 is taken and then will choose a pre-defined alternate port.

The reasoning why utserver needs another port in the first place had something to do with device pairing. To be honest I didn't pay attention because it didn't involve anything I was doing.