Cheeky monkey

There are a couple more in my Family set (if you're logged in)

Bike upgrades

Each time I go out for a ride I try and make a small adjustment to my bike, such as adjusting the saddle height, saddle position, how tight my toe clips are, etc.

When I'm cycling at a constant speed I've found that sometimes it gets a little uncomfortable to keep my hands on the handlebars all the time, it's nice to be able to move your arms a little.  So a week and a half ago I decided to order some bar ends for my bike

I've got them fitted now (which was an interesting process... moving rubber grips along handlebars is not an easy task) and one thing I really wasn't expecting was for them to look so smart.  They appear to use a very similar type of rubber to my existing grips, so the finish is nearly seamless:



Unlike many of the bar ends that Wiggle stock, these seem to be the only type that extend both below and above the bar.  I almost wondered if this was a bit of a gimmick (if it's such a good idea, why isn't everybody selling them?) but having been out a couple of times now I can say that they're not

I've also ordered a pair of clip-in pedals and shoes.  Up to now I've been cycling with a pair of very old trainers.  These were fine until I discovered how much better it was to cycle with the straps very tight on my toe clips... a very noticable difference in power, especially when pedalling uphill.  The downside was that the soles on the shoes were very soft and after about 45 minutes it became slightly painful to have the pedal digging into the underside of my foot

So, when the new pedals & shoes turn up I'll have to pedal around at work for a while getting used to clipping in/out.  Tim Uglow (an engineer at work) suggested the work car park as a good place to do this... set yourself a spot that is your imaginary traffic lights and stop/clip out for that point.  If you can't manage it, it's no big deal (you won't fall off sideways and break your leg/arm/ankle) you just keep going and unclip there.  Obviously once you've got some practise in, you'll be ready for the road

Bikenav

I've been out on my bike a fair bit recently.  I have a nice 9 mile circular route that takes me through Sandhurst, Crowthorne, Finchampstead and Eversley -- this route is particularly nice because of the ride along Wellington Ave and The Ridges which is home to some really great big towering trees

A couple of weeks ago I decieded to extend my evening cycle so I plotted some nice looking routes in Memory Map, exported them to a standard GPX file format and copied them onto my mobile phone

By hooking up a great piece of free software called TrekBuddy I've hooked my mobile up to a Bluetooth-enabled GPS receiver which allows me to use my phone as a DIY satnav for my bike

TrekBuddy has a number of different modes, the two most interesting are a map-view (I've downloaded the correct resolution maps from Google Maps) where my route gets plotted, and a more simple compass view (a green arrow indicates the direction I should be cycling to reach my next way point).  After some experimentation I've settled on the compass view, mostly because my phone's screen is too small to effectively use the maps I've copied over

The most interesting part of all this is attaching the device to my bike.  After doing a brief search on the Internet, I've opted for a more home-grown method, involving half a car sponge (helps with vibrations), a length of old inner tube and (as a later addition) clingfilm to "waterproof" my phone

[caption id="attachment_2512" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Bikenav"][/caption]

The result won't win a beauty pageant, but for the time being it fits my need at a very low cost.  No problems with the mounting so far... although it is a pain to adjust settings after setting off as it involves removing the clingfilm from the phone

Since introducing the Bikenav I've added two more routes I can take in the evening, each one roughly 20 miles long.  I have a few more tracks drawn up, but I'm waiting until I've properly learned the first two routes before starting with those

Process Explorer

Process Explorer, available from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx, is a brilliant replacement for Windows Task Manager.  The utility provides a customisable top/prstat-like view on the system and is able to give good breakdowns on CPU and IO usage

The default column layout is rather limited, but it's quick and easy to configure all of the relevant information.  The only thing that does seem to be missing is a pure thread view (as opposed to processes)

Now I'm looking for a decent replacement for iostat and lockstat.  Process Monitor (from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx) provides a workable replacement for truss/strace... the drill-down features seem reasonably good, although the interface is rather clunky for initial investigations

Dell D630

Just this minute bought myself a 'new' Dell D630 laptop from the UK Dell Outlet.  Dell Outlet ships laptops that get returned to Dell for whatever reason... the good news is that I saved myself about £300-£400 over the Dell store price

The specifications are very impressive: 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo (T9300), 4GB RAM, 14.1" display (1440x900), internal modem, DVD/RW drive, Bluetooth and wireless.  It's not my 'perfect' laptop though... the internal SATA disk is 120GB 5400RPM and it has an Intel GMA X3100 graphics chipset -- I'd go for a 160GB 7200RPM disk or a 500GB 5400RPM disk, along with an Nvidia graphics chipset.  I'd also quite have liked a laptop with a built-in webcam, after I today discovered that my trusty Creative WebCam NX Pro is not supported under Vista

So why not an M4300 with stunning 1920x1200 display?  Simple really... finding them with the right spec is difficult, they're 15.4" (too big to carry) and they cost a minimum of £100 extra (more likely to be £200 once you factor RAM into the deal)

Hopefully this time next week I'll be a very happy chappy :)