I’ve been a big fan of isnoop.net’s Universal Package Tracking interface.  You punch in a tracking number from any shipper and it maps the results to a Google map so you can see exactly where your stuff is sitting.

Apparently, the UPT became popular enough to spin off into its own site, because it is now Boxoh.com.  

Those with a healthy sense of paranoia won’t balk too much at handing out their package tracking numbers.  Those with an unhealthy sense of paranoia should probably just stick to using the courier hosted tracking sites.

Rob @ RBR must be getting tired of me whining about my Speedmachine.  He yesterday handed me the info of a guy in Missouri who is looking to purchase a Speedmachine.

So why would I think of selling it after endeavoring to purchase it and having my wife kick in a big chunk of change as a father’s day gift?  The thing is shaky at slow speeds.  I mentioned that in the pros/cons list in a post back when I was trying to decide between it and the Grasshopper.  It’s fantastic at higher speeds, but I don’t always get an opportunity to go riding for 30 miles at a stretch.  Sometimes, it has to be rides on the bike path with plenty of stop/go traffic.

I’ve been taking test rides on a variety of bikes at RBR, many of which feel much more stable at low speed than the Speedmachine.  Every successful ride makes me think that the Speedmachine was perhaps a bad purchase.  But then I look at it and think, “God damn that bike looks badass.”

So, my options are: sell it for enough money that I can get a different bike; actually ride the thing more so I get used to it - I’ve had almost no riding time this summer; convert the Speedmachine to under seat steering and see if that helps.

I think I’d rather try options 2 and 3.  I know I shouldn’t like a bike because of its looks more than its function, but that’s exactly where I am with the Speedmachine.  Plus, I don’t think I’ve given it enough of a chance.  I’m going to try to get it out for some rides next week since I won’t be spending time at the shop (RBR is closed next week).  Maybe I’ll feel differently after that.

Ha, no, that’s not what it’s really called. But admit it, that’d be a fantastic title for an adult film.

No, what I really wanted to do was bring your attention to some absolutely stunning photographs of the Large Hadron Collider @ CERN. There aren’t many calendars I would buy, but this one? You betcha.

REINDEER FLOTILLA

“Just remember - where the cat sticks its tongue, I don’t.” - As said by my lovely wife.

Having just erected a new shed on my property, I am a bit cheesed that I didn’t think to build a shed in the shape of a TARDIS. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like it would hold three bikes nearly 7′ long, but then I remembered that a TARDIS shed is like a bag of holding.

Speaking of… I often use terrible pick-up lines to amuse my wife. About two months ago, I came up with this gem: “Did you notice I’m wearing my TARDIS pants? Yeah, that’s because it’s bigger on the inside.” Feel free to use that.

The 99 Designs experiment was interesting, and I did walk away with a logo that I mostly liked, but it doesn’t really compare to what a professional graphic designer can pump out.  With that, here is the new and final BikeAble logo as created by Shannon Lake of Lake Creative Communications:

To say I’m happy with this design would be an understatement.  Now I need to rush an order of new business cards in order to have them for the WCD Expo next week.

And then I need to erase all mention of BikeAble from this site so that nobody comes here by accident when looking up info on it.  No offense to myself, but I hardly think the contents of this blog are suitable for a disability organization.

Well, except for that entry on disabilities and masturbation.  No no, even that’s pushing it.  Oh well.

I of course had to read Mark Trail again today to see where this lesbian thing was going.  It went nowhere.  Apparently, she was just getting ready to spook a horse and make it throw its rider.  That’s not hot.  That’s not hot at all.

So I guess I’ll have to turn to Nancy whose Aunt Fritzi would make Silly Putty melt.

And here’s a little bonus for those of you into ropes:

There’s no denying that I am a ravenous little fanboy for VH1’s “I Love The *” series of programs.  I love the 70’s?  Hell yes.  I love the 80’s?  Who doesn’t?  And I definitely loved the 90’s.  The 90’s were good to me.

There’s also no denying that I’ve watched all those shows.  Each season has one show per year of the related decade.  So yes, shows for ‘70, ‘71, ‘72, ‘73, et cetera.  And then they came out with Volume 2 of each season just to hook me more!  For the love of god, all the backgrounds animations were TRON inspired for the 80’s Vol 2 shows.

But now they went and ruined it.  “I Love The New Millennium” started up tonight, and it’s absolutely no fun to get nostalgic about events less than 10 years old.  What fun is saying, “Oh man, I totally remember that!” when you remember it because it happened last year?  That’s not nostalgia.  That’s just boring.

So sorry VH1, you pushed it too far.  If you needed to go back to the well, a Volume 3 would have been nice.  Or maybe just bring back Pop Up Video.

Interesting side note, Brandy learned what a “muffin top” is by watching the New Millennium shows.

A long time ago, in a household far far away, I attempted to make Brandy’s computing life easier by setting her up with a wireless laptop and installing a Netgear wireless print server.

This ended up not working well because the wireless print server was a bit of a turd and supported only the bare minimum print functions of our Epson CX3810 multi-function printer.  The ink status was inaccessible as were the scanning functions.  And then we had a dog chew through the power supply cord, killing the print server.

Fast forward a year and a half… Brandy now has a new wireless laptop that she uses every night to print stuff for school.  The old print server still has no power and was practically useless even when it did work, so the printer is now shared from my primary PC.  This requires booting up the PC each time she wants to print.  While this works, she still has no access to printer status and is unable to scan anything.  What to do?

BUY MORE STUFF!  After doing some research, I came across the IOGEAR USB Net ShareStation which allows you to share up to four USB devices via ethernet.  It’s an amazingly small device (2″ square) that has an RJ-45 jack on one side and a USB port on the other.  Plug it in, boot it up, connect your device, and install the software.  That’s about it.

There’s a web interface on the ShareStation that allows you to manage the connected devices, update firmware, et cetera, but there’s not much reason to be in there as connections between client machines and the ShareStation are initiated from software installed at the clients.

Speaking of clients, there is one downside to going this route: only one client at a time can be connected to a particular device.  That is, if Brandy is connected to the printer, she has it locked for her use.  If I want to use the printer at the same time, I’m out of luck (though I can send her a message through the ShareStation requesting that she disconnect).  This would be painful in a frat house, but works well enough when only two people are computing.

The upside is that all functions of the printer work through this device.  Printing, scanning, status, and maintenance all work flawlessly over the network.  This is a huge improvement over the Netgear server.

Ironically, I’m using the Netgear server now (purchased a 3rd party power supply) to connect both my primary PC and the ShareStation to the LAN.  We just moved my computer out to the living room into a corner with no RJ-45 jacks, but the Netgear server also acts as a wireless bridge with its 4 port switch.  It has the distinct pleasure of having to shuttle data to and from the ShareStation.  I hope it’s not jealous.

I realize there’s nothing sexy about printing over a network, but I’m really impressed with how well the ShareStation works.  Figured somebody out there might benefit from the info.

“They” being RBR. During my last stop in the shop, Rob approached me about helping with a redesign of the RBR site. What made him think I’d be good for that? He found Disjunction and liked what I was doing here (specifically the regular blog entries).

So there you go, kids. Fill a blog with articles about bikes, furries, charities, electroshock therapy, and gadget reviews. It might just get you some site work. It’s not that I’m afraid of people finding Disjunction, it’s just that I never assume anybody is reading it beside my wife and folks reading FnDragon’s LJ friends list. I’m guessing that Rob was checking out his referral logs and saw it mentioned there.

In other news, I’ve sold my kayak. I was sad to see it hauled off in the hands of another man, but I was happy to see $350 in 20s and 10s in my hands. Next to go will likely be about 25% of my book collection - the stuff I have no intention of reading again or of reading for the first time. Normally, I’d trade those in at Webster’s for store credit, but getting credit just means I would replace books I didn’t read with more books I won’t read. For once, I think I’ll see what Webster’s will give me in cash.

Oh hey, I know… How about I turn this post into a virtual yard sale? Check my goods after the cut, yo. Read the rest of this entry »