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My bicycle is now set up with what was referred to by the shop as a “European” layout – right hand, front brake.
This was an easy modification made slightly harder by the fact that I must have run my lever housing on one side into a tree and bent it a bit.

Also bought a new seat for the bicycle and a new helmet.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

Today’s conspiracy theory: bicycle companies are trying to kill motorcyclists by intentionally reversing the brake setup on their products.

I got me bicycle back from a friend I’d lent it to recently and discovered that squeezing the right-hand lever did NOTHING!

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

Getting Mom’s old files transferred has made for a resourceful morning.

Read the rest of this entry »

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

…please don’t think otherwise because I’m giving you a computer with Windows Vista on it.

Your loving son,
-phil

Ok, seriously – Vista was a horrible idea.  I’m pretty sure I can get it configured to where it’s not going to hassle Mom too bad, but it’s gotten me close to a killing rage.  What company in their right mind has the default security settings such that it takes not one but two seperate confirmations to rename a file shortcut on the desktop (when the user’s already an administrator)?!?

Here’s what it’s like to use Vista, in all honesty:

You: move the mouse.

Vista: “The mouse is trying to move.  Allow or deny?”

You: allow.

Vista: “You are trying to allow the mouse to move.  Allow or deny?”

You: allow, dammit.

Vista: ” You are trying to allow yourself to allow the mouse to move.  Allow or deny?”

You: F*(& this, I’m buying a Mac.

Vista: “You are trying to throw your computer through the window.  Allow or deny?”

et cetera.

“User Account Control”, consider yourself to be a disabled feature.   All you do is train people to click on “Allow” just to get you to shut the hell up.  Bad, bad, bad.  No security for you because all your users got trained to ignore it in the first 5 minutes of use!

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

…well, judgemental.

It seems as though I’ve got some new neighbors down the block. The question is, “for how long”?
The cars out front: an old Cavalier, a beater Ram Charger with no rear door and an Aaron’s Rent-to-Own van unloading a flatscreen and living-room set.

I don’t know who’s the bigger scum, the rent-to-own guys or the payday loan guys.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

Closing on my refinance is tentatively scheduled for 20 July.

I get one nice skipped mortgage payment which I may decide to do fun things with.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

I am really lacking in motivation today.

Bleah.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

When planning your wedding, please take into consideration whether or not your reception hall is going to charge for water.

Especially if your wedding is in a very humid state in the middle of July.

Yeah, seriously.  I was at a wedding in Nebraska this weekend, and the reception hall (”Tonight: Swartz / Lindgren Wedding; Tomorrow: All-star Polka Party 2″) was selling water for $1 a glass.  No carafe at the table, no drinking fountain, no hose out back.  Some weddings I leave thinking I should have smuggled in a flask;  this was the first one that had me wishing I’d slid a Camelback under the dress shirt.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

Got a call from EJ today – Chase got their act in gear, got their paperwork done, and I am now one meeting next week short of a completed refinance.

Bonus pocket cash: I get to skip this month’s payment!

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

The network got done a few days early, so I gave Windows 7 a shot.

…didn’t even manage to fully install before it coughed up a lung and died.
I’ll try downloading a different version later and see if my 64-bit processor does better with a 32-bit OS.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

According to Allstate, Ft. Fun has the second-safest drivers out of the 200 largest cities in the US.

The big asterisk next to that data: it does not include people who crash here but aren’t insured in Fort Collins.

…like a majority of the 26,000 students at CSU who make up roughly 1/5 of the city’s population when last I checked.

Remember, folks: There are lies, there are damn lies, and there are statistics.

I also wonder what the City had to pay the Coloradoan to put in a plug for the photo-radar vans…

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

Read this blog post by a generally-reasonable wine critic.

Now read this article from Gourmet magazine.

Do you notice the subtle flavor differences between the two, how the first has the earthy aroma of cow pastures?

I was with her up through the “cheap plastic red cups don’t taste good” – that’s sensible: plastic has a flavor, the wine’s bouquet isn’t concentrated as with a traditional wine glass – but she lost me after that.  That’s dropping into the arcane realms of nutjobbery.

I’ll agree that certain wines are best showcased in certain shapes – champagne for one: the tall narrow glass keeps it bubbly longer since there’s less surface area exposed – but the idea that your suavignon blanc will taste markedly different in a pinot noir glass… that’s getting into the same pseudo-science that Monster Cable uses to convince you that paying $100 a foot for a power cable makes a difference in your stereo and that you should have different speaker wires if you listen to Jazz instead of Rock.

Blind scientific testing beats a vendor presentation any day of the week.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

My preview copy of Microsoft’s latest OS, “Windows 7″ is downloading now. Given my office’s network performance it should be done about the time Windows 8 is released.

I’ll need to do a good chunk of work to make room for a third operating system on my home computer, but it might be worth the effort.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

The Coloradoan says that a bunch of the businesses in Old Town are petitioning to get the annual “Brewfest” moved to pretty much anywhere else.

(18 page PDF of the petition – looks like at least half of Old Town Square is on there)

I’d have to agree.  I skipped this year and really considered skipping last year – it’s a mess, figuratively and literally.  Over-crowded, over-served and under-regulated would be my impressions of where it’s gotten to.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

The Avalanche’s Joe Sakic is announcing his retirement from hockey after a 20-year career in the NHL.
Sad day. Sad, sad day.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

Google made it official: there really will be a Google Operating System.  This tops off an exciting week for Google since they finally moved GMail out of its five year “beta” stage.

The Google OS, for those who care for some details, is apparently going to be Chrome (Google’s really pretty darn good browser) running on top of a new graphics system running on top of a Linux base.  This is… not unexpected, but it’ll be really interesting to see how an “all web, all the time” operating system works out.  I’ll probably give it a try when it shows up – especially on my EeePC since it’s main goal in life is to Internet it up as fast as possible.

Speaking of operating systems, I’ll probably try letting a computer download the Windows 7 Release Candidate over the weekend.  With upgrades starting at $50 and some pretty positive reviews from a pretty skeptical crowd it might actually make it onto a computer that I own.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

For a computer with an estimated delivery date of “tomorrow”, you’d think Dell would try to punt it out of “In Production” status pretty quickly, here.

Gr. If it’s delayed then it’s delayed – I just want an updated guess as to when the thing will ship!

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

90 days from today is roughly 06 October. Let’s see how good the state/county is on getting things done when they say they’re going to.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

Hail the new news, same as the old news – Chase (my existing mortgage co.) is still dragging their feet on their half of the paperwork for my refi.  I’ve asked and been told that no, calling and yelling at them myself won’t help things along.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

…and a good thing, too.
Yeah, I broke down and bought new boots on Friday. On Saturday I rode down to Larkspur for to see the Renaissance Festival and ended up riding all 110 miles back to Ft. Fun in a pretty decent rainstorm. Yes, new waterproof boots are really very nice to have. They were also pretty comfortable for walking around for a couple-four hours, too.

The Renaissance Festival itself was quite a spectacle. We saw Puke&Snot, a pair of “German” rappers/comics and a really impressive set of acrobats.  I neglected the really important bit of attending a Renaissance Fair – eating a turkey leg – but made up for it by buying a leather hat (pics eventually) from one of the vendors.  If I didn’t buy the hat I’d probably have bought a sword and really broke the budget.  I also failed pretty miserably at the strong-man-hammer-bell thing.  Peer pressure, kiddies, is a real bitch.

In unrelated news, I nearly biffed it on the back stairs at the office a bit ago.  We seem to be short a facilities guy, so nobody’s really making sure that the glue-on traction stair edge dealies are not themselves becoming a slip hazard as the glue dies.

Riding back in the rain wore me the heck out, so I ended up falling asleep before the fireworks started.  Maybe next year.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.