Touring Bike Component Showcase #3
Headset cups installed! (Had the local bike shop press them in.)
That head tube is begging for a nice custom head badge. I’ll have to think about design ideas.
Posted on Tuesday, April 12th, 2011.
Touring Bike Component Showcase #2
Here’s a test fit of the new cockpit components. Inline brake levers. Headlight shared with Hooptie commuter bike, thanks to second mounting bracket. Speedometer. Crabon fibré stem.
Posted on Saturday, April 9th, 2011.
Touring Bike Component Showcase #1
As you may know, I’m building a new bike from parts. Most of the parts have arrived, but I’m still waiting on a few small items (and two big ones: the wheels). I’m going to wait until everything has arrived before assembling anything. So, until then, I will post a few photos of interesting parts for you to ogle.
Aluminum drop bars with bar end shifters.
Posted on Wednesday, April 6th, 2011.
My Day
In the tradition of my dad’s My Day posts, here’s what I did this morning:
- Burned a DVD of presentation videos recorded by the Bridges to Baccalaureate coordinator (a downstairs office neighbor). The Bridges program pairs prospective transfer students with professors and grad students to participate in a few weeks of research during the summer. The presentations were given by each participating researcher – they described their work so the students can choose which lab to work with. The DVD will be shared with a group of students who couldn’t attend the presentations due to bad weather.
- Imported my recording of yesterday’s EvoS seminar: Daniel Nettle on human behavioral ecology in the context of a British city. I think Daniel’s work raises the bar, methodologically speaking, for the neighborhood research efforts taking place locally. He did the footwork, so to speak, to construct an observational ethology of human activity on the streets of two different neighborhoods, resulting in a sort of corroboratory data you can’t get from surveys alone. Anyway, tomorrow I will combine the audio track with slides from his presentation, and the resulting video will join our archive.
- Payed the hotel bill for the keynote speaker at a recent conference held in Binghamton. Used a fax machine to receive the invoice! Spoke on the telephone and recorded the expense in a FileMaker database I set up to print the required paperwork (because filling out forms is work for robots).
- Ordered some lab materials for a funded research project from VWR International. This also involved speaking on the phone and filing forms.
- Replied to a student question about registration for next semester’s seminar series. (They have to submit a petition – an awkward solution to our program’s peculiar record-keeping status.)
- Created the poster for next week’s seminar about caterpillar chemical defenses. I make the posters in Pages and paste the new information into the previous week’s layout (it’s like using a template, but lazier). I like to include a photo of the guest speaker. Usually it’s pretty easy to find an appropriate image, but sometimes it’s a real scavenger hunt. I don’t think the posters play a terribly important role in advertising the talks, but making them is a fun way to finalize preparations.
After lunch, I accompanied a graduate student friend on a hardware store sortie to procure parts for a book scanner. We are going to build one! His research involves coding a bunch of records that exist only in printed form. It has been determined that scanning those books and bound volumes will be the most efficient way to proceed, so there is even funding for this DIY endeavor. I expect the scanner will get a lot of use beyond the scope of that project, so it will certainly be a worthy investment.
I rode to and from work in the rain on my Schwinn.
Posted on Tuesday, April 5th, 2011.
Orbital Drop eBooks
Do you like science fiction and fantasy? Do you read ebooks? You might want to check out The Orbital Drop, a monthly deal on an ebook title from publisher Orbit Books.
The currently discounted title is Consider Phlebas
I read a more recent Culture novel last year (Matter)
Posted on Tuesday, April 5th, 2011.
2011 (2)
Here’s an update on some of this year’s objectives.
1. Running
I resumed running in March. My intent was to run six days a week, but the weather and other circumstances dictated a few extra days off, so it was more like five days a week. Still, I logged about 110 miles over the course of the month. That works out to about 27 miles a week. To put things in perspective, a marathon is 26.2 miles. Later this year I intend to run in a few hours what I currently run in a few days.
Today I did an interval workout on the track with my friend and running mentor Pre. It was difficult, but fun to run fast. (Most of my daily runs have been at a pretty relaxed pace.) In post-run conversation, it was decided I will bump up my weekly mileage quite a bit in April.
The plan is to run this November marathon, not just survive it.
2. Brick Blueprint (LEGO instruction store)
All the technical pieces are in place for this endeavor. Now just I need to get my rear in gear if I want to make it happen!
In semi-related news, I placed my first Bricklink order today. It’s like eBay for LEGO. With prices for most elements in the couple-of-cents range, I see the temptation that leads some hobbyists from creativity to collection. Anyway, my order was actually inspired by a request I received to model a new part, similar to what I described in this section of my last update. Three bucks for a bunch of novelty parts.
3. Bikes
I pulled the trigger on parts for a new touring bike last week. I did consider some nice name-brand bikes (I looked at a 2009 Jamis Aurora Elite, a KHS TR-101, and a Cannondale T-2 locally, as well as many other models such as the Surly Long Haul Trucker online), but ultimately I decided to assemble something myself, mainly so that I can make the claim of “and I built it meself!” once I ride it somewhere. With a frugal mix of parts, I’m coming in under the cost of most commercial alternatives, too (but I will be paying higher in total once you factor in time and effort).
Of course, this was a bit of a gamble, especially since not every dimension is documented online as well as I might like (generally, though, the attention to detail among part vendors is high). Now that most of the parts have arrived, it turns out that I seem to have done my homework – everything fits good! Well, one thing doesn’t fit – the rear brake hangar – but that’s a $3 doodad. Also, the nice brake levers I got from Velo-Orange fit well, but I realize I would prefer to route the cables under the handlebar tape, for reasons to be documented in future updates, which requires a different lever housing design. I also forgot to order a headset (ironic, after learning all about them). So, back to the drawing board on a few fronts.
Some basic specs for any bike nerds in the audience: 56cm aluminum frame, green; hardy 36-spoke wheels; 2 x 9 speed drivetrain (ensuring those parts cooperate will have to wait until assembled); cantilever brakes; bar-end shifters; platform pedals. Progress photos will surely show up on Flickr once I start assembling things.
4. Career
Bit by bit, I’m studying and brushing up on some remote sensing topics with the intent to create a competitive portfolio of image analysis skills. Topics include DEM extraction, mosaicking, and land cover/vegetation classification. I have not yet collapsed the portfolio wave function to a single objective; conceptually, it still exists in a superposition of ecological interests (content focus) and commercial image acquisition/processing (technique focus).
I have a meeting this week to discuss Long Term Plans with the boss-man. My present position is potentially as good a launch pad as any for the first option, especially given the fledgling “urban ecology” focus in the biology department where I work. On the other hand, my interest in launch pads is not wholly metaphorical: I’m resigned to the fact that I probably won’t ever pilot my own starship – but imaging satellites are real!
Posted on Sunday, April 3rd, 2011.
Art on Anarres
This quote from Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed
“No distinction was drawn between the arts and the crafts; art was not considered as having a place in life, but as being a basic technique of life, like speech.”
(As with art, so with science.)
The quote is an excerpt from a description of the egalitarian culture of the protagonist’s homeland.
The book is a dialectical dissection of ideas about culture and society and belonging and belongings, told through the device of the main character’s attempt to bridge two very different but intimately related worlds. From my vantage point halfway through the book, the central question is whether the two peoples will be reunited – or whether the reuniter will ultimately find himself without a people. The title underscores that risk, and reminds me of the challenges faced by all who would seek compromise.
Posted on Sunday, April 3rd, 2011.
McReadability updated
Readability was a bookmarklet developed by Arc90 Lab that would conceal distractions and reformat article text in a consistent manner. I created a modified stylesheet (“McReadability”) that presented the article text in multiple columns, like a newspaper. Readability has since been relaunched and rebranded as a paid service. It still performs the same basic function – it makes web pages nicer to read – but now also offers financial support for article authors and publishers. This is a commendable alternative to the annoying advertising-driven segmentation of articles into multiple pages that is so common on the web. (Web advertising is often paid per page view – thus there is incentive to spread “content” across as many pages as possible. That’s why you see those “Page 1 of 4” links at the bottom of every online newspaper article. It’s not like web pages run out of paper at the bottom.)
Anyway, my multi-column version of Readability relied on some regular Readability code hosted at Arc90. This dependency broke shortly after the introduction of the revamped service. Fortunately, the original Readability code is open source, so I have updated the McReadability bookmarklet maker to be self-contained. The McReadability bookmarklets now use a copy of the article-cleansing code hosted here at anoved.net. If your McReadability bookmarklet recently stopped working, I encourage you to update it.
Besides this fix, McReadability remains unchanged – although now that is independent of Readability proper, I may customize it more in the future.
Posted on Sunday, March 6th, 2011.
Hooptie Utility Bike 2.0
I recently completed an overhaul of my primary ride. I replaced the original suspension fork with a sleek rigid fork better suited to the routes I ride. I also installed new brake calipers, for finer adjustment and modulation, as well as a pair of red-sidewalled winter tires, for sassy good looks. Learning about headset assembly was fun and rewarding!
Posted on Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011.
Last Year’s Starfighters Are Today’s News
Here are a pair of LEGO starfighters I made last year.
These are both Vic Vipers, a popular design loosely based on the player ship from a classic video game. Vic Vipers are characterized by two forward prongs, two rear wings, and a single vertical tail fin. I’m not quite sure why they’re so popular in the LEGO-verse, but I think part of the reason is that the template provides a creative constraint, like painting with a limited palette or engineering on a budget.
Another creative constraint I like to employ when building models is to use pieces from only one or two sets. It helps you learn to see each piece as an elemental shape instead of a specific type of part with a fixed function. Draw what you see, not just a symbol for what you think you see.
Also, strive to rationalize your most indulgent hobby as a valuable exercise in mental elasticity.
Anyway, both ships were built in time for the annual “NoVVember” challenge. The second ship was built as a subtle but specific tribute to nnenn (Nate Nielson), a prolific and respected builder who died unexpectedly last year. The ship incorporates two instances of the funny quasi-part Nate used as his recognizable icon.
So what sort of creative constraints do you work with, intentionally or otherwise? Can a cage become a scaffolding?
Posted on Thursday, February 3rd, 2011.