Motorcycle Thoughts

I stand here in the throws of a dilemma.

I really do not know what to do.

I got an email today from a fellow interested in the Goldwing.

Let’s start from the begining, I have three bikes, many would say that is two to many. Each of them is great in their own right and I have been struggling since I got the Softail.   Last year, out of a whim, I put the Goldwing out by the road with a For Sale sign. As I looked at it out there by the road, I couldn’t stop the flood of feelings. This came to a head when somebody stopped by to inquire about it. I was really struggling to fight back the feelings, it was awful. The feelings were so overwhelming that, after he was gone, I wheeled the Goldwing back into the basement. Through the winter not many moments went by that I did not think about the struggle.

This year, I decided to put her out to the road again. I really enjoy the Harley-Davidson, I do not feel I can get much money for the shadow-aero, besides it is my first bike. The values of the Goldwings of this vintage are falling all the time, it is the logical choice.

Today I got the email, I called the number in the email, and spoke with the fellow for a bit. Hurting the whole time, I gave him all the information that I could and arranged for a time next week to meet with him. After hanging up, I couldn’t help but get those feelings again, hollow in the pit of my stomach. Tried to call the wife, that didn’t help.

I can always get another Goldwing later - right? This one is beautiful, it is paid for, and unique. 

Got home, pulled into the garage next to the Goldwing, stood there looking at it, hoping for an answer. None Came.

Restless and ready for adventure, four suburban bikers (Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence, William H. Macy and John Travolta) leave the safety of their subdivision and embark on the open road. But complications ensue when they cross paths with an intimidating band of New Mexico bikers known as the Del Fuegos. Jill Hennessy, Marisa Tomei and Ray Liotta also star in this leather-clad comedy from screenwriter Brad Copeland.
thanks Netflix

This is a movie that just about everybody can enjoy.

Without a doubt one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time.

Four life long friends, who take up motorcycling, decide to go on a road trip to the west coast. They start off in Cincinnatti, and head west. Along the way they run into many of the worst catastrophes that one could run into on the road. Through it all they manage to get through the problems and maintain their friendship. The worst of their problems is the Del Fuegos, headed by Jack (Ray Liota), who is a one percenter. When the Del Fuegos mess with the Wild Hogs and scare them out of one of the groups bikes, he finds himself at war, 50 bikers against 4 RUBS (Rich Urban Bikers).

Some Cameo’s from the Paul Teutul Sr. and Paul Teutul Jr. of OCC (Orange County Chopper fame), who are a bit out of sorts for their typical personalities. This only serves to make their appearance that much funnier. Peter Fonda shows up as well to save the day.

This movie will appeal to bikers and non-bikers alike. It will appeal to those of us that like stupid comedy and those that do not. Highly Recommended

I would like to offer the following items for sale. Most are posted on CraigsList for the Akron Canton area. Please feel free to contact me with questions or offers (all offers are considered).

• Sound Board SoundTracs MR-Series. This is a high end professional level soundboard for studio mixing. CraigList Posting $993.00
  
• Honda TRX250R four wheeler. This thing is nice, and fast. CraigList Posting $2500.00
  
• Nice set of tires off my car, plenty of tread left on these puppies. 206/60 R 16. CraigList Posting $150.00
  
• Motorcycle Lift Craftsman $93.00 (pics and link coming). Sold
• Engine for 85-86 Honda ATC200x three wheeler will fit other ATV’s (pic and link coming). $400.00
• Honda 1983 ATC200X, over all good shape but not currently running, third gear messed up. (pic and link coming). $500.00
• 1994 Chrysler Lebaron GTC Convertible excellent shape 67000 miles (pic and link coming). $5000.00

All prices negotiable, respond to this blog posting with questions or contact information (I will not publish the postings).

This was dated November 11th, 1994.

An email to my brother-in-law. He was looking at a Honda TRX-250X, I went to look at it for him. I wrote this too him, I liked it so much that I have kept a copy of it all these years. Pardon the terrible english and punctuation issues.  I was not so concerned about that at the time.

Here it is:
It is to say that it came to pass that the great ATV giant would fall with the terror of the righteous, and they shall lament. Then as the dust settled, came a light and the light was the giant awakening after a brief slumber. All arose to rejoice the arrival of the giant, and the giant waved its wand and it came out of the flash of light in the year of our lord 1987 and it continued till the year of our lord 1992 when out of the light came a blue and white flash. The flash streaked toward the people of the dirt, and they bowed. The giant saw that it was good. I stood there in awe of its beauty, and to its stunning blue and white color and I liked it. I looked over and under to find flaw but it was good and I loved it. It came to pass that I could find not one reason why the blue and white machine should not be yours. but lo I should stop and caution the man about his machine! and caution him I will for tonight it was not to be, for the key, the key to the beauty was not to be found, and I was sad. Not to fear says I, not to fear for there is T’morrow and morrow there shall be for thou shall meet thee at my castle promptly in the morrow and we shall travel by chariot to the north, yes, the north and the key shall appear before us and I shall find if the great giant hath wrought forth a beauty in form as well as function. We shall find out, Oh yes we shall.

Just read another perspective on the Safari Browser. According to a PC Magazine article, the reasoning behind Apple porting Safari to windows is a matter of survival. I did not think about this angle, the rage lately with computing is centralized software or services, think Google Docs. Apple is simply looking to make itself relevant, no small feat for a company that has always been boutique.

I am not a security expert, but just an off the cuff observation; if they make themselves more relevant don’t they risk getting mainstream as well? Wherein this may seem like a good idea on the surface, perhaps it exposes the companies existing holes. The holes that I am talking about include; holes in the company structure (always been a very tight lipped company) software and OS vulnerabilities (iTunes has shown Apples inability to test their software 100% - Still haven’t gotten the Movies to play on my computer.), also holes include the companies reputation (look what success has done to the evil Microsoft).

On the other hand, if well executed, it has the potential to push apple further ahead. Show the windows crowd that Apple can do Windows better than Microsoft can do Windows. Again, I point to iTunes, very well executed, despite the problem that I am having with my computer. The problem I am having with my computer is not necessarily Apples fault. iTunes on windows (in my opinion) works better and is easier then Windows Media Player in all aspects.

I still think that Safari has a ways to go before it becomes a default browser on any of my computers. I will keep an open mind never the less. Heck, I may just go get me a Mac, I am absolutely fed up with Vista.

Recently found out that Apple has developed a version of Safari for Windows. I cannot help to ask one simple question: “why?” this makes no sense. Look at the ads that Apple has, they clearly are not very happy dealing with Windows. The have iTunes for Windows for market share. Safari itself (despite their claim that The worlds best browser, Now on Windows too) is not very well liked by the Mac users that I know, most of them stick with Mozilla’s excellent Firefox browser.

As for the browser itself, I downloaded the beta 3 version to my work computer. I am a Webmaster by trade and feel the need to see what my work will look like on the browser. The browser has a nice Apple look and feel (ala iTunes), well laid out. What I am not impressed with is how the browser renders my work. For example fonts do not not look right it is not sharp and crisp. Seemed that their are still some general CSS issues plaguing the browser, as well as some W3C compliancy issues. I am trying to keep in mind that the browser is in beta and hopefully these type of things will be addressed in the final release.

Still cannot help but wonder why Apple would bother with this my iTunes is still not fixed and they are still not addressing that issue, would love to watch my iTunes movies on my computer without having to jump through stupid hoops.

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Rush: The Musicians Musicians

I have been a Rush fan since Moving Pictures was first released. A friend in High School who was a drummer by choice threw me the cassette and said listen to this and then talk to me, in response to an argument between him and I. I went home popped the cassette into my boom box and sat down. Tom Sawyer first song first side, just blew me away. I could not believe how awesome the song was, the power of the lyrics the strength of the musicians, despite the terrible sound emanating from the terrible speakers and limitations of the cassette itself. It was truly an experience to remember. The following song Red Barchetta I came to find out later that the drummer Niel Peart is a word smith, poet etc. adapted the song from a poem called A Nice Morning Drive, written by Richard S. Foster (thanks Song Facts) The song was a story that I could close my eyes and listen too. The rest of the songs just blew me away, but I will save the details for additional postings that I have.

Needless to say, I returned the cassette the next day to my friend at school and apologized profusely for my stupidity. My first Rush piece that I owned was a cassette of Signals which I wore out. My library now contains all of Rush’s works, including some printed material and most of the video material. Needless to say the iPod holds the complete collection.

I am a die hard Rush fan forever. I love the latest Snakes and Arrows and already sport my tickets to the concert in August at Blossom near Cleveland.

Well, it has been almost a week and other than the email from nVidia pointing to Apple, I am no closer to solving the problem than I was before. I did get on Apples site and put a topic in the discussion board. No response to anything, thanks Apple, thanks nVidia. Another example of poor customer service.

This is what I hate, this is the nightmare.
I like HP computers for the most part this is my second. Honestly, I do not know why I bought another. I fear/despise vista, and the other one worked well. I really liked the looks of the special edition HP DV6258 SE. So I bought it, darn thing came with the Vista pig. Looking back on things should have gotten the Apple that I had my eye on. The trouble started when I attempted to install iTunes.

Initially I installed itunes 7.0 installation went fine despite the warnings that iTunes is not Vista compatible. Played music fine iPod sync went off more or less without a hitch. The problem was when I attempted to play a video or movie on the computer. The movie would start out OK, then stop and start sound out of sync etc. Worse yet the friggin computer would crash, yes, Crash BSOD baby. I figured this was a Vista compatible issue, looked all over the web for information regarding this problem. Apples site has a page dedicated to the problem. Originally, the page did not have the additional information at the bottom of the page. I followed all the instruction, no dice, same problem.

I waited patiently for iTunes 7.1, anxiously downloaded it, installed it, tried it. Music -fine, iPod - no different, movie playback - same problem. Searched the Internet, same pages, same worn out information. Apparently others are having worse problems tho.

Finally, not long ago iTunes 7.2, downloaded, installed, tested. Same problem, this sucks. Searched the Internet again. A few days ago I noticed the Additional Information on that page finally, I light at the end of the tunnel… or so I thought.

The Nightmare

I posted a message on the customer support board at nVidia’s web site. I will post the question and the quote below.

My question:
according to apple.com you are investigating a problem with the controller that is causing a BSOD during video playback using iTunes. Could you tell me the progress of this investigation and when an fix is expected?

Their answer:
Hi Greg,
NVIDIA Engineering has found this to be a application problem and not an issue with nForce SATA drivers as Apple has reported to them. Moreover, the issue also happens on Intel chipset’s such as i975. These types of chipset are found in Apples own computers.
Best regards,
NVIDIA

I would be really happy to hear a resolution to this issue. I am going to email both of them and see if they will duke it out amongst themselves. I love my iPod and more or less like the computer.