Tag Archives: arg

Cycling

[Commute] 12 miles since my last crash

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During this post the author details his latest mishap and the resulting rapid horizontal realignment that followed.  However in order to abate your worries I can categorically state that I’m fine and not badly injured.  The bike is barely damaged at all.

So that being said what happened.. well I was not even a mile from home when I cross a small section of shared space before I turn left and join the main road.  Picture if you will a small road that used a long time ago to be a rat run, that cyclists are still allowed to use to get to the old T junction.

On the junction is some pedestrian lights (technically a Toucan crossing) that allow cyclists to cross the road.  No idea why actually as there isn’t a cycle path on the other side of the road.  My plan is to turn left, and as I approached the pedestrianised section I watched the lights change to give pedestrian (and cyclists) priority.

I’m heading left so I plot a path between the pedestrians, not going too fast as I’m not unsociable, into the clear road.. it’s clear because the busy traffic is stopped at the lights.  So I turn in and start planning to get back up to speed.. 

Then things go bad so very quickly, my nice wide empty road now contains a dust cart going the wrong way.  The dust cart was doing a big swinging maneuver so it could reverse into a service road on the other side of the street.  The driver had anticipated that anyone would be coming the other way as the traffic lights were red.  

I hit the brakes knowing that as I’m currently cornering it will only be a matter of time before I lose it and hit the deck.  That seemed a better option than hitting the oncoming dust cart.

As a result I have some road rash on my elbow and a large bruise on my hip.  Which is just the extra aches that I didn’t need after yesterday’s excursion.  Anyway apart from being annoyed at myself and a bit fragile, nothing much to report..  will need to patch up the handlebar tape, but that is it for damage to the bike.

See I’m fine.. nothing to worry about.  Could have been worse, if I had hit him I doubt that I would have managed to damage his paint work.

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[Life] We are the sum of our decisions

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Every once in a while you make a seemingly innocuous choice and later you learn some details of what might have happened had you chosen differently.
Today I have learned some details about what would have happened if I had cancelled my plans last night (go see my  osteopath) and taken up on another offer.

Alas I must remain a tease and not divulge details but all I can say is that I have missed out on a chance in a lifetime.
I suspect that this opportunity will never exist again in my spacetime.

Arg.

[Edit:  Auto correct had me go see my sociopath, which would have been a very different kind of evening..]

Technology

[tech] I have killed my mobile..

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My mobile is dead, very dead, the screen stays resolutely blank unless I force a reboot in which case I get a small flash from the navigation keys at the bottom.

The screen has been flickering for a little while now, which has been annoying, but I had thought it would hold out till the new year.  Well it nearly made it.  So have the choice of trying to find another little mobile phone shop and seeing if they can fix it.  or getting a new phone.  Neither of which will be very quick.  Which is rather annoying.

So I will be slightly harder to get hold of for the next while.  Sure that you will be ale to cope mind.

Technology

[Tech] Windows8 second thoughts

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So I spent most of the weekend trying to dual boot my laptop so I could use Debian rather than Windows8.
Only a new thing has happened which is called uefi, and oddly pronounced like unity without the n.  This is the new secure boot system, so strictly speaking isn’t Microsoft’s fault but they do seem to have used it to make booting anything that is windows a complete nightmare.

Annoyingly while I can boot the Debian boot USB image that can’t talk to my wireless network, (and my new laptop doesn’t have a Ethernet port, clearly shows when I last upgraded my laptop).
So I can’t try and download additional packages that might help.  Or read the internet forums on the topic from within Linux.

So at the moment I am stuck with Windows8, so I had just better get to like it.

Technology

[Tech] Windows8 First impressions.

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So I have been using Windows8 for approximately 20 minutes, and already I am thinking of re-formatting and installing Debian.
Gosh it is annoying.

The startup process requires me to create a Microsoft cloud account, which demands all kinds of irrelevant personal information.
Heck it seems that you are not allowed to have local accounts, which don’t have a Microsoft cloud account which strikes me as silly.  As does the lack of account separation of the administration account.

My only task so far has been to download Mozilla so I don’t have use IE and Bing.

Technology

[Tech] the day of the living dead laptop..

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Last week my laptop died, just refused to boot up, no blinky lights no beeps just nothing..
I mentioned this to a friend who frequents the computer boot sales to see if he had a dongle to let me read the old harddrive.. as while I had a backup, it wasn’t as recent as I headed it to be..*

Anyway he dismantled my old laptop to discover, that he didn’t have an adapter for an IDE laptop harddrive.
Fortunately he was going to a second hand sale, and would see what he could find.
That turned up a Dell Inspiron 4100, that has the same kind of harddrive, and similar internals, so that was purchased so that things could be recovered.  Harddrive was inserted and debian has done an amazing job of recogniseing everything and booting up without any errors.

Brilliant I am saved.. Alas things are not that easy..
The transplant machine, only has 128gb of RAM, so is running like a dead dog, it also has no WiFi, which is possibly a good thing as I doubt that it has the power to be able to run such trickery.

So the process of rescuing my data is going to take forever, and then I will be taking both Laptops to the dump.
And then going shopping for something new and wizzy, which might be a mac, or a hackintosh.

* This is a fail Mr Russ you should be more organised.

Technology

[Tech] That very recognisable crunching sound

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This evening I broke the screen on my phone.  I put a screwdriver in the same pocket, so I am not really very surprised that this resulted in a broken phone.

What annoys me is 2 things:

1) I put a screwdriver in the same pocket as my phone.  What was I thinking, ok I know that, I was being annoyed at some DIY that wasn’t working.]

2) This is the screen that I replaced less than a week ago after I dropped it.

I have had the phone for 2 years without breaking the screen, heck I have never broken the screen on any of the smart phones I have owned.  Before now..

Arg, just arg..