google spreadsheet

you'll have to excuse the horendous inappropriate use of the GIF format, but my paintbrush is missing the JPG filter on my 'other' machine... the one 'not at home'. anyway, I post this to point out yet another effective way of converting something to PDF, which seems to have become THE document format if you want to send info across platforms. check out google spreadsheets ohh.. wait. upone closer inspection, it looks like it has now become google docs which probably has pseudo word capabilities as well. awesome.

1150 around the world

Bunkiesadventure.com 30 countires, 21 months on an 1150GS

G 650 X Challenge

I just ran across one of BMW's next bikes for 2007, (this bike and its 2 brothers are listed under enduro, and 'urban' respectivly. I must say. it looks ALOT like jens XT225. it looks like fun, but I must ask, what are these guys thinking? it better have a price around the XT225 and i'll buy 2, but if its more than the 650GS, forget it.

dynamic DNS

its been a while since i've needed a dynamic DNS host, but next time I need one, I'll get mine from afraid.org

asian cookware

http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/ gives some interesting ideas, many passive reflectors which means i don't have to solder anything. i like that idea.

sum

from mathpages.com quotes

I do hate sums.  There is no greater mistake than to call
arithmetic an exact science.  There are hidden laws of number
which it requires a mind like mine to perceive.  For instance,
if you add a sum from the bottom up, and then again from the
top down, the result is always different.
                                 Mrs. La Touche, 19th c.

I think I get this one. I'm so proud of myself.

ok.. a few more. I do so love these

Your manuscript is both good and original.  However, that which
is good is not original, and that which is original is not good.
                                             Samuel Johnson

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the
time to make it shorter.
                                               Blaise Pascal

book binding

one more post before I leave the world wide web of freedom for the night. I clicked on my own advertisement on this blog (cause it looked interesting) and found that lulu.com does book binding! $5 binding fee, .02/page for BW and .15/page for color.

seems WAY REASONABLE compared to what i heard a special someone tell me their thesis cost. yeah.. its not 8.5x11, but it is a book. check it out.

spam central

I'm wondering, why is it that the email address I have on this psuedo-anonymouse blog (k2h.admin) have LESS SPAM than the email address I don't publish? compare the 55 to the ~150 I have in the other account. maybe I clicked delete and forgot or something. this just seems antiintuitive

open office solver

found an open office solver here I'm working on yet another pipe dream model for stock prediction. (think simple linear solve plus asin(wt+b)) it'll never work, but I gotta find someway to make a free dollar.

background check

for my notes, http://adpro.com/ seems to do pretty good background checks.

sarcasm

Mental note: when having a fight with a coworker, NEVER, EVER under any circumstance call the person and leave a message stating you dislike the person. probable outcome will be that the phone is brought in as evidence, the message played to a HR representative, and you will be cited with unprofessional conduct. the result? skip 3 levels of displine, and you find yourself dazed and confused wondering what happened.

better method? have a one on one argument with someone, hash it out. and then its their word against yours. no witnesses (just a little blood if the situation warrants)

is what makes this particularly painful is it happened to one of my best people.

result to business? best person gives 2 week notice.

housing blog

housing-boom.com

two equations

two unknowns
it is to save me 10seconds on homework.

gmini 120

we are prepping for our trip and pulled the Gmini 120 0ut after a prolonged sleep. we fully expected the battery to be completly dead, or worse yet not work at all due to a year of neglect, but it worked perfectly and the battery still had a charge.

should I need to work on this baby later, i'm putting a note to self that more info is available HERE

mastercard?

I got my new corporate credit card (mastercard), called to activate it, and was transferred all over the system until a person finally picked up and said the computer systems were down and they could not activate the card. they then proceeded to ask me if there was anything else they could help me with.

hmmmm....... let me think, your a technology based company, and YOUR COMPUTERS ARE DOWN.... no.. theres nothing you can help me with india.... thankyou.

On The way out

Today I had my 6 month evaluation, as if once a year isn't good enough, they break it down into 6 month intervals now.basically it boils down to the department I work for is black listed and 'officially sucks' as viewed by the upper ups, and everyone that has control over the destinies. I'm viewed as having too many HR problems (either personally, or direct-reports that have HR problems, i'm not sure) and am given a ranking of LEP, least effective performer.in GE lingo, thats you suck and need to find a new job.I'll run limited damage control before the alaska trip, and continue when I get back, but its starting to look like the smog is more appealing.

photography

i found a very good article on basic photography. I keep forgetting to keep an eye out for a very low Fstop lense, just so I can see the difference.

Fin. Management

Woohoo! I get my $600 back! (work reimburses me if I get a B or better) I passed my class that I took this summer. I am now officially 1/3 done with the MBA. THis was the best class i've taken so far and I got to learn how to use a new (to me) style calculator. the HP 10BII financial marvel with 80's technology. I highly recommend ANY class from our fine instructor Sheri F. from UNR. by far the most educated, helpful and entertaining instructor (phd) we'd had thus far. I think she will be a hard one to top and i'm not saying that cause I got an A. I deserved a B, and would have been happy with that. the class was great!

wiki on a stick

wiki on a stick is an AWESOME implentation of wiki! I have been looking for an easy way to create and maintain simple FAQ and HELP pages for my direct reports at work. most people use an archaic system of crappy word .DOCS that look terrible, print terrible, and are horendous to create. I had resigned myself to writing straight HTML and using my less than steller style to put it all together.

I started reading up on wiki. I found out about wiki from wikipiedia.org, an online user generated repository of information. afterall, if you can't find what you want in google, its probably in wikipedia. as I looked around, I found complex database driven wiki's, and thats not what i'm interested in. I want something simple, easy, and fast.

This implementation lives in a single HTML file. the base file is around 50kb. no servers to install and maintain, and nothing to setup. just start clicking and creating. Thanks WIKI on a STICK!!

*note, a similar program,
tiddlywiki may be more feature rich, but seems bloated to me.

troubled employees

My direct reports are extremely troubled. my office door is always open, mainly because I live in a cubicle and don't have one. I was lending an ear for about 6 hours straight today, and finally got to lunch at 3pm. I kid you not.

notes for next weeks staff meeting

handy google search
cnn.com annoying coworkers
usatoday bannanas

hp2 - thunderdome

The other day I did a ride with a few buddies from work and one of them made an observation about the bike, that I feel has been the best complement so far...

"...your bike looks like it came straight out of thunderdome"

if you can't get enough of the movies, try reading some of this to tie you over until you can watch it again.

headset - cheap

jen and I found a set of these for $30 @ compusaincludes two radios, two chargers, two headsets, and the radios use an ultra small li-ion battery. who knows how the life will be, but it looks like a good cheap first pass effort for helmet to helmet comm. has built in VOX, which does actually work. not sure how resistant to wind noise it will be, but you do have to speek a little loud to get it to turn on so it does stand a chance. you can use the PTT button with the headset (can turn vox on and off) so its a pretty good all around product. no subcodes, but for $30.. i'll give it a shot.

for you paintballing gurus out there... this just might be the ticket!

hp2 - other half

on the way home, one of the two bungee cords holding my trunk bag on snapped when I jumped a curb. I had just left the parking lot and someone honked so I turned around to see what happened. as it turns out, the person that honked is a Temp worker that just started for me, any way.... I stopped, found one half of the bunjee cord and the pulled a spare out, tied it back down and headed off for my 40 mile commute. when I got home, I found the other half in my spokes. on the way home I thought the rear brake felt a little inadequate, and it was because the rubber inside the cord was melting to the disk. it looks like no major damage done, but remember, always look for the other half!

helmet headsets

I have been doing some research on headsets for bike to bike communication and come to the conclusion that there are only two that are potentials for what I need. both are bluetooth solutions, the idea being that BT connects your helmet headset to a (FRS) radio which does the actual communication between bikes

1) Motorola HS830 pros: has intercom mode (for rider/passenger link), so you don't have to have another box to do the transfer, and can dock in general headphone pod to use for other things. Cons: suppose to have connects to side of helmet with sticky, so not transferrable from helmet to helmet, also does not include generic BT receiver to attach to the radio, so that would cost an additional $30-$50

2) Cardo Scala-Rider pros: clamps on to side of helmet so easy to transfer, AND includes BT receiver to plug into phone (or radio hopefully). Cons: read one report of the ultra thin speaker rubbing too much on the ear. looks like it only mounts on the left side of helmet.

this baby (complete headset and receiver) goes for $104 from tiger direct thats a pretty rockin deal considering for alot of the systems just the mic and speakers are $70 or more.

I'm getting close to ordering one. someone talk me in or out of it!

.. no boundaries....

I was riding through the capital and noticed they changed the banner across the street. the banner changes all the time, usually telling of local events or initiatives in the city. this one read "hepatis knows no boundaries" and had 5 or 6 pictures of people of various demographics, old, young, male, female, and varied race.

what better way to say WELCOME TO OUR CITY than to put a banner out like that. at least it gives you fair warning about the kit kat ranch

reverse engineer

found here, one firm does a little talk on the subject. if your company has has crap for documentation, buy a clue and get it documented before you fire the employee. This was why I had to do so much travel last year.. to reverse engineer for 'the sister company'. too bad it didn't influence my review or raise.

Ironically, many companies come to us not to reverse engineer a competitors product, but to reverse engineer their own designs, because they have poor or no documentation on their product, because their current design firm or manufacturer refuses to release it, or because they have lost a key employee.

Many companies learn the hard way that there is an inherent conflict of interest in using a contract manufacturer (CM) to do design work. If you retain a contract manufacturer to do the design as well as the manufacturing of the product, there is little motivation for the (CM) to give you accurate documentation, enabling you to use a different manufacturer if you become dissatisfied at a later time.

cheap VOIP

I ran across a circuit here to convert mic/speaker to RJ11 for your old crappy cordless phone you have laying around.

from mobilewhack.com

MSP430

I saw this in nuts and volt magazine. for $20, you get the USB programmer in the shape of a USB flash memory module and an attached daughter board. how cool is that! if your new to micro controller programming and want something to screw around with I'd DEFINALTY start with this baby. cheap and easy.. just like... (comparison deleted) project links
hobby store
MSP430 dev boards

Paddle HP2

The other day I was riding home and it started to rain. I was on a section of divided highway with two lanes of traffic going my direction. At about 75 MPH I look down just in time to see i'm running over a paddle that fell out of a boat being towed by a truck a few vehicles in front of me. it kicked up and flew into the lane behind me, but no damage to the bike or me.

lessons learned:
1) dont' follow the vehicle in front of your too closely, there may be a paddle in the road
2) for all those times you've followed a vehicle and wondered to yourself "what woud happen if that fell out of the vehicle", don't wonder, change lanes.

google reader

i'm ready to save some time, and join the modern era of pulling content. i'm finding i'm having to click alot to get the info I need and most of the time its a dead end anyway?

so... thats a long and drawn out way of saying "i'm sick of clicking on everyones blog just to find there is no new content"

the solution? google reader. for our blogs, just ad a link of /atom.xml to the end and theres the reader feed. now all I need is the RSS feed link for dan and sarahs blogs. then it will be 'one click' reading.

maybe I can share my starred items. oh wait. thats if I highlite something I like. I was hoping that would......... ah never mind....

google page creator

pages.google.com also known as google page creator seems to have gone live now. I thought I'd give it a whirl. the nice thing about google is once you have an account it lets you into most all of their stuff without having to create a new account for each service... I really like that

view my test here

can change layout independent of content, instant saving, click a 'tell friends' button and it starts gmail with a link in the body.

limitations
can't drag and drop photos exactly where I want. you can drag around, but they snap to what ever boxes you have. i'm not sure how to use the GUI to format the txt AROUND an image, but they are getting there.

where do i upload a real file? real content, not just a picture. I was really hoping I could use this to publish real data. oh well.

free MS

I think someone already posted about it, but I can't remember, so I'll just post about it. it seems MS is giving something away now? it was suppose to be an introductor thing, limited time, but it was so so successful microsoft is releasing 'hobby / student' versions of their compilers for FREE. dubbed the 'express' versions, it gives the average joe a reason to persue closed source offerings over open source. to note, the accompanying coding4fun website. one interesting place was the TextToSpeach site on MSDN here that said vista will have much better support. I think I should setup a service to digitize textbooks and then convert them to usable to txt to speach so people can listen to their class material on the commute

a friend at work already loaded it up and wrote a few things.. I may have to do the same.

hp2 tires

I have about 1600 miles on the stock Metzeler Karoo's. I've run them at normal street pressure off road and haven't had any problems. I haven't done any extremely rocky terrain, but have done some deep sand and I made it without crashing, so for me that means they are fine. I don't notice the nobs on the street, and cornering is fine. I really like these tires, i just wish they lasted longer. I'm not a very agressive rider on or off road, so at most i'll probably get 1.5x the miles on these that most will. maybe double.

I was talking with the parts guy at sierra, and I think I'll move to the Metzeler Tourance Tires for the next round. should be perfect for the AK trip with tread to spare (burn) when I get back.

I was also talking to the parts guy about patching tubeless and he said best to carry a 21" tube. that will fit the front and can be crammed in the back if need be. you can get tubeless repair kit and can be used for the rear (he got 1500 miles on one repair) but warned against any use in the front. just not worth the chance. the tubeless repair kits say limited to 30 miles at 37mph so the disclaimer indicates they are extremely temporary.

at this point i'm kind of torn... I know I should carry at least one tube, but to use it that means i have to bring tire irons and possibly a bead breaker?. another unfortunate difficuly in the HP2 is the lack of center stand, so road side tire repair could be very challening. hmmm....... what to do.

BMW in AK

I was browsing through bmw dealers in 2006 and found 2 dealers in AK! cool. if we have problems (of course not with the HP2 =).. just limp to the finish line. one in Anchorage, and the other in Fairbanks. The website for the Anchorage shop links to alaska.net/~bmwclub which will probably be worth a read to put the finishing touches on planning for the trip.

hp2 gear failure

first failure on the HP2, and i'm glad to say it wasn't because of anything I did. The gear indicator in the instrument pannel and the netural indicator light both went out. the neutral indicator wouldn't work at all, but he gear would show during up shift and crusing, but as soon as the clutch was pulled, or downshift, the indicator would go blank.

took it into Sierra BMW, and didn't want to press them, but instead of demanding immediate service ask to schedule a time to take the bike in. they had me wait a few minutes and then hooked it up to the machine. while they played with it I shopped for tires. $350 for tires.... ouch.. including mounting. i REALLY hope I can coax these tires to 6000 so I can get the next ones brand new for alaska. i'm going to go to something a little less agressive to ensure I can do the full 6000 to alaska without any trouble.

turns out, the failure was a loose electrical connection, probably both at the sensor and into the main computer. they have some name for it.. something like hspk or something.. can't remember. but they cleaned it with air, put dielectric griese on it and relearned the potentiometer settings for gear positions and its fine.

took about 1.5 hours from the time I pulled up because they were finishing some other work before they got going on mine. also got the factory update tire size sticker installed.

one other fault in the computer, something about loss of speed data, probably in line with the intermitten wiring contacts. that was cleared and i'm sure won't be a problem.

either no one noticed, or no one cared I patched the side of the valve cover with $2 epoxy. I was kind of wondering what they would say but no one mentioned it.

rock lake

$25 bmw motorcycle

anyone want a bmw for $25? seems the local shop does a raffle each year. a 1200gs went out last year and you don't have to be present to win. tempting. it is nevada, this may be gambeling I could live with.

flikr

in one of my MBA classes the instructor mentioned flikr, as in its the best place to plagarize pics for a presentation. sure enough, check out the hp2 pics

I was hoping to find some ideas for rear luggage but came up short. I guess i'll have to truly design it myself.

hp2 vs 650L

XR650L Mine has a 5 gal tank, and a soft trunk. this is some random picture of the net to give you an idea what an XR650L is if you've never seen one.


mine has the offroad kit, (plastic on the bottom of the heads) again, some random pic off the net



dad got my old xr650L up and running. I think he's going to take it to work off and on cause the starter on his truck is going out. he came by tonight and I let him ride the hp2. he had trouble even tiptoeing so all he did on it was street.

I rode the XR650L and impressions are it feels smaller than jens XT225. yup.. it felt like a pocket bike in comparison to the HP2. I was shocked how much smaller the XR650L felt. its only been 3 months since I rode it but I guesse i've grown into the HP2. I've got about 1400 miles now, and have been doing 5+ miles of deep sand on my return from work. its some work, but the bike can do it. totally impressed, the HP2 is exactly what I want

summer is here

Summer is here. and if your not sure if summer is where you are at, heres some ways to tell...

1) did you have trouble turning the sprinkler system on because the key is 2 feet long instead of needed 3 feet? when you did turn it on, did the valve shoot water in your ear.

2)did your lawnmower start on last years varnish in the tank?

3)did you refill your gas can with supreme so you could use the fuel in the lawnmower or the motorcycle?

4)did you let the lawn get so long before cutting it you had trouble pushing the mower through it?

5) does 10 minutes in the sun leave a red mark on your neck / or arm?

6) does your helmet lose visibility due to gnats, masquittos and grass hoppers?

7) have you taken a grass hopper to the the adams apple? [at speed]

8) are your winter riding gloves too hot, but your wife is still waiting to get you $20 summer ones?

9) is the liner in your motorcycle coat too hot in the afternoon AND the morning commute?

10) are you leaving your windows cracked in the car when you park?

HP2 - dropped bike

about 3 weeks ago I was riding the new bike up a canyon not far from the house. we have had alot of flooding this winter (think torential) and the road I remember was gone, just leaving bad rocks in its place. I had attempted this road earlier this year and had to admit defeat. The first go around I was able to claim defeat without dropping the bike, this time I wasn't so lucky.

I made it past the section I did last time, but stalled out in a little rocky trench. I got my composure and headed on but had a bad start. the front end went up on a rock and I lost it, slamming the right head into the ground. My foot was crushed so I thought had saved the bike! then I find all this gas running out. hmm.......... that can't be good. I tilt the bike back up, takea look at it and determine thats not gas, thats oil. ohhhhhhhh........... thats not good. big gash in the valve cover. exactly where I figured I do it when I did it. now i'm stuck halfway up a bad road with a bike half out of oil and i have to decide.. do I go up, or admit defeat and go back.

defeat? no way. I fired it up and headed up. a few more turns and I hit snow. now snow and mud with a 400lb dirt bike don't quit mix on bad terrain. I slid out and slammed the left head into the ground. since the road was so muddy no damage done, but the mud glob was pretty big.

defeat? turn around. now way. I'm just getting started. I power through the snow and mud, up around the bend and finally hit pavement. about 10 miles of coasting/limping down a paved mountain road to get back home. I did my best to keep from shooting oil out the side but every now and again I had to use the engine.

Damage:
one 'holed' valve cover. its made out of magnesium and BMW likes them alot, so its around $150 for a new one. since i'm pretty sure this won't be my only time on the ground I opt for the 'in training solution' and head to home depot. I got some 2 part epoxy putty for $2 and patched the hole. since then I've got about another 400 miles on it with zero problems. that epoxy putty stuff is DEFINATLY going to alaska with us.

in the end, the real damage was my pride.

hp2 fuel tank - update

the last word was that the larger tank for the HP2 would be available in march. its the middle of april and i haven't heard much so I thought I'd shoot an email out to HPN and see what the status was, and the reply:

the current delivery time is July for the lager tank - it gaves a lot of problems in the developement, sorry. No price, no picture at this time available.

tech talks by google

I watched part of the one FPGA's. pretty good. if you miss college lecture, dial one up and learn something.

google engedu

dirt bike <100lbs

Don't get me wrong, I love the new ride, but if i had to pick the bike up alot and didn't ever need to break 30mph an fxbike could just very well be the next ticket.

BMW market analysis

I did a little paper for my marketing class, origionaly written in word, and I did a 5minute cut-paste to openoffice for the export to PDF. its a little rough around the gills, but the content is there. It has some pictures, and a few sources that pertain to the 1200GS and how the HP2 has been entered in almost every major off road race. my conclusion is that the HP2 is being used to prove the technology of the 1200GS so that the 1200GS can be more closely associated with off road capability instead of the behemouth monstrosity that the 1150GS has turned into and people saw in long way round. I tried a free hosting site, upload2.net, so an we'll see if the link works bmw north american market analysis I have omiited my name from the file, so if anyone is going to reference it, email me and I'll give you my name. the high level page for upload2.net is here in case the first link doesn't wrok. If you want the presentation I used for my 5-min class discussion you can have it. it was just a few slides to talk to abou the history, the current market position, and what my take of the strategy was. my bike is on the last slide. (CTRL-L) is the shortcut for full screen in acrobat

snowshoe yosemite

We have headed out this weekend to hit yosemite and do a little snowshowing. We left home around 4pm, and got to where we are staying (about 45 min outside the park) at 11:30 pm. We did a nice little 2 mile snow hike yesterday, and took some pictures in the park. today we head back for one more quick round of pictures and then its back home. we plan to stop at the spagehetti factory and get the 'brown butter and mazithra' on the way back. what a great weekend.

hp2 pic

This ones mine. we went on a little trip to pyramid lake. saw some crusty brain looking rocks at the alkalai lake. On a different note, it takes a special person to race one of these monsters up a ski slope

new job!

with a title like that you'd expect my smile-ic-on to look a little diferent

=(

I have heard some new rumors that even more qualified people are applying for the new job I applied for. not just your average Jo, but people that are being moved from even higher jobs. so.... yeah... I'm not even a candidate. at this point I'll be lucky for an interview.

sick

this fall will make 5 years for me at my current employer (who shall rename nameless). in that time i've been sick a grand total of 2 days. that is until this week. missed monday and tuesday, and wasn't going to come in today but I decided unpacking boxes wasn't helping me get better so maybe looking at my employees with blood-shot eyes would perk my spirits.

sure enough, they said 'you look like hell' first thing when I walked in. they all tried to send me back home but then I found I have a meeting with the leader of our ~2500 person business at 5pm.

so..... no going home early. crap.. on top of that I have school tomarrow so I can't ditch tomarrow, and their is holiday on monday, so i'd look like a weasle for missing friday,

thus, i'm stuck at work sick.

[update]
I just re-read this and I am quite proud of the standard typos / spelling I fall prey to. =)

hp2 fuel tank!

I just heard back from HPN! I'm so happy SOMEONE is thinking about it.

From: HPN-Motorradtechnik GmbH
Date: Feb 9, 2006 12:27 AM
Subject: AW: BMW HP2 larger fuel tank?
To: k2h


Hello k2h,
thanks for your email. HPN develope a larger tank - we hope it can be available at the end of March, capacity ca. 26ltr, price is unknown at the moment.

best regards

Caroline
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: k2h [mailto:k2h.admin@gmail.com]
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 2. Februar 2006 21:36
An: info@hpn.de
Betreff: BMW HP2 larger fuel tank?


Do you have a larger fuel tank for the BMW HP2? I wasn't able to find one on your web site, but I heard rumors that you may be in the process of making one. what capacity are you targeting, and how much do you think the tank will cost?

~keith

seems someone strapped a 12L on the backhere

hp2 update

Call me psycho, but I'm loving the $20k dirtbike, and that is all anyone will ever see in it. I was parked outside taco bell and some old chap walks up and says 'is that the 20k one?'. like I said.. thats all anyone will see in it.

and I am crazy. already had it off road. nothing to gnarly, but through some sand (keep above 40mph..) the thing is awesome!

fuel consumption is a bit of a concern. the specs says 4.1l/100km at 90kmph and 5.5l/100km at 120kph, (google makes it easy) and I can assure you I've been riding it much faster than 65. I'm getting around 40mpg, which is way to little on a 3 gallon gas tank to take it to alaska, so I'm going to have to address that. I really don't want a 2gal can hanging of the back, but thats the cheapest and easiest. if I could increase my metal working skills I could make some dakar style side tanks for it. that would be awesome, but a bit out of my current skill set.

I've got to address the night light situation, and get some cheep 20$ walmart light up there. its nice to know that the HP2 shares the same H4 bulb as the F650 (jens bike). at least I think it does.

one more thing. hand warmers! mom gave me some hand warmers a while ago and I got a chance to use them (the same ones we used paint balling). my commute is about 1hour, and I've done it in sub freezing temps (28degF?) its weird beccause its the wind speed (80mph) that has the worst effect on hand warmth. I slow down to 30mph and pass a sign that says 32F and my hands actually start to warm up.. its weird. its around $400 to add heated grips. it would be nice but i'm not sure its worth the money. I've got to address the fuel situation first.

hand warmer secret: the hand warmers from mycoal grabber are carbon and iron. as the iron oxides in O2 it creates heat. they come in a sealed bag for a reason. to extend the life of your warmers, reseal them in a ziplock. they take a little bit longer to heat up the second go around, but they still work. so far I've used one twice (for 1 hr each time). in theory it should work for 3 or 4 1hr events. they say 5 or 7 hours on them but i'll be happy if I get 4 uses.

The 'cold weather' gear consists of only a few things.

Gloves, some old alpine stars that jens dad got for me when we did our FIRST motorcycle tour thorugh oregon and washington. that was way back when we were still in college. over 5 years ago. maybe 6 now? they are still very good, and well worth the origional 30$ cost.

Coat: mom got it for me for my birthday about 7 years ago. touratech short coat. was around $150. still works great and has a polysters wind proof liner which helps a ton.

Polyester pants, for under the jeans. cost $25 from sierra trading post. well wroth it.

over pants: $20 wind/semi water proof pants from walmart. they actually work quite well.

boots: not realy cold weather gear, as I wear boots no matter what the temp, but full grain water proof boots from target cost $25. I got them for wood cutting a few years ago and they have since been to alaska and back on a bike and still are reasonably water proof. the only thing to take them down to date was kevs game of paintball. I have motorcross boots as well, but not really needed for my commute jaunts. it'll be a few months before I workup the skillset to actually need the motorcross boots off road.

the neck warmer, $15 gift from jen is a MUST. impossible to ride fast in cold weather without neck/chin protection. I have augmented this with wind proof nylon. I a small bag used to keep your round sun shades in the car in. I cut a hole through t he top and it just BARELY fits over my head. put the neck warmer underneath and the wind proof over it and your good to go. oh yeah.. the sun shades were turned into sleds last year and we're still using them for that.

When I show up at work wearing all this junk I've got called quite a few weird things. my favorite so far is 'the ice man'

Crash bars are now avilable from the US distributor and are $300. I priced out the valve covers (what the crash bars protect basically) and they are 130-$150 each, so maybe I'll wait till I 'hole one' and then get the bars.

rant against home depot

I promised my brother I was going to get him a garbage disposal for christmas, but didn't get around to getting one until way after the holidays. I have a gift card to home depot, so I walked into home depot and explained I want to purchase something, but pick it up at another store (in another state) so I don't have to pay to ship it any where. that makes sense right? part of the leverage of a chain store is that they have stores in different locations that [should] work together to satisfy the customer.

The lady at customer serviced explained she couldn't do that, but there would be no problem if I called the 800 number. I thought to myself 'yeah right' but I proceeded to call when I got home. not surprisingly, the 800# went straight to india. I don't have anything against the india call centers, I really don't, its just that they [the company that contracts with india call center] doesn't sufficiently train or give sufficient power to those on the phone to actually do ANYTHING to help you. they mean well, but theres really nothing they can do.

after about 20 minutes he 3-wayed me in to the store I wanted to pick the merchandise up from (in washington) and we had a little conversation about how it wasn't possible with a gift card, but if I wanted to call and do a credit card order they could handle it no problem. something about how they actually had to SCAN the gift card.

I explained that below the barcode there was a series of numbers that I could give him over the phone, just like a CC and that should work. no-can-do. home depot won't even take their own currency!

I'm a lowes man now. unfortunatly the home depot is still closer to I am a more freqent patron of HomeDepot than lowes. it really tears me up inside when I walk in there Cuase i KNOW lowes is better.

so... kev.. did you get the card?

Gasoline faq

faqs.org has a great article on gasoline. it drives our society, so why not educate yourself. for starters, oil isn't dead dinos, its dead vegetarian dinos dinner. I thought that was a good tidbit.

For all you people that want to run your engine off of water, I suggest reading section 9.8.2, where it says it is possible. (water mixed with gas of course)

section 10.2 gives some good insite into how to turn a 1.5L honda civic engine into a 1000hp formula 1 racer. very intersting.

other good tidbist:

A complete Octane Rating engine system costs about $200,000 with all the services installed. Only one company manufactures these engines, the Waukesha Engine Division of Dresser Industries, Waukesha. WI 53186.

Also ensure that the service stationstorage tank has not been refilled recently. retailers are supposed to wait several hours before bringing a refilled tank online, to allow suspended undissolved water to settle out, but they do not always wait the full period.

The legend of mothballs as an octane enhancer arose well before WWII hennaphthalene was used as the active ingredient. Today, the majority of mothballs use para-dichlorobenzene in place of naphthalene, so choose carefully if you wish to experiment :-). There have been some concerns about the toxicity of para-dichlorobenzene, and naphthalene mothballs have againbecome popular. In the 1920s, typical gasoline octane ratings were 40-60 [11], and during the 1930s and 40s, the ratings increased by approximately 20 units as alkyl leads and improved refining processes became widespread [12]

applied for new job!

big news!

I have applied for the next level up job. they gave my bosses job to someone else and this other (lateral) job is now posted. out of about 5 or 6 people I expected to apply only myself and my friend have applied. I'm pretty sure he'll beat me out, but I've got a few things going for me. MBA student, Pro engineering certified, and I'm younger.

sounds weird huh? since when did less experience get you any where? around here they seem to be taking the 'long term' persepective on people and the last few jobs have actually been filled with the younger candidates. maybe they think younger ones are more maulable. thats probably the case, but who cares. better take advantage of it while I still can.

the new job would be leader of the machine shop. about 65 full time machinest / misc. workers report to that leader. lucky for me I know nothing about machinest so when the work gets behind I'd just get a bigger loudspeaker.

maps

its so hard to get good maps, and good data! all I want is a list of gas stations in north america and an approximate GPS coordinate, I'd even settle for a city name next to the gas station, but alas, all I can find so far is some pseudo accurate search tool demo.kivera.com. I found a reasonable article talking about digital maps on gpsinformation.org

january update

I have done a terrible job of keeping everyone informed of my activities, so here is my january update.

1) the new bike is awesome. I have not had the time or endurance for 28degF weather to get more than about 100 miles on it, but I'm very happy. the other day a person stopped next to me at the stop light and rolled down the window to admire the bike. he started in on how he had an -80GS in 80's and he made three trips from sandiego to alaska on it.. loved it..... etc.. I get the feeling I'm going to get alot of these stories.

2) I may be applying for my bosses job. she moves to california to oversee another plant and after all the pieces fall back to earth a similar job (over a sister division) will most likely be posted as open. I don't think I stand a very good chance. I will mostly likely be beat out by my best friend at work. but its all good. should I get it, I could be making 20 grand more in about 2 yrs time. its all about the money for me.

3) the new house is great! no major deffects, and the neighbors have temporarily stopped parking in front of our house as the builders have finshed repair work on many peoples driveway curbs. we'll see how long it lasts. the joy of being in a coldesac is that you have tons of curb space, the reality is that everyone thinks since you have lots of curb space your happy to share it with them. I'm thinking of posting a sign out front that says "is your driveway full? why don't you go back and check" but haven't resorted to it yet.

4) we got a new kitty door, but haven't had time to install it yet. I hope the kitty remembers how nice it is outside and starts using the sand pile out there.'

5)school starts tomarrow night. ugggg... I was able to clep out of one class, but this other one, marketing managmenet, it for sure going to suck. the teacher already assigned HW before the class started, and the lab fees are pretty high, and we have 40$ of supplimental material to purchase.... on and on........ yeah.. it'll suck.

6) people keep getting hurt at work. usually its not a big deal, if its people that work for someeone else, but I own about half of the recent incidents in an 800 person plant. the joy of overseeing hourly employees. they mean well. but they arn't all.. well.... theres no polictially correct way to say it so i won't.

and this.... this is the end of my 5 minute lunch. until the end of next month.

~keith

Human Genome

anyone remember the big human genome project? cancer still isn't cured, but i'm sure there will still be big advances made from it. I found some visuals on homosapien genome view that seemed pretty interesting. well, as interesting as biology can look to an EE.

patents

every now and again I want some inspiration. why come up with something origional when you can just borrow an idea from freepatensonline.com the US gov use to have a patent search but it sucked. this one seems to actually be usable. check it out.

paris-dakar

here is a day by day update on the 2006 paris to dakar race. it looks like this year there are a few F650GS's competing as well as a modified VW toureg II (I didn't know they had a second version) I think someone died yesterday. I havne't figured out who or why yet, but I'll keep reading.

hp2 gearing

this is so I can figure out what 5000RPM is without a Tac. I calculated it with info found in the manual. I figure its probalby wrong but with 10 miles on the bike it seems I may have got close. it passes the 'smell' test anyway.

links

nerdy tails
things i drop
Ambition Run Amok
k1h
prairie home
simple ramblings
Wanderings..
Something Epic
Kseb.net
HP2 forum

hackaday

freeware
imagefap
google videos download
Post Pics
Post files
Bt
BT-btjunkie.org
BT-TVrss.net
BT - grizzly
BT - torrentspy
CR
crackteam
logons
pushfile host files

hp2 manual
hp2 parts
bmw gear