New Wheels.... yay...

I agonised over upgrading the wheels on my Kestrel for weeks... after much deliberation and a lot of spreadsheet comparison I decided it wasn't worth the upgrade.

Of course the irony was just after I decided I didn't need new wheels I had an incident and then needed new wheels (along with a few other things). I went for Aluminium wheels as a bit of a compromise over performance, weight and durability becasue I didn't want to have to change my wheels for everyday riding.

I picked a set of SRAM S30 AL Race wheels after a pretty good deal from the bike shop. The downside it took almost three weeks for them to turn up and to be fitted so they haven't had much of a ride but they do look good.

Their big test will come this weekend with the Brisbane to Ipswich Challenge... I'm sure there will be a post review after

EyeTV Netstream DTT: A first look

With my parents moving into the house there have been some rethinks around how my media is distributed around the house (something I've talked about at length here over and over and over again).

The biggest thing was trying to get commercial TV everywhere (not that I really watch that much) with only one antenna point in our master bedroom. With so many iDevices and two AppleTVs in the house the logical solution looked like the EyeTV Netstream DTT.

In reality is hasn't been so perfect though. The setup was quite easy although it failed to work on my G5 iMac (not a show stopper I know but a little annoying) and the installer disk didn't actually work with the Netstream, you had to download a different EyeTV app from the web. Once those hurdles were done though it wasn't all smooth sailing.

I've had nothing but reception issues with the unit. First off I must say that my current Panasonic plasma is running on a $5 set of bunnies ears without a hiccup. The Netstream by contrast can't seem to get more than about 29% even plugged into an external antenna.

One thing that has helped was moving it a long way from my time-capsule with which it doesn't seem to have a good working relationship.

To be fair when I can get enough reception to get a picture it works brilliantly streaming wonderfully to my iPhone/iPad and laptops. I can even airplay it to the AppleTV and the ability to convert to iTunes is very handy. With that said though, with so many receptions issues I'd have some serious second thoughts about adding this as a DVR solution.

Training for a ride?? When did this happen

The weekend gone saw me go on a training ride for the Brissie to the Bay event. This is a first for me... I'm not a big one for training... I guess some where along the way I became a cyclist and this is the sort of thing they do.

It was kinda fun having never cycled that far before, the ride next weekend should be a bit of fun!

I managed to reach my goal so after a call from MS Events I've doubled my current total to see if I could make it before the weekend.... (you can donate here if you feel so inclined)

A big move!

After 6 years in the same place we have packed up and moved (all be it only one floor). I found it pretty sad to move out of our old place. I surprised myself with how emotionally attached I'd become to our old house. Even now I still have no real logical explanation for why, but it made it quite hard (and sometimes stressful) event.

A big thanks though to those who helped me lug all my gear around. It would have been impossible to get it all done without everyone (especially as we didn't have any movers)

Now to the important stuff... all the Tech....

Probably the nicest thing (well for me) is there is now a study to get all the Mac gear setup (including the very nice house warming gift of a G4 Cube).

And the arcade table has it's own dedicated nook which is probably best placement it's had since I'd got it. (Although it does have to share it with the new bike as well, jury is still out as to whether it gets cycloc'd to the wall)

The biggest question at the moment is what to do about rear speakers, the current thought is a wireless solution. The two best options I've found so far have been from JBL and KEF. The JBL one is the current pick (mainly because of price). The JBL WEM-1 looks like it would do the job perfectly but it's still an expensive solution vs tripping over wires.

The other option is to go for a sound bar (and the obvious choice there is the B&W Panorama) but there is a big expense in swapping out all the existing gear I have dedicated for surround sound.

Time will tell...

Pimp My Ride

So I've had my new bike for a little while now (a bit over a month) and I've done almost 500km on it and started the pimping process already.

First of all I managed to track down some Kestrel branded water bottles and holders (which are actually in the shape of the logo).

I then swapped out the tyres because the Slicks made me nervous especially if there was any water around and as the Water bottles and Tyres were red highlighted I continued the trend and added a new Fi'zi:k Antares Saddle in Red with matching handle bar tape to finish off the carbon/red look.

Taking the bike from this

to this

Signed up for a ride and some fund raising thrown in

This year I've signed up to do the Brissie to the Bay ride to support MS. Like a fun run though this fun ride is about raising money.

So if you feel so inclined my donations page is here http://www.msqldevents.org.au/Enerflex-MS-Brissie-to-the-Bay-Bike-Ride-2011/CAMDS

Sent from my iPad

The end of an era?

Could it be? The end of the nespresso? Our Nespresso has started to play up and seems like it's on it's last legs. The odd flashes of the lights warming up doesn't look like a good sign.

It's given us many long years of service (I think maybe 6? And I'd hate to think how many coffees) but maybe it's time to upgrade to one of the Pixie models.
http://www.nespresso.com/pixie/

Sent from my iPhone

Bloggn' from my new phone.

After all the bike talk lately it's about time there were some more gadgets on here.

My old iPhone 3GS finally stopped connecting to the phone network and suddenly became an iPod touch. Having to switch back to my nokia 6110 for a day was enough to get me to walk down to Optus and get a shiny new white iPhone 4.

My screen has been broken so long going to the retina display is just amazing.

The most impressive feature though was the upgrade. Plugged the phone in. Prompted me to say I'd synced a phone on here before and would I like to restore the new one from the old image. Done. Simplest change ever

Sent from my iPhone 4