Derek – Page 39 – MeisterPlanet

Slow Riding Through Pennsylvania Back Country Roads

Pennsylvania Farm

For a change of pace, I headed towards the Ohio-Pennsylvania border today on the FZ6.

I took Route 6 out to Meadville, then Route 27 over to Titusville, and finally Route 89 up to Erie and back to Painesville.

The Pennsylvania roads in the northeast would be great for anyone looking to do some cruiser or 2UP riding. They aren’t too technical, their curves tend to be long and sweeping versus tight and twisty.

You do have to be mindful, though, especially this early in the season. The corners still have sand, gravel, salt and ash left over from the Winter. It’ll take a few really good Spring storms to clean those road obstacles out.

That said, there are other challenges that will continue through the year. Many of the side roads are dirt or gravel, with lots of trucks pulling the debris onto the country highways as they pull out.

I also ran into patches of Amish buggies moving slowly across some areas, and slow moving farm equipment in others.

It ended up being a 250 mile ride, which isn’t much by “iron butt” standards, but the relaxed pace and scenic countryside made up for it.

Nostalgia for the Wild Days of Linux on the Desktop

Tux the Penguin Trying to remember the name of the company that brought a bunch of game ports to Linux really brought back some nostalgic memories for me today.

I sometimes forget just how crazy I was into Linux from around 1997 to 2004. I was all about the non-Windows operating systems. BeOS, Solaris, every flavor of Linux available, I tried them all.

1999 seemed like such a magical year for Linux. Thanks to Loki Software, you could go into a computer store and actually find boxed games like Unreal Tournament or Tribes 2 ported for the alternative OS. You could even pick up one of the 3 or 4 Linux magazines that made their way to shelves. I wanted to become a Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE). I still have my stuffed Tux the Penguin.

2000 hit and the promise of “Year of Linux on the Desktop” seemed to go away almost as quickly as it came. Loki Games ran out of funding, and the Linux magazines started dissappearing.

Linux was still around, but it lost some of the magic it had during that time by, of all things, becoming a much easier to install and use operating system. I switched from running Red Hat to Fedora, and then finally to Ubuntu. Ubuntu has made amazing strides in being a strong, daily use desktop Linux, everything that the “Year of Linux on the Desktop” promised.

It was everything I wanted from Linux, and yet, paradoxically, I found myself less interested in running each new version because of how “easy” and “safe” it had become. No longer having to compile your kernel to get decent performance, no longer having to fight dependency issues with the various package managers.

Once 2005 had rolled around, I had relegated it to file server status in my home use, with OS X and Windows on my workstations so that I could get back into “mainstream” practice. My love affair with Linux isn’t entirely over, but I will still look fondly for the more wild times it provided.

My Motorcycle Has a USB Port

Now that Winter is in full force in Northeast Ohio, I have started some cold-weather mods for my 2004 Yamaha FZ6. I’ve completed some maintenance basic work, including changing the oil, flushing the coolant, and switching out the spark plugs.

One of the first mods is the addition of a TAPP USB Power Port from 3BR Powersports. This cable connects into the motorcycle’s charging system to provide a powered USB outlet that I can use to charge my smartphone or power my GPS unit. The port has a weather-protected seal that will prevent rain-damage, and I have a compatible USB cable for my Garmin Nuvi that forms a water-tight seal with the port.

To hold the GPS, I added a Givi S950, which connects to my handlebars, giving me an easy to access view of both the GPS and my instrument panel. The bag is weather-proof, but the plastic window still allows the touch screen to be used, even if it can be clumsy sometimes.

One of the features I didn’t like about the FZ6 is that Yamaha built it so that only one of the lights will be on when in “low-beam” mode. Both lights only come on when switched over to “high-beam”. This has caused a number of people to tell me that one of my lights had burnt out. I rewired the headlights using Motogiro’s headlight mod kit. Now I have both lights, and the road is much brighter for it.

Finally, I installed Killernoodle’s clutch slave mod. This updated clutch slave lever helps with the FZ6’s “binary” clutch, giving it a much larger and smoother friction zone.

I can’t wait for the Spring weather to come so that I can try out all of these updates!

Top 4 Things I Love About Fall Motorcycle Riding

As the temperature rose to above 50°F today, I took the opportunity for a nice Fall ride through the northeast Ohio countryside. The ride brought up 5 things I love about Fall rides:

The temperatures makes suiting up in protective gear not only safer, but more comfortable. I enjoy the process of donning my armored jacket and overpants, buckling up the boots and closing up my full face helmet. As I toss a leg over the bike and watch the instrument panel light up and fuel pump prime, it’s the closest thing I’ll get to being a fighter pilot.
When you meet up with another motorcyclist at an intersection, gas station, or parking lot, there’s usually some quick conversation about how thankful you both are to get another ride in while the weather is nice, as well as the commiseration of dread for the coming winter downtime.
The Fall weather seems to make the entire experience “crisper”. The stark, leafless trees contrasting against the asphalt of the winding road. The cool wind washing over you that brings your senses to full attention. The quiet that seems to dominate the woods sliced by your motor revving through gears.
Finally, even when the day’s ride is done, there’s the feeling of having gone out and accomplished something, even if it was just to celebrate one last ride before the snows come. Passing by cars on the way to your home, there’s always the evil thought that you might be passing some rider who decided not to take advantage of the day, with the pleasant sensation that comes with knowing you did.

Setting Up a Halloween Light Show – Part 3

In part 1, I talked about how to build your own holiday light show by combining computer hardware with a light controller. In part two, I also looked at how to set up a light show sequence and schedule your display using specialized software.

Now that your show is almost ready to go, there are a few extra items to consider before settling down with a big bowl of candy for the trick-or-treaters to arrive.

Lights!

It seems obvious, but you can’t have a light show without lights. However, even here you have a technology choice to consider. Over the years, holiday lights have improved. The old strings of colored lights with large glass bulbs prone to breaking were replaced with smaller, more efficient incandescent lights. And in recent years, even those have been replaced by LED lights.

LED lights use much less power, and last much longer, than older incandescent lights. For a static display, that’s great, but in a light show, you want lights that can fade in, twinkle and dim. Basic LED lights have an issue in that they often only have two states: “on” and “off”.

Thanks to improvements made for home LED floodlights, dimmable LED holiday lights are starting to arrive on the market. These lights will help eliminate flicker, and allow a wider range of light levels that are not subject to outages created by the voltage fluctuations your light show requires.

Before purchasing any lights for your display, take the time to research the dimming capabilities of the lights to avoid finding out they won’t work as intended.

Sound!

You may wish to consider how your light show visitors are going to enjoy the music you have setup along with your visual display. Hooking up a set of large speakers to a stereo to play your holiday music may not provide a great listening experience for those who pull up on the street to enjoy the display from their car. The extra noise can also be an annoyance to your neighbors who have to listen to the same holiday tunes for hours on end.

One technological solution is an FM transmitter. You can find both self-build kits as well as pre-built units from several makers, but the basic premise is the same. The device takes the audio output from your light show computer and broadcasts the music across a FM radio channel of your choosing, just like the Mister Microphones of the 70s.

The transmission signal is very weak, which is why no FCC license is required to use and operate one. It is strong enough, however, to broadcast a steady signal out to the car radios of the visitors on your street.

When looking at FM transmitters for your display, look for a device that allows both stereo and mono audio options. This gives you some flexibility, as stereo will sound better, but mono signals generally transmit further. You’ll also want to make sure that it’s reasonably small enough to fit in whatever outdoor weatherproof housing you may use, and use a standard outlet or battery supply.

A nice optional feature to check for is “automatic gain control” (AGC), which helps to keep the music volume from being too loud or soft between different songs played.

Once you have your transmitter, visit the website www.radio-locator.com to find the best unused FM frequencies in your area to use with the unit.

Getting all of these different technologies together can take time and effort, but the payoff of seeing the effect your light show can have on visitors makes the project worth it.