On Design aka What I get from BikeTank

Now I am working back in the city I stumbled across BikeTank as part of the Sydney Rides Festival. BikeTank is a community consultation that I could talk about here but that would not do it justice as it has to be experienced.

The biggest thing that has changed with me is that design has changed from being work for me. Design is design and I love it for what it is and what it means in my life. I could say I am passionate about it or a corner stone my life but it is more a touch stone that I can draw strength from and revitalise myself.

All I can say is come along and see what you can get from it ...

On Bike Tyre Pressures and Seat Heights

A bit of Knowledge is a Good Thing! As you can see I have been doing some thinking about my bike ie should I upgrade and were exactly the 3kg savings are made that $3000 can get me.

Turns out about 2kg of it will be in the frame and components and 1kg in the wheels of which 400g is in tyres and tubes alone!

I started looking into bike resistant forces to see the affect of dead and rotating mass (yes I know mass is best out of the wheels but being an engineer i wanted to understand things better) and I found a calculator from Analytic Cycling that included tyre pressure in calculating rolling resistance and found rolling resistance increased compared to 120 psi for 90 psi and 60psi by 2.5% and 5% respectively. A friend of mine Gray recently questioned my choice of running 110psi .... Hmmm ... perhaps there is something in this ...

My approach has been ... hmmm this is hard enough and go ride but this morning I pumped the tyres just prior to departure (both were hard but 60 psi!). But wait there is more

I also looked at my seat height (suggested by Annette) and used the fit calculator from Competitive Cyclist which gave me some crazy numbers but that might have more to do with the sloppy measurements I made ... but it did recommend something higher.

I did raise my seat by 4cm above my old rule of thumb method of the heel on the pedal.

It did feel much better from a quick test ride and with the correct tyre pressures I think the two improvements helped me drop 30 minutes off my best riding time on a ride from Cronulla down to Bald Hill and back sort of proved it. I don't think I have amazingly improved by 10% with no training!

The sad part of this story is that it means until something breaks I cannot justify a new bike :>

Thanks to my friends for prompting me to understand things better :>

Why being a Weight Weenie is Wonderful

I not only admit I am a weight weenie ... but I embrace it. I have just spent three hours looking at the weight of my road bike compared to someone "light" bike. I probably spent about double the time (which really means triple) thinking and researching about this issue. When you consider the exorbitant hourly rate I charge you would really wonder why I even bother.

I guess a few reasons ... I am a geek and I need the warm fuzzy knowing I am making the best decision.

To this end, I will attack this in three parts.

This being Part 1 where I will look at my bike compared to a "light" bike to see where and how significant the differences are.

Part 2 of my investigation will be looking at the bike resistant forces during rides to assess what is really important.

Part 3 will look at the biomechanics of riding faster (which is my root cause).

Part 1 - Component Weights

Item	"Light" Giant TCR Composite '02 (not OEM)	My Protour	Delta
Cost	$3500+ est	$0	$ for me
Bike	6854	11060	4206
Frame	1325	3236	1911
Components	3373	4709	1336
Wheelsets	2155	3155	960

Weights in the above table are in grams. I know these values don't quite add up but I am not chasing 40g on here any more then I am on my bike. Weights in the above table are in grams.

But I think the table has convinced me that yes I can make significant weight savings in my frame and componentry but there are only limited savings to be made in the wheelsets where the most benefit can be made. There is potential to save about 400g in tyres and tubes which I can implement next time I need to change.

Interim Conclusion
I don't think a smick new bike is my answer although it would be nicer then the cruel harsh reality I need to train harder (and smarter?). Some new go fast tyres and tubes will be on the cards and a lil more investigating as detailed above.

Bill you are on notice

I am getting a bit sick of the memory leaks, vulnrablities of Windows OS and the persistant requirement to add whatever MS decides is a good idea (.net framework 1.0 to 4.5, Silverlight, etc). Unfortunately it appears even more are coming with Win8.

At the moment I am moving away from vendor dependant apps into the open space. This is the only way I can be assured that the functionality I require can be maintained under my current OS and hopefully developed for any future OS.

I have some pretty mad requirements for my OS

• Minimal kernel foot print that doesnt clog up with crap
• Low latency under my high use demands
• Run for days without gradual increasing utilisation of resources (memory/CPU)
  
• When you shut down apps ... memory frees up
• When you uninstall apps ... no residual crap

Bill you have to harden up or I will look at other operating systems :>

Project Management Applications

I need an online, free, colaborative tool for project management. I have reviewed what is available from a list on wikipedia. Initially all I wanted was something easy to share a project plan but what it has done has made me rethink what project management software is all about.

I have long held the opinion that Gantt charts are only pretty drawings that every project seems to require and are just as quickly discarded as the project comences. What is requires is a document that is more engaging and dynamic.

From the list the following have jumped out for not much reason at all appart from their relative completeness and some unique features that I think make them interesting for further review.

OpenWorkbench (obw.1.1.6.exe) - is a stand alone app that I have used before. It appears to be going through some sort of update as the owner CA has taken down the app's website. It can still be found on wikipedia and the exe on the web (and 1.1.4 on SF). Cant say I used it much and there are issues with round trips to MS Project and only supports 2003+ xml based project files for export.

OpenProject - is a nice stand alone that has a very basic interface. I am a bit more inclined to use it because f this reason. Still has issues with round trips to MS Project and only supports 2003+ xml based project files for export.

OpenERP - seeing this app listed in a project planning software list really made me start to think left field in what I need. Integrating planning into the project execution at an enterprise level is really what is

Endeavour - is really right out there with a spectifically targetted industry and functionality required to execute and manage the required tasks. Specifially agile based software development, user requirements, functional planning and task execution.

phpGroupWare - looks like an interesting group of functionality that could be implement on a colaboration portal. Not sure what to do with it but I guess something will come up.

FireFox Addons

As we all know there are many weird and wonderful addons for Firefox. But to quote Mal ... there is no such thing as a free lunch. Addons do take time to load on start up (some majorly shamed back in April 2011) and do consume memory/cpu processing time.

These are the ones I use in order of frequency of use.

ScrapBook - this is one I would not and could not live without. I have about 1.6gb of data saved in god knows how many categories. I have customised the settings to store in a remote location for backup purposes and I have set my list of recently used categories to 20 (which seems to work for me). I would love to see the following features added;

• Bug - Save Page does not save direct linked files eg PDF's
• Option to add to top of category list
• Citation data extraction
• Better search function
• Temporary sorting function
• Tags
• Better note function (eg HTML editor)
• Document the potential for customisation
  

DownloadHelper - for all those "useful" vids you just need to keep. It did have some issues with startup which apparently have been addressed as it has come off the shame list.

Dictionary - always add your Aussie dictionary for Firefox and Thunderbird.

Search Engines - great way to add your fav search engine.

EPUBReader - reads ePub Files in Firefox.

Firebug - I usually have this one disabled but its damn useful to check out HTML source.

Autopager - seemed like a good idea at the time but really not that useful. Disabled.

SQLite Manager - dito.

Zotero - a citation database that I still have to get my head around.

GPS and Running

I used a small Qstarz BT-Q1300ST (from Semsons)to data log when I run. I find that this sensor is particularly sensitive to vibration when running and gives all sorts of funny results with altitude and speed.

I have found it sensitive to positioning with the best location being under my cap of all places. Other places I have tried have been connected to my HRM strap but I have worried about exposure to water ingress from my sweat. I have used it on my bike where I mount it in my seat bag and get fairly repeatable but I think consistently wrong altitude traces.

I need to get a handle on this sensors accuracy.

Measuring the Value of Information Technology

Measuring the Value of Information Technology
(ISBN: 047194307X )
John S. Hares, Duncan Royle

Dusting off the bookshelves I ran across this old tried and true reference. The frist book to introduce me to (but still doesnt give definitive guidance) intangible benefits from projects. About the only thing it doesnt address well are the unintended benefits/consequences associated with project business cases.