In Today's News

Stocking caps are making headlines.


I had to be in to work really early today, and temperatures dropped into the mid-30s overnight. That means it's time to start breaking out the real winter commuting gear. I was still dressed pretty lightly, but this is the first time this season I've needed a stocking cap.

The early commute also gave me the perfect opportunity to do a totally dark ride with the Light & Motion Vis 360 (shown left) that I'm testing out for BikeCommuters.com. At an advertized 115 Lumens, I was figuring that this light would end up being most useful as a "to be seen" light, but it actually casts a really good beam that's totally suitable for night-time riding at speeds of 15 MPH or so. The fact that it's helmet-mounted makes it good for Pothole Patrol. The side markers are brilliant and eye-catching, and the rear light is suitably luminous as well. I expect a full review to be done in the next week or so.

To test it, I took it out with a few other headlights I own, and took pictures of beam patterns. Its competition:

• A Bell Orion I found on the roadside back in early 2009, loaded with a pair of fresh CR2032 batteries. This embodies the ubiquitous cheapo front headlight from discount stores. It's usually helmet mounted. I made a handlebar mount for it when I found it (missing the helmet mount)
  
• Blackburn Flea
  
• NiteRider Evolution Halogen (15W Bulb)

I'll save the beam comparisons for the full review, but here are some teaser images.







And the beam shot from the Vis 360. This was the darkest spot I could find at my apartment complex this morning, far from the best place to do this sort of thing, but gives you a good idea of the beam pattern. I can say it's not nearly as bright as my halogen, but it knocks the socks off of my Blackburn Flea. It had better, for the price!


And off topic, we're finally getting settled in at our new apartment. We had a lot of help moving, but the tedious process of organizing and unpacking has seemingly only just begun. Oh, and the Brown Recluse spider infestation that we were dealing with at our old place won't likely be a problem for much longer, even if some of them did move with us. I found this friendly guy on our first day at the new apartment. It's a Wolf Spider (Hogna carolinensis, specifically) sitting atop a 50-cent piece (Diameter: roughly 1.2")


I really like large spiders such as Silk Spiders, Orb Weavers, Wolf Spiders, Tarantulas and Nursery Web Spiders. They are typically very gentle, but eat most smaller spiders and any other bugs nearby. I'm pretty sure the days are numbered for any Recluses that happened to stow away in our belongings.

Commuting by streetlight

Mornings like this make me miss parts of my old early morning commute.


Baz (non-bikey chaos):
It's been a busy few weeks. Last week, I took a few days off work to participate in Cyber-RAID and Security B-Sides Kansas City. Yes, I know, "cyber-" stopped being a cool prefix way back in the nineteen hundreds.

Cyber-RAID was a digital warfare exercise where four teams of eight people were tasked with defending their lab networks from thirty hackers, penetration testers and information security researchers. I was on the winning defensive team, which included Eric, another information security-savvy bicycle commuter. The people on my team were top-notch. I've never played a "game" quite like this before. While it was immensely stressful, it was also the most fun I've had in years.

Security B-Sides KC was an information security conference held alongside Cyber-RAID, and included several speakers giving presentations on a wide variety of information security topics. Among them was a presentation I gave on how broken the current state of WiFi is, with a harrowing live demonstration of the types of things you open yourself up to by using it. Of course, I also had talking points on defending yourself, your home network and your enterprise wireless installation from these sorts of attacks. I spoke with an interactive audience of around 70 people, literally an order of magnitude larger than any group I've addressed before.

Random Tunage:
Schodt feat. Aida Fenhel - White Tiger (Mango Remix)
Mike Foyle - Shipwrecked(John OCallaghan vs Mike Foyle Club)

Ah, weekend.

I had my (great) 90-day review at work and it totally doesn't feel like I've been at my new job for three whole months!

From mid-2006 to the first week of 2010, I was a tiny cog in a mega-corporation and my primary job responsibility was to make the red piece of a pie graph look smaller for some guys in big, cushy offices. I was told four times per year that I was exceeding management's expectations and was rarely ever given much more feedback than that. These days, I love what I do and who I work with. I'm constantly challenged with new aspects of the things I'm passionate about: security, systems administration and helping people understand technology in their own terms. I genuinely feel appreciated, too. My team is efficient and forthcoming with very short feedback cycles. That makes all the difference in the world.

Last week was one of the hottest weeks on record. It makes me really glad I live so close to work these days. The weekend brought sweet relief. Many of my pals put in a lot of bike miles today. It feels really strange to say that 89 degrees with 45% relative humidity feels mild, but it really was a nice break from the heat. After church, my wife and I met some friends at a local fishing lake, where I finally got to test out my new baitcasting reel. It took a few casts to get the hang of it, but now I can see why this style of reel is so popular. It casts far if you want it to, very precisely and operates much smoother than my other closed-face and spin-casting reels. My wife and friends caught a few bluegill. I ended up feeding the fish.


Argiope Aurantia (So-called "Garden Spiders") have always been my favorite spiders. When I was growing up in Nebraska, they were everywhere. They're very tame, don't bite and make zig-zag silk inserts into their webs. They're also some of the biggest spiders you'll find native to this part of the country. This female specimen has a leg-span of nearly four inches!


Random Tunage:
Barlow Girl - Enough (excellent Chris Tomlin cover)
Burn In Noise - ERT

Everyone!

This morning, I ran across almost every cyclist I've seen to date on my new route, except for Terry. Brian was rolling out of my apartment complex at the same time as me. Coming up to 95th St, The Silent Roadie and I were stopped next to one another. I didn't have time to catch his name, but we talked for a second. He rides from 75th and Metcalf down to 151st St. That's a decent ride. Then, I got passed by someone I haven't seen before, commuting on a triathlon bike and apparently trying to catch up with the roadie. We exchanged "good mornings" and little else. Finally, I saw the daily northbound guy south of 95th.

And how could I blame them? It was a beautiful morning for a ride!

I got tired of staring at the eight un-labeled and functionless buttons on my office phone. Over lunch, I added some new labels to them. Tip of the hat to my friend Ben, who kind of inspired me to do this by sending me a link to a photo where someone had done something similar. I wish I could claim it was original. It is, however, fun to look at.

Work

Bike Week Thursday: National swim home from work day.

I probably got more rain in the 30-minute ride home than I got in the 90-minute wetfest yesterday. I mean, once you're completely soaked like I was yesterday, you really can't get any more wet. But today was different. Wetter, even though both yesterday and today I arrived home looking like I should have been carrying a snorkel and flippers up from the parking lot, rather than a bicycle.

I got a bike rack at work. Just in time for Bike Week, the maintenance guys installed this 8-foot-long section of guard rail, now re-purposed "to accommodate up to four bicycles." It'll work, and it's certainly better than those awkward wave-shaped racks, but not by much. When I mentioned my bicycling habit, the HR rep I was talking to during the interview phase told me that there would be a bike rack installed soon. Lo and behold, here it is:


After I showed up for work, I noticed a bunch of people talking in the break room about bicycle stuff. Many of my new co-workers have expressed an interest in it. Apparently, many people haven't even considered bicycling for transportation since they left college. No one has seen a bicycle parked here, ever, from what I can tell. Hopefully this new bicycle rack benefits the company as a whole, not just me. Several of my new colleagues live nearby.

For what it's worth, I went through a very similar process at my last job when I first started riding to work. That included a new bike rack going in, and other people using the rack. Of course, the first commuter to "share" was riding a motor scooter. It took a while, but other bikes eventually filled the rack up. We'll see if anyone else jumps on board. Judging from all the questions I'm getting, there will be some other bikes on the rack this summer, at least once monsoon season is over.

First Day

I opted to take the bus this morning, just so I was certain I'd show up fresh and on-time. It's nice to have a Plan B.

I had a great first day at work. Officially, my title is Linux/Windows Administrator. Practically, I am helping a relatively small IT group wherever they need it. After a brief orientation, I went up to my new office, caught up with my new boss, got Windows 7* installed, and started familiarizing myself with my surroundings.

I've got a great team to work with, and they've each got a unique and complementary set of skills. The pile of stuff I was handed this morning is almost entirely related to bolstering the company's security stance. A cursory look, however, shows that the team has managed to really stay on top of things. Over the coming months, I'll be streamlining all kinds of security-related processes when I'm not helping the team with system administration duties. Basically: this is a dream come true.

I took a bit of a pay cut, but when you consider all the benefits of having a job this close to home (and without interstate taxes) it's worthwhile. The small size of this group and the growth speed of the company means that this is a genuine career opportunity, not just a paycheck.

For those of you not in the Greater Kansas City Area: today was filled with cold temperatures, massive rain and biting winds gusting over 30 MPH. In the morning, the bus schedule agrees merrily with my work schedule. It stops running homeward around 4:00 or so, well before the end of my work day. Due to her medical issues, my wife needs her car. My car is currently out of commission in more ways than one. Homeward, there is no Plan B, and this photo doesn't do any justice to my aqueous, breezy journey. I was way under-dressed for this evening. It felt like a blustery, October day. I was, as you might imagine, dressed for the average May rainstorm, which usually doesn't call for any special gear.


* Windows 7 is one of the slickest operating systems I've ever used. I'm anything but a Microsoft fanboy, so that's saying something.

Job Hunt

I'm still on the prowl for work. As some of you know, I didn't get the "Information Security Incident Handler" (a.k.a. "hunting bad guys") dream job I was initially holding out for. I made it very far into the interview process, but was edged out by someone with more computer forensics experience. The entire time, I've been applying for pretty much anything I qualify for here in Kansas City, and even a few gigs outside the area.

Things have been looking up this last week, though. There's a job similar to my "dream" job that's starting to look very promising. Unfortunately, it's near a Detroit suburb named Romulus -- which, by the way, is basically the best name for a town, ever. There are also a few other potential jobs NOT related to information security which seem to be progressing quite well, and they're still right here in the Greater Kansas City area. One of them would send me to Wisconsin for a month of training. No solid job offers yet, but like I said, things are looking up for a change.

In the mean time, I've been keeping my skills sharp, learning new things and keeping stress at bay with some great bike rides. I've been bartering skilled labor to make ends meet: Tuning up bicycles, fixing cars (replacing clutches and starter solenoid type stuff), fixing office phone systems, and fixing... well... pretty much anything that's broken in exchange for the things we need. It's a shame I don't have any "on the job" experience for many of the cool things I've learned how to do in my lifetime, not that "Auto Technician" or "Lineman" would pay the bills around here.

Security is still one of my biggest passions in life, right up there with bicycling. If you know of any local companies that could use an Information Security guy, let me know. There's still time to hire me.

p.s. I know you guys gave me hell for turning down a job a while ago. I am still, to this day, glad I did what I did. No regrets there. It simply would not have worked for me, or for them.

Photo Above:
Crate full of BrickArms ordnance by Dunechaser

Random Tunage:
Burn In Noise - Transparent
Setherian - Patch This
(Yes, I've been on a Goa/PsyTrance kick lately)

Strange day.

It's unusual to have a morning commute by daylight this time of year, for me, but I loved it.


I geared up the bike with my stainless steel press pot, panniers, water bottle, and some lights for the return trip home, which was probably going to be around 6:00 PM, just as it's getting dark.

I arrived to the office a little before 8:30 AM, and talked to my boss. He went over a few procedural things, and then I sat through the 9:00 AM wednesday meeting, where the team has an interesting ritual: they discuss their health goals, then status updates. Health goals for any one employee might be:
* Limiting fast food
* Drinking a certain amount of water at work daily
* Hitting the gym a certain number of times per week

I told them my goal is to never, ever drive to work. They were fascinated by my bicycle, and in awe of my low number of "drive to work" days in the last 3 years.

After the meeting, I got the tour, and then the official offer letter, handbook, tax forms and whatnot. But it was time for lunch. I rode my bike back home to have lunch with my wife. It's nice being able to do that. Upon my arrival back to the office, I declined the job offer.

One good thing, though: I didn't burn any bridges. The company asked me if I was available to do contract work, and they may ask for my help in the future, for one-off things as they relate to information security.

It's probably a great company, but I can't see myself lasting very long there. I most certainly didn't feel like leading them on, and ditching them a few weeks or months down the road, just to have a paycheck RIGHT NOW. It wouldn't be fair to them, nor to me. Sometimes you've just got to go with your gut, and I was getting an unsettling vibe.

I don't want to get into any further details, and I won't discuss it in the comments, either. I have a plan, though, and I won't be jobless for very long.

The 20-foot commute

It was a work from home day. A "Piggy Flu Drill" if you will. No pandemic in the office yet, but the higher-ups wanted people to shake the system down en masse for preparedness sake. I'm a fan of preparedness. I'm also a fan of things like flex schedules, telecommute days and other paradigm shifts in the enterprise that can reduce the amount of travel that's required for work. Both of the things I just mentioned have their problems, too. Examples: Not everyone has a distraction-free workspace at home. Not everyone can put in 10-hour-days in the cubicle maze and still take care of the kids.


Lessons learned:

• The coffee RULES at this place!
  
• I love my mouse and 18-year-old keyboard and wish I had matching ones at work.
• KVM-over-IP does not work well over an RDP Session. Nerd alert!
  
• Boots can lay in my wife's office chair for nine hours straight.
  

Toward dusk, I walked to the grocery store (instead of riding, it was beautiful out!)


PSA: September means east/west glare is particularly loathsome at dawn and dusk. Be seen. Be Safe. Maybe modify your route or arrival/departure schedule a bit if you find yourself riding directly into the sun on busy roads.


Fantastic sunset - I can't give it justice.


Random Tunage:
Glitch.fm

R.I.P.s, Resurrections and Miscellany

Two Bicycle website R.I.P.s came across my radar this weekend:
Rick Smith announced that Yehuda Moon -- my favorite (only?) bicycle web-comic -- is closing shop for a while. R.I.P.

A vague post on Blue Collar MTB leads me to believe that all the Crooked Cog sites' days are numbered. That includes Commute By Bike. R.I.P.

I suppose that means that as the nice weather picks up, you'll be seeing more of my Tricks of the Trade and Product Reviews right here for the time being unless someone else (ahem) wants to snag me up.

Good Friday -- Oddly enough an R.I.P. in and of itself -- was last week. Like any other banking holiday, my company was closed. I had some business to attend to at a local retirement home 2 miles away from my place, but not an R.I.P.

Unrelated side-note: My great-grandfather died in 1991 at this retirement home at the age of 107! An avid mycologist by hobby, he wrote at least one book on mushrooms. He was also the oldest person to ever carry the Olympic torch, at age 99 in the 1984 Olympics. This event and his name were even mentioned by Ronald Reagan at the 1984 RNC. I miss him, but I'm glad he lasted long enough for me to remember him. R.I.P.


My wife and I went to the pet store on Friday as well. Not surprisingly, ducklings and bunnies were selling like hot-cakes. I'm not entirely sure what one would do with a full-grown duck as a pet. I suppose you'd just let it fly off. It would be pretty hard to keep one indoors.


I rode to Easter morning service, which was held at The Commons. It's an 11 mile trip in each direction. I only barely missed the rain on my way home. I carried about a 16 MPH average both directions, including stopped time. It feels good to finally see some of my speed coming back a little at a time.

Later, my wife and I drove down to my parents' place for a late Easter lunch.


This morning: Cold and wet. Half-way to the bus stop, I watched as my phone fell out of my jacket, bouncing and skidding along the wet pavement for a few dozen yards. The past few four-day work-weeks have me spoiled and I feel a serious case of the Mondays coming on.

On your left.

Cue the dramatic Jaws music...

This lady must have thought I said "move left" because she moved left. Fortunately, I wasn't going too fast.


On your left.


On your l...WHAT IN THE HELL?!


The driver of this thing was actually cleaning up trash and otherwise maintaining the trail. I do catch the occasional Mo-Ped on these trails though.

Tea Time.

Bomb!

A doodle inspired roughly by a Mac SE/30 and MacOS Classic error messages with the infamous bomb icon. I worked on this a little bit at a time.


JR's Bike Dungeon. He was getting ready to fix up the wheel for me. This is only a small amount of the bikes he has in storage. I think he needed to get these out of there just to open his tool box :)


My... mobile office? I had to swing by the bank and get money out of my PayPal account for JR. Couldn't remember my ATM pin for that card. I must've looked pretty strange standing there in business casual clothes using my bike as a computer desk to reset my pin while standing right in front of the bank.


Dora misses Boots, but we might have another friend for her soon. Someone's desperate to find a home for an adolescent kitty and we might just see how she gets along with Dora. If Boots comes back, my wife can practice being a crazy cat lady.



Ironic Tunage:
Orbital - P.E.T.R.O.L.
Geggy Tah - Whoever You Are

Seriously, I heard both of those at work today...

Storms

Our first real storm system of the season rolled through last night. It didn't do a whole lot in my neck of the woods, except cause some pretty good straight-line gusts. Further north and off to the southwest (Lincoln/Omaha Nebraska and near Wichita, Kansas), there were some tornadoes. Fast clouds looked ominous as the sun set. The below animation (once it's loaded) plays at about 3x the speed that it was photographed, but the low clouds were still moving at a really good clip.


A reader-turned friend of mine, Sally (a.k.a. Sallymander) scored an older Specialized Crossroads Cruz that was being thrown out. I'll use her picture of the bike since I haven't taken one yet:


I offered to fix it up for her, and it needs quite a bit of work. The previous owner was apparently riding it when the rear tire blew out. The inner tube caught the rear brake pad, which then pulled the inner-tube and stretched it as it wrapped around the gear cluster, grinding the rim against the pavement and to a halt. From what we can tell (a destroyed handlebar grip, pavement-ground rim and badly scuffed pedal), the resulting wipeout must have been quite spectacular. The frame, front wheel and all the drivetrain components are still in great shape. Although barely worn down, the brakes might be hardened and brittle, though. I need to check.

Given the sprocket, chain, and brake wear I'm seeing, it looks like this bike maybe had 100-200 miles put on it and otherwise spent most of its time hanging upside-down in a garage. It reminds me a lot of Hybridzilla: a lightly used bike with a ton of potential. Scoping around, it appears to be from the 1995 model year.

I ordered the new tires for it last night (Forte Gotham city tires) and swung by JR's shop to see what we can do about replacing the damaged rear wheel. It's a bit of an odd beast: 6-speed freewheel, 700c. Once upon a time, this was a popular setup. I believe Karen's yellow bike is configured the same way. These days, you don't see many 700c wheels threaded for a freewheel cluster. While a modern freehub wheel would fit in the dropouts nicely, you can't find 6-speed cassettes and the spacing is wrong for the indexed grip-shifters on this bike. JR has a bunch of good, used wheels, so we'll find a solid one to fit the bill for this repair. I brought the old wheel with me to work this morning so JR can wrench on it, since I don't have (or need) freewheel tools. We'll keep the OEM freewheel cluster since it's still in good shape.



Work's all fine. I just got the Ward Cleaver speech. "Okay, Beav. What did we learn from this?"

Boots is still missing, though. If he's still okay, I hope he had somewhere warm and dry to stay during the storms last night.

A bad week.

I've been mum for the past few days, so here's a run-down of real life:

Our older cat, Boots, escaped Wednesday night. It's closing in on 4 days and we haven't found him yet. We're both kind of worried, but I think we've done all we can do to ensure his safe return. This includes a geeky "live trap" by keeping some of his favorite food by the front door, along with a motion detector to alert us when something or someone is at the door. We've also checked with various shelters, postered the neighborhood, and tried online registries.

I couldn't sleep at all Wednesday night. I had to take Thursday off because I was sick and tired.

Friday, I caught some heat at work for a technical glitch that was partially caused by me. It's not likely a career-ender, but it's also my first real mistake in almost 3 years of working for this company. I figure out my fate on Monday, after I hand in a post-mortem report to management.

Nothing ruins a weekend quite like waiting to be punished on Monday... unless that something is being worried sick about your cat and your job at the exact same time.

A day off, and a funky schedule

Tuesday night, I used my Jornada to scan for wireless networks on the way home.


The hospital's not even 3 miles from our apartment, so you can imagine my surprise to find more than 300 wireless networks along the way.


I took the day off yesterday, as it'd been my wife's third day in the hospital. I was pretty sure they'd discharge her, too. I wanted to be there with her, and not leave her hanging for hours waiting for me to come pick her up if she was released.

While there, I saw the parking lot "courtesy car" - a driver will take you out to your car if you're disabled, lazy, or parked in the bowels of hell. This is a slow, 100% electric car. Too bad that means that aside from Wolf Creek and Callaway (which I once photographed from afar on a road trip) the biggest power plants in the region are all coal-burning. For all intents and purposes, this is a coal-powered car plagued by the combined inefficiencies in power generation, transport, conversion to-and-from direct current, heat losses during battery recharging and probably some other fun stuff I'm forgetting. Go Green!


Playing with Fennec (Mozilla browser for mobile platforms) on my Mac while enjoying the remaining afternoon after bringing my wife home. Does anyone want a 32-hole Tiagra rear hub (shown below) without many miles on it? I'll sell it cheap!


Always on the lookout for irony, the below showed up in my google reader last night. It's a link to a (not work-safe language) video from The Onion (a satire site) about the latest Sony device that doesn't work. The fun begins when Google places a Sony ad at the bottom of the story.


This morning? Cold and rainy. As you may know, Rain and temperatures below 50 are pretty much the only weather I really hate riding in, but I do it anyway. One more day, and I'm off until next Tuesday! The weather doesn't look too promising this weekend, though.


Random Tunage:
Vengaboys - We Like To Party
Binary Finary - 1999

Crazy Weak-End, Eerie Moon

Friday Night (8pm), some friends and I showed up at Pizza Man for some supper. They were closed. How does a pizza place stay afloat with crappy business hours like this?

Might be layoffs in this economy, hard telling. We took our business to Stonewall Inn next door. They have good pizza, too.

Over the weekend, I subscribed to Freecycle. Their "application process" made me laugh, so I had fun with my answers to their silly questions.


Weak-end work at the office early Sunday morning. I left the lights off. I wish it was this dark in my office all the time. It would be much easier on my eyes.


Wife's back in the hospital. That Roadmaster that's laying down isn't locked. Still, I'd be willing to bet if a bike thief came along, my cable lock would be cut, my bike would be gone, and that damn roadmaster would still be there. There's a window overlooking it and a security camera right there as well.


My friend hevnsnt wrote "Inside programmable road signs" and then people started "hacking" road signs everywhere. This made front page news on foxnews.com, cnn and several others. Friday night, I saw it on my phone's web browser start page. Fame.


Folding laundry last night. My "helpers" fail. Warm Clothes = sleepy kitties.


I couldn't believe how incredibly beautiful it was this morning, save for the wind. I was in short sleeves. The moon was hiding in the fast-moving clouds.


Here's an up-close shot. I had to either get the detail in the moon and kill off the clouds, or wash the moon out and show how eerie the sky was. The clouds were moving way too fast for HDR.

Slept in, got to work early

I think I can get used to that on occasion. I didn't even have to drive my car. I opted to catch an extra half hour of sleep, since I've been working on a few projects and I knew I'd be tired this morning. I just took a later bus and tweaked my morning schedule today.

Coffee slurry brewing in my French Press


The ladies in my office finally took down the snowflake ornaments from our ceiling yesterday. Wait... WHAT?! Aww, jeez.


Random Tunage:
Orbital - Chime
The Pharcyde - Passing Me By

The Climate Roller Coaster

6°F this morning. January has been weird. 67°F high. 5°F low.


December was also all over the place, volleying us between mid-60s and deep, deep single-digits. There's no doubt about it. Graphs do not lie. We are on a climate roller coaster!

I built this oddball contraption last night. No, it's not a bomb. It's a remote-controlled momentary switch (only capable of triggering 30 Volts) rigged up to a heavy-duty relay that can handle 240V and a lot of amps. The 9V battery is there just as a power supply to trip the big relay with the weaker one.


This should allow me to computer-control my clothes dryer so that it gives me warmy, toasty clothes by starting it 5 minutes before my alarm wakes me up. I don't care if it's not eco-friendly. I am a nerd that tinkers with stuff. I also like warm, snuggly clothes when I wake up shivering every morning.

Oh yeah, my valve stem lights are back. :)


Reports are done running. Now it's time for a nice batch of French pressed coffee before putting my nose to the grindstone. Take care out there!

Random Tunage:
Plump DJs - Scram
Paul van Dyk - Tell Me Why (Club Mix)