My new motorbike

Well I finally outgrew my little Suzuki Intruder 250. I have to say it was a fantastic bike to learn on. Easy to ride and very forgiving. We had many good rides together around the back roads of the Manawatu and a couple of trips to Wellington.

With summer coming, I wanted a new bike that would let me commute to work in Wellington, have my weekend adventures and, most importantly, let me explore the gravel and dirt roads I see on my wanderings.

After much investigation and blog reading, I settled on the BMW G650GS which I picked up last Friday. My plan was to ring back on Monday and book my 1000km service as I was due to do a 400km ride with a group called the Back Road Riders on Sunday. However the wind, the rain, and my wimpy nature meant I didn't do the ride. Next time though.

I rode the bike back from Wellington to Palmerston North on Friday and I loved it. Good power (remember I have stepped up from a 250 cruiser), great handling and a very comfortable seating position. I love it. Rode to work in Wellington this morning with a smile on my face all the way.

The one thing I would criticize is the wind buffeting. The windshield pushes the wind into my neck which gets to be a bit of a pain after a while. I have done a bit of research and I have just ordered a Touratech windshield adjuster. I am going to try and adjust the current stock windshield so it pushes up just a little. This may do enough to send the wind over my head. I had the taller seat fitted so think this is what is causing the problem.

Had a few farkles fitted when I bought the bike and will see what else I need. I had fitted the high seat option, engine protector, Scott Oiler and a set of Givi Trekker 33lt panniers and top box. I am now all set to go! I will post updates as I put my baby through her paces.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

IOS6 3G Data Leakage

Like a good little Applebot I upgraded my iPad2 and iPhone 4s to IOS6 a couple of weeks after IOS6 was released. 3 days later and my iPad had gone through 10GB of 3G data on a 2GB plan.

It appears as though the "Use 3G Data" setting being turned on meant "always use 3 G data" even when on wi-fi. 64 pages of 3g data use and $800 later I was left with no option but to turn off 3G data to stop running up even bigger bills.

Rang Telecom New Zealand to see if they could help. They put me through to some "special investigation's team". Gotta love honest nerds. The person I spoke to told me that they knew that this was a problem affecting some devices and they had been asked by Apple to monitor affected users if they rang up.

A couple of weeks later I got my bill with nothing done about my $800 of excess data usage. Went into a telecom store to get assistance.They rang the telecom billing department who said they would look into it. On hold for 20 minutes, they came back on and told the telecom person I was dealing with that they were not aware of any data issues with IOS devices. I don't think they realised that they were on speaker phone. The telecom assistant then told them what he could see on the notes, to which they replied "the notes are wrong".

If I was a gambling man, I would say that it looks like Apple are making sure that any hint that there could be a problem is being "disappeared". After all, the usage of data is not telecoms issue, it is an Apple issue. However telecom could have handled this better by at least giving me any info they had instead of stonewalling and denying.

I have no chance of getting anything back from Apple, I will try though, but am not holding out hope. What I will be doing however is hopping off the Apple Fanboy bandwagon. My next phone will be a Nexus 4 and my next tablet, will not be an iPad but a Windows 8 device. I will keep the MacBook Air going as still think its the best non hardcore techie machine on the market.

Motorbikes

I used to ask myself, "Why on earth would someone ride a motorbike when there are perfectly good cars around?".

I was sitting around on January 4 this year and decided it was time to learn how to ride a motorbike and see what the experience was like. It was summer, beautiful sunny days, so why not.

First step, get a licence. On my birthday last year I went and rode a motorbike and got my proficiency certificate. A quick check showed it was good for 6 months so it was still valid. Next step, learner licence theory test. Down to the AA office and luckily, being a holiday period, they could take me straight away. Eyesight test, check, photo, check, then off to the computer. 10 minutes later and 35/35 I was walking out of there with my learner motorbike licence. In New Zealand there is a graduated licensing system. At my age (50+) I have to spend 6 months on a learner licence and then 6 months on a restricted licence. During this time I am not allowed to ride anything bigger than a 250cc bike.

Next step was to get a motorbike. On my way home from the test I stopped off at the Suzuki dealer and immediately took a liking to a Suzuki Intruder 250LC.

Bought the bike, a helmet, jacket, boots and gloves. They said to come back the next day for the bike, so it was off home to tell my wife. I married a great woman, when I told her, she just laughed and said, "I knew you would".

Next day, I got dropped off at the Suzuki dealer to pick up my bike and go for my first ride. I have to say, that first ride was scary. I had no coordination with the gear changes and struggled to just manoeuvre the bike. I made sure I went for a ride every day for at least an hour. I was only riding around town and getting used to riding in traffic, turning, stopping starting and changing gears. By the end of the first week I was starting to enjoy it. By the end of the first month, I just couldn't wait to get home to go for a ride. Every time I got off the bike after my ride, I felt hyper and alive. Even my kids noticed that I was a happy bouncy guy when I got home.

At the end of the second month I started riding on the open road. I would ride every Saturday and Sunday for an hour or two. Being a 250 and with me weighing in at 110kg, top speed is only 100 kmh before the bike starts to strain (well maybe 110 - 120 with a tail wind and downhill), but that is fine when the open road speed limit is 100 kmh.

By the 3rd month I was very comfortable on the bike and just loved the sensation of riding on the open road with wind rushing by. I ride all around the back roads of Manawatu for 2 hours at a time. I always finish feeling really happy. The endorphins are really racing around my body and the feeling lasts for at least a couple of hours after I finish my ride.

I sit my restricted test next month which will have me on the final stage before I get my full licence. I then have another 3 months before I can get my full licence and then be able to get a real bike. It would normally be 6 months but if I do a defensive riding course, it gets shortened to 3 months. I will definitely be doing the defensive riding course as the little 250 is starting to be annoying. I want a real bike.

I have joined a group of like minded people in a riding group. The group is e-riders and is made up of motorbike enthusiasts in the IT industry in Wellington. My first proper ride will be a ride around the North Island of New Zealand at the end of November, but first I will need to get my full licence (Scheduled for October 4) and get a real motorbike to replace the 250cc Suzuki.

I have been doing research and have found the bike I will be buying on October 5. It is a Triumph Thunderbird Storm from Motorad in Wellington.

Roll on October.

IOS 5 Battery Performance

Well I upgraded my iPhone 4 and iPad 2 to IOS 5.0. I immediately noticed a degradation in battery performance on both devices. My iPhone would not last a day with normal use, whereas previously it would last 2 days. My iPad would normally go from 100% down to about 80% when watching my video podcasts on the train. After the upgrade, it would go from 100% down to about 45% watching the same podcasts.

I did the usual "ask google" and this came up with a few common suggestions which I tried without much success. I then decided to just grin and bear it and wait for the inevitable fix from Apple. After a week or so, along came IOS 5.0.1 which supposedly fixed the problem.

I applied the upgrade and this has fixed the problem on the iPad. Battery life is back to pre-IOS5 performance.

For the iPhone however there didn't seem to be much, if any, improvement. I was showing my wife the differences between IOS 5 and IOS 4 when she asked me "whats that funny little arrow thingy?". I hadn't noticed before but location services seemed to be constantly on and this was what seemed to be draining the battery on the iPhone.

I don't allow many apps to utilize location services unless it seems appropriate (e.g. maps, foursquare etc). I went into the settings and turned these off one at a time until I found the culprit. It was FourSquare. Whether a change in IOS5 or an existing bug caused this, I don't know. What I do know though is that turning off location services for FourSquare made the "funny little arrow thingy" go away and when I then turned location services back on, it only appeared again when I was actually doing a location search in FourSquare.

My iPhone is now back to pre-IOS5 battery life. I can only suggest that if you are having battery problems under IOS5, investigate your location settings.

 

Banning Twitter and other suggestions

So the British Govt. is thinking about banning twitter and other social networking tools during times of civil disturbance. their rationale, like all petty dictatorships, is that people plotting disorder use the social networks to plan and organize.

Following on with that line of thinking, I have some other suggestions for them. The following 10 suggestions are in no particular order of importance:

1. Shut down telephone networks. People can organize by phone.
2. Ban any petrol or any product that can be used as an accelerant. Without these, there will be no fires.
3. Ban all electronics. If there are no electronics stores, there is less temptation for people to loot.
4. Ban any matches, lighters or implements capable of sparking a fire.
5. Ban all motor vehicles. Cars and vehicles were set on fire and rioters and looters might use these to transport themselves and their stolen goods.
6. Ban all bicycles. From what I saw of the coverage of the riots, a lot of the younger people used bikes to get around.
7. Ban scarves. I saw people covering their faces with scarves therefore making it hard for CCTV to get good pictures of them.
8. Ban hoodies for the same reason as we need to ban scarves.
9. Ban backpacks. Too easy for people to steal articles from and also to transport stolen articles.
10. Ban TV. TV encourages social unrest and if we didn't have TV, we may not have even known riots were going on.

I think my 10 suggestions show as much common sense as the proposal to ban twitter and social networking. They also go just as far to address the underlying reasons behind the riots.

I am available as a consultant to the British government should they need my services to flesh these idea's out more.

All Blacks RWC Jersey Pricing

I am all for the free market determining the price of goods. Something is worth what someone else is prepared to pay. I viewed the furore over the Adidas pricing of All Blacks RWC Jerseys as just a storm in a teacup, but decided to look objectively at the issue and not join the wave of hysterical blabber on the topic.

A bit of background.

The All Blacks 2011 RWC Jerseys were selling in New Zealand shops for $220 each. Quite a steep price for something that a lot of New Zealanders would consider a "must have" for their wardrobes. This wasn't such an issue until someone went onto the internet and found that the USA based World Rugby Shop was pricing the Jerseys at US$ $89.95 or around NZ $115. Wait a minute, how can they be selling the NZ national teams rugby jersey for more than $100 less than we can buy it here in NZ. My first thought was "You gouging retailers" I will buy online when I come to buy my jersey. Only I can not now buy online, Adidas have apparently told the World Rugby Shop that they can not ship to New Zealand, so my dream of a cheap jersey is out the window.

When the news organizations got hold of the story and it received some publicity, one of the local resellers, SportsWorld, dropped its price to $125. They said this was to match the US price and they would lose money on every Jersey sold. This made me think that it was the NZ retailers gouging NZ consumers just as they are for almost everything else to do with the Rugby World Cup. Rebel Sports were then all over the news saying they were trying to get Adidas to lower the wholesale price here in New Zealand so they could compete. Rebel Sports said that Adidas wouldn't lower the wholesale price, but they would lower the price of the jersey as well, but only to $170, and even at that price, they would lose money. Two other retailers, Champions of the World and Stirling Sports have also now matched this price.

Who is the villain here.

Well Adidas is being painted as the villain and the poor sporting goods retailers are being portrayed as the hero's for lowering the price even though they will lose money.

Lets look at this a bit closer.

The sports retailers are saying Adidas needs to lower the wholesale price so they can compete, but we have never been told what the wholesale price is. Is this because the wholesale price is high, which is what is being inferred, or because they do not want to lose huge margin on these jerseys as they, like almost every other NZ business, have seen the RWC as the cash cow on which to base the 2011 earnings. Would a retailer really sell items at a loss, if they weren't using them as a loss leader to get people into the store to buy something else. I don't think so, and for sure, they wouldn't be using the RWC jerseys as loss leaders.

Adidas is being caned on two fronts. One for not lowering the wholesale price of the jerseys so the poor NZ retailers can compete, and the second for banning the USA based company from selling Jerseys to NZ customers significantly cheaper than they can buy them at home. As I said earlier, no one is saying what the wholesale price of these jerseys actually is, so we don't know if Adidas is being unreasonable or not. As for them stopping sales over the internet, well that could also be interpreted as Adidas protecting the business of their New Zealand retailers, so not necessarily a bad thing.

I come back to my earlier question, who is the villain here? My answer is, I don't know yet. I am missing the one key piece of information I need before I can make a decision. That piece of information being the wholesale price of the jerseys here in New Zealand. I don't understand why none of the NZ press that I have read or watched, has not asked this very same question. Too stupid, too lazy, or don't want to know because it ruins a good story.

What do I suspect, as in all things, I believe the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Adidas probably looked to make as much money as they could on All Blacks Jerseys in the home market as did the retailers. Can't blame them for that, thats business, thats the free market. As for Adidas stopping the sale of the All Blacks jerseys from the USA online shop, that I completely disagree with. I believe they probably did it to appease their NZ retailers so everyone got to keep making their margins, but this was certainly a PR disaster for them.

Using Blogsy

Having gone back and watched the Blogsy "how to" Video, I thought I would write a test blog utilizing the features of Blogsy.
In my previous blog, I used links to other sites but it took me a couple of edits to get this right. What I found is that you can link to a site by dragging and dropping from the built in browser or link to a site by highlighting a word/ phrase and filling in the details on the link item.
The other thing you can do is to add photos. The photos can be in either Flikr, google images or Picasa. I uploaded this picture from my iPad. It wasn't a drag and drop, but once you know how to do it, it is easy. You first tap the iPhoto icon in Blogsy, select the picture you want to use, upload it to Picasa using the built in functionality and then select the photo from Picasa.

The next thing you can do is to upload a video. This requires you to have a YouTube account but that is not a big deal in my opinion. YouTube is a great way to store and share video's like this one. You can share your own video's, video's you have made favorite or you can search for videos and add them. I chose the last option and found this video of a great new NRL talent, Shaun Johnson of the NZ Warriors.

I have to say that Blogsy is not an "Idiot Proof" application, but if you use the tools, the built in help and the built in how-to videos, it certainly does a great job of being an iPad blogging tool.