Joe Gross

I just recevied the Fedex tracking number for my Newegg order. I checked to see what day it will arrive and find that Fedex now gives a time for their delivery estimates.

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Today Vik, Richard and I wandered over to Maker Faire to check out a wonderful collection of cool geeky stuff and cool geeky people.

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As I’ve said before, I like my Profile Airstrike aerobars but they have a nasty problem where they rattle incessantly while riding to where it’s barely tolerable. It’s really unconscionable that Profile designed these bars without some way of dampening the flip-down arms. The problem is that when the arms are flipped up you end up with a metal on metal rattling every time you hit a little bump in the road.

I finally got fed up with it and found a way to fix the bars so they don’t rattle any more.

Here’s the supply list: Screwdriver, superglue, alcohol, scissors, thick rubber shim from a clip-on headlight kit, and something to hold down the pads (I use velcro).
FYI: The binder clip is a cue-sheet holder held on with puffy sticky tape and a zip tie.

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I just installed the Performancing for Firefox extension and am using it now to test this post. I read a bunch of stuff on the web and want to comment about it but find that opening up a browser to wordpress is a more effort than just bugging Lorah when I see something interesting.

It’s got all the basic features you’d want, including categories, fonts, links, and previews. The linking feature has some issues where if you create a link that’s at the end of a line it makes everything else you type part of that link. Slows you down a little since you have to type the next few characters before making the previous link.

I am a bit lost without spell-check, though. The Google toolbar doesn’t see this as a form so it can’t help. I’m sure as this becomes more popular you’ll see it improve.

All in all, I think this is great! Maybe I’ll actually start posting more often.

Patxi’s Pizza (pronounced Pah-cheese) in downtown Palo Alto opened a year or so ago and not only did they have great pizza, but it was a convenient alternative to Zach’s in Berkeley and Oakland.

There’s long been a rumor of a Patxi opening in San Francisco, and now it’s no longer a rumor.

Now the question is, are they any good?

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Today I went to see Combots at Fort Mason. It’s basically a robot wars where competitors design remote-controlled bots that destroy other people’s bots. The rounds are 3 minutes each and end when a bot cannot move for any reason (damage, getting stuck, etc) or is thrown from the ring. If the clock runs out the judges allocate points to each bot based on damage and aggression. Other than that it’s basically a free-for-all.

I’ve never been to one of these before and had no idea what to expect. I can say that it was pretty awesome and a bit scary when some of the bots exploded all over the inside of the arena. Some of these bots are just over 300lb and pack quite a punch when they’re spinning at high RPM. To give you an idea of the energy in these bots, they used standard steel I-beams to ring the floor of the course. Many of the I-beams have gashes right through them and are bent in various corners. The 1″ lexan window plates have to frequently be replaced, and one robot nearly blew one out when it went flying into the side wall. I was definitely shaking a bit after one of the rounds with the 300lb frisbee when it started bouncing around inside.

All in all it was a great time and highly recommended if you ever get the chance to see one of these events. I’ve posted pics and videos.

I’ve been previously using a Niterider Blowtorch, both on my commuter as well as for the night section of doubles on my light bike and have recently installed a Schmidt E6 onto my randoneuring/commuter bike

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I recently switched from a set of Syntace C2 clips to Profile Airstrykes because I got tired of not being able to use the bar tops.
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