Ultracapacitor

Similar energy density to Li-ion battery. It'll be interesting if this isn't vapourware.

Asus Eee

This is exciting. The Asus Eee. It's so inexpensive it's scary and it's a solid state system.

There's virtually no space and the screen is tiny so it's not laptop replacement. However, it's more portable and likely more comfortable in ones lap so it may be a great platform to take on the road.

I'm strongly considering buying one for ciding, especially since I can buy one with linux pre-installed.

Yay for Studs

So this week was a good test for all of my equipment. On Monday it was bitterly cold. On Tuesday we had lots of snow. On Friday we had a sheet of ice. Zero falls all week. The only close calls I had were in driven snow on Tuesday night when I decided to make use of side streets: Big mistake.

I did end up going out and buying ski goggles after Monday.

Snowy Ride In

Today was my first truly snowy commute. There was probably an inch and a half of fresh snow this morning and double that on the way home.

By and large it wasn't a problem. On the way in it was virtually all fresh snow: Lots of work but very little affect on stability. On the way home I took some side streets which were completely unplowed by driven a little bit. This was a rough ride. You'd hit certain patches of disturbed snow and your bike would shake back and forth. At first it was extremely disconcerting and I thought impossible to deal with. However, I eventually realized that I wasn't falling down and if I kept my speed up I kept better balance.

Keeping my speed up meaning to go faster than 6mph...

Overall it wasn't bad. Last night I purchased ski goggles. These are a huge help. At this point I cover every inch of skin and keep everything pretty warm. I could use some warmer gloves though.

The current winter equipment:
* Studded tires: $90 (pair)
* Fleece mittens: $10
* Cotton glove liners: $10
* Weather shell: $100
* Ski goggles: $45
* Insulated Shoes: $40
* Balaclava (smart wool, I recommend it): $30
* Beanie (half wool, I couldn't find all wool): $20
* Warm long johns: $40 (I'm not sure, they were a gift)
* Regular shirts and jackets, I'm not gonna cost this cause it's not for biking.
Total: $385

Winter cycling gear is not cheap. Although most of the cost is in a few small items. You only need studded tires on a few days, but you can't put them on each time without wearing the tire out before the tread is worn. Anyway, purchasing a second wheelset or putting the studs on a junker bike, solves this. You'll wear through wheelsets anyway, so don't worry about the cost in the long run.
The weather shell is worth it and is useful during every season but summer.

You can live without the ski goggles. I wanted something to keep my glasses from icing over and to keep that part of my face warm on negative temperature days. They keep my face warm but I must admit that I still get some fog on my glasses. It's better though. These things really ought to be cheaper though. Hopefully I can get several years out of them.

You need insulated shoes if you intend to ride when it's below 20 degrees.

Chevy Volt

How is it that the 2500lb Tesla Roadster has a range of 244 miles on commodity lithium ion cells and the Chevy Volt has a range of 40 miles on a 375lb advanced technology lithium ion battery pack?

If the Roadster has 6 times the batteries it would have to be a 200lb frame, motor, wheelset, and axels: It's not, there's no way.

Is the Volt simply that much of a power hog? Is Chevy making stuff up because they don't want to ship this car? Is the Volt vaporware?

iPods are Cheap Junk

This is the 3rd time my iPod has locked up in a year. Each time it does it you have to wait for the battery to fully discharge before using it again: Be careful not to plug it in, you could be in for a long wait. This isn't acceptable behavior, especially from a device with a sealed battery.

Next time I'm buying a Zune.

Possibly a new bike shop

LJS blog.

One of the commenters suggests it could be a trek store. I hope not. We've got plenty of Trek here. It'd be nice to have something like monkey wrench on the south side. Something that carries good stuff in addition to what's popular: You know, a store where the saddle area isn't filled with gel cushions but has a wide variety of saddles including Brooks. Something that carries some steel frames.