A Ride Denied

No engine start today

I had planned to head out for a good long fun ride on my Daytona today. Part of the ride I would be riding with a bunch of folks headed north to Cairns on “The Long Ride” which is a charity multi day bike ride. While not heading off for the full trip I planned to ride with them today at least, before heading home. The bike was ready as I’d completed the first service last week. Still in restricted RPM but it was a little higher.

I had also almost finished sorting out my video camera for riding. I have the helmet mount and camera sorted, the only trouble I am having is getting a good mic set up so that I can record my comments as I ride. Actually the latest test went well in reverse. The camera mic really only gets wind noise, but I set up another mic in my helmet. Only it didn’t pick up any talking, but it did pick up the engine really well.

And lastly, Mrs wasn’t working and she wanted my home by dinner. Fair enough. It’s dark by then anyway.

And I felt weak and sickly all evening last night. While I might commute when I’m not feeling  100% doing a full day ride isn’t a good idea.

So no ride…

Both bikes sitting quietly in the garage.

Odd Postings

Ok I’ve recently gone through and added a bunch of posts from my other blog into this blog. I have set the publish date to correspond so that they fit in properly. This has meant, like tonight as I finish off a couple more, my poor subscribers get messages of new posts that are really old. Tonight’s post was from 2007!

Sorry about that, there should only be about one more to go, I go riding “with” Charlie Boorman of Long Way Round fame (with Ewan McGregor).

PS3 PlayTV

When I purchased the PS3 one of the things I thought to use it for was for recording TV. I didn’t have a decent solution for that (except an old VCR) for the digital channels. The PS3 has the PlayTV attachment to allow you to watch and record TV. It even allows you to watch while recording or to play a game while the PlayTV records. 

It’s large for what it does. About the size of three DVD cases piled on each other. It connects to the TV aerial at the rear and to the PS3 USB. This could be a problem on newer PS3 as mine only has 2 USB ports (not sure how many the older ones have) and I was charging the 3D glasses and the controllers on them. 

THe setup is pretty easy and using the free to air channel guides broadcast as part of the digital signal you can get about a week in advance for your programming. Either by the guide or by manually adding times. Recordings can be repeated or extended as required. If a programmed record messes up it will even try to find a repeat to record. Not really successful here, but perhaps in other countries?

I’ve been really happy with it, and with the 500GB PS3 I have been able to hold a fair bit to watch and not worry about space. I did have one movie record with a lot of stuttering but it hasn’t reoccured. It’s hung a couple of times, but mostly its can be slow if you follow up something that uses the HDD with something else that also uses a big chunk off the HDD, for example you delete a movie and immediately try to watch another. The playback or menus might not respond for several seconds as the system finishes one task before commencing the other. It may also be trying to buffer (through??) the PlayTV, up and back on the USB2 port?? not sure of the reasons, but something to watch out for.

I have found a process to copy recordings from the PlayTV to the PS3 and then to an external HDD. However this is limited to sub 4GB files as the PS3 only talks FAT32 to external drives. Even a hour episode at HD quality records at about 5GB. I will need to see if there is a setting to convert HD to SD as it records which may help. The process is fine, as long as your recording is smaller.

If you currently have another PVR solution, I wouldn’t bother. If you have a PS3 with a good size HDD and no PVR, its a good solution. If you have one of the new 12GB PS3, I wouldn’t bother. A HD movie can be 8-9GB. 

Sneaky Lara

One thing I am liking a lot about this Tomb Raider, hmm actually something I am liking some of the time, is the bow. Now initially when it was my only weapon trying to get a solid kill on a charging wolf was kind of hard.

However when you’re sneaking up on a bunch of the islanders, it’s very effective for a quick clean and most importantly quiet kill. I’m on my way up the island to the radio tower (so yes, not very far through the game) and I cleared a whole building without so much as a whisper from the guards.

Of course that was pointless when I subsequently had to blow up a wall to get through the next building. I think they heard me as I’m at the start of a set piece with a room full of islanders who all know I’m coming.

So far there isn’t the real “Tomb Raiding” feel to the game, but then if it is a reboot as described and this is the tale of how Lara gets that confident then I suppose its to be expected. Some of the hidden areas seem like they will lend themselves to more jumping and guessing than the main path currently does. The main storyline is a lot more action orientated than I expected. Again, I’m only something like 10% into the game.

Adding in the sneaky Lara, reminds me of one of my other most favourite games, Tenchu: Stealth Assassins (on PS1). I used to spend long minutes, real time, with my ninja completely still, usually hanging from a cliff edge or perched on a roof, watching the guards as they did their routines. The game did have a some randomness, but not totally – if you waited long enough patterns emerged and you could sneak past or go in for the silent kill.

Lara is a tough girl though. She’s had an arrow through her thigh and I think I remember a piece of reinforcing iron going through her side at one point. Still she’s up and around and leaping across chasms

I am also wondering if it ever stops raining or if the sun ever comes up??

Anyone know a way of taking screenshots from a PS3, I’d love to be able to do that to share with you guys.

New ISP

I’ve just connected with a new ISP, the main reason, I wasn’t happy with the performance available on my current one. They could only provide ADSL1 (up to 8Mbps) whereas the new provider could give me ADSL2 (up to 22Mbps).

Connections have gone through and it seems to have improved. Speedtest sites report about 16kbps (so about double). More importantly I was able to Skype my wife (who’s currently overseas) while the kids watched some YouTube. Without problems on either computer. Normally we’d have to turn off one or the other.

So pretty happy with that. And 50GB more download for the same price.

Its Still a Secret

I’ve been keeping the secret of my new bike from all of the riders at my work. Until I do, I will have to keep posting my thoughts here as some are aware of my VFR blog, so no good posting it there. I plan to arrive early on my first day back and leave it parked before most arrive. That will get the buzz going as they all try to figure out who’s it is.

I didn’t have the kids to look after today, but the weather was looking a little threatening. I took a chance and headed into the hills to the north west of the city for the first serious outing on my new bike.

OH WOW! Not sure how else to say it. Why didn’t anyone tell me to buy a supersport bike before. This bike is so easy to ride quickly and so confident that while I didn’t break any records or (almost) any speed limits I still have a grin after getting home after lunch. The bike just wants to go and go. It takes lots of control to keep your licence on this kind of bike I’m sure.

I dodged all the rain and spent about 2 hours in the mountains. Got home, had lunch and gave it a wash before it was time to grab the kids from school/childcare.

I did get both bikes out for a bit of a photo shoot…

 

You sick of it yet, I’m not

Tomb Raiding

I think I noted somewhere that my most favourite franchise after BattleTech is Tomb Raider. I am sure many are aware that the new game was released to pretty good reviews. I’ve been eyeing the prices until I found one I was comfortable and picked it up over the week.

I well remember the hours I puzzled away at the original and the enjoyment I got from it. I do have all of the games since, but have only played bits and pieces of them but due to other commitments, never finished another. I enjoyed what I did see of them.

This one has been no different than that… a lot of fun. It’s early stages is not so much about puzzles and figuring which combinations of ledges to jump to, but I’m hopeful that at least a bit of that will come. This early stages is more about surviving.

It’s tough without her trusty automatics though. Trying to line up a charging wolf with a bow is hard work. I think I’ve died every possible way so far except falling too far. I’ve been choked, mauled, crushed by rocks, burned, shot (arrow and bullet) …  lol.

Having come from a WoW background and the strongest TR memories being the first one in 1997, the graphics have improved… well enormously, lol. On the PS3 the game is very fluid. I hear of some breaks on the PC version, something to do with quicktime events, but I don’t see this on the PS3. The graphics might be weaker, but really I still enjoy the first ones, so graphics isn’t the be all (and never should be).

Compared to my most recent The Walking Dead game, this is a lot more of an action game and less of a choose your story one. Subsequently there is a lot more to do, and Lara is more directly under your control.

I highly recommend it so far. It’s no shoot em up, thankfully, but I do hope things calm down some and I can spend some serious time leaping about caverns and exploring the island, at least for a little bit

Slipped away for 10 minutes

The recovery after my surgery seems to be going really well. With my parents here helping me and a break in the weather I slipped out of the house for a 10 minute ride, around the block, up the freeway and home again.

Damn its a fun bike!

Second Ride.

You might also notice that there have been some posts added to the blog. I’ve decided that since I’ve added so much more bike stuff recently I’ll consolidate my VFR blog to here as well. I’ll keep posting there, but will copy them here as well, just easier to archive things from here. Also the other website occasionally crashes and I suspect WordPress is better supported than it (no offence to the couple of hard workers maintaining the VFR one).

Surgery over. Recovery begins

Just a quick note. Had my surgery today. Seems to have gone well but I guess the doc will tell me in the morning. I haven’t had a crash, or other accident. Developed a hernia about three months ago.

So fixed hopefully and I can get back to my forest running and my riding, and playing with my kids again without concern.

Once it heals of course

Daytona 675R

[I'm reediting this, half of it makes no sense]  About 11am this morning I rolled out of the stealership on my Daytona. I was pretty nervous of course, but after a few traffic lights and that, I was settled into the way the bike moved. Its very easy to ride. I did discover very quickly that I can’t see the lanes next to me in the mirror, but I hear that is pretty common on supersport bikes. But so far that’s the only thing I don’t like.

I rode home, trying to stay under the break in engine rpms as directed. It was tough as the bike just wants to rev. At home, I first checked it would fit in the garage with the VFR and the two cars. Check! Then I wolfed down some lunch before rolling back out onto the driveway again.

I didn’t have as much time to spare for its first ride as I had hoped, so I headed first to drop in on my other bike shop to show off. These guys have been servicing my VFR for about 6 years and I’ve chatted to them about which bike to buy.

After suitably wowing the mechanics I rode off (I’m such a poser,lol), heading for some nearby roads to really test it out. I spent about an hour riding about in the lower mountains, getting used to it. New engine needs running in, so I have to be gentle and restrained. Its also got brand new tyres of course, so they need to be bedded in for the first 100km or so as well, otherwise you end up on the road watching your bike slide away.

So it was a gentle, but extremely fun hour or so, before I turned back for home. If you want to see some video of the bike (not riding videos yet) check out here.

And for everyone else, here are some photos.

Now it will sit in the garage for a while as I am having an operation today, and will be a week or more before I’m allowed to ride again. First service is at 800km, I hope it doesn’t take too long to get there as I can’t wait to try this bike out completely.