Just got the index.html up and running on nangka.org. Not that easy to sit around all day during the Paris winter sale to think of a design for the front page. The one that’s up right now (as in today) is an empty page with the permanent features up, and might be tweaked as time goes by. I consider this as a “beta” version. I’ve established a workflow where I can put pictures on the front page and get transparencies, etc etc. You’ll see it coming.. I think I will need to work on the bottom buttons since they look rather big today.
Getting it up and running: Almost there…
Managed to migrate the photo albums to the new installation of Gallery on my new web server last night. I had the option to make a complete move with the comments, etc but that would have meant that I will have to play around with the SQL database backups since my gallery paths were a little different this time. Finally decided to go on with the import of the previous gallery structure only and forgetting about a SQL migration.
Obviously no problem with the migration from Movable Type exported file into WordPress. Everything seems smooth. Did as well a compression of the number of categories in WordPress compared to my old MT site. WordPress has this nice feature where you can set the default category, and when you delete a certain category, it will mark all the posts affected with the default category, so that you dont have to go into every posts one by one.
So the applications are now running. I think I’ll do fine with just WordPress and Gallery this time. The next thing to do is to work on the graphics and the start page. I think I’ll start as soon as possible with a very simple text based front page while I work on the elaborate long term website.
Blogging by email
WordPress has this nifty feature where you can send an email to a special address and the server parses the mail into a blog entry.
Problem so far is that there is only one possible category and its hard coded in the WordPress options. That’s a small problem. I’ve tried to send a blog entry from my office’s Lotus Notes email client and what happens is that the entry includes a couple of redundant extra line which is just markup excesses that is not stripped out. Same for attachment. WordPress displays the text version of the file (the hex bytes?), but then again I’d be really surprised if it can identify attachments! So no Lotus Notes email.
The convenience obviously outweighs the stuff above. Now there’s no need to log into a certain web based system to blog anymore, at least for me. I’m just imagining the future where I can use my iPhone to email blog entries! Too bad the phone wont be out in Europe nor Asia till end of 2007 or even next year. I’m sure you can get it in the US before but I’m betting it will SIM locked to Cingular… that’s another issue.
Nangka.org up and running on new server…
Switched my ISP to GoDaddy this week. And most of the stuff are up and working. I’v migrated the blogging software from Movable Type to WordPress and still have not migrated the entries into the new system. Same for the gallery installation on /gallery. Will do it over the week, I dont think I generate enough traffic to do anyting too hasty.
The other thing I’m thinking of is to remodel the site so that its simpler to design and modify. I think I just need 2 directories and a main page that’s really simple. I’ll sit down one day and think about that. In the meantime you’re not going to get any main page (too much time to redesign) until the final one is up. I dont think there’s a point to put “under construction” either since its so cliche’d.
Enjoy!
Finally: Rambouillet!
If you remember, a few months back, I attempted to cycle from Paris to Rambouillet (50km away) but my wheel spoke broke just a few km shy of destination. Here’s a link to Google Maps for a rough idea of the route.
So this weekend, I decided to try it one more time on my new wheels and managed to do the whole thing in 4hr 30mins. The odometer on my Polar says 95km to and fro. Average temperature was about 10C. I brought 2 bottles of water (one of them insulated, the other turned into ice water after a few minutes out there) and a banana for the celebratory food once I reached Rambouillet.
Nothing broke this time. When I passed the exact location where my spokes broke I had this feeling that something bad would happened so I slowed down somewhat. But at the end it was all fine. Did my goal now, although the return trip was quite punishing since I had 2 large hills to climb with a sore leg.
I doubt I’ll do it again before leaving France! The next cycle trips will be much shorter for me.
Running in cold weather…
Temperature here in Paris has dropped quite a bit since I last wrote here. This week, its hovering between freezing point and +3-4C during the daytime and you don’t get to see the sun too much.
So over the last few weeks I’ve had some quick experience in jogging in the cold, usually early in the morning when you get the minimum temperature before the sun rises. And it can be summarized in the following:
More than 20C:
This is more like early autumn temperature, no problem here, if you run fast enough, the usual summer gear will suffice. This would be made up of running shorts, short sleeve coolmax shirt to wick sweat, long sleeved thin shirts will do as well to keep the chill off the arm. No cap or anything else is required.
Between 15-20C:
Again, shorts will do, but now maybe a long sleeved shirt will be required. I started with a thicker synthetic long sleeved shirt, but it does feel quite warm after 30mins of warming up during the run. I think a thin shirt would do, but you just have to keep the activity high to keep warm.
Between 5-15C:
Ok, this is a big temperature range. But I feel that in this range you will need at least long tights and a pair of long sleeved shirt. Towards the lower range, you might need a layer of baselayer below the long sleeved shirt as well. Ski shops sell those thin sweat wicking coolmax that will do quite fine. No cap seems necessary. There’s no need to change your shoe as well, in this range I’m running with a standard pair of Asics Kayano with coolmax socks. At the lower temperature range, I would think that a wind blocking top will be required just to keep the wind from reaching your base layer. So… 2 layers for the top, and 1 layer for the bottom. What’s recommended are windblocking (Gore Windstopper, etc) tops and long tights.
Down to freezing:
Windblocking material seems to be a must for the top. I wear a pair of Asics World Performance 5000 top and bottom tights for this temperature. Both top and bottom has this layer of fleece (like Roubaix Pro material, etc) to trap a layer of air. At this temperature any wind will put the chill into you, so windstoppers are essential. Nothing special with the shoe, I wear normal summer shoes but just have to keep on moving. At this temperature, the wind will bite into your head as well, so beanies are essential to cover the ears. No need a balaclava… What pedestrians are afraid of is to see a person running towards them in tights and balaclava.
Dead HDD!!!
Normal life of a hard disk should be 5 years, but when I tried to boot up my Windows XP machine this morning, I couldn’t get further than the Windows startup screen, at which, the computer will restart. A quick check indicated one of the partition (happens to be the C:!!!!) was dead. The old HDD was a Maxtor 160Gb.
Luckily a backup was made, but at least a month old, so 3-4 weeks of information was probably not updated. So its going to be a long process to get a new HDD up and running and to get all standard information and PDAs up and running again… Sigh…
Gallery site updated
Today (actually last night) marks the day when my gallery site is updated. Now its on version 2.x up from 1.4 yesterday. Why so long? Thought that the old version, although serving its purpose, requires a refresh to make the administration of the albums easier.
The skin of the program will be updated when I have the time. Planning to include the Carbon theme from gallery so that I maintain the darker theme throughout the site.
Nothing to do? check it out. Ask me for a login if you need one to see more photos.
Wheel: Cassette on…
What to do on a Sunday morning? For me today, it was to transfer the Shimano Ultegra cassette from my old wheel to the new one.
The dismounting was easy enough, and a lot of mess as I did the degreasing to clean the cassette. Just realised that the cassette that I have is a 13-25T. And according to the American Classic instructions, they included spacers for 11T and 12T, but nothing mentioned on the 13T and higher configurations. Well, it turns out that maybe no spacers are required. I say maybe becuase none of the spacers would fit into the space between the cassette and the freewheel.
There were quite a bit of play/movement of the cassette when mounted, and I was a little worried, but once you lock it in, its tight as hell. The 13-25T Shimano Ultegra 2005 model has 3 sets of cogs. The first 3 are together. Then you get the 14-19T in a set of 6 cogs, and the final 13T is alone.
Its all mounted now, and I just have to a Sunday dash to the nearest sports shop that opens on Sunday here in Paris to get another tube for the tire, since the shop gave me a wrong one last week. I need a spare as well, so I’ll get another one and once I exchange the wrong one it will become a spare. My old spare has the shorter pump valve, so will not work with the new high profile wheels.
Putting on new tires on wheels and how not to put the rim tape
Started to work on the new American Classic CR420 wheel this weekend. Last night after coming back from the office with a new rim tape from a nearby shop, I decided to install the thing and once I finished, I realise that the tape was a 18mm version instead of teh correct 16mm. What happened after is that the tires could go on the wheel, but just one side would clip on. The other side would just slip out becuase the tape was too broad.
So this morning I went to another shop near by and bought the right 16mm tape. Unfortunately I was not really paying attention to the wheel once I put the tape on, and then I realised I put the only hole on the tape on the wrong hole. It was the hole used to tighten the spoke and not the little hole for the inlet to the tubes. Had to rip it out again, and it was 15mins before the close of the local bike shop, so had to run all the way there to get a new set of rimtape before I had to wait till monday.
So then the wheel went fine, started with the front wheel. Installed the new Michelin Pro Race 2 tires on it and felt good once inflated to around 90psi. I’ll go up to 110psi when its mounted onto the bike.
When I started mounting the tires on the back tire, I realise that the damn shop I went to on Friday sold me 2 packs of butyl tubes (Can’t seem to find latex with long heads) with 52mm heads, but one of the tube had a standard looking head on it, which means that I can’t use it since the Am Class wheel has a 34mm profile, so once the tube goes in, there’s no way I could pump air into the tube.
So looks like fate has it that I will not ride this weekend. After two months, I guess another weekend is nothing much.
So my plan this weekend would be to work on transfering and cleaning the Ultegra cogs over to the new wheel and if I have some time, to go to the Decathlon in Montreuil, which is opened on Sunday, and get a new tube. Will go back to the shop on Monday to exchange, and if they dont want to exchange it with the right tube, I’ll be a typical French & complain till the cheese is matured.
nangka.org 