Matt Norman
News and comment from my world...
- The right tools for the right job.
I cycle to work. I love doing it - I’m in so much of a better mood by the time I get there. I’ve got a winter and a summer bike as well which I got using my company’s ride to work scheme. My summer bike has a problem though, in that I keep on breaking a spoke on the back wheel. Now I it probably does a lot of work, it has my heavy weight on it (the cycling isn’t making me loose weight - but at least its stopping me putting it on) and my panniers and all of the rubbish I take to work with me each day.
So each time I blow a spoke, it costs me £10.20 to get my bike shop to repair it. Changing a spoke cant be that hard - I’ve had a spoke spanner for the last 20 years - but I’ve never used it. But its the taking off of the cog thingy to remove and add a spoke that’s the problem. Anyway today I did it. So I thought I would write about the experience. Youtube gave me the information that I needed - that there were two types of cog thingy, which I now know are called a freewheel, or a cassette. And you need a couple of special tools - which ebay provided for £16.
So removing the cassette was about the simplest thing I’ve done on my bike, once I had the tool, the whole thing took 15 mins. So no more Mr Bike Shop charges for that repair, as I have 35 more spare spokes on the donor wheel that I am using for spares. So, although I spent £16 to save £10, I should be quids in the next time a spoke breaks. But what’s the betting that I now have no more spokes break ever…
Update 29th June 2009: Just fixed two broken spokes.
05 Jun 09 Permanent Link
- Posterity
The last couple of days I have felt like writing something. But its so long since I have updated this site that I almost feel embarrassed doing it. I have so many more important things to do now. Things that I have to do and things that I want to do, as well as responsibilities I have. I used to have the sort of job where I had quite a bit of free time every so often, and yet now I don’t. But the other day I realised that I do have about an hour each week where I usually have my laptop but dont have much else to do. So today I thought I’d write something for the site. Its strange really. Its not that many people will read this, and I probably don’t want them to really. Maybe its just for posterity.. Which is also strange. Maybe one day I will look back at this and see what I was doing when I wrote this. Probably though, if at some point in the future I feel like looking at this, this site, my server, the datacentre and the domain name will probably be long gone..
Its strange how I get the urge to write. I wrote my two books, and years before, as most people do, I started writing a novel. I’ve written a couple of short stories as well. But I don’t really know WHY I suddenly want to write. I was listening to the Mighty Mur on my cycle back from work today. Ok, so the podcast is called 'I should be writing' so I shouldn’t really be surprised that it made me want to write. It wasn’t that that was strange though, it was that lots and lots of ideas about WHAT to write were flooding into my head while I was listening. And one of those ideas, of which I have committed several to paper now, was about posterity and how I viewed it. Do I want to remember now? Or in the future, will I have so many better things to do with the time I’m given?
16 Jan 09 Permanent Link
- Busy Busy Busy
Lots of stuff I want to talk about but no real time to do it. I wanted to talk about being the the presence of power - but that was months ago. Then I wanted to talk about an amusement park I went to in Wales - but still no joy about that. So busy at work, setting up a new website, and lots of things that I have to do and that are more important are taking my time. So no updates here. Not for the moment. But I've just made some muffins, and decided that I'd at least type this. Its about nothing really - but hey - who's reading this anyway...
01 Oct 08 Permanent Link
- New Google Analytics tracking code
Over the last few days, I have been trying to fix a foxy problem on one of the websites I work on. The problem was that we use Google Analytics as a tool on our sites. This gives us a way to get visitor information. Now our website has normal, and secure pages. And you need a different code to go on different pages. There's not much difference really, little more than one has a link that begins http:// and the other https://. The problem is our secure applications use a skin which is common to both. Which means if the skin is being used for all of the standard pages, they all run as normal. However if you access a secure page, which uses the same skin, the tracking code tries to load the unsecure script, which gives the error: This page contains both secure and nonsecure items. Do you want to display the nonsecure ones?
Now from a user's perspective this is pants. They shouldn't have this error, and it should not effect the performance of the page. They are just wanting to look at some secure data, so why should we worry them with this error?
So I've been tinkering with JavaScript, and rather bizarrely am trying to use JavaScript to write out a JavaScript line on the page, that will sense a secure protocol in use, and call the correct script accordingly. There method in JavaScript called location.protocol which gives me https or http back. Problem solved I thought! But I couldn't somehow get it to work. Maybe the problem was that there was more to just swapping the protocol over. Maybe Google uses different script for secure and nonsecure pages.
So off I trot to Analytics to examine the tracking code. And what do I find? Google has produced new tracking code called ga.js which solves this problem automatically. Doh! Can I have my last day back please Google?
14 Dec 07 Permanent Link
- (DONT!) Log this coin:
I found something out interesting the other day. If you go to the south pole there is an object there called a benchmark that tells you the position of the pole. If you are from the UK a benchmark is a bit like a Trig point, or triangulation pillar. The benchmark at the south pole moves 10 meters annually from its placed position as it is on an ice glacier. So first January every year, they re-calculate the position and place another benchmark. I found this fascinating bit of information from the back of a geocoin. Geocoins are:
"A Geocoin is a wooden nickel or metal coin minted in similar fashion to a medallion, token coin or military challenge coin for exclusive use in the sport of Geocaching. A geocoin may be trackable on the internet using a serial number and website address engraved on the coin or untrackable.
They may be placed in geocaches as signature items to be found by others and kept as trophies or moved from cache to cache like a Travel Bug, traded or given to other cachers like a calling card or merely sold and collected."
To celebrate my new piece of knowledge I wanted everyone to log my coin. Unfortunately I'm told that it against Geocaching rules. So that put the dampers on that huh?
10 Dec 07 Permanent Link