As a follow up to the article on cheap carbon frames I wanted to make a few additional points about bicycle quality that are less specific than one frame material. To begin, I think that everyone should ride bicycles. Bicycles provide low impact healthy exercise that is fun for all ages, and even more fun to do as a group. To get started you need to have a bicycle. If you already have one, or need to get one, here are some simple rules to follow when looking for a good bike.
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While I was working in the industry many customers asked, “Is X a good brand”. Most people don’t realize that the average $500 mountain bike is made in one of three factories. Giant, in Taiwan, is the largest manufacturer of bikes in the world, and make many of the bicycles you find under other companies names. Remember that these are bicycle shop bicycles, not department store bikes! With that in mind consider that only a few really exotic bikes (expensive), hand built steel, and custom frames being made in Europe and the United States, everything else is made in China (low end) and Taiwan (everything else).
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Finally an excuse to rant about an environmental issue. Blog Action Day has asked that bloggers around the world call attention to the global issue that affects everyone, the environment. Here’s the details:

Publish a post on their blog which relates to an issue of their own choice pertaining to the environment.

For example: A blog about money might write about how to save around the home by using environmentally friendly ideas. Similarly a blog about politics might examine what weight environmental policy holds in the political arena.

So here’s my take on what designers everywhere can do to help. Continue Reading »

I’ve recently been victim to a number of software roll outs that were being managed by other people. Each of these experiences brought a single question to mind…What are they thinking? Either they stopped teaching best practices at the university, or I have had the distinct pleasure of witnessing projects that followed some unique system of development designed to screw everything up. In either case these recent experiences have compelled me to elaborate on what I feel are the cardinal rules for software/web development practices. Continue Reading »

I just found my mixer paint job on a site! Heres the link. It a site with a bunch of mixers that have all been customized. Check it out.

In an effort to continue the advancement of web technology it seems that everyone, a panel of industry giants, got together and started formulating the next version of HTML standards. HTML 5 incorporates into the HTML standarda new set of tags that should bring the standard in line with how developers are currently using CSS to structure their pages. I know that statement calls into question the whole standards movement, but it’s true. Continue Reading »

With the demise of my circa-1994 Ti frame I settled on the 2007 Scattante CFR. I opted for the full Ultegra, double chainring “Race” version. Continue Reading »

Here it is, my site design is fractured and disjointed. I admit it. I added the blog capability, and started a gallery portion, and then never integrated everything together. Shame on me. So now that I have a lull in the storm of projects that were on my plate I am going to start working on tying everything together.

I’m still debating the gallery though…Maybe someone has a suggestion. I could use the gallery I started to set up. Or Flickr, which I already use. Or build something in Flash. Or… See it’s a problem too many choices.

Lastly I’m excited because I get to ride in Santa Cruz tomorrow! I’m planning on hitting the hills going towards the summit of Highway 9. It’s a mixed blessing, as I haven’t done much climbing in the last few years so this may be a very painful day in, and out, of the saddle.

It’s amazing to me that sites that rely on Flash for their main navigation have not taken the steps to eliminate the “Click to activate and use this control” messages from their sites. If you haven’t seen this message before you must be avoiding flash sites. To recap: Eolas has a patent dispute with Microsoft, forcing them to make activeX controls require users to click the “control” before they can interact with it. Annoying to say the least. If you want to read more go here. Needless to say this article was inspired because of the staggering number of sites I’ve run across in the last month that have not incorporated the JavaScript solutions that are available. Here are the favorites:

• Adobe’s Solution
• SWFobject Solution
• UFO Solution

If you own, or manage a site that uses Flash as a navigation element, fix this, please. Better yet…use CSS navigation instead. As much as I like Flash, does it have to be used for everything?

I was just visiting Google Analytics and noticed a fresh new interface. The graphs are bolder, and the data seems to be better organized. All good news for everyone using this free Google service. Oh, pay no attention to the dismal traffic that my pitiful excuse for a web site is currently drawing…unless you want to spread the word to bring me all kinds of traffic.