• My Orange 222. Stable, planted, fast, FUN! Oh, and removing the brake-arm didn’t appear to make any difference to the ride. One afternoon’s riding without it isn’t exactly an extensive test, I know…
• Topshelf Components. I ordered a custom built new wheel, and found it waiting on the doorstep the following day. Fantastic service. The Aireal stuff they sell is pretty damn good aswell.
• G-Dog’s new trails. Funtastic aceness – except for that drop. It’s just plain silly.
• Falling off your bike and not hurting yourself.
• Fog. It made Cheltenham disappear entirely, which looked cool from the top of the hill.
• The current albums by Maximo Park, Hard-Fi and Bloc Party, not to mention some older ones by Everlast, Haven and The Black Keys.
• Apple crumble and custard. In fact, I think I deserve another portion…

Loads of congratumalations to Mike and Sandra on the birth of Isla Rose Davis!

On the one hand they’re a bunch of idiots, whose copy-protected music CDs can leave your computer open to virus attack. OK, I’m sensationalising, but that surely is a sign of a company that just doesn’t get it. It’s like they believe that if they don’t install something really nasty on the CD, the consumer is just bound to pirate it. Meanwhile, illegal copies of the CDs appear through the usual channels within hours of release – as per usual. This sort of thing just doesn’t work Sony – it’s only ever going to generate you bad P.R.

On the other hand, they produce some absolutely fantastic hardware and commission some wonderful adverts [thanks Eeen] in which to showcase it.

Go figure.

Update: It gets worse for Sony

Brilliant: It would appear that Sony’s copyright protection software is itself in breach of copyright [thanks Andy]. They’re really thought this one though, haven’t they?

It’s a minor miracle: I managed to get through this morning’s two minutes silence without someone phoning me.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before. Internet Explorer 6 is quite possibly the worst bit of software I have ever encountered.

The thing is, from the front end it’s not really too bad. OK, so it’s looking a bit dated, but as far as the user can see, it renders web pages without complaint, it’s not too slow, it’s got a fairly easy to use bookmarks system. It’s simple. We can’t get people to upgrade because (as far as they know) it does the job perfectly well. They simply don’t know that they can do so much better.

From the other end though – the point of view of the developer – it’s a complete nightmare. I’ve sure already covered the myriad ways in which the HTML, CSS and caching parts of the engine are fundamentally broken. Now, it seems, the Javsacript engine is completely borked aswell. I won’t go into the details (I’ll only end up getting angry and dumping a truckload of slurry on Micorsoft’s doorstep), but suffice to say that it runs like a dog on IE6, though every other browser executes it like it’s Thrust SSC on speed. Great. Some resources to help if you’ve in a similar situation:

• Optimizing JavaScript for Execution Speed
• A compendium of JavaScript optimization techniques
• Javascript Closures
• JavaScript Memory Leaks
• PPK on Javascript memory leaks
• DHTML leaks … not so much, actually
• Fixing JavaScript memory leaks for good.
• BeeByte’s JS Links

Someone remind me, just how did IE6 get through Microsoft’s quality control program? Roll on IE7, I say.

Been a while hasn’t it? Lazy bullet-point post:

• The garage got broken into. We lost a load of bike bits (Azonic Saber, Coyote XC-2 and GT LTS3 frames, Manitou Dorado and Marzocchi Z5 forks, a Hope E4 brake and various other bits), a load of power tools and some other miscellanea. Bastards.
• We had a party, which was blinking ace. The fireworks were comical, especially the ones Brett launched at 3am. I went to bed at 4:30 and it continued for another hour and a half.
• Today Raj told me that he’s scared of fireworks.
• We took the DH bikes to Cwncarn for the day again. Absolutely fantastic fun, up until my front brake died – right at the end of the final run of the day. Lucky lucky boy.
• We went karting at JDR Gloucester. Bonkers fun. Charlie is far too good at it. Lord Everitt has an interesting overtaking style that involves knocking opponents off the track in whatever manner he can. G-Dog has too, but he’s a bit more discreet about it.

And thats all I can be arsed with now. Laters.

Woohoo! We beat Liverpool! I really wasn’t expecting that result at all, so I’m really quite happy about it. So much so that a teensy little bit of gloating was required:

SMS From: Olly Mobile
To: Baggus Mobile
So does that mean
we're better than
the european
champions then?

SMS From: Baggus Mobile
To: Olly Mobile
I think cheltenham
town under 16's
are better than
us at the moment

Nice. Good win for Blackburn too there Mr Pollard.

I rode a long way today, at least by my standards – it was the furthest I’ve ridden in a long long time. It was one of those rides where every time I get to a junction I thought “Oooh, I’ll try this way” and see where I end up.

Unless you know Cheltenham and the surrounding area well, this bit will mean nothing, but I’m going to put it in anyway.

So I set off from home on the singlespeed Stiffee and rode out through Swindon Village, up the uber-muddy track to Elmstone Hardwicke and along another to Stoke Orchard. Turned right at the end, then left into a new (to me) bridleway. Followed that to it’s conclusion and turned right again. From there I followed the roads out towards W…something, then to Gotherington and Bishops Cleeve and up through Woodmancote.

Here I did a silly thing: I went up Stockwell Lane. Oh my, that was one steep mother hubbard. Alas it defeated me and despite my best efforts, I ended up walking the final section. Still, it’s proably the most direct route up Cleeve Hill. After a rest at the top, I rode up through the golf course to the aerials at the top of Cleeve, before following the Cotswolds Way (oo cheeky!) across the top. It’s a public footpath, with padlocked gates at either end. There’s no was a horse can get in there and yet there were plenty of fresh hoof-marks. Hmmm…

After that trail, I took the roads down through Andoversford and Upper Dowdeswell, before joining the main road at the Kilkeney Inn. That was scary as, what with all the lorries and mental drivers, but I stuck it out until the shooting school. There, I turned off and headed down the bridleway, which was the muddiest place in the entire world. So much so that my back wheel nearly stopped turning thanks to a severely clogged rear brake. I must sort out a disc-brake compatible rear wheel. In fact, I think I’ve got one in the garage… don’t think it’s a light one though. Hmmm.

Another trail brought me down to somewhere near Coberley and from there I climbed up the back of Leckhampton Hill, before riding across the top along Proflex Alley and then dropping down the zig-zags. Whilst up there I ran into some of the usual suspects – Stu, Anton, Gary, Aaron, Rich and co. You did all that, on one cog? You effing mentalist!. They’re probably right. Damn good fun either way. From there it was a blast back across town and home, where I collapsed in a heap. My legs hurt now.

By the way, the Crud Catcher is a fantastic invention. Nicely done Mr Tomkins. SPDs and riding glasses next for me I think. Whaddayamean I should get some gears!? PAH!